and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, ßc. 351 he attended his Mager when he raifed the daughter ofJairus from the dead; he was admitted to CHRIST'S glorious transfigura- tion on the mount, andheard the difcourfes that palled between him and the great minders from the courts of heaven : and when the holy JEsus was to undergo his bitter agony in the garden, as preparatory fufferings to his paffion, James was one of the three taken to be a fpeélator of them. It is not eafy to determine what reafons induced the Redeemer of mankind toadmit thofe three apolles to peculiar aéfs of favour ; though he doubtlefs did it for wife and proper ends. Whetherhe defigned thefe three to be more' folemn and peculiar witneffes of Tome remarkable tranfafions of his life than the other voiles ; or that they would be more eminently ufeful and ferviceable in fome parts of the apoflolic office ; or to encourage them thereby to prepare for the fufferings that would attend them in the miniftry ; or whether he defign- ed them for fore more eminent kinds of martyrdom than the refs of his difciples. It was not the leaf£ inílanceofparticular honour that our Lord conferred on thefe a- polles, when he called them to the apolo- late, that he gave them a new name and title. A thing not uncommonof old, for the Al- mightyoften impofednewnames on perform, when he intended them for fome great and peculiar fervices and employments; in- lances of this we have in Abraham and Jacob. Accordingly our Lord, at the elelion of thefe three apolles, gave them new names : Simon he called Peter, or a rock, and James and John, Boanerges, or the fons of thunder. What our Lord in- tended by their furnames is much eafier to conjeblure than determine; fome think it was given them on account of their being prefent in the mount, when a voice came out of the cloud, faying, This is my beloved Son, &c. for when the people heard the fame voice at another time, they faid "It thundered." But this obfervation is in itfelf very inconfiderable, becaufe it was 3 equally applicable to Peter as to them. Others think that it was given them on account of their loud and bold preaching the gofpel to the world, fearing no threat- enings, defpifing all oppofition, and going on thundering in the ears of a drowfy and fleepy world ; roufing and awakening the confciences of men with the earneftnefs and vehemence of their preaching, which refembled thunder, as the voice of God powerfully {hakes the natural world, and breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. Others think it relates to the doarines they delivered, teaching the great myfteries of the gofpel in a more profound and loftier flrain than the reff. How far the latter opinionmight be true with regard to St. James, the Scriptures are wholly filent ; but it was certainly verified in his brother John, whofe gofpel is fo full of the more fublime notions and myfteries of the gofpel concerning the divinity, pre- exiftence, &c. of CHRIST, that he is generally affirmed by the an- cients to thunder rather than fpeak. Per- haps the expreffion may denote no more than that in general they were to be prime and eminent miniflers, in this new late of things; the introducing the gofpel or evan- gelical difpenfation, being called "a voice fhaking the heaven and the earth," and therefore exaélly correfpondent to the na- tive importance of the word, fignifying an earthquake, or a vehement commotion, that, like thunder, makes an alarming noife. However this be, our bleffed Saviour doubtlefs by this term alluded to the furious and refolute difpofitions of thefe two bro- thers, who feem to have been of a more fiery temper than the reif of the apolles, ofwhich we have this memorable inlance. When our Lord was determined on his journey to Jerufalem, he fent fome of his difciples before him to make preparations for his coming; but, on their entering a village of Samaria, were rudely rejeéled from the old grudge that fubfifted between the Samaritans and the Jews, and becaufe our
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