sacred hands, he blessed them, and giving to his disciples, bid them distribute to the people of them and the fish, which they did, whilst the astonished crowd knew not which most to admire, the gratifying their hungry appetites, or what so astonished their senses. But the whole life of the blessed Jesus was a continued series of wonders, each miraculous hour being succeeded by another: for no sooner had he fed and satisfied this multitude, that consisted of above four thousand, but the seven loaves and small fishes, which one small basket could perhaps contain, did at the end of the feast when all the guests were satisfied, produce seven baskets full of fragments.

From hence Jesus departed by ship to the coasts of Mageddon and Dalmanutha, whither the Pharisees and Sadducees came, seeking a sign of him. But Jesus rejected their captious and impertinent demand, knowing they did it to an ill purpose, and with disaffection; reproving them in that they discerned the face of the sky, and the prognostics of fair or foul weather, but not the signs of the time of the Son of man. However, since they had neglected so great demonstrations of miracles, gracious discourses, holy laws and prophecies, they must expect no other sign but the sign of the prophet Jonas. * And thus he dismissed these impertinent inquisitors.

Jesus again taking ship, passed over the lake, and by the way, as his disciples were solicitous because they had forgotten to take bread, he gave them a caution to beware of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the leaven of Herod ; meaning the hypocrisy and vanities of the one, and the heresy of the other. For Herod's leaven was an absurd notion that he was the Messiah, which the sect of the Herodians earnestly and maliciously promoted. But the disciples understanding their Lord in a literal sense, about taking care to bring bread with them, he reproached them with ingratitude and forgetfulness, in their distrust of God's providence, and his care of them."Why should you think, said he, that my speech should relate to your

Jonas. Meaning the resurrection of his body after three days' burial: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so must the Son of man be three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth.

neglect of bringing bread with you? as if I were not able to supply that want. Will you never understand nor consider what has been before your eyes? Do you not remember the two miraculous feasts? the one of feeding five thousand with five loaves, the other of four thousand with seven loaves? How stupidly inconsiderate are you to forget these things?" After this manner, entertaining themselves by the way, they came together to Bethsaida, where Jesus cured a blind man; for spitting on his eyes and putting his hands upon him, it was to the poor dark wretch a salutary balsam, when his divine benediction had once consecrated it.

Our blessed Lord soon departed thence into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, out of Herod's power, (for it was in Philip's jurisdiction) and after he had prayed with his disciples, he inquired what opinion the world entertained of him; and whom they thought him to be. They answered, Some say thou art John the Baptist, some Élias, others Jeremias, or one of the prophets." But Jesus asked the apostles their own opinion; when Peter, in the name of all the rest, made an open and confident confession, "Thou art the CHRIST, the Son of the living God." This confession Jesus not only confirmed as true, but as revealed by God; "This faith of thine, saith Jesus to Peter, is not built

* Whom. In Galilee especially the sect of the Pharisees was mightily divided, whose opinion was, That the souls of dead men according to their several merits did transmigrate into other bodies of very perfect and excellent persons. And therefore in all this variety none hit upon the right, or fancied him to be a distinct person from the ancients but although they differed in the assignation of his name, yet generally they agreed it was the soul of a departed prophet, which had passed into another body.

† All. When our blessed Lord put the question to his disciples, Matt. xv. 16, concerning himself, who he was, he did not apply himself in particular to Peter, for he there says. "But whom say ye that I am?" Upon which Peter, as the eldest apostle, answers in the name of the rest, Thou art Christ, &c." and consequently the reply of our Saviour, and the blessing subsequent thereupon, was not only applicable or pronounced singly to Peter, but to the rest of the twelve; and the power of binding and loosing was not only given by him to Peter, as the Romanists fondly presume. but also to all the rest. This is plain from Matt. xviii. 18, where our Saviour in general says, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, &c." Not whatsoever thou shalt bind, &c.

upon human testimony, but upon the miracles and doctrines which thou hast seen and heard, which are the testimonies of God himself, whereby he hath revealed me to thee." And immediately after the blessing of Peter's person, with an allusion to his name, which signifies a "stone," Jesus said, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock (the article of Peter's confession) I will build my church;" promising assistances even to all ages, insomuch that the gates of hell, that is, persecution, death, and the grave, should never prevail against it; adding withal, a promise to Peter, in behalf of all the rest, as he made confession for and in the name of them all, that he would give to him the keys * of the. kingdom of heaven, so that whatsoever he should bind on earth should be bound in heaven.

The disciples, thus knowing and acknowledging him to be the Messiah, and himself having confirmed it so to them, he commanded them not to publish it till after his resurrection, at which time in his wisdom he thought it most seasonable. And now the days from hence forward to the death of Jesus, we must reckon to be like vigils or eves of his passion: for now he began and often did repeat those predictions of the barbarous usage he should shortly receive from the Jewish Sanhedrim; that he should be rejected of the elders and chief Priests and Scribes, and suffer many things at Jerusalem, and be killed and raised up the third day. Peter, hearing this discourse, so contrary to his hopes, which built too much upon temporal expectances, (for he had hitherto only learnt the doctrine of Christ's coming, but not the mystery of the cross) in great but mistaken zeal, took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not befal thee." But Jesus not approving of such an admonition, that savoured not of God, "Get but the world, reproved Peter severely; saying, thee behind me Satan,† thou art an offence to me; a

Keys. The doctrine and discipline of the Christian church may be intended by these keys, as these express the mind of Christ concerning the state of men's souls.

Satan. The word Satan here signifies according to the use of the Hebrew phrase, 2 Sam. xix. 22, where David rejecting the counsel of Abishai, saith,

snare, moving me to that which were a sin, if I should' yield to it, and contrary to the will and command of God my Father." And calling his disciples to him, he told them the second part of a sad doctrine, which not only himself but they also must suffer. For when he the head was to be crowned with thorns, it would be a great indecency for them the members to be indulged in softness. And therefore to prepare them for what would hereafter happen to him and them, he tells them; that whoever will be his disciple, must deny himself, take up his cross," forego his appetites, and trace his master's footsteps, marked out with his blood that he shed for their redemption. And to let them farther see that there was no escaping from the participation of Christ's sufferings, he adds this, "He that will save his life shall lose it, and he that will lose it shall save it to eternity." Which part soever we choose, there is a life to be lost: but as the first are foolish to the extremest misery, that will lose their souls to gain the world, so they are most wise and fortunate, that will give their lives for him, because, when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and in the glory of his Father, and of his angels, he shall reward every man according to his works, This discourse Jesus concluded with a prophecy, that some* standing there should not die till they saw the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

About six days, if we reckon exclusively, and about eight days, if we reckon inclusively, after our Lord had

"Why art thou to me this day, in Satanam, for an adversary?" That is, Why dost thou give me this evil and pernicious counsel, and so suppliest the real enemy's, or even the devil's place to me?

Some. This was meant of St. John, that he should not die, till that remark able coming of Christ in judgment upon his crucifiers, the visible destruction of the Jewish state. And that we find was fulfilled in St. John's seeing the destruction of the Jews, which was to fall out in that generation, Matt. xxiv. that is, in the life-time of some there present, and is called the "Kingdom of God, and the coming of Christ," and by consequence here most probably the "Son of man's com ing in his kingdom," that is, his coming in the exercise of his kingly office, to take vengeance on his enemies, and to discriminate the faithful believers from them, which was as literally fulfilled as it had been positively foretold.

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accepted the title of Messiah, happening to be with his disciples and the multitude in the county of Cæsarea Philippi, he left them in the plain, and went up into an exceeding high mountain, with Peter the most zealous, James the most active, and John the most beloved disciple.* In this solitude, while Jesus was praying with the three, he was transfigured, Luke ix. 28. And it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, he took Peter, and John, and James, and went up into a mountain to pray; and as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. Matthew says, xvii. 2, "he was transfiguredt before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. In the transfiguration, the face of Jesus became radiant and dazzling, for it shone like the sun in its unclouded meridian brightness, and so was incomparably more glorious than the face of Moses at the giving of the law. At the same time his garments acquired a snowy whiteness, far beyond any thing that human art could produce, a whiteness, bright as light, and sweetly refulgent, but in a degree inferior to the radiancy of his countenance. Thus for a little while, during his state of humiliation, the Son of God permitted the glory of his divinity to break forth, as it were, and shine through the veil of his human nature with which it was covered.-Moreover to heighten the grandeur and solemnity of the scene, Moses, the great lawgiver of the Jews, and Elijah, who had been a most zealous defender of the law, appeared in the beauties of immortality, wherewith the blest above are adorned. "And behold there talked with Jesus two men, which were Moses and Elias. Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter, and they that were with him, were heavy with

Disciple. M Knight's Harmony.

+ Transfigured. The Greek word used in Matthew, implies either that there was a transformation made in the substance of his body, according to the import of the word in Ovid, and other writers. See Philip. iii. 21. Or that the outward appearance only of his body was altered, as seems most probable, from the manner in which Luke has expressed it.