Ten Sermons, Collection of sermons · Sermon 10
God's face and back-parts.
SERMON X.
Exod. xxiii. 23.
And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back-parts; but my face shall not be seen.
HOly Contemplation is the ground of holy Action; for it is by knowing God, that we learn to love him, and walk before him unto all pleasing. But those Contemplatours come short of the end of contemplation, that think much and do little; and out of their high reaches bring nothing to the treasury of the Church, but some airy conceits and fruitless questions: like Pilgrims that travel very far, and bring nothing home but shells and feathers.
But this is the fault of Contemplatours, not of Contemplation, which being rightly used, is the Mother of all vertue and godliness. And indeed since we pray, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, we must do God's will on earth out of the same motive as Angels and Saints do God's will in Heaven, which is, out of a right knowledge and contemplation of God, without which we can neither do nor enjoy any good.
But then we must avoid two ordinary faults about the contemplation of God; the one in the matter, the other in the manner. For the matter, many miss their aim, because they take their aim too far; Ambition having brought her false rule from the Court to the School, The higher the better.
Besides, they miss in the manner; For they will soar up to God, trusting on two weak wings, Natural Reason and Humane Learning, which (though of necessary use) will do no good before they be impt with the feathers of Faith, Hope, and Love, and steered by the stern of Christian moderation. Yet, when all is said, it is hard to take a streight slight in the dark: For although in God's light we see light already, we are at the best in the twilight of God's knowledge in this life; And if we consider it aright, it is our boldness, not our conceits that reach too high. We offend in two Extremes together; We stay too low through the ignorance of our minds, and reach too high through the intemperance of our curiosity. Wherefore it were a work well-pleasing to God, and well deserving of good men, to fix a land-mark out of God's Word for the just height of our search, and the bound of our meditation together. There is no work more necessary and more wanting in this age, full of questions, and empty of piety. It is my prayer to God, that he would raise some rich and godly mind for that great work; and my request to all well disposed Divines, that they joyn their contributions for it. For my part, after my poverty I will cast in my two mites.
The land-mark of holy Contemplation we must not devise in our conceits, but find it in God's Word. And I really believe, that in God's Word there is no Scripture more majestical and more pertinent to that purpose, than these words of God himself to Moses, I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back-parts, but my face shall not be seen.
Afore I descend to particulars, I must set before you the drift of the Text. In the beginning of this chapter, God provoked with the Idolatry of the Israelites, denied to go with them any more, but said he would send an Angel before them. The people hearing these evil tidings by Moses, fall on mourning; And Moses returning to God complaineth that he had not let him know whom he would send, and beseecheth him to shew him his way that he might know him.
By this you see already that Moses found it strange, that God had not acquainted him with his counsel. The same thing he doth express soon after; for having prayed for the People that God would go along with them, he returns to his former request, I beseech thee shew me thy glory. By God's answer, we learn that Moses by God's glory meant his eternal counsel, for God answereth him thus, v. 19. 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 shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy; A Text whereby St. Paul, Rom. 9. rebuketh the searchers of God's counsel. So then God denieth him to shew him his glory. Thou canst not see my face (saith he) for there shall no man see me and live: And by his face and glory he doth evidently mean his counsel. But yet so much God will do for him, Behold (saith he) there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, And it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen.
The last words, which I have taken for the subject of this days meditation, are the summary of God's answer, and have manifestly these three parts: 1. What hindrances need to be removed that we may see God, I will take away my hand. 2. What we may see of him, Thou shalt see my back-parts. 3. What may not be seen of him, But my face shall not be seen.
As for God's glory, Moses, as excellent as he was, yet was neither worthy to see it, nor capable to bear the sight of it; and had need of God's hand before him. This belongs to the last point, My face shall not be seen. But even that which mortal men might see, he could not see, unless God took his hand away: And the same must be affirmed of every man.
I. Then to consider the nature of Mankind in Moses, the exposition of these words, I will take away my hand; requires three considerations: The first, that Men ought to desire and seek to see God; The second, that God's hand hindereth them to see him; The third, that God must take away his hand that we may see him; And will, if we seek him with a true heart.
The first, that Men ought to seek to see God, may seem remote from the matter, yet it is a necessary presupposition: For were it not Man's happiness to see God, in vain should God promise to take away his hand that man may see him.
But though this were not pertinent to the Text, I am sure it is to God's People. For whereas the main scope of the Text, and my end, is to rebuke them that will see too much of God, I fear I speak to those that seek not enough of him. For that doctrine of seeing God, to those that have their Hearts where their Treasure is, (that is, in their Chests and their Grounds) and whose God is their Lust and their Belly, is as strange and as far from their apprehension, as to a Plowman a Lecture of the Theory of the Planets. Shall we speak of seeing God's glory to those that will not look upon God's Laws, nor upon his Judgments hanging over their heads, nor upon his Goodness that feedeth and preserveth them, and inviteth to repentance? And if some of those carnal men understand these things, yet to what purpose should we help them to skrew up their minds to high contemplations of God, if they be resolved presently after to debase their minds to things unworthy, not only of God but of themselves; like Kites that will flie very high, but presently fall down upon a Carkase?
We have heard many times that in the sight of God lyeth the fulness of Man's joy and blessedness, and that to be deprived of his sight, is Man's worst misery, and hell it self: But do we believe it? Do we think of it? Do we aspire to see God's face in righteousness? Did we do so, and heartily, we should be other kind of Christians than we are. I am afraid some would be content never to see God, so they might never see death. But we must dye, and once at least see God's face either gracious or angry. And while we avoid to think of him, hoping that he will do the like for us, he seeth us, and with his ever-open eyes penetrates into our closest projects and imaginations.
Wherefore, as Servants stand bare, and compose themselves to reverence when their Master looks upon them; let God's looks raise our looks to him with fear: For before that great Master we stand continually. God said unto David, Seek thou my face, and David's heart answered him, Thy face Lord will I seek. There he spake not of that face of God's decree which is here opposed unto his back-parts, of which more anon; but of that of his favour, holiness, and revealed will. That face we are commanded to seek evermore, Psal. 106.
As we desire to see once God's face in comfort and everlasting glory, let us set that face always before us by our faith, fear and love, as David prescribeth by his example, Psal. 16.8. I have set the Lord always before me. In his creatures, in his benefits, in his judgments, in the course of his providence let us observe his mighty hand; And in his words and the motions of his Spirit, his comforts and directions. But if we shut up our eyes at the many evidences of his presence, here is our doom, Isa. 26.11. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see; but they shall see and be ashamed. From that sight of God followed with shame and confusion, Good Lord deliver us.
Secondly, You will say that many things hinder you from seeing God. It is very true, and I will confirm that excuse; Justification I cannot call it, for we are the principal causes of that hinderance. Three things hinder Men from seeing God, though he be ever present: Two of them are their weakness and their sin; the one makes them unable, the other makes them unworthy to see God: But the second hindrance is the chief; For man is not so weak, but he could see something more of God, but that his sin makes him unworthy of it. And therefore because the unworthy sinner should not behold God with his polluted eyes, God hath added a third cause to keep out the Godhead from his sight, which is his hand. Moses as holy as he was, yet being not freed from the state of sin, had that hand set before his eyes when God passed by. And Job found that there was some hindrance on God's part, which kept him from finding God. O that I knew where I might find him! (saith he, ch. 23.3.) And a little after, Behold I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; On the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him; He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.
That Man even after his fall is naturally capable to see more of God than he seeth, we learn it, Gen. 3. where God turneth man out of the Garden, after he had eaten of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever. Indeed it followeth not thence that Man could have lived for ever after his disobedience, by eating of the tree of life; for in that place God speaks ironically of Man's presumption, not affirmatively of his power: But that he could have put forth his hand to the Tree of Life, had not God hindered him, the Text shews it plainly. For to what end had God set a Cherubin, and a flaming Sword to keep the way of the Tree of Life, but that he could have found the way thither, had he not been hindred? That hindrance, that Cherubin, that Sword, are about us to this hour; This is that hand of GOD which keeps us from seeing God when he passeth by.
Solomon saith, Eccl. 3.11. that God hath set the World in mens hearts, so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end. That World in Man's heart is some stop that God hath put in man's frame, which hinders him from looking deep into God's ways. For God as a wise King will keep his counsels to himself. Indeed for mercy and help at need, and the knowledge of his grace, God is easie to be found by all that seek him with a sincere heart. He is nigh to all that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth, Psal. 145.18. He is a very present help in trouble, Psal. 46.1. But for the knowledge of his nature and counsel, the most judicious and most sanctified Students will say to him after Isa. 45.15. Verily thou art a God that hidest thy self.
For whereas Man hath these natural impressions, (which begin to appear when Nature is somewhat scoured by grace) that he ought to seek God, and that in God's knowledge lyeth his perfection, what should the reason be that both by Nature and Grace we shald attain to so little knowledge of him, of whom we naturally expect all our blessedness, while we get such an exact knowledge in Mathematicks, of which we expect no felicity? Certainly this must be the cause, that the stream of Man's knowledge, which ran streight to God, as to his ultimate end and soveraign good, finds a stop in the way, even God's wise hand and power which stops his current. Now that stream of knowledge meeting with a stop in its chanel, spreads it self far and wide on the sides, and overflows in matters upon the bye.
And never wonder why God will not let us know so much as we might of his nature and counsel; Neither say with those reasoners, Rom. 9.19. Why doth he find fault? for who can resist his will? Consider rather whether we be worthy of seeing so much of God as we do. What think ye? Was it fit, was it just, that our first Parents after they had conversed with the Devil, and taken his counsel against God, should behold his face as freely, as before that rebellion? Is it reasonable that man whose imagination is evil at all times, be admitted to converse as freely with God as he doth with sin? Remember sinners, what your mind is busie about all the day, and then judge whether it be just before God, that after so much vanity and enmity against God (for your carnal mind is so) such defiled souls should rush when they list to behold that awful and thrice holy presence? God is too just and too wise to give way to that. And our selves, in the case we are in (if we have our senses about us) would not desire to see God's face, lest we be consumed in a moment. Truly it is both out of justice and mercy that he puts his hand before us. Yet because no body shall complain that his ignorance hath brought him to perdition, and God's hand before him to that ignorance; Know ye that the hand of God doth not hide him altogether, no not from the very Pagans. For (saith St. Paul, Rom. 1.19.) That which may be known of God is manifested to them, for God hath shewed it unto them, where he doth distinguish that which may be known of God, from that which may not be known; and saith after, that by the things that God made, they knew enough of God's eternal power and Godhead, to be without excuse, because when they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful.
Besides, thirdly, that hand of God is not unremovable: But if we labour seriously to remove all hinderances of our own, our sins and hardness of heart, which spread a vail between God and our understandings; And if we pray to God as Moses did, to shew us his way, he will take away his hand so far as to make all his goodness to pass before us, and will assist us by his good Spirit to remove the vail of our sin and hardness, which is the main hindrance that keeps us from the comfortable sight of his grace in this world. We shall enjoy the benefit offered to the unconverted Jews, 2 Cor. 3.16. When we shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. When by the assistance of his grace the hindrance for our part shall be taken away, God will remove the hindrance for his part; He will take away his hand.
II. But now when God hath taken away his hand, what may we see of him, and what not? That is exprest in the second and third part of my Text, Thou shalt see my back-parts, but my face shall not be seen. Where that which is observable at the first sight is, that God never removeth his hand quite away; and there is never so much of him seen, but there is more hidden, for the face is more than the back-parts.
The last of these two, My face shall not be seen, is a direct answere to the Petition of Moses, I beseech thee shew me thy glory; and therefore there I must begin. Yet I cannot let the order of God's goodness pass unobserved; That before he denied Moses that which he asked, it pleased his mercy to grant him that which he should have asked. He will not tell him, Thou shalt not see my face, for no man shall see me and live; before he tell him, I will make all my goodness to pass before thee. The comfort goes before, I shall take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back-parts. After that Moses may well hear the denial, and thank him too, My face shall not be seen. This is the Lord's bounty, whose benefits are instructions; who by giving us, teacheth us what we ought to pray for; who when we ask amiss, gives us aright; and though we may think sometimes that we are denied, his blessings to his children will be sure to prevent his denial.
But I keep to my reason why I expound the third part before the second; It is the direct answer to the petition of Moses: He asked to see God's glory; God answereth him, My face shall not be seen. Besides, we have need to know our faults before they can be mended. We must be taught to know our excesses in our search of God's face, before we learn moderation in contenting our selves to see his back-parts.
I insist not upon the several significations of God's face, which is taken sometimes for his favour, sometimes for his anger, sometimes for his sanctuary, sometimes for especial tokens of his presence. But here (as I told you) by comparing Moses his request with God's answer, we see evidently that God by his face meant his will and decree, and that Moses desired to see that will and decree, when he prayed to him to shew him his way and his glory; For by the whole dialogue between God and Moses, it appeareth, that the thing which Moses aspired unto, was the knowledge of his will and counsel about the people of Israel: Upon which God stopt him, and told him, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy: As if he told him, Whatsoever I do and dispose about this people, it belongs to my will and counsel, not to thy knowledge. There you have the exposition of this sentence of God, My face shall not be seen; God is his own best Interpreter.
And would to God they had learned that lesson well that pry into God's counsel, and would see that fearful face of God which no man shall see and live. Do not expect that I stand for the truth of any party. This is the truth of my tenet before God; I believe no doctrine to be in the right that will go beyond the limits fixed in God's Word; And I am perswaded that in determining the point of Gods decree about the Election of men, both the pro and the con are in the wrong. Ponder these words of God himself, My face shall not be seen. It is both a prohibition, that none presume to see the face of God's decree; and withal a declaration of God's counsel, that whosoever shall go about to seek to see it, shall lose his labour. Do what ever you can, My face shall not be seen. Here are then two things, First you cannot see God's face, that face of his decree; And then you must not seek for it.
Learn we first that we cannot see it. The busiest enquirers may justifie by their own experience the firmness of that declaration of God's high Court, that his face shall not be seen. Who could ever define how these two certain truths can stand together, on the one side the eternity and immutability of God's decree, on the other the freedom and mutability of man's will? Who is able to conceive an absolute predestination, without making God the Author of sin; or a conditional predestination, without subjecting God's decree to man's will, and breaking that admirable chain of causes, and the great web of God's providence?
I know there are distinctions enow on both sides: But as we stand before the great Judge of the hearts and discerner of the imaginations and reasonings of our brains, let the most rational say sincerely, at least to themselves, after they have put their adversaries to Non-plus, have they satisfied their own judgments upon these doubts? And let them acknowledge the reason why they cannot be resolved about these high points; God hath said, and he is not a man that he should repent, My face shall not be seen, that face of my decree which must be adored behind the vail without seeing. In all Sciences there is a non ultra, a limit beyond which knowledge cannot reach, sometimes out of the shortness of the matter, sometimes out of the incapacity of our minds. But in this high and infinite matter we find, that besides the incapacity of our minds there is a stop which reason meets with, and it must of necessity go back unsatisfied. God in all ages of the Church hath dealt with the disputers about that high point, as with the men of Sodom that would break into Lot's house; He hath smitten them with blindness, so that they weary themselves to find the Door. You that fear his name, away from that forbidden place. In vain do you grope to find God's Council-door. It is a blind Entry for you. And here you find by experience the truth of that grave sentence, Job 26.9. God holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreads his Cloud upon it.
And it stands with reason that God's Counsel should not be seen; For since God's decree is called here the glory of god, Is it convenient that sinful wretches should creep into God's glory? And whereas the Council of Kings is called, and ought to be the Privy Council, should God's Council-Chamber be without either Lock or Key, open for every gazer to look in? Well then, since the face of God's decree cannot be seen, we must not seek for it. My Text is a rule of our duty, as well as a limit of our power. But what! Coelum ipsum petimus stultitiâ. I fear that many run into that guilt of Job, 23.3. for which he was so severely rebuked by Elihu, and next by God himself. O that I knew (said he) where I might find God, that I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments. But the poor man spake so out of impatience in grievous torments; Wherefore they are more guilty that do so out of impatience of curiosity. Whereas instead of filling our mouth with arguments, we should fill it with the admiring praises, used by St. Paul in this very point, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Rom. 11.33How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his Counsellor?
Did our learned Masters bear this in mind, that none hath known the mind of the Lord, and that his ways are past finding out, they would not be so busie to build an imaginary pair of stairs, eaven within God's Council-Chamber, for the degrees of God's foreknowledge, and the several acts of his pre-ordination. And what is that but the sin of the Israelites in the Wilderness, who limited the holy one of Israel? Psal. 78.41. For as they set limits to God's power and wisdom, saying, Can God give bread? Can he provide flesh for his people? as if God had no other ways to feed them, and must follow their ways; so some in our days set limits to God in higher matters; They set him down ways for Mens Election and Salvation, which they cannot abide that he should transgress: Not being able to find out Gods ways, they prescribe him ways of their own, which is sinning against the second Commandment, for it is framing God after the likeness of men.
To find the spring of that unlawful search of the things of God, we must remount as high in the scale of times as the fatal tree of knowledge of good and evil. God forbad our first Parents to meddle with it, upon pain of death, when they were in their primitive perfection, and had knowledge enough without it. They broke the command and incurred the penalty; leaving a pregnant lesson to the World in all ages, that aspiring too high in divine knowledge, is the dangerous shelve against which perfection it self is apt to make shipwrack.
That the fruit which that seduced couple did eat turned into their substance, and that of their prosperity, it appeareth by this maxime in-born to man, that it is lawful for him to know all that he can learn. Divines both new and old have filled Libraries with Volumes of questions; But among all their questions of Divinity there is this one wanting, What questions are fit to be handled. Illuminate and Seraphick Doctors in their enquiries of high matters, have forgotten to determine the main matter, whether those doctrines must be handled or no; Whereas it is the first question belonging to every common place.
To fix a Landmark to our inquiries in divine matters, I would recommend two directions; The one to judge of our duty by our power; The other to judge of our power by our duty.
For the first, will ye know what questions of Divinity are a forbidden fruit? Observe those where Reason is shortest, and about which there was never a general concord in the Church, but rather much bickering and bitterness: And thence conclude, Sure God doth not bless the handling of these questions, And he strikes with a spirit of stumbling those that meddle with them; Therefore I will not be busie about them.
The second direction is, to judge of our power by our duty; for be ye sure that you cannot but wander, as long as you transgress the limits fixed in God's Word. For since it is so, that in God's light we see light, it is not like that God will lend us his light to see that which he will not have us to see.
Let my Text be the first limit out of God's Word, My face shall not be seen, saith God. God having said before, No man shall see my face and live: Take heed lest he break forth upon you, if you break through the bounds which he hath set about the holy Mount, where his glory abideth: Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à gloria; saith Bernard; He that makes too bold with God's Majesty, shall be destroyed by the burning rayes of his glory.
To that I joyn this out of Rom. 9. where St. Paul having handled the matter of predestination so far as to give occasion to this objection, v. 19. Why doth God yet find fault, for who hath resisted his will? Presently he giveth a short stop to reason in the heat of her cariere, Nay, but O man (saith he) who art thou that repliest against God? that is, in other words, Whensoever thy reason is unsatisfied about God's dealing, let thy reverence silence thy reason, and yield the bucklers to God's wisdom.
Another of these bounds you have, Joh. 14.22. The Apostle Jude was asking of our Saviour, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us, and not unto the World? Which was asking him a reason of his actions and God's decree. What doth Jesus answer him? Doth he give him a reason why he will manifest himself rather to these than to those? Nay, If any man love me (saith he) he will keep my words; that is, Let God's counsel alone, and stand to your duty. Mind your duty of love and obedience to me. The will of God's decree is not for you to enquire after, but the will of his command.
To the same purpose St. Paul, Rom. 12.3. pronounceth this ordinance with a preface of great authority, I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, foreign. Of which this is the right English, Entertain not higher thoughts than you ought to entertain, foreign, but think soberly, or season your contemplation with sobriety. What's next? I pray mark this well, According as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Now, the questions about God's decree are beyond the measure of faith; for faith determineth not to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified, as Saint Paul, 1 Cor. 2.2. We may know Christ, and what he hath done for us, and what we must do for him, without vexing our brains with questions about God's decree.
III. This consideration of God's hidden face, and of our ignorance and duty arising out of it, is an excellent preparation for us to consider what God hath revealed unto us both for our comfort and duty, and to apply our selves thankfully and diligently to that which God hath allowed and commanded us to know. Which is meant by his back-parts, my third point, I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back-parts. This doctrine is Gospel-news of joy and comfort, being well understood; For by these back-parts God understands all his goodness, as himself said to Moses, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. Let us then learn to know these back-parts of God, and why he calls them so.
God shewed his back parts to Moses in this manner in the following chapter, Exod. 34.6. The Lord passed by before Moses, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
There you have the three things, in which these back-parts of God consist, which we are allowed to see in our measure, and commanded to study. The first is his divine power, the ground of our faith, exprest in this great name of his, The Lord, the lord God, the great Jehovah, in whom we live, and move, and have our being, and well-being. Next his great mercy, in long-suffering, in forgiving, in giving, in saving his enemies, in inviting sinners by his goodness to repentance. And lastly, his justice, pouring his judgments upon sinners that would not be reclaimed by his mercy and liberality.
In these things you are allowed to grow as learned as you can; especially in the meditation of God's Mercy. There St. Paul would have you never to give over till you comprehend what is the breadth & length and depth and height of the love of God which passeth knowledge; yea till you be filled with all the fulness of God. Upon these back-parts of God you are allow'd to feed your contemplation; so that you turn not about to see the face, that is, that you presume not to seek into the motives and decrees of God's counsel.
Praised be God for inspiring our late blessed King's heart to confine the preaching of his Divines to God's Mercies & Commandments, Promises and Judgments: To which I may apply Solomon's saying, A divine sentence is in the mouth of the King.
But because this may seem a hard speech, that God will shew us nothing but his back-parts, as if God did put us behind his back, and turned his sace from us; We must understand, that these back-parts are also his face in another sense, yea that face of God which David panted after, as the Hart after the Water-brooks. For God's mercy and truth, which are called here God's back-parts in respect to the face of his decree, are that light of God's face which filleth the blessed Souls in Heaven with knowledge and love, and so with joy. And, O Lord, grant us ever to seek and ever to behold that face.
Truly, to speak properly, God is face all about, neither is there in God any diversity: But God fits his expressions to our apprehension. For Philosophy hath two ways of contemplation; The one à priori, which begins at the causes and motives, and beholds things as it were in the face; The other à posteriori, that begins at the effects and signs, which is a back-way of reasoning, but the surest for Man's capacity and increase of knowledge. The effects are the back-parts, the causes are the face. God then teacheth us here, that we may know him à posteriori, the back-way, by the demonstrations of his goodness and vertue; not à priori, the foreway; by the causes and motives hidden in his eternal counsel.
And the truth is, that the causes of most things are lockt up in God's Council-closet. Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas: That felicity of knowing the causes, is for him only who is the prime Cause himself.
Come then, all we that love and fear his holy Name, let us ever seek that which God sheweth of himself; For his back-parts are a face where we have the clear looks of his Truth, and the smiles of his Love; but withal the brow of his Justice, and the awfulness of his Majesty. O if we read and meditate well that place where God sheweth his back-parts to Moses; and observe how largely, how seriously, he representeth and urgeth unto us the Treasures of his Grave and Mercy; sure you shall never desire to behold another face of God than these back-parts. Here is that will fill your minds with his knowledge; Here is that will satisfie your affections with his love; Here is that will make you holy and happy. And if one will look above this, he is worthy to lose this.
That we may see so much of God, let us observe three circumstances of God's manifestation to Moses; First, he proclaimed the name of the Lord; There is no mention of any colour or shape, to teach us, that our seeing of God is attained by hearing. He had promised to Moses to make all his goodness pass before him; How doth he make it pass? By proclaiming his holy Name and his saving Word. Then on God's name hearken unto his Word, if you aspire to see him. Faith is the eye of the Soul: Yet it seeth by hearing. Domine, loquere, ut te videamus. Lord, speak, that we may see thee; Shew thy self to us by speaking to the ears of our Souls.
The second circumstance is, that God hid Moses in the clift of a rock, lest God's glory should consume him: Now the rock was Christ, 1 Cor. 10.4.saith St. Paul. It was a figure of Christ our Saviour, whose merit doth shelter us from the dreadful Majesty of our Judg, and in the‖Cant. 2.14 clifts of that rock did the Spouse dwell. Let us pray to God to hide us there, else we cannot behold him but to our confusion.
The third circumstance is, that Moses appeared with the two Tables in his hand. They were not the Tables of the Law, but Tables for the Law, ready shaven and polished for God to write upon. But though he present not the Law to God, he appreath prepared to receive it, and craving the engraving of God's finger; having (as far as in him lay) that obedience in his hand, presenting unto God his readiness, his endeavour and diligence to obey, disposed as David, when he said, I am content to do thy will, O my God.Psal. 40.8.
Let us come to God with these three dispositions: First, let us hear his Word, for in speaking is he seen. Then let us seek to be hid in the clift of our rock our Saviour Jesus. And withal let us bring to God the prepared Tables of our Hearts to receive his Law, desirous and diligent to keep it, and beseeching God to write it in our Hearts with the finger of his Spirit.
Lord grant us to behold Thee in thy Word; To be sheltered from thy Justice in thy Son; And to have thy Law so written by thy Spirit on the Tables of our Hearts, that we may keep it and glorifie Thee by our obedience.
THE END.
The Printer to the Reader.
THE absence of the Author, and his inconvenient distance from London hath occasioned these few Errata's; The Printer thinks it the best instance of Pardon, if his Escapes be not laid on the Author, and he hopes they are no greater than an ordinary Understanding may amend, and a little Charity may forgive.
R. Royston.
ERRATA.
PAge 7. line 16. all to. p. 45. l. 16. examples are. p. 47. l. 4. commands us to pray. p. 55. l. 16. dele And. p. 59. l. 15. Law, but the. p. 143. l. 12. the weakness. p. 144. l. 14. raised us, l. 15. for us. p. 149. l. 13. rich mans house. p. 176. l. 4. being; so if. p. 178. l. 24. passions, yet we should rest unsatisfied. p. 185. l. 8. interesse. p. 197. l. ult. if it please God. p 200. l. 12, & 13. dele promised unto them.
End of the text · Peter du Moulin Jr, Ten Sermons (1684)