fubverfion of the civil polity of Judah; of the family of David, and at the city of Bethlehem, according to the purport of other predictions; the son of a pure Virgin, as Isaiah had forefhewn of him, and as the fame holy prophet in conformity with the doctrine of the royal Pfalmist, had taught he should be, Immanuel, GOD with us, or in our nature. To this his divine origin the Father himself gave attestation at his baptism by a voice from heaven: "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased "." When after this initiation into his office he began publicly to teach, he dated his gospel from that point of time, which the ancient prophecies had fixed for its commencement, the preaching of his forerunner: "the law and the prophets," the former covenant of GOD with his people, "were until John: fince that time the kingdom of GOD," the new difpenfation from heaven to mankind," is preached, and every man preffeth into it."

a

Such then was the first advent of the bleffed Jefus : agreeable, in every respect, to what

* Mic. v. 2. Pf. cxxxii. 6. 1 Sam. xvii. 12. Gen. xxxv. 19. a Matt. iii. 17.

y If. vii. 14.

z Pf. cx. 1.

b Comp. Mal. iv. 5, 6. 2, 3. with If. xl. 3-5. • Luke xvi. 16. comp. Matt. xi. 11, 12.

the

the Holy Ghost had, in old time, declared concerning the Meffiah's appearance. Let us now confider fome of thofe events, which are described by our Lord, in the course of his ministry, as the coming of his kingdom.

Of these the firft which we meet with is mentioned by St. Matthew, in the following words: 66 Verily I fay unto you, there be fome standing here, which fhall not tafte of death, till they fee the Son of man coming in his kingdom."

In explaining this paffage, the best of our commentators have not referred it to that event, to which alone it feems to belong. When I venture to fay this, let me not be thought prefumptuous; for if among the moderns many are against me, the ancients are unanimously on my fide. The learned Origen, and the venerable Chryfoftom *, and the reft of the fathers, apply the paffage,

c Matt. xvi. 28.

d In loc. He confiders this as the literal sense, to which he fubjoins an allegorical interpretation.

• In loc. T. II. P. 357.

f Hilary, Jerome, Theophylact, and Euthymius, on St. Matthew. St. Auguftin in a difcourfe on the fubject, Tom. V. col. 425. ed. Paris 1689, and alfo on Galat. ii. T. iii. 948. Ephraim Syrus, λόγος εις την Μεταμόρφωσιν της Σωτηρος. St. Am

brofe

with one voice, to our Lord's transfiguration; and to this, I conceive, the context itself, in each of the three Gofpels, where this fpeech and that event are recorded, naturally leads. For the evangelifts, without staying to relate any one intermediate fact or discourse, pafs on at once, from thefe memorable words, to the transfiguration; and the time that intervened, from the previous declaration of our bleffed Saviour, to this appearance of his glory, is diftinctly marked by all the three *; a circumftance to which in no other inftance have they fo uniformly attended, except in the tranfactions of the holy week.

brofe feems to understand it in this fenfe, but is not very explicit; and Bede gives this and another expofition, leaving it to the reader to judge for himself. To these authorities may be added, among the more eminent commentators abroad, Chemnitius, Maldonate, Eftius, Epifcopius, L. Brugenfis, Menochius, Vatablus, &c. The fame fenfe is given by Wall in loc. and Dr. Jackson, Vol. I. p. 103. Other English divines and expofitors generally understand the paffage of the deftruction of Jerufalem.

g Matt. xvii. 1. Mar. ix. 2. The connection in St. Luke ix. 28. is fill more obfervable: Εγένετο δέ μετα της λογες τέτες NOEL йusgay оXTW. And by the feeming variation in the number of the days he has fixed the time with greater precision, and fhews us that it was on the eighth day after the preceding fpeech. ό μεν γαρ και αυτην την ημεραν καθ' ήν εφθεγξατο, κάκείνην καθ' ήν ανήγαγεν, ειπεν· ὁ δὲ [Ματθαιος ] της μεταξυ τέτων μόνον Chryfoft. in Matt. xvii. 1.

If

If the destruction of Jerufalem, as many have imagined, was here intended, and the words were addreffed to the apostles alone; furely their Lord would not have included more than one in a promise, which one only was to fee accomplished ".

If again, with others, you apply the paffage to the establishment of the gofpel, by the refurrection and afcenfion of its heavenly author, and fuppofe the words fpoken to the whole multitude prefent'; would it have been intimated, that few only, who heard the prediction, fhould behold its completion, when eleven of the apoftles, and probably the far greater part of the people who stood there, faw that wonderful event come to pass ?

With the overthrow of the Jewish state the phraseology adopted seems not to suit; for though "power," which St. Mark mentions*, is undoubtedly applicable to those days of vengeance, other expreffions appear

When Mary anointed our bleffed Saviour, we are told Mark xiv. 4. "there were fome (res) that had indignation”. at the pious act; which perhaps is to be understood of the traitor alone; but it is by no means credible that fuch laxity of expreflion would be used by the holy fpeaker in delivering, or the hiftorian in recording, a folemn Promife." k Mark. ix. 1,

See Mark viii. 34.

lefs

lefs proper. Where the punishment of enemies is the end in view, it seems not agreeable to the general turn of fcriptural language on fuch occafions, to style it, with St. Mark and St. Luke," the kingdom of God'," or with St. Matthew, "the Son of man coming in his kingdom;" the immediate object of that being, in every inftance, to fave and not to destroy". Even in the description of our Lord's final advent, although the kingdom, then to be beftowed on his faithful fervants, is faid to have been prepared for them from the foundation of the world; yet, as one has well remarked, the everlasting fire, which the fame account affures us the wicked fhall inherit, is not faid to have been prepared for them, but for the devil and his angels ".

To the transfiguration then we refer the paffage. For it is not implied, that of the perfons prefent many fhould die before the fulfilling of the promise; as if it related to

Luke ix. 27.

m Our Lord fays indeed, Matt. x. 34. "I came not to fend peace, but a sword." But this expreffes the confequence only, not the defign, of his coming: "Ita hæc ejus adventu confecutura, tanquam ea de caufa veniffet." Maldonat.

1.

■ Vide Matt. xxv. 31, &c. et Chryfoft. in loc. T. II. p. 494. 29, &c.

fome