covenant; and declares that they were "baptized unto Moses in that cloud," as we are " baptized by water unto Christ f."
It was, moreover, an emblem of yet richer mercies. We cannot suppose that, under that typical dispensation, so im- portant a circumstance as this was destitute of any spiritual meaning. Indeed it is manifest from a fore-cited passage e, that it was expressly designed to typify the guidance and pro- tection which the Church of Christ should enjoy even to the remotest ages, through the influences of the Holy Spirit.]
We cannot fail of observing, that Moses, in re- cording this mercy, lays great stress on,
II. The continuance of it —
The cloud abode with them during the whole time of their sojourning in the wilderness. What a glo- rious view does this give us of our God ! and how are we constrained to admire,
1. His inexhaustible patience —
[Truly the Israelites were " a rebellious and stiff-necked people." Nor could either mercies or judgments ever produce on them any thing more than a mere transient effect. Every fresh trial called forth the same murmuring discontented spirit. On some occasions they seemed almost to have exhausted the patience of God himself. But God is slow to anger, though provoked every day : and if they had been less deserving of his wrath, we should never have known (unless perhaps by our own experience) how far the patience of God could extend. If it had not been ascertained by such an undeniable fact, we could not have conceived it possible for God himself to have " borne their manners in the wilderness during the long space of forty years11."]
2. His unbounded kindness —
[In reading this history, one is astonished to find, that God attended to that people, as if there had been no other creatures in the universe. He was incessantly occupied (if we may so speak) about their matters. He carried them through the wilderness, as a man would carry his infant son1. His conduct towards them is beautifully compared with that of the eagle, teaching its young to fly, and darting under them, when falling, to bear them up again to their nest on her expanded
f If we suppose that the cloud occasionally distilled, as it were, a dew upon them, it would be a striking illustration of the sprinkling of water in the rite of baptism. But on this we lay no stress.
s Tsai. iv. 5, 6.
h See this expatiated upon in a most feeling manner, Neh. ix. 16—19. iDeut. i. 31.