lected by the apostle. The Israelites doubtless felt, as they stood on the other side of the Red Sea, that all danger was over, and that their entrance into the land of promise was se- cured. They had however a journey beset with dangers be- fore them, and perished because they thought there was no need of exertion. So the Corinthians, when brought to the knowledge of the gospel, thought heaven secure. Paul re- minds them that they had only entered on the way, and would certainly perish unless they exercised constant seli-denial. Our fathers. Abraham is our father, though we are not his natural descendants. And the Israelites were the fathers of the Co- rinthian Christians, although most of them were Gentiles. Although this is true, it is probable that the apostle, although writing to a church, many, if not most, of whose members were of heathen origin, speaks as a Jew to Jews ; as he often addresses a congregation as a whole, when what he says has reference only to a part.
Were tinder the cloud, not underneath it, but under its guidance. Ex. 13,21. "The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them ; and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, to go by day and night." See Num. 9, 15. 23. 14, 14. Deut. 1, 33. Ps. 78, 14. &c. No more deci- sive evidence could have been given of their election as a peo- ple, than this supernatural guidance. The symbol of the divine presence and favour was before their eyes day and night. If any people ever had reason to think their salvation secure, it was those whom God thus wonderfully guided. They all passed through the sea. Would God permit those to perish for whom he had wrought so signal a deliverance, and for whose sake he sacrificed the hosts of Egypt ? Yet their car- casses were strewed in the wilderness. It is not enough, there- fore, to be recipients of extraordinary favours ; it is not enough to begin well. It is only by constant sell-denial and vigilance, that the promised reward can be obtained. This is the lesson the apostle intends to inculcate.
2. And were aU baptized * unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea ;
Baptized unto Moses, i. e. in reference to Moses, so as by
* The MSS. A. C. D. E. F. G. all read i^a-rtTiSfhaav, were baptized, instead of i^amiaavTo, allowed themselves to be baptized ; and yet the majority of edi- tors prefer the latter reading as the more difficult.