of their riches, &c. and puts them to the test, how far they believe in him; then they are too apt to betray their want of belief. The children of Israel ought to have been contented and easy, notwithstanding this want of water; since they were assured, that it was not by any mistake of their leader, but by God's command, that they were come into this barren wilderness, in which there was no water: For it is said in the text, "They journeyed according to the commandments of the Lord.' But this unthinking people did not look up unto God, nor attend to the motion of his hand, which had brought them into these streights; but in their impatience, they murmured and exclaimed against Moses, the glorious instrument that God was pleased to make use of to conduct them through the wilderness. They did not have recourse to their Almighty Creator, and pray to him for water, in their distress; but they went to Moses, and peremptorily insisted on his providing water for their use: Give us water, say they, that we may drink.' However, though these words proceeded from a very wicked disposition; yet may we borrow them from these thirsty Israelites, and, with a better frame of mind, apply them to Jesus Christ, saying, 'Give us water, that we may drink.' This our blessed Lord himself has permitted us to do. For it is not only to the Samaritan woman, but to every one of us, that Jesus says, 'If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water,' (John iv. 10, &c.)

Moses indeed briefly remonstrates to them, that their misbehaviour was very sinful, and says, 'Why chide you with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord ? But he did not think it advisable to enter into a long expostulation with this infatuated multitude, who were already looking out for stones to assault him. He then addressed himself to God; and intreated him not to revenge and punish such murder

ous intentions, but to give him direction and assistance in such a critical time. Now as Moses, in this instance, is a follower of God by his patience and long-suffering; so we ought to imitate Moses, and in the like circumstances to possess our souls in patience and gentleness.

God, by the intercession of his faithful servant Moses, is prevailed upon to work a miracle, to remove the people's distress; upon which their fury subsided. For this end, Moses is directed to go to a rock on Mount Horeb. The omnipotence of God could have raised a cloud from the sea, and after having driven it by the wind to the wilderness, have dissolved it in rain; or have caused a spring to gush out of the earth, with which the people might have quenched their thirst. But God was pleased to bring forth abundance of water, by cleaving a hard rock. Thus, he did not only give a more manifest proof of his omnipotence, in accomplishing his design by such improbable means; but likewise intended to make the Israelites ashamed of the hardness of their hearts, and at the same time by these circumstances, to shadow out some future event of a sublimer nature. Moses was to strike this rock with the same rod, with which he had performed his wonders in Egypt, and had divided the waters of the red sea. God reminds Moses of this circumstance, in the following words: Take in thine hand thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river;' so that by recollecting the former miracle, Moses's faith might be strengthened, and the unbelief of the people confounded.

Two sorts of spectators were present at the striking of this rock;

1. Christ himself, in the pillar of the cloud, who is supposed to say in the text, Behold, I will stand before thee there, upon the rock in Horeb,' 1. e. I will manifest myself in my glory, over the rock that shall be struck. But Christ is by no means to be thought a mere spectator on this occasion. It was by his

power, that this miracle was to be performed. As he had before directed the flight of the quails to the wilderness, and caused them to come and fall down among the tents of the children of Israel; so now he, in a wonderful manner, directs the course of the water to this rock.

2. The other class of spectators were the elders of the people; who were appointed to be witnesses of this miracle. The bulk of the people, by their unbelief, had rendered themselves unworthy of seeing this operation of the Divine omnipotence.

In the presence of the above mentioned spectators, Moses struck the rock with his rod, and in an instant produced a copious stream of living water, as appears from several other passages of scripture, (Psalm Ixxviii. 15, 16. cv. 41. cxiv. 8. Isaiah xlviii. 21.)

If we would search deeper into the mystery of this remarkable transaction; St. Paul, who is an unexceptionable authority as to the true intention of God, throws a great light upon it in these words: 'Our fathers did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ,' (1 Cor. x. 4.) From these words we may learn two things,

First, That the rock which Moses struck had a spiritual import, and represented Christ.

Secondly, That the water, which flowed from the rock, had also a spiritual meaning; hence it is termed by the Apostle, a 'spiritual drink,' i. e. drink which typified something spiritual.

Our blessed Saviour, in several passages of the Old Testament, when described as a protector and deliverer of his people, is called a rock. Moses speaks thus of the Israelites: Jesurun waxed fat and kicked, and forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation,' (Deut. xxxii 15.) or, as the original phrase imports, treated him like a fool, or an idiot.

A rock is hard, permanent, and immovable; and therefore a proper type to prefigure,

1. The eternity and immutability of Christ. 2. His invincible firmness and strength.

3. His being an asylum to some, and an offence to others.

Those, who in confidence of faith fly to him for refuge, find safety and protection. Thus anciently, in time of war, the people betook themselves to the highest rocks for safety against the attacks of the enemy. But they, who through unbelief dash themselves against this spiritual rock, do it to their own destruction. Hence Christ is stiled in scripture, 'a rock of offence and a stumbling stone,' (Rom. ix. 32, 33. 1 Peter ii. 8.) Thus we see, how very properly our blessed Saviour is in general compared to a rock.

But this rock, of which we are now treating, represents Christ only in one particular, namely, that when it was struck with Moses's rod, it sent forth water; and in this event we find a two-fold mystery.

First, The sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, The abundant gifts of the Holy Ghost, which our blessed Saviour has acquired for us by his sufferings.

The former is represented by striking the rock with the lawgiver's rod; and the second is typified by the plenty of water which this stroke produced. These two particulars we shall now enlarge upon; and observe the wonderful resemblance between the type and the great Antitype.

I. The following resemblances may be observed between the rock that was struck, and Christ under his sufferings.

1. The rock Horeb derived its name from its aridity; for it was a dry parched rock, which seems but ill adapted to be a copious spring of water, to quench the thirst of such a numerous people. Thus, it is said of our blessed Saviour in his state of abasement, He shall grow up as a tender plant and as a root out of a

dry ground,' (Isaiah liii. 2.) The Pharisees and rulers of the people, his enemies, were persons of wealth and distinction, and flourished like a green bay tree, (Psalm xxxvii. 35.) but of the Messiah it is said, When we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him,' (Isaiah liii. 2.) His mean appearance like a servant, his obscure parentage and other circumstances externally despicable, rendered him a rock of offence to his people, a stone which the builders rejected.

2. The rock out of which the water was to flow was pointed out to Moses by God himself. In like manner Christ was appointed by his Father before the foundation of the world, to be the Saviour of mankind. and the spring of living waters.

3. The glory of the Lord manifested itself over the rock which was struck, in the pillar of the cloud: 'Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb.' Thus the visible human nature of Jesus, the rock of salvation, was personally united with the Divine glory, which dwelled within it much more essentially than it did anciently in the cloud. Nay, the Divine glory displayed itself in Christ even in the lowest state of his humiliation; for, notwithstanding all the indignities and insults that were offered him, some rays of the divinity beamed in the eyes of the Roman officer who stood at the cross, so that he cried out, "Truly this was the Son of God!'

4. The rock, on which God thus manifested his glory, was struck by his direction; so Jesus Christ, the rock of salvation, was wounded by the permission, and according to the predeterminate counsel and will of God; who says by the prophet, 'Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, and the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts,' (Zech. xiii. 7.) The strokes which our spiritual rock suffered, are the inward and outward sufferings of Jesus Christ.

5. The rock of Horeb was struck at a time when all Isreal rebelled against the Lord and his servant Moses,