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26. I therefore fo run, not as uncertainly fo fight I, not as one that beateth the air:

26. This is my Practice: I run the Course of my Apostleship with the fame Caution and Earneftness as your Racers keep their Line, and ftretch toward the Prize.

Thus I fight against all Oppofition, not in jeft, as your Combatants are wont to do before-hand for mere Trial and Exercife; but I am always in earnest.

27. But I keep under my body, and bring it into fubjection: left that by any means when I have preached to others, I my felf fhould be a caft-away *.

27. Striving to mafter all Adverfaries, and get the entire Conqueft over my self, that while I teach others the Way to true Happiness, I may be the more abfolutely fure felf not to come

short of it.

my

* Ver. 27. A Caft-away — d'Sóniu, not Proof, not agreeable to the Measure or Standard I am to be proved by.

Jessie

CHA P. X.

The CONTENTS.

The Apoftle returns to the Question of Chap. viii. about the partaking of Idol Entertainments. Anfwers the Plea of fuch as frequented them, fhowing the Danger of it from the Example of divine Punishments upon the Jewish Church for the like Practices; and the Inconfiftency of paying any Refpect to Idols, with the Sacrament and Worship of the Chriftian Religion. Meats confecrated to Idols were often feafted on at private Entertainments, and even fold in the Markets. Some Jewish Converts made great Scruples of eating fuch Meats. The Apoftle folves thofe Doubts, and gives them Rules of Behaviour in fuch Cafes.

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Oreover, brethren, I would not that ye fhould be ignorant, how that all

our

BUT

1. UT to return to the Quef- A. D. 57.
tion about the Lawfulness
or Fitness of Chriftians being pre-
fent at Idol Entertainments.

I

perceive

A. D. 57. our fathers were un- perceive fome would perfuade you, der the cloud, and all that as you are Christians, and are paffed thro' the sea; now the true Church and peculiar People of God, God will difpenfe with you for it, and you need not fear his Displeasure. Whereas you ought to conclude the quite contrary, from the very Cafe of the antient Ifraelites, who were once the true Church, owned and declared by GOD to be fo, by their Deliverance from Egypt under the Cover of his Cloud of Glory, and their miraculous Paffage thro' the Red Sea.

2. And were all baptized unto Mofes in the cloud, and in the fea;

2. For that Miracle of the Cloud and the Sea, as it was a Token of God's receiving that People into his peculiar Service and Protection, and an Occafion of their believing in, and profeffing him as their God and Saviour; was the fame Thing then to them, as our Baptism now is to us.

3. And did all eat the fame fpiritual

meat;

the

4. And did all drink fame fpiritual drink: (For they drank of that (piritual Rock + that followed them and that Rock was Chrift.)

3 & 4. In like Manner, the Water that came out of the Rock, and the Manna that defcended from Heaven, may be faid to be Figures of Chrift; that is, they faved the Ifraelites from the Perils of Hunger and Thirst, and miraculously confirmed and affured them of their being God's chofen People: As, on the other Side, we Chriftians, by embracing the Doctrine and Religion of Christ, are faid to partake of the true Manna, the Bread of Life, and to drink of the living Water, John vi. 33, 35, 48, 51.

5. But with many of them God was not

well

5. And notwithstanding they were thus the covenanted People of God

* See the NOTE on Ver. 11.

+ See John vi. where the Senfe in which Chrift calls himfelf the Bread of Life, &c. is moft rightly paraphrafed by Dr. Clark, according to the Explications of the judicious Dr. Jackson, and the excellent Dr. Claget, who have fufficiently demonftrated, that these kind of Expreflions cannot be taken in a Sacramental Senie, but are intended to fignify in general, the Religion of Chrift, and Men's Faith in it.

well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

God (and in fome Degree of A. D. 57. Chrift too;) yet had they no Difpenfation to Sin. For the very Persons thus received into the divine Covenant, were, for their Tranfgreffions, deftroyed in the Wilderness, and never faw the Promised Land.

6. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not luft after evil things, as they alfo Jufted.

6. A plain Warning to us Chrif tians, that if they were fo feverely punished for their finful and ungoverned Inclinations, we can never expect to be indulged in any fuch Irregularities.

7. Neither be ye i- 7. Have a Care then of showdolaters, as were fome ing the leaft religious Respect to of them; as it is writ- Heathen Idols, or of drawing oten, The people fat thers into it: Remember how the down to eat and drink, Ifraelites were ferved for eating and rofe up to play. of the Feast of the Golden-Calf, and then rifing up * and dancing to the Honour of it, (Exod. xxii.) and committing Fornication among one

another.

8. Neither let us commit fornication, as fome of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

8. And take Heed, left by your forward and unwary Compliance, you be not drawn into those unclean Practices that accompany thefe Heathen Feafts. Remember what befel the Ifraelites for their Lewdness at the Sacrifices of Baal-Peor, (Numb. xxv. 3, 9, 18.) when a thousand of them were flain by the Judges t, and twenty-three thousand more by the revenging Hand of GOD.

9. Do

* Ver. 7. Пailuv — And rose up to play, i. e. to dance to it; Feafting and Dancing being the antient Ufages in idolatrous Worship. But the Word alfo directly fignifies Fornication, which was fo much practifed in idolatrous Worship.

+ Ver. 8. Note, The PARAPHRASE reconciles this Verse with that of Numb. xxv. 9. agreeably to the Opinion of all the most judicious Interpreters. See my PARAPHRAse upon that Place.

A. D. 57. 9. Neither let us tempt Chrift as fome of them alfo tempted, and were destroyed of ferpents.

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10. Neither murmur ye, as fome of them alfo murmured, and were deftroyed of the destroyer.

9. Do not therefore provoke CHRIST, as they provoked the Lord, and were abundance of them deftroyed by Serpents. (Numb. xxi. 5, 6.)

10. Nor murmur against the true Apoftles of CHRIST, for debarring you from these needless Gratifications, as they murmured against Mofes and Aaron, and

were many of them cut off by the deftroying Angel, (Numb. xiv.)

11. Now all these

things happened unto them for enfamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends

of the world are come.

12. Wherefore let him that thinketh he ftandeth, take heed left he fall.

II. These are fufficient Examples from God's Dealings with his former Church of the Jews, to warn us his Church now under the laft and great Dispensation of the Gospel from any the like Miscarriages.

12. Wherefore, let no Chriftian prefume, that his being of the true Church, and in Covenant with God, will fecure him from the Punishment of thefe Sins. He may fall into these Crimes without due Care, and then he is fure of the Punishment due to them, for all this Privilege.

13. There hath no 13 & 14. And though you may temptation taken you be hard preft, and ill treated, to

but

make

Ver. 11. Ta TiλN TOY dávav, The Ends of the World, i. e. the End of the Ages, the laft Age and Difpenfation; or elfe the Completion of the Types and Figures of former Ages. The first feems the most natural Senfe. For tho' the Things here spoken of, are said to be TúTol, Types, yet they are not fo in the fame Sense as the Ceremonials of the Law, or many other Transactions recorded in the Old Testament, are underftood to be. They are here meant only as bearing some ReSemblance in fome certain determinate Point, viz. “That "difobedient Chriftians, under the Gospel, will as furely "be punished, as were the difobedient Ifraelites under the "Law."

but fuch as is common

to man: but God is faithful who will not fuffer you to be tempt ed above what ye are able; but will with the temptation alfo make a way to escape,

that ye may be able to bear it.

14. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.

15. I speak as to wife men: judge ye what I fay.

make you comply with these Hea- A. D. 57.
then Cuftoms, yet confider it is no
more than what is natural for you
to expect from People bigotted to
contrary Principles, and fupport-
ed by a powerful Majority. But
ftand to your Profeffion, and keep
a good Conscience, and God will
enable you to go through all those
Difficulties. Stand out then cou-
ragioufly against their Tempta-
tions to fo vile a Sin.

15. Those new Teachers that
encourage you to thefe dangerous
Practices, make great Pretences

to Wisdom and Reafon. If then they be indeed good Reafoners, let them weigh the following Argument against them, viz.

16. The cup of bleffing, which we blefs, is it not the communion of the blood of Chrift? the

16. You all allow, that the Reception of the Bread and Wine in the Chriftian Sacrament, is a Token and Profeffion of our Faith in, and Communion with Jefus Chrift, as our Lord and Saviour, whofe Body was broken, and his Blood fhed for our Redemption and Salvation; and in Commemoration of which we thus eat and drink.

bread which we break, is it not the commu

nion of the body of

Chrift?

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

17. And that by our eating all of one Loaf of Bread, and drinking all of the fame facred Cup, we own and acknowledge ourfelves Members of his Church, united into one Chriftian Society, the Body whereof he is the Head, in Memorial of whom, and to whose Honour, we perform this Duty.

18. Behold Ifrael

after the flesh are not they which eat of the facrifices partakers

of the altar?

18. In like Manner, under the Jewish Church, the Priefts and thofe People that eat of the PeaceOfferings that were firft confecrated to God at the Altar, did

thereby

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