BEFORE CHRIST 1490. ch. 11. 4. & 17 3. ch. 16. 41. Ps. 106. 25. NUMBERS XIV. 1-25. 1 And all the congre- against the LORD, neither and shadow. fear y Exod. 16. 2. 2 And all the children departed from them, 29. Isai. 30. 2, 3. Deut. 20. 1, 3, them And the Josh. 1. 5. the 4. & 31. 6, 8. Judg. 1. 22. 12. & 15. 2. & 2 Chron. 13. 20.17. & 32.8. congregation before all the Ps. 46. 7, 11. children of Israel. 11 ¶ And the LORD it 3 And wherefore hath Neh. 9. 17. another, a Let us make a Isai. 41. 10. Zech. 8. 23. m Exod. 17.4. Exod. 16. 17. & 40. 34. Lev. 9. 23. 10. & 24. 16, ch. 16. 19, 42. & 20. 6. • ver. 23. Deut. 9. 7, 8, 22. Ps. 95. 8. Hebr. 3. 8, Moses and make of thee a greater 42. & 106. 24. Aaron fell on their faces nation and mightier than John 12. 37. Hebr. 3. 18. Exod. 32. 10. said 'Exod. 32. unto the LORD, Then the 12. Ps. 106. 23. Deut. 9. 26, 27. 14. Exod. 15. Josh. 2. 9, 10. 14. 6 And Joshua the Egyptians shall hear it, (for 27, 28. & 32. son of Nun, and Caleb the thou broughtest up this Ezek. 20. 9, son of Jephunneh, which people in thy might from were of them that searched among them ;) the land, rent their clothes: 14 And they will tell it 7 And they spake unto to the inhabitants of this all the company of the land: for they have heard children of Israel, saying, that thou LORD art among * The land, which we passed this people, that thou LORD through to search it, is an art seen face to face, and exceeding good land. that thy cloud standeth 8 If the LORD delight over them, and that thou 26 & 22. 20.' in us, then he will bring goest before them, by day us into this land, and give time in a pillar of a cloud, it us; a land which flow- and in a pillar of fire by & 5. 1. BEFORE CHRIST kill all this people as one 1490. man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Deut. 9.28. was not "able to bring this Josh. 7. 9. BEFORE CHRIST 1490. 21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Ps. 72. 19. LORD. e C Ps. 95. 11. & 106. 26. 18. 22 d Because all those Deut. 1. 35. men which have seen my people into the land which glory, and my miracles, Hebr. 3. 17, he sware unto them, there- which I did in Egypt and fore he hath slain them in in the wilderness, have the wilderness. tempted me now these ten Gen. 31. 7. 17 And now, I beseech times, and have not hearkthee, let the power of my ened to my voice; LORD be great, according 23 Surely they shall as thou hast spoken, saying, not see the land which I 18 The LORD is long-sware unto their fathers, Ps. 103. 8. & suffering, and of great neither shall any of them mercy, forgiving iniquity that provoked me see and transgression, and by it: - Exod. 34. 6, 7. 145. 8. Jonah 4. 2. & 34. 7. no w means clearing the 24 But my Josh. 14. 6, 8, 9, 14. * Exod. 20. 5. guilty, visiting the ini-Caleb, because he had & Deut. 1. 36. quity of the fathers upon another spirit with him, and the children unto the third hath followed and fourth generation. Ꮓ y Exod. 34. 9. 19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this Ps. 106. 45. people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even * Ps. 78. 38. h me fully, ch. 32. 12. him will I bring into the land whereinto he went ; and his seed shall possess it. 25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you Deut. 1. 40. 20 And the LORD said, into the wilderness by the I have pardoned according way of the Red sea. Or, hitherto. || until now. i INTERCESSORY PRAYER FOR THE WHOLE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF CHRIST. LET US PRAY, that we be anxious and resolute to secure our highest happiness; that we abide in the communion of the Church of Christ; that we promote its unity, extend its influence, and uphold the two chief objects for which it was instituted the glory of God, and the good of man; that God's Holy Spirit would so rule the hearts of Christians, that error, disunion, and needlesslyalienating laws, be put away, both by rulers and people, in all Churches; and that Britain be honoured as the accomplisher of the prophecies of God. O LORD and Head of the Church, from the creation of man till the day when the dead, small and great, shall stand before Thee! Thou who didst call Thy people Israel from Egypt, and placed before them the better land of their inheritance; and who hast prepared for us, Thine unworthy servants, those good things that pass man's understanding; so give us, we pray Thee, the assistance of Thy grace; so pour forth the influences of Thy Holy Spirit upon us, that we never prefer the love of the world to the love of God, nor value the lower happiness which contented the Gentile who knew not God, above that higher happiness which is the portion of the children of God. May we never rest till we be at peace with Thee. Put upon us the whole armour of God. Make us strong and of good courage. Tread down Satan under our feet. Enable us to conquer every enemy of the soul that seeks its better portion. Suffer us not to fall away from Thee, nor to go back into the slavery and bondage of sin. Swear not in Thy wrath that we shall not enter into Thy rest. And because we dare not hope for Thy grace while we neglect the means of grace, keep us stedfast, we beseech Thee, in the communion of Thy holy Church. May we ever rejoice in its sacraments, offer its prayers, and join in its holy praises. As Thy servant Moses approached to Thee in the day when the Church and the people of Israel became divided between the resolute and the irresolute, and implored Thee to pardon the transgressors, to accomplish Thy promises, and to bring Thy people to their inheritance; so enable us, we pray Thee, to offer to the God of the Christian Church our humble prayers to heal the divisions of Thy Church, to unite those, for whom the blood of Christ was shed, into one body, as they have the one hope of their calling, the better Canaan of Heaven, the rest that remaineth for the people of God. O Lord, arise, help Thy Church, and deliver it from its divisions, for Thy Name's sake, O God! we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have declared unto us, the noble work which Thou hast in all ages done for Thy holy Church. O Lord, arise, help us, and deliver us, for Thine honour, from all the heresies, sects, and schisms, which rend Thy Church, provoke the contempt of Thine enemies, call forth the blasphemy of the infidel and the heathen, and hinder the progress of Thy Gospel among mankind. Send forth Thy light and Thy truth, that they may be the bond of union to all that hope in Thee. Lengthen the cords and strengthen the stakes of Thy Church, that our own people, in all parts of the world, may be enfolded within one communion. So extend the commerce and name of England, and so extend with them the power of Thy religion, the influence of Thy Church, and the knowledge of Thy holy Word, that this our own land be the leaven of mankind, the Canaan of these latter days; that Thy name may be known to all the earth, Thy saving health to all nations. Rule, we pray Thee, in the hearts of all to whom the message of God, through Christ, has been made known; that a new heart and a new spirit be given to all Christian Churches, to all Christian governments, to all Christian rulers, and to all Christian people. If there be in the Church of Rome, or in the Churches which acknowledge the power and authority of the ruler of that Church, any one custom, law, article, or sentiment, which Thy word does not sanction, nor Thy will approve, and which has caused and does cause useless, and needless, and unjust alienations between Christian and Christian; so give Thy grace to the rulers and people of that Church, that they remove from among them the root of bitterness which springs up to divide the Universal Church. If there be in the Church of England, or in the Churches which hold communion with that Church, any one custom, law, article, or sentiment, which Thy word does not sanction, nor Thy will approve, and which causes useless, and needless, and unjust alienation between Christian and Christian; give Thy grace to the rulers and people of that Church also to remove from among them the root of bitterness which springs up to divide the Universal Church. Whatever root of bitterness or alienation between Christian and Christian there may be in Rome or England, or in any Church, or sect, or party, or individual which professes to believe in the faith of Christ crucified; so send forth the spirit of truth and love, of light and of peace; so send forth the spirit of wisdom and might, that they remove the error, and the hatred, and the darkness, and the weakness, and the folly, and the irresolution that may have marked their counsels. May the senators and the people who call upon Thy name be enabled to hold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and so become one fold under one Shepherd. Accomplish Thy prophecies. Fulfil Thy promises. Restore unity and peace to Thy Church. Make the family of man the family and Church of God. And so bless and prosper the religion and the liberties, the greatness and the wealth, of this our own land, that we be honoured, as Thy people of old were honoured, in filling the earth with the glory of God. So be with us, that the prosperity of our Church and of our government be identified with the honour of God and the good of all mankind. O God! be Thou our own God. Give us, and ours, and all for whom we ought to pray, Thy present and Thine everlasting blessing. We ask all, not in our own name, but in the name and in the words of our blessed Lord and Saviour. We pray to Thee as Our Father, &c. The grace of our Lord, &c. NOTE. NOTE On the influence of England as the accomplisher of the prophecies. Numb. xiv. 21. The meaning of this passage seems to be, that even if the twelve tribes of Israel shrank from the high office of bearing the standard of the God of Truth against the idolatry and corruption of the world, other nations should be raised up to extend the dominion of good over evil, and to accomplish the original prediction, that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. The whole history of the world and of the Church may be said to be merely the detailed account of the manner in which the providence of God accomplishes this original prophecy. From the earliest ages God has always chosen or set apart one family or nation to be the depository of His word and will, and the instrument of its conservation and propagation. Of the sons of Adam, He chose Seth; of the descendants of Seth, He chose Noah; of the sons of Noah, He chose Shem; of Shem's posterity, He chose Abraham; of Abraham's sons, He chose Isaac; of Isaac's sons, He preferred the younger, Jacob; of Jacob's sons, He chose Judah, to be the head of that tribe to which His temple was to appertain, and, above all, from whom David was to spring, the ancestor, according to the flesh, of Him who was at once "David's son and David's Lord." So long as this Jewish polity lasted, and until Shiloh came, while the rest of the tribes were shattered into fragments, or swallowed up in the indiscriminate mass of human kind, Judah retained her integrity and severance from all others; in spite of every effort to wrench it from her grasp, she still held “ the sceptre ;" and in spite of the envy of surrounding nations, she still retained her own "lawgiver," her own governor, who administered her own laws. But no sooner had He come for whose sake alone she was thus wondrously preserved, than the sceptre dropped from her palsied hand, and the independence, the very existence of Judah, was at an end. It would seem that at this point, seeing that He was at last come to whom the gathering of the peoples" (ria, (Ovŋ) was to be, and the Church of God was to be coextensive with the globe, the selection of some one highly-favoured family or nation would cease to be an ordinance of God. The early Churches, and, for a time, the Church of Rome, had the high honour conferred upon them of being made the depositories of the truth. When Rome, by its gradual apostasy, permitted, however, the sceptre of the more undefiled truth to fall from its hand, our own highly-favoured nation succeeded to its influence over the hearts and minds of the reflecting and truthful portion of mankind. Passing over the dark period which separates the Apostolic Churches from the time of Wickliffe, we find England is raised up to be the chosen asylum of the truth, and the heavenillumined beacon whence its rays are destined to shine with renewed lustre over the nations sitting once more in darkness and the shadow of death. Here she has thenceforth taken up her settled abode, "Hic illius arma, hic currus;" and, to the eye of the Christian inquirer into the dealings of Providence with man the history of England, from that hour to the present, is but a development of God's signal guardianship of our favoured land, granted to her for the purpose of fitting her to be the evangelizer of the universe. For what other purpose shall we say that this small island, in the northern ocean, has been blessed with so large a measure of civil liberty, secured to her by her well-poised constitution; a commerce that girdles the globe; a sceptre that touches the east and the west, and knows no rival, no equal; a literature that has identified with itself the truths and doctrines of revelation; so that in England alone the Bible is a classical book; a language bearing the impress of her people, fit for eloquence and poetry, for philosophy and morals, for statesmen who defend her rights, and for theologians who proclaim her faith; fit to make immortal the inspirations of genius, and the dictates of wisdom; to give adequate expression to the revelation of Heaven, and to be an instrument for the general diffusion of its truths; a language spoken at this moment by a hundred millions of the human race, and bidding fair, ere long, to be all but universal? What shall we say of her matchless Liturgy; of her colonies-colonies 1 Compare our English version of the Bible with any other modern version whatever. "I do which she has not merely acquired by right ? Ezek. xxxvi. 22. SECTION CLI. NUMBERS XIV. 26-45. PSALM XC. TITLE.-No natural reason can be assigned for the present shortness of human life. The possibility of the truth of the Jewish tradition, that the average length of life became seventy years at the rebellion of the Israelites in the wilderness. The sentence of banishment from Canaan being pronounced on the people, they attempt to obtain possession of the promised land without the Divine assistance. Future happiness to be obtained by faith, not by presumption. The prayer of Moses in the ninetieth Psalm. INTRODUCTION.-Nothing is more unphilosophical than Infidelity. The rejectors of the miracles, and the deniers of the truth of Christianity in modern days, are accustomed to urge precisely the same argument in defence of their unbelief which used to be urged in the time of the Apostles. It is this:-That because the experience of our senses demonstrates to us the uniformity and regularity by which the world is upheld or governed, it therefore follows that the world always has been, and always will be upheld or governed precisely in the same manner. "Where is the promise of His coming?" was the language of the persons to whom they spake. "Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation'." "How can I believe," says 1 2 Pet. iii. 4. |