A Magnificent Table was Spread for them in the Wilderness, their daily Entertainments were miraculous; they were fed by Manna, a delicious Food distilled from Heaven, admirably suited to every one’s Palate. He commanded the Clouds from above, and opened the Doors of Heaven, and rained down Manna upon them to eat, and gave them the Corn of Heaven[[350]]. Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the Wilderness, for there is no Bread, neither is there any Water, and our Soul loatheth this light Bread[[351]]: This vain and empty Bread, say the LXX.
[350]. Psal. lxxviii. 23-25.
[351]. Numb. xxi. 5, 6.—τω αρτω τω διακενω—
They were also furnish’d with miraculous Drink, i. e. Water out of a Rock; Water that swell’d into a River, and follow’d ’em in all their Motions, till they arrived in the Land flowing with Milk and Honey; Terms, that include a Scene of Plenty and Pleasantness.
In all their Traverses through the Wilderness, they were always under the Guidance and Protection of the Shekina; by which Word the Jews understood the Presence of the Holy Spirit; of Christ, say the Christians. The Shekina was the most sensible Mark of the Presence of God among them, which rested over the Propitiatory, or the golden Cherubims, which adher’d to the Propitiatory or Covering of the Ark; there the Shekina abode in the Shape of a Cloud. The Rabbins tell us, that it first resided in the Tabernacle, and descended into it in the Figure of a Cloud, on the Day of Consecration. It past from thence into the Sanctuary of Solomon’s Temple, on the Day of its Dedication by that Prince[[352]]; where it continued to the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and was not afterwards to be seen there.
[352]. Calmet from Basnage, History of the Jews.
Thus were they conducted and entertain’d by an unintermitted Train of Miracles. Now to fret and repine in such a Situation, was a Crime of a high and heinous Nature, no less than impeaching infinite Wisdom, and taxing it with erroneous Conduct: If Difficulties occurred in the way, their Duty was Resignation, a Temper obvious in Pagans, whose Religion forbid all indecorous Sallies of the Passions.
SOCRATES, a Philosopher of Athens, was a Philosopher in Prison, as well as in the Museum: When bound in Fetters, and he had nothing but Death before his Face, he then conversed with his Friends with perfect Equanimity, and without the least Reflexion upon Fate, upon God, and his Judges, notwithstanding his base Treatment, and the notorious Injustice of his Sentence. The Scripture represents Job as a Champion in Affliction, who by his passive Fortitude under it, became the proper Hero of an Heroic-Poem.
SECT. II.
WHY were they punish’d by Serpents?