and dangers of this life to the inheritance promised to the fathers. We see how man is to be supported in this life, and to what dangers he is exposed in the way of his salvation, if we observe what happened to the Hebrews in their way through the wilderness. No temptation befalls us but such as is common to man, and of which their case gives us an example. The things which befell them are not only apposite and applicable to our own case, but St. Paul affirms they were purposely ordained by the providence of God to answer this very end: Now all these things happened to them for ensamples; (or, as the margin calls them, types) and they are written for our admonition*. And here we are to note, as the apostle himself does next after their baptism, how they were fed and supported. They might have been carried a short way through a fruitful country to the land of Canaan; but it pleased God to lead them into a wilderness, where there was neither meat nor drink: which made some of them suspect he had carried them there to destroy them: but his design was to teach them the necessity of prayer and faith and dependence upon himself; and blessed are they to whom the Lord now teaches the same les son under the want of many things. But, in the spirit, this is the case of every man; for we are all brought after our baptism into a barren world, where we find no more to support that life which God promised to his people, than the Hebrews found in the wilderness. Here we wander (as the Psalmist figuratively describes the state of man) hungry and thirsty, our souls fainting within us, and depending upon God for his daily grace. The people were taught this in the wilderness by receiving their meat from day to day in a miraculous manner from heaven. It was mere manna, such as Moses gave, to those who looked no farther than their bodies; and they were consequently soon tired of it; but to those who received it in faith, it was the bread of God which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. God in all ages has been the giver of that support which is necessary to all men, whether followers of Moses or followers of Christ *: and Hebrews, if they had souls to be saved, could no more live by bread alone, than Christians can. God therefore was pleased to take this way of teaching them that they could not: and the apostle seeing his intention, says, they did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual * See John vi. 32. spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ*. There is not a more extraordinary sentence in the scripture than this before us-that rock was Christ. It is impossible to take the words literally, any more than those which Christ spake of the bread which he brake, and said, this is my body. A rock of stone in a desert could not be Christ in the literal sense; and yet it must be so in some sense, because the apostle hath affirmed it. This sense is therefore figurative and spiritual; as the bread, which is broken in the holy communion, is bread to the body, but Christ to the spirit. And as Christ was the invisible fountain of grace to the thirsting Israelites, communicating himself to them by the sacramental waters of a rock, so he still offers himself to us in the same capacity-If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink t; that is, if any man, sensible of the drought and emptiness of his own nature, thirst after spiritual things, he shall be refreshed with grace, as the thirsty body is refreshed by the waters of a living spring. He discoursed to the same effect with the woman of Samaria by the side of a well to which she came to draw water * 1 Cor. x. 3, 4. † John vii. 37. water-Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But now, as this meat and drink in the wilderness were figures of Christ, so the people in their use of them are ensamples to us. God shewed them, that man is in want of some nourishment which nature and the common course of things cannot give him: therefore he fed them with manna from heaven and water from a dry rock. But many of them took no delight in this spiritual diet. Though they had seen the wonders of the red sea, yet they carried Egypt with them in their hearts into the wilderness, and were sorry that they had left it. He who reads of their loathing that light bread, and desiring to return to the bondage of Egypt for the gratification of their lusts, may wonder at their stupidity; who could see manna sent down from the heavens, and the stream of a river running miraculously through a dry desert, and not partake of them with thankfulness and devotion! But he will find, when he looks around him, that men are just such now as they were in the wilderness carnal, inattentive, and worldly minded. Christians, called to a state of salvation, give the preference to that world which they renounced at their baptism, and bring it with them into the Christian profession, as the Hebrews brought Egypt with them into the wilderness. Whatever you think of the manna from heaven, and a springing well from a stone of flint, you have a greater miracle before your eyes daily. You have Christ come down to be the life of the world, and offering himself as the true manna' in the blessed sacrament. You have his spirit and his word, as a water of life attending you in your way through this wilderness: but these spiritual blessings have their value with those only who are spiritually minded. Count the congregation of Christians in any parish, and see how few of that number attend the holy Communion: then you will discover, that Christians are sick of this Jewish, distemper. As the wonders of the wilderness 1 made no impression on those who were still affected to Egypt; so Christianity can offer nothing desireable to those whose hearts are full of the world. Where there is an attachment to fulness of feasting, excess of drinking, and to the other prospects, pleasures and profits of the world, there can be no spiritual appetite. To thirst after earthly and heavenly things at. the same time, is as impossible as to serve God and Mammon. Can the man, who makes it his wish and his pleasure to be drunk, join with the |