Upon such Evidence as this, Pilate asks the Opinion of the Jews, saying, What think you? If they all had condemn'd him to be guilty of Death, it is no wonder, since there is not a Jury in England would have acquitted any one arraign'd and accused in the like Case.
It is well for our literal Doctors, that such Accusations were not brought against Jesus; or their Heads would have been sadly puzzled to vindicate his Innocence, and to prove the Injustice and Undeservedness of his Death and Sufferings. But for this Reason, if no other, that no such Crimes were laid to his Charge, I believe little or nothing of either of the seemingly miraculous Stories before us, but look upon them both as prophetical and parabolical Narratives of what would mysteriously and more wonderfully, and consistently with the Wisdom and Goodness of Jesus, be done by him. And so I pass to a
3. Third Miracle of Jesus, and that is his Transfiguration[53] on the Mount. And this is the darkest and blindest Story of the whole Gospel, which a Man can make neither Head nor Foot of; and I question whether the Conceptions of any two thinking Doctors do agree about it. To say there is nothing in the Letter of this Story, we Believers must not, because St. Peter[54] says he was an Eye-witness of Jesus's Majesty, saw his Glory on the Mount, and heard the Voice out of the Cloud. But as Infidels will be prying into the Conduct of Jesus's Life, and forming their Exceptions to the Credibility or Probability of this or that part of it, so we Christians should be ready at an Answer, that might reasonably satisfy them; and not forcibly bear down their Opposition, which will make no sincere Converts of them. And I believe they would easily distress us with Difficulties and Objections to the Letter of this Story.
St. Augustin himself[55] owns, that the whole of it might be perform'd by Magic Art; and we know, in these our Days, that some Jugglers are strange Artists at the Imitation of a Voice, and to make it as if it came from a far off, when it is uttered close by us, and can cast themselves too into different Forms and Shapes, without a Miracle, to the Surprise and Admiration of Spectators.
But what, I trow, do our Divines mean by Jesus's Transfiguration. We read that his Countenance did shine like the Sun, and his Raiment was made as white as Snow, and that's all. And is this enough can we think, to demonstrate that Transaction, a miraculous Transfiguration? Philosophers will tell us, that the Reflections of the Light of the Sun will change the Appearance of Colours, and to none more than Whiteness; and Sceptics will say, that its no Wonder if the Countenance of Jesus look'd Rubicund, when the Sun might shine on it.
The Word in the Original for transfigured, is μεταμορφωθη, that is, he was metamorphosed, transform'd, or, if you will, transfigured. And what is to be understood by a Metamorphosis, we are to learn not only from the natural Import of the Word, but from the ancient Use of it. Accordingly, it signifies nothing less than the Change or Transformation of a Person into the Forms, Shapes, and Essences of Creatures and Things of a quite different Species, Size, and Figure: But Jesus, it is conceived, was not so transfigured. Our Divines, I suppose, would not have him thought such a Posture-Master for the whole World. If I, or anyone else, should assert, that Jesus upon the Mount transform'd himself into a Calf, a Lyon, a Bear, a Ram, a Goat, an Hydra, a Stone, a Tree, and into many other Things of the animate and inanimate World, I dare say there would, among our orthodox Divines, be such Exclamations against me for Blasphemy, as the like were never heard of. They, to be sure, will not hear of such a Transfiguration; nor, like good plain believers, will bear any thing more than that Jesus's Countenance did shine like the Sun, and the Colour of his Vestments was changed; which whether it comes up to the Import of a Metamorphosis or not, they don't care.
But to close with our Divines, and acknowledge that the glorious Change of Jesus's Countenance, and of the Colour of his Vestments, was a true and proper Transfiguration, and that it was as real and wonderful a Miracle as could be wrought: But then we may, I hope, ask them, what was the particular Reason and Use of this Miracle? Was it a Miracle only for the sake of a Miracle? That's an Absurdity in the Opinion of[56] St. Augustin, who says, what is reasonable to think, that all and every one of Jesus's Miracles had its particular End and Use; or he who is the Wisdom as well as Power of God, had never wrought them. And what, I pray, was the life of this Miracle? Of that the evangelical History is silent, and our Divines, with all their reasoning Faculties, can say nothing to it.
And what did Moses and Elias on the Mount with Jesus? Was it in their own proper Persons that they appear'd? or were they only some Spectres and Apparitions in resemblance of them? It is said, that they were talking with Jesus; what then did they talk about? The three greatest Prophets and Philosophers of the Universe could not possibly meet and confer together, but on the most sublime, useful, and edifying Subject. Its strange that the Apostles, who over-heard their Confabulation, did not make a Report of it, and transmit it to Posterity for our Edification and Instruction. St. Luke, as our English Translation has it, seems to say that they talk'd together of Jesus's Decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem; but this can't be the Meaning of St. Luke's[57] Words, which so interpreted, are no less than a Barbarism, and, I appeal to our Greek Criticks, an Improper Expression of such Signification. We must then look for a more proper Construction of the Phrase in St. Luke, or we must remain in the Dark, as to the Subject, that Moses and Elias talked with Jesus about.