Chapter III
The danger of those who, being partakers of the sacrament of the Lord s
supper, do by ungodly or unfruitful lives act contrary to the institution and
design of that ordinance.
Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that our
fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea ; and were all
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same
spiritual meat ; and did all drink the same spiritual drink (for they drank of that spiritual Hock that followed them ; and that Rock was Christ): but with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the
wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should
not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as
were some of them ; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them
committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us
tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and
they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are
come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 COK. X. 1-12.
The proper scope of this scripture is to set forth the high provocation and extremity of danger for men to live in their lusts, while they profess and partake of those two great ordinances, baptism and the Lord s supper.
The coherence and carrying on of his discourse was this : In the 6th and 8th chapters, he had setly by many arguments dehorted them, both from
corporal and spiritual fornication ; the spiritual was the eating in the idol s
temple. Then, making a digression in the 7th chapter, to decide cases about marriage (which was appointed as the remedy against fornication), in the 9th chapter he also closeth with a vehement exhortation unto the
subduing and keeping under of every lust ; ver. 25-27, Every man that
etriveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to
obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air : but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when
I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. And this is
(as you read) of necessity unto the partaking of salvation. Now then, to
enforce both those particular exhortations against those two sins, as also
this general exhortation occasioned thereby unto an universal strictness and watchfulness, he lays before them (and insists upon it) the great and Bolemn obligation which their profession of having been baptized, and their usual partaking and communication of the body and blood of Christ, did
put upon them ; yea, and he prosecutes this up and down, and leaves it
not till unto the end of the llth chapter. And he enforceth the obligation
CHAP. III.] IN THE HEART AND LIFE. 307
which lies upon us Christians from the evident example of the Israelitish church in the wilderness. And here I observe how throughout the epistles of Paul, Jude, and Peter, the state of that church, when in the wilderness,
is more eminently set out, as the most lively shadow and type of the con
dition and state of the people of God under the gospel, because the whole time of our lives after conversion is a passage from out of the state of nature to the heavenly Canaan. Now these Israelites enjoyed for sub
stance the like ordinances unto those two of ours, baptism and the Lord s
supper, and yet indulged their lusts, yea, those very lusts from which he had in those fore-mentioned chapters so earnestly dehorted these Corin
thians, namely, idolatry, ver. 7, fornication, ver. 8, remonstrating how God had in wrath, upon that very consideration of their living under such ordi
nances, broken forth upon them, had overthrown and destroyed them, and
that therefore, under the gospel, the neglecters and profaners of these
gospel ordinances must proportionably expect a sorer and severer punish ment, by how much our ordinances exceed theirs in glory, evidence, and
spiritualness. This scripture therefore is punctual to this argument in hand, and is indeed here handled tanquam in proprid sede, as all other truths of concernment for the most part are in some one designed scripture or other.
I shall draw forth all the several particulars therein, unto these five ranks
or heads.
1. That the Jewish church in the wilderness did enjoy, for the pith and
kernel ofthem (although the fleshly rind or shell was thicker and more gross, and of a larger bigness than ours), the same ordinances of baptism and the Lord s supper as we do now under the gospel ; for he terms them twice the same in substance : ver. 3,
* They all did eat of the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, ver. 4. This sameness of them was then represented in a near outward likeness and distinct resemblance, even of the very two parts of our Lord s supper, as well as in a resemblance
of that of baptism. Our Lord s supper hath two parts, or rather a distinct
reiterated representation of.Christ, in his body as food, in his blood as drink,
1 Cor. xi. 24, 25. So, in like manner, he finds out both these as distinct
in their dispensations then ; for the manna, the type of Christ s body, who
is the man from heaven, was their food, and their drink was the water out
of the rock, the type of that water and blood which came forth of Christ s
side, as John for the history of it avers with a great solemn note of observ-
ancy in his gospel, and interprets it for the mystery of it in his Epistle. And you may observe again here, how that to the end he might thus more
evidently hold forth this sameness, and the parallel of their sacraments to
ours, he omitteth the mention of circumcision and the passover (which yet
1 1 were the standing ordinances of that church, both in the wilderness and
I afterwards), because these, though the preceding types of our sacraments,
j yet in respect of an outward likeness were more dark and cloudy. And he
I chooseth rather those which were but occasionally and extraordinary, and
j only in the wilderness. For as I said afore, that the estate of that church,
I whilst in the wilderness, was the liveliest and most momentary* type of the
! gospel times, so also those sacraments extraordinarily and peculiarly to
; them administered, were types of these of ours. They came near the life,
j both in the distinction of the parts of them, and outward resemblances to
every common eye and first view. The sprinkling or mizzling of the rain in
| the cloud, and going through the water of the Red Sea, was even to the
I vulgar view a visible baptizing. It had the resemblance and appearance * That is, momentous. ED.
308 OF GOSPEL HOLINESS [BOOK IV.
which circumcision had not, unless to a more spiritual artist s eye, that
could discern the proportions of the one and other. And again, their
eating manna as bread from heaven, and their drinking of that rock, doth
bear and carry more of likeness .to our bread broken, and cup we drink of,
in the outward appearance thereof. And it is an argument of no small
weight against the papist, both for the number of sacraments, that there are
but two (because the Jews had but of these two sorts answering to our two, but all, whether ordinary or extraordinary, are reduced unto two), as also for
the cup or communication of this spiritual drink as well to all the people of
God, without confining it to the priests or Levites, as of the bread, for so
in their dispensation of it it was typified. They did all eat the same
spiritual meat, and they did all drink the same spiritual drink, even as
well as all were baptized, &c., which ingenious Estius seems to acknow
ledge to be the mind of that ensuing passage, 1 Cor. xii. 13, By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, and have been all made to drink into one
spirit. It alludes, says he, to the cup in the sacrament.
2. The apostle sets before these Corinthians, how greatly God was dis
pleased with these Israelites that lived and continued in those sins, aggravated and made far more sinful by the participation of such ordinances : ver. 5, With many of them God was not well pleased. He says indeed no more, but thereby means to express the highest displeasure ; as in like phrase he
speaks of apostates from God and Christ : Heb. x. 38, 39, If any man
withdraw, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But is that all ? No ; but of all other men in the world, God s wrath and fury doth smoke against such a man, Deut. xxix., as of all men an apostate is most hated by him. And as the reason of this so sore a displeasure, he insinuates withal that
one speech, that that manna and rock, &c., were Christ : ver. 4, That Eock was Christ ; that is, it signified, represented, and exhibited our Christ to
them, and it is therefore called a spiritual rock. As our sacraments are
not Christ bodily or personally, but spiritually, that is, mysteriously in
signification and representation to our faith, as was also the brazen serpent. Jesus in the heavens, and that hung on the cross, is Christ personally; the church, his body, of which he is the head, 1 Cor. 12, is Christ mysti
cally ; the sacraments are Christ mysteriously or spiritually, so as in them we
see and behold Christ really and spiritually, partake of him, and have to do
with him as if we were present with him : Gal. iii. 1, Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you ; that is, as
really as if he had been crucified among them, as he was once at Jerusalem. One would wonder that so plain and express a saying,
* That Rock was
Christ, should not have decided Christ s meaning in that like speech of his
touching the same thing, This is my body, this is my blood, both being
spoken in the same sense, and no other. Now that rock was Christ signi-
ficatively and mysteriously, and the papists themselves dare not say the
rock was the flesh and blood of Christ transubstantiated. Hence then it was that the Israelites in all their sinnings offered an open affront and con
tempt to that Christ, whom sacramentally they did eat and drink every day, and discerned not the Lord s body in it ; and therefore, ver. 9, they are
said to have tempted Christ, so as hereby it came to pass their sins were
not barely transgressions of the law which was given them, but they were
aggravated by this, that they therein undervalued that Christ, who was held
forth to them, though but in those shadows.
3. He sets before them the severity of the punishments that befell them, which he alleged as tokens how highly God was displeased with them. For
CHAP. III.] IN THE HEART AND LIFE. 309
in those days God shewed and manifested the proportions or degrees of his wrath upon men s sinning, by the visible and extraordinary punishments he
* they fell, ver. 8,
executed. His expressions of those punishments are,
they were overthrown, ver. 5 ; both do import violent deaths, as of
twenty-three thousand in one day. They died not as other men, but were
taken away in heaps by the immediate hand of God. Then again it is said, For murmuring they were destroyed of the destroyer, ver. 10. Now Heb. xi. 28 compared with this tells us that the destroyers were some of the
angels (whether good or bad I dispute not) who killed the Egyptians out
right at the passover ; you find it also Exod. xii. 23 ; and thus in like manner
is this to be understood.
4. He plainly applies and bringeth all this home to the Corinthians, as
living under the same and more spiritual sacraments that represented Christ.
: ver. 1, More
(1.) That he applies all this to them his preface imports
over, brethren, I would not have you ignorant, how that all our fathers were baptized, &c. ; that is, moreover, or over and above other considera
tions afore delivered to move you to strictness, I would have you lay to
heart deeply the examples of God s former dealings with others, yea, of
those that were therein your fathers, and you their children, in whose sins
therefore if you tread, you, as their children, shall be sure to reap from God punishments answerable ; as the threatening in the second command ment given about ordinances runs,
* I will visit the sins of the fathers on
their children. And then in prosecution of this he further urgeth, that
they and these Israelites had the same, the very same, ordinances for sub
stance which he inculcates twice, ver. 3, 4. And indeed the whole dis
course is bottomed upon that supposition, and had otherwise not been to
the purpose, his scope being that they therefore must expect the same or
sorer punishments, committing the same sins, aggravated by this, that they lived under the same ordinances. But yet, moreover, he brings all home
* Now these things were our examples, or types of us,
* to
to them : ver. 6,
the intent we should not lust after evil things. This nail driven thus home
fastens all upon them. These things raura, were rucro/ yj/^uv, types [of usj.
[l.J Prophetical, for types have the nature of prophecies to be fulfilled
(as Adam was a type of Christ, Rom. v. 14), and so did foretell, that under
the gospel many professing strictness of religion and conversion, which was
as a coming out ofEgypt, and boasting in their privileges in these ordinances, should fall into the like sin, and so incur like punishments. To which
sense that first part of verse 11 strongly leans : All these happened unto them for examples ; that is, God brought them upon them as types to us, he aiming therein at what should be again acted over, and more fully, under gospel times afterwards to come.
[2.] They were types monitory, that is, for admonition or warning, which
the apostle expressly urgeth on that other part of verse 11, And they were
written for our admonition, as buoys or sea-marks to warn us that we dash
not upon the same rock, Christ, manifested to us under like and far more
glorious ordinances.
5. He insinuates that God will be far more severe towards them that live under gospel ordinances.
(1.) Those, he says, were but types, which word is twice used ; that is,
all these things that befell them were rudiores imagines perfectionis, such as
a draught with a coal is to a picture embellished and drawn to the life, wg sv
, as Aristotle s phrase is.
(2.) These their sacraments he speaks of, though for substance the same
310 OF GOSPEL HOLINESS [BOOK IV.
with ours, yet for their manner of administration were enclosed about with an husk or rind of a fleshly dispensation, which made them but shadows of ours in comparison. They drank of the rock which was Christ, but their beasts drank of the same, and so it served to another purpose besides that of representing Christ. Their baptism was cloudy, it was in a cloud ; and instead of its being said to be into Christ (as the gospel runs, Horn. vi. 3), the apostle says, they were baptized visibly but into Moses, ver. 1, and so into Christ but as at a second remote hand, typified forth by that Moses. In like manner their passover primd intentione, and nextly and imme
diately, signified to them their deliverance out of Egypt ; but that being the type of our conversion from Satan to God, spiritual deliverance came therefore to be thus signified thereby at second hand, secimdd intentione, and remotely (though yet mainly and in its primary intention designed), but yet that out^ of Egypt was the next and immediate deliverance signified. Now as their ordinances, as enclosed in this rind, were more outward and
fleshly than ours, which have that rind now shaled off, and Christ is thereby immediately and only held forth, so,
(3.) The punishments for neglects or profane sinnings under them were but outward and temporary, as by bodily death, &c., which is but the breaking the shell, the outward man ; but our gospel ordinances being more
spiritual, have answerably punishments that are so. As God blesseth in
spiritual things now, so he curseth in spirituals also, and they are the curse in solido. Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy (says the apostle, Heb. x. 29), that profanes Christ as revealed in the gospel ? For example, were they stung with serpents, ver. 9, and destroyed of the
destroyer, ver. 10, by a bodily death inflicted? We under the gospel that live in such sins are given up to Satan, 1 Cor. v., either by terrors to drive the elect to Christ, or by seduction and a curse to drive reprobates to hell, as the devil entered into Judas whilst he received the sop. I cannot say he received the Lord s supper, but the passover he did, and Christ sealed up his rejection at that ordinance.
(4.) The apostle having spread these things before them, his conclusive inference s, Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Men use in their thoughts and speeches to boast themselves of their enjoy ment of such privileges as these, and do bolster themselves up in them ; but know that they will not guard you from the curse, nor privilege you at
all in that respect. Yea, let every such man know that this sacramental holy ground is the most slippery ground that men can stand on, as ice is ;
and^ therefore if he falls, he falls most dangerously, he falls upon the rock Christ, and he that falls on this stone shall be broken, Lukexx. 18. And also together therewith all the sermons he hath heard, and sacraments he hath received, fall upon him.
< The fall of that house was great (says Christ also, Mat. vii. 27), therefore
< let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall, that is, fall under the participation of such ordinances. And this coherence of these words with the former discourse is manifest, and the proper drift of them. Nay, and the apostle judgeth not this one caution enough, but seconds it with another : ver. 15, I speak to wise men, that is, men that know how to apply all this, and how fully it suits your case and condition ; and (3Xe*ers, see to it, consider or take heed unto what I say. Neither hath he done with this exhortation, but heaps on another : The cup we bless is the communion of the blood of Christ ; the bread we break is the communion of the body of Christ. And ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils : and ye cannot be par-
CHAP. IV.] IN THE HEART AND LIFE. 311
takers of the Lord s table, and the table of devils, vers. 19, 20 ; which
speech or reasoning, I know, ? is more particularly intended against that
idolatrous practice of sitting in the idols temple (which he had discoursed
against, chap, viii., and which was one particular sin he gave instance for
in the Israelites, ver. 7, for which God had punished them), yet for _the ground and extent of it, it doth by way of application come home against
fornication, or indulgence to any other lusts, feeding on the objects of them
as animce pabulum, and worshipping them as God, and sacrificing the
dearest of our intentions to them. These are idolatry, says the apostle, as
some copies have it: Col. iii. 5, Mortify therefore your members which
are upon the earth : fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil con
cupiscence, and covetousness, these are idolatry. A man hath therein
fellowship with devils, for they are the devil s dainties. They that feed
on these husks eat of the table of devils, have fellowship with devils, whose
* you should have
* I would not, says Paul,
works these are, 1 John iii.
fellowship with devils ; it is an utter inconsistency, and will overthrow your
profession and religion, and eat it out. Ye cannot drink the cup of the
Lord and the cup of devils. Well, the apostle prosecutes it yet further,
< Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy ? are we
for his close is, ver. 22,
stronger than he ? Jealousy is the rage of a man, says Solomon, Prov.
vi. 34. And it is the height of anger and displeasure in God, and if any
thing put him into it, it will be to find thee, that professest to lie in his
bed of love, in his bosom such is the Lord s supper then going from it
to lie in bed with the devil, engendering lust, malice, and mischief. If the
veil could be taken away, men would see that whilst their souls brood upon
their lusts, they are entwined close and coupling with serpents, yea, with
devils. Do you provoke the Lord to jealousy ? You may observe that God doth only (at least above all other) profess himself a jealous God, when he gave forth the second command, that is, the ordinances of his
worship forbidding the contrary. Now the Lord s supper being the top
ordinance of the second commandment under the gospel, to profane it by
nourishing lusts, provoketh God to the greatest jealousy, and sets God at
defiance ; and therefore those words are added, Are you stronger than
he ? that is, can you encounter him ? which you must make account to
do if you go thus on.