saw not.

The children of Israel were so prone to idolatry, that God never gave them, nor perhaps even to Moses, the sight of an human face in all their visions, that there might be no foundation for framing an image like him; Dent. iv. 16. And it is evident that when Moses" went up into the mount, verse 16. it was only a cloud covered the mount, and the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai; and the sight of the glory of God was like devouring fire on the top of the mount;" whence probably St. Paul might derive that expression; Heb. xii. 29. Our God is a consuming fire.

Exod. xxv. 21. "And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark. Verse 22. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee, from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubims, which are upon the ark of the testimony;" Exod. xxviii. 30, 35. When Aaron goes into the holy place where the mercy-seat stood, he is said to go in before the Lord. Upon this account the Lord of hosts is said to dwell between the cherubims; 1 Sam. iv. 4. and 2 Sam. vi. 2. and Psal. lxxx. i. and xcix. 1. On this account also when the ark was moved from place to place, God himself is said to remove; Psal, xlvii. When David carried the ark into Zion, verse 5. God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. And when the ark came into the tabernacle or temple; Psal. xxiv. 7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in: The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. And when Solomon built the temple and brought in the ark of God to it; 2 Chron. vi. 41. Solomon said, Arise, O Lord God, into thy resting-place, thou and the ark of thy strength which is repeated; Ps. cxxxii. 8.

And concerning Zion it is said; Psal. Ixviii. 18. "This is the hill which God desireth to dwell in. Verse 17. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place." As God appeared on Sinai in a visible cloud, in fire or glory where thousands of angels surrounded him, so God dwelt in Zion over the mercy-seat in a visible and bright cloud, between the cherubims, representing the attendance of angels. Then follows, verse 18. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, which is applied to Christ; Ephes. iv. 8. Thus the ascent of the ark of God to Zion, was a type of the ascension of Christ to heaven: For as God dwelt upon the ark between the cherubims in a bright cloud, under the Jewish dispensation, and thence communicated his mind to men, and was there solemnly invoked and worshipped, so the "fulness of the godhead dwelt bodily in the man Christ Jesus;" Col. ii. 9. and thus God in Christ reveals himself to us, and is worshipped and invoked by us under the christian dispensation; but still with this difference, that

the union between God and man in Christ Jesus is much more near, more intimate and glorious, so as to make one complex person or God-man, and it is so constant as never to be dissolved; for Christ, who is the seed of David, after the flesh, is by this union God over all blessed for evermore. See Rom. ix. 5. Ex. xxxi. 18. "When God had made an end of communing with Moses on mount Sinai, he gave unto him two tables of testimony, tables of stone written with the finger of God." This seems to intimate a human shape giving the tables to Moses, but not the vision of a human face. In Ex. xxxii. 2. When Israel had offended God by the golden calf, he said, "I will send an angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanites, &c. for I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way." It is the opinion of Doctor Owen on this place, that the angel which God in his anger told them he would send before them, when he himself refused to go up in the midst of them, was different from that angel whom he promised to them; Ex. xxii. 21. " in whom the name of God was:" But upon their mourning and repentance, and upon the intercession of Moses, verse 4. and 14. God says, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest; which is much the same thing as if he had said, the angel of my presence shall go with thee, for so this angel in whom the name of God dwelt, is called; Is. lxiii. 9. In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them.

Ex. xxxiii. 9. "Moses entered into the tabernacle, and the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses, and all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent-door. Verse 11. And the Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Yet, as I before intimated, perhaps this signifies only free mutual discourse like human and friendly conversation; for a few verses afterwards, God refused to let Moses see his face, verse 23. Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live.

Upon this account it may be queried, whether Moses ever saw the likeness of a human face in all the appearances of God to him yet there seems to be the similitude of the back of a man as to the shape of his body, in which God appeared to Moses at

*Note, The Lord is not in the original in this place; and this is the only place that occurs to me-where the nominative case is wanting when God or the angel is said to talk with Moses out of the cloud; but ver. 11. immediately it is said, "The Lord, that is, Jehovab spake to Moses face to face." And Exod xxxiv. 5. it is said, "The Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with Moses there, &c." So that this single ellipsis or subintellection of the nominative case Lord, ver. 9. ought not to be construed in opposition to all other places where the Lord himself is said to speak with Moses.

his request; for the Lord said, verse 21. "Behold there is place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. Verse 22. And it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by that I will put thee into a clift of the rock, and I will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. Verse 23. And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen."

And accordingly in Ex. xxxiv. 5. "The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Verse 6. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, &c. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. Verse 14. And the Lord said, thou shalt worship no other God, for the Lord, Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

It is possible that these expressions of God's covering Moses with his hand while the glory of God past by, and Moses seeing the back parts of God, may signify no more than this, that in this particular appearance of God he arrayed himself in beams of light of such unsufferable splendor, that it would have destroyed the body of Moses had not God sheltered and protected him; and that the back parts which Moses saw, may only signify this same bright appearance after it was gone to a safer distance. Or we may suppose that there was a human form in this appearance, darting unsufferable light from his face, which for that reason could not be seen; and that Moses saw the similitude of the back of a man, after he was past to some distance from him.

It is not improbable but that in some of the other discoveries of God to Moses he might appear in the eyes of Moses in a human form with a bright, but not unsufferable shine of glory cover ing all his stature, even as the face of Moses himself might ap. pear in the eyes of the children of Israel, when the skin of his face shone, so much that they were afraid to come nigh him; Exod. xxxiv. 30. And there is a great probability of it if we consider, that God said concerning Moses; Num. xii. 8. the similitude of the Lord shall he behold, that is, God in the figure of a man, though not his face.

God had promised in Exod. xxix. 42. "That at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory." This promise was accomplished; Exod. xl. 34. "When the tabernacle was erected, then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of God filled the tabernacle. Ver. 35. And Moses was not able at that time to enter into the tabernacle of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."

Levit, ix. 1, 4, "Moses called Aaron and his sons and the

elders of Israel, and said, to-day the Lord will appear unto you. Ver. 5. And all the congreation drew near and stood before the Lord. Ver. 6. And Moses said, this is the thing which the Lord commanded, that ye should do. And the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you. And when Aaron had offered the appointed offerings for himself and for the people, verse 23. Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out and blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. Verse 24, And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat, which when all the people saw they shouted, and fell on their faces." Here it may be observed, that the Lord is said to appear to them; ver. 4. when ver. 23. it was the glory of the Lord appearing to the people, that is, a bright light and a consuming fire, verses 23, 24.

Num. xii. 5. "And the Lord came down in the pillar of a éloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam, and they came forth. Ver. 6. And he said, hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto Irim in a dream. Verse 7. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. Verse 8. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Ver. 9. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. Verse 10. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle, and behold Miriam became leprous white as snow."

It is not easy to say what the precise difference is between the various ways of God's ancient discoveries of himself to men: but I think thus much is very plain, which I before hinted, that though the common method of God's converse with the people and with Aaron was by a voice proceeding from the bright cloud or shekinah, yet that Moses was admitted to a more intimate converse with God in a way of dialogue, as one man talks freely with another, which the scripture calls face to face, and mouth to mouth and on some particular occasions he beheld God in the shape or likeness of the body of a man, for it is said, He shall behold the similitude of the Lord, though perhaps a cloud of glory might always cover his face, because the face of God was not to be seen by him.

Num. xxii. 9. "And God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee? And Balaam said unto God, Balak the king of Moab hath sent me, saying, Come now curse the people, that is Israel. Verse 12. And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them, thou shalt not curse the

people; and Balaam said to the princes of Balak, The Lord or Jehovah refuseth to give me leave to go with you." And verse 22, &c. there is the angel of the Lord meeting Balaam on the road to Moab, and conversing with him; but I do not find that this angel either assumes the name of the Lord, or is so called by the sacred writer: unless we may infer thus much by comparing what the angel said unto Balaam; verse 25. The word that I shall speak unto thee, that shalt thou speak, with chapter xxiii. 3, 4. "Balaam said to Balak, peradventure the Lord will come to me: and God met Balaam. Verse 5. And the Lord or Jehovah put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak, &c. Again, verse 16. And the Lord or Jehovah met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, &c." Chap. xxiv. 2. "Balaam lift up his eyes, and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he took up his parable, and said, The man who heard the words of God, who saw the vision of the Almighty, having his eyes opened, hath said, How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob! &c." Whether this be sufficient to determine this angel to be Jehovah, I leave to the reader.

Deut. xxxii. 33. "The Lord your God went in the way before you in fire by night, to shew you by what way you should go, and in a cloud by day." Deut. iv. 12. "The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of words, but saw no similitude, only a voice. Ver. 16. Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure the likeness of male or female."

Deut. xxiii. 13. "Thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon, and thou shalt dig therewith, and cover that which cometh from thee: for the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp to deliver thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy, that he see no unclean thing in thee." This text does not indeed prove any appearance of God, but may be only a representation of God walking through their camp after the manner of men, to impress a more awful idea of the presence of God upon the people of Israel, that they might abstain from all legal impurities of every kind.

Joshua v. 13. "When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? Ver. 14. And he said, Nay, but as the captain of the host of the Lord am I now come; and Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? Ver. 15. And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy; and Joshua did so." Chap. vi.