glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." It exhibited not only the divine greatness in the majesty of which the apostle Peter in this place especially speaks, but the divine grace and love in the sweetness of it.

2. This glory that appeared in the person of Christ, did exactly resemble that excellent glory that the apostle speaks of, out of which the voice came, ver. 17. For there was there in the mount an external glory, as a visible symbol of the presence of God the Father, and by which he was represented; as well as an external glory in God the Son, viz. that bright cloud that overshadowed them. There was a glory in that cloud that the apostle calls an excellent glory. When it is said in the evangelists that a bright cloud overshadowed them, it is not meant such a light or white cloud as shines by a cast of light upon it from some shining body, such as are some clouds by the bright reflection of the sun's light; but a cloud bright by an internal light shining out of it, which light the apostle calls an excellent glory. It probably was an ineffably sweet, excellent sort of light, perfectly differing from, and far exceeding the light of the sun. All light is sweet, but this seems to have been immensely more sweet than any other that ever they had; impressing some idea which we cannot conceive, having never seen it, as we can conceive of nothing of light more than we have seen; we could have conceived of no such light as the light of the sun, had not we seen it, nor of any colour, blue, red, green, purple, nor any other. God doubtless can excite other ideas of light in our minds besides any of those that we have had, and far exceeding them; a light affording sweetness and pleasure to the sight, far exceeding all pleasure of the grosser and inferior senses. Therefore, Peter the apostle, that writes this epistle, was exceedingly delighted with it in the time of it, which made him say, "It is good for us to be here ;" and made him talk of building tabernacles, and thinking of spending the rest of his days there; and he still (though now old and near his end, verses 13, 14,) retains a lively sense of the exquisite gloriousness and pleasantness of that light, when he expresses himself as he does here, calling it the excellent glory. And there probably was an exact resemblance between the glory that the disciples saw in Christ's face, and that which they saw in this cloud, which declared him to be the Son of God; for they saw him to be his Express Image.

The apostle John, who saw this, probably afterwards in his visions, saw the very same sort of light and glory as an emanation of the glory of God, filling the New Jerusalem, which he now saw filling the mount of transfiguration, the type of that which he gives an account of in Rev. xxi. 11, "Having the

glory of God; and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper-stone, clear as crystal." The light he then saw seems to be perfectly differing in nature from any that is to be seen in this world, and immensely more sweet and excellent. He evidently wants words and similitudes to convey his own impression of it to our minds; he wants something excellent, and sweet, and precious enough to set it forth. He says, "It was like a stone most precious;" he knew none precious, or bright, or excellent enough to the sight; but he says it was like a jasper-stone," more resembling that than any other; but that is not sufficient, and therefore he adds, "clear as crystal ;" and from the whole we may gather, it was something he could not express, and that there was nothing like it. (Vide Note on the verse.) So it was the same kind of light that this beloved disciple had the glory of God represented by, Rev. iv. 3. "He that sat on it was like a jasper and a sardine stone;" a jasper and a sardine stone were of different colours, one green and the other red. How then could the light appear like both? By this it is plain, that indeed it was like neither, and that the apostle could find nothing to represent it by; there was all that was excellent in both. This is something like his seeing that the street of the new Jerusalem was like pure gold, and yet like transparent glass, Rev. xxi. 18.

3. This glory that they saw in Christ, appeared to them as communicated from that glory in the cloud, for the apostle says he received from the Father, honour and glory. The light in Christ's person appeared to them to be as it were lighted up, or begotten, as it were, by that in the cloud; or the glory in the cloud appeared shining on Christ, and so communicating the same excellent brightness. This again declared him to be the Son of God, for it showed him to be the express image of the Father, and to be from the Father, as begotten of him. Thus the glory of Christ's transfiguration was an evidence that he was the Son of God.

Secondly. It was also a special and direct evidence that what he had said a little before of his second coming, was true. By it, was given a specimen of that glory, that he should then appear in, and showed that this was the person that the prophet Daniel foretold, would come in so glorious a kingdom, that the Jews called it the kingdom of heaven, by the agreement there was between this glory they saw in Christ, and that which Daniel describes to be in that person that should set up that kingdom, whose garment is said to be white as snow. Dan. vii. 9. As Christ's garments were said to be white as the light, and so as no fuller on earth can white them.

And nextly, besides the visible glory, the apostle mentions the voice that issued from the excellent glory in the cloud, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him," (though the last clause, "Hear him," is not here mentioned.) It is observable that it is the very same, which the Glory that was in the cloud declared to the eyes of the apostles, which the Voice in the cloud declared to their ears. The visible communication from this glory to Christ, one glory as it were, begetting another, and the exact resemblance of the glory begotten, declared him to be God's Son; and the sweet and exact agreement between one and the other, and the union that appeared by communication, denoted the love between the Father and Son, as that he was well pleased in him. And this glory, being given as a specimen of the glory of his second coming, declared the truth of what he had so lately told them of his second coming: the same that the voice implicitly declared, when it hid them hear him, or believe what he said, which the disciples that heard it, must especially apply to the things he had most lately told them, and instructed them in.

Verse 19. "We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." By the word of prophecy is here ineant, the standing written revelation that God had given to his church, as appears by the two next verses. This is spoken of as surer than a voice from heaven. But the apostle has a special respect to the prophetical part of this written revelation, and most of all those parts that speak of the glory of Christ's kingdom, which is the principal subject of scripture prophecy, particularly that prophecy in the vii. chap. of Daniel, that speaks of the kingdom of heaven. This word of prophecy is as a light that shines in a dark place. The time of Christ's coming is here spoken of as the morning, when Christ, who is the Sun, shall arise and appear; and his happy kingdom that he shall then set up, is represented as the day time. But the time that goes before that, is here represented as night time, or a time of darkness, and we that live in that time, as being in a dark place. The word of prophecy is as a light shining in a dark place, or as the light of a bright star in this night, a light preceding the day of Christ's coming, like the morning star that is a forerunner of the day. The prophecies of that day, foretell it as the day-star foretells the approaching day. The prophets were harbingers of that blessed season, as the morning star is the harbinger of the day. By the prophecies of that day that go before it, something of the light of that day is manifested beforehand, and so is reflected to it, so that some of the light of

the fire is anticipated, as by the day-star while it is yet night. If we give heed to those prophecies, we shall enjoy this forego. ing light in our hearts, and so this day-star will arise; then our faith in these prophecies will be the evidence of that glorious Sun that is now not seen, and will render his light that is hoped for in some measure present in this dark world, and in our dark hearts. We shall in a measure have the joy of the morning of Christ's coming beforehand; we shall have a light in our hearts that will be an earnest, and forerunner of the glorious light of that day, as the dawning of the day before sun rise.

This world is a dark place without Christ, and therefore is dark till he comes, and until his kingdom of glory is set up. It appeared to be so now, especially in the circumstances of the Christians that the apostle now writes to, a world of heresies, grand delusions, and dreadful wickedness. They were in a dark place; they were not only surrounded with heathens, and subject to persecution, as appears by Peter's first Epistle, that was written to the same Christians, as is evident by chap. iii. 1; but were in the midst of vile heretics and apostasies, as has been said already, and Christ delayed his coming, and they had many temptations to deny the present truth, and lose their hopes of the sun's rising. When a man is in a dark place, and is in danger of. stumbling and falling and being lost, and has a light held forth to him, to guide him in, it behooves him to take beed to it, and keep his eye upon it, lest he get out of the way and fall into mischief.

[484] 1 John ii. 18. "Little children, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrists, whereby we know it is the last time." It is not reasonable to think that the apostle supposed, that this time was the latter part of the space that should be from Christ's ascension to his second coming to the general judgment. For it is evident by what he bere says, that he knew that the Great Antichrist should come before that. And if he supposed that this great Antichrist now appeared, it is not likely that he would have expressed himself as he does, even now are there many Antichrists. He would rather have said, "Even now Antichrist is come;" and would have decyphered him, and pointed him forth. We must therefore understand the apostle thus: "It is now long since the apostles foretold the coming of Antichrist, of which they told you in the first age of the Christian church, which reached from Christ's ascension to the destruction of Jerusa

lem; and now, since Jerusalem's destruction, has commenced the last state of things, the last age of the world, which is to continue from the destruction of Jerusalem, and the perfect abolishing of the Old Testament Dispensation to the end of the world, which the apostles had been wont to call the latter. days, and last times; during which last age they foretold that Antichrist should appear, 2 Thess. ii. 3, &c. 1 Tim. iv. 1, &c. 2 'Tim. iii. 1, &c.; and now the spirit of Antichrist doth very visibly appear; and there are many apostates and corrupters, that we may look upon as the forerunners of Antichrist, and are therefore an evidence that we are now come to that last age in which it has been foretold that Antichrist should arise; which should make you behave yourselves more circumspectly, for the apostles often told you that those last times wherein Antichrist should appear would be perilous times."

[287] John iii. 9. "Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin," i. e. he does not relapse, or fall away from righteousness into sin again; [“for his seed remaineth in him,"] i. e. the seed of which he is born of God, the same seed by which he is begotten of God remaineth in him, and therefore he does not fall away to a state and trade of sin again, out of which he was begotten, and born by that seed.

ses."

[104] Jude, verse 9. "He disputed about the body of MoThe thing referred to is that mentioned Zechariah iii. 2. The church of the Jews is called the body of Moses, as the Christian church is called the body of Christ. Moses was herein a type of Christ.

[188] Jude, 14, 15 verses. "Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment," &c. It is probable that this prophecy of Enoch had the more direct respect to the destruction of the ungodly of the old world by the flood. Those sinners of whom Jude speaks were like them, and their destruction should be like theirs. 2 Peter ii. 5. It looks very probable that God would reveal his designs to Enoch, of overthrowing the world, seeing that he was so intimately conversant with him, and the world was so much corrupted in his days; which was probably one reason why God took him out of the world, he would not suffer one so dear to him to live in the midst of such a wicked, abominable crew, to have his soul continually vexed by them. Enoch's son Methuselah lived till the very year that the flood came; and, if so, it is exceedingly probable that God would reveal something to him of his intended destruction of them,