peculiar people, perished in the wilderness for their manifold provocations. Among the privileges which he specifies, we shall fix our attention upon that referred to in the text ; and shall take occasion from it to inquire,
I. What was that spiritual food which the Israelites partook of in the wilderness ? God, having brought his people into the wilderness, sustained them there with miraculous supplies of bread and water —
[About six weeks after their departure out of Egypt ^, their provisions were spent, and they began to be in want of bread. God therefore promised them a constant supply from day to day: forbidding them to reserve any for the morrow, except on the day preceding the sabbath, when they were to gather sufficient for two days' consumption. This food (which for want of any more appropriate name they called manna, i. e. a portion) descended from the clouds every night ; and, when the dew that covered it was exhaled by the sun, it appeared on the face of the ground : it was a very small white thing like coriander seed, which they ground in their mills, and baked ; and, in taste, it was like wafers made of fresh oil and honey''. Of this there was a constant and regular supply for forty years ; nor did it ever fail, till their want of it was superseded by the corn, of which they got possession in the land of Canaan. In like manner, water was given them out of a rock in Horeb, by a stroke of that rod, with which Moses had divided the Red Sea*^: and it was made to follow them in all their encampments for about thirty-eight years; when, for their further trial, the stream was dried up, and a similar miracle was wrought for them again in Kadesh-barnea'*.]
This food, though carnal in its nature and use, was truly ** spiritual ;" inasmuch as it was,
1. A typical representation of Christ —
[Our Lord himself copiously declares this with respect to the manna : He draws a parallel between the bread which Moses gave to the Israelites, and himself as the true bread that was given them from heaven ; and shews that, as the manna sup- ported the natural life of that nation for a time, so he would give spiritual and eternal life to the whole believing world".
^ Exod. xvi, 1. b Exod. xvi. 13 — 31. with Numb. xi. 8.
« Exod xvii. 5, 6. '' Numb. xx. 8—11. e John vi. '18— .58,