To confirm themselves in this prejudicate apprehension, they-assign a fourfold pre-eminency to the prophecy of Moses above that of other prophets; and those are insisted on by the same Maimonides in his explication of cap. x. Tractat. Sanhed., and by sundry others of them. :
[1.] The first they fix on is this, “'That God never spake to any prophet immediately, but only to Moses;” to him he spake without angelical mediation. For so he affirms that he spake to him AB“ nS, “mouth to mouth,” Num. xii. 8.
_ [2.] “ All other prophets,” they say, “received their visions either in their sleep, or presently after their sleep; but Moses in the day- time standing between the cherubim, Exod. xxv. 22.” And,—
[3.] “That when other prophets received their visions or revela- tions, although it was by the mediation of angels, yet their nature was weakened by it, and the state of their bodies, by reason of the consternation that befell them, Dan. x. 8 ; but Moses had no such per+
26 AN EXPOSITION OF THE - [ouap. f.
turbation befalling him when the Lord spake unto him, but it was with him as when a man speaks unto his friend.”
[4.] “That other prophets had not inspirations and answers from God at their own pleasure, but sometimes were forced to wait long and pray for an answer before they could receive it; but Moses was wont when he pleased to say, ‘Stay, and I will hear what God will command you,’ Num. ix. 8.” So they.
And to reconcile this unto what is elsewhere said, that he could not see the face of God and live, they add that he saw God not im- mediately, but xmdpapxa, “in speculo” or “speculari” (a word formed from the Latin), “in a glass,”’—an expression which the apostle alludes unto, 1 Cor. xiii. 12; only they add, nydpaos pwn Jina DN DN yn,—“ Other prophets saw through nine perspec- tives ;” nox xmdpap nd AN nyD1,—“ but Moses saw through one only,” Vaiikra Rabba, sect. 1; whereunto they add that his speculum was clear and lucid, theirs spotted.
It must be granted that Moses, being the lawgiver and first re- vealer of all that worship in the observation whereof the Judaical church-state and privilege of that people did consist, had the pre- eminency above the succeeding prophets, whose ministry chiefly tended to instruct the people in the nature and keep them to the observation of his institutions: but that all those things by them insisted on were peculiar to him, it doth not appear; nor if it did so, are the most of them of any great weight or importance,
The first is granted, and a signal privilege it was. God spake unto him DO'38728 O08, “face to face,’ Exod. xxxiiii 11; and ABN nB, “mouth to mouth,’.Num. xii. 8; and this is mentioned as that which was peculiar to him. above the prophets which should succeed him in the ministry of that church. But that Moses saw the essence of God, which the Jews contend from those words, is ex- pressly denied in the text itself; for even then when it was said that God spake to him face to face, it is also affirmed that he did not nor could see the face of God, Exod. xxxiii. 20. See John i. 17, 18. Both those expressions intend only that God revealed himself unto him in a more clear and familiar way than he had done unto other prophets, or would do whilst that administration continued; for although the things which he revealed to and by other prophets were more clear, evident, and open to the understanding of believers, than they were in the revelation made to Moses (they being in- tended as expositions of it), yet in the way of the revelation itself, God dealt more clearly and familiarly with Moses than with any other prophet of that church whatever.
The second difference assigned is vain. Of the times and seasons wherein the prophets received their visions there can be no deter- minate rule assigned. Many of them were at ordinary seasons,
VER. 1, 2.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 27
whilst they were waking, and some were about the employment of their callings, as Amos, chap. vii. 15.
The third also, about that consternation of spirit which befell other prophets, is groundless. Sometimes it was so with them, as the instance of Daniel proves, chap. vii. 28, x. 8; and so it befell Moses himself, Heb. xii. 21; which if we attain to that place, we shall prove the Jews themselves to acknowledge. Ordinarily it was other- wise, as with him so with them, as is manifest in the whole story of the prophets.
There is the same mistake in the last difference assigned. Moses did not so receive the Spirit of prophecy as that he could, at his own pleasure, reveal those things which were not discoverable but by that Spirit, or speak out the mind of God infallibly in any thing for the use of the church, without actual inspiration as to that particular; which is evident from the mistake that he was under as to the man- ner of his government, which he rectified by the advice of Jethro, Exod. xviii. 19. And likewise in other instances did he wait for particular answers from God, Num. xv. 34. To have a comprehen- sion at once of the whole will of God concerning the obedience and salvation of the church, was a privilege reserved for Him who in all things was to have the pre-eminence. And it seems that Maimo- nides himself in his exaltation of Moses excepted the Messiah; for whereas in the Hebrew and Latin copies of More Nebuch., part. ii. cap. xly., there are these words, Sew oyyy mia yon, which Bux- torf renders, “ Est gradus hic etiam preestantissimorum consiliario- rum Israelis,” “This is the degree” (in prophecy) “ of the counsellors of Israel;” the Arabic or original hath, “And this also is the degree of the Messiah of Israel, who goeth before” (or “excelleth”) “all others;” that is, in point of prophecy.