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now to the particular confirmation of it by instance. ' Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.' Cleave the earth, or make channels in the earth, for waters to flow in.
Another most eminent work of Almighty power is here set forth. Eminent in itself, and eminent in its typical sig- nification. And the same thing being twice done hath a plural expression, 'rivers.'
(1.) Eminent of itself. The bringing of streams of waters from the rock, for the thirsty people in the wilderness, is that which is here celebrated. Now this the Lord did twice : first, Exod. xvii.6. when the people were in Rephidim, ia the first year after their coming from Egypt, they fainted in their journeys for want of water, and (according to the wonted custom of that rebellious people) complained with murmuring. So they extorted all their mercies, and there- fore they were attended with such sore judgments. Whilst the meat was in their mouths, the plague was on their bones. Mercies extorted by murmurings, unseasoned with loving- kindness, though they may be quails in the mouth will be plagues in the belly. Let us take heed lest we repine the Almighty, into a full harvest, and lean soul; Psal. cvi. 15. Get and keep mercies in God's way, or there is death in the pot.
Forty years after this, when the first whole evil genera- tion was consumed, the children, who were risen up in their fathers^ stead, fall a murmuring for water in the wilderness of Zin, and with a profligacy of rebellion wish they had been consumed with others in the former plagues ; Numb. XX. 4. Here also the Lord gives them water, and that in abundance, ver. 11. Now of this observe,
[1.] The places from whence this water marvellously issued. They were rocks that, in all probability, never had spring from the creation of the world. Farther, they are observed to be rocks of flint, Psal. cxiv. 8. ' Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.' So Deut. viii. 15. a rock into a pool, and a flint into a stream, is much beyond Samson's riddle, of sweet- ness from the eater.
[2.] The abundance of waters that gushed out; v/aters to satisfy that whole congregation, with all their cattle, con- sisting of some millions. Yea, and not only they, but all
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the beasts of that wilderness were refreshed thereby also. Isa. xliii. 20. 'The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragon and the owl ; because 1 give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desart, to give drink to my people, my chosen.' The very worst of the sons of men, dragons and owls, fare the better for God's protecting providence towards his own." And all this was in such abundance, that it was as plen- tiful as a sea. 'He clave the lock in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great deep ; he brought streams also out of the rocks, and caused waters to run down like rivers;' Psal. Ixxviii. 15, 16. So also it is cele- brated, Isa. xli. 18. xlviii. 21. Hos. xiii. 5. and in many other places. Great deliverances call for frequent remem- brances.
Thus were rivers brought out of the rocks, and with or for these rivers God did cleave the earth, that is, either he provided channels for those streams to run in, that they might not be wasted on the surface of that sandy wilderness, but preserved for the use of his people; or else the streams were so great and strong, that they pierced the earth, and parted channels for themselves. Great rivers of water, brought out of flinty rocks, running into prepared channels, to re- fresh a sinful, thirsty people, in a barren wilderness, I think, is a remarkable mercy.
(2.) As it was eminent in itself, so likewise is it exalted in its typical concernment. Is there nothing but flints in this rock? nothing but water in these streams? nothing but the rod of Moses in the blows given to it? Did the people receive no other refreshment, but only in respect of their bodily thii-st? Yes, saith the apostle, 'They drank of that spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ;' 1 Cor. x. 4. Was not this rock a sign of that rock of ages, on which the church is built? Matt. xvi. 18. Did not Moses' smiting hold out his being smitten with the rod of God ? Isa. liii. 4, 5. Was not the pouring out of these plentiful streams as the pouring out of his precious blood, in a sea of mercy, abundantly sufficient to refresh the whole fainting church in the wilderness? ' Latet Christus in petra,' ' Here is Christ in this rock.' Had Rome had wisdom to build on this rock, though she had nothad an infallibility, as ■f Vir bonus commune lionuin. Geii. xxxi. 3.
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she vainly now pretends, she might have had an infallibility (if I may so speak), yea, she had never quite failed. Give me leave to take a few observations from hence. As,
[1.] Sinners must be brought to great extremities, to make them desire the blood of Jesus. Weary and thirsty before rock-water come. Thirst is a continually galling pressure. When a soul gaspeth like a parched land, and is as far from self-refreshment, as a man from drawing waters out of a flint, then shall the side of Christ be opened to him. You that are full of your lusts, drunk with the world, here is not a drop for you. If you never come into the wilder- ness, you shall never have rock-water.