the chief ministers of his kingdom, fo foon as he should take possession of it at his afcension, on which the very kingdom itself was to depend; our Saviour thinks fit to add immediately, that " there were some standing "there that should not taste of death till " they should fee the Son of man coming in " his kingdom "," or a representation of the glory which he should come to; and accordingly, a few days after, he is transfigured before them, and receives an attestation from the Father out of the most excellent glory, that (notwithstanding he was to die, yet) he was his well-beloved Son; and that though hitherto they had heard or obeyed Mofes and Elias, or the law and the prophets, and that instead of the temporal promises they had given them; yet for the future they should only hear him. But then again, left what they saw and heard in the holy mount should, instead of fupporting them under the view of their Master's fuffering and their own, make them forget both; Jesus immediately again repeats it, that he must fuffer and die, ver. 9, 12. and again more strongly and particularly, ver. 22. which we learn from St. Luke was the next day. Now what does all this, which plainly appears to be the occafion and . John xvii. 28. • Luke ix. 37, 44 Ver. 1-14. design and the circumstances of this transfiguration, teach us, but that it was a faint representation of the glory in which he is to come when he is to appear as a King; and that therefore it was that he said, that fome there should not taste of death till they faw his kingdom come with power? For, by the account I have given of this transfiguration, I think, it will evidently appear, that the history St. Matthew gives of our Saviour, from the 8th verse of the xvith chap. to the 24th verse of the xviith chap. is closely connected, and is nothing but a relation of the steady pursuit of one design in our Saviour; namely, to take the apostles off from the expectations of a temporal kingdom, acquainting them then first that he was to fuffer and die; but at the same time breaking this to them so as to prevent their taking offence at his cross: and then repeating that again, left the method he had taken to support them, under the expectation of his and their fuffering, should be the means of their forgetting them, and of raising again those hopes of a temporal kingdom he was endeavouring to allay. And does not likewife the manner of St. Peter's expreffion naturally lead us to this interpretation; when he says, “For we have " not followed cunningly devised fables, " when we made known unto you the power. VOL. I. " and e " and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (namely, at his transfiguration); " but were " (then) eye-witnesses of his majesty?" As if he had said, " We told you no idle tale " cunningly devised by ourselves, but a real " and certain fact, of which we were eye " and ear-witnesses, when we gave you the " account of Christ's transfiguration on the " mount (the greatest attestation Jesus re"ceived whilst he was in his state of hu" miliation); though we, who saw and heard "this attestation, have received a word of " prophecy, fince his being exalted to the " right-hand of the Father, that is a fure " attestation to the truth of his religion (as " well as a fuller declaration of it) than at " his transfiguration before us." And fo makes the 16th and 18th verses to be an enforcement of what he had said, of our being called " by glory and virtue,” ver. 3. which makes the connection of the whole chapter clear. This seems a natural and easy interpretation of the text; whereas the Dean's will appear greatly laboured: though he has the fingular felicity to make that which is the most laboured appear easy. QUERY IV. Does the παρεσία τε Χρισ8, ver. 16. ever certainly fignify Christ's coming to take vengeance on the Jewish nation? If there there be two places in St. James where it possibly may be so understood, are there not above fifteen where it can scarce be understood of any thing but his coming in his future glory to judgement? And may not then his transfiguration on the mount be very fairly supposed to be called his " power and " coming" by St. Peter, in this verse, as it is a resemblance of the glory and power which shall attend that coming? QUERY V. What was the " exceeding " joy," or the deliverance, which it was foretold the Christians should have (or which they actually had) by the destruction of the Jewish nation, that the hopes of it being deferred, should prove such a discouragement to those to whom St. Peter wrote, as to make them throw off the profession of Christianity, p. 16, 17. especially if those to whom he wrote were Jews out of Palestine; and much more if they were converted Gentiles, as it is very evident they were? See the Second Effay. QUERY VI. Can St. Peter be supposed to compare a prediction of Christ's coming to take vengeance of the Jews, and to deliver his people, from the suggestion of the Spirit, or from the word of God, the surest evi dences that can be of his so coming, with Chrift's transfiguration on the mount, which is no evidence at all of his so coming? Though I own his transfiguration might be alledged to remove an objection against his fo coming, taken from the meanness of his appearance in life, and the miferable manner of his death, as the Dean puts it, p. 22, 23, 24. Or, in other words, can St. Peter be supposed to fay, that that which is the fullest proof of a future event, is more fure than that which is no manner of proof at all of fuch a future event? QUERY VII. Is it fo agreeable to fcripture phraseology, by " word of prophecy," to understand a revelation of a particular future event, as the revelation of the scheme of the gofpel, or a feries of events that should follow it, made to the apostles, and by them to the world? Which in other places of of fcripture is called " the word of wifdom," and "the word of knowledge," and "the " word of prophecy;" all of which feem rather to denote the discovery of a system of knowledge, than the discovery of a particular future event. And in this sense it is that the author of the epistle to the Hebrews mentions " the word spoken by angels," Heb. ii. 2. which to be fure comprehends the ten words, |