VII. the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall LECT. Strengthen thine heart: he who led Joshua to victory in the promised land, shall bring down the walls of the mighty, and fupport thee against all that appears gigantic and terrible in the way of thy falvation. St. Paul, having pointed out to us, and applied all these figures as examples to us under the gospel, draws this weighty moral from the hiftory of our fathers who journeyed in the wilderness: "wherefore let him that thinketh be ftandeth take heed left he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but fuch as is common to man: but God is faithful who will not fuffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will, with the temptation also, make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. "This is the doctrine we are to learn from their history. He that standeth may now fall through unbelief, as they did he that has been brought out of Egypt, may fall in the wilderness; therefore let us pass the time of our fojourning here in fear. But then, as God is ftill with us, VII. LECT. we are never to be difcouraged in the time of trial, nor to doubt of his protection. If there is a fea on one fide, and a host of Egyptians on the other, and there feems no way to escape, the waters fhall be divided and the Egyptians fhall be overthrown. If there is neither bread nor water in appearance, fome improbable causes shall give us a fupply of both: fome flinty ftone shall become a springing well, and the heavens above fhall give us meat enough. Then for the fickneffes of the foul, we have the remedy of the cross; and against the gigantic race of Anak, a defender who will never leave us nor forfake us: howfoever great and formidable the enemies of the Christian may appear, Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. Though it is the defign of these lectures rather to interpret the fcripture than to apply it; yet we are to confider the application as the end, and the interpretation as the means: therefore I cannot help indulging myfelf fometimes in dwelling upon the moral part, which is the most edifying of all. VII. all. The history of the church in the wil- LECT. derness is figurative, and we have learned what it fignifies: but what good will this knowledge do us, if there is no counsel with it? What shall we gain by feeing. how men were loft, unless we take advice from thence and learn how we may be faved? I therefore do not spare, when occafion offers, to add to my interpretations such spiritual advice as arises out of them. The length and labour of my undertaking is the greater upon this account; but I hope your profit will be greater in proportion. The church that went from Egypt to Canaan gives us an example of every thing that can happen to the Christian church from the beginning of it even to the end of the world: therefore no historical figure of the scripture is of more importance to us than this journey of the Hebrews through the wilderness and I ought not yet to lay it afide. For there are two particulars remaining, which are of great fignification: the one is the rebellion of Corah, and the other is the fettlement of LECT. of the church in Canaan, a land of the VII. Gentiles. St. Jude, in his epiftle concerning the corruption of the church, fpeaks of fome who perished in the gainfaying of Core: therefore this fame evil which happened in the church of Mofes, is to be found in the church of Chrift, and it behoves us to confider what it was. Corah and his company had no difpute about the object or from of divine worship: they questioned none of the doctrines of the law; they rofe up against the perfons of Mofes and Aaron; that is against the civil and ecclefiaftical authority; contending that themselves and all the congregation had an equal right; that Mofes and Aaron had taken too much upon themselves; and by exercising an ufurped authority were abufing and making fools of the people. This was their fin, and they maintained it to the laft, and perished in it. It was the difpute of popular power against divine authority: and wherever the like pretenfions are avowed by Chriftians, and the fame arguments used VII. in support of them, there we see the gain. LECT. Saying of Corah. It is a lamentable circumstance attending this fin, that it inspires great boldness and obftinacy, fuch as we read of in Corah and his party. Other finners are apt to be ashamed of themselves; but these never; because they affert their own fanctity in the act of their difobedience. When they set up human right against that which is by God's appointment; the more proud and obftinate they are, the more colour they seem to give to their pretenfions. It is one reason why rebellion was so severely punished in Corah, and is now fo feverely threatened in the New Teftament, that men are never known to repent of it. of it. In vain did Mofes exclaim and remonstrate against the wickedness of Corah: he and all his party preferved the fame good opinion of themselves, and persisted in it to the last; even appealing to God himself, though they were rifen up against God's minifters; till the earth opened; and the fire devoured them. From this example of Corah, we are to learn, |