till we come to the times of David, and the later prophets, the Divine Being is reprefented in fuch a manner, that we can hardly help imagining that the patriarchs must have conceived of him as a being of fome unknown form, though furrounded by an infupportable fplendour, fo as to be invifible to mortal eyes.

Now, had even this opinion been a dangerous one (though it is not philofophically juft) there would certainly have been fomething faid to guard us against it, and prevent our entertaining a notion fo dishonourable to God, and fo injurious to ourselves. But it is remarkable that nothing of this kind does

occur.

We often find the prefence of the Lord mentioned, as if there was upon earth fome place where he particularly refided, or which he frequented. One inftance of this we have in the Antediluvian hiftory. Cain fays, Gen. iv. 14, Behold thou haft driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face fhall I be hid. Again, v. 16, And Cain went out from the prefence of the Lord.

At the building of the tower of Babel, we read, Gen. xi, 5, And God came down to fee the city, and the tower which the children of men builded. This is an expreflion which I can hardly think would have been used by David or Ifaiah, who represent the Divine Being with much more dignity, as fitting on the circle of the heavens, and from thence beholding all the inhabitants of the earth. But

K 4

the

the other reprefentation is more adapted, as we may say, to the infantile state of the

world.

To Mofes God feems to have appeared in the fymbol of a denfe bright cloud; but his firft appearance to him in the bufh, was in a flame of fire. It is faid, Exod. iii. 4, that the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of the bush. But it appears from the converfation afterwards, that it was no angel, but God himself, who spake to him; the fire being, perhaps, called the angel of God, because it was the emblem of his prefence, or was that by which he chose to manifeft himself. For it is faid, v. 4, And when the Lord faw that he turned afide to fee, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and faid, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob, &c. When Moses asked his name, he fays I AM THAT I AM, a name peculiarly characteristic of the true God, denoting, as is generally thought, his necessary existence.

The vifible appearance which represented the divine presence to the Ifraelites in the wildernefs, was a cloud by day, and fire by night, Ex. xiii. 21, And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light. Through this pillar it is faid, v. 24, that the Lord looked upon the host of the Egyptians, and troubled them.

But,

But, in general, the Divine Being appeared unto Mofes in a denfe bright cloud, Ex. xix. 9, And the Lord faid unto Mofes, Lo I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and, may believe thee for ever.

After the history of the golden calf, there is another account of an appearance of God to Mofes, and many others with him, which has fomething in it very peculiar. Ex. xxiv. 9, Then went up Mofes and Aaron, Nadab and Abibu, and feventy of the elders of Ifrael, and 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 heaven in its clearness; and upon the nobles of the children of Ifrael he laid not his hand; and they fare God, and did eat and drink. Whether this was only the fame appearance of a bright cloud, or of fire, from which the Divine Being had before spoken to Mofes, or fomething farther, does not diftinctly appear. In the Septuagint it is only said, and they faw the place where the God of Ifrael food; and it арpears from Maimonides, (fee his More Nevochim) that the more intelligent Jews did not confider this, or any other fimilar paffage, as importing that God had any form, or was really the object of fight; but only fome fymbol of the more immediate presence of God.

It fhould feem that Mofes imagined there was some other more proper form of God concealed within the cloud from which he had ufually

usually spoken to him: for he expreffes an earneft wish to have a nearer view of the majefty of God, Immediately after it is faid, Exod. xxxiii. 11, that the Lord pake unto Mofes face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend; we are informed, v. 18, that he defired that God would fhew him his glory. In anfwer to which it is faid, v. 20, Thou canst not fee my face; for there fhall no man fee me and live. And the Lord faid Behold there is a place by me, and thou shalt ftand upon a rock, and it fhall come to pafs while my glory paleth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with band while I pass by; and I will take away mine band, and thou shalt fee my back parts, but my face shall not be feen.

my

If our modern metaphyficians would attend a little to fuch paffages of fcripture as these, and confider what must have been the fentiments of the writers, and of thofe who were prefent at the scenes described in them (though I readily acknowledge that fuch representations as these were ufed by way of accommodation to the low and imperfect conceptions of the Jews, or the paffages may admit an interpretation different from the literal fenfe of them) they would not be fo much alarmed as they now are, or affect to be, at every thing like materiality afcribed even to the Divine Being; and much lefs to human minds. It is the attributes, the powers and the cha racter

racter of the Deity that alone concerns us, and not his effence, or fubftance.

The circumftances which attended the giving of the law, which were very awful, and calculated to imprefs the mind in the ftrongeft manner, could not leave upon it the idea of an immaterial being, but of a being capable of local prefence, though of no known form. Exod. xix. 16, And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunders and lightenings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, fo that all the people that were in the camp trembled. And Mofes brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a Smoke, because the Lord defcended upon it in fire, and the fmoke thereof afcended as the fmoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet founded long, and waxed louder and louder, Mofes fpake, and God anfwered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount, and the Lord called Mofes up to the top of the mount, and Mofes went up.

Again it is not faid that an angel, but that God himself fpake all the words of the ten commandments. Exod. xx. 1, And God Spake all these words, faying; I am the Lord thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the houfe of bondage, &c. The two tables of ftone, containing the fame command

ments,