316

Let him therefore, who ftandeth, take Heed left he fall. Sect. 18. and Intereft; as fome of them alfo murmured as fome of them alfo muragain and again, and were destroyed by the De- mured, and were deftroyed 1 Cor. X. ftroyer (g), who was commiffioned by one Judg

10.

II

ment and another to take them off.
But let me remind you on the whole, as I
hinted above, that all thefe calamitous Things,
which happened unto them, were intended as Types
or Examples to us, that we might learn what we
are to expect in the like Cafe; and they are writ-
ten for our Admonition, on whom the Ends of the
World are come (h): As we live under the laft
Difpenfation, which God will ever give to the
Children of Men, and with which the whole
Oeconomy of their Probation fhall wind up.
12 Therefore let me urge this Improvement of the
whole Survey upon you, and upon all into whofe
Hand this Epiftle may come, and fay, let him
that thinketh be ftandeth moft fecurely, and who
may be ready moft confidently to truft in his own
Strength, take Heed left he fall fo much the lower,
in Proportion to the Degree in which he imagines
himfelf out of all Manner of Danger.

13

、

'Tis true indeed, and it is Matter of great Comfort and Thankfulness to reflect upon it, that no Temptation has yet taken you, but fuch as is common to Man (i), and fuch as human Reafon, properly exercised on the Principles of that Revelation which you enjoy, may furnish you with Motives to refift. And we have the Pleasure farther to reflect, that GOD [is] faithful who hath promised (k) to preferve his People, and he will not leave you to be tempted above your Ability; but will with the Temptation, with which he permits

you

of the Destroyer.

II Now all these Things

happened unto them for Enten for our Admonition, up

famples: And they are writ

on whom the Ends of the

World are come.

(g) The Deftroyer.] The Jews generally interpret this of him, whom they fancy to be the Angel of Death, and whom they call Sammael.

(b) End of the World.] Tena, properly fignifies the concluding Age, or the laft Dif penfation of GOD to Mankind on Earth; which, if we believe the Gospel to be true, we muft affuredly conclude that it is.

(i) Common to Man.] Apariros, may fignify alfo, proportionable to human Strength, as well as frequent to human Creatures; the Paraphrafe therefore imports that.

(k) Faithful, who hath promifed.] Compare Pfal. ciii. 13, 14, and numberless Paffages, in which God encourages his People to hope for his Prefence and Help in preffing Danger.

3

Reflections on the Conduct of Ifrael in the Wilderness.

MA

317

you to be affaulted, provide you also with a Way of Sect. 18.
Efcape; that if you be not wanting to yourfelves,
you may be able to bear [it ;] yea,

and may acquire
new Strength and Honour by the Combat.

IMPROVEMENT.

I Cor. X.

13.

AY Chriftians be always fenfible, how happy they are, in having received fuch useful Hints from the New Testament, to affift them Ver. 6,-11. in the Intrepretation of the Old; and particularly, thofe which are here given. We fee in Ifrael according to the Flesh, an effecting Emblem of the Church in general. We fee all their external Priviledges, tho' many and great, were ineffectual for their Security, when they behaved as unworthy of them.

Alas! how affecting is the Thought, that fome who are under the Ver. 1. miraculous Cloud, who passed thro' the Waters of the divided Sea, who eat Ver. 2. of the Bread that came down from Heaven, and drank of that living Stream which omnipotent Mercy had opened from the flinty Rock, and Ver. 3, 4. made it to follow them in the Windings of their Journey, fhould 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 fear. Let us mark the Rocks, on which Ver. 5they suffered this fatal Shipwreck, if poffible to keep clear of them; and pray that Divine Grace may direct our Courfe. Let us avoid not only thofe fuperftitious and idolatrous Rites of Worship, by which, as Pro- Ver. 7teftants, we are in little Danger of being enfnared; but alfo thofe Lufts of the Flefb, which muft, confidering our fuperior Advantage, be highly Ver. 8. difpleafing to GOD; even tho' they should not rife to a Degree of equal Enormity and Scandal.

Let us efpecially take Heed that we tempt not Chrift, who has gra- Ver. 9. ciously been pleased to take us under his Conduct, and to honour his Church with fo many demonstrative Tokens of his Prefence. Nor let us Ver. 10. murmur, if while we are in this Wilderness State, we fometimes 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 ftands engaged by the Promises of his Word, as well as the Equity and Goodness of his Nature, not to permit us to be tempted above what we are Ver. 13. able to bear. If we fee 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.

1

SECT.

318

Sect. 19.
I Cor. X.

14.

The Apoftle exhorts them to flee from Idolatry;

SECT. XIX.

The Apoftle farther purfues that Caution against all Approaches to Idolatry, which he had been fuggefting in the former Section; particularly arguing from that Communion, which Chriftians had with Chrift at his Table, which ought to place them at the remoteft Distance from what might justly be called having Communion with Devils. I Cor. X. 14,--- 22.

I

I CORINTHIANS X. 14.

may

I

I CORINTHIANS X. 14. my dearly

Idolatry.

HAVE just expreffed my Confidence in the Wertford, me from Care of GOD to fupport you under any extraordinary Temptation, which hereafter arife, to draw you out of the Way of your Duty: Wherefore, my beloved Brethren, being affured of this, let me exhort you carefully, to flee from all Approaches to Idolatry, whatever Circumftances of Allurement, or Danger, may feem to 15 plead for fome Degrees of Compliance. 115 I fpeak as to wife now fpeak, as unto wife Men: I ufe a rational Men: Judge ye what I fay, Argument, which will bear the ftricteft Examination, and which I am willing fhould be canvaffed as accurately as you pleafe; judge you therefore what I fay; for I will refer it to your own deliberate and cooler Thoughts, whether there be not Danger in thofe idolatrous Participations, which fome of you are fo ready to defend; and YEAR of whether they may not naturally bring fome Degree of Guilt upon your Confcience? or The facramental Cap, which is to us both the Commemoration of paft, and the Pledge of future Bleffing, which in the Name of the Lord we folemnly blefs (a), fetting it apart to a holy and re

16

ligious

16 The Cup of Bleffing

which

(a) Which we blefs.] This Text very plainly fhews, that there is a Senfe, in which we may be faid to bless the facramental Elements. To render it, the Cup over which, or for which

we

which we blefs, is it not the Communion of the Blood of we break, is it not the Communion of the Body of Chrift?

Chrift? The Bread which

16.

319

Becaufe, as Chriftians, they are one Bread and one Body. ligious Ufe; is it not the Token of our Faith and Sect. 19. our Communion in thefe ineftimable Priviledges which are the Purchase of the Blood of Chrift, 1 Cor. X. fhed for the Remiffion of our Sins? The Bread which we break, and which was appointed in the firft Inftitution of the Ordinance for this Purpose, is it not the Communion of the Body of Chrift in the like Senfe? that is, the Token of our fharing in the Priviledges which he procured at the Expence of Sufferings, by which his Body was broken, and almoft torn in Pieces. For we 17 Chriftians being many, are yet, as it were, but different Parts of one and the fame broken Bread (b), which we diftribute, [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 fame Table, in Testimony of our mutual and inviolable Friendship, cemented in Chrift our great and common Head.

17 For we being many, are one Bread, and one Body: For we are all Partak

ers of that one Bread.

takers of the Altar?

18 Behold Ifrael after the Confider how it is with Ifrael according to the 18 Flesh Are not they which eat of the Sacrifices, Par- Flesh, the lineal Defcendants of thofe who were the chofen and peculiar People of GOD: Are not they who eat of the Sacrifices, which have been offered in the Court of their Temple at Jerufalem, efteemed to be Partakers of the Altar of GOD, on which Part of them have been confumed? 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 eafily perceive, that the fame Argument will be conclufive to prove, that they, who share in the Sacrifices prefented to Idols, knowing

we blefs GOD, is doing great Violence to the Original. That is faid to be bleffed, which is fet apart to a facred Ufe, (Gen. ii. 3. Exod. xx. 11.) and on which the Bleffing of GOD is folemnly invoked.

(b) Of one Bread.] Many valuable Manufcripts read it, and of one Cup. Elfner 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, pag. 54. and Maimonides, quoted by him there. See more efpecially, Dr. Cudworth's Difcourfe concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper, Chap. i. and Chap. vi. And it is certain alfo, as is intimated below, that by Sacrifices, and the Feafts on them, they held Communion with the real or fuppofed Deity, to which they were prefented; as the Author of a Difcourfe on Sacrifices has fhewn at large. But that this was the only End of all Sacrifices, I cannot think that learned Writer fufficiently to have proved.

4

(c) I would

320

Sect. 19.

The Gentiles facrifice to Dæmons, and not to GOD: knowing what they do, and efpecially doing it in fome Apartments belonging to the Temples 1 Cor. X. of fuch Idols, hold a Kind of Communion with thefe fictitious and deteftable Deities, by no Means reconcileable with the Sanctity of the Chriftian Character, or the Tenor of their facramental Engagements.

18.

19

20

What then do I fay, that an Idol of Wood or Stone, of Silver or Gold, is in itfelf any Thing Divine? Or do I fay, that the Thing, which is facrificed to Idols, is in itself any Thing morally and univerfally unclean? You well know, that I intend to maintain nothing of this Kind.

But on the other Hand, you must be aware, that what the Heathens facrifice, they facrifice to evil Dæmons, and not to GOD; fuch Spirits, as thofe to which they addrefs their Devotions, muft to be fure be wicked Spirits, if they exift at all; and Devils may well be fuppofed to use their utmoft Efforts to fupport fuch Worship, it being grateful to them, in Proportion to the Degree in which it is affronting and injurious to the great Object of Chriftian Adoration, and enfnaring to the Souls of Men. Now I would not by any Means, that you who have at your Baptifm folemnly renounced the Devil, and all his Adherents, fhould in any Degree have, or feem to have, Communion with 21 Dæmons (c). And indeed this is moft inconfiftent with thofe folemn Badges of your holy Profeffion, by which your baptifmal Covenant is

fo

(c) I would not that ye fhould have Communion with Damons.] It is a monstrous Notion of Olearius, that the Heathens imagined the very Subftance and Body of their Deities infinuated itself into the Victim offered to them, and fo was united to the Perfon eating the Flefh of thefe Sacrifices. Elfaer, (Obferv. Vol. ii. pag. 108.) has fufficiently confuted this his weak Inference from fome miftaken Paffages of Firminus, and famblicus. But this learned and judicious Critick has proved at large, from inconteftible Authorities, that the Demons were confidered as prefent at thefe Sacrifices, and as taking their Part with the Worfhippers in the common Feaft; by which Means, as Maimonides exprefles it, in a very remarkable Paffage, (More Nevoch. Part. iii. Cap. 46.) Friendship, Brotherhood and Familiarity was contracted between them, becaufe all eat at one Table, and fat 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 fhewn, we are not to conclude from hence, that under the Gospel Difpenfation, the Table of the Lord is properly an Altar; for the Lord's Supper is not a Sacrifice, but a Feaft upon a Sacrifice. Cudworth on the True Notion of the Lord's Supper, Chap. 5.

(d) To

L