God he is, doubtless, the more he is beloved of God. It is like- ness both in nature and grace that always draws the strongest love. Though every child is the father multiplied, the father of a second edition, yet the father loves him best, and delights in him most, who is most like him, and who in feature, spirit, and action, does most resemble him to the life ; and so does the Father of spirits also, he always loves them best who in holiness resemble him most. There are four remarkable things in the beloved disciple above all the rest:i 1. That he lay nearest to Christ's bosom at the table; 2. That he followed Christ closest to the high priest's palace ; 3. That he stood close to Christ when he was on the cross, though others had basely deserted him, and turned their backs upon him; 4. That Christ commended the care of his virgin mother to him. Now why did Christ's desire, love, and delight, run out with a stronger and a fuller tide towards John than to the rest of the disciples ? Doubtless it was because John did more resemble Christ than the rest, it was because John was a more exact picture and lively representation of Christ than the others were. But fourthly, the more holy any man is, the more communion and familiarity that man shall have with God ; as you may see in Moses. Moses was a nonsuch for meekness and holiness : Num. xii. 3, ' Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.' There was no man so slighted, wronged, provoked, teased, perplexed, and troubled by that wicked, unthankful, unbelieving, and murmuring generation, as Moses was, and yet he did neither rail at them nor revile them ; he did neither storm nor rage, he did neither fret nor fling ; and though he had a sword of justice in his hand, and might easily have avenged himself on them, yet he would not, but exercised all patience, tender- ness, goodness, and sweetness towards them. Oh the lowliness, the meekness, the holiness of this man Moses ! And oh the freeness, the friendliness, the openness, and the familiarness of God with Moses ! Deut. xxxiv. 10, ' And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.' To give you a little light into these words : some of the Kabbis observe that Moses surpassed all the other prophets, not only in sublimity of prophecies, but also in excellency and number of miracles ; for Moses within one age wrought seventy-six miracles, when all the rest of the prophets from the begin- ning of the world quite down to the ruin of the first temple, wrought only seventy-four : and as for those words, ' whom the Lord knew face to face,' you are not to understand them thus, that God hath a face as man hath, nor that Moses had a view of the essence of God, which is invisible ; for in this sense no man hath seen God at any time, John i. 18 ; and indeed the least beam of God's essential glory and majesty would have swallowed up Moses alive, 1 Tim. vi. 16. But these words, ' whom the Lord knew face to face,' are to be understood of God's speaking to Moses in a free, friendly, familiar, and plain manner. God did speak to Moses by a clear articulate voice, even as one man speaks to another when they speak face to face. And so when Aaron and Miriam were swelled with pride and envy, and began to bespatter Moses, and to pick a hole in his coat, and to cloud, eclipse, and diminish his glory, see at what a high and noble rate
^ John xiii, 23, xviii. 16, and xix. 26, 27.
350 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII, 14.
God speaks of Moses ; see how God magnifies and exalts and lifts up Moses in that Num. xii. 6-8, ' 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 him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house ; 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 ? ' Now here you see how God owns Moses, and stands up for Moses, and pleads for Moses, and tells Aaron and Miriam to their faces that Moses was the greatest favourite, and that he had far greater respects for Moses than he had for them, and that there was not a man in all the world that was so inward with him as Moses, and that had so much of his ear and heart as Moses had, God did appear to other prophets in dreams and visions, which were transient, but with Moses God will speak mouth to mouth, God will speak to him without an interpreter, he will speak to Moses more famiharly and frequently than he did to others by visions, and more clearly, plainly, and assuredly than he did to others by dreams. God here engages himself to hold a more close, familiar, friendly, and constant conference and correspondence with Moses, than with any others in the world. Moses was blessed with as clear, and with as full, and with as apparent sight of God, and communion with God, as he was able to bear and comprehend. Some of the learned are of opinion, that Christ did converse with Moses in a human shape, as he had done with Abraham before ; they conjecture that the Lord Jesus did very friendly and familiarly shew himself to Moses with that very same face and form of human nature, which he afterwards assumed,! i3ut this I dare not press upon you as an article of your faith. And whether Moses had one hundred and seventy-three familiar conferences with God, which none of the prophets had, lies upon those Kabbis to prove that do assert it ; but this is granted on all hands, that he was a special favourite, and a man in high communion with God, and one that had very clear and eminent discoveries and manifestations of God, And so Abraham was a man of great holiness, and a man eminent in his communion with God, God owned him as a friend, as an honourable friend, as an eminent friend, as a bosom friend, as a peculiar friend, and as a faithful friend, Isa, xli, 8 ; and therefore he made him one of his privy council, and opened his heart and his secrets to him : ' And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do?' Gen, xviii. 17. Abraham is styled the friend of God by a specialty. Though God had many friends, yet it was Abraham that was his singular friend, his darling friend, his rare friend, &c., and accordingly God was most free, and full, and rich in the communications of his favours and secrets to Abraham. It was not enough for Abraham to be of God's court, but he must be also of his cabinet council. It was always a principle in morality, that sweet and intimate friendship cannot be extended to many. Friends usually go by pairs. And thus you see that the more holy any man is, the more communion that man shall have with God, and the more communion any man has with God, the
^ Gen. xviii. and xxxii. 30, &c.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 351