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rally the blood of Christ, it must be his blood shed, poured out AR T. of his veins, and feparated from his body. And if it is impoffible to understand it fo, we conclude that we are in the right to understand the whole period in a myftical and figurative sense. And therefore fince a man born and bred a Jew, and more particularly accustomed to the pafchal ceremonies, could not have understood our Saviour's words, chiefly at the time of that festivity, otherwife, than of a new covenant that he was to make, in which his body was to be broken, and his blood hed for the remiffion of fins; and that he was to fubftitute bread and wine, to be the lafting memorials of it; in the repeating of which, his Difciples were to renew their covenant with God, and to claim a fhare in the bleffings of it: this, I fay, was the fenfe that muft naturally have occurred to a Jew; upon all this, we must conclude, that this is the true fenfe of these words: or, that otherwife our Saviour muft have enlarged more upon them, and expreffed his meaning more particularly. Since therefore he faid no more than what, according to the ideas and cuftoms of the Jews, muft have been understood as has been explained, we muft conclude, that it, and it only, is the true fenfe of them.

But we must next confider the importance of a long dif courfe of our Saviour's, fet down by St. John, which feems John vi. 32, fuch a preparation of his Apoftles to understand this inftitution 33. literally, that the weight of this argument must turn upon the meaning of that difcourfe. The defign of that was to fhew, that the doctrine of Chrift was more excellent than the law of Mofes; that though Mofes gave the Ifraelites manna from heaven, to nourish their bodies, yet notwithstanding that they died in the wilderness: but Chrift was to give his followers fuch food that it should give them life; fo that if they did eat of it, they should never die: where it is apparent, that the bread and nourishment must be fuch as the life was; and that being eternal and spiritual, the bread must be so understood: for it is clearly expreffed how that food was to be received; he that ver. 40. believeth on me, hath everlasting life.

Since then he had formerly faid, that the bread which he was to give, fhould make them live for ever; and since here it is faid, 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 defired him to give them evermore of that bread, he answered, I am the bread of life, he that comes ver. 47, 48, to me fhall never hunger; and he that believeth on me, shall never 51. thirst.

In these words he tells them that they received that bread by coming to him, and by believing on him. Chrift calls himfolf that bread, and fays, that a man must eat thereof, which

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ART. is plainly a figure; and if figures are confeffed to be in fome parts of their difcourfe, there is no reason to deny that they run quite through it. Chrift fays, that this bread was bis 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 fins of the world. The Jews murmured at this, and faid, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? To which our Saviour anfwers, John vi. 53, that except they did eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, they had no life in them.

54,55.

ver. 56.

ver 61.

Now if these words are to be understood of a literal eating of his flesh in the Sacrament, then no man can be faved that does not receive it: it was a natural confequence of the expounding these words of the Sacrament, to give it to children, fince it is fo exprefsly faid, that life is not to be had without it. But the words that come next, carry this matter farther; whofe eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. It is plain that Chrift is here fpeaking of that without which no man can have life, and by which all who receive 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 faved that receives it not.

Therefore fince eternal life does always follow the eating of Christ's flesh, and the drinking his blood, and cannot be had without it; then this must be meant of an internal and fpiritual feeding on him: for, as none are faved without that, fo all are faved 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 Chrift's flesh is eaten in the fame fenfe, in which he fays 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 fomewhat emphatical in this, fince the word indeed is not added in vain, but to give weight to the expreffion.

It is alfo faid, he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood, dwells in me and I in him. Here the defcription feems to be made of that eating and drinking of his flesh and blood; that it is fuch as the mutual indwelling of Chrift and believers is. Now that is certainly only internal and fpiritual, and not carnal or literal: and therefore fuch alfo muft the eating and drinking be.

All this feems to be very fully confirmed from the conclufion of that discourse, which ought to be confidered as the key to it all; for when the Jews were offended at the hardness of Chrift's difcourfe, he faid, It is the fpirit that quickeneth; the fiefh profiteth nothing: the words Ï speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life: which do plainly import, that his former difcourfe was to be understood in a spiritual fenfe, that

it was a divine fpirit that quickened them, or gave them that ART. eternal life, of which he had been speaking: and that the flesh, XXVIII. his natural body, was not the conveyer of it.

All that is confirmed by the fenfe in which we find eating and drinking frequently used in the Scriptures, according to what is obferved by Jewish writers; they ftand for wisdom, learning, and all intellectual apprehenfions through which the foul of man is preserved, by the perfection that is in them, as the body is preferved by food: So buy and eat, cat fat of things, drink of wine well refined.

Maimonides alfo obferves, that whenfoever eating and Marc Ne◄ drinking are mentioned in the Book of Proverbs, they are to be understood of wisdom and the law and after he has brought feveral places of Scripture to this purpose, he concludes, that because this acceptation of eating, occurs so often and is fo manifeft, as if it were the primary and most proper fenfe of the word; therefore hunger and thirst stand for a privation of wisdom and understanding. And the Chaldee Paraphraft turns these words, ye shall draw water out of the wells Ifa. xii.3of falvation; thus, ye shall receive a new doctrine with joy from fome felect perfons.

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

It is further obfervable, that our Saviour did frequently follow that common way of inftruction among the Eastern nations, by figures that to us would feem ftrong and bold. These were much used in those parts, to excite the attention of the hearers; and they are not always to be feverely expounded according to the full extent that the words will bear. The parable of the unjuft judge, of the unjust steward, of the ten virgins, of plucking out the right eye, and cutting off the right hand or foot, and feveral others, might be instanced. Our Saviour in these confidered the genius of thofe to whom he fpoke: fo that these figures must be reftrained 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 difcourfe does plainly run in a figure, we are not to go and descant on every word of it; much lefs may any pretend to fay, that fome parts of it are to be understood literally, and fome parts figuratively.

For inftance, if that chapter of St. John is to be understood literally, then Chrift's flesh and blood must be the nourishment

of

ART. of our bodies, fo as to be meat indeed; and that we shall XXVIII. never hunger any more, and never die after we have eat of it. If therefore all do confefs that thofe expreffions are to be underftcod figuratively, then we have the fame reafon 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 fenfe. From all which it is abundantly clear that nothing can be drawn from that difcourfe of our Saviour's, to make it reafonable to believe, that the words of the inftitution of this Sacrament ought to be literally understood: on the contrary, our Saviour himself calls the wine, after thofe words had been ufed by him, the fruit of the vine, which is as ftrict 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 thofe two chapters, in which all that is left us befides the hiftory of the inftitution concerning the Sacrament is to be found, he calls it five times bread, and never once the body of Chrift. in one place he calls it the communion of the body, as the cup is the communion of the blood of Chrift Which is rather a faying, that it is in fome fort and after a manner the body and the blood of Chrift, than that it is so strictly fpeaking.

1 Cor. x. 16.

If this Sacrament had been that myfterious and unconceivable thing which it has been fince believed to be; we cannot imagine, but that the books of the New Teftament, the Acts of the Apoftles, and their Epistles, fhould have contained fuller explanations of it, and larger inftructions about it.

There is enough indeed faid in them to fupport the plain and natural fenfe, that we give to this inftitution; and because no more is faid, and the defign of it is plainly declared to be to remember Chrift's death, and to fhew it forth till he come, we reckon that by this natural fimplicity, in which this matter is delivered to us, we are very much confirmed in that plain and eafy fignification, which we put upon our Saviour's words. Plain things need not be infifted on: but if the moft fublime and wonderful thing in the world feems to be delivered in words that yet are capable of a lower and plainer fenfe, 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 fimple things prove themfelves: whereas the more extraordinary that any thing is, it requires a fulness and evidence in the proof proportioned to the uneafinefs of conceiving or believing it.

We do therefore underftand our Saviour's inftitution thus, that as he was to give his body to be broken and his blood to be fhed for our fins, fo he intended that this his death and fuffer

ing fhould be ftill commemorated by all fuch as look for re- ART. miffion of fins by it, not only in their thoughts and devotions, XXVIII. but in a vifible reprefentation: which he appointed fhould be done in fymbols, that fhould be both very plain and fimple, and yet very expreffive of that which he intended fhould be remembered by them.

Bread is the plaineft food that the body of man can receive, and wine was the common nourishing liquor of that country; fo he made choice of thefe materials, and in them appointed a reprefentation and remembrance to be made of his body broken and of his blood fhed; that is, of his death and fufferings till his fecond coming and he obliged his followers to repeat this frequently. In the doing of it according to his inftitution, they profefs the belief of his death, for the remiffion of their fins, and that they look for his fecond coming.

:

This does alfo import, that as bread and wine are the fimpleft of bodily nourishments, fo his death is that which restores the fouls of those that do believe in him: as bread and wine convey a vital nourishment to the body, fo the facrifice of his death conveys fomewhat to the foul that is vital, that fortifies and exalts it. And as water in Baptifin is a natural emblem of the purity of the Chriftian religion, bread and wine in the Eucharift are the emblems of fomewhat that is derived to us, that raises our faculties, and fortifies all our powers.

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St. Paul does very plainly tell us, that unworthy receivers that did neither examine nor difcern themfelves, nor yet difcern the Lord's body, were guilty of the body and blood of the Lord; and 1 Cor. xi. did eat and drink their own damnation: that is, fuch as do 27, 29. ceive it without truly believing the Chriftian religion, without a grateful acknowledgment of Chrift's death and fufferings, without feeling that they are walking fuitably to this religion that they profefs, and without that decency and charity, which becomes fo holy an action; but that receive the bread and, wine only as bare bodily nourishments; without confidering that Chrift has inftituted them to be the memorials of his death 1; fuch perfons are guilty of the body and blood of Chrift: 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 fhame; when they are fo faulty as the Corinthians were, in obferving this holy inftitution with fo little reverence, and with fuch fcandalous diforders, as thofe were for which he reproached them.

Of fuch as did thus profane this inftitution, he fays farther, that they do eat and drink their own damnation or judgment; that is, punishment; for the word rendered damnation fignifies fometimes only temporary punishments.

So it is faid, that judgment (the word is the fame) must be