SERM. care and labour of man, but in a new and down bread from heaven, without any ex- proper I. To ftate the circumftances of that great event which Mofes refers to in the Text: He humbled thee, and fuffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knoweft not, neither did thy fathers know. Then, II. To urge the reasonablenefs of that Inference which is drawn from it: That he might make thee know, that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the. mouth of the Lord doth man live. And, III. To apply this under a few Refleċtions to the ordinary conduct and œco-. nomy of human life. I. FIRST SERM. I. FIRST then for the circumftances of VII. this great event: they are principally contain'd in the xvith chapter of the book of Exodus. The children of Ifrael being rescued from Egypt by a great deliverance, were to take their journey to the land of Canaan thro' a barren wilderness. In a month's time it appeared that the provifions they had brought from Egypt were confumed, and what the Wilderness afforded was too fcanty to fupply their neceffities. The aftonishing experience they had lately had of the hand of Providence ftretched out for their defence, should have taught them to depend upon his care under all future difficulties, and not doubt of the continuance of that power and goodness which they had fo amply experienced before. But fuch was their attachment to present and fenfible enjoyments, that they knew not how to depend on that fupport, of which there was no vifible appearance; from whence the whole congregation was induced to murmur against Mofes and Aaron in the Wilderness, and even to wish they had died in the land of Egypt, where they fate by the flesh-pots, and eat bread to the full, rather than to have been brought out into that defert place, and have the dreadful profpect of being kill'd with famine. Thus VOL. III. N (as SERM. (as the Pfalmift fpeaks) they remembered not VII. his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy, how he had wrought his figns in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan*; how (after he had divided the fea for their paffage, which returned to cover the Egyptians) he led them in the day time with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. Yet for all this they finned more against him, by provoking the moft High in the Wildernefs. And they tempted God in their heart; by afking meat for their luft. Yea, they fpake against God, faying, Can God prepare a table in the Wilderness? Almighty God, tho' provoked with such ftubborn unbelief and ingratitude, yet fo far condefcended to their weakness, as to fend them a great number of Quails, and befides That, to rain down an unusual kind of bread from heaven, which from their ignorance of its nature and properties, (afking, What is it?) took the name of Manna. The gift of Quails feems not to have been continued beyond that evening; for fome time after this, tho' they had feen new wonders wrought for their deliverance, when God clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink thereof, as it had been out of the great depths ‡, yet ftill they murmur'd for the lofs of their good fare * Pfal. lxxviii. 42, 43. † Ver. 14, 17, 18, 19. 1 Ver. 15. in Egypt, and complain'd that they had SER M. there no other food but Manna*: upon VII. which occafion God fent them again Quails' in great abundance; he rained flesh alfo upon them as duft (fays the Pfalmift) and feathered fowls like as the fand of the fea. But withal the wrath of God came upon them for their difobedience, and fmote down the chofen men of Ifrael †. But the Manna was continued throughout the forty years of their journeying in the Wilderness, till they had paffed over Jordan, under the command of Joshua, and had begun to tafte of the fruits and provifions of the land of Canaan. And, that the memory of fo fignal a miracle might not be loft to future generations, they were required to preferve a pot full of this Manna of the quantity of an omer, and lay it up before the ark of the testimony, that pofterity might know with what kind of Provifion their Fathers had been fed, and how much was the daily portion of every one's eating. There was no day any failure of this heavenly provifion, excepting on the fabbath, when it pleafed God to rest from fending them this food, that he might make them reft from gathering or preparing it, in order to instruct them in the due celebration of that holy Festival. But + Pfal. Ixxviii. 27, 31. N 2 *Numb. xi. 5, 6. then, SERM. then, to fupply this deficiency, there fell a VII. double quantity on the fixth day of the week, which being then gathered and prepared, ferved for their provifion both on that day and the day following. On all other days they were exprefly forbidden to provide more than a fingle omer for every head, of which they were not allowed to lay by any till the next day; and if any was laid by contrary to this rule, that distruft of God's goodnefs was punished with putrefaction and its breeding of worms; tho' from the fixth day to the feventh it was preferved without any fuch inconvenience, to fhew the difference there is between doing the fame thing in obedience to a Divine command, and doing it out of a prophane diftruft of the continued care and bounty of Divine Providence. There is fome little difficulty in the quantity prescribed for, tho' the direction at firft be to gather every man according to his eating, an omer for every man * ; yet, in relating the fact, it is faid afterwards, they gathered fome more, fome lefs; and when they did mete it with an omer, be that gathered much, had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. This the Jewish Expofitors have generally fuppofed to be not without a miracle, whilst whatever * Exod. xvi. 16. + Ver. 17, 18. + Vide Buxtorf. Exercit. ad Hift. Mannæ, cap. 4. |