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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

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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 Revelation 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 the 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."

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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.

* 2 Pet. i. 17.

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 appeared in their own proper persons, there is not the least reason to doubt. Grotius even goes so far as to affirm, that their bodies were reserved for this very purpose. But there is no necessity and no ground for this imagination. For though, indeed, the sepulchre of Moses was not known, yet his body was actually buried in a valley in the land of Moab, and therefore must have seen corruption; and as the whole transaction

* Ver. 27.

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was miraculous, it was just as easy to Omnipotence to restore life and form to a body mouldered into dust, as to reanimate a body that was preserved uncorrupted and entire; and, indeed, was a much exacter emblem of our own resurrection. We may, however, readily admit, what some learned men have justly observed, that Elias, having been carried up into heaven without undergoing death, he was here a proper representative of those who should be found alive at the day of judgment, as Moses is of those who had died, and are raised to life again. And his appearance a second time on earth, after he had been so many ages dead and buried, must have been a convincing proof to the disciples (had they duly attended to it) of the possibility of

a resurrection.

And what is no less important, the manner in which both Moses and Elias appeared on this occasion, afforded the disciples an ocular demonstration of a day of retribution, agreeably to what their Divine

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