Truth. It fhews that the mind, when under the prevalency of unbelief, cannot bear the minifters and meffengers of free grace; it hath then an inveteracy against them, it counts them enthufiafts and madmen, and is ready to ftone them: Joshua and Caleb only faid, If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us to this land, and give it us; for which they were ready to ftone them: fo when the mind is under the power of unbelief, it flies in the face of the fervants of CHRIST, when they declare that the LORD will have mercy, that he will blot out tranfgreffion, for his name's fake:-aye, fays unbelief, If the Lord would make windows in heaven, then may these things be.

Second. It may be typical of the difference there is between thofe minifters that enjoy liberty of foul, live by faith, believe that it fhall be, and therefore roundly declare that the LORD will do it, because he hath fpoken it; and others that live upon their frames and feelings, enjoying inward probabilities, and feeing difficulties removed; who when they hear others fay, like Caleb, v. 30. Let us go up at ence, for we be well able to overcome; and with Jofhua, If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us to the land, and give it us, notwithstanding all feeming impoffibilities have been ready, as it were, to ftone their brethren. O what heats and heartburnings will a mind, poffeffed with fear and unbelief, discover against the declarations, acts, and proceedings of faith, and look upon it all as prefumption; which makes legal ministers call those who are like Joshua and Caleb, that followed the Lord fully, Antinomians, Libertines and Enthufiafts. But was

Jofbua miftaken? or did Caleb mislead the people? Rom. iii. 3, 4. For what if fome did not believe, fhall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect; God forbid: Let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, &c.

Friendly. But what might I apprehend by the fpies bringing of the fruit of the land, Numb. xiii. 23. And they came unto the brook Efhcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff, and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs?

Truth. I apprehend the cluster of grapes, as it was the fruit of the land of promife, may be typical,

First, In its fweetnefs and richness, of that sweetness and fragrancy, of the love of CHRIST, which is faid by the spouse, Cant. i. 2. To be better than wine. Or rather, of thofe preguftations and foretaftes we enjoy of glory, when it is the LORD's pleasure to give us the cup of falvation, to drink of the wine of the kingdom, and to give us all joy and peace in be

lieving; doubtlefs the children of Ifrael, with pleasure, delight, and exuberant joy, tafted of this clufter of grapes, as it was an earnest of their poffeffion in the land of promife; fo in like manner the children of GoD tafte that the LORD is gracious, I Pet. i. 8. Whom having not feen ye love; though now ye fee him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.

Second. As they were a clufter of grapes, they might be typical of the many promifes of God's word; it was not a fingle grape, but many, a cluster; fo that God hath not only given us a fingle promife, but many promifes suited to our many wants and circumftances, 2 Pet. i. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promifes.

Third. The weight and pondorofity of this cluster, which was great, inasmuch as it was carried between two, might likewife be typical of the greatness and the weight of the promifes of GOD upon the mind; for the promises are not only faid to be great, but exceeding great; not only as they contain great things, but as they leave a great and weighty fense of divine things upon the mind, as they are applied by the Holy Ghoft; fo weighty (if I may be allowed the expreffion) that they prefs the world out of the heart, and leave the fweetness of heaven there: for the promifes, as they are applied by the HOLY GHOST, are the arguments of heaven, to feal, ratify, and confirm the love of GoD to the mind, to end the controverfy between GoD and the foul; they are the charters of heaven, wherewith he affures us, that he hath loved us with an everlasting love.

Fourth. The cluster of grapes may be typical, as brought by those that searched the land, of the congregation of Ifrael. So the promises of God's word are brought minifterially into the congregation of Zion, for the faints to feed and regale their fouls upon, as an earnest of heaven, and an antipaft of glory. And as it was the time of the first ripe grapes, they were undoubtedly very fweet and lufcious; which may denote the precioufnefs of the promifes; that precious fweetness of heaven that is contained in them, and enjoyed by them, as they are all yea and amen in Chrift Jefus; they are full of the sweetness of pardon and peace; of heaven and happinefs, as they leave the sweetness of heaven upon the mind, Pfal. cxix. 103. How fweet are thy words to my tafte!

Fifth. The place where the cluster of grapes was cut down, was called Efhcol, which fignifieth a cluffer; fo called in memorial of the children of Ifrael receiving the fruit of the land

of promife. In which respect it may be typical of the foul's marking, or fetting up a memorial of the time when, and the place where, it received by the HOLY GHOST, the promise of falvation, Gen. xxxii. 30. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for I have feen God face to face, and my life is preferved, Pfal. xlvi. 6. Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, from the Hermonites, and from the bill Mizar.

Doft thou not mind the fpot of land,
Where JESUS did thee meet;
Where he received thy heart and hand,
Thy JESUS then, was fweet.

Couldst thou have faid it boldly then,

And feal'd it with thy blood;

Yea, welcome death with pleafure, when
Thy JESUS by thee stood.

ERSKINE.

Friendly. Notwithstanding the people had the promise of GOD, and an earnest of the fruit of the land, yet we find in Numb. xvi. 41. that they murmured against Mofes, and against Aaron; and again, Numb. xx. 4. Likewife in Numb. xxi. 4. it is faid, the foul of the people was discouraged because of the

way.

*

Truth. Their murmuring was typical of the prevalency of unbelief, and the ftrength of corruption in our minds. We are apt to fay that the Jews were a very rebellious, obftinate, ungrateful people; but had we been in their place, we fhould have been as refractory as they; our hearts are the fame by nature; and had we met with the fame trials, we fhould have been guilty of the fame rebellious murmuring against GOD. For confider, when we meet with difappointments, loffes and croffes, and nothing appears but want, we foon murmur at our lot, and like the Jews, think that heaven deals hard with us. And what might increase the murmurings of the children of Ifrael was, they came out of Egypt with big expectations of foon arriving at, and of having an eafy and pleasant paffage to the land of promife; but meeting with a long and tedious journey in the wilderness, many ftraights and real wants, with a thousand difficulties, this made them repeatedly murmur against the LORD. Now this is the very cafe of a real chriftian, when he is delivered from his Egyptian bondage, and enjoys a fenfe of pardoning love; he then hath a lively hope

of enjoying a sweet and happy paffage to heaven; but alas! inftead of which, he is led into the wilderness, to grapple with a variety of trials; his faith must be tried, his zeal for GOD must be proved, his love must be brought to the touchstone, his wants must abound, waves and billows must pass over him, he must go into the furnace of afflictions, to be tried as gold is tried. Now, as all this is contrary to the hope and expectation of a young chriftian, like the Jews in the wilderness, he murmurs at it; and like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, he is very refractory and rebellious; his heart every now and then, fighs out a heavy complaint, a murmuring groan, and is ready to think with the children of Ifrael, that God has brought all these trials upon him. when, alas! it is the rebellion of his own heart, which is the real cause. Our nature is as prone to rebel against the difpenfations of Providence, as the fparks are to fly upwards; and the children of Ifrael murmuring against the ways and footsteps of their GOD, was typical of it; and pointed out the murmuring propenfity of our minds, even after grace is received. So the fouls of the people, being difcouraged because of the way, may point out the difficulties, dangers, and difcouragements we meet with in our way to Heaven; when our GOD hides his face from us, and frowns in the difpenfation of his providence; withdraws (for our supine behaviour) that sweetness in his hearing, reading, praying, and meditating, that we were wont to enjoy; then, like the children of Ifrael, we begin to be difcouraged because of the way. Or it may denote, the length of the way; for as fome interpreters compute, the children of Ifrael had now travelled eight and thirty years in the wilderness, they began to be difcouraged because of the length of the way; or, as the Greek tranflateth it, the people were feeble-minded because of the way; they were brought once and again near the borders of Canaan; which made one of their writers to fay, "Because it was hard unto them, we were near to enter into the land, and we turn backward; so "our fathers turned and lingered thirty-nine years; therefore "their fouls were fhortened for the affliction of the way." And, very probably, what might increase their afflictions, might be the unkindness of their brother Edom; who would not fuffer them to pass through his kingdom, Numb. xx. 20. and especially when they found that they must turn again into the wilderness. In which refpect it might be typical of the unkindness and ingratitude that the children of GOD often meet with, not only from their natural relation, but from their bre thren of the fame faith and order, which often pierces them

like a fword. The true Chriftian frequently thinks, when poffeffing the fmiles of God's countenance, that he is near to the enjoyment of heavenly manfions, and bids adieu to every conflict, like the Ifraelites, when they were upon the borders of Canaan; but, alas! all of a fudden, the Chriftian finds, by the difpenfation of Providence, that he must turn again intothe wilderness; and then his foul is difcouraged because of the

way.

Note, The Chriftian has need of a conftant victorious faith, to bear up under the difcouragement, trials, and prolonged forrows that he meets with. Let him remember, that he is in the wilderness, which yields nothing but difcouragements; and though he hath travelled therein thefe thirty, or forty years, that there will be nothing but trials whilft he has one foot in the land.

Second. It fhould teach Chriftians to wait with patience the time of the LORD's deliverance, for patience must have its perfect work, as well as hope its full fruition; patience, and refignation under croffes and difappointments, is one of the brightest ornaments the Chriftian can fhine in, and gives the greateft proof of the foul's fanctification and walking with GOD, Job xiv. 14. All the days of my appointed time will I wait until my change come.

Friendly. What might I apprehend by the LORD's fending fiery ferpents, as in Numb. xxi. 6. And the Lord fent fiery ferpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much of the people died?

Truth. Here you are to confider the occafion of the LORD'S fending these fiery ferpents, which was their murmuring against him, loathing his bleffings, and defpifing his fervant Mofes; and what could poffibly be a more aggravated crime? It was a fin that reached to the Heavens, Numb. xxi. 5. And the people fpake against God, and against Mofes, faying, Wherefore have ye brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our fouls loatheth this light bread. On this account, the LORD gave commiffion to these fiery ferpents to bite them; for it is evident, the wildernefs, through which Ifrael paffed, was full of thefe kind of creatures, though they were protected from them before, Deut. viii. 15. Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderdefs, wherein were fiery ferpents and fcorpions: But when they rebelled against him, and loathed his mercies, he made use of them, as a fcourge for their wickedness. These serpents, wherewith they were bitten, were of the moft dreadful kind,