SERMON XIV.

MATTHEW xvii. 9.

And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man,

until the Son of Man shall be risen from the dead.

THE event to which our Lord here alludes, was what is called his transfiguration, or that sudden glorious change and splendour in which he was beheld by three of his disciples, whom he made choice of to be witnesses of some of the more private and extraordinary transactions of his life, where a greater number of them could not have been properly admitted.

In this extraordinary divine interposition, Moses and Elijah were introduced as conversing with Jesus, expatiating upon the subject of his sufferings and death upon the cross, which he was soon to undergo at Jerusalem; and particularly dwelling on the happy consequences of it in his gospel, by his dying in

attestation

attestation of it, being thereby confirmed and preached with effect through the world, and the virtue and everlasting happiness of mankind to be promoted by it: a motive the most animating and joyful to a mind like his, and able, as it was calculated and intended, by the divine assistance, to support him safe through that his most severe approaching trial and conflict.

And the whole of the heavenly vision was closed by a voice from the supreme Father, out of the cloud that overshadowed them, declaring his high approbation of Jesus, and the duty of all men to attend to him: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him."

The words prefixed to my discourse contain the beginning of a conversation held upon that occasion. The whole of it together stands thus, (Matth. xvii. 9.) "And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man shall be risen 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

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."

It is proposed to consider this short dialogue, and explain some difficulties which are in it, and then endeavour to point out some of that useful instruction with which every thing recorded concerning our Lord, or delivered by him, furnishes us; for none could be at any time near him without enjoying the means of becoming wise and good. And,

I.

It was very natural for the three disciples, Peter, James, and John, to imagine that such a wonderful testimony from heaven as they had just been privy to concerning their Master Jesus, in which no less persons than Moses and Elijah were present, when related to their countrymen, would be likely to make deep impressions on them, and induce them to receive him as their great promised prophet, the Messiah, Christ-the character which he had taken upon him. And it must have appeared very

strange

strange to them to be restrained from naming it at present to any one; and it is thus that they express their surprise upon the occasion: "His disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come ?" q. d. Why should you give us such a prohibition, when our learned ment each, and it is gerally believed, that our famous prophet Elijah will come down from heaven to do honour to the Messiah? And since this very thing has now happened, if we are permitted to publish it, it will be a prevailing argument to bring men to believe in you.

Although we cannot account for all our Lord's conduct at all times, who was in many things under an immediate divine direction, we may perceive a wisdom, in many respects, in the silence which he enjoined his disciples to observe for the present with regard to this heavenly vision.

For as the Jewish nation were most uneasy under the Roman yoke, and had their minds inflamed with the notion of a great temporal prince and deliverer to be raised up for them by Almighty God, had such an immediate declaration from heaven, of Jesus being the Messiah, and so highly favoured of God,

coun

countenanced and confirmed by their great prophets Moses and Elijah revisiting this earth, been made known to them, there would have been hardly any possibility of hindering them from taking him by force, as they were once attempting, and setting him up for a king against Cæsar; a thing so totally contrary to the design of his divine mission, and which it became him by all means to guard against.

Besides, as all private miracles are liable to suspicion, and give room for just objections, our Lord did not choose to have this made known to his enemies at the time, that he might not excite their bad passions, and furnish them with a plausible handle of decrying his disciples as impostors, for inventing what they would call such incredible stories, of which no proof appeared but their own words.

And this was but agreeable to what is observable concerning our Lord, that in general, whenever he performed a miraculous cure on any one privately, he enjoined them not to divulge it, because he would as much as possible avoid the least shadow of imputation of falsehood and imposture, to which things done in secrecy are more or less open.

And although it has been insinuated by

VOL. II.

X

those