nerally happen where the story is not concerted among them) a few particulars are taken notice of by some which are passed over in silence by others. St. Matthew's account of it is as follow :

"And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here; if thou wilt, let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. And as they came down from the mount, Jesus charged them, saying, tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

"And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes, that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias shall truly first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed likewise also shall the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist."

Such is the history which the evangelist gives us of the transfiguration; and on the very first view of it, every one must see that a transaction of so uncommon and splendid a nature could not be intended merely to surprize and amuse the disciples. There must have been some great object in view; some end to be obtained, worthy of the magnificent apparatus made use of to accomplish it.

Now there were, I conceive, (besides some collateral and subordinate designs,) two principal and important purposes, which were meant to be answered by this illustrious scene.

The first was to set before the eyes of the disciples a visible and figurative representation of Christ's coming in glory to judge the world, and to reward, with everlasting felicity, all his faithful servants.

In order to prove this, and at the same time to bring to the reader's view those circumstances which preceded, and in

some degree gave occasion to this celestial vision, it will be necessary to look back to the chapter immediately before that in which the transfiguration is related.

In the 21st verse of the sixteenth chapter, we find that Jesus then, for the first time, thought fit to give some intimations to his disciples of the strange and extraordinary scenes he was soon to pass through; his sufferings, his death, and his resurrection; things of which, before this declaration, they seem not to have had the smallest conception or suspicion.

"From that time forth began Jesus to show to his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and raised again the third day."*

This information, so perfectly new and unexpected to the disciples, and so destructive of all the fond hopes they had hitherto indulged, overwhelmed them with astonishment and grief. And St. Peter, whose natural warmth and eagerness of temper generally led him both to feel such mortifications more sensibly, and to express his feelings more promptly and more forcibly, than any of the rest, was so shocked at what he had just heard, that "he took Jesus and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee." Our Saviour who saw every thing that passed in his mind, and perceived, probably, that this expostulation took its rise more from disappointed interest and ambition than from a generous concern for his Master's credit and honour, gave him an immediate and severe reproof. "Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art an offence to me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."

He then proceed to show, not only that he himself must suffer persecution, but that all those who would at that time come after him, and share with him the arduous and dangerous task of sowing the first seeds of the Gospel, "must deny themselves, and take up their cross, and follow him." But then, to support them under those severe injunctions, he cheers them immediately with a brighter scene of things, and with a prospect of his future glory, and their future recompence. "The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then shall he reward every man according to his works." And he adds, " Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." The meaning of these last words I shall enquire into hereafter. But the evident

*Matth. xvi. 21.

tendency of the whole passage is to prepare the minds of his disciples for the cruel treatment which both he and they were to undergo, and at the same time to raise their drooping spirits, by setting before their eyes his own exaltation, and their glorious rewards in another life.

This discourse, however, he probably found had not sufficiently subdued their prejudices, and reconciled them to his state of humiliation; and therefore he determined to try a method of impressing them with juster sentiments, which he frequently had recourse to on similar occasions; and that was, representing to them by a significant action, what he had already explained by words.

Accordingly, within a few days after the foregoing conversation, he taketh with him Peter, James, and John, and bringeth them up into a high mountain (probably Mount Tabor) apart. Very fanciful reasons have been assigned by some of the commentators for his taking with him only three of his disciples. But all that it seems necessary to say on this head is, that as the law required no more than two or three witnesses to constitute a regular and judicial proof, our Saviour frequently chose to have only this number of witnesses present at some of the most important and interesting scenes of his life. The three disciples whom he now selected, were those that generally attended him on such occasions, and who seem to have been distinguished as his most intimate and confidential friends. St. John, we know, was so in an eminent degree. St. James, his brother, would, from that near connection, probably be brought more frequently under his Master's notice; and as St. Peter was the very person who had expressed himself with so much indignation on the subject of our Saviour's sufferings, it was highly proper and necessary that he should be admitted to a spectacle, which was purposely calculated to calm those emotions, and remove that disgust which the first mention of them had produced in his mind.

With these companions, then, Jesus ascended the mountain, and was transfigured before them; "and behold there appeared Moses and Elias talking with him." They were not only seen by the disciples, but they were heard also conversing with Jesus. This is a circumstance of great importance, especially when we are told what the subject of their conversation was. St. Luke gives us this useful piece of information; he says, that "they spake of our Lord's decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." The very mention of Christ's sufferings and death by such men as Moses and Elias, without any marks of surprize or dissatisfaction, was of itself sufficient

to occasion a great change in the sentiment of the disciples respecting those sufferings, and to soften those prejudices of their's against them, the removal of which seems to have been one of the more immediate objects of the transfiguration. But if we suppose further (what is far from being improbable) that in the course of the conversation several interesting particulars respecting our Saviour's crucifixion were brought under discussion; if they entered at any length into that important subject, the great work of our redemption; if they touched upon the nature, the causes, and the consequences of it; the pardon of sin, the restitution to God's favour, the triumph over death, and the gift of eternal life; if they showed that the sufferings of Christ were prefigured in the law, and foretold by the prophets; it is easy to see, that topics such as these must tend still further to open the eyes, and remove the prepossessions of his disciples; and the more so, because they would seem to arise incidentally in a discourse between other persons casually overheard; which having no appearance of design or professed opposition in it, would be apt to make a deeper impression on their minds than a direct and open attack upon their prejudices.

But the circumstance which would probably, be most effectual in correcting the erroneous ideas of his disciples on this head, was the act of the transfiguration itself, the astonishing change it produced in the whole of our Lord's external ap

pearance.

From the expressions made us of by the several evangelists, this change appears to have been a very illustrious one. They inform us, that "as our Saviour prayed, the fashion of his countenance was changed; his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment became exceeding white and glistering; as white as snow, as white as the light, so as no fuller on earth could whiten it." Now Christ having assumed this splendid and glorious appearance, at the very time when Moses and Elias were conversing with him on his sufferings, it was a visible and striking proof to his disciples, that those sufferings were not, as they imagined, any real discredit and disgrace to him, but were perfectly consistent with the dignity of his character, and the highest state of glory to which he could be exalted.

But further still; Jesus had (in the conversation mentioned in the preceding chapter) told his disciples, that the Son of man should come in the glory of his Father, with his holy angels, to judge the world. The scene on the mount therefore, which so soon followed that conversation, was probably meant to convey to them some idea and some evidence of his coming

in glory at the great day of judgment, of which his transfiguration was, perhaps, as just a picture and exemplification as human sight could bear.

It is, indeed, described in nearly the same terms that St. John in the Revelations applies to the Son of man in his state of glory in heaven. "He was clothed," says he, "with a garment down to the foot. His head and his hair were white like wool, white as snow; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." It is remarkable, that St. Luke calls his appearance, after being transfigured, his glory. St. John, who was likewise present at this appearance, gives it the same name. "We beheld his glory, as of the only begotten of his Father." And St. Peter, who was another witness to this transaction on the mount, refers to it by a similar expression. "For he received," says that Apostle, "from God the Father, honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."* There can hardly, therefore remain any doubt, but that the glory which Christ received from the Father on the mountain, was meant to be a representation of his coming in the glory of his Father, with his holy angels, at the end of the world; which is one of the topics touched upon in the preceding chapter.

Another thing there mentioned, was, our Saviour's resurrection. Of this, indeed, there is no direct symbol in the transfiguration but it is evidently implied in that transaction; because Jesus is there represented in his glorified, celestial state, which being in the natural order of time subsequent to his resurrection, that event must naturally be supposed to have previously taken place.

But though this great event is only indirectly alluded to here, yet those most important doctrines, which are founded upon it, a general resurrection and a day of retribution, are expressly represented in the transfiguration.

In the sixteenth chapter of St. Matthew, Christ tells his disciples, that when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, he will reward every man according to his works;" from whence it necessarily follows, that every man who is dead shall rise from the grave. And in confirmation of both these truths, there are two just and righteous men, Moses and Elias, who had many years before departed out of the world, brought back to it again, and represented (as we shall see hereafter) in a state of glory. That they actually appear

*2 Pet. i. 17.

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+ Ver. 27.