are united to them so as to form one community, with a com- mon character and a common destiny. Into this state of fel- lowship they are brought by sacrificing to them ; that is, by idolatry, which is an act of apostasy from the true God, and of association with the kingdom of darkness. It was of great importance for the Corinthians to know that it did not depend on their intention whether they came into communion with devils. The heathen did not intend to worship devils, and yet they did it ; what would it avail, therefore, to the reckless Corinthians, who attended the sacrificial feasts of the heathen, to say that they did not intend to worship idols ? The ques- tion w^as not, what they meant to do, but what they did ; not, what their intention was, but what was the import and effect of their conduct. A man need not intend to bum himself when he puts his hand into the fire ; or to pollute his soul when he frequents the haunts of vice. The effect is altogether independent of his intention. This principle applies with all its force to comphance with the religious services of the heathen at the present day. Those who in pagan countries join in the religious rites of the heathen, are just as much guilty of idolatry, and are just as certainly brought into fel- lowship with devils, as the nominal Christians of Corinth, who, although they knew that an idol was nothing, and that there is but one God, yet frequented the heathen feasts. The same principle also aj^plies to the compliance of Protestants in the religious observances of Papists. Whatever their inten- tion may be, they worship the host if they bow down to it with the* crowd who intend to adore it. By the force of the act we become one with those in whose worship we join. We constitute with them and with the objects of their worship one communion.
21. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils : ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.
The cup of the Lord is that cup which brings us into com- munion with the Lord, v. 16 ; the cup of devils is that cup which brings iis into communion with devils. The reference is not exclusively or specially to the cup of libation, or to the wine poured out as an offering to the gods, but to the cup fi-om which the guests drank at these sacrificial feasts. The whole service had a religious character ; all the provisions,