VI. what must have appeared the inexplicable, if CHAP. not contradictory, conduct and language of their master. At one moment he seemed entirely to lift the veil from his own character; the next, it fell again and left them in more than their former state of suspense. Now, all is clear, distinct, comprehensible; then again, dim, doubtful, mysterious. Here their hopes are elevated to the highest, and all their preconceived notions of the greatness of the Messiah seem ripening into reality; there, the strange foreboding of his humiliating fate, which he communicates with more than usual distinctness, thrills them with apprehension. Their own destiny is opened to their prospect, crossed with the same strangely mingling lights and shadows. At one time they are promised miraculous endowments, and seem justified in all their ambitious hopes of eminence and distinction in the approaching kingdom; at the next, they are warned that they must expect to share in the humiliations and afflictions of their Teacher. Cæsarea Near Cæsarea Philippi Jesus questions his dis- Jesus near ciples as to the common view of his character. Philippi. By some, it seems, he was supposed to be John the Baptist restored from the dead; by others, Elias, who was to re-appear on earth, previous to the final revelation of the Messiah ; by others, Jeremiah, who, according to a tradition to which we have before alluded, was to come to life: and when the ardent zeal of Peter recognises him under the most sacred title, which was universally considered as appropriated to the VI. CHAP. Messiah, "the Christ, the Son of the Living God," his homage is no longer declined; and the Apostle himself is commended in language so strong, that the pre-eminence of Peter over the rest of the twelve has been mainly supported by the words of Jesus, employed on this occasion. The transport of the Apostles at this open and distinct avowal of his character, although at present confined to the secret circle of his more immediate adherents, no doubt before long to be publicly proclaimed, and asserted with irresistible power, is almost instantaneously checked; the bright expanding prospects change in a moment to the gloomy reverse, when Jesus proceeds to foretell to a greater number of his followers his approaching lamentable fate, the hostility of all the rulers of the nation, his death, and that which was probably the least intelligible part of the whole prediction-his resurrection. The highly excited Peter cannot endure the sudden and unexpected reverse; he betrays his reluctance to believe that the Messiah, whom he had now, he supposed, full authority to array in the highest temporal splendour which his imagination could suggest, could possibly apprehend so degrading a doom. Jesus not only represses the ardour of the apostle, but enters at some length into the earthly dangers to which his disciples would be exposed, and the unworldly nature of Christian reward. They listened, but how far they comprehended these sublime truths must be conjectured from their subsequent conduct. * Mark, viii. 34. Matt. xvi. 21-28.; Mark, viii. 31. ix. 1.; Luke, iv. 18 -27. VI. It was to minds thus preoccupied, on one hand CHAP. full of unrepressed hopes of the instantaneous revelation of the Messiah in all his temporal greatness, on the other, embarrassed with the apparently irreconcileable predictions of the humiliation of their Master, that the extraordinary scene of the Trans- The Transfiguration was presented. Whatever explanation figuration. we adopt of this emblematic vision, its purport and its effect upon the minds of the three disciples who beheld it, remain the same.t Its significant sights and sounds manifestly announced the equality, the superiority of Jesus to the founder, and to him who may almost be called the restorer of the Theocracy, to Moses the lawgiver, and Elias the representative of the prophets. These holy personages had, as it were, seemed to pay homage to Jesus; they had vanished, and he alone had remained. The appearance of Moses and Elias at the time of the Messiah, was strictly in accordance with the general tradition ‡; and when in his astonishment Peter proposes to make there three of those huts or cabins of boughs, which the Jews were accustomed to run up as temporary dwellings at the time of the Feast of the Tabernacles, he seems to have supposed that the spirits of the law Tradition has assigned this scene to Mount Tabor, probably for no better reason than because Tabor is the best known and most conspicuous height in the whole of Galilee. The order of the narrative points most distinctly to the neighbourhood of Cæsarea Philippi, and the Mons Paneus is a much more probable situation. VOL. I. S Matt. xvii. 1-21.; Mark, ix. 2-29.; Luke, ix. 28—42. Dixit sanctus benedictus Mosi, sicut vitam tuam dedisti pro Israele in hoc seculo, sic tempore futuro, tempore Messiæ, quando mittam ad eos Eliam prophetam vos duo venietis simul. Debar. Rab. 293. Compare Lightfoot, Schoetgen, and Eisenmenger, in loco. VI. CHAP. giver and the prophet were to make their permanent residence with the Messiah, and that this mountain was to be, as it were, another sacred place, a second Sinai, from which the new kingdom was to commence its dominion, and issue its mandates. The other circumstances of the transaction, the height on which they stood, their own halfwaking state, the sounds from heaven (whether articulate voices or thunder, which appeared to give the divine assent to their own preconceived notions of the Messiah), the wonderful change in the appearance of Jesus, the glittering cloud which seemed to absorb the two spirits, and leave Jesus alone upon the mountain,- - all the incidents of this majestic and mysterious scene, whether presented as dreams before their sleeping, or as visions before their waking senses, tended to elevate still higher their already exalted notions of their Master. Again, however, they appear to have been doomed to hear a confirmation of that, which, if their reluctant minds had not refused to entertain the humiliating thought, would have depressed them to utter despondency. After healing the dæmoniac, whom they had in vain attempted to exorcise, the assurance of his approaching death is again renewed, and in the clearest language, by their master.* From the distant and the solitary scenes where these transactions had taken place, Jesus now returns to the populous district about Capernaum. On his en * Matt. xvii. 22, 23.; Mark, ix. 30-32.; Luke, ix. 44, 45. VI. trance into the city, the customary payment of half CHAP. a shekel for the maintenance of the Temple, a capitation tax which was levied on every Jew, in every Tribute quarter of the world, is demanded of Jesus.* How money. then will he act, who but now declared himself to his disciples as the Messiah, the Son of God? will he claim his privilege of exemption as the Messiah? will the Son of God contribute to the maintenance of the Temple of the Father? or will the long-expected public declaration at length take place? will the claim of immunity virtually confirm his claim to the privileges of his descent? He again reverts to his former cautious habit of never unnecessarily offending the prejudices of the people; he complies with the demand, and the money is miraculously supplied. of the Apostles. But on the minds of the Apostles the recent Contention scenes are still working with unallayed excitement. The dark, the melancholy language of their Master appears to pass away and leave no impression upon their minds; while every circumstance which animates or exalts, is treasured with the utmost care; and in a short time, on their road to Capernaum, they are fiercely disputing among themselves their relative rank in the instantaneously expected kingdom of the Messiah.† The beauty of the significant * Matt. xvii. 24-28. It is observable that the ambitious disputes of the disciples concerning primacy or preference, usually follow the mention of Christ's death and resurrection. Luke, ix.44-46.; Matt.xx. 18-20.; Luke, xxii. 22-24. They had so strong a prepossession that the resurrection of Christ (which they |