The same truth he also establishes, in reference to the water that proceeded from the rock. He told the Samaritan woman, that if she would have asked of him he would have given her living water ^ And on another occasion he stood in the place of public concourse, and cried, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink^;" thereby declaring himself to be the only " well of salvation," the only rock from whence the living water could proceed. Indeed, the Apostle, in the very words of the text, puts this matter beyond a doubt; " they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them ;" and " that Rock was Christ .""l
2. A sacramental pledge of his blessings — [Under the Gospel dispensation there are two sacra- ments, baptism and the Lord's supper : and these are not only " outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace," but they are also " means whereby we receive that grace, and a pledge to assure us thereof." Thus when the Israelites were " baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea," they were consecrated unto God ; and they received, as it were, an earnest from him, that all the blessings of his covenant should in due time be imparted to them, unless they, by their viola- tion of the covenant, should provoke him to withhold them. In the same manner the bread and water miraculously given and continued to them, were a pledge, that they should one day " eat of the hidden manna," and " drink of the rivers of pleasure which are at his right hand for evermore," pix)vided they continued steadfast in the covenant, and walked worthy of their heavenly calling. Thus while their daily food typically represented, and, to those who partook of it in faith, really- conveyed, spiritual blessings, it was " an earnest to them of that Spirit," whom the water typified, and " an earnest of that inheritance," which Christ should purchase for them by his obedience unto death''.]
And that this food was not peculiar to them may be shewn by considering,
II. In what respects it was the same with that which we now partake of —
When the Apostle says, that they all eat the same spiritual meat, he does not mean that all the Israelites subsisted on the same food (for that was obvious enough, and was of no consequence to his subject) but that their spiritual food, represented by the manna
f John iv. 10 — 14. g John vii. 37, 38.
b 2 Cor. i. 22. Eph. i. 14.