(ver. 48), and, I am the living bread that came down from heaven, (ver. 51); but addeth also, in the 55th verse, For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. Which words, being the most forcible of all the rest, and those wherewith the simpler sort are commonly most deluded, might carry some shew of proof that Christ's flesh and blood should be turned into bread and wine, but have no manner of colour to prove that bread and wine are turned into the flesh and blood of Christ.

The truth of the second appeareth by the fourth verse, in which we find that this fell out not long before the Passover, and consequently a year at least before that last Passover wherein our Saviour instituted the Sacrament of his Supper. We willingly indeed do acknowledge, that that which is inwardly presented in the Lord's Supper, and spiritually received by the soul of the faithful, is that very thing which is treated of in the sixth of John; but we deny, that it was our Saviour's intention in this place to speak of that which is externally delivered in the Sacrament, and orally received by the communicant. And for our warrant herein, we need look no further than to that earnest asseveration of our Saviour in the 53d verse: Verily, verily I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Wherein there is not only an obligation laid upon them for doing of this, (which in no likelihood could be intended of the external eating of the Sacrament, that was not as yet in being,) but also an absolute necessity imposed, non præcepti solum ratione, sed etiam medii. Now, to hold that all they are excluded from life which have not had the means to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, is as untrue as it is uncharitable. And therefore many of the Papists themselves, as Biel, Cusanus, Cajetan, Tapper, Hessels, Jansenius, and others confess, that our Saviour in the sixth of John did not properly treat of the Sacrament.

The third of the points proposed may be collected out of the first part of Christ's speech, in the 35th and 36th verses: I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. But especially out of the last, from the 61st verse forward: When Jesus knew in himself that his

disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, are spirit and life. But there are some of you that believe not. Which words Athanasius (or whosoever was the author of the tractate upon that place, Quicunque dixerit verbum in filium hominis) noteth our Saviour to have used, that his hearers might learn, "that those things which he spake were not carnal but spiritual. For how many could his body have sufficed for meat, that it should be made the food of the whole world? But therefore it was that he made mention of the Son of man's ascension into heaven, that he might draw them from this corporal conceit, and that hereafter they might learn that the flesh which he spake of was celestial meat from above, and spiritual nourishment to be given by him. For the words which I have spoken unto you, saith he, are spirit and life." So likewise Tertullian: "Although he saith that the flesh profiteth nothing, the meaning of the speech must be directed according to the intent of the matter in hand. For, because they thought it to be a hard and an intolerable speech, as if he had determined that his flesh should be truly eaten by them; that he might dispose the state of salvation by the spirit, he premised, It is the spirit that quickeneth, and so subjoined, The flesh profiteth nothing, namely, to quicken, &c. And because the Word was made flesh, it therefore was to be desired for causing of life, and to be devoured by hearing, and to be chewed by under

6 "Οτι ἃ λέγει, οὐκ ἔστι σαρκικά, ἀλλὰ πνευματικά πόσοις γὰρ ἤρκει τὸ σῶμα πρὸς βρῶσιν, ἵνα καὶ τοῦ κόσμου παντὸς τοῦτο τροφὴ γένηται; Ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦτο τῆς εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἀναβάσεως ἐμνημόνευσε τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ἵνα τῆς σωματικής ἐννοίας αὐτοὺς ἀφελκύσῃ, καὶ λοιπὸν τὴν εἰρημένην σάρκα βρῶσιν ἄνωθεν οὐράνιον, καὶ πνευματικὴν τροφὴν παρ' αὐτοῦ διδομένην μάθωσιν. ἃ γὰρ λελάληκα (φησίν) ὑμῖν, πνεῦμα ἔστι καὶ ζωή. Athanas.

7 Etsi carnem ait nihil prodesse, ex materia dicti dirigendus est sensus. Nam quia durum et intolerabilem existimaverunt sermonem ejus, quasi vere carnem suam illis

edendam determinàsset: ut in spiritu disponeret statum salutis, præmisit; Spiritus est qui vivificat, atque ita subjunxit: caro nihil prodest, ad vivificandum scilicet. Tertul. de Resurrect. Carnis, cap. 37.

8 Quia et Sermo caro erat factus, proinde in causam vitæ appetendus, et devorandus auditu, et ruminandus intellectu, et fide digerendus. Nam et paulo ante carnem suam panem quoque cœlestem pronuntiârat; urgens usquequaque per allegoriam necessariorum pabulorum, memoriam patrum, qui panes et carnes Ægyptiorum præverterant divinæ vocationi. Idem ibid.

standing, and to be digested by faith. For a little before he had also affirmed that his flesh was heavenly bread, urging still by the allegory of necessary food the remembrance of the Fathers, who preferred the bread and the flesh of the Egyptians before God's calling." Add hereunto the sentence of Origen: "There is in the New Testament also a letter which killeth him that doth not spiritually conceive the things that be spoken. For if according to the letter you do follow this same which is said, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, this letter killeth." And those sayings which every where occur in St Augustine's Tractates upon John: "10 How shall I send up my hand unto heaven, to take hold on Christ sitting there? Send thy faith, and thou hast hold of him." 11 Why preparest thou thy teeth and thy belly? Believe, and thou hast eaten." 12 For this is to eat the living bread, to believe in him. He that believeth in him, eateth. He is invisibly fed, because he is invisibly regenerated. He is inwardly a babe, inwardly renewed: where he is renewed, there is he nourished."

The fourth proposition doth necessarily follow upon the third. For if the eating and drinking here spoken of be not an external eating and drinking, but an inward participation of Christ by the communion of his quickening Spirit, it is evident that this blessing is to be found in the soul, not only in the use of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, but at other times also. "It is no ways to be doubted by any one," saith Fulgentius, "that every one of the

novus intus est: ubi novellatur, ibi satiatur. Id. ibid. Tract. 26.

13 Nulli est aliquatenus ambigendum, tunc unumquemque fidelium corporis sanguinisque Dominici participem fieri, quando in Baptismate membrum Christi efficitur; nec alienari ab illius panis calicisque consortio, etiamsi antequam panem illum comedat, et calicem bibat, de hoc seculo in unitate corporis Christi constitutus abscedat. Sacramenti quippe illius participatione ac beneficio non privatur, quando ipse hoc quod illud Sacramentum significat, invenitur. Fulgentius, in fine libelli de Baptismo Æthiopis, Augustini nomine citatus apud Bedam, in 1 Corinth. x.

faithful is made partaker of the body and blood of our Lord, when he is made a member of Christ in baptism; and that he is not estranged from the communion of that bread and cup, although before he eat that bread and drink that cup he depart out of this world, being settled in the unity of the body of Christ. For he is not deprived of the participation and the benefit of that Sacrament, when he is found to be that which this Sacrament doth signify." And hereupon we see that divers of the Fathers do apply the sixth of John to the hearing of the word also, as 14 Clemens Alexandrinus, 15 Origen, Eusebius Cæsareensis, and others. "We are said to drink the blood of Christ," saith "Origen, "not only by way of the Sacraments, but also when we receive his word, wherein consisteth life; even as he himself saith: The words which I have spoken are spirit and life." Upon which words of Christ Eusebius paraphraseth after this manner: "17 Do not think that I speak of that flesh wherewith I am compassed, as if you must eat of that; neither imagine that I command you to drink my sensible and bodily blood: but understand well, that the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and life. So that those very words and speeches of his are his flesh and blood, whereof who is partaker, being always therewith nourished as it were with heavenly bread, shall likewise be made partaker of heavenly life. Therefore let not that offend you, saith he, which I have spoken of the eating of my flesh and of the drinking of my blood; neither let the superficial hearing of those things which were said by me of flesh and

14 Clem. Alexan. Pædagog. lib. i. cap. 6. 15 Orig. in Levit. cap. 10. Hom. VII. 16 Bibere autem dicimur sanguinem | Christi, non solum sacramentorum ritu, sed et cum sermones ejus recipimus, in quibus vita consistit, sicut et ipse dicit: Verba quæ locutus sum, spiritus et vita est. Origen in Num. cap. 24. Hom. xvi.

17 Μὴ γὰρ τὴν σάρκα ἣν περίκειμαι νομίσητέ με λέγειν ὡς δέον αὐτὴν ἐσθίειν, μηδὲ τὸ αἰσθητὸν καὶ σωματικὸν αἷμα πίνειν ὑπολαμβάνετέ με προστάττειν ἀλλ ̓ εὖ ἴστε ὅτι τὰ ῥήματα ἃ λελάληκα ὑμῖν πνεῦμά ἐστι καὶ ζωή. ὥστε αὐτὰ εἶναι τὰ ῥήματα καὶ τοὺς λόγους αὐτοῦ

τὴν σάρκα καὶ τὸ αἷμα· ὧν ὁ μετέχων ἀεὶ ὡσανεὶ ἄρτῳ οὐρανίῳ τρεφόμενος, τῆς οὐρανίου μεθέξει ζωῆς. Μηδὲ οὖν, φησὶ, σκανδαλιζέτω ὑμᾶς τοῦτο ὃ περὶ βρώσεως τῆς ἐμῆς σαρκὸς καὶ περὶ πόματος τοῦ ἐμοῦ αἵματος εἴρηκα, μηδὲ ταραττέτω ὑμᾶς ἡ πρόχειρος ἀκοὴ τῶν περὶ τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ αἵματος εἰρημένων μοι. Ταῦτα γὰρ οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ αἰσθητῶς ἀκουόμενα, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα ἐστὶ τὸ ζωοποῖουν τοὺς πνευματικῶς ἀκούειν δυναμένους. Euseb. lib. iii. Ecclesiast. Theologiæ, cont. Marcell. Ancyran. MS. in publica Oxoniensis Academiæ Bibliotheca; et in privatis virorum doctissimorum, D. Richardi Montacutii et M. Patricii Junii.

blood trouble you. For these things, sensibly heard, profit nothing; but the spirit is it which quickeneth them that are able to hear spiritually." Thus far Eusebius, whose words I have laid down the more largely, because they are not vulgar.

There remaineth the fifth and last point, which is oftentimes repeated by our Saviour in this sermon; as in the 50th verse: This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die; and in the 51st: If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and in the 54th: Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and in the 56th: He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him; and in the 58th: This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. Whereupon Origen rightly observeth the difference that is betwixt the eating of the typical or symbolical, (for so he calleth the Sacrament,) and the true body of Christ. Of the former thus he writeth: 18 That which is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer, doth not of its own nature sanctify him that useth it. For if that were so, it would sanctify him also which doth eat unworthy of the Lord; neither should any one for this eating be weak, or sick, or dead. For such a thing doth Paul shew, when he saith, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." Of the latter, thus: "19 Many things may be spoken of the Word itself, which was made flesh, and true meat; which whosoever eateth shall certainly live for ever: which no evil person can eat. For if it could be, that he who continueth evil might eat the Word made flesh, (seeing he is the Word and the bread of life,) it should not have

13

15 Quod sanctificatur per verbum Dei et per obsecrationem, non suapte natura sanctificat utentem. Nam id si esset, sanctificaret etiam illum, qui comedit indigne Domino: neque quisquam ob hunc esum infirmus aut ægrotus fuisset, aut obdormisset. Nam tale quiddam Paulus demonstrat, quum ait: Propter hoc inter vos infirmi et male habentes, et dormiunt multi. Origen in Mat. xv.

19 Multa porro et de ipso Verbo dici possent, quod factum est caro, verusque cibus, quem qui comederit, omnino vivet in æternum; quem nullus malus potest edere. Etenim si fieri possit, ut qui malus adhuc perseveret, edat Verbum factum carnem, quum sit Verbum et panis vivus, nequaquam scriptum fuisset: Quisquis ederit panem hunc, vivet in æternum. Id. ibid.