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ned?" secondly, by their punishment-" whose carcases fell in the wilderness."

And we may consider first what is included, and then what is expressed in this answer. For the first, it is plainly included that God was not thus displeased with them all. Let not any apprehend that God took a causeless distaste at that whole generation, and so cast them off, and destroyed them promiscuous. ly without distinction. As they were some only, and not all, that provoked; so it was with some only, and not all, that God was displeased. And two things do thence necessarily ensue to his purpose and advantage. First, That his exhortation is enforced by shewing, that it was not an ordinary promiscuous event that befel their fathers in the wilderness, but that they passed under a distinguishing dispensation of God towards them, according to their deportment, as they also were like to do. Secondly, That they might also consider, that with those who sinned not, who provoked not, God was not displeased, but according to his promise, they entered into his rest; which promise, in a more excellent sense, still remains for their benefit, if they were not disobedient.

The first thing expressed in the words, or the first part of the description of them with whom God was displeased, is their sin: TOIS dμaętarati, was it not with them that sinned?' Their sin is first mentioned in general, and then the particular nature of it is afterwards declared. There were three sorts of sins that the people were guilty of in the wilderness. First, They were universally guilty of personal sins in their distinct capacities. And these may justly be supposed to be great and many. But these are not they which are here intended. For if in this sense God should mark iniquity, none could stand, Psal. cxxx. 3. Neither were they free from sins of this nature, who are here exempted from being objects of God's displeasure. Secondly, Especial provocations, wherein great numbers of the people were engaged, but not the whole congregation. Such was the rebellion of Corah, Dathan and Abiram, with their accomplices, who were many and great, even two hundred and fifty princes, famous in the congregation, men of renown, Num. xvi. 2.; the idolatry and adulteries of Peor, which infected many of the princes and people, with the like instances. Thirdly, General sins of the whole congregation, which consisted in their frequent murmurings and rebellions, which came to a head as it were in that great provocation upon the return of the spies, Num. xiv. when they not only provoked God by their own unbelief, but encouraged one another to destroy those two persons, Joshua and Caleb, who would not concur in their disobedience: "all the congregation bade stone them with stones," ver. 10. This distinction was observed by the daughters of Zelophehad, in

their address for an inheritance among their brethren. "Our father," say they, "died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Corah, but died in his own sin," Num. xxvii. 3. They acknowledge him guilty of personal sins, and deny not but that he joined in the general provocation of the whole congregation; but only deny that he had a hand in those especial provocations, on which God fixed an eminent mark of his displeasure, by cutting off the provokers with fearful, sudden, and signal judgments; whereas others were gradually consumed by death in a natural way. But it was this last kind of sin, in the guilt whereof the whole congregation was equally involved, that the apostle intends in this expression, "was it not with them that sinned ?" Observe,

Obs. I. God is not displeased with any thing in his people but sin; or, sin is the only proper object of God's displeasure, and the sinner for sin's sake." With whom was he displeased, but with them that sinned?" I need not set up my candle in the sun of this truth. I wish it were as seriously considered practically, as it is confessed and acknowledged notionally. Every revelation of God by his word or works bears witness hereunto; and every man hath that witness hereof in himself, as will not admit him to doubt of it. The nature of God, the law of God, the light of conscience, the sense that is in all of a judgment, at present fixed, and certainly future, testify unto it. And doubtless great is the power of sin, and the craft of Satan, which prevail with most to continue in sin, notwithstanding this uncontrollable conviction.

Obs. II. Public sins, sins in societies, are great provocations of God. It was not for their private and personal sins that God was thus provoked with this people, but for their conspiracy, as it were, in sin. The reasons hereof are manifest, and I shall not insist upon them. God help cities and nations, especially such as hear the voice of God, well to consider it; and all of us to take heed of national prevailing sins.

Secondly, The apostle describes these persons by their punishment" Whose carcases fell in the wilderness." Κωλα: how variously this word is rendered by translators, I have shewed before. That which the apostle intendeth to express, is the words of God unto the people, Num. xiv. 29. 1 72702

in this wilderness shall your carcases fall;' which is

פגריכם אתם יפלו במדבר .32 .emphatically repeated, ver

,your carcases, you shall fall in this wilderness.' nx, you, is emphatically added, as to apply the threatening to their persons immediately, so to shew them it should be their lot, and not their children's, as they murmured; as also to express a ades and indignation in the delivery. 2 is from 25, to be

פגר פגר

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weary, faint, cold,' frigore enecari, (whence is that word) 'slothful.' Thence is 5, peger, a dead carcase, a thing cold, without life, heat or motion.' It is used sometimes for the carcase of a beast commonly called 2, That which is fallen;' so Gen. xv. 11. most frequently for the carcases of men. Elias Levita supposeth that it denotes only the carcases of wicked men. And indeed it is most commonly, if not always so used; see Amos viii. 3. Isa. xiv. 19. xxxiv. 3. lxvi. 24. Jer. xxxiii. 5. Ezek. xliii. 9. There seems to be an exception unto this observation of Elias, from Jer. xli. 9. " And the pit whereinto

all the carcases of the men את כל פגרי האנשים,Ishmael cast

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whom he slew." But whether this be of force against the observation of Elias, I know not. Those men might be wicked for aught appears in the text. Now this word the LXX. render sometimes by σωμα, a body,' Gen. xv. 11. owμa vengov, a dead body, Isa. xxxvii. 36. sometimes by vxgos, a dead person,' 2 Chron. xx. 24. Jer. xxxiii. 5. τμa, cadaver, a carcase, Ezek. vi. 5. but most frequently by zoo, the word here used by the apostle; as, Num. xiv. 29. 32, 33. the place here referred unto. Kaλov is a member,' membrum or artus, which words are of the same import and signification; and the whole compages of them is the same with the body. As Tydeus in Stadius,

Odi hos artus, fragilemque hunc corporis usum. And the same author again of Agylleus,

Luxuriant artus, diffusaque sanguine laxo

Membra natant.

Hence interpreters promiscuously render the word here by membra or artus. Kaλ are principally crura et lacerti, the greater members of the body, arms, legs and thighs, whose bones are greatest, and of longest duration. In the singular number, therefore, it signifies not the whole body, but some distinct member of it; and thence it is translated into the use of speech, and denotes a part of a sentence, a subdistinction. But wλ in the plural number may denote the whole carcase. I suppose the

, or carcases of the people, may here be called their xa, 'their members or their bones,' as Suidas renders the word, because probably in those great plagues and destructions that befel them, their rebellious carcases were many of them left on the ground in the wilderness, where consuming, their greater bones lay scattered up and down. So the psalmist complains, that it befel them at another season: Psal. cxli. 7. "Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood on the earth." In such a work, pieces of the hewed or cleft wood will lie scattered up and down, here and there, in

some places covering the earth: so did their bones; and said to be at the mouth of the grave, because the opening of the earth is that which gives a grave to the carcases of men. The appearance and spectacle hereof, the Roman historian represents in the carcases, or bones rather, of the legions cut off by Harminius in Germany with Quintilius Varus, and left in the open field, when six years after Germanicus brought his army to the same place. In medio campi albentia ossa (xwλa) ut fugerant, ut restiterant, disjecta vel aggerata; adjacebant fragmina telorum, equorumque artus, Tacit. Ann. lib. 1. In the midst of the field, bones grown white, scattered or heaped, as they had fled or resisted; by them lay pieces of broken weapons, with the members of horses.' A great and sore destruction or judgment this is accounted amongst men; and therefore is it made a representation of hell, Isa. lxvi. 24. "They shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." Some of the Jews refer these words to the victory they fancy that they shall have against Gog and Magog, when they come to fight against their Messiah. It is literally much more true concerning the believing Gentiles, whose calling is expressly foretold and prophesied of in the foregoing verses, who saw the severe judgment of God on the unbelieving Jews, when in the fatal destruction of their city and temple, their carcases were truly cast out on the earth, and were an abhorring unto all flesh." But here is also a representation of the final judgment of the last day, and everlasting punishment of the wicked, whereunto some of the words are applied, Mark ix. 44. which the Targum on the place also applies them unto. The casting therefore out of carcases to be beheld and abhorred, is a sore judgment. And the Jews suppose that all those who died under God's displeasure in the wilderness, were shut out of heaven or the world to come, Tractat. Saned. Perek. 10. They inquire expressly who shall, and who shall not be saved; and at once they deal pretty liberally with themselves:

All Israel shall have a part in the :,,יש להם חלק לעולם הבא

world to come;' which they prove out of those words of the prophet," and thy people shall be all righteous," Isa. Ix. which indeed would do it to the purpose, could they prove themselves all to be the people there intended. But afterwards they lay in many exceptions to this rule, and among the rest, 72727 717

The generation in the wilderness: אין להם חלק לעולם הבא

Because it is said, In :,שכא במדבר הזה יתמו ושם ימותו,,801

have no portion in the world to come;' and they add their rea

the wilderness shall ye be consumed, and there shall ye die." The redoubling of the expression, ye shall be consumed, ye

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shall die," they would have to signify death, first temporal, then eternal.

Their carcases, σov, prostrata sunt, say some, were cast down;' properly ceciderunt, fell,' that is, penally, an aggravation of their destruction. He doth not say they died, but their carcases fell, which intimates contempt and indignation; and so do the words denote in the story itself. And this is the second part of the description that is given of those with whom God was displeased for their sin: Their carcases fell in the wilderness; the use whereof to the apostle's purpose hath been declared. And we may see; that,

Obs. III. God sometimes will make men who have been wickedly exemplary in sin, righteously exemplary in their punishment." They sinned," saith the apostle, "and provoked God, and their carcases fell in the wilderness." To what end is this reported? It is that we might take heed, that we fall not after the same example of unbelief, ch. iv. 11. There is an example in unbelief, and there is an example in the fall and punishment of unbelievers. This subject our apostle handles at large, 1 Cor. x. 5. 8-11. The substance of his discourse in that place is, that God made the people in the wilderness, upon their sinful provocations, examples of his severity unto them that should afterwards live ungodly. And the apostle Peter declares the same truth in the instances of the angels that sinned, of the old world, and of Sodom and Gomorrah, 2 Pet. ii. 4-6. God made them duyua, an express example and representation of what should be done in others. And in the law of old, the reason why punishment was to be indispensably inflicted on presumptuous sinners, was that others might hear, and fear, and do so no more. Besides, in that government of the world by his providence, which God is pleased to continue, all ages and stories are full of instances of exemplary judgments and punishments, inflicted on such as have been notorious in their provocations; he thereby revealing his wrath from heaven against the ungodJiness of men, Rom. i. 18. And oftentimes those judgments have had in them a direct testimony against, and discovery of the nature of the sins revenged by them. Our Saviour indeed hath taught us, that we are not to fix particular demerits and sins by our own surmises, on persons that may be overtaken with dismal providences in the world, merely because they were so overtaken. Such was the condition of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, and the eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them; of whom he denies, that from what befel them we have any ground to judge that they were greater sinners than others, Luke xiii. 3. 5. This only in such cases may be concluded; namely, that such

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