[He with James and John had been taken up to Mount Tabor by his Divine Master, who had there been transfigured before them0. On that occasion the bright effulgence of the Deity had been made to shine forth in the person of the Lord Jesus, whose " face was as bright as the meridian sun, and whose raiment was as white as the light," whiter far than any fuller on earth could make themp." This bright effulgence Peter had seen with his bodily eyes.
On that occasion too Moses had been raised from the dead, and Elijah brought down from heaven, to bear their testimony to him. These two persons represented the law and the pro- phets, both of which had their full accomplishment in him : and they now, as it were, surrendered up their respective offices to him, who was henceforth to be the great Prophet, Priest, and King of his Church and people. Of this also Peter had been " an eye witness."
But, in addition to this, God the Father had borne witness to his Son by an audible voice from heaven, saying, " This is that my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased : Hear ye himq." In these words there was a direct reference to what God had before said to Moses, " A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto thee: him shall ye hear : and whosoever will not hear that prophet, I will require it of himr." This voice declared, that that very Jesus was the prophet so referred to, and the prophet whom all must obey at the peril of their souls. And this voice Peter distinctly heard.]
This evidence fully confirmed all that he had
asserted respecting Christ —
[He had declared that Jesus Christ was the only-begotten Son of God, "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person s," and of this, as far as it was possible, he had been an eye, and ear witness. He had declared the suf- ficiency of his death for the redemption of the whole world : and how could he doubt this when God had audibly proclaimed his acquiescence in it in that view? He had declared, that the salvation or condemnation of every living man would depend on his acceptance or rejection of this Saviour, who was the one Prophet, whom all must hear ; the one Priest, in whom all must trust : and the one King, whom all must obey : and so strongly were these truths assured to him by all that he had seen and heard, that he could not doubt of them one moment, or hesitate to appeal to them, in proof that " he had not
0 Matt. xvii. 1 — 5. p Mark ix. 3.
°. This is the force of the article in Matt. xvii. 5.
r Deut. xviii. 18, 19. s Heb. i. 3.