2. Let us inquire concerning the appearance of the king's person in that day. On this point it seems to me, that the history of the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, was intended to instruct us; that transfiguration being, as I think, a specimen and earnest of the glorious appearance of our Lord the King in his kingdom. It was a prophecy by a fact. God reveals his purposes in two ways: there are prophecies in words, and prophecies by facts. When God said, by his servant Daniel, "Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself; there was a prophecy in words of the vicarious death of the Lord Jesus. When the Jewish people "took every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house...... lamb without blemish

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...... and the whole

assembly of the congregation of Israel killed it in the evening, and they took of the blood, and struck it on the two side-posts, and on the upper door-post of the houses," there was a prophecy by a fact, of the same vicarious death. Compare Exod. xii. 1-14, with 1 Cor. v. 7.

When David said, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption; " there was a prophecy in words, of the resurrection of Jesus Christ: (Acts ii. 24-30:) when Jonah was enclosed in

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the whale, and the third day vomited forth again on the dry land, there was a prophecy by a fact, of the same resurrection. Matt. xii. 39, 40. When the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of Jeremiah, said, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers.... But this shall be the covenant ..............I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts," &c.-there was a prophecy in words, of the new covenant. When Sarah, the free woman, bare a son to Abraham, against the course of nature, according to the promise, and by the sovereign power of God, there was a prophecy by a fact, of the same new covenant. Gal. iv. 22—31.

So also, when Jesus said, "The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels,”—he prophecied, in words, of his second advent in glory. And when he was transfigured before Peter, James, and John, on Mount Tabor, there was a prophecy by a fact, of the same glorious advent.

It was by a consideration of that glory, that Jesus had been impressing upon his disciples the importance of following him fully, and cheerfully suffering for his sake: "If any man will come

after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." In order to give this exhortation full force upon them, he promises to some of them a specimen of this influential glory : 'Verily, I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." Accordingly, six days after, he was transfigured in the presence of three of them; and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. Thus they were supplied with some distinct idea of what the glory was to be, to the end that they might teach others, when the proper time should come for making it known. They were not to make it known until after his resurrection. Jesus charged them, saying, "Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. This restriction was necessary had his glory been proclaimed, it would have frustrated his gracious purpose of suffering:

for had the rulers known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. it was necessary, however, that the earnest of his glorious appearance should be given previous to his resurrection; because the object of his appearing subsequent to his resurrection, being that he might be identified, and the literal resurrection of his flesh established beyond a doubt, it was of course necessary that his body should then appear, not in a glory to which they were strangers, but as it had done in ordinary before his death. At the time appointed, his disciples declared the glorious vision; and the language of St. Peter, in so doing, fully justifies the exposition of the event here given. See 2 Pet i. 16, 17, 18; and compare Matt. xvi. 24-28, and xvii. 1-10.

The appearance of the Lord Jesus, therefore, the King of the Jews, when he shall return to this earth, and execute justice and judgment in the earth, will not be any mysterious shechinah, or inexplicable cherubim, as in typical days of old, but plainly a man, with risen flesh and bones, in figure as a man, and beaming in the glory of God.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know, that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. The

King of the restored Jews shall be also the King of the risen saints in that day; for they that are Christ's, shall rise at his coming, and he shall change the bodies of our humiliation, that they may be fashioned like unto the body of his glory.

Such, Brethren, is the transporting prospect set before us; and the beloved disciple says, every man that hath THIS HOPE in him, purifieth himself, even as Jesus is pure.