gave

XXVIII.

that was to shew, that the doctrine of Christ was more ART. excellent than the law of Moses; that though Moses the Israelites manna from heaven, to nourish their bodies, yet notwithstanding that they died in the wilderness: but Christ was to give his followers such food that it should give them life; so that if they did eat of it, they should never die: where it is apparent, that the bread and nourishment must be such as the life was; and that being eternal and spiritual, the bread must be so understood for it is clearly expressed how that food was to be received; he that John vi. 40. believeth on me hath everlasting life.

Since then he had formerly said, that the bread which he was to give, should make them live for ever; and since here it is said, that this life is given by faith; then this bread must be his doctrine: for, this is that which faith receives. And when the Jews desired him to give them evermore of that bread, he answered, I am the bread of ver. 47, 48, life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that 51.

believeth on me shall never thirst.

In these words he tells them that they received that bread by coming to him, and by believing on him. Christ calls himself that bread, and says, that a man must eat thereof; which is plainly a figure and if figures are confessed to be in some parts of their discourse, there is no reason to deny that they run quite through it. Christ says, that this bread was his flesh, which he was to give for the life of the world; which can only be meant of his offering himself up upon the cross for the sins of the world. The Jews murmured at this, and said, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? To which our Saviour answers, that except they did eat the flesh and drink the blood of the ver. 53, 54, Son of man, they had no life in them.

Now if these words are to be understood of a literal eating of his flesh in the Sacrament, then no man can be saved that does not receive it: it was a natural consequence of the expounding these words of the Sacrament, to give it to children, since it is so expressly said, that life is not to be had without it. But the words that come next carry this matter farther; Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. It is plain that Christ is here speaking of that, without which no man can have life, and by which all who received it have life if therefore this is to be expounded of the Sacrament, none can be damned that does receive it, and none can be saved that receives it not.

Therefore since eternal life does always follow the eating of Christ's flesh, and the drinking his blood, and cannot

55.

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ART be had without it; then this must be meant of an internal and spiritual feeding on him: for, as none are saved without that, so all are saved that have it. This is yet clearer from the words that follow, my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed: it may well be inferred, that Christ's flesh is eaten in the same sense, in which he says it is meat: now certainly it is not literally meat; for none do say that the body is nourished by it; and yet there is somewhat emphatical in this, since the word indeed is not added in vain, but to give weight to the expression. John vi. 56. It is also said, he that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. Here the description seems to be made of that eating and drinking of his flesh and blood; that it is such as the mutual indwelling of Christ and believers is. Now that is certainly only internal and spiritual, and not carnal or literal: and therefore such also must the eating and drinking be.

ver. 63.

Marc Nevochim.

All this seems to be very fully confirmed from the conclusion of that discourse, which ought to be considered as the key to it all; for when the Jews were offended at the hardness of Christ's discourse, he said, It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life: which do plainly import, that his former discourse was to be understood in a spiritual sense, that it was a divine spirit that quickened them, or gave them that eternal life, of which he had been speaking; and that the flesh, his natural body, was not the conveyer of it.

All that is confirmed by the sense in which we find eating and drinking frequently used in the Scriptures, according to what is observed by Jewish writers; they stand for wisdom, learning, and all intellectual apprehensions, through which the soul of man is preserved, by the perfection that is in them, as the body is preserved by food: So, Buy and eat; eat fat things; drink of wine well refined.

Maimonides also observes, that whensoever eating and drinking are mentioned in the Book of Proverbs, they are to be understood of wisdom and the law: and after he has brought several places of Scripture to this purpose, he concludes, that because this acceptation of eating occurs so often, and is so manifest, as if it were the primary and most proper sense of the word; therefore hunger and thirst stand for a privation of wisdom and understanding. And the Isa. xii. 3. Chaldee Paraphrast turns these words, ye shall draw water out of the wells of salvation; thus, ye shall receive a new doctrine with joy from some select persons.

Since then the figure of eating and drinking was used ART. among the Jews, for receiving and imbibing a doctrine ; it was no wonder if our Saviour pursued it in a discourse, in which there are several hints given to shew us that it ought to be so understood.

It is further observable, that our Saviour did frequently follow that common way of instruction among the Eastern nations, by figures, that to us would seem strong and bold. These were much used in those parts, to excite the attention of the hearers; and they are not always to be severely expounded according to the full extent that the words will bear. The parable of the unjust judge, of the unjust steward, of the ten virgins, of plucking out the right eye, and cutting off the right hand or foot, and several others, might be instanced. Our Saviour in these considered the genius of those to whom he spoke so that these figures must be restrained only to that particular, for which he meant them; and must not be stretched to every thing to which the words may be carried. We find our Saviour compares himself to a great many things; to a vine, a door, and a way and therefore when the scope of a discourse does plainly run in a figure, we are not to go and descant on every word of it; much less may any pretend to say, that some parts of it are to be understood literally, and some parts figuratively.

:

For instance, if that chapter of St. John is to be understood literally, then Christ's flesh and blood must be the nourishment of our bodies, so as to be meat indeed; and that we shall never hunger any more, and never die after we have eat of it. If therefore all do confess that those expressions are to be understood figuratively, then we have the same reason to conclude that the whole is a figure: for it is as reasonable for us to make all of it a figure, as it is for them to make those parts of it a figure, which they cannot conveniently expound in a literal sense. From all which it is abundantly clear that nothing can be drawn from that discourse of our Saviour's, to make it reasonable to believe that the words of the institution of this Sacrament ought to be literally understood: on the contrary, our Saviour himself calls the wine, after those words had been used by him, the fruit of the vine, which is as strict a form of speech as can well be imagined, to make us understand that the nature of the wine was not altered : and when St. Paul treats of it in those two chapters, in which all that is left us besides the history of the institution concerning the Sacrament is to be found, he calls

XXVIII.

1 Cor. x.

16.

ART. it five times bread, and never once the body of Christ. In one place he calls it the communion of the body, as the cup is the communion of the blood of Christ. Which is rather a saying, that it is in some sort, and after a manner, the body and the blood of Christ, than that it is so strictly speaking.

If this Sacrament had been that mysterious and unconceivable thing which it has been since believed to be, we cannot imagine, but that the books of the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, and their Epistles, should have contained fuller explanations of it, and larger instructions about it.

There is enough indeed said in them to support the plain and natural sense, that we give to this institution; and because no more is said, and the design of it is plainly declared to be to remember Christ's death, and to shew it forth till he come, we reckon that by this natural simplicity, in which this matter is delivered to us, we are very much confirmed in that plain and easy signification, which we put upon our Saviour's words. Plain things need not be insisted on: but if the most sublime and wonderful thing in the world seems to be delivered in words that yet are capable of a lower and plainer sense, then unless there is a concurrence of other circumstances, to force us to that higher meaning of them, we ought not to go into it; for simple things prove themselves: whereas the more extraordinary that any thing is, it requires a fulness and evidence in the proof, proportioned to the uneasiness of conceiving or believing it.

We do therefore understand our Saviour's institution thus, that as he was to give his body to be broken and his blood to be shed for our sins, so he intended that this his death and suffering should be still commemorated by all such as look for remission of sins by it, not only in their thoughts and devotions, but in a visible representation : which he appointed should be done in symbols, that should be both very plain and simple, and yet very expressive of that which he intended should be remembered by them.

Bread is the plainest food that the body of man can receive, and wine was the common nourishing liquor of that country; so he made choice of these materials, and in them appointed a representation and remembrance to be made of his body broken, and of his blood shed; that is, of his death and sufferings till his second coming: and he obliged his followers to repeat this frequently. In the doing

of it according to his institution, they profess the belief ART. of his death, for the remission of their sins, and that they XXVIII. look for his second coming.

This does also import, that as bread and wine are the simplest of bodily nourishments, so his death is that which restores the souls of those that do believe in him: as bread and wine convey a vital nourishment to the body, so the sacrifice of his death conveys somewhat to the soul that is vital, that fortifies and exalts it. And as water in Baptism is a natural emblem of the purity of the Christian religion, bread and wine in the Eucharist are the emblems of somewhat that is derived to us, that raises our faculties, and fortifies all our powers.

St. Paul does very plainly tell us, that unworthy re- 1 Cor. xi. ceivers, that did neither examine nor discern themselves, 27, 29. nor yet discern the Lord's body, were guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and did eat and drink their own damnation: that is, such as do receive it without truly believing the Christian religion, without a grateful acknowledgment of Christ's death and sufferings, without feeling that they are walking suitably to this religion that they profess, and without that decency and charity, which becomes so holy an action; but that receive the bread and wine only as bare bodily nourishments, without considering that Christ has instituted them to be the memorials of his death; such persons are guilty of the body and blood of Christ: that is, they are guilty either of a profanation of the Sacrament of his body and blood, or they do in a manner crucify him again, and put him to an open shame; when they are so faulty as the Corinthians were, in observing this holy institution with so little reverence, and with such scandalous disorders, as those were for which he reproached them.

Of such as did thus profane this institution, he says farther, that they do eat and drink their own damnation, or judgment; that is, punishment: for the word rendered damnation signifies sometimes only temporary punish

ments.

So it is said, that judgment (the word is the same) must 1 Pet. iv. begin at the house of God: God had sent such judgments upon the Corinthians for those disorderly practices of theirs, that some had fallen sick, and others had died, perhaps by reason of their drinking to excess in those feasts: but as God's judgments had come upon them; so the words that follow shew that these judgments were only chastisements, in order to the delivering them from the condemnation, under which the world lies. It being said,