V.

Difcernment of all things; who, having SER M.
made the Eye, cannot but have in him-
Self That Power in a much perfecter and
higher manner, of which the Eye made
by him is only an Inftrument proportion-
ate to the other fhort Faculties of weak
and finite Creatures. His looking down
upon the Earth, fignifies, not any Pof-
ture, (which is the property of Bodies
only,) but his watchful Providence and
continual Inspection over all Events. When
mention is made of his Ear, and of his
bowing down his ear towards men; This
fets forth to us his Willingness and Rea-
diness to be moved by the Prayers of his
Servants; which Prayers, he, who made
the Ear, knows and understands by the
fame perfect Power, by which he difcerns
the Heart as well as the Mouth; which
Power nevertheless, we, through defect of
language, can no otherwise express, than by
faying that he hears us. Arms and Hands,
being in Men the Inftruments of Action,
and the Seat of Strength, fignify, when
applied to God, his Power and Might.
Smelling a fweet favour is nothing but a
Hebrew phrafe, drawn from the Law of
Sacrifices,

H 3

SREM. Sacrifices, to exprefs God's Acceptance of
V. the Services of his fincere Worshippers.

And the mention of his Mouth, or Lips, fo
frequently found in Scripure, is evident-
ly nothing else but a familiar Metaphor,
to fignify his Revealing, in what manner
foever it be, his Will to his Servants. In-
deed, fuch figurative ways of speaking as
thefe, are fo common in all languages,
and fo well understood upon numberless
occafions even in common Speech, that
the bare mention of them is fufficient to
prevent their being mistaken, even by the
meaneft Capacities. There is much great-
er Difficulty in explaining thofe paffages
of the Old Teftament, wherein God is
reprefented as appearing visibly, and as it
were face to face, to Holy men of old;
when yet both in the nature of Things,
'tis certain, that the Effence of a pure Spi-
rit is abfolutely impoffible to be feen; and
moreover in Scripture the God and Fa-
ther of all, is peculiarly distinguished by
that particular Attribute, that he is the
Invifible God, whom no man bath feen at
any time, whom no man hath feen or can
fee, and of whom our Saviour affirms to

the

V.

the Jews, that they had neither feen his SER M. Shape nor heard his voice, Joh. v. 37. Concerning the appearance therefore of God in the Old Testament, 'tis obfervable that generally and for the greater part, in order to prevent mistakes, and that men might not imagine it was God himself that appeared, but only a Glory to represent his appearance; there was no particular Shape or Form seen in that Glory. Thus to Mofes at the burning Bush, there seems to have been the appearance only of Fire : To the whole people of Ifrael in the Wilderness, the glory of the Lord that appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation and upon the Mount, was the appearance only of a Cloud and Fire; and therefore Mofes exhorts them, Deut. iv. 15. Take good beed unto yourselves, left you make a graven image, the fimilitude of any figure; for ye faw no manner of fimilitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of the fire: To Mofes, defiring to fee the Face of God, it was denied as a request impoffible to be granted, Exod. xxxiii. 20. To Abraham, the word of the Lord feems to have come

V.

SER M. moft frequently without any vifible appearance at all; and in the Temple between the Cherubims, which was the Seat wherein he had placed his Name, and the Throne where he would receive the Worfhip and Homage of his people; there never was any other appearance but of a Cloud and Fire. This (I fay) was generally and moft ufually the Cafe, of the appearances of God under the old Teftament. But yet, because it fometimes was plainly otherwise; and the Lord, that appeared, is in fome places undeniably reprefented as under a human shape; As when Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Gen. iii. 8; And Abraham talked with the Lord, as with one of the three men, whom he faw going towards Sodom. Gen. xviii; And of Mofes it is related, Exod. xxxiii, 11, That the Lord fpake unto him face to face, as a man Speaketh unto his Friend; And of the Elders of Ifrael, Exod. xxiv. 10, that they faw the God of Ifrael, and there was under his feet as it were a paved-work of Sapphire-ftone, and as it were the Body of Hea pen in its clearness; And the Prophets, Micaiah,

Micaiah, Ifaiah, and Daniel, faw in their SER M. vifions the Lord fitting upon his Throne, V. and all the hoft of Heaven ftanding about him, on his right hand and on his left: For the full explication therefore of this matter, and the clear reconciling These Texts of Scripture with other exprefs Texts and with the Reafon of Things, which do both of them undeniably prove that the Effence of the God and Father of all, cannot but be abfolutely invifible; 'tis here further to be observed, that all these appearances of God in the Old Teftamen, wherein he feems to have been reprefented as in a human Form; and all those other appearances alfo, wherein there was feen only a Glory; were in reality no other than the Angel of the Covenant, even Christ himself; who from the Beginning appeared in a bodily Glory, having (as St Paul expreffes it) the form of God, and being the vifible Image of the Invifible God, reprefenting the Supreme Majesty of the Father, and acting in his Name and as his Word. Thus St Stephen exprefly, Acts vii. 30. There appeared to Mofes in the Wilderness, the Angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a Bufh; The Angel of the

Lord,