he may dispense for you in behalf of that portion of God's poor with which you are especially connected. And now unto Him in his Jesus in the Holy Ghost be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

January 13, 1828.

SERMON VI.

JOHN vi. 51.

I AM THE LIVING BREAD WHICH CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN IF ANY MAN EAT OF THIS BREAD, HE SHALL LIVE FOR EVER AND THE BREAD THAT I WILL GIVE IS MY FLESH, WHICH I WILL GIVE FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD.

In the further prosecution of this subject I have now to remark to you that there are those who do eat the bread which came down from heaven, who do eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man; according to the interpretation which I have given to you of the eating of that bread, the eating of that flesh and the drinking of that blood; which, as I have said and have (I trust in God) shown, stands in the taking of the things of Jesus Christ in the form of risen Godmanhood into our mind, the contemplating of Jesus Christ as set before us in this form, which presupposes his incarnation and death. I have in the meanwhile shown you that, whereas all ought so to eat of that bread

which came down from heaven, none can so eat of that bread which came down from heaven except it shall have been given to them of the Father, except by a special and supernatural gift and act of his they be enabled to do so. Now therefore I come in order to that fourth assertion, that some do so eat; and in so eating they show that they are not staggered, or stumbled, or offended,-which mean severally the same thing,-by this saying of His, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you;" they have entered into the spirit of his remonstrance and illustration, "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing :" that is, looking at Him as one that has risen from the dead, and that has ascended through the air into the heaven of heavens, they have drawn from this fact the conclusion that He must now be dwelling in a spiritual body, and that his spirit was the important part of his compound substance to be engaged in looking at. "It is the spirit that quickeneth." Why, if it is the spirit that quickeneth, then it is the spirit that hath life in it: that cannot quicken, that is, i give life, which hath not life in itself. If then it is the spirit that quickeneth, it is the spirit which hath life in it. "The flesh profiteth nothing:" that is, the flesh hath no power of quickening; and if it hath no power of quickening, it is because it hath no life in itself. Now that is his argument.

"What and if ye

shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" Why, if He ascends, it must be in a spiritual body, in a body of the same substance with his spirit, as opposed to, contrasted with, contradistinguished from, his flesh; and therefore those persons of whom He speaks, having been led to contemplate the resurrection and subsequent ascension of the Son of man, the ascension as connected with, as the necessary consequence of his resurrection in a spiritual form in a spiritual body,these persons have been nothing staggered at the demand that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood, because they have understood that it is a spiritual participation of Him in a spiritual form, which is the thing He speaks of. A spiritual participation of Him in a spiritual form. Now I pray God to give you an understanding of this illustration; for it is an illustration,-it is meant as an illustration, when and as the Lord introduces it. "You are staggered by my talking to you about eating my flesh and drinking my blood; will you be in like manner staggered when you shall have witnessed, or had certified to you, my ascension? Will you not then understand that the soul or spirit, as inhabited by the Holy Ghost, is the important part of my compound substance; and that hereby I have become, even through the operation or energy of this spirit of mine, this soul made a spirit by the Holy Ghost's indwelling in it, or, more correctly, by the Holy Ghost's energizing in it,—I have become a spiritual substance in body also; and that therefore I am calling

upon you to eat spirit and to drink spirit? How can you eat spirit and drink spirit, but in and by your own spirit? It must therefore be a spiritual act of which I speak; an act in which your bodily organs have no operation, save in the exhibiting of the sign." May God give you to understand this. Your bodily organs have nothing to do in that most intense eating and drinking of the flesh and blood of the Son of man which we have and perform in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, save in the exhibiting of the sign. Your bodily organs exhibit the sign of that which you are transacting in your spirit.

Then I observe, there are those who do thus eat the bread which came down from heaven; which is explained afterwards to mean the same thing with "eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of man." And now I proceed to consider how these persons, the same that do thus eat the bread of heaven, are characterized, or how they have in fact been brought to this operation, this eating and drinking. It is by an act of God, a supernatural or supercreation act of God. He has come into the inwards of their soul. He has so come in the substance of the person of the Holy Ghost as sent by Christ, but sent by Christ not in his own name but in the name of the Father, who by this act has given these persons to the Lord Jesus Christ; according to that which is said in verses 37 to 40 of this chapter; "That of all that thing," (you will remember some of you that I particularly explained the