38

Reflections on the conduct of Israel in the wilderness.

SECT. he will not leave you to be tempted above your ye may be able to bear xviii. ability: but will with the temptation with which it. 1 Cor. he permits you to be assaulted, provide you also X. 13. with a way of escape, that if you be not wanting to yourselves, you may be able to bear [it:] yea, and may acquire new strength and honour by the combat.

Ver.

IMPROVEMENT.

MAY Christians be always sensible how happy they are in 6--11 having received such useful hints from the New Testament, to assist them in the interpretation of the Old; and particularly those which are here given. We see in Israel according to the flesh, an affecting emblem of the church in general. We see all their external privileges, though many and great, were ineffectual for their security, when they behaved as unworthy of them. Alas! how affecting is the thought, that some who were un1 der the miraculous cloud, who passed through the waters of the 2 divided sea, who eat of the bread that came down from heaven, and 3, 4 drank of that living stream which omnipotent mercy had opened from the flinty rock, and made it to follow them in the windings of their journey, should yet become, instead of being on the whole the objects of Divine favour and complacency, the monuments of wrath. Let us not ourselves therefore be high-minded, but 5 fear. Let us mark the rocks on which they suffered this fatal shipwreck, if possible to keep clear of them; and pray that Divine. grace may direct our course. Let us avoid not only those superstitious and idolatrous rites of worship, by which, as Protestants, we are in little danger of being ensnared; but also those lusts of 8 the flesh, which must considering our superior advantage, be highly displeasing to God; even though they should not rise to a degree of equal enormity and scandal.

7

9

Let us especially take heed that we tempt not Christ, who has gracionsly been pleased to take us under his conduct, and to honour his church with so many demonstrative tokens of his pre10 sence. Nor let us murmur, if while we are in this wilderness state, we sometimes meet with difficulties in our way. Still let us make it familiar to our minds, that God adjusts the circumstances of every trial; even that God who stands engaged by the promises of his word, as well as the equity and goodness of his nature, not 13 to permit us to be tempted above what we are able to bear. If we see not an immediate way of escape, let us calmly and attentively look around us, and humbly look up to him, that he may pluck our feet

out of the net.

SECT

As Christians, they are one bread and one body :

SECT. XIX.

The Apostle farther pursues that caution against all approaches to idolatry, which he had been suggesting in the former section : particularly arguing from that communion which Christians had with Christ at his table, which ought to place them at the remotest distance from what might justly be called having communion with devils. 1 Cor. X. 14-22.

1 Cor. X. 14.

WHEREFORE my dearly beloved,

flee from idolatry.

15 I speak as to wise men: judge ye what I say.

16 The cup of bles

Bing which we bless,

is it not the communion

break, is it not the

I

1 CORINTHIANS X. 14.

39

SECT.
XIX.

HAVE just expressed my confidence in the care of God to support you under any extraordinary temptation which may hereafter arise, 1 Cor. to draw you out of the way of your duty: X. 14. wherefore, my beloved brethren, being assured of this, let me exhort you carefully, to flee from all approaches to idolatry, whatever circumstances of allurement, or danger, may seem to plead for some degree of compliance. I now speak 15 as unto wise men: I use a rational argument, which will bear the strictest examination, and which I am willing should be canvassed as accurately as you please; judge you therefore what I say; for I will refer it to your own deliberate and cooler thoughts, whether there be not danger in those idolatrous participations which some of you are so ready to defend; and whether they may not naturally bring some degree of guilt upon your conscience?

The sacramental cup, which is to us both the 16 commemoration of past, and the pledge of fuof the blood of Christ? ture blessing, which in the name of the Lord we The bread which we solemnly bless, setting it apart to a holy and communion of the religious use; is it not the token of our faith body of Christ? and our communion in these inestimable privile ges which are the purchase of the blood of Christ, shed for the remission of our sins? The bread which we break, and which was appointed in the first institution of the ordinance for this purpose, is it not the communion of the body of Christ in the like sense? That is, the token of our sharing in the privileges which he procured at the expence of sufferings, by which his body was broken,

a Which we bless.] This text very plainly shews, that there is a sense in which we may be said to bless the sacramental elements. To render it, the cup over which, or for which we bless God, is doing

great violence to the original. That is
said to be blessed which is set apart to a
sacred use, (Gen. ii. 3; Exod. xx. 11,)
and on which the blessing of God is so-
lemnly invoked.

b Of

40

xix.

1 Cor.

Christians ought to flee from idolatry,

SECT. broken, and almost torn in pieces. For we Christians being many, are yet, as it were, but different parts of one and the same broken bread, X. 17. which we distribute, [and] receive, in token of our being members of one body; for we are all partakers of one kind of holy bread, and one cup, which we eat, and drink together at the same table, in testimony of our mutual and inviolable friendship, cemented in Christ our great and common head.

18

19

20

17 For we being many, are one bread, are all partakers of that one bread.

and one body: for we

18 Behold

:

Israel

after the flesh are not they which eat of the

sacrifices, partakers of

Consider how it is with Israel according to the
flesh, the lineal descendants of those who were
the chosen and peculiar people of God: are not
they who eat of the sacrifices which have been the altar?
offered in the court of their temple at Jerusalem,
esteemed to be partakers of the altar of God,
on which part of them have been consumed?
And is not their eating the flesh of these victims
esteemed as an act of communion with the
Deity, to whom they were offered? Now you
may easily perceive, that the same argument
will be conclusive to prove, that they who share
in the sacrifices presented to idols, knowing
what they do, and especially doing it in some
apartments belonging to the temples of such
idols, hold a kind of communion with these
fictitious and detestable deities, by no means re-
concileable with the sanctity of the Christian
character, or the tenor of their sacramental en-
gagements.

an idol of wood or

19 What say I then? that the idol is any

What then do I that say, stone, of silver or gold, is in itself any thing thing, or that which is divine? Or do I say, that the thing which is offered in sacrifice to sacrificed to idols is in itself any thing morally idols is any thing. and universally unclean? You well know, that I intend to maintain nothing of this kind. But on the other hand, you must be that what the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to Gentiles sacrifice, they evil demons, and not to God; such spirits, as sacrifice to devils, and those to which they address their devotions, not to God: and I must to be sure be wicked spirits, if they exist at

b Of one bread.] Many valuable manuscripts read it, and of one cup. Elsner has an admirable note upon this text, to prove, that eating together in a religious manner hath been, in almost all ancient nations, a token of mutual friendship. See Mr. Lowman's Hebrew Ritual, p. 54, and Maimonides, quoted by him there. See more especially, Dr. Cudworth's Discourse concerning the True Notion of the

aware,

all;

20 But I say, that the things which the

would

Lord's Supper, chap. i. and chap, vi. And it is certain also, as it is intimated below, that by sacrifices, and the feasts on them, they held communion with the real or supposed deity, to which they were presented; as the author of a discourse on sacrifices bas shewn at large: but that this was the only end of all sacrifices, I cannot think that learned writer sufficiently to have proved.

41

The table of demons being inconsistent with the Lord's table. would not that ye all; and devils may well be supposed to use their SECT. should have fellowship utmost efforts to support such worship, it being

with devils.

xix.

1 Cor.

grateful to them, in proportion to the degree in which it is affronting and injurious to the great x. 20. Object of Christian adoration, and ensnaring to the souls of men. Now I would not by any means, that you who have at your baptism solemnly renounced the devil, and all his adherents, should in any degree have, or seem to 21 Ye cannot drink have, communion with demons. And indeed 21 the cup of the Lord, this is most inconsistent with those solemn badges and the cup of devils of your holy profession, by which your bapof the Lord's table, tismal covenant is so frequently ratified and and of the table of renewed. Ye cannot with tolerable decency and

ye cannot be partakers

devils.

22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?

consistency, at one time drink of the cup of the
Lord, in that holy rite in which you commemo.
rate his death, and at another time of the cup
of demons, of libations poured out in their ho-
nour, or cups drank at their feasts. Ye cannot
surely think, you should be partakers of the table
of the Lord, and go from thence to the table
of demons, or from theirs to his, to share alter-
nately in such holy and polluted rites and enter-
tainments. Yet it is certain, that by partaking
in their feasts, you do, as it were, contract a
kind of friendship and familiarity with these in-
fernal spirits.

Do we, by such a conduct as this, deliberately 22
mean to provoke the Lord to jealousy, by thus
caressing those whom he abhors as his rivals?
Must it not incense him exceedingly? and must
it not, in its consequences, be detrimental, and
even fatal to us? Or are we stronger than he?
so as to be able to resist, or to endure the dread-
ful effects of his displeasure.

c I would not that ye should have communion with demons.] It is a monstrous notion of Olarus, that the heathens imagined the very substance and body of their deities insinuated itself into the victiin offered to them, and so was united to the person eating the flesh of these sacrifices, Elsner, (Obser. Vol. II. p. 108,) has sufficiently confuted this his weak in ference from some mistaken passages of Firmicus, and Jamblicus. But this learned and judicious critic has proved at large, from incontestib'e authorities, that the demons were considered as present at these sacrifices, and as taking their part with the worshippers in the common feast; by which means, as Maimonides expresses it, in a very remarkable passage, (More

IMPROVE

Nevoch. Part III. cap. 46,) Friendship,
brotherhood, and familiarity, was contract-
ed between them, because, "all eat at
one table, and sat down at one board."
The altar was called the table of the Lord,
Mal. i. 12. Compare Deut. xxxii. 17.
But then, as Dr. Cudworth hath shewn, we
are not to conclude from hence, that under
the gospel-dispensation, the table of the
Lord is properly an altar; for the Lord's
supper is not a sacrifice, but a feast upon a
sacrifice, Cudworth on the True Notion of
the Lord's Supper, chap. 5.

d To jealousy, &c.] Alluding to the no-
tion of idolatry, as a kind of spiritual adul-
tery, which moved the jealousy of God.
Yet every deliberate sin is in effect daring
his omnipotent vengeance,

42

Reflections on our partaking of the Lord's supper.

SECT.

xix.

IMPROVEMENT.

LET US hear and fear: for it is the tendency of every wilful sin, to provoke the Lord to jealousy; it is a challenge to him, Ver. as it were, to let loose the fierceness of his wrath. And alas, 22 how can such feeble creatures as we, endure its terrors! Let the consideration urged by the apostle, to deter men from partaking in idolatrous sacrifices, be weighed by us, as extending to every thing whereby God may be dishonoured, and Christ affronted.

They who are Christians indeed, and partake of that feast which the blessed Jesus hath instituted in commemoration of his dying love, do herein partake of the body and the blood of Christ : 21 Let it be remembered as a pledge of everlasting obedience, since it is a memorial of infinite obligation: it shews that we belong to him, as his willing and peculiar people, that we renounce all his rivals, particularly Satan, and his kingdom, and whatever favours and supports his accursed cause. Let us be faithful to our allegiance, and have no more to do with any of these abominations.

17, &c

SECT.

XX.

Let us also remember this as a pledge of everlasting peace and love; we are all one bread, and one body. Let us not envy and provoke, grieve and revile one another; but study mutual comfort and edification. And when little jealousies arise, and our secular interests seem to interfere, which may often be the case; let us open our minds to those exalted sentiments which our common relation to Christ tends to inspire; and let the sweet remembrance of the communion we have had with him, and each other, in that holy ordinance, blot out of our minds the memory of every difference which might tend to promote disgust and alienation.

SECT. XX.

The Apostle gives more particular directions as to the cases and circumstances in which things sacrificed to idols might, or might not lawfully be eaten; and urges farther considerations, to engage them willingly to resign their own gratification in some instances, for the glory of God, and the good of their brethren, 1 Cor. X. 23, to the end. Chap. XI. 1.

I

1 CORINTHIANS X. 23.

1 Cor. X. 23.

ful for me, but all

things

HAVE said a great deal, to guard you against ALL things are lawall approaches to idolatry. In answer to this, I know, it may be replied, that there are cerX. 23. tain things which may accidentally lead to it,

1 Cor.

and