Only to Moses he spake in a more extraordinary manner in Mount Sinai, and in the Tabernacle; and to the high-priest in the Tabernacle, and in the _sanctum sanctorum_ of the Temple. But Moses, and after him the high-priests, were prophets of a more eminent place and degree in God’s favour; and God himself in express words declareth, that to other prophets he spake in dreams and visions, but to his servant Moses, in such manner as a man speaketh to his friend. The words are these (_Numb._ xii. 6, 7, 8) _If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to 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 I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold._ And (_Exod._ xxxiii. 11) _The Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend_. And yet this speaking of God to Moses, was by mediation of an angel, or angels, as appears expressly, _Acts_ vii. 35 and 53, and _Gal._ iii. 19; and was therefore a vision, though a more clear vision than was given to other prophets. And conformable hereunto, where God saith (_Deut._ xiii. 1) _If there arise amongst you a prophet, or dreamer of dreams_, the latter word is but the interpretation of the former. And (_Joel_, ii. 28) _Your sons and your daughters shall prophecy; your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions_; where again, the word _prophecy_ is expounded by _dream_, and _vision_. And in the same manner it was, that God spake to Solomon, promising him wisdom, riches, and honour; for the text saith, (_1 Kings_ iii. 15) _And Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream_; so that generally the prophets extraordinary in the Old Testament took notice of the word of God no otherwise than from their dreams, or visions; that is to say, from the imaginations which they had in their sleep, or in an extasy: which imaginations in every true prophet were supernatural; but in false prophets were either natural or feigned. The same prophets were nevertheless said to speak by the spirit; as (_Zech._ vii. 12); where the prophet speaking of the Jews, saith, _They made their hearts hard as adamant, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets_. By which it is manifest, that speaking by the _spirit_, or _inspiration_, was not a particular manner of God’s speaking, different from vision, when they, that were said to speak by the Spirit, were extraordinary prophets, such as for every new message, were to have a peculiar commission, or, which is all one, a new dream, or vision. [Sidenote: To prophets of perpetual calling, and supreme, God spake in the Old Testament from the mercy seat, in a manner not expressed in the Scripture.]