L T G H T. 367 and dazzling for the vifual Intellea of Man. The ma- terial Sun fhnnes too bright to be looked upon: And our Souls are much more feeble to gaze upon the Sua of Suns, and the unclouded Light of infinite Worlds. Mofes longed to behold him; but Mofes could not fully behold what he longed for. * The Rays of the Re- deemer's Majefty, unveiled with human Flefh, are too effulgent for the molt ardent and confirmedFaith, that ever yet was given to the Sons of Men. Mofes faw Chrift (for it was He who accompanied his People through the Wildernefs ;) he faw him in his Glory too; but it was only his tr-intt, his Back Parts, the Refem- blance of his human Nature, or what was afterwards to appear. He beheld a little of Chrift's divine Nature by Faith; and he beheld with his bodily Eyes (what only could be feen by them) the Type of that human Form, which, in refpec of Time and Dignity, might rightly be termed his Back Parts, being the fentiibie Ve- hicle ofhis Glory. Thus alto Chriftians are particularly privileged to contemplate the divine Nature through the Medium of Chrift's Humanity,, and to underftand fomething of his eternal Power and Godhead, by its in- effable Conjunetion with the Nature pf Man. Here they can behold, and with open Face as through a Glafs, or Medium, or uncovered, the Glory of the Lord; and, in order to behold and underhand him yet more per- * Exod. xxiii. 18, &c. Mainronides takes this Scripture in a me- taphyfical and fpiritual Senfe. TheSum of his Comment upon it is; That Mofes could not fee a purely fpiritual and intelletlual Being, as GOD is; becaúfe Mcfes was an intellectual Being, exifting in, or compounded with, Matter and Form. He could not compre. hend GOD, in the Verity of his Effence, by his human Inteliea, unfeparmed from Body. To conceive of GOD's Effence aright, is to conceive of it in a total Abftraftion from all othet Modes of Ex- silence; which the human Faculty cannot attain to, exilting (as it does here) info different a Mode of Being, as That ofMatter united with Spirit. Mofe, therefore, only underftood of GOD, what he .aright apprehend by the Channels of Senfe, and what, in refpe& of the tranfcendent Excellence of his Nature, might be jutlly named his bark or inferior Parts. MAIMON, P,'o.e?m. in Pirke Aboth, aped Pocock. Putt. Mob. p. zas. feelty.i
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