BEFORE CHRIST 1490. m See 2 Kings 7.2. thou hast said, I will give 28 And Joshua the son BEFORE CHRIST 1490. 22 m Shall the flocks men, answered and said, Matt. 15. 33. and the herds be slain for My lord Moses, "forbid * See Mark 9. John 6. 7, 9. them, to suffice them? or them. Mark 8. 4. Isai. 50. 2. & 59. 1. ch. 23. 19. Ezek. 12. 25. & 24. 14. P ver. 16. 9 ver. 17. ch. 12. 5. 38. Luke 9. 49. John 3. 26. shall all the fish of the 29 And Moses said un- unto thee or not. about the tabernacle. 30 And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the 31 And there went 13. were the way 24 And Moses went elders of Israel. out, and told the people the words of the LORD, forth a wind from the Exod. 16. and gathered the seventy LORD, and brought quails Ps. 78. 26, 27, men of the elders of the from the sea, and let them 28. & 105. 40. people, and set them round fall by the camp, as it + Heb. as it were a day's journey on of a day. 25 And the LORD came this side, and as it were down in a cloud, and spake a day's journey on the unto him, and took of the other side, round about the spirit that was upon him, camp, and as it were two and gave it unto the cubits high upon the face seventy elders: and it came of the earth. See 2 Kings to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did 2. 15. See 1 Sam. 10. 5, 6, 10. & 19. 20, 21, 23. not cease. Joel 2. 29. Acts 2. 17, 18. &c. * See 1 Sam. 20. 26. 26 But there remained 1 Cor. 14. 1, two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; 33 And while the a flesh ↑ Ps. 78. 30, and they were of them that was yet between their were written, but went teeth, ere it was chewed, not out unto the taber- the wrath of the LORD nacle: and they prophesied was kindled against the in the camp. people, and the and the LORD 27 And there ran a smote the people with a young man, and told Mo- very great plague. ses, and said, Eldad and 34 And he called the Medad do prophesy in the name of that place || Ki- That is, The broth-hattaavah: because Deut. 9. 22. Jer. 36. 5. camp. graves of lust, BEFORE CHRIST 1490. b ch. 33. 17. there they buried the peo- journeyed from Kibroth- 35 BEFORE CHRIST 1490. + Heb. they were in, &c. PRAYER. LET US PRAY, that God would scatter the enemies of the soul, and make the soul His dwelling place. That we never murmur at the dispensations of the Providence which guides us through the wilderness of life. That we never set our hearts on the real or supposed blessings which the wisdom of God has not granted to us. That we seek for grace by observing the means of grace. O SHEPHERD of Israel, God of the Universal Church, both in the ancient and later days, who didst guide Thy people through the wilderness by the visible manifestation of Thy presence, and who dost guide us, Thine unworthy servants, by thy no less certain but invisible Providence; give us, we beseech Thee, such a measure of Thy grace, that we may ever, at the return of every day, and at the close of every day, pray to Thee, our Father in heaven, to preserve us from the power of evil, and to dwell within us as Thy best and most sacred temple. Oh, when the day dawns, when the temptations of the world, the engagements of life, the anxieties of the station in which Thy providence hath placed us, return to constitute our trial and temptation; rise Thou in the strength and power of Thy Holy Spirit to scatter the enemies which would wound, and conquer, and destroy the soul. Suffer us not to be separated from the remembrance of Thy presence, or the love of Thy Law. Subdue the sins which war against the honour of God, and the peace of our souls. Tread down Satan under our feet. May we pass through the world as not abusing it. May Thy hand uphold us, Thy power protect us, Thy Holy Spirit guide and comfort us in all the dangers and difficulties which beset our progress in our way to heaven. May we fight the good fight of faith, and hope, and prayer, and zeal, against all that hate Thee, being strong in Thy might, and clothed with the whole armour of God. So may our days and years be Thine, till we come to the borders of the heavenly Canaan, and wait for our great change. And, as we pray Thee to preserve us from all the enemies of our soul, so do we pray Thee to come among us, and to dwell within us. As Thy glory, when the Temple was dedicated to Thee, filled the courts of Thy house with the proofs of Thy presence, so come down from Thy holy place in heaven, and fill our hearts and souls, as the temples of the Holy Ghost, with the power and influence of the same Spirit, that no unworthy thoughts possess it, no evil presume to approach that sacred home where God is pleased to dwell. So enlighten our understanding, that no vain imaginations, no proud reasonings, no infidel speculations, presume to take up their abode therein. So change our affections and our wills, that we love Thee, and choose Thee as our portion, our treasure, and our all. So inspire our souls with an earnest resolution to possess Thee, that we love Thee more than the life itself, and fear to sin more than we fear to die. Dwell with us, O God of mercy. Son of the living God, come Thou, and dwell, and reign within us, till our whole nature become more and more like the nature of the Son of God. Dwell and reign within us, O Thou Holy Spirit of the God of the Church, and Father of the souls of men, that we become, before our death, the spiritual temples occupied, possessed, and filled with the Divine and sanctifying power of the God who is ever with us. So may we be the sons, the children, the offspring, the heirs of "Him who filleth all in all." And because Thou hast promised to hear our prayers, and thus to dwell within our souls, and to shed abroad the love of God there, so speak peace there, and there so give the happiness which is full of glory as the anticipation of the blessedness of the world to come. Take from us, we pray Thee, the spirit of murmuring and repining at the dispensations of Thy Providence. Take away from us all that inordinate affection for the riches, the honours, and the pleasures, which Thy wisdom hath withheld from us; and make us content with such things as we have. Prosper our industry: prosper the work of our hands, in the stedfast, patient, laborious endurance of the yoke which Thou hast commanded us to bear. If Thy blessing shall crown us with prosperity, may we be humbly thankful for Thy goodness, and devote to Thy service, and the good of man, the riches which have followed our labours. If Thy mysterious wisdom shall disappoint our hopes, and withhold the worldly advantages which we have expected to proceed from our exertions, give us that unfeigned resignation and humble submission to Thy Providence, that we remember and imitate the blessed example of Him who said, "Father, not My will, but Thine." "O my Father, if this cup may not pass from Me except I drink it, Thy will be done" (Matt. xxvi. 42). And that these, the favours we implore of Thee, may be rendered more certain, take away from us the presumption of hoping for Thy blessing, and praying for Thy grace, while we neglect the means of grace, and seek not Thy mercies in the way which Thy wisdom hath appointed. Give us the love of Thy Scriptures, the observance of the Lord's days, the going up to the house of the Lord, the frequent communion of the body and blood of Christ, the silent and serene meditation, when the earnest of the blessedness of a better state is imparted from God to man. Then, and then only, do we taste, and know, the joy which is unspeakable and full of glory, when we thus seek Thee in public and in private, in the ordinances of God's house, and in the consciousness of God's presence. Give us this blessing. Pardon the sins we have committed, the errors of our understandings, the weakness of our hearts. Guide us in the present stage of our journey through life and so direct the future, that our prayers, and our hopes, and our longing anticipations of a better world than the present, may not be in vain. We ask all in the Name and for the sake of that Holy Saviour, who has gone before us through earth to His glory. In His words we call upon Thee as Our Father, &c. The grace of our Lord, &c. NOTE 1. On the ark, Numb. x. 33. NOTES. Some think that there were two arks; one of which, containing the book of the law, preceded the camp; the other, containing the two tables, and perhaps the pot of manna and Aaron's rod (or these latter were in one or other of the arks). The second ark, containing the two tables, and made by Bezaleel, was carried by the Levites, in the midst of the standards. Or Bezaleel made the ark which carried the book of the law. But all this is very uncertain. NOTE 2. On the prayer at the removal of the ark, Numb. x. 35, 36. "Rise up, Lord!" "Stand still," "stand firm in our defence:” πρὸς ἀσπίδα στῆναι. (Eurip.) "Rise" is referred by some to the rising of the cloud.-" Rise, Jehovah!" This NOTE 3. On " And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord... and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp." Numb. xi. 1. Some commentators, understanding this murmuring to refer to the desire of the people for flesh to eat, place this verse, together with the two verses that follow, after the 30th verse of this chapter, just before the sending of the quails. But this, so far from removing the difficulty, will increase it. what did the people complain? Some think that they complained of the fatigue of the three days' journey; but the Hebrew, Ok, as the margin renders it, signifies, 66 Of as it were complainers ;" well translated by the Vulgate," ortum est murmur quasi dolentium pro labore :" they complained without any ground whatever; they perversely set themselves to find fault; they were dissatisfied, and could not tell for what. The LXX has γογγύζων πονηρὰ, where the student will observe that they join with And this is approved by Bishop Horsley, who renders the Greek, "murmured wickedly." What is meant is a naughty muttering, or grumbling, not perfectly articulated to human ears, but heard of God. I am disposed to regard the prefixed to the Hebrew word as implying the affected insincerity of this people, and the groundlessness of their peevish dissatisfaction: they were quasi complainers; "populi voces nequiter murmurantis" (Houbigant), who observes that the Hebrew idiom will not sanction the connexion בְּאָזְנֵי יְהוָה with רַע of I would also observe, in confirmation of the interpretation which I put forward, that the Hithpahel participle here implies the posture of mind in which these murmurers were-they set themselves to find fault. The treatment of this verse by our excellent translators at once betrays the perplexity which the Hebrew occasioned them, and that honesty which uniformly characterizes their labours, and which led them, without a single exception, to conceal nothing that might tend to give the reader a full view of the mind of the Spirit in his word. It may well be said that our translation of the Scriptures is the glory of our Church and of Christendom. If, as Rosenmüller conjectures, this murmuring is referred to in Psalm Ixxviii., we shall derive much light from a careful comparison of that Psalm with this chapter of Numbers. Regarding the Psalm as a summary of the successive complainings in the wilderness, we find ver. 18 to be exactly parallel with Numb. xi. 1, according to the literal Hebrew. The murmuring was secret; and what is expressed by "they tempted God in their heart," in the former, is expressed in the latter by the corresponding phrase, "they muttered perverse things in the ears of Jehovah." And now we arrive at the subject of their murmuring; it was, as the Psalm tells us, "by asking meat for their lust" (18). From saying all this secretly in their heart, they proceed to utter it audibly with their lips (ver. 19): "Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" And consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.-This may mean either that the fire devoured those that were in the extreme rear of the camp, where the worst characters in a host, the scum of the whole, would be found; or, that the fire destroyed those who were on the verge of the camp all around. NOTE 4. "And it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease." Numb. xi. 25. This may mean, that so long as the Spirit rested upon these men, they continued to prophesy without interruption; the sacred historian intimating, that when the spirit (of prophecy) quitted them, they did cease. But the LXX read differently, and for "did not cease," has ovк čтi πρоσέ0εvтo," they added no more after that." And this is supported by Theodor. Quæst. xx. in Num.: 66 They did not prophesy beyond this day (ört οὐ προφητείας χάριν, ἀλλ' οἰκονομίας, κ.τ.λ.), because God promoted them not to prophesy, but to govern; which St. Paul also reckons among other gifts bestowed upon Christians (1 Cor. xii. 26). The gift of prophecy was given for that day only, to attest their Divine appointment to an office of a different nature-that of government; which did not require the gift of prophecy, which therefore ceased. Bishop Patrick, while he admits this sense, avows that he does not see how our translation disagrees with it: "they did not cease all that day that they stood about the tabernacle." But the learned Houbigant has put forward an emendation of the Hebrew text which brings out a sense so natural, and so consistent with the context, that even they who refuse to admit its truth, must be struck with its ingenuity. may just remark, before I give Houbigant's opinion, that it is supported by the suffrages of Dathe and Rosenmüller. "Mendum jacet in verbo D', quod Samaritani scribunt EDN, ut significetur, non addiderunt, sed congregati sunt, vel fuerant. Et male interpunctio major post D', quæ fuerat post a collocanda, ut sententia finem habeat in verbis, et prophetaverunt, quam deinde sententia hæc altera sequatur; non congregati autem fuerant, sed in castris relicti fuerant duo viri, in oppositione ויאסף שבעים איש cum versu 24, ubi legitur congregavit septuaginta viros. Sacrâ paginâ narrante, duos homines, qui non convenerant cum cæteris ad tabernaculum, sed in castris relicti fuerant, fuisse tamen prophetiæ dono illustratos 1." 1 Houbigant, Bibl. Hebr. cum notis criticis, in Num. xi. 25. SECTION CXLIX. NUMBERS XXXIII. 17. XII. 1-15. XXXIII. 18. XII. 16. TITLE. Rebellion against government in the States, or schism against government in the Churches which are ruled by the word of God, is a great and heinous crime. Aaron the priest, and Miriam the prophetess, rebel against Moses. It is wise to ponder the difficulties in the way to Heaven. The spies are sent out to survey the land of Canaan. INTRODUCTION. -When a man and woman intermarry, the wife declares that she will obey her husband. Now, the bond of union between husband and wife is, not the authority of the husband, nor the obedience of the wife; but the mutual affection, love, and harmony, that should exist, as the foundation both of obedience and authority. Affection, love, and harmony, are to be rendered, by their mutual good principle and sound judgment, compatible with the authority of the husband and the obedience of the wife; and it is utterly and totally impossible to define, limit, and declare where the authority of the one, and the obedience of the other, begin and end. They must be left to the law of love, and thus provide for their mutual happiness by reconciling the seeming incompatibilities that may arise from authority and obedience. As it is in marriage, so it is in States and Churches. The people of a nation may be said to be married to their state rulers politically; and the members of a Church may be said to be married to their Church rulers ecclesiastically. And the law of love between them is the best regulator of the authority of the one and the obedience of the other. Still there might be differences between the husband and the wife, because of the very indefiniteness of the mutual obligations, which even affection and love would altogether remove. If, however, the institution of marriage were so to interfere in the case of the possibility of dissension, that a voice from heaven should be heard deciding the controversies between the husband and the wife, when the law of love could not produce the union between authority and obedience, no justification could be accepted of the wife who should refuse submission to the Divine command; and no justification could be urged in favour of the husband who should refuse to regulate his authority by the Divine precept. So it is also in States and Churches. Wherever the law of love does not so limit and define the authority of love and obedience exercised and required by the ruler and the ruled, the Word of God, clearly given, is the regulator, definer, and director of the governors and of the governed; and the will of God there expressed and there discovered, will ever be found a safer guide to mutual peace and mutual international happiness, than any theories of social equality, or any silly, useless, unmeaning declamations on the divine right of sovereigns, or on the liberty, fraternity, and privileges of the people. Wherever God's law, revealed in Christianity, mutually influences |