my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight."
Let us notice here, I. The fact pleaded —
God had given him the assurances here spoken of — [We are not told exactly either when, or how, God had declared to him these glad tidings. It is probable, however, that it was by an audible voice during their late extraordinary intercourse, wherein, we are told, " The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend a." The im- port of the declaration, however, is clear. It could not mean that God merely knew the name of Moses ; for he knew the name of every human being as well as liis : it means, that from all eternity he had ordained Moses to his high station, and had appointed him to be a vessel of honour, in whom he would be glorified. I say not, but that the conduct of Moses, as con- trasted with that of Aaron and the people of Israel, might bring clown upon him more special tokens of God's favour : for I can have no doubt but that God, who rewardeth every man according to his works, did confer upon him many bless- ings as the reward of his piety, according to that established rule of his, " Them that honour me, I will honour:" but the primary source of all his blessedness was God's electing love and sovereign grace ; though the manifestations of that love, by an immediate assurance from heaven, might be given him as a recompence for his fidelity.]
And are not similar assurances vouchsafed to God's
faithful people at this day ?
[If we examine the Holy Scriptures, we shall find, that neither electing love, nor the manifestation of it to the soul, are confined to Moses. To Jeremiah this declaration was vouchsafed: " Before I formed thee in the belly, / knew thee ; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nation V Here the very same expression, " I knew thee," is explained as equivalent to a fore-ordination of him to the prophetic office. And the same sovereign grace is exercised towards men in reference also to their everlasting concerns ; as it is said, " Whom God did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Sonc." Nor must we understand this foreknow- ledge as forming the ground of God's future mercies to the persons foreknown, but rather as constituting the source from
a ver. 11. b Jer. i. 5. c Rom. viii. 29.