The prophecy alluded to in the fortyfifth verse, may be found in the prophet Isaiah, chap. liv. ver. 13.: "And all thy

children shall be taught of the Lord. "And great fhall be the peace of thy "children." From the first institution of the Jewish law, God frequently spake to his people by the mouths of his priests and prophets; but the above prophecy was never literally fulfilled until the coming of our Lord and Saviour, who perfonally taught the people.

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47. Verily, verily, I fay unto you, "he that believeth on me hath everlast

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48. I am that bread of life.

49. Your fathers did eat manna in "the wilderness, and are dead.

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50. This is the bread which cometh "down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.

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“51. I am the living bread which came "down from Heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he fhall live for ever:

" and

" and the bread that I will give, is my “flesh; which I will give for the life of "the world."

To believe in Chrift, is as neceffary for the life of the foul, as bread is for the life of the body: each would fuffer equal danger without its proper food.

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52. The Jews, therefore, ftrove I amongst themselves, faying, How can "this man give us his flesh to eat?"

When we do not make a proper use of those talents with which we are intrusted, there is no abfurdity, however grofs, which the human mind may not fall into. Of this there cannot be a ftronger proof, than the inftance before us; in the Jews fuppofing our Lord to have spoken literally. The smallest exertion of their reason, one should have thought, must have convinced them that he was speaking to them by a figure, and comparing the spiritual bleffings to be derived from L1 2

the

the facrifice of his body to the advantages which the natural body receives from food. But, fuppofing them to have fallen into fo ftrange a mistake, had they been really defirous of knowledge, instead of murmuring amongst themselves and cavilling at the words of our Saviour, they would, with the utmost humility, have begged of him an explanation: a favor he never refused to those who, in fincerity, asked it.

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53. Then Jefus faid unto them, Verily, verily, I fay unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

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54. Whofo eateth my flesh and drink66 eth my blood, hath eternal life; and I "will raife him up at the last day.

55. For my flesh is meat indeed, and

my blood is drink indeed.

56. He that eateth my flesh, and "drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and "I in him.

“57. As the living Father hath fent

• me,

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me, and I live by the Father; fo he that "eateth me, even he shall live by me.

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'58. 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 fhall live for ever."

Since we derive all our spiritual bleffings from our Lord's having taken our nature upon him; condefcended to all the weaknesses and infirmities of it; and given up his body as a facrifice, to redeem us from our fins; this figurative mode of speaking of his flesh and blood, is extremely ftriking. But to know that we have a Saviour, cannot be of the least advantage to us, except we prove our faith in him, by a strict adherence to the rules prescribed in his gospel; for we may equally ftarve our fouls, when offered the greatest profufion of heavenly nourishment, as we may our bodies by obftinately refusing to eat or drink, let the banquet prepared for us be ever fo rich or coftly. We may therefore be affured, that to believe in, to

love, fear, and obey God our Saviour in all things, is to eat his flesh and drink his blood in the true fenfe of the Gospel, and will procure for us all those advantages he has promised.

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59. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. "60. Many, therefore, of his difciples, "when they had heard this, faid, This is "an hard faying; who can hear it?"

Although the Jews had greatly corrupted the divine law, yet as they had not mingled idolatry with their religious worship, our bleffed Saviour honored the fynagogue with his prefence, and corrected the abuses which had crept into it. Some of his followers, who, for want of a due attention to his divine precepts, underflood what he had faid about his flesh and blood in a literal fenfe, and knowing that to be impoffible, were so prefumptuous as to difcredit his difcourfe.

"61. When