6 : Lord's phrase, eating,' or such spiritual eating as answers to the hungering and thirsting mentioned in v. 35, every believer, from Abel downwards, did so spiritually 'eat' the bread of life, that is, Christ and as it was especially by His incarnation and death that the Son of God gave life to man (for the one Mediator between God and man is the Man Christ Jesus 1), therefore He now calls the bread His 'flesh,' which He will give for the life of the world; and then He states the necessity of feeding on His flesh and blood separately, to intimate the necessity of a faith in Him and His death, or, as St. Paul calls it, of knowing Jesus Christ and Him crucified.'3 And now (as His custom was) having begun, He continues the parable; and, to show the pre-eminent importance of such faith for all who heard the Gospel, He sets forth, by impressive variations of phrase, the beneficial effects of thus believing, or, in His own language, of eating His flesh and drinking His blood-such as having eternal life for the soul, and a resurrection of the body, and spiritual nourishment, and union with Christ.5 The parable, however, notwithstanding His explanation in v. 35, was still too spiritual, not only for the carnal Jews but for many of His disciples; and, therefore, to withdraw their minds from the monstrous idea of actually eating His flesh-a notion, the wickedness of which is not at all removed by the novel imagination of eating His body, essentially or substantially, but in an unusual manner-(for literally to eat human flesh in any manner is flagitious and abominable)-He tells them, therefore, that He will ascend up where He was before,” and so will altogether take His body away from them; just as He had corrected the carnal error of Nicodemus, 1 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6. 3 Ver. 51, 53; Rom. iii. 25; 1 Cor. ii. 2. 5 John vi. 54, 58. 6 Ver. 52-60; Luke viii. 9, 10. that for the new birth a man should enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born:' and so, too, He afterwards alludes, as we read in the seventh chapter, to their seeking and not finding Him; and to His going whither they could not come; and to the sanctifying graces of the Spirit, which would follow from His ascension. And further to lift their minds from the mere letter of His words, which 'letter killeth,' 2 He teaches that, if so literally eaten, 'the flesh profiteth nothing,' and that His words were spirit and life,' or were to be understood spiritually.3 6 But notwithstanding these very intelligible keys to His meaning, His words were still too spiritual for many of His disciples, who therefore deserted Him, v. 66; and this led to His pathetic appeal to the Twelve, ‘Will ye also go away?' Whereupon Peter, a second time in the name of all, made his memorable confession, on which the Church was to be built, and for establishing faith in which the beloved Apostle wrote his gospel." Thus, then, the Apostles had about the time of the preceding Passover heard, under circumstances never to be forgotten, the Lord's words teaching the necessity of believing in His humanity and death under the figures of eating His flesh and drinking His blood; and that the benefits of such spiritual eating and drinking were the strengthening of the soul, and the indwelling of Christ, and the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting: and now, at the institution of the Eucharist, they again hear Him, requiring them to eat His body and drink His blood. How then could they possibly help connecting together the two instructions, or concluding, just after His announcing to them His approaching sufferings, that the general privi 1 John iii. 4, 9, 12, 13; vii. 33, 34, 39. Ver. 69; Matt. xvi. 16; John xx. 31. 3 John vi. 63. leges of every saved believer, as stated at Capernaum,1 were now peculiarly applicable to believing communicants, who ate Christ's flesh and drank His blood in the manner commanded? or how avoid concluding that the new Sacrament would be, like the Passover, but in a higher degree, a means of grace and pardon to the faithful? 6 6 These unlearned men,' whose whole literature probably was the Bible, must have known from Scripture that Abel in the first human family worshipped God acceptably by sacrifice; and that God even told Cain that, if he did not well, a 'sin-offering lay at the door' 2-thus recognising sacrifice as an expression of faith in the woman's promised seed, who by the bruising of His heel should overthrow the tempter-and that by faith Noah, the second universal father, and Abraham, the spiritual father of believers, worshipped God sacrificially; and that Moses taught them, and the Passover set forth visibly before them, that without shedding of blood is no remission.' 3 And although Jesus, whom they confessed to be the Messiah, was not yet cut off,'-as Daniel foretold He should be, not for Himself,' but to make reconciliation for iniquity and bring in everlasting righteousness: '4-still Abraham and the holy patriarchs unquestionably had life by believing, long before either the Eucharist was ordained or Christ was born; and therefore they could not limit the doctrine of John vi. 53, to Eucharistic feeding alone. Christ, indeed, at Capernaum did not speak at all of any material bread or cup, nor of any giving, taking, or remembering; still, the manifest similitude of His present and former words must have struck the Apostles: and as the Passover was a Sacrament, in which they did all eat before the same spiritual meat and drink the same spiritual drink,' under a darker dis 6 1 John vi. 53-56. 3 Lev. xvii. 11; Heb. ix. 21, 22. 2 Gen. iv. 7. 2 pensation; and circumcision also was a sacramental sign of regeneration, and a seal of the righteousness of the faith, and a seal of God's covenant which was renewed at the Passover; so they would naturally see in the Eucharist a beneficial conveyance of blessings flowing from the Messiah's predicted death, and a sacramental renewal also of a covenant of grace and pardon, substantially the same as before, and only called 'new' from its new circumstances.3 Our Lord had also at another time told them, that He would go away, and would send His Spirit, and that the Spirit should be in them, and that He and the Father would make their abode with them and all who should believe on Him through their Word: or that He would make believers Temples, habitations of God and His Spirit, and spiritually One with Himself: and as this spiritual and mystical union with Christ, and its inestimable blessings, are all in this Sacrament vividly set forth and really exhibited to believers, the Eucharist must be rightly concluded to be, as the Church Catechism teaches, not only a sign of grace, but also a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof.' 3 Jer. xxx. 33, 34; Matt. xxvi. 28; Heb. x. 16, 17. 4 John xiv. 17, 23; 1 Cor. iii. 16; 2 Cor. vi. 16; Eph. v. 30. CHAPTER IV. ON 1 COR. X. 16.-THE BLESSING, THE ELEMENTS, AND THE DESIGN, OF THE EUCHARIST. 'The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? ' In the text, although the only subjects mentioned are the elements, yet manifestly the whole Eucharistical ministration is intended; for the Apostle says that we bless' the cup, and we break' the bread; and the communion implies communicants, whom he afterwards calls 'partakers of the Lord's table.' In opening therefore the sixteenth verse, which contains, perhaps, more clearly the doctrine of the Eucharist than any other single text of Scripture, we may conveniently here consider; I. The Blessing; II. The Elements; III. The design of the Riteand IV. The Communion' in the next two chapters. I. The Blessing, which is accompanied with prayer and thanksgiving—and which, in the liturgies of the Catholic Church generally, repeats Christ's form and words of Institution is usually called the Consecration, and in the Anglican Church, the Prayer of Consecration;' and this blessing dedicates the elements to the religious service of God and Christ, and separates them for ever from all vulgar or profane use. By it they become thenceforward holy symbols, sanctified by the word of God and prayer,' and having such a sacramental relation to Christ, that 1 1 Cor. x. 21. |