son can design for others, and the most afflicted desire for himself.

Now while our Saviour was transfigured, as we have heard, and in discourse with Moses and Elias, who likewise appeared in glory, Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleepe; tired, it may be, with their journey, and it being night too, as very likely it was, our Lord usually choosing that time of awful silence for his devotional retirements. But when they were awaked with that wonderful brightness, probably that enlightened the place and shone round about them, and which the darkness of the night made still more surprising, with great astonishment they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. For if the glorious appearance of Jesus to St. Paul, as he was going to Damascus, was even at midday above the brightness of the sun f, how amazingly refulgent must such a glory be in the midst of darkness!

And it was this surprise and confusion of mind that St. Peter was then in, which caused him to say, as he did, Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, or tents; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. For how could any tabernacle that they could make be suitable to such glorious inhabitants? And how could he imagine, had his thoughts been his own, that such as they could stand in need of such accommodation?

And yet all his care was for them, not for himself or his companions, who rather needed shelter from such an overbearing flood of glory. But his reason, as well as sense, was dazzled and benighted with f Acts xxvi. 13.

e Luke ix. 32.

too great a brightness, so that he knew not what he said.

But who can blame him for saying, It is good for us to be here? Such heavenly glory made him think himself in the regions of the blessed above. And who then but would be very unwilling to go down to the lower world any more, and say with great delight, Master, it is good for us to be here!

Now, if that which was but an imperfect resemblance of the celestial state did so mightily affect the great apostle, what will heaven itself be to a holy glorified soul made capable of its full distinct enjoyment!

There, besides the transcendent glory of the place, the splendid appearance, not only of the bright ministers of that heavenly kingdom, but of all its blessed inhabitants; and which infinitely excels all other glories, and from whence they are all derived, the incomprehensible glorious majesty of God and his divine Son enthroned at his right hand: besides all this, which must needs be a most ravishing sight to every pious soul, the admirable conversation there will be extremely delightful.

Not only Moses and Elias shall converse with us, but the best and wisest of mankind through all ages of the world, and the several orders of the holy angels, and, which is above all, the adorable and ever blessed Jesus, our dear Redeemer.

The pleasure, the satisfaction, the joy of such society as this, how can it be expressed! where there is all goodness, all wisdom, all love and endearment without dissimulation! where the praises of the great, the good, the eternally blessed God, are continually resounding and echoed from one sera

phic choir to another; the wonders of the Divine providence recounted, and the reasons of its disposals discovered, discoursed of, and admired; and, above all, the glorious and mysterious scene displayed of God incarnate suffering the hardest things, dying the cruellest and most ignominious death, to rescue his rebellious creatures from their just punishment, the most exquisite and endless misery! And then his succeeding glories and triumphs made the theme of their seraphic hymns; all cordially rejoicing in each other's happiness, and all consenting in a full and most harmonious chorus of blessing and honour and glory to the great Three-One, the inexhaustible fountain of being and of happiness, whose name only is excellent, and his praise above heaven and earth!

To make one in such a blessed company as this! to join in such a charming concert! O, what shall I say! what shall I say, but with St. Peter, Master, it is good for us to be here! Here let us fix and settle irremovably; not make tabernacles, but build everlasting mansions, and never go down again to the valley of the shadow of death!

For would all the glories of this poor world tempt us from the enjoyment of such bliss as this? And if so faint a glimpse of it as we have now seen, so dim, confused, and remote a prospect of it as we can have here below, fills us with such delight as we do not know how to express, what will the actual enjoyment of it do! and what should we not do to attain to such enjoyment!

And how cold and indifferent then should it make us to every thing besides! Nay, what an aversion should it give us to those worldly vanities which BRAGGE, VOL. I.

G g

would deprive us of such felicity, such glory, such everlasting glory and felicity as this!

One day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness. Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief!

Now, while St. Peter was under so great a consternation, as we have heard, at the strange things he saw, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him .

This glorious testimony that God twice gave of his divine Son, first, immediately after his baptism f, in the audience of a multitude of people, and now at his transfiguration, could not but be a great confirmation of the apostles' faith, and ought to be of ours too, who are assured of it by those that were eyewitnesses of our Saviour's majesty, and heard this voice which came from heaven when they were with him in the holy mount, where he received 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.

And indeed this extraordinary occurrence, considered in all the circumstances of it, together with the exact completion of the prophecies concerning the Messias in our Lord Jesus, amounts to such evidence of his being the great Redeemer of the world, and the universal and last Lawgiver that should ever be sent by God to reveal his will to mankind and complete all other revelations, and to whom all must

f Matt. iii. 17. g Matt. xvii. 5.

h 2 Pet. i. 16, &c.

pay obedience that hope for salvation, that it will be unpardonable obstinacy to reject it.

This Jesus is that great Prophet of whom Moses long since said, as St. Peter urged to the Jews, Acts iii. 22, 23, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. And therefore, at his transfiguration, to This is my beloved Son was added, hear ye him; and which being said in the presence of Moses and Elias, gave him the manifest preference to them both, and thereby to all the law and the prophets that were before him.

Moses indeed was a great and glorious type of Christ, in the meekness of his disposition, and his great courage withal, and nobleness of spirit; in his being the deliverer of God's people from their bondage in Egypt, and working so many miracles to attest the truth of his own mission and for their benefit; and likewise in his being forty days in the mount, without meat or drink, conversing with God, and receiving laws from his divine mouth, which he was to teach the Israelites, and being, as it were, transfigured there, his face shining so when he came down that the people could not behold him: in these, and divers other particulars that might be mentioned, was Moses a type of Christ; but when the great Antitype appeared, the type was immediately to give place to it, as the shadow to the sub

stance.

Moses was faithful as a servant in the house of i Deut. xviii. 15, 18, 19.