his angels, he would reward every man according to his works." In order, then, to give his desponding followers comfort and encouragement, he selected three of their number, sufficient to constitute a legal evidence, and withdrew to a mountain apart, which has been generally supposed, perhaps without sufficient reason, to be the mount of Tabor. Here, in the presence of the three witnesses, he assumed that bright and glorious appearance, which alarmed whilst it reassured them. The veil which shrouds the mysteries of Divinity was for a moment drawn aside, and the disciples saw, with joy and thankfulness, the state of happiness and glory enjoyed by those, who had been God's faithful servants upon earth. It was this glimpse of heavenly peace which called forth from St. Peter the declaration of the text, "Lord, it is good for us to be here." The vision of Moses and Elias talking with Jesus, and the high and holy subject of their conversation, banished for a season his thoughts of earth, subdued his apprehensive forebodings, and confirmed, for the time at least, his faith and confidence. The event, indeed, upon which they discoursed, was one well calculated to make a deep and lasting impression upon him. "They spake," as St. Luke informs us, "of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." Moses, the promulgator of the Jewish law, and Elias, the

promised forerunner of the Messiah, were thus brought to testify, by their presence, to the truth of his mission, and the consequent close of that dispensation of which they had been the upholders and advocates. And this, no doubt, formed a part of our Saviour's design. With the consolation which this revelation of glory was intended to convey, a convincing proof was meant to be afforded, that the Jewish economy had brought its years to an end, and was to be succeeded by a purer and better faith. The voice from heaven gave its sanction to the founder of the Christian covenant, and, immediately after, Jesus was found alone. Thus was it intimated, that in him the law and the prophets centered, to him their ordinances and predictions had a direct reference, and in him received their full and final accomplishment.

It appears then, as far as our limited comprehensions are enabled to investigate, that the design of the transfiguration was two-fold: namely, to console the apostles in their present distress, and fortify them against future evils; and in the second place, to show by a clear and significant figure, that old things were passed away, and all things were become new! It may be asked by those who are anxious to find difficulties in every step, and to cast doubts and insinuations upon every page of scripture; if the design of this

miraculous appearance, was of such importance to the comfort and support of the new converts, why was it not more openly displayed, instead of being confined to the observation of a few, and they too, strictly charged not to make it known? It may be observed here, that the same injunction of silence was made in several other instances by our blessed Saviour, after the performance of some of his greatest miracles. The principal reason was probably the same in all. Jesus was well acquainted with the prevailing opinions and wishes of the Jewish people; he knew too, how heavily the tyranny of the Romans pressed upon them, how anxiously they sought an opportunity of shaking it off. He was not ignorant, that in him the Jews expected to have found a temporal leader, who should fulfil their long cherished expectations, and guide them to conquest and to victory. A breath might have fanned these lurking embers into flame; a spark might have kindled a fire, calculated to throw the most dangerous obstacles in the way of the new religion. The Roman government too partook in some degree of the prevailing sentiments, and was alarmed at every uncertain rumour that prevailed. Hence the jealousy and fears of Herod, and his cruelty to the infants of Bethlehem. Our blessed Saviour then, whose kingdom was one of peace and benevolence, in whose reign men were to beat

their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, was desirous of repressing these unfounded hopes, and disabusing the minds of men of their misconceptions and fallacies. It formed no part of his design, to foment tumult and discord in the government; and whenever therefore, he found that the public recital of his miracles might induce the populace to imagine that their destined deliverer had arrived, and excite them to rebel against their governors, he charged the witnesses of the deed, that they should not make it known. This was clearly the case in the present instance. The glorious splendour, with which he was surrounded on the mount, would have been precisely the miracle best calculated to give rise to the disorders he was so anxious to avoid; his command therefore to the three disciples, was more particular, than that ordinarily given upon similar occasions. They were enjoined to tell the vision to no man, until the son of man was risen again from the dead.

Having thus endeavoured to explain the probable cause of this remarkable event, and the motives by which our Saviour was likely to have been influenced, in prohibiting the promulgation of it to the world; let us for a few moments, attend particularly to the words of St. Peter as

quoted above, and endeavour with God's blessing to turn them to our own comfort and edification. And what then was the spectacle, which drew from the desponding disciple, this rapturous exclamation, "Lord, it is good for us to be here?" Was his eye delighted with the fertile plains of Judah, her fair streams and green pastures? Did this mountain view of earth's magnificence and fertility, inspire him with an ardent wish to make his dwelling in a spot from which he might ever be gladdened with the prospect of her abundance? Far other and holier thoughts, arose in his soul. He had been admitted to a momentary contemplation of the glories of heaven, and the radiance which surrounds the throne of God. He had seen the spirits of the just, in that state of happiness and peace, which can alone be found in those eternal mansions which lie beyond the grave. He had beheld those who once dwelt upon earth, and who had drunk deeply of the cup of human sorrows and afflictions, released from every mortal care, and free from the sins and frailties which darkened their pilgrimage below. It is no wonder then, that a spectacle so consolatory and so glorious, and offered too to his view at a time, when the language of his blessed Master had led him to anticipate nothing but calamities and privations, should have dazzled