and body; the complete man is entitled to eternal life, and is to be filled with future glory. The tendency, then, and design of the indwelling of God in the soul at present, is to operate ultimately, at least, on all the physical powers both of mind and body. What is our regeneration but a moral transfiguration, to prepare us for trials, affliction, and death? What will be our resurrection at the last but a physical transfiguration, to prepare us to bear the eternal weight of glory? If our transfiguration, then, has a special, personal, consecrating, and physical influence on us, is it not agreeable to reason, that our Lord's transfiguration was designed to have a personal, peculiar, and special influence on him? Shall we confine this influence merely to the external appearance, or shall we not rather conclude, that the outward manifestation given on the mount was but an index of the mighty influence which then pervaded his whole person? That a great change then passed upon him, we cannot possibly doubt; but what was its nature and great design, is the question now before us.

The qualities of substance may be changed, as when our Lord turned water into wine; but no one substance, whether spiritual or material, can be changed into any other substance. For if any par

ticular substance exists, no other substance can be changed into that existing substance, simply because it does exist, and the fact of its existence precludes the possibility; and if any particular substance should cease to be, no other substance could be changed into it, because that would be a change of something into nothing. These remarks prepare us to understand more fully the nature of the change which passed upon our Lord in the act of being transfigured. It was not a change of humanity into Divinity, no more than his incarnation was a change of Divinity into humanity. In both cases it was a change of condition, and not of one nature into the identity of the other. The incarnation afforded the Divinity a new mode of subsistence, of action, and of suffering; and the humanity was invested with a new personality, dignity, power, and influence, by its union with Godhead; while each nature retained its own distinct identity and qualities. In the transfiguration, the external change came from within, and passed from the inward to the outward man. It must have affected every power of the mind, every passion of the soul, and the whole constitution of the body; but it certainly did not alter the physical condition of our Lord, so as to remove liability to infirmity, pain, and death. It refined, sanctified, strengthened, and invigorated the humanity to endure all kinds of pain, and especially that which afterwards arose from the hiding of the Father's countenance, and the infinite pressure of his wrath. When the divine nature was united to the human, "the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in him." He might well say, therefore, "I am in the Father, and the Father in me." There was a constant, perfect, and indissoluble union always subsisting between the two natures. It was the person of the Word, not of the Father or the Holy Ghost, that was united to our nature in the man Christ Jesus. The human nature never possessed personality in itself, but was taken into the person of the eternal Son of God.

Some actions were performed by the one nature, which the other could not directly perform. In all cases, however, there was an association of natures; but in those which related exclusively to redemption there was invariably a concurrence. Still it was the person of the Son of God, which endured every privation, submitted to every indignity, and performed every action through the medium of humanity. The divine virtue displayed itself in his tempers, teachings, and miracles; but whether the divine nature was quiescent or active in the direct performance of anything which he said or did, still he was the Son of God, the Lord of heaven, and the Creator of the world, possessing an inherent right to all that glory which he laid aside. Up to the period of his transfiguration he was truly the Lord of glory in his divine nature; but was he so in his human, now joined to his personality? He was so by right of union, but not by reality of participation. This wondrous change now makes him so, and enables the Apostles afterwards to assert, that the Jews "crucified the Lord of glory." He could not be crucified in the divine, but in the human, nature; and the human nature could not be literally denominated the Lord of glory, until thus anointed, crowned, and imbued with that glory and honour to which it stood entitled by its union with Godhead. As Moses anointed Aaron to the priesthood, so the Father now anoints his well-beloved Son. To make him a complete atoning sacrifice, the essential glory of heaven is poured into his humanity, until it overflows. Formerly there was a union of natures; now there is an actual and mutual participation of essential glory. Previously there was an indwelling, now there is an overflowing, of divine glory. Hitherto the union was secret and hidden; now it becomes open and formal. Before this period, the union was a matter of faith; now it is made evident to sense. From his incarnation till his transfiguration, the humanity was sanctified by the union or association of natures and the indwelling of Godhead; now it is penetrated, imbued, and consecrated in all its intellectual and material constitution by an actual diffusion of the divine and essential glory. The whole manhood was taken into the divine personality in the incarnation; and into the divine glory in the transfiguration. If the former gives atonement the dignity of personality, the latter invests it with the virtue of glory. If the hypostatical union of natures in the incarnation gave him infinite self-sufficiency to bear the weight of divine wrath in our stead, the concentration in and diffusion of the infinite and essential glory of Godhead, throughout his person, when transfigured, imbued his blood with all the loveliness, beauty, virtue, incorruptibility, and immortal life, which the Father himself could pour into the humanity of the Son in the act of consecration to his priesthood. True, indeed, the beauty, brilliancy, and glory retired from the human eye; but the virtue of all remained in his person. A cloud passing over the glorious Sun of Righteousness only concealed, but could not alter, his inherent glory. He carried the whole virtue of the divine nature, perfections, and glory, into Gethsemane's garden, where it oozed out in his bloody sweat. It constituted the very

savour of his blood shed upon the cross, and endued it with an infinite merit or value. As the blood was the life of his flesh, so this virtue was the life of his blood. The virtue of eternal life and essential glory was lodged in his blood; and he poured it out freely on the cross to "make an atonement for the soul." It was placed in the hands of divine justice in behalf of the world, while he lay in the tomb, and its efficacy was testified and acknowledged by his resurrection from the dead. It required no sweet spices to embalm his body when dead; for being "anointed to his burial" on the mount of transfiguration, the inherent and latent glory and immortality of his consecration preserved the Holy One from corruption. Hence, by affinity with its fountain, we read that Jesus was raised from the dead "by the glory of the Father." Thus the same glory which crowned him on the mount, consecrated his one offering, was concealed in the darkness of his cross, embalmed him in the tomb, hovered round its entrance, ascended with him in the cloud, expanded into its ancient brilliancy, and crowned him afresh on the hill of Zion as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who is able to subdue all things unto himself. Such was the grand design and ultimate results of his transfiguration on Mount Tabor.

From the investigation of this high and holy subject, we may learn,

1. The infinitely great evil of sin. From the infinite condescension of Jesus, we may learn the depth of its iniquity; from the brightness of his glory, we may see its darkness; from the absolute merit of his blood, we may discover the greatness of its guilt; and from the inconceivable intensity of his sufferings, we may form some conception of the greatness of its punishment. If his innocent soul was "exceeding sorrowful even unto death," arising from the weight of its woe, how obnoxious must it be in the eyes of a pure and holy God! Its enormity is such, that it forfeits everlasting life, incurs infinite wrath, and subjects to eternal punishment. It excites the absolute nature and perfections of Jehovah into direct hostility and hatred against it, and makes him to "become thunder who is all light." If it required the eternal Word not only to become incarnate, not only to be united to our nature, to give dignity to his sacrifice, but actually to be imbued, penetrated, and filled to overflowing with the essential glory of the Father on Mount Tabor, that his blood might be endued with all the virtue that the whole Godhead could communicate, how infinitely great must be the evil of sin in its own nature and consequences! If, in addition to this, we consider, that as the human nature was taken into personality by the Word, and imbued with the divine glory by the Father; so the Holy Ghost, imparted himself without measure to the same nature, rested upon him, inspired his teachings, wrought miracles, and endued him with all the virtue and fulness of his graces; and that thus the whole virtue of the undivided Trinity contributed to give efficacy to his blood, it follows from this divine combination, its greatness and its necessity, that the evil to be atoned for and destroyed must be great in accordance with the

persons, modes, and plans concerned in the work of atonement and redemption. How great, then, is the act of forgiveness, through faith in the blood of Jesus! It is the lifting away of boundless woe from the sinner, the removal of infinite wrath, the remission of eternal punishment, and the adoption of the whole man into the family of God, whereby he becomes entitled not only to eternal life, but to all that purity and entire holiness which prepares him for its enjoyment. Let us learn,

2. The necessity of a strong and lively faith. It is the appointed condition of justification. By it we first pass from death into life, and by its instrumentality we continue to live until mortality is exchanged for immortality. No wonder this should be the case. Here is its object, bright, beautiful, and glorious. Here is Divinity, humanity, union of natures, diffusion of glory, fulness of Godhead, immutability of character, infinite virtue in the blood, the testimony of the Father that he is "well pleased," fully satisfied in the Son; and his firm decree, that "whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed." Faith apprehends all this, chooses Jesus as the only Saviour, unites with the Father in saying it is "well pleased" also, and with a lively, active energy, passes by every other object in earth or in heaven, and cleaves to Him as the only source of light, life, holiness, happiness, and glory. Is he in the manger? it sees Divinity in the swaddlingclothes. Is he suspended on the cross, covered with shame and blood, and surrounded with darkness? it exclaims, "Truly this is the Son of God!" Is he in the tomb? it goes early to embalm him in the heart. Is he transfigured on Mount Tabor? it sees the rays of his glory first imbuing his humanity with virtue, then diffusing themselves from him as a centre to the utmost verge of the universe, carrying power, life, beauty, and glory to the whole creation of God, visible and invisible, while the gloomy brow of Calvary stands illumined in the distance, and the garden of Gethsemane is lit up with his glory. Faith sees all this, glories in the sight, and fills the soul "unutterably full of glory and of God." Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it first gazes, then trusts, and thus brings down pardon, the direct witness of acceptance with God, holiness, happiness, and heaven into the confiding soul. The transfiguration of Jesus was both calculated and intended to elicit and claim this faith. As the glorious image of Jesus in the act of perception on the mount, was imprinted on the retina of the human eye; so faith as a substitute for sight is now encouraged to behold him, that "Christ may dwell in the heart," and the divine image be thus imprinted on the inner man. “I beseech thee, O Lord, show me thy glory," was the prayer of Moses. Let it be ours also. We are encouraged thus to pray, "that our joy may be full." Let us "look then and be lightened, that our faces may not be ashamed." Let no believer ever turn his gaze away from this mirror, or hide the glory of the Lord from his own view, by any kind of unfaithfulness. And now, also, let the poor, weeping, humbled, and trembling sinner draw nigh, and "see this great sight." In the very glory of Jesus let him see the virtue of his blood.

The

atoning merit of the Son of God gives him more ability now, even now, this moment, to pardon and save, than ever there was in sin to destroy. Therefore,

"Believe in him that died for thee;

And sure as he hath died,
Thy debt is paid, thy soul is free,
And thou art justified."

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

SOME PASSAGES OF MODERN HISTORY VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION.

(To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment; and those that walk in pride he is able to abase."-Dan. iv. 37.

So said the proud Monarch of Babylon, when the hand of that "King of heaven" had smitten him, at one stroke, from the throne of dominion to fellowship with brutes.

From whatever point of view the Bible is seriously and inquiringly considered, how irresistibly does the conviction of its divine authenticity flash upon the mind! even its narrative portions, which to the careless reader may seem but the consecutive history of the chosen tribes; their origin and growth; their establishment and changes; their successes and reverses. But the Jewish theocracy was a distinct and peculiar manifestation of the divine rule and with whatever nation that people were brought in contact, there the divine sovereignty was specially and visibly exercised. The man, therefore, who sees nothing there but mere history, however truthful and interesting, or incident, however striking and peculiar,—the man who but searches for the records of the world's first ages, or for the rise and fall of empires that have long since passed away, or a picture of the manners and customs of the earth's primeval occupants, such a one may read, but he understands not: the record is, as to its true design, a sealed book to him. He may go further; and as he reads of Kings, now exalted and now debased; of states, now flourishing, and now in captivity; of mighty ones, to-day lauded, to-morrow forgotten;-he may be led to exercise himself in serious reflections on the mutations of time, the instability of earthly things, and the folly of human confidence and pride: but still he rests below the mark, the higher intention of its divine Author. It is only to be understood aright when viewed as an index of the providential government of God amongst men; an exhibition of the principles of that sovereign administration which is over all, based on eternal truth and righteousness. Examined in such a light, how ample are the visions it opens up! how rich the instruction it yields! how valuable the lessons it inculcates! and how deeply momentous its revelations of the unseen!

In many parts of the sacred volume, and in this book of Daniel especially, we seem to have the veil which hangs betwixt this world and the invisible fairly drawn aside. We see the high and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, on his throne supreme, governing alike impartially the captive and