baptism to be made his disciples. See 1, 13. Rom. 6, 3. In the cloud and in the sea. The cloud and the sea did for them, in reference to Moses, what baptism does for us in reference to Christ. Their passage through the sea, and their guidance by the cloud, was their baptism. It made them the disciples of Moses ; placed them under obligation to recognize his di- vine commission and to submit to his authority. This is the only point of analogy between the cases, and it is all the apos- tle's argument requires. One class of commentators says that they were immersed in the sea, and therefore it was a bap- tism ; another says, the cloud rained upon them, and on that account they are said to have been baptized. Both sugges- tions are equally forced. For the people were baptized as much in the cloud as in the sea ; but they were not immersed in the cloud nor sprinkled by the sea. There is no allusion to the mode of baptism. Neither is the point of analogy to be sought in the fact, that the cloud was vapour and the sea water. The cloud by night was fire. The point of similarity is to be found, not in any thing external, but in the efiect pro- duced. The display of God's power in the cloud and in the sea, brought the people into the relation of disciples to Moses. It inaugurated the congregation, and, as it were, baptized them to him, bound them to serve and follow him.
3. And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
As they had their baptism, so they had their eucharist ; and they all had it. They all eat the same spiritual meat. They were all alike favoured, and had therefore equal grounds of hope. Yet how few of them reached the promised rest !
The reference is here obviously to the manna, which the apostle calls spiritual meat. Why it is so called is very doubt- ful. 1. The word spiritual may mean, partaking of the nature of spirit, a sense attributed to the word in 15, 44, where, " spir- itual body " is assumed to mean a refined, aetherial body. The manna, according to this view, is called spiritual meat, be- cause it was a refined kind of food ; much in the way in which we use the word celestial as an epithet of excellence. This in- terpretation derives some support from Ps. 78, 25, where the manna is called "angels' food." By Josephus, A. III. 1, 6, it is called, " divine and wonderful food." 2. A second inter- pretation assumes that spiritual means having a spiritual im- port. " Spiritual meat " would then be equivalent to typical. * They eat of that bread which was the type of the true bread