wafted and confumed by various plagues and calamities, during a forty years peregrination. See Numb. xii. xiii. xiv. St. Jude makes mention of fuch a generation in the early days of the Chriftian church, speakers of "hard speeches against Christ, murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lufts;" and he therefore puts converts "in remembrance, how that "the Lord, having faved the people out of the land "of Egypt, afterward deftroyed them that believed "not." Jude, verfe 5, and 15. Because, notwithftanding all that Jefus has done, and continues to do for the church, men "fin yet more, and believe not "for his wondrous works," but either defpife the heavenly country, or defpair of obtaining it, therefore is the hand of God heavy upon the world; “vanity and trouble" wear out the life of man; and they who have paffed the waters of baptifm, fall hort of the promised rest.

34. When he flew them, then they fought him: and they returned, and enquired early after God. 35. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer. 36. Nevertheless did they flatter him with their mouth, and they lyed unto him with their tongues. 37. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they fedfaft in his covenant.

Several inftances of this behaviour occur in the history of Korah's rebellion and punishment, of the fiery ferpents, and of Ifrael and Moab. See Numb. xvi. xx. xxi. xxv. The Ifraelites, in this particular, refembled their great perfecutor Pharaoh; their repentance, which came with the divine judgments, went alfo away with them, and appeared no more.

By

by night the dew falleth from heaven, and refresheth the weary ground, and causeth the green herb and the flower of the field to revive and fpring; but in the morning the fun arifeth with a burning heat; and presently the dew is evaporated, the grafs withereth, the flower fadeth, and the ground again becometh parched and dry, as before. Thus it is with man. Adversity is the night, and grace is the dew, by which his heart is made tender and religious, and good refolutions are formed, and begin to shoot; but returning profperity has the force and effect of a fummer fun; at it's prefence piety vanifheth, refolutions come to nothing, and the heart is once more hardened. "O Ephraim," exclaims Jehovah by his prophet, "what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what "fhall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a "morning cloud, and as the early dew it paffes

away." Hof. vi. 4. Who, that hath been converfant in the houfe of mourning, and about the bed of fickness, but must have seen frequent inftances of a temporary and deceitful repentance? Whofe heart doth not reproach him with fome of these backflidings of Ifrael? In the day, therefore, of health, and strength, and profperity, before the indignation of heaven break forth, and the right aiming thunderbolts fly abroad, from a motive of love, not of fear, let us" feek early after God, and return from our fins, remembering the rock of our falvation, and "the high God, our Redeemer." Thus may we entertain fome hope, that our converfion is fincere; that we do not "flatter, and lie" unto our Maker; that our "heart is right with him," and we fhall VOL. II.

C

con neftedfaft in his covenant."

And then, a

plant that is fet and lives in the heat of the day, how will it thrive, and flourish, under the cool and moist influences of night!

38. But he being full of compaffion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not; yea, many a time turned he is anger away, and did not fir up all his wrath. 39. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind, or, breath, that' paffeth away, and cometh not again.

Had God "ftirred up all his wrath," the Ifraelites must have been exterminated in the wilderness. But then the promises made to Abraham, of mercy and "compaffion" to them, and by them to all mankind, had failed. Therefore they were forgiven," and not destroyed:" judgment was executed, from time to time, upon the perfons of offenders; but still a remnant was left; the nation fubfifted, until the Seed came, to whom the promife was made. Nay, although, in confequence of their laft and greatest crime, their polity was fubverted with their city and temple, the race is yet marvellously preferved; and, we trust, preserved for mercy, to be shewn them in the last days. Be not angry, O Lord Jefu, for ever, with them, or with us; but remember of what materials we are made, and into what a state we are fallen; how weak and how frail we are; how liable to be feduced into fin, and blinded by error: remember this, O Lord, and forgive us; and teach us to remember it, that we may forgive one another.

40. How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the defert? 41. Yea, they

turned

turned back, and tempted God, and limited the holy One of Ifrael. 42. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the hand of the enemy: 43. How he had wrought his figns in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.

The question which the Pfalmift here asks, concerning Ifrael in the wilderness, is elsewhere asked by him, concerning mankind in general: "Who can "tell how oft he offendeth?" Pf. xix. 12. God informs Mofes, who had interceded for the people, and, in the name of the great Mediator, obtained their pardon, that "thofe men which had feen his "glory, and his miracles which he did in Egypt and "in the wilderness, had tempted him ten times, and "had not hearkened to his voice." Numb. xiv. 22. Forgetfulness of the mercies of redemption is the beginning of fin; and though every one knows how to refent and deteft the crime of ingratitude in another, he yet thinks that his beft benefactor will overlook the most flagrant inftances of it in himself.

44. And had turned their rivers into blood and their floods, that they could not drink. 45. Hefent divers forts of flies, Heb. a mixture, whether of beasts, or infects, noifome and deftructive, among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. 46. He gave alfo their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locuft. 47. He deftroyed their vines with hail, and their fycamore trees with froft. 48. He gave up their cattle alfo to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts, or, flashes of lightning.

The Pfalm goes back to the subject of Ifraelitish ingratitude, mentioned at the beginning, verfe 11,

12. in order to introduce an account of the miracles wrought in Egypt, previous to the Exodus. These miracles were intended to evince the fuperiority of Jehovah over the elements and powers of nature, which at that time were objects of worship amongst the Egyptians, but plainly appeared to act at the command of Mofes, in fubordination to their great Creator, the God of the Hebrews. In the heavens, on the earth, and in the waters, fupremacy and independency were demonftrated to belong to him only: fire and air, thunder and lightning, wind, rain, and hail obeyed his word: rivers became blood, and their inhabitants perished; infects and animals left their wonted habitations, to destroy vegetables, or torment man: fo that wherever the gods of Egypt were fupposed to refide, and to exert their influences in favour of their votaries, in all places, and all circumstances, victory declared for Jehovah. Hence modern as well as ancient idolaters may learn, not to put their trust in the world, but in him who made, and who can and will destroy it; whose power can render the most infignificant of his creatures inftruments of his vengeance, and, in a moment, arm all the elements against finners; and whofe mercy will employ that power in the final falvation of the church; when, as the author of the book of wifdom expreffeth it, "He fhall make the creature his weapon for the re"venge of his enemies, and the world fhall fight for "him against the unwife." Wifd. v. 17, 20. The curious and striking reflections which that author makes on the plagues of Egypt, in Chap. xi, xvii, xviii, xix. are well worthy an attentive perufal. It