The external manifestations which he had made of himself to Moses and other holy men, were presages and prelibations of this. Moses longed to see and enjoy that of which they were specimens and prelibations. Christ is the glory of God in his image, and no man hath seen God at any time, but it is he that always manifested himself by visible appearances. God granted to Moses to see something of this glorious brightness, as he passed by, so much from a view as it were of his back, but not of his face. Probably this, as he passed by in a visible form, shone with an ineffably sweet and glorious brightness, far exceeding all the brightness that is ever seen in the world, for glory and delightfulness. (Vid. No. 265.) But God tells him that he cannot see his face, for no man should see him and live; i. e. not only could they not see that spiritual glory in which he manifests himself in heaven; but there is evidently a respect to an external glory: no man should see that external glory of God's face, in which God intended to manifest himself to his saints in heaven to all eternity, in the face of Jesus Christ.

Corol. Hence the glory of Christ at his transfiguration was not that glory in which the human nature of Christ appears in heaven, and especially that in which it will appear after the day of judgment; only a shadow and faint resemblance of it; for that glory, God says, is such as no man can see and live; and so, of the appearances of Christ's visible glory that Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the apostle Paul, and the apostle John had.

[267] Exod. xxxiii. 18, 19. " And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." Moses, from his finding his great acceptance and favour with God in the power that his prayers and intercessions had with him, so as it were to appease God's wrath against the congregation of Israel, which was so great for their making the golden calf; and from his obtaining by prayer, the promise of so great a favour as that God's presence should go with them, which promise was made with this gracious declaration made of God's favour to him; "For thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name;" and from God having in all this spoken to Moses, as speaks to his friend; this great mercy of God to him has two effects on Moses.

a man

1. It gives him a sense of God's excellency and glory, especially the excellency of his mercy and free goodness from this manifestation of it to him and his people after their great sin,

and makes him long for a full sight of the glory of so excellent and good a being.

2. It encourages him to ask for this exceeding great mercy of seeing God's glory. God's mercy and favour being so very great in past instances, encourages him to ask yet farther and more exceeding favour; and we do not find that God rebukes Moses as being too forward and presumptuous in such a request, or as not being content with so great mercy as he had received already, but on the contrary seems to manifest an approbation of his making such an improvement of mercy already" received, for he grants his request so far as is consistent with his present state. Several things are observable, concerning the manner of God's showing Moses his glory, wherein, though it was extraordinary, it is agreeable to the manner of God's discovering himself to the souls of his people in this world.

1. It was not face to face, which is reserved for the heavenly state; 1 Cor. xiii. 12; but it was as it were a view of the back instead of the face.

2. It was as passing by. Herein is a great difference in the manner in which the saints have the discoveries of God's glory, and that wherein they shall see him hereafter. Hereafter they shall dwell in his presence, they shall be fixed in an everlasting view of the glory of God, their eye shall be perpetually feasted with a full vision of his face; but here, when the saints have extraordinary discoveries of the glory of God, they are transient and short; sometimes it is only a glance'; Christ stands behind the wall for the most part, and when he shows himself it is through the lattice as passing by a window, but hereafter they shall be in his presence-chamber with him. Here the saints see God as passing by before them, and then he is gone.

3. Hereby is properly represented how imperfect are the spiritual discoveries which the saints have of God here. They see God as it were when he is gone by, they have somewhat of a sight of him, but yet very imperfect, as of the back of one that is just gone by, giving of them a sense that he is indeed an infinitely glorious being if they could but have a full sight of him: they can see so much as to give an idea of what might be seen, if they could but come at it. They seem to be as it were on the borders of secing it, and their appetite is excited to see it ; but while they are admiring and longing, and reaching after it, it is gone and passed away.

4. The discovery of God's spiritual glory is not by immediate intuition, but the word of God is the medium by which it is discovered it is by God's proclaiming his name. So God reveals himself to the saints in this world, by proclaiming his name in the joyful sound of the gospel.

5. It is by causing his goodness to pass before him, which is agreeable to the way in which God discovers himself to his saints by the gospel, which in a peculiar manner is a manifestation of the glory of divine grace or goodness. Divine grace is the leading attribute in that discovery, which God makes of his glory by the gospel, wherein God's goodness is revealed more than any; wherein, and wherein especially it is revealed as free and sovereign; and which is another thing that is a peculiar glory of the gospel, it is a mutation of free and infinite grace, as consistent with strict justice in punishing the Son, and therefore both are mentioned together in that proclamation God makes of his name to Moses, as in the 5th, 6th, and 7th verses of the following chapter.

6. While God draws nigh to Moses, and he is in God's presence, Moses is commanded to hide himself in the clefts of the rocks, that God may not be a consuming fire to him, and that he may be secured from destruction, while the burning blaze of God's glory passes by, (as Watts expresses himself,) which typifies the same Redeemer who is as the munition of rocks, and as a strong rock, and the hiding place of his people, who is compared to a great rock to secure from the burning heat of the sun by its shadow, and was typified by the rock out of which water was fetched for the children of Israel. God's people can be secured from destruction when they are in the presence of God, and in his approaches and converse, no other way than by being in Christ, and sheltered by him from being consumed by the flames of God's pure and spotless holiness.

7. God covered him with his hand while he passed by, not only that he might not see more of the glory of God than he could bear, but also that his deformity and pollution might not be discovered, to bring on him destruction from the presence of that infinitely pure and holy God, and from the glory of that power that passed by. So in Jesus, God covers our deformity and pollution, he beholds not iniquity in Jacob, nor sees pollution in Israel; he turns away his eye from beholding our transgression; therefore it is that we are not consumed in our intercourse with God.

8. Moses beholds God's glory through a crevice of the rock, as through a window at which he looked out; which represents the manner of God's discovering himself to his people in this world, which is as standing behind a wall and showing himself through the lattice.

Another reason why God makes all his goodness to pass before Moses, seems to be, that this was the attribute that God had wonderfully been exercising towards Moses, and the congregation of Israel, whereby Moses was now especially affected

with that attribute, and especially longed to see the glory of it, as was before observed. And at the same time God tells Moses that he will be gracious to whom he will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom he will show mercy, because he had wonderfully manifested the sovereignty of his mercy in forgiv. ing as he had done, a people that had so exceedingly transgressed as the congregation of Israel had done in making the golden calf, and also that Moses might not be lifted up by God's bestowing such unspeakable favours on him as he had done, and now promised to do in answer to his request, but might be sensible that it was not for his worthiness, but his own sovereign pleasure. And another reason is, that the glory of God's goodness is that part of God's glory, of which such a poor, feeble, corrupt creature as man is can best bear the sight, while he lives and remains such; for it is the most mild and gentle attribute, and the manifestation of it affords a cordial and support to enable him to bear it.

[88] Levit. xii. 6. "She shall bring a young pigeon or a turtle dove;" which typifies repentance as well as love. Ezek. vii. 16. "They shall be as doves in the valleys, each one mourning for his iniquity." This is a proper sacrifice for original sin that the child brought in the world with it by the parents' means, a sacrifice both for the parents and children's sin.

[204] Levit. xxiii. 34, 35, 36. Matth: i. Luke ii. The Feast of Tabernacles-The Birth of Christ-Lord's Day. Bedford, in his Scripture Chronology, makes it appear exceeding probable that Christ was born on the feast of tabernacles; as also Mather on the Types. And besides what Mr. Mather on the Types observes of this feast, and of the time of Christ's birth, there are the following things observed by Mr. Bedford.

1. He shows that in this month, about the same time of the year that Christ was born, the world was created; thus the beginning of the new creation and the old, the creation of the first Adam and the second, are at the same time of year.

2. That Moses, this type of Christ, came down from mount Sinai, which was a type of heaven, on the first day of this month, and declared that God was appeased, and the people pardoned, and his face shone as if the divinity had inhabited the manhood, so that the Israelites could not look upon him, and he then gave directions that they should immediately set about building the tabernacle, (which was hitherto hindered by, and because of, the golden calf,) seeing that God would now dwell among them, and forsake them no more: upon this the people bring their offerings, which were viewed and found to be sufficient. And then

immediately they pitch their tents, knowing that they were not to depart from that place before the divine tabernacle was finished. And thus they set about this great work with all their might, at this time of the year. Hence the fifteenth day of this month, and seven days after, were appointed for the feast of tabernacles, in commemoration of their dwelling in tents in the wilderness, when God dwelt in the midst of them.

3. That Christ was not only born at the feast of tabernacles, and so circumcised on the last day, or eighth day of that feast, which was a great day, and probably appointed out of respect to the circumcision of Christ that was to be on that day; but also that the feast of tabernacles in which Christ was born fell out on the first day of the week, and so the eighth day of the feast on which he was circumcised, also fell on the same day of the week.

4. That the feast of the dedication of the temple of Solomon, (which was a type of the body of Christ, as well as the tabernacle,) was not only held on the feast of tabernacles, the feast on which Christ was born; but also that that feast happened to be on a Sunday, as the day of Christ's birth was, and so the last and great day of the feast was also held on a Sunday. Vide Scripture Chronology, book iv. chap. iv.

5. I would further observe, that on that day the Godhead did, in a sensible manner, descend in a pillar of cloud, to inherit the temple, as in the incarnation of Christ, the Godhead descended to dwell in flesh. See No. 396, Note on Zech. xiv. 16, &c.

[315] Numb. x. 10. Concerning the Festival of the New Moon. The change of the moon at her conjunction with the sun, seems to be a type of three things.

1. Of the resurrection of the church from the dead by virtue of her union with Christ, and at the coming of Christ; for the moon at her change, that lost all her light, and was extinct, and seemed to die, revives again after her conjunction with the

sun.

2. Of the conversion of every believing soul, which is its spiritual resurrection. The soul in its conversion comes to Christ, and closes with Christ as the moon comes to the sun into a conjunction with him. The soul in conversion dies to sin, and to the world, crucifies the flesh with the affections and Justs, dies as to its own worthiness, or righteousness whereby it is said in scripture to be dead to the law, that it may receive new life, as the former light of the moon is extinct at its conjunction with the sun that it may receive new light. In order to our coming to Christ aright, we must not come with our own