therefore in our best comforts, in our most happy and convenient places, we remember that we are yet in the days of our pilgrimage, and following our Saviour out of the camp, and this mind continues till we lay down our staves, and finish our journey at the rest where we would be. Again, the blood of sprinkling is upon our door-posts, we are sealed thereby to the day of redemption, and are safe. It is the mark, let the destroying angel pass by when he will, let the tempest of the last day rise suddenly or slowly, he must not touch one come to the blood of sprinkling. "Come not near any one, saith the Lord, on whom is my mark." Happy are the people who are in such a case! The journey of the Israelites to Canaan affords us shadows of this kind, noble and many. First, the presence of the Lord went before the camp till the enemy pursued them, and then moved behind and was a barrier between the two hosts, till his flock was landed on the other side; for thus Jesus goes before his children and they follow him, and look to him, being led as a flock by their shepherd; but when any danger is nigh he always is between us and it, and promises "no harm shall happen unto thee, neither shall any evil come near thy dwelling," till we are landed on the shore "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." Again, when they stood on this side the Red Sea, they saw how the same waters which saved them, drowned all their enemies. This is also a blessed figure of the blood of Jesus, for the same Red Sea by which they who believe are washed, and by means of which they pass over and enter the good land, destroys and drowns all their sins, that else would have overtaken them, and made them again captive, or pursued them to the bar and accused them. All are like the dead corpses of the Egyptians of which Moses said, "these that VOL. I. K you you have seen to-day, ye shall see no more for ever!" All are drowned in the deep of this sea, and shall be remembered no more. Again, The rock which God struck when the waters gushed out, was another shadow of Christ. The children of Israel had now crossed the deep, as through a wilderness, and were now come into a barren and dry land where was no water. The people and their little ones, their cattle, and what they had with them, were ready to die with thirst, and in this distress they cried to the Lord, and he bid Moses speak to the rock in the sight of the congregation, and smite it with his rod, and as he struck it, the waters flowed out of the flinty stone as out of a springing well; nor did this happen alone, but the rock followed them, and afforded them plenty of water till they came into a better land. Just so in the midst of this howling wilderness where is no living water, and where else we must have perished, there the Lord Christ was the Rock, and it pleased God to smite him and put him to grief. His wounds were the smitten places whence flowed the rivers of the water of life; "Of this whosoever drinketh shall live for ever," and this Rock follows his children till they enter the true Canaan, and drink it new in the kingdom of God. In like manner the manna was a shadow of Christ. When they wanted bread the Lord rained it down upon them daily, only on the sabbath, and then it ceased. Our Saviour is the "true Bread which came from heaven and gives life to the world." His flesh is the hidden manna, which carnal men know no¬ thing of, but the Holy Spirit gives it those who are seeking the city which has foundations. This is that we pray for in the Lord's prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," or, as it is properly called, our supersubstantial bread. Those who eat the manna in in the wilderness are dead, with many of them God was not pleased, wherefore "he sware, they shall not enter my rest;" but whoso eats of this bread shall never die, he shall find it like the bread Elijah eat, in the strength of which he went that long journey to Horeb. So whoso is partaker of the Aesh of Christ he shall renew his strength therewith, and endure to the end of his journey and be saved, for it is meat indeed. The Israelites had it rained down daily, to teach them their daily dependance upon their dear Jehovah; so we who believe feed daily upon Christ crucified, and without him we cannot do a day. The language of a faithful heart is, "Give us this day our daily bread." They might not keep of it till the morrow, for then it bred worms and stank, to teach us we may not live upon past experience, but continue to live upon him who has been gracious, and will be so to the end. The manna was small, to teach us not to despise the least glimpse of mercy, and the day of small things, the crumbs that fall from his table. It was sweet, like wafers made with honey, to shew, how precious and sweet Jesus is to a perishing soul. No bread is so sweet to a starving man, as the torn and broken body of Christ, to one hungering after righteousness; it is sweeter than honey or the honey-comb. On the sabbath it rained not down, to teach us, in one eternal sabbath we shall need the manna no more so rained down upon us, we shall then see his face, and sit down with him at his table, and go no more out. The brazen serpent which Moses lifted up was another shadow of Christ. The congregation in their journey came into a land where were fiery serpents innumerable, and they were destroyed of serpents till God contrived this remedy. Moses made an image of the thing that had bitten and stung the people, and raised it high in the camp, that all the most 2 K 2 distant distant of the people could see it, and it came to pass when they were stung, if they despised the cure and means of healing they died without mercy, but whoever looked to the serpent was healed. So was the Son of man lifted up: He knew we were in the land of this wilderness, where sins were like fiery serpents and innumerable, and the poison he foresaw would corrupt and ruin for ever body and soul, therefore was he made in the likeness of that which tormented and stung our consciences, namely, sin, as it is written, "He was made sin for us," and thus hung the Holy One of God upon the cross, twisting and twining like a wounded serpent, that all stung and hurt by sin might look to him and be saved. Whoever despises the simple and mean cure, and will sooner trust what he has procured by art, study and pains on his own works and righteousness, rather than the free mercy vouchsafed by looking and believing in him slain for us, such an one dies without mercy, his blood is upon his own head. Our Saviour was exhibited to him, but he would not be healed; but where a poor distressed and pained sinner feels the sting of the serpent, which is sin, and wants ease with all his heart, and sighs for salvation, such an one the Holy Ghost directs to look upon Jesus, and behold his sufferings and tears, to look into his wounds and stripes, and see his sorrow which has been more than any sorrow, and here he gets healing. The pain of sin dies away, the anguish ceases, and the tortures and pangs of a dying Jesus put an eternal end to his own. "Look unto him and be saved all ye ends of the earth!" The ark was a shadow of Christ; it was overlaid with gold, and contained the tables of the covenant, the rod of Aaron that budded and bore fruit, the golden censer, the pot of manna, the Urim and Thummim, and the glory of God; but all was co vered over with a plain coarse covering of goat's hair and badger's skin, so that it would have been easy to have passed it, and not thought so great treasure and such mysteries were laid up there. So also is Christ. In him was all fulness. He is our covenant. "I will give thee, saith God, for a covenant to the people." All the law and the tables of the Old Covenant were not the substance, but a faint shadow of that which God made in Christ, and by which we are his people, and he is our God, and this is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and makes us free from the law of sin and death. He is the Golden Censer, in which all our prayers and praises are offered up, and become like sweet odours before the throne, for these odours are the prayers of the saints. He is our true Manna, as I have said. He is that Rod which budded and bore the fruit of the Tree of life. He is the Urim and Thummim, the Light and Perfection, the White Stone of which we learn the mind of the Most High, and whereon are graven our new names. The altar, the candlestick, the shew-bread, were shadows of him. "We have an altar, saith St. Paul, to which they have no right who serve the tabernacle." As formerly, the altar sanctified the gift, so all that we offer would be abominable and offensive in the eyes of him who can see our iniquity, if the Altar Christ did not sanctify it. There's nought we can offer which he esteems good, But whatever we pray or ask is heard on Jesus's account, and for his sake alone. There the poor sinner offers his sighs and tears, and there the happy soul, the king and priest of God, offers his songs of joy, his blessings and praises, and is accepted. 2 K 3 The |