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own uncleanness, humbly has recourfe to the grace of God in Christ, ought not therefore to defpond; for, "the good Jehovah pardoneth every one that prepareth his heart to feek God, Jehovah the God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the fanctuary," 2 Chron. xxx. 18, 19.

LVI. Again, the Ifraelites in Egypt were commanded to eat the lamb, girded, fhod, and leaning on their staves. Το which rites we may fee frequent allufions in Scripture. Christ, Luke xii. 35. Paul, Eph..vi. 14. and Peter, 1 Pet. i. 3. commands us to have our loins girded about: to fignify that the fouls of believers are to be girded about with truth and foberness; to be ready for the heavenly journey, for the work of the Lord, for the conflict with fpiritual wickedneffes in heavenly places; to all which undertakings, flowing, and trailing garments, are an impediment. Paul, Eph. vi. 15. fpeaks of feet fhod with the preparation, or promptitude, of the gofpel of peace. the gofpel is to be preached with cheerfulnefs, and confeffed and walked in without ftumbling. God himself is the believer's staff, on whom he leans, and to whom he commends his foul. Faith also is instead of a staff, because by it we are said to stand, Rom. xi. 20. 1 Cor. vi. 13. But we are to take particular notice, that this is the attire of travellers, which is the condition of all who are partakers of Chrift For, in this life they are ftrangers, and in their way to a better country, Pf. xxxix. 13. I Pet. ii. 11.

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LVII. The Ifraelites were also commanded to eat it in haste, because there was danger in delay from the Egyptians, who were foon to prefs them to be gone. And this is alfo applicable to us; because many enemies have a defign upon us, the journey is long, the time short, and we feeble and eafily apt to flag. Wherefore, as Lot was to go out of Sodom, and the Ifraelites out of Egypt, fo we are commanded to make haste, to stretch every nerve in order to escape the jaws of the devil, imitating thofe violent who take the kingdom of heaven by force, Mat. xi. 12. and remembering Lot's wife, who perished by her delay, Luke xvii. 32.

LVIII. Laftly, We are to obferve, that the lamb was to be eaten in one house, out of which it was not lawful to go, for fear of meeting the angel of death. This houfe is the church, out of which there is no falvation, no communion with Chrift. Let the falfe Nicodemists take notice of this, who imagine they can skulk in fafety among the Egyptians, and think it fufficient. if they believe in their heart, though with their mouth they confefs not the Lord Jefus, feparating what the apostle has VOL. II. joined

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joined together, Rom. x. 9. And therefore, if they be wife, let them not forfake the affembling themselves together with us, Heb. x. 20. And having once entered this houfe, let them never leave it, least they be condemned for apoftates; concerning whom Paul fpeaks, Heb. vi. 4-6. and chap. x. 38, 39. and Peter, 2 Pet. ii. 20, 21.

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CHAP. X.

Of the extraordinary Sacraments in the Wilderness.

ESIDES the ordinary and univerfal facraments of circumcifion and the paffover, fome extraordinary fymbols of divine grace were granted to the Ifraelites in the wildernefs, which, in the New Teftament, are applied to Chrift and his benefits, and faid to have the fame fignification with our facraments. And they are in order thefe: I. The paffage in the cloud through the Red Sea. II. The manna which was rained from heaven. III. The water iffuing out of the rock. IV. The brazen ferpent erected by Mofes for the cure of the Ifraelites.

II. The facred hiftory, Exod. xiv. very particularly relates, how Pharaoh with mad rage at the head of a vaft army, purfued the Ifraelites, who were juft departed from Egypt, and as he imagined, were entangled on every hand, through a mistake of the way, in unpaffable deferts: how in the first place, a miraculous cloud, interpofing between them and the Egyptians, protected the Ifraelites, who were trembling with fear, and calling out to heaven for help: next how the channel of the weedy or Red Sea, was made paffable, as on dry land, by the waters giving way on each hand, being divided by the rod of Mofes and by a ftrong eaft wind. How, in fine, the Egyptian monarch did not delay to pursue them close as they retreated, entered the fea as it opened a way for them, and was deftroyed with all his army, the waters immediately returning upon them. For the better understanding of all this, we fhall briefly explain thefe five heads. I. Why that fea, which Mofes, Exod. xiii. 18. and xiv. 4. called, or the weedy fea; is by Paul, Heb. xi. 29. and generally by writers, called i igvogù lår aora, the Red Sea? II. Whether that drying up of the waters was natural, or altogether miraculous? III. Whether the Ifraelites paffed over the whole breadth of the fea, and landed on the Arabian shore over against Egypt, or only marched as far through it, as was

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enough to overwhelm the Egyptians, and returned again on foot, by taking a femicircular compafs, to the fame fhore? IV. In what fenfe the apostle might fay, the "Ifraelites were baptifed unto Mofes in the cloud and in the fea." V. What may be the mystical fignification of these things?

III. The reafon is obvious why this is called the weedy sea; namely, because of the plenty of fea weeds, with which it abounds, heaps of which being raifed like mountains near the fhore, and laid clofe together by the continual heat of the fun, afford the convenience of houfes to the inhabitants there, who from their eating of fifh are called Ichthyophagi. And Agatharcides fays, that fome of them live under the ribs of fif, covered over with fea weed. Bochart in Phaleg. Lib. 4. c. 22. may be confulted on this subject.

IV. Why it is called the Red or Erythrean Sea, was formerly not fo well known. The ancients generally referred it to the colour of the water; which fome think was derived from the reflection of the folar rays; others from the circumjacent mountains being made red by the fcorching heat, from which waters impetuoufly defcended into the fea, and tinged it of a like colour; others, in fine, from the red fand that lay on its shore, or channel: not to mention any thing now about the fable of Perfeus, who, after having killed the fea-monster, to which the daughter of Cepheus had been exposed, is said there to have washed away the blood, with which he was all over ftained. But the undoubted experience of mariners fhews the falfehood of all this. Ludovicus Vartomannus, who failed over the whole of it almoft from its extremity to the mouth of the ftraits, fays, "it is a thing fufficiently confeffed by all, that the faid fea is not red, but like other feas, Navig. lib. 1. c. 21. The fame thing Pietro della Valle, a noble Roman, an eyewitness, teftifies; who fays the waters are clear, transparent and blue, and the fand of the ufual colour, nay, whiter than ours, Itiner. p. 1. c. 30. Diodorus Siculus writes, that in co lour it is altogether green. Not that fuch is the nature of the water, but on account of the quantity of mofs and fea-weed floating theron. What is therefore faid of the red colour is all fable, this prejudice having arifen from an erroneous interpretation of the name.

V. They come nearer the truth, who derive its name from king Erythras or Erythrus, who had this fea within the bounds of his empire. But who this Erythras was, all the profane writers are abfolutely ignorant. The Scriptures alone inform us of this: from which Nic. Fuller, Mifcellan. lib. 4. c. 20. boaftsthat he made the first discovery: namely, that this Erythras

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was Efau, furnamed Edom or Red, both from the hairy redness, with which he was born, Gen. xxv. 25. and from that red pottage, for which he fold his birthright, ver. 30. This Edom, who, according to the genius of those times, having the whole authority in those parts, gave name to the country reduced under his dominion and power, so that it was also called the land of Edom, and even fimply Edom, namely of the feminine gender, Jer. xlix. 17. His pofterity, proud of fo great an original of their nation, lived on the borders of the sea, we are now treating of: and hence it had its name: the Hebrew Edomi or Idumean Sea, the Greek gulgator, and the Latin Mare rubrum differ therefore only in language. See among others Voffius de Idololat. lib. 1. c. 34.

VI. We are on no account to imagine, that what we are here told, befel the waters of the Red Sea, was either altogether, or for the greatest part natural: as if Mofes, who had great skill in the knowledge of nature, took the opportunity of an ordinary reflux, which, on the blowing of an east wind, was both more impetuous and lafting than ufual; ventured in the prefent imminent danger, to attempt the paffage, and perfuaded the Ifraelites to follow his example: but Pharaoh, who was ignorant of those things, and delaying too long, was drowned on the return of the flood. For, the whole of this history is full of miracles; which none but the enemies of the Scripture, as Scaliger, de Subtilitat. Exercit. 52. juftly calls them, can doubt of. ift, It was a miracle, that the extraordinary cloud, which went before, and pointed out the way to the Hebrews, fhould now place itself in the middle, between them and the Egyptians, Exod. xiv. 19. 2dly, It was a miracle, that when Mofes lifted up his rod, and stretched out his hand, the fea fhould not only go back, but was alfo divided; and giving way on each hand, yield a fafe paffage to Ifrael amidst the waters, ver. 16, 21. which never was, nor could be done by any natural reflux. 3dly, It is a miracle, that the waters, naturally fluid, fhould be collected together into very high heaps, and ftand like a wall on the right and left of the Ifraelites, ver. 22. 4thly, It was a miracle of miracles, that when Mofes again ftretched out his hand and rod towards that part of the fea, where the Egyptians were pursuing them, the waters fhould return to their natural force, and drown all the Egyptians; while the children of Ifrael had now either almoft finished, or were ftill profecuting their journey on dry land, through the midst of the fea, ver. 26, 27, 29. Can any mortal have fo much impudence, as to dare to compare these things with the daily flux and reflux of the fea? It is indeed true, that God here made ufe of the wind, but it is

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alfo evident, that the fame God exerted an extraordinary power, both by raifing the wind fo feasonably, and by executing fuch things by it, as could not be effected by any natural cause, by its own virtue. And therefore the Ifraelites defervedly admired in this work, that great hand of their God, ver. 31.

VII. The inhabitants on the coaft of the Arabian Gulf, though barbarous to the highest degree, preferved the memory of this prodigy for many ages after; as Diodorus Siculus vouches, lib. 3. where he writes as follows. "The neighbouring Ichthyophagi have an ancient tradition, handed down to them by their ancestors, that, upon a certain great recefs of the fea, all the parts of this bay being dried up, and the sea falling back to oppofite parts, the channel appeared of a green colour, and that again the fea, returning with a strong tide, was restored to its former place." In these words, who does not see that this miracle of Mofes is defcribed, the memory of which thefe barbarians did, though somewhat obfcurely, propagate to their pofterity?

VIII. But it is a more intricate point, which is even at this day made the fubject of debate among the learned; whether the Hebrews paffed the fea ftraight forward, from the fhore of Egypt, to the oppofite coaft of Arabia; or whether they fetched a femicircular compafs in the midst of the fea, and returned to the fame shore, from which they set out? The former opinion is by far more commonly received; and refts on those arguments, collected by Rivet in Exod. xiv. 21. ft, The words of the history feem to bear this meaning; and it tends very much to fhew the greatness of the miracle. The Scripture fays, that the " Ifraelites paffed through the Red Sea ;" but what others alledge was not a tranfit or paffage, but a circuit. 2dly, It appears from the map of the country, that it must have been fo. For, in order to come from Egypt to mount Sinai, as the Red Sea lies between that mountain and Egypt, it must of neceffity be paffed over. For, though the foot paffage from Ramefes to Sinai is direct, leaving the Red, Sea on one fide, yet fo blocked up, and every where fo rough on account of rocks, as not to be fit for the journeying of fo great a people. 3dly, The fame is concluded from Numb. xxxiii. 8. " and they departed from before Pi-hahiroth, and paffed through the midft of the fea into the wilderness;" which feems to denote quite a different thing, from their returning by a circuit, or compass to the wilderness. 4thly, Add the authority of Jofephus, who declares, that the Ifraelites paffed over to the opposite shore, Antiq. lib. 2, c. ult.

IX. But the contrary opinion has also great names, and no

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