Calvin writes of 1 Cor. 10:1-5, “For they were favored with the same benefits as we at this day enjoy; there was a Church of God among them, as there is at this day among us; they had the same sacraments, to be tokens to them of the grace of God; but, on their abusing their privileges, they did not escape the judgment of God.”
Calvin understand that the sacraments of the Old and New Covenants were the same in substance, though different in outward administration, and he affirms that the Red Sea was a true baptism and that the manna and the rock were figures of the Body of Christ. Calvin states, “He treats first of baptism, and teaches that the cloud, which protected the Israelites in the desert from the heat of the sun, and directed their course, and also their passage through the sea, was to them as a baptism; he says, also, that in the manna, and the water flowing from the rock, there was a sacrament which corresponded with the sacred Supper.”
