120. The NEW and COMPLETE LIFE of our BLESSED in the prefence of his Saviour; beholds this fuprerne objeft of his love, face to face, and is clothed by him in the beauty and glory of immortality. But all defcrip- tion fails; the human mind, in it's prefent beclouded fiate, cannot bear the blaze of immortal glory, nor receive any adequate ideas of' that boundlefs blifs, which the Lord will .bellow on his people For eye hath notfeen,.nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart ofman to conceive, what God hath prepared for thofe that love him. As this doftrine of' CHRIST'S being ap- pointed the univerfal Judge of heaven and earth, might feem incredible to the dif- ciples ; efpecially, as our Lord had but juft before given them the humbling ac- count of his fufferings and death ; he pro- ceeded to inform them, that fome who heard him fpeak, fhould fee fo muchof his glory and his kingdom while they lived, as fhould convince them, that his decla- ration was true : Verily, I fay unto you, faid he, there61 fomeftanding here, which (hall not talk of death, till they fee the Son of man coming inhis kingdom. Agreeable to this preeliftion, the difciples lived to fee the transfigurationof their Mailer, and to be witneffes of his glorious refurreftion, and his triumphant afcenfion into heaven ; they lived to fee the defcent of the Holy Ghoft, and the doftrines of the gofpel propagated in various remote parts of the world ; and force of them lived lo fee that awful and ample difplay of divine ven- geance, manifefted in the deftruftion of that unbelieving race, who were the pro- feffed enemies and murderers of the Lord of life, and that wicked city where he was crucified. The firít of thefe great events fucceeded the declaration in about fix days, when our great Redeemer being with the multitude in the country of Cs farea-Philippi, he left them in the plain, and, accompanied by Peter, James, and John, afcended an ex- ceeding high mountain. In this folitude, while our Lord was praying, he was tranf- _figured; his face affumed a glorious radi- ance, and emitted a beamy brightnefs, not inferior to the fun'ihining in it's ftrength; his garments (hone with a fnowy whitenefs, far beyond any thing which human art could produce, and, like the fair beams of the morning light, glowed with a fweet re- fulgence, not inferior to the brightnefs of his countenance. Thus, for a lhort time, the Son of God appeared in his native glory, and the majeltic brightnefs of his divinity fhone through the veil of hishuman nature. To heighten the folemnity and grandeur of the fcene, Mofes, the great lawgiver QJ Ifeael, and Elijah, the great prophet of the Lord, and fupporter of the law, appeared in the beauties of immortality, and !hone in thofe robes with which the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerufalem are adorned. It appears that the difciples,being heavy with fleep at the time of prayer, did not fee the beginning of this glorious fcene ; they, however, awaked in the utmoft fur- prife, to behold the place lhining with heavenly glory ; they had loft the firft part of this bright difplay of our Redeemer's divinity, and of the converfation he held' with the two great prophets, who came down from heaven on this great occafion; but they heard fo much, as gave them to underftand, that thefe glorious perfonshad been talking of thofe things which their Malley had lately informed them of. His fufferings and death, which would foon be accomplifhed at Jerufalem, though they appeared to them of fuch an humbling na-. ture, and contrary tò the charafter of the Melfiah, they found were not unworthy the contemplation of the greateft perfonages of the heavenly world; and though the . mentioning them, had lately given fuch offence to Peter, he perceived that they were fpoken of by perfons of fuperior dig- nity and underftanding, as highly honour- able to the charafter of his Matter. But the feeble nerves of the three difciples . could not bear the blazeof heavenly glory ; they were amazed, confounded, and terri- fied, and fcarce knew where they were, or hots
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