Mat. XVII, 3.] Christ's transfiguration. 3G1
indulge him this peculiar prerogative, to be raised from the dead and enjoy blessedness both in soul and body before the last day ? He granted it to Enoch and Elias, and those who came out of their graves after Christ's death, Mat. xxvii. .53 : the great harvest is at the last day, but some first-fruits before.
Secondly, Their conference with our Saviour : they ' talked with him,' saith Matthew ; they ' spake of his decease which he should ac- complish at Jerusalem,' saith Luke. They talked with Christ, not with the apostles. Here is an apparition to them, but no parley and intercourse between them and the glorified saints. The saints that are glorified are out of the sphere of commerce of the living; nay, it is a question whether they heard at all what was said to Christ ; but of that in the next verse.
Here observe three things : —
1. What they spake of Christ's death.
2. The notion by which his death is set forth : it is e^o8o<;.
3. The necessity of undergoing it, in the word irXrjpelv, ' which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.'
1. What they spake of none could divine, unless it had been told us, and the evangelist Luke telleth us that it was of his death. This argument was chosen : —
[1.] Because it was at hand. The next solemn mediatory action after this was his death and bloody sufferings. After he was transfigured in the mount he went down to suffer at Jerusalem.
[2.] This was an offence to the apostles, that their master should die : Mat. xvi. 22, 23, ' Then Peter took him, and began to re- buke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord ; this shall not be unto thee.'
[3.] This was the Jews' stumbling-block: 1 Cor. i. 23, ' We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block.'
[4.] This was prefigured in the rites of the law, foretold in the •writings of the prophets. In the figures of the law it was represented : Heb. ix. 22, ' And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission;' especially the apostle urgeth the entering of the high priest with blood to the mercy-seat, ver. 23, 24. All the legal sacrifices wei'e slain, and their blood brought before the Lord. So the predictions of the prophets : Isa. liii. 10, ' Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him ; he hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make thy soul an offering for sin,' &c. ; and Dan. ix. 26, ' The Messias shall be cut off, but not for himself.' In short, that Christ should die for the sins of the world, was the great thing represented in the law and prophets. Rabbi Simeon and Rabbi Hadersim out of Daniel, that after Messias had preached half seven years he shall be slain.
[5.] It was necessary that by death he should come to his glory, of which now some glimpse and foretaste was given to him : Luke xxiv. 46, ' Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and rise from the dead the third day' — that is, with respect to the predictions ; ver. 44, ' All those things which were written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the book of Psalms, concerning me may be ful- filled ;' and again, Luke xxiv. 25, 26, ' Oh fools, and slow of heart to
362 chkist's transfiguration. [Ser. III.
believe all tliat the prophets have spoken ! ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to have entered into his glory ? '
[6.] The redemption of the church by Christ is the talk and dis- course we shall have in heaven ; the angels and glorified spirits are blessing and praising him for this : Kev. v. 9, ' Thou art worthy, for thou wert slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.' The angels, ver. 12, ' Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and glory, and honour, and blessing.' The redeemed church, and glorified saints and angels, have all one song, and one praise — the honour of the Lamb that was slain.
[7.] It is an instructive pattern to us, that Christ, in the midst of his transfiguration, and the glory which was then put upon him, forgot not his death. In the greatest advancements we should think of our dissolution. If Christ in all his glory discoursed of his death, surely it more becometh us, as necessary for us to prevent the surfeit of worldly pleasures, we should think of the change that is coming ; for * Surely every man at his best estate is vanity,' Ps. xxxix. 5. In some places they were wont to jDresent a death's head at their solemn feasts. Merry days will not always last, death will soon put an end to the vain pleasures we enjoy here, and the most shining glory will be burnt out to a snuft".
2. The notion by which his death is expressed : his decease, e^ohov, which signifies the going out of this life into another, which is to be noted : —