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likewife often confider the whole Chapter, and mind our Saviour's design in it: That you would therefore obferve what fort of People he had to do with, and what was the occafion of this Conversation between him and them: what was the fundamental Caufe of their Prejudices against him; and with what Arguments and Applications he laboured to remove thofe Prejudices.

For you will then find, that they were Men whofe Belly was their God, and who minded earthly things; that they followed Chrift for the Loaves; that he difappointed their Hopes; that they were angry at it, and altered their opinion of him upon it; that their earthly-mindednefs was the Reason why they now liked him not, but fet themfelves to cavil at all his Sayings; that to take them off from the Cares and Pleafures of this prefent Life, he laid before them better and greater Things, the Means and Hopes of Everlafting Life: Finally, that he calls the Means and Caufes of bettering our Minds, and bringing us to Everlasting Life, Meat and Drink; and our believing and obeying his Doctrine, eating and drinking. And then, if I am not deceived, you will eafily acknowledg, that in particular, he calls the Belief of his Death and Paffion for the Sins of the World, and the faving Fruits of that Faith, eating his Flesh, and drinking his Blood: And that there is no more reafon to imagine that his Flesh fhould be eaten, and his Blood drank, in the proper and corporeal fenfe, than that he fhould make himself Bread to be eaten by us, as we ufe to eat Bread: But that there is good reafon to understand throughout, by that eating and drinking which he required, fpiritual Actions only, which the whole ftrain of his Difcourfe fhews, that he oppofed to that corporeal feeding which they were fo inordinately follicitous for.

I muft for the fame Reafon defire you to mind those [a 2]

plain

plain Intimations scattered here and there in our Lord's Difcourfe; by which it is evident what he meant by eating and drinking. He faith, V. 29. This is the (a) Work of God, that ye BELIEVE on him whom he hath fent; which is an interpretation of 1.27. (b) Labour not for the Meat that perifbeth, but, &c. Again, V.35. He that BELIEVETH on me, fhall never thirst. And again, V. 47. He that BELIEVETH on me, hath Everlasting Life. So likewife V.36. and V. 40. This, I fay, is fit to be minded. For when not only the occafion he had to use these Terms of eating and drinking, (which was their following him for their Bellies) fhews thefe Terms to be allufive; but (as if that were not enough) he likewise added, now and then, the plain and proper meaning of those Allufions; it muft, I think, be a wilful miftake in him that attends to this, to interpret thofe Expreffions as if they were not allufive.

Nor is this all; for you may please to confider alfo, that when our Saviour found fome of his Difciples to underftand him as the Carnal Jews did, he thought fit, for more abundant fatisfaction, to explain his meaning once for all, V.62,63. as you will find by the ensuing Paraphrase and Notes.

As for our Saviour's repeating thofe Expreffions at which the Jews had already taken offence; you may confider, that V. 51. he added, that expreffion of drinking his Blood, to that of eating his Fleb; which was a more plain intimation of that violent Death which he was to fuffer for us,than that former faying, of giving hus Flefb for the Life of the World. And fo, tho he kept ftill to the Allufion, yet he reprefented what kind of Death he was to fuffer, more fully than he had done before. But perhaps you

(α) ἔργον. (b) εργάζεπε.

are

are at a lofs why he continued to speak allufively at all, when he found that he was fo grofly misunderstood. And then I answer, as I have done in the Notes upon that place, that I am not obliged to fay precisely what our Saviour's reafon was for that. But, befides what you will find there, it may be faid, that fometimes it well becomes a Man of Wisdom and Authority, when he finds his words perverted by cavilling People, to repeat them again, and thereby to speak his own Affurance, that they did not drop unadvisedly from him, and that 'tis not his own, but his Hearers Fault, that he is misunderstood. And this is the more reafonable to be faid in the prefent cafe, if the Jews wilfully perverted our Saviour's words to that abfurd fense of eating his Flesh with their Teeth, as 'tis probably they did; and that because his Expreffions were plainly allufive, and because alfo the Allufion was now and then explain'd, as I fhewed before. What inconvenience is it therefore to fuppofe that our Lord perceiving that his Divine Difcourfes and Exhortations, had but hardned them in a Spirit of Contradiction, did not think himself bound to ufe prefently the utmoft plainnefs of words for the fake of Men, to whom he had spoken plainly enough already, if any good were to be done upon them. But for farther fatisfaction in this Matter, I refer you once more to the Paraphrafe and Notes, which are already finished, and where fome little light is given to thofe Paffages which may feem obfcure; enough, I hope, to lead out of all danger of fufpecting thofe words of our Saviour, V. 51, &c. to enforce that the Subftance of his Flesh must be eaten by us, either in or out of the Sacrament.

you

It seems I told you, that thefe Paffages were not to be understood of the Sacrament; I fhould have added, that because they fignify thofe things which are fignified in the Sacrament, that they may be very aptly applied to the Sa

crament,

crament, especially in Exhortations to Devotion; nay, and that there are fome cafes in which a Man may argue from the one to the other, and some Questions to which both the one and the other give equal light: which may very well be, and yet it will by no means follow, that thefe words are primarily to be understood of the Eucharift. And this Opinion I cannot deliver up, merely becaufe you have heard that the Church always held the contrary. No Man, I believe, has a greater regard to the conftant and univerfal Tradition of the Church than my felf. But then I do not think my felf bound to believe that the Church has always held this or that, because this and that Man tells me fo. For if a Man can speak, and has a Caufe to ferve, 'tis as easy to say, Thus faith the Church, as to fay, Thus faith the Scripture. I remember indeed, that our Country-man, Nicholas Sanders tells us, That (c) to deny these words to be understood of the Eucharift, is contrary to the Inftruction and Authority of all Antiquity. And Maldonate fays, That (d) all the Ancient Fathers acknowledg it. And others fay the fame thing; and it feems you have heard it.. Now this is but a cuftom of fpeaking, which fome Men have gotten: For I am well affured that all the Fathers were not of their mind.

Clemens Alexandrinus (e) fuppofes thefe Expreffions, to eat the Flesh of Chrift, and to drink his Blood, to be as figurative as that of St. Paul, to feed with Milk; and tells us, upon this occafion, that the word is variously allegorized, being called Meat, and Flesh, and Nourishment, and

(c) Nic. Sanderus de Euchar. p. 23.

Bread,

(d) Maldon. in Joan. 6.

σαρξ,

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(ε) όπως πολλακις άλληγορείται ὁ ΛόγΘ, και βρώμα, και σα και τροφή, και άρα, και αιμα, και γάλα. “Απαντα ὁ Κύριος εἰς ἀπό λαυσιν ημών τείς αυτόν πεπιςευκότων. Padg.lib.r.c.6. p. 1o5. Parif.

Bread, and Blood, and Milk; and that our Lord is All these things for our enjoiment who believe in Him. Now I am perfuaded you will not fay that this Father interpreted the words under debate of the Eucharift.

Tertullian, to fhew that these words, the Flesh profiteth nothing, do not make against the Refurrection of the Flesh, faith, (f) That we are to be directed to the fenfe of what is Said by the fubject Matter of it. For because they thought his faying hard and intollerable, as if he intended his Flef fhould be truly eaten by them, he to shew that the Caufe of Life and Salvation was fpiritual, premifed this, 'That the Spirit quickneth; and then added, The Flesh profiteth nothing, that is, in respect of quickning. And then he fhews what he means by the Spirit. The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life. As he had faid alfo before, He that heareth my words, and believetli in him that fent me, hath Eternal Life, and fhall not come into Condemnation, but hath paffed from Death to Life. Therefore making his Word to be the quickning Principle; fince his Word is Spirit and Life, he called his Word alfo his own Flefh; for the Word was also made Flesh: and therefore

in

(f) Sic etfi carnem ait nihil prodeffe, ex materia dicti dirigendus eft fenfus. Nam quia durum & intolerabilem exiftimaverunt fermonem ejus, quafi vere Carnem fuam illis edendam determinaffet, ut in Spiritum difponeret ftatum falutis, præmifit, Spiritus eft qui vivificat, atq; ita fubjunxit,Caro nihil prodeft,ad vivificandum fcilicet, Exequitur etiam quid velit intelligi fpiritum. Verba que locatus fum vobis Spirttus funt, Vita funt. Sicut & fupra, qui audit Sermones meos & credit in eum qui, &c. Itaq; Sermonem conftituens vivificatorem, quia Spiritus & Vita Sermo, eundem etiam Carnem fuam dixit, quia & fermo Caro erat Factus, proinde in caufam Vite Appetendus & devorandus Auditu, & ruminandus intellectu, & Fide digerendus. Nam & paulo ante Carnem fuam Panem quoq; Cœleftem pronunciarat surgens ufquequaq, per Allegoriam, &c. Tertul. de Refur. Carnis. c. 36, 37.

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