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appointed him, as Mofes alfo was faithful in all his Houfe as a Servant, for a Teftimony of thefe Things which were to be spoken after: But Chrift as a Son over his own Houfe. Heb. iii. 2, 5. This whole Difpenfation which was inftituted by the Miniftry of Mofes, at the Command of God, was properly defigned to be fubfervient and preparatory to that most perfect and glorious Difpenfation, which was to be introduced by our Lord Jefus Christ, in the Fulnefs of Time. It contained the Shadow of Things to come, as the Apostle fpeaks, but the Body is of Chrift. Finally, Mofes himself prophefied of our Lord Jefus Chrift, under the Character of a Prophet that should arife from among them, like unto him, i. e. one that was to bring in a new Difpenfation, and a Syftem of Laws in the Name of God; one that was to be a Lawgiver; and in this Respect like Mofes, but vaftly fuperior. He warns Ifrael to hearken unto him when he fhould come to them, and intimates that, if they refused to do fo, God would require it at their Hands. Deut. xviii. 15-19. On all thefe Accounts it appeareth that, if it feemed fit to God to appoint that any one of the ancient Saints and holy Men of God, who had lived in former Ages, fhould attend our Lord Jefus Chrift at his Transfiguration,

Transfiguration, none was more proper than Mofes.

As to Elias, his Character was also highly remarkable. God raised him up at a Time when Ifrael was funk into the greateft Corruption and Degeneracy, when they had almost totally apoftatifed from the only living and true God, who had taken them for his People by a special Covenant Relation, to the Idolatry of the Heathens, and had caft off his Law and Worship, and revolted unto Baal. At fuch a Time as this was Elias raised up, that, by the exemplary Purity and Strictness of his Life, by his unfhaken Conftancy, and fervent Zeal, in Oppofition to all the Bribes and Terrors of this World, and by the glorious Miracles he performed, he might restore and vindicate the Honour of God's Law, and the Purity of his Worship, and bear Teftimony for it against the prevailing Corruption and Idolatry of that Age. Accordingly more and greater Miracles are wrought by Elijah than had been wrought for many hundred Years, from the Time of Mofes to that Day. He even raised the Dead, which Mofes himself had not done. So it pleafed God to order it, to give a greater Weight to his Ministry, and to the Warnings and Exhortations he gave the People of Ifrael in his Name; and the more

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effectually to awaken them to a holy Reverence of that God from whom they had departed, when they faw fuch awful Difplays of his Divine Majefty and Glory among them, fo infinitely fuperior to all their Idol Deities. And, finally, he gave a moft illuftrious Teftimony to Elijah, by taking him up bodily into Heaven, without feeing Death; a Privilege and Honour never allowed to any of the human Race, except to him and to Enoch; both of whom were Perfons that had dared to be fingular in ftanding up for the Caufe of Religion and Virtue, in a very corrupt and degenerate Age. And now Elias had a new and fignal Honour done him in being chofen along with Mofes to wait upon our Lord at his glorious Transfiguration. What made it still more proper that Elias fhould appear on this Occafion, was, that it had been foretold by the Prophet Malachi, that God would fend Elijah before the Coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. Mal iv. 5. This the Jews understood, as fignifying that Elias was to come in Perfon, and prepare the Way before the Meffiah. And though our Saviour directeth us to understand it principally of John the Baptift, who went before him in the Spirit and Power of Elias ; yet this very Prediction, and the Expecta

tion the Jews had formed, fhewed how very properly it was appointed, that Elias, as well as Mofes, fhould be chofen to attend upon our Lord at his Transfiguration. Both of them were fignally eminent for their perfonal Virtues and Excellencies, and for their Divine Miffion and Character. The one was the Giver of the Law; the other was the greatest of the subsequent Prophets, and might be regarded as the Reprefentative of them all, and a moft zealous and illuftrious Reformer in a Time of great Corruption. Both were eminently duitinguished by the Miracles they performed,' and were Perfons for whom the Jews had the profoundest Veneration. And it must have tended very much to recommend the Gofpel of Jefus to their Esteem, when it came to be known that Mofes and Elias, the two moft remarkable Perfons under the Old Testament, concurred to give Testimony to our Lord, and to his Divine Miffion.

The Jews were for oppofing Mofes to Chrift. The Pharifees and Rulers of the Jews faid to the Man that had been blind from his Birth, whom Jefus had healed, Thou art his Difciple, we are Mofes's Difciples. We know that God Spake unto Mofes: As for this Fellow, we know not whence he is. John ix. 28, 29. But there was no Oppofition between Mofes and F 3 Jejus

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Jefus. Mofes had foretold his Coming, and directed Ifrael to look for him, as hath been already obferved. And hence our Lord faith to the Jews, Had ye believed Mofes, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. John v. 46. And, as he had wrote of him, it was fo ordered that he came in Perfon to vifit him, whilft he was in the Days of his Flesh here on Earth. This fhewed the intire Harmony there was between them; and fo there was between the Difpenfations they introduced: For the Law of Mofes was defigned to be subfervient to the evangelical Difpenfation, and to prepare the Way for it. Accordingly our Saviour faith of himself, that he came. not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it, to answer the true Design and End of it, to confirm and establish it's moral Precepts, to fulfil the Intention of it's typical and fhadowy Rites and Ceremonies, and to accomplish and verify the Predictions. and Promises there contained. Thus the Old Teftament and the New bear Witnefs to one another, they derive mutual Strength and Light the one to the other, and it is certainly a delightful Thing to contemplate Mofes and Elias thus harmonifing with fefus.

The Saints under the Old Teftament, and thofe of the New, belong to one and

the

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