131 The Israelites are called the fathers,' as ancestors from whom Christians are descended: they and we being one and the same church, though the periods and capacities of it be not, in all ages, the same. Their deliverance out of Egypt, and the paschal lamb on that occasion, were lively types of our rescue from a bondage worse than Egyptian, by the death of Christ, our passover sacrificed for us.' [1. Cor. v. 7.] Their miraculous passage through the sea, while walking under the covering of a dewy cloud, by which God declared himself in a peculiar manner present; and their belief professed at that time, by putting themselves under the conduct of Moses, are here emphatically styled, in the Christian dialect, being baptized unto Moses, in the cloud, and in the sea.' The manna, by which they were sustained in the wilderness, we have our blessed Lord's authority for applying to himself, the true bread, which came down from heaven.' [John iv. 51.] And the rock, pierced to furnish water for their thirst, St. Paul expressly calls a representation of Christ. Further yet, to insinuate this alliance and relation, he calls the one 'spiritual meat,' and the other spiritual drink;' [1 Cor. x. 3.] intimating that they were in the quality of sacraments to the Church then in being, and figures of that other Christian sacrament, which is the food of souls: the bread, by which we spiritually eat Christ's body; and the cup, in which we spiritually drink of this true rock, out of whose side, when pierced, came forthwith blood and water. But these things were so feebly represented then, in comparison of the present more plenteous manifestation in the Christian economy, that St. Paul here allows them no better a title, than that of types, rough draughts, or sketches, of that finished piece, which was intended to be the last and best, of which a state of mortality should ever be capable.

From this resemblance, in which it is our glory to excel, the apostle descends to another, which we must make it our constant care to avoid, that of the crimes. Of these it may not be amiss to remark somewhat briefly, for the more effectual awakening our detestation of some sins, which seem much more nearly allied to those recounted here, than the generality of Christians surely apprehend them to be.

The provocations, given by those Israelites, are very great and amazing. Six hundred thousand persons and upwards

subsisting upon a daily miracle, and by a sort of food, which, without any labour of theirs, fell round about their camp, and had the advantage of accommodating itself to every man's appetite, did not content them: but they required flesh to gratify their luxury. The stay of Moses in the mount soon wearied out their patience; and, though few months had passed, since they, in the most solemn manner, received an express prohibition to worship the invisible God under any bodily representation; they formed to themselves a beast, and sacrificed to this absurd image of their mighty deliverer. The allurements of idolatrous women seduced them, first to forbidden pleasures, and then to the adoration of false gods. The want of water, though formerly supplied by miracle, inflamed them into rage and rebellion. Nor was their own experience made use of, to silence the unthankful and loud complaints against that Providence, whose bounty was never more eminently signalised, than in the provision lately made, for the sustenance of those insensible desponding malcontents. The false report of the promised land, made by the messengers sent to view it; and the ill impressions those incendiaries made, so greedily received; (notwithstanding the many descriptions God himself had given to the contrary, and his frequent promises to fix them in that possession) made the Israelites look upon themselves as given up for a prey; they reproach God and their governors with the difficulties of the attempt; declare for a new captain of their own choice, and prefer even a return into Egypt, before any farther progress toward Canaan.

These instances of disobedience might have been apposite to the circumstances of the Corinthian converts; we shall flatter ourselves too much, did we conclude, that they were not also admonitions and examples, highly seasonable to the Christians of any other place and time. The parallel is but too easy to be drawn; while there are, even among the professors of this religion, so many bold contemners of its mysteries; so many hypocritical receivers of its sacraments; so many indulgers of those sensual lusts, which every baptized believer hath solemnly renounced; so many murmurers against the dispensations of Providence; so many hearts entirely absorbed in the present world and its advantages; so little belief in, or influence from, the inconceivable bliss of a life to come; so little seeking of this, as their true happiness, as that, which ought to be the

ultimate aim of their actions, the sum of their hopes and wishes, and the support of those labours, by which their obedience is tried in this state of discipline. They who are faulty in these instances, though their crimes be not in point of fact the same, do yet discover themselves to have the same spirit of perverseness, and unbelief, and discontent, with the Israelites of old. They, in effect, scorn the promised land, and, in their hearts, turn back again to Egypt; while God, by methods suitable to his own wisdom, is exercising their patience, and leading them to his rest, through the wilderness of this world.

And therefore every Christian may see his own danger, in the events that befel the persons, after the example of whose sins he copies. The examples of God's severity, even upon his chosen and covenanted people, [see Exodus xxxii.; Exodus, xi. xiv. xxi. xxv.] show, that Christians cannot, by being such, promise themselves exemption from the like judgements, if they shall, by the like disobedience, render themselves obnoxious to his angry justice. But the inference, which, in the infancy of the Christian church, St. Paul could ground upon parity of reason, and in comparison with the Jews only; we, in these latter ages, may strengthen from events that have already befallen this Christian church itself. The parts of it, once most conspicuous for soundness of faith, and piety of life, have long since been overrun with barbarity; and are once more given up to the blackest darkness of sin and infidelity. Nor is the case thus with whole nations only; but where the truth is still professed, with private persons also, whose punishments resemble those of the Israelites, where their transgressions have done so. For, how often does the wisdom of Providence exert itself, in undoing men by their own foolish choice! How common a thing is it, for the worldly man to have his ordinate desires gratified to his manifest detriment; and those honours, or riches, or pleasures, which he sought as the most desirable blessings of life, made his curse and his ruin! How frequently do discontent and distrust, weariness and impatience, de.ay, or utterly forfeit those good, and hasten or occasion those evil things, which, by waiting the leisure, and submitting to the methods of the great Governor of the world, would be ordered infinitely more to our advantage! But especially how certain are the vicious dispositions and practices contrary to our duty, to bring us under that common fate of

the rebellious Israclites, of being excluded the land of promise: and so, whatever be our portion in the wilderness of this world, to cut off all access to the heavenly Canaan!

II. Having spoken so largely to the apostle's argument, which turns upon the correspondence between the Jewish and Christian economy, it shall suffice to say something, very briefly, to the general point, wherein both are concerned, the reason and justice of such punishments.

The guilt of any crime is to be measured, not by the quality of the fact alone, but by the several aggravations attending it so that the same thing, done by persons under different circumstances, is very far from involving each of them in the same degree of guilt. And, not now to descend to the particular consideration of such circumstances, it is evident, the more of knowledge, and wilfulness, and ingratitude, appears in the offender, the more heinous is the crime, and the heavier condemnation he is to expect. Now the law given to the Israelites, and the manner of giving it in Mount Sinai; the voluntary engagements, and frequent declarations of obedience to it, which themselves had made; the astonishing evidences of God's presence and protection, and the miraculous effects of his bounty, under which they daily lived, added to the cruelty of that bondage out of which they had been delivered, and the glorious miracles attending that deliverance, before their arrival in the wilderness; these all concur to render all revolt and distrust of such a God, wicked to the highest degree. Especially, when the matter of that distrust was either real necessities, formerly supplied, or imaginary necessities only, or a despair of attaining such benefits as his truth had been pledged for, and as could not be obstructed by greater difficulties than they had already seen surmounted by past interpositions of his power on their behalf. Upon all these accounts, the advantages of their condition were so many aggravations of their crime; and the more high their favour with God had been, the more unpardonable were the unworthy returns made for it: the maxim mentioned by our Saviour being of eternal equity in cases of this nature, Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.' [Luke xii. 48.] And this is the consideration which brings the matter home to our own case. The advantages of the Christian are, in

135 every respect, far superior to any that the Jewish church could ever boast of. The bondage of sin and corruption, and the miseries of that servitude, are infinitely more to be dreaded than all the tyrannical cruelties of an inhuman Pharaoh. The rescue from them was incomparably more glorious; the defeat of the barbarous prince and his armies, and their destruction at the Red Sea, a blessing far beneath that overthrow given to sin, and death, and Satan, by the blood of Christ. The manna and water out of the rock, though highly beneficial and miraculous, formed yet a poor sustenance, when compared with 'the true bread which came down from heaven, the flesh which is meat indeed, and the blood which is drink indeed;' [John vi.] the wine of elect souls,' and 'the water,' of which whosoever drinketh, shall never thirst, but it shall be in him a well springing up into everlasting life.' [John iv. 14.] And even that glory of the Lord, which, in a bright cloud, at once conducted and protected the Israelitish armies, and delivered his orders from a tabernacle filled with the majesty of the divine presence, had yet no yet no glory, in comparison of that more excellent glory of the Godhead, whose entire fulness dwelt in Jesus Christ bodily;' [Coloss. ii. 9.] pitched his tabernacle in human flesh; and, in the most familiar manner, taught and conversed with men, that he might lead them through this desert of a world, to a region of rest and bliss: a region, but poorly represented by an earthly Canaan, flowing with milk and honey; for in this is the perfection of joy, and ‘rivers of pleasure at God's right hand for evermore.'

And what should be the consequence of these pre-eminences, but a deeper sense of gratitude, and, in that sense, a more cheerful and steady obedience to our merciful Benefactor and Redeemer? If God spared not the unthankful wretches, who received less; can it in reason be expected that he should spare us, whom he hath obliged to serve him by bestowing so much more? We have seen the memorable instances of his goodness and severity; to them who perished' in the wilderness, severity; but to us, 'goodness,' exceeding abundant goodness, 'provided we continue in his goodness; otherwise we also ourselves shall assuredly be cut off.' [Rom. xii. 22.] Nay, we shall be made examples of a vengeance more inexorable, if not made wiser by these examples; because, in respect of this admonition also, our advantages have exceeded; and

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