[That event indeed, duly considered, would serve to throw light upon our redemption by Christ ; and more especially in the view in which it is foretold in the preceding context: " Thus saith the Lord : Ye have sold yourselves for nought ; and ye shall be redeemed without money B." And, as we shall see presently, it was intended to shadow forth that stupen- dous effort of God's mercy and love. But still, the temporal blessing that was then imparted, so occupied the minds of all who partook of it, as to swallow up every consideration of the spiritual benefits which the temporal deliverance was ordained to prefigure.]
But men's views of Christ will be found greatly enlarged, if we consider,
II. Those which were vouchsafed to them in the apostolic age —
The passage manifestly refers to that period —
[In the verse preceding our text, the prophet, seeing, as it were, his prediction already carried into effect, exclaims, " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ; that bringeth good tidings of good ; that publisheth salvation ; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reignethV And this very passage does St. Paul quote, as fulfilled, under the Christian dispensation, by those who preach the Gospel of Christ '. This shews clearly, that the one event was typical of the other; and that we must look to the Christian dispensation for the accomplishment of the prediction before us. Indeed, it is under the Christian dispensation alone that God does " bring again Zion" to the state from which it had fallen through the apostasies of his unbelieving and gainsaying people.]
Then was Christ seen, comparatively, " eye to eye," and face to face —
[He did assume our nature, and tabernacle amongst men. And though his appearance was mean, even like " a root out of a dry ground k," yet to a chosen few he revealed himself in a more especial manner, as " the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person1." On one occasion he was transfigured before them, " shining forth as the sun" in its meridian lustrem: to which event St. Peter refers, when he says, " We were eye-witnesses of his Majesty"." Indeed, his disciples generally " beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father0." Not that they fully understood
s ver. 3. h ver. 7. ' Rom. x. 15. k Isai. liii. 2.
1 Hcb.i. .3. m Matt. xvii. 2. n 2 Pet. i. 1(3. ° John i. 11.