ritual nourishment, not for a day or a year, but for a confiderable length of time. Were they only to march through the wilderness, in order to take possession of the land, as they came formerly from Babylon, confuming no more time than the distance betwixt the two places required; they might carry their provifions along with them, confequently fuch large and repeat. ed promises of fupport in the wildernefs would be unneceffary.

Another reafon for continuing their fathers in the wildernefs was, to confume the wicked from among the congregation; fo God fays:" And "your children fhall wander in the wilderness

forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until ¿C your carcafes be wafted in the wildernefs." Numb. xiv. 33. The destruction of these murmurers was designed not only as a punishment to them, but likewife as a benefit to the whole congregation, by teaching them the ufe of dif cipline, and training them by the exercife of difcipline, to form them a pure fociety, previous to their fettlement in the land.

Now that there are fome wicked individuals a mong the Jews, after the nation is converted in one body, we may infer from expreffions added to the promises juft quoted. "There "is no peace, faith the Lord, unto the wicked;" Įsa. xlviii. 22. These fame expreffions are repeated

peated, Ifa. Ivii. 21. and follow immediately after the promise of their converfion. Still more explicitly, Ezek xi, 19, 20. God promises, "I

will give them one heart, and I will put a new fpirit within you and I will take the ftony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh. That they may walk "in my ftatutes, and keep mine ordinances, " and do them: and they fhall be my people,

and I will be their God;" promifes that clear ly refer to their converfion in the latter day. He further adds, "But as for them whofe heart walketh after the heart of their deteftable

things and their abominations, I will recom "pence their way upon their own heads, faith

the Lord God;" ver. 21. From which I conclude, that after the nation is converted, there will be fome wicked men among them, and confequently it requires time to purge out thefe from among the congrégation, by the flow exercise of discipline.

Accordingly, this is afferted in the most unequivocal manner: "And I will purge out from "among you the rebels, and them that tranfવર્લ્ડ grefs against me: I will bring them forth

out of the country where they fojourn, and $6 they fhall not enter into the land of Ifrael;" Ezek. xx. 38. Every circumstance mentioned is contained in this paffage. There are rebels

and

1

and tranfgreffors against God in the congregation, after they are admitted into the bond of the co

venant.

They are tranfgreffors in the wilderness after they are brought "out of the country where they fojourned." Thefe tranfgreffors die in the wilderness; "they fhall not enter into the "land of Ifrael."

This is further confirmed, and the nature of their rebellion in fome measure illuftrated; Ezek. xxxiv. 16.-22. God having promised to restore his people, and to feed them like a flock on the mountains of Ifrael; ver. 14, 15. he proceeds to fhew the previous fteps, by which he prepared them for this good pasture; so that the passage intends his gathering them into the wilderness in which they are converted, and his treatment of them there after their converfion: "I will feek that which was loft, and

bring again that which was driven away, "and will bind up that which was broken, "and will strengthen that which was fick: but "I will deftroy the fat and the ftrong; I will

feed them with judgment. And as for you, "Omy flock, thus faith the Lord God, Behold, "I judge between cattle and cattle, between "the rams and the he-goats. Seemeth it a "fmall thing unto you to have eaten up the "good pafture, but ye muft tread down with

your

your feet the refidue of your paftures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye "must foul the refidue with your feet? And "as for my flock, they eat that which ye have "trodden with your feet; and they drink that "which ye have fouled with your feet. There"fore, thus faith the Lord God unto them, Be"hold I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, "and pushed all the diseased with your horns,

till ye have scattered them abroad; there❝fore will I feek my flock, and they shall no "more be a prey; and I will judge between "cattle and cattle." I apprehend, that the crime here laid to their charge is pharifaical pride. They are fat, that is, puffed up with a conceit of their own fuperior attainments, They "tread down the refidue of their pasture, " and foul the deep waters of which they drink "with their feet." They defpife the ordinances of religion difpenfed among them, instead of receiving inftruction with humility; they fet themselves up as judges and cenfurers of their teachers. "They thruft with fide and "shoulder, and push the diseased with their "horns." The ufe they make of their abiйities and knowledge is, to ftagger the faith of the infirm, reverfing the apoftle's maxim, “re

"ceiving

"ceiving him that is weak in the faith to doubt"ful difputations, not to godly edifying." The company of Korah, Dathan and Abiram of old, fhewed much of this fpirit. They pretended a refpect for the congregation of the Lord, as being holy, yet they fet themselves in oppofition to the authority which Gad established in the congregation, for the express purpose of maintaining and promoting that holinefs. A fimilar fpirit thewed itself early in the church of Chrift: "I wrote unto the church: (fays the apoftle,

66

3 John, ver. 9.) but Diotrephes, who loveth "to have the pre-eminence among them, re"ceiveth us not." In every period, perions of this difpofition have appeared, perhaps they are more numerous in proportion to the greater purity in which the ordinances of religion are difpenfed. Their conduct proceeds from the enmity of the carnal mind varnished over with an appearance of fuperior fanctity; it is more offenfive to God, and more injurious to the interefts of religion, than open infidelity or profanenefs.

A third reason for continuing Israel in the wilderness of old, was to form them into a national church, by the ufe of the ordinances, government and discipline which they were afterwards to practise in the land. Juft fo, the Jews, when converted, fhall be trained under the immediate