that convulse the State, and the agitations that distress the Church. If there be any grievance to call forth our sorrow, give us such wisdom and moderation in submitting the causes of our grief to the consideration of our rulers, that we give no just cause of offence, that our Christian faith and Christian practice be alike free from condemnation, or blame, or censure. Keep us from the love of needless change. Give us the blessing of perpetual improvement, when time and thoughtful deliberation shall justify the hope of useful change. Enlighten our hearts by Thy wisdom, that we never be the victims of factions in the State, nor separate from the communion of the Church of our people and nation. Give peace in our time, O Lord. In mercy protect the Sovereign. Teach our senators wisdom. Prosper the consultations of the legislature of this Christian realm, to the advancement of Thy glory, the good of Thy Church, and the safety, honour, and welfare of the empire. We thank Thee that we are enabled with a deep and grateful sense of Thy mercy to worship Thee in the communion of that part of the Universal Church which is established by the public law among us. We thank Thee for the conviction, that, whatever be the changes and the chances, the questions and the convulsions that may at any time divide us, our rulers desire, as in Thy presence, and under the teaching of Thy Word, to continue and to preserve among us, peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety. We thank Thee for all the blessings of security and safety afforded us by the public law, and for all the means of grace ordained in Thy Holy Church. So enable us to unite with our grateful sense of these our earthly blessings the greater blessing of the well-founded hope of immortal glory and happiness hereafter, that we fail not to attain Thy promises. Save us not only from the political evils of clamorous faction, sullen discontent, and heart-burning hatred of our rulers in the State, save us not only from the restless divisions, the scornful pride, and the bitter envyings, which lead to schisms and separations from the communion of Thy Church; save us also, we beseech Thee, from every unholy passion, every enemy of our salvation, every evil thought, word, and work, every vain imagination which may exalt itself against Thee our God, and hinder our way to heaven. Teach us the dangers that beset us, and grant us Thy grace and strength to avoid them. Guide us in our journey through the perils in the wilderness of life, that we may overcome all the enemies of the salvation of the soul, and finally rest with Thee for ever in that holy land of promise, where faith shall be turned into sight, and prayer into praise, and hope into the possession of the conquest over all evil, and the enjoyment of all good. So be with us all our journey through, so bring us from earth to heaven, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. And in His name and in His words we call upon Thee as Our Father, &c. The grace of our Lord, &c. NOTES. NOTE 1. On the meekness of Moses. Numb. xii. 3. "Now the man Moses was very meek.”"This verse," observes Dr. Kennicott," strikes almost every reader with surprise; partly on its own account, partly from its connexion. That Moses was meek above all men, if true, was not at all likely to have been recorded by himself; it is still less likely to have been said by one who has recorded himself as a man of great warmth. (See Exod. ii. 11-14; v. 22; xi. 8; xxxii. 19. 22; Numb. xi. 13; and xvi. 15. And as to Numb. xx. 10. 12, see Ps. cvi. 32, 33.) But if Moses had been, in fact, the meekest of men, the record of such a quality seems to have no connexion with the context here. The preceding verses set forth that Miriam and Aaron exalted themselves as rivals to Moses, boasting that God had spoken by them likewise. And, in the verse following, God declares that He revealed Himself to Moses more than to any other prophet. It therefore seems necessary to consider this third verse as connected with the Divine communications, and to translate the words thus: 'Now the man Moses gave forth more answers' (from God) [so also Bishop Horsley], or, was highly favoured with answers above all the men which were upon the face of the earth' erat responsor eximius (IND) præ omni homine, &c. Such is the excellent version of this place in a thesis under the very learned Albert Schultens, in 1725. This author refers to Juchasin, where Ezra is called, responsor similis Mosi. And it is very remarkable, that sixteen MSS. read here, agreeably to the word in Juchasin 1." NOTE 2. On the leprosy of Miriam: "And, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow." Numb. xii. 10. I have given an account of the leprosy in Part V. Sect. cxxxvi. pp. 445-447, and thither I refer the reader who desires more particular information respecting that singular disease, and the laws which were ordained for the treatment of such as were afflicted with it. 1 Kennicott's Remarks, p. 57. SECTION CL. NUMBERS XIII. 21-33. XIV. TITLE.-The three degrees of happiness. Man destroys his highest happiness by refusing to believe the possibility of attaining it. The spies are sent to view the promised land: they bring back the report of the danger of the attempt to invade it. The people desire to return to Egypt. Intercessory prayer of Moses for their pardon, which is granted. The declaration that God's glory shall fill the earth. England is the present accomplisher of the prophecy. INTRODUCTION. Happiness is that condition of mind which the mind prefers, because it finds in it greater satisfaction than in any other. There are three degrees of happiness. One is common to us with the savage: it consists in the pleasures of the chase and of the field, the gratification of the appetites, and freedom from pain and disease. The next is common to us with the heathen: it consists in the enjoyment of the intellectual tastes, the beauties of poetry, the splendour of eloquence, the deep speculations of philosophy, and the pleasures of literature in general. The third is common to us with the wise and good of the Church on earth in all ages, with the spirits of the just made perfect in heaven, with the innumerable company of angels, with Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant, and with God the Judge of all. It consists in that communion with God, which begins on earth, to be continued in heaven. It consists in personal religion; in making our duties privileges, and our privileges duties; and in peace with God, with the world, and with ourselves. So great is this third and highest degree of happiness, that our preferring of the first or the second forms of satisfaction would not be believed, if the experience of our hearts did not assure us of the universality of the folly and wickedness of the choice. And this inward universal self-experience alone can answer the question which is so commonly and so triumphantly proposed by the Deist and the Infidel, to the probability of the events which are recorded in this Section. The people had now come to the southern border of the promised land, which their fathers had possessed, which they had earnestly desired to occupy, and where their painful wanderings in the wilderness were to cease. On arriving there, instead of going up at once to take possession of their inheritance, they demanded that spies be sent to survey the land, and report to them the probability of its easy conquest. Twelve men are accordingly selected, who proceed from the encampment in the south, through the whole extent of the country beyond the future extreme border of the tribe of Naphtali to the north. From thence, returning, they passed by Hebron, (where Abraham was buried in the cave of Machpelah, and thus became the silent witness to the ownership of the land by his descendants,) till they arrived again at the camp, after an absence of forty days. Two of their number, who are supposed to have been Joshua and Caleb, brought back with them some of the fruits of the land,—the grapes of Eshcol, a brook which flowed not very far from Bethlehem,—as a proof of the fertility of the country. These two spies gave not only, in conjunction with the other ten, a good report of the beauty of the land, but they affirmed the easiness of its conquest. The ten other spies, however, gave an opposite account. They dwelt upon the strength of the cities, the gigantic stature of the warlike tribes, and the number of the nations who occupied it. And they so influenced the minds of their hearers, that the people elected a captain, and demanded to be led back again into Egypt, there to be once more the bondslaves of the tyrant from whom they had been so miraculously delivered, provided only they escaped with their lives, and enjoyed once more the abundant and luxurious food, which recompensed their degradation and servitude. Canaan is the type of Heaven, where the highest happiness is possessed for ever. Egypt is the type of the world, where the spirit is enslaved, though the intellect may revel in the inferiorities of the first and second degrees of happiness: and as Israel refused to possess their inheritance, because of the imagined dangers and difficulties before them, so do we shrink from our higher, better felicities, from the fear of the world's frown; so do we prefer the lower and lesser happiness, to the peace, which neither all the wealth and allurements of the bondage of evil can afford us. And we could not believe that the people of Israel would thus have acted, if we did not ourselves know and feel that we sin, deeply sin, wilfully and presumptuously sin, against light, conviction, knowledge, and resolutions, the hope of future happiness, and the strivings of the Spirit of God. This great crime met, as we might have expected, the just displeasure of their Divine Leader. The glory which manifested His sacred presence came down from the more distant place it had occupied, and appearing over the tabernacle of the congregation (Numb. xiv. 10) a voice was heard speaking to Moses. The voice declared, that the sin of the people, in provoking Jehovah by their disbelief that His power would give them the land He had promised, was so great, that He would cast them off from being His own people, and accomplish His promises in the person and family of Moses, as the descendant of Abraham, to whom they had been originally made. No sooner was this Divine promise made to Moses, than the highest proof of his disinterestedness was instantly afforded. Though the highest object of human ambition-the possession of great power, and the certainty of handing down that power to his descendants, who would become a nation greater than Israel, was offered to him, he did not hesitate in his decision. He had already refused to become the son of Pharaoh's daughter, though his consent to the assumption of that title would have given him the power and sovereignty over Egypt. And he now declined to become the new founder of the nation which should give the line of the Messiah to the world. He immediately offered to God that pious intercessory prayer for the children of Israel, which may be said to be summed up in our own beautiful Liturgy in the petition, "Deliver us for Thine honour: "Deliver us for Thy Name's sake." The Egyptians, he says, will hear of Thy mercy to me, and of the failure of Thy promise to Thy people, and they will blaspheme the God of Israel by saying, that though the Lord appeared face to face with His people, yet He was not able to bring them into the land of promise. Thou art long-suffering, forgiving iniquity, though not clearing the guilty, that is, not destroying those whom Thou punishest. Pardon, I beseech Thee, their iniquity.-His prayer was heard. The declaration was made, that though His people Israel might be punished, and though His servant Moses would not become the channel through which the promise would be fulfilled; yet the Providence of God would so order the course of events, that all the earth (Numb. xiv. 20) should be filled with the glory of the Lord. The sentence was then pronounced, which we shall consider in the next Section, that the people of that generation should return into the wilderness, and die there. God sware in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest; and that generation did not possess it. The declaration, however, was made at the same time, that the whole earth should be filled with the glory of the God of Israel. Nearly four days of the Lord, or four thousand years, have elapsed since that declaration was made. The children of Israel were commanded to wander in the wilderness till the time came when the promised land was to be possessed. The descendants of the same people now wander in the wilderness of the world, till the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, when they shall again possess their earthly Canaan, and hope for a better, that is, a heavenly inheritance. But, in the mean time, the glory of their God and our God is filling and will fill the earth. And so it has been, and so it is, that the Providence of God has elected this land and this people to be the chief and honoured instrument for the accomplishment of this prophecy. No country under heaven exerts greater influence over the millions of the human race than our own noble and religious land; and, so long as we make God's glory our honour, so long we may believe the God of nations will be our shield and our protection. "Them that honour me, I will honour" is the promise which has the force of a law of nature. God will honour, and cause honour to be given to those who serve Him, whether they be individuals, or nations, or governments, or churches. "Thy blessing, O God, is upon Thy people." NUMBERS XIII. 21-33. 21 So they went up, honey; and this is the and searched the land from fruit of it. the wilderness of Zin unto b Josh. 19.28. Rehob, as men come to BEFORE CHRIST 1490. m the Deut. 1. 25. 28 Nevertheless Deut. 1. 28. & 9. 1, 2. 22 And they ascended by the south, and came and moreover we saw "the" ver. 33. Josh. 11. 21, unto Hebron; where Ahi- children of Anak there. man, Sheshai, and Talmai, 22. & 15. 13, 14. Judg. 1. 10. d ver. 33. Isai. 19. 11. & 30. 4. g Deut. 1. 24, 25. ch. 32. 9. e ch. 14. 43. Judg. 6. 3. 15. 3, &c. 1 Sam. 14. 48. the children of Anak, were. dwell in the land of the Josh. 21.11. (Now Hebron was built south and the Hittites, f Ps. 78. 12. seven years before Zoan and the Jebusites, and the in Egypt.) Amorites, dwell in the 23 And they came unto mountains: and the CaOr, valley, the brook of Eshcol, and naanites dwell by the sea, || cut down from thence a and by the coast of Jordan. branch with one cluster of 30 And P Caleb stilled P See ch. 14. grapes, and they bare it the people before Moses, Josh. 14. 7. between two upon a staff; and said, Let us go up at and they brought of the once, and possess it; for pomegranates, and of the we are well able to overfigs. come it. Judg. 16. 4. 24 The place was called 6, 24. Deut. 1. 28. 319 But the men that 2 ch. 32. 9. Or, valley, the brook || Eshcol, be- went up with him said, We Josh. 14. 8. cause of the cluster of be not able to go up against grapes which the children the people; for they are of Israel cut down from stronger than we. || That is, 4 cluster of grapes. hver. 3. & 32. 8. & 33. 36. 37. thence. 26 And they went and came to Moses, and to searched unto the children Aaron, and to all the con- gone to search it, is a land h of Israel, unto the wilder- bitants thereof; and all Amos 2. 9. ich. 20. 1, 16. ness of Paran, to Kadesh; the people that we saw in and brought back word it are men of a great + Heb. men unto them, and unto all the stature. congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. 33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Deut. 1.28. 27 And they told him, Anak, which come of the and said, We came unto giants: and we were in the land whither thou our own sight "as grass-Isai. 40. 22. sentest us, and surely it hoppers, and so we were floweth with milk and in their sight. 1 Sam. 17. 42. |