A. M. 4035. take you to be John the Baptist † risen from the dead; some Elias sent down from &c. or 5440. heaven; and others Jeremias, or some other of the ancient prophets restored to life Ann Dom. 31. &c. Vulg. Ær. 29. again: But when he continued asking what their notion of him was, and Simon †2 (in the name of the rest) had made an open confession that he was Christ, the Son of the living God, he not only allowed that confession to be true, and what was confirmed by the attestation †3 of God himself, but, in allusion to the name he had given him, which signifies a rock †4 or stone, he told Simon, "That he would make him a foundation stone, or a prime minister † in building his church, which should be so firmly esta + Those who held that Jesus was John the Baptist risen from the dead, were of the same opinion with Herod the tetrarch, Matth. xiv. 2. and seem to have imbibed the notion of the Pharisees, who (according to Josephus) used to say, that "a good man might easily return to life again." Those who took him for Elias, ran into the general opinion of the nation, that Elias was to come before the Messiah, and anoint him when he came; and therefore, notwithstanding his doctrine and miracles, they could not conceive him to be the Messiah, so long as his mean appearance was contrary to their expectations: And those who thought him to be Jeremias, seem to have espoused the sentiment of some of their doctors, who looked upon that prophet as the head of the whole order, not improbably upon the character which God gives him, "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou wast out of the womb, I sanctified and I ordained thee a prophet to the nations," Jer. i. 5. Whitby's and Beausobre's Annotations. + That the rest of the apostles knew and believed the great truth which St Peter here declares, no one can doubt, who calls to mind the attestation made of it before by John the Baptist, John i. 34. the frequent confessions of it by evil spirits dispossessed before their eyes, Mark iii. 15. and that full declaration of it in the name of the whole fraternity, "We believe and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God," John vi. 69. for which reason we find the fathers, upon this occasion, speaking of St Peter as the mouth, the tongue, the voice of the church, and a kind of foreman to the rest of the apostles; for this they might think a matter of decency and good man ners, a means to prevent confusion and disorder, and a token of that union and harmony which was among them, that one man should speak for all the rest. And why that one man should be St Peter rather than any of the rest, may very reasonably be imputed to the seniority of his age, the natural fervor of his temper, and his longer attendance upon our blessed Saviour than several of the rest had been employed in. These are sufficient reasons for his delivering the judgment of the company, and for our accounting his confession the common voice of all, to a question which had evidently been propounded to them all. Stanhope on the Epistles and Gospels, vol. iv. +3 The words in the text are," Flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but my Father which is in heaven," Matth. xvi. 17. but how did God reveal this to St Peter? Those who pretend that he had a particular revelation, not vouchsafed to any others, without which he could not have owned Christ to have been the Son of God, must not only allow the like revelation to Nathanael, John i. 49. to the centurion who was present at our Lord's crucifixion, Matth. xxvii 54. and to all others who made declaration of the same faith; but must likewise excuse all those Jews who did not believe in Christ, because it was not in their power so to do without this peculiar revelation. Without running ourselves into these premunires therefore, we may reasonably conclude, that the sense of our Saviour's words is this," What others say of me, viz. that I am John, Elias, Jeremias, or the like, this thou hast learnt from men; but the faith which thou hast now confessed concerning me, though it required of thee a due attention to the proofs given of it, yet since those prools are the doctrine which I teach from God, and the miracles done in confirmation of it, are apparently the finger of God, thy faith must be acknowledged to be the result, not of human wisdom, but of Divine Revelation. God has given thee a teachable and intelligent mind, to perceive, by my doctrine and miracles, that I am the true Messiah, notwithstanding the obscurity of my appearance, and therefore thou mayest be truly said to be taught of God, because my doctrine is the word, and my miracles are the power of God." Whitby's Annotations and Calmet's Commentary. + Peter was so called, either because his being the apostle of the Jews, to whom the Gospel was first tendered, might make him, in some sense, one of the first foundations of the Christian church, Eph. ii. 20. or because the firmness and resolution wherewith he supported the Christian cause, even to the day of his martyrdom, was very eminent and remarkable. Beausobre's Annotations. + It is very evident, that, whereas the word church is capable of two senses, and, taken in common speech, sometimes for a society of persons worshipping God, and sometimes for a place set apart for the public performance of such worship, our Saviour intends it here in the former of these senses, and that the building of this church (which is a metaphor of frequent use in the New Testament) signincs the dong all those things, either in private Christians or public communities of them, which may contribute to their growth in grace and goodness, their mutual strength and support, their perfection and continuance, and accordingly Christians, thus united together, are called a spiritual house, 1 Pet. ii. 5. " an heavenly building, fitly framed together, and an babitation of God through the Spirit," Eph. ii. 21, 22. Stanhope on the Epistles and Gospels, vol. iv. xii. 1. Mark ii. blished, that all the power † and policy of its enemies should not be able, at any time, From Matth. to destroy it; and that, for the more orderly government of it, he would give him the 23. Luke vi. 1. keys of the kingdom of heaven, so that his sentence, whenever it should regularly ex- John v. 1. to clude or admit any person into the bosom of the church upon earth, should, in like Mark ix. 14. manner, be ratified and confirmed in heaven." But then to prevent the ill use that Luke ix. 37. might be made of this discovery, he strictly charged his apostles || not to declare to any man that he was the Messiah. Perceiving by this discourse with Peter, that his disciples had got a right notion of his office and Divinity, he began thence-forward to prepare their minds for his sufferings, and to talk more openly of his death and resurrection. One day therefore, as he was insisting on the sufferings which he was to undergo at Jerusalem ||2, and Peter, unable to endure a thought so disagreeable to the dignity of his Master, desired him to desist †2, + The words in the text are,-" The gates of hell shall not prevail against it," Mat. xvi. 18. Some in terpreters mean by the word hades, which we translate hell, the state or place of the dead; and by the gates of hades, the power of death; and so the words, applied to the members of Christ's mystical body, or to particular Christians, will mean, "That though, at present, death has the dominion over them, yet shall not his conquest of those that die in the Lord be absolute and final. They shall not continue dead to all eternity; but shall revive, a second time, to a better life, and triumph over this last great enemy of mankind." Others by hell understand the place of infernal torments; and so, by an easy figure, apply it to the devil and his angels, inhabiting those regions of darkness; but then, because the gates of cities are not only, in all countries, places of strength, but, among the Jews more especially, were places of judicature, and where magistrates met to consult for the security of the public, it hence comes to pass, that by the gates of hell they mean the strength and policy of the wicked, and so make the sense of our Saviour's promise to be this," That notwithstand ing all the wicked contrivances of Satan and his instruments, to destroy the profession of Christianity in the world, yet all their power and policy should not be able to effect it. Christ's holy religion should stand and flourish, in despite of their wicked contrivances; and, however a defection might happen in some particular places, to the end of the work, he should never want a society of men, confessing, with St Peter, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God," Mat. xvi. 16. Whitby's and Hammond's Annotations, and Stanhope on the Epistles and Gospels, vol. iv. In several parts of the Gospel we find our Saviour enjoining the people whom he had cured, not to make any publication of his miracles, Matth. viii. 4. and ix 30. but it is an injunction of a particular nature, not to discover that he was the Christ, though this was an article necessary for every man to know and believe in order to his salvation. Now, though this was a point necessary for all to know, yet the apostles were not the proper persons at this time to declare it, because it might look like a kind of confederacy between them, if they should prove too lavish in the commendations of their master. It would much better become his infinite wisdom, therefore, to find out himself a proper opportunity for the discovery of this great truth, without drawing the envy of the Pharisees upon him, and obstructing the progress of the Gospel, which could hardly be believed, considering the low circumstances wherein he appeared; and which, had it been believed, might have encouraged the attempt of the Jews to come, and make him a king, John vi. 15. What therefore our Saviour says to his three apostles, in relation to his transfiguration, that they should "tell no man of it until he was risen from the dead," Matth. xvii. 9. is applicable to this passage likewise. For after his resurrection, they were by office to be his witnesses, and to declare to others that he was the Christ, because they could then do it, not only without suspicion of confederacy, but with greater advantages and success, after that Christ had taken possession of his kingdom, and had testified this, by sitting down at the right hand of Power, and by sending down upon them the Holy Ghost, to enable them to confirm their testimony. Pool's, Beausobre's, and Whitby's Annotations. Jerusalem was the place where this tragedy was to be acted, because, as our Lord observes," a prophet could not suffer out of that city," Luke xiii. 33. for there sat the Sanhedrim that was to try him, and there lived the Roman governor, who had the power of life and death, and was to condemn him. Whitby's Annotations. + Peter's words in the Greek are ἵλεώς σοι, Κύριε Matth. xvi. 22. which we may render propitius esto tibi, Domine," favour thyself, or be kind to thyself.” "Since the rulers at Jerusalem have such malevolent designs against thee, why shouldst thou think of going any more among them? If they intend to evil intreat thee, and take away thy life, be thou kind and favourable to thyself, avoid the danger by keeping at a distance from it, and consult thine own preservation by continuing here." This seems to be the proper sense of St Peter's words, and they were doubtless spoken with a good intention, and singular affection for his master, but still they argued great weakness in him, in pretending to contradict one whom he had just before acknowledged to be "the Christ, the Son of God," and denote him ignorant of the redemption of mankind by that death, which God in his wise counsel had determined. Pool's Annotations, and Young's Sermons, vol. ii. Matth. xvii. 14. John vii. 1. &c. or 5440. 31, &c. Vulg. Er. 29. A. M. 4035, he gave him a very sharp rebuke †, as a person whose advice crossed his gracious Ann. Dom. purposes of man's redemption, and savoured of nothing but worldly grandeur; and therefore to extinguish in them all notions of a temporal kingdom, he called his disciples, and told them, that " whoever pretended to profess his religion, should take up his cross t, or patiently submit to all manner of persecutions, in sure and certain hope of an happy immortality, which he would procure for his followers when he was in his kingdom, in which some that were then present among them, ere it were long, (but certainly before the day of their death) †3 should see him happily instated.” || About eight days after this, our Lord, to revive the hearts of his disciples, as well + The words of our blessed Saviour upon this occasion are,-"Get thee behind me Satan; thou art an offence to me," Matth. xvi. 23. Not that we are to think that our Saviour ever imagined that St Peter, in this advice, had any pernicious designs against men as the great enemy of mankind has, when he tempts, and deludes them into sin; but his only meaning is, that his interposition in this affair was very unseasonable, and highly repugnant to his design of coming into the world, which was to save it. "Thou thinkest, perhaps, says he, Peter, that in this thy advice thou shewest thy kindness to me as a friend that respects my welfare, and art tender to my preservation; but instead of that, thou art an adversary to me, (for so the word Satan signifies, Numb. xxii. 32. 2 Sam. xix. 23. 1 Kings v. 4. &c.) in thy endeavouring to draw me aside from doing what is my Father's will and command, John x. 18. I told thee that I must suffer; that such is the determinate counsel of God, and such my fixed purpose and resolution; and therefore all advice to the contrary is so far from pleasing, that it is an offence to me; I cannot away with it; and therefore "get thee behind me Satan:" for though there is no malice in thy intention, yet imprudently hast thou run upon the same advice that Satan uses the most successfully of all others to undo men by, and that is, the advice of self-indulgence. For favour thyself is the most artificial of all the suggestions of the devil; because that being made specious with the pretences of reason and justice, and sweetened by its agreeableness to that self-love with which all men do naturally abound, it seldom fails of being swallowed, though poison and death lurk under it." Pool's and Whitby's Anotations. Calmet's Commentary, and Young's Sermons, vol. ii. +Among several nations it was a custom for the criminal to bear the cross whereon he was to suffer to the place of execution, Lipsius de Cruce, lib. ii. c. 65. and in allusion to this, our Saviour makes use of the phrase to denote our chearfully bearing those trials and persecutions, which the Divine Providence brings upon us in the execution of our duty, and our adherence to his most holy religion. Pool's and Beausobre's Annotations. +3 Our Saviour's words are these :-" Verily I say unto you, there are some of them who are standing here, who shall not taste of death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom," Matth. xvi. 28. Some interpreters, both ancient and modern, understand this passage of our Lord's transfiguration on the Mount, in which there was some glimpse of the glo ry of his Father and the attendance of angels; but besides that this happened too soon (no more than six days) after these words were spoken, to need the expression of "some of them not seeing death" until it came to pass, which must at least denote some distance of time; it is very plain that, at this wonderful sight, none of the three apostles could behold Christ coming in his kingdom, because his kingdom did not commence till after his resurrection, when "all power, both in heaven and earth, was given him," Matth. xxviii. 18. Others imagine that the passage relates to the great day of judgment, because it is said that Christ will reward every man according to his work," chap. xvi. 27. But then, on the other hand, it may be alleged, that there was none in the company then standing there who was not to die, or to taste of death (which is the Jewish phrase), long before the coming "of that great and terrible day of the Lord:" And therefore others have concluded, that "this coming of Christ in his kingdom" relates to another event, viz. The destruction of the Jewish church and nation, wherein our Lord may properly enough be said to "come in the glory of his Father, and with his angels," and to reward the Jews in destroying them, and Christians in preserving them, according to their works. This happened above forty years after our Saviour's death, when some of the company (as particularly John the evangelist was) might be then alive and witnesses of the accomplishment of our Lord's menaces against that devoted city and nation. This is the popular interpretation at present; but I cannot see why the other parts of our Saviour's exaltation may not be taken into the account; for as he began to enter upon his kingdom by his resurrection and ascension into heaven, so his sending the Holy Ghost upon the apostles, as well as the terrible judgment which he brought upon the Jewish nation, may all be looked upon as the effects and consequences of his glorious reign. Whitby's and Beausobre's Annotations, and Calmet's Commentary. What St Luke calls (si igas oxтa)" about eight days," chap. ix. 28. St Matthew and St Mark make" after six days:" But the reason of this seeming disagreement is, that the two last evangelists compute only the entire days between our Saviour's discourse and his going up into the Mount, and therefore style them six; whereas St Luke, including both the days of his discourse and his ascent, calls them eight days. And this is evident from the word ári, which, when any sum is mentioned, is always 23. Luke vi. 1. Mark ix. 14. as to instruct them more fully in the nature of his kingdom, thought it not improper to From Matth. give some of them at least a specimen of his future glory; and accordingly taking with x. 1. Mark ii. him his three most intimate apostles, Peter, James, and John, he ascended an high John v. 1. to mountain †, and there (while he was employed in prayer) he was suddenly transformed Matth.xvii. 14. into another kind of appearance; for a bright lustre darted from his face, more glorious Luke ix. 37. than the sun, and a dazzling splendour piercing from his body through his garments, made them appear whiter than snow, and more radiant than the light. During this heavenly scene, there appeared Moses and Elias, cloathed with all the brightness and majesty of a glorified state, familiarly conversing with him, and discoursing of his death and sufferings. While the intercourse continued between these three, Peter and his two fellow apostles were fallen asleep; but waking just before their departure, they were exceedingly surprised and terrified at the sight of so much glory and majesty. Peter indeed begged of his Master that they might continue in that happy place," and erect three tents; one for him, and the other two for Moses and Elias:" But while he was thus talking, scarce knowing what he said in his fright and transport, a bright and shining cloud suddenly came over them, and a voice from thence proclaimed, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." Upon which the apostles were seized with a greater consternation than ever, and fell prostrate upon the ground; but upon our Lord's touching and encouraging them, they looked up and saw none but him, for the other two were vanished. As they descended the Mount, he strictly commanded them not to tell any man what strange things they had seen "until he was risen from the dead." They were ready to obey his commands, but did not rightly understand his last words †2, and therefore they had some altercations among themselves concerning the meaning of his " rising from the dead" And another difficulty they had to solve; for having seen Elias with our Saviour upon the Mount, they could not forbear asking him, What reason the scribes and Pharisees had for asserting, that that prophet was to come upon the earth before the Messiah? To which our Saviour replied, That these Jewish doctors were not mistaken in their notion, because Elias was in effect come already, and had That this was Mount Tabor (which stood in the midst of the Lower Galilee, at an equal distance between the Mediterranean and the sea of Tiberias) is a matter confirmed by the voice of all antiquity; but some modern writers are of a different opinion, because Tabor (say they) does not stand in the way between Cæsarea Philippi and Capernaum, and that our Saviour travelled from Cæsarea to this mount (which is almost through the whole length of Galilee) is a little too much to suppose; Lightfoot in Mark ix. But this he had space enough to do in the six intervening days between his discourse and his tranfiguration; and that he really did so is made very probable, both from St Matthew and St Mark, who seem to intimate, that after he had finished his discourse with his disciples, he entered immediately upon his journey; and accordingly we hear nothing more of him until the expiration of six whole days, Matth. xvii. 1. Luke ix. 28. As to the description of the Mount itself, see vol. ii. p. 58. in the notes; only we may add here from Mr Maundrell, that on the top of it are three grot tos, made to represent the three tabernacles, which + The doctrine of the general resurrection they John vii. 1. A. M. 4035, received the same bad treatment from his countrymen that he himself, in a short time, 5440. was to expect; from whence they perceived, that by the Elias he spoke of, he plainly intended John the Baptist. &c. or Ann. Dom. 31. &c. Vulg. Ær. 29. THE OBJECTION. "THE pool of Bethesda, if what St John (a) relates of it be true, was certainly one of the most remarkable places in all Jerusalem. Its cures were so wonderful, and so highly conducive to the honour of the Jewish nation, that, for what reason the other evange lists should say nothing of them, we can hardly imagine; but why Josephus (b), who professedly wrote the history of the Jews, and is always forward enough to boast in their praise, should give us no manner of account of this peculiar manifestation of God's distinguishing Providence over that people, is a thing utterly unaccountable. Since the evangelist therefore stands alone in this story, it would have been some satisfaction to his readers, had he a little more minutely recounted when this pool first acquired its miraculous quality, and how long it retained it; upon what particular occasions, and how oft the angel descended to trouble its waters; and by what means its waters, when troubled, became both impregnated with a sanative virtue, and yet so limited in their operation as to cure but one diseased person at once. (c) The raising of the widow's son to life again might possibly be a true miracle, (d) though instances there have been of the mistaken death of persons, who, from a state of lethargy, have revived; as might be (e) the case of the ruler's daughter likewise, (f) because we find our Saviour so strictly enjoining her parents to conceal the miracle. But, whatever may be said in behalf of these, it is highly improbable, that what (g) happened to the demoniacs, in the country of the Gadarenes, should be true, (h) not only because the Jews, who dwelt in these parts, were prohibited to eat swines flesh, and, (i) under the pain of an anathema, forbidden to keep any in their country; but, even upon the supposition that the swine belonged to the neighbouring Gentiles, it will be no easy matter to vindicate the goodness and justice of Christ, in permitting so large an herd thus to be destroyed, and their owners injured in so egregious a manner. (k) Our Lord's transfiguration on the Mount was, doubtless, a glorious sight; but still we are at a loss for the reason of his appearing in such an extraordinary manner at this time rather than another; (1) for his making a mountain rather than a valley the scene; and his apostles (who were of his party), rather than the multitude (who wanted conviction), the witnesses of this his majesty; nor can we conceive, why the true Moses and Elias, not any spectres or apparitions in their likeness, should be present with Jesus on the Mount, and the apostles overhear them discourse together, and yet not leave us one word of what was the subject of their conversation. We cannot but admire likewise, why John the Baptist, who was sent into the world for this very purpose, that he might (m) bear witness of Christ,' (as if he had now forgot himself, or was grown diffident of what he had so often testified to others), (n) should |