appear to us that sight which shall once make us glorious, and in the meantime happy.

unseasonable year, or like a wood new felled, | we have passed, on the top of the hill shall that hath some few spires left for standers some poles distance; or like tythe sheaves in a field when the corn is gone, s, duo, guis, &c. as he said. It is true, ye have more sermons, and more excellent than all the courts under heaven put together; but as Austin said well, Quid mihi proderit bona res non utenti bene?" What am I the better for a good thing, if I use it not well?" Let me tell you, all these forcible means, not well used, will set you the further off from heaven. If the chapel were the Bethesda of promotion, what thronging would there be into it? yea, if it were but some mask-fied. But the terminus quo disagrees a little. house, wherein a glorious, though momentary show were to be presented, neither white staves nor halberts could keep you out behold here, ye are offered the honour to be, by this seed of regeneration, the sons of God. The kingdom of heaven, the crown of glory, the sceptre of majesty, in one word, eternal life is here offered, and performed to you: O let us not so far forget ourselves, as in the ordinances of God to contemn our own happiness! but let us know the time of our visitation, let us wait reverently and intentively upon this Bethesda of God, that when the angel shall descend and move the water, our souls may be cured, and, through all degrees of grace, may be carried to the full height of their glory!

CONTEMPLATION XII. -THE FIRST PART OF
THE MEDITATIONS UPON THE TRANSFIGU-
RATION OF CHRIST.

A Sermon preached at Havering Bower,
before King James.

THERE is not in all divinity a higher speculation than this of Christ transfigured: suffer me therefore to lead you up by the hand into mount Tabor, for nearer to heaven ye cannot come while ye are upon earth, that you may see him glorious upon earth, the region of his shame and abasement, who is now glorious in heaven, the throne of his majesty. He that would not have his transfiguration spoken of till he were raised, would have it spoken of all the world over, now that he is raised and ascended, that by this momentary glory we may judge of the eternal. The circumstances shall be to us as the skirts of the hill, which we will climb up lightly: the time, place, attendants, company; the time, after six days the place, a high hill apart; the attendants, Peter, James, John; the company, Moses and Elias which when

All three Evangelists accord in the terminus a quo, that it was immediately after those words, "There be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death till they have seen the Son of man come in his kingdom." Wherein, methinks, the act comments upon the words. Peter, James, and John, were these some; they tasted not of death, till they saw this heavenly image of the royalty of Christ gloriMatthew and Mark say, after six; Luke, post fere octo, which, as they are easily reconciled by the usual distinction of inclusive and exclusive, necessary for all computations; and Luke's about eight, so methinks, seems to intimate God's seventh day, the Sabbath: why should there be else so precise mention of six days after, and about eight, but to imply that day which was betwixt the sixth and eighth? God's day was fittest for so divine a work; and well might that day, which imported God's rest and man's glory, be used for the clear representation of the rest and glory of God and man. But in this conjecture, for aught I know, I go alone; I dare not be too resolute: certainly it was the seventh, whether it were that seventh, the seventh after the promise of the glory of his kingdom exhibited; and this perhaps not without a mystery: "God teacheth both by words and acts (saith Hilary), that after six ages of the world should be Christ's glorious appearance, and our transfiguration with him." But I know what our Saviour's farewell was, οὐχ ὑμῶν γνῶναι, “ it is not for us to know;" but if we may not know, we may conjecture; yet not above that we ought, saith St. Paul; we may not super sapere, as Tertullian's phrase is.

For the place, tradition hath taken it still for Tabor. I list not to cross it without warrant; this was a high hill indeed: thirty furlongs high, saith Josephus; mira rotun ditate sublimis, saith Hierom; and so steep, that some of our English travellers, that have desired to climb it of late, have been glad to give it up in the midway, and to measure the rest with their eyes. Doubtless this hill was a symbol of heaven, being near it, as in situation, so in resemblance. Heaven is expressed usually by the name of God's hill: and nature, or this appella tion, taught the heathens to figure it by their Olympus. All divine affairs, of any magnificence, were done on hills: on the hill of

glory, once of his greatest extremity; they sleep both times. The other was in the

night, more tolerable; this by day, yea, in a light above day. Chrysostom would fain excuse it to be an amazedness, not a sleep, not considering that they slept both at that glory, and after in the agony. To see that master praying, one would have thought should have fetched them on their knees; especially to see those heavenly affections look out at his eyes; to see his soul lifted

and set upon our heads, and never lift up our hearts to their Creator and ours, either to ask his blessing or to acknowledge it. Of all men under heaven, none had so much need to pray as courtiers. That which was done but once to Christ, is always done to them. They are set upon the hill, and see the glory of the kingdoms of the earth. But I fear it is seen of them as it is with some of the mariners, the more need, the less devotion. Ye have seen the place; see the attend-up in his hands, in that transported fashion, ants. He would not have many, because he to heaven. But now the hill hath wearied would not have it yet known to all: hence their limbs. their body clogs their soul, and was his intermination, and sealing up their they fall asleep. While Christ saw divine mouths with a nemini dicite, “tell no man." visions, they dreamed dreams; while he was Not none, because he would not have it in another world, ravished with the sight of altogether unknown; and afterwards would his Father's glory, yea, of his own, they have it known to all. Three were a legal were in another world, a world of fancies, number in ore duorum aut trium, " in the surprised with the cousin of death, sleep. mouth of two or three witnesses.' He had Besides so gracious an example, their own eternally possessed the glory of his Father necessity, quia incessanter pecco, "because without any witnesses; in time the angels I continually sin," Bernard's reason might were blessed with that sight; and after that, have moved them to pray, rather than their two bodily yet heavenly witnesses, were Master; and behold, instead of fixing their allowed, Enoch and Elias. Now, in his hu- eyes upon heaven, they shut them; instead manity, he was invested with glory, he takes of lifting up their hearts, their heads fell but three witnesses, and those earthly and down upon their shoulders; and shortly, weak, Peter, James, John. And why these? here was snoring instead of sighs and prayWe may be too curious: Peter, because the ers. This was not Abraham's or Elihu's eldest; Jolin, because the dearest; James, ecstatical sleep (Job xxxiii.); not the sleep of because, next Peter. the zealousest: Peter, the church, a waking sleep, but the plain because he loved Christ most; John, be- sleep of the eyes; and that not a slumbercause Christ most loved him; James, be- ing sleep, which David denies to himself cause, next to both, he loved, and was loved (Psal. cxxxii.) but a sound sleep, which Somost. I had rather to have no reason, but lomon forbids (Prov. vi. 4); yea, rather the quia complacuit, "because it so pleased him." dead sleep of Adam or Jonas; and, as BerWhy may we not as well ask why he chose nard had wont to say when he heard a monk these twelve from others, as why he chose snore, they did carnaliter seu seculariter dorthree out of the twelve? If any Romanists mire. Prayer is an ordinary receipt for will raise from hence any privilege to Peter, sleep. (which we would be well content to yield, if that would make them ever the honester men) they must remember that they must take company with them, which these Pompeian spirits cannot abide. As good no privilege as any partners. And withal, they must see him more taxed for his error in this act, than honoured by his presence at the act; whereas the beloved disciple saw and erred not. These same three, which were witnesses of his transfiguration in the mount, were witnesses of his agony in the garden; all three, and these three alone, were present at both; but both times sleeping. These were arietes gregis, "the bellwedders of the flock," as Austin calls them. O weak devotion of three great disciples! These were Paul's three pillars, rúk doxoūvres, Gal. ii. 9. Christ takes them up twice; once to be witnesses of his greatest

:

How prone are we to it, when we should mind divine things! Adam slept in Paradise and lost a rib but this sleep was of God's giving, and this rib was of God's taking. The good husbandman slept, and found tares. Eutychus slept, and fell. While Satan lulls us asleep, as he doth always rock the cradle when we sleep in our devotions, he ever takes some good from us, or puts some evil in us, or endangers us a deadly fall. Away with this spiritual lethargy! Bernard had wont to say, that those which sleep are dead to men, those that are dead are asleep to God. But, I say, those that sleep at church are dead to God: so we preach their funeral sermons instead of hortatory. And as he was wont to say, he lost no time so much as that wherein he slept; so let me add, there is no loss of time so desperate as of holy time. Think that Christ saith to thee at every sermon,

These were the attendants: see the companions of Christ. As our glory is not consummate without society, no more would Christ have his; therefore his transfiguration hath two companions, Moses, Elias. As St. Paul says of himself, "Whether in the body or out of the body, I know not, God knows;" so say I of these two. Of Elias there may seem less doubt, since we know that his body was assumed to heaven, and might as well come down for Christ's glory, as go up for his own; although some grave authors, as Calvin, Ecolampadius, Bale, Fulk, have held this body with Enoch's resolved into their elements. Sed ego non credulus illis, Enoch translatus est in carne, et Elias carneus raptus est in cœlum, &c. "Enoch was translated in the flesh, and Elias, being yet in the flesh, was taken into neaven," saith Jerom, in his epistle ad Pammachium.

as he did to Peter, Etiam Petre dormis? | Tertull. in 4. adver. Marcionem. Alter "Sleepest thou, Peter? couldst thou not initiator Veteris Testamenti, alter consummawake with me one hour?" A slumbering tor Novi, "one the first register of the Old and a drowsy heart does not become the Testament, the other the shutter up of the business and presence of him that keepeth New." I verily think with Hilary, that Israel, and slumbers not. these two are pointed at as the forerunners of the second coming of Christ, as now they were the foretellers of his departure: neither doubt I that these are the two witnesses which are alluded to in the Apocalypse, howsoever divers of the fathers have thrust Enoch into the place of Moses. Look upon the place, Apoc. xi. 5, who but Elias can be he of whom it is said, "If any man will hurt him, fire proceedeth out of his mouth and devoureth his enemies?" alluding to 2 Kings i. Who but Elias, of whom it is said, "He hath power to shut the heaven, that it rain not in the days of his prophesying?" alluding to 1 Kings xviii. Who but Moses of whom it is said, "He hath power to turn the waters into blood, and smite the earth with all manner of plagues?" alluding to Exodus vii. 8. But take me aright, let me not seem a friend to the publicans of Rome, an abettor of those Alcoran-like fables of our Popish doctors, who, not seeing the And for Moses, though it be rare and wood for trees, do hærere in cortice, "stick singular, and Austin makes much scruple of in the bark;" taking all concerning that it, yet why might not he after death return Antichrist according to the letter, Odi et in his body to the glory of Christ's trans- arceo. So shall Moses and Elias come figuration, as well as afterwards many of the again in those witnesses, as Elias is already saints did to the glory of his resurrection? come in John Baptist: their spirits shall be I cannot therefore, with the gloss, think in these witnesses, whose bodies and spirits there is any reason why Moses should take were witnesses both of the present glory another, a borrowed body, rather than his and future passion of Christ. Doubtless own. Heaven could not give two fitter many thousand angels saw this sight, and companions, more admirable to the Jews were not seen; these two both saw and for their miracles, more gracious with God were seen. O how great a happiness was for their faith and holiness; both of them it for these two great prophets, in their gloadmitted to the conference with God in rified flesh to see their glorified Saviour, Horeb ; both of them types of Christ; both who before his incarnation had spoken to of them fasted forty days; both of them for them! To speak to that Man-God, of whom the glory of God suffered many perils; both they were glorified, and to become prophets divided the waters; both the messengers of not to men, but to God! And if Moses' God to kings; both of them marvellous, as face so shone before, when he spoke to him in their life so in their end. A chariot of without a body in mount Sinai, in the midst angels took away Elias; he was sought by of the flames and clouds, how did it shine the prophets, and not found. Michael strove now, when himself glorified speaks to him with the devil for the body of Moses; he was a man, in Tabor, in light and majesty! sought for by the Jews and not found, and Elias hid his face before with a mantle when now both of them are found here together he passed by him in the rock; now with on Tabor. This Elias shows himself to open face he beholds him present, and in the royal prophet of his church; this Moses his own glory adores his. Let that impushows himself to the true Michael. Moses dent Marcion, who ascribes the law and the publisher of the law, Elias the chief of prophets to another god, and devises a hosthe prophets, show themselves to the God tility betwixt Christ and them, be ashamed of the law and prophets. Alter populi in- to see Moses and Elias not only in colloformator aliquando, alter reformator quan- quio, but in consortio claritatis, "not only doque, one the informer once of the people, in conference, but in a partnership of brightthe other the reformer sometimes," saithness," as Tertullian speaks, with Christ

our sleep nor change can keep us from appearing with him. When therefore thou shalt receive the sentence of death on mount Nebo, or when the fiery chariot shall come and sweep thee from this vale of mortality, remember thy glorious re-apparition with thy Saviour, and thou canst not but be comforted, and cheerfully triumph over that last enemy, outfacing those terrors with the assurance of a blessed resurrection to glory. | To the which, &c.

CONTEMPLATION XIII. — THE SECOND PART
OF THE MEDITATIONS UPON THE TRANS-
FIGURATION OF CHRIST.

A Sermon preached at Whitehall, before
King James.

whom, if he had misliked, he had his choice | both appeared; to teach us, that neither of all the choir of heaven; and now choosing them, why were they not in sordibus et tenebris," in rags and darkness?" Sic in alienos demonstrat illos dum secum habet; sic | relinquendos docet quos sibi jungit; sic destruit quos de radiis suis exstruit. "So doth he show them far from strangeness to him, whom he hath with him; so doth he teach them to be forsaken, whom he joins with himself; so doth he destroy those whom he graces with his beams of glory," saith that father. His act verifies his word, "Think not that I come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil them," Matth. v. 17. O what consolation, what confirmation was this to the disciples, to see such examples of their future glory! such witnesses and adorers of the eternal Deity of their Master: They saw, in Moses and Elias, what they themselves should be. How could they ever fear to be miserable, that saw such precedents of their ensuing glory? how could they fear to die, that saw in others the happiness of their own change? The rich glutton pleads with Abraham, that "if one came to them from the dead, they will amend:" Abraham answers, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them." Behold, here is both Moses and the prophets, and these too come from the dead: how can we now but be persuaded of the happy state of another world, unless we will make ourselves worse than the damned? See and consider that the saints of God are not lost, but departed; gone into a far country with their Master, to return again richer and better than they went. Lest we should think this the condition of Elias only, that was rapt into heaven, see here Moses matched with him, that died and was buried. And is this the state of these two saints alone? shall none be seen with him in the Tabor of heaven, but those which have seen him in Horeb and Carmel? O thou weak Christian, was only one or two limbs of Christ's body glorious in the transfiguration, or the whole? he is the head, we are the members. If Moses and Elias were more excellent parts, tongue or hand, let us be but heels or toes; his body is not perfect in glory without ours. “When Christ, which is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory," Colos. iii. 4. How truly may we say to death, "Rejoice not, mine enemy; though I fall, yet shall I rise; yea, I shall rise in falling.' We shall not all sleep, we shall be" changed," saith St. Paul to his Thessalonians. Elias was changed, Moses slept:

Ir falls out with this discourse as with mount Tabor itself, that it is more easily climbed with the eye than with the foot. If we may not rather say of it, as Josephus did of Sinai, that it doth not only ascensus hominum, but aspectus fatigare, “weary not only the steps, but the very sight of men.” We had thought not to spend many breaths, in the skirts of the hill, the circumstances: and it hath cost us one hour's journey already; and we were glad to rest us ere we can have left them below us. One pause more, I hope, will overcome them, and set us on the top. No circumstance remains undiscussed but this one, what Moses and Elias did with Christ in their apparition? For they were not, as some sleepy attendants, like the three disciples in the beginning, to be there and see nothing; nor, as some silent spectators, mute witnesses, to see and say nothing: but, as if their glory had no whit changed their profession, they are prophets still," and foretold his departure," as St. Luke tells us. Foretold, not to him which knew it before, yea, which told it them; they could not have known it but from him; he was days, “the word" of his Father: they told but that which he before had told his disciples, and now these heavenly witnesses tell it over again, for confirmation. Like as John Baptist knew Christ before; he was vor clamantis, “the voice of a crier:" the other, verbum Patris, "the word of his Father:" there is great affinity betwixt vor and verbum, yea, this voice had uttered itself clearly, Ecce agnus Dei, “Behold the Lamb of God ;” yet he sends his disciples with an “Art thou he?" that he might confirm to them by him, that which he both knew and had said of him. So our Saviour follows his forerunner in this, that what he knew and told his dis