z68 !'reparationsfor the givinggtheLaw. »` courfeof God's proceedingwith his people, whereof we have here the firft pledge -in the Wildernee, was by aconfiant féries oftemporal providential Streights, finful Mur- murings, and Typical Mercies. Thewaters being bitter, that they could not drink of them, God £hewed to Mores a Tree; that is,. fayCome ofthe Jewifh Doi±ors, he (hewed him the virtue ofa Tree to cure and make wholefome bitter waters.. And they fay it was a Tree, whofe flowers and fruit were bitter; for no other reafon, but becaufe Elifha afterwards cured fait rooters by calling into them'a cruifeoffait. The Targum of3onathan, andthat of Je- rufalem fay, God(hewed him1301-aii 110 fits the bitter tree Ar lipbne, which is no- thing but Adorn, Daphne, the Lawrel.. And on this Tree the Author of that fabulous Parpphrafe wouldhave the glorious nameof God tobe written, according to the in- cantations in ufe among££ them in his days; but that which is deigned in the whole, is,that God preparingthem for the bitter confuming Law that was to be given them, anddifcovering unto them their difability to drink ofthe waters of it for their re- fre(hment,gave them an intimation ofthecure ofthat curie and bitternefsby him,who bare our finsinhis bodyupon the Tree, t Pet. z. za.. who is the end of the Law for ,righteoufnefsunto them that do believe. $f. 26, Their fecund Preparation for the receiving ofthe Law, was the giving of Manna , unto them fromHeaven. Being come into the WildernefsofSin, between Elim and Sinai, called fofrom a City in Egypt 'that it extended unto, in the midit of the fecund month after their departurefrom Egypt,theflores they brought with them from thence being(pent and exhau(ted, thewhole Congregation murmured for food. As flit] their wants and murmurings lay at the bottom, and were the occafion of thof reliefs, whereby the fpiritual mercies ofthe Church by Ghri(t were typed out. In this condi. tion God fends them Manna, Ex'od. t6. 14, t5. In themorning the dewlay roundabout the hoff. Andwhen the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face ofthe wilderneft there layafmall roundthing, as full as the boar frail of theground Andwhen the cbi!- drenofIfrael faw it, theyfail one to another, It it Manna ; `6e they wilt not what it was. AndMolesfaidanti 'than, This is the bread which the Lordbathgiven you toeat, ver. 31. And the heufe ofIfrael called the name thereof Manna, and it was like Coriander feed, white, andrbb tafle ofit like wafers made with loony. When the children of Ifrael law it, they faid, N1rt To Man his t and ver. 3o. the children of Ifraelcalled the name ofit jDMan. The reafon of this name is veryun. certain. Thecalling ofit Manna in the New Tellament, gives countenance to the derivationofthe word from rr]D Manah, toprepare and diftribute. For what folne have thought, that it fhouldbe an abbreviation of runD a Oft, and fpoken by them in their precipitatehafte, is det'ritute ofall probability. Ifit befrom rt,7DManab, it fignifies a preparedmeat, or'portion. So upon 'the fight ofit, they faid one to another, Here is aportion prepared. But the truth is, the following words, wherein there is a reafon given why they faid upon the fight ofit Ntrt ro Man bu, inclines ftrongly toan- other fignification, NL`I rID ip-e th +3 For they knew not, Ma hu, what it war. They laid one toanother, Man bu, becaufe they knew not Mabu, that is, what itwas. So 'that Man buis as much as, What it it ? and fo the words are rendred by the LXX, vi ire v'ro, What is this? and by the vulgar Latine, &uid eft hoc ? But this difficulty remains, that To Man, is not in the Hebrew tongue an interrogative ofthe thing, no nor yet oftheperfon, nor doth liignifiewhat. Aben-Ezra fays itis an Arabickword. Cbif- kuni, an Egyptian; and it is evidently an interrogative ofthePerfen in the Chaldee, and fometirnes of the thing; as 3udg. 13. 54. law TO What is thy name ? Yea, it kerns to be ufed towards this fenfe in theHebrew, Pfalm, 61.8. ion where thoughmoft takeTo Man, tobe the Imperative in Fibel from 1]DManab, which no where elf occurs, yet the LXX took it to bean Interrogationfrom theCháldee, ren- dringthewords rls itartiaet, Who£ball find out.? Being therefore the.language of the commonpeople in their admiration ofathingnew unto them that is expreAàd, it is no wonder that they made ufe ofa word that had obtained among(} them from force of theNations with whomthey had been toner ant, differing little in found from that of their ownofthe fame fignifìcation, and afterwards admitted into eòm- mon ufe amongft them. Fromthis occafional interrogation, did thefood provided for them take its name ofMan, called in the NewTeftamept Manna ; fuchoccafional im pofition of names toperfons and things being at all timesfrequent and ufual : as in the Chapter fore-going theplace was called Marah, from the bitternefsof the wáter, that theycried outof, upon their firft tailing it. And in the next Maßâb and Meribab, from a
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