LECT. use of all those means of grace which He has XXIII. ordained and promised to bless: for He is ever found of those who so seek Him.

Our Lord in His contrast between the two fields of labour, the perishable and the enduring, by no means meant to discourage that labour and industry which is necessary to provide for one's own. He would only point out to us the superior necessity of the one, and bid us attend to it yet more diligently than to the other. We are not so to attend to our bodies as to neglect our souls. Attention to one duty will not excuse the neglect of another. Attention to the less is no reason why we should pay no attention to the greater. There is a carefulness about the body and about the things of this life which is a duty; and there is a carefulness about them which is a sin.

Our Lord's words in this place may remind us of that saying of His Apostle, "the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal:" or His own question elsewhere, "What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Therefore, as He in another place doth both urge and promise, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (that is, all needful) things shall be added unto you.”

b ver. 27.

LECTURE XXIV.

THE BREAD OF LIFE.

JOHN vi. 34-40.

Ar this point in our Lord's conversation with LECT. these Jews, better thoughts for the moment, like_XXIV. a gleam of sunshine through prevailing clouds, seem to have entered their breasts. What this bread was of which the Saviour spoke they could not tell, but they suppose it must be some good gift of God; and they say in the better feeling of the moment, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." Still their idea is carnal. Though our Lord had spoken to them of heavenly food, they, still cleaving to earth, cannot comprehend Him: but supposing that He offers something better than the manna, yet withal earthly, they desire to be always supplied with it: as the Samaritan woman, in a somewhat parallel conversation, asks Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." Then our Lord shews further the spiritual nature of this food, declaring it to be Himself: saying, if haply they might come to Him that they may have life, “I am the bread of life" living, incorruptible food,

a ch. iv. 15.

b Note, that" as in ch. v. 30. so here, our Lord passes from the indirect to the direct form of speech. Henceforward it is I,' 'me,' throughout the discourse." Alford.

LECT. which gives and preserves life to all who will XXIV. receive it; not like the bread which perisheth,

nor as that manna which might corrupt in a night, and which at the best could sustain but for a time, not precluding those who partake thereof from the returns of hunger;-but whoso on the contrary comes to Him, (for to come is to believe and to receive: they are the cause and the effect of coming: and to come comprehends them both,) such shall never hunger; shall not hunger at any time. It shall not be with him as with the partaker of carnal food or of this manna, which cannot afford perfect satisfaction, but only a temporary postponement of his need, so that a man eats and becomes hungry again, sometimes refreshed, and sometimes not but the partaker of this spiritual food, the bread which cometh down from heaven, the true bread, the bread of life, he shall be satisfied; he shall hunger no more; nay, further, he shall thirst no more'. Our Lord here touches upon the accompanying appetite, of which He treats more largely below, shewing thus the completeness of the satisfaction He affords.

"Et vivus, v. 51. et vivificus, v. 54." Bengel. d Exodus xvi. 19, 20.

ε πώποτε.

"It is possible that our Lord placed the all-satisfying bread of life in contrast to the manna, which was no sooner given, Exodus xvi. than the people began to thirst, Exodus xvii." Alford.

"Aliquando symbolum famis aut sitis solum occurrit, et tunc unum alterum involvit; aliquando conjunguntur majoris emphasis caussa..... Fundamentum hujus connexionis non solum est in ipsa rei natura, dum ad plenam satietatem tam fames quam sitis restingui debet, sed etiam in historia Mannæ, in qua statim post exhibitionem panis séquebatur miraculosa aquæ ex petra productio..... Ex eadem ratione symbola panis et vini conjuncta sunt in Eucharistia." Lampe. See Is. lv. 1—3. 8 vv. 53-56.

While, however, He so speaks for the encou- LECT. ragement of any who might really be hungering_XXIV. and thirsting after righteousness, He feels Himself constrained to remind them of a former saying of Hish, wherein He upbraids them because of their unbelief. He had already told them, and He now repeats the charge, that though He had given them every proof, even ocular demonstration, testifying not merely to faith, but even unto sight, that He was the Sent of God, yet they would not believe. To a disciple slow of heart to believe what was reported unto him, his Lord could say, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." But these obdurate Jews He was compelled to reproach, that they would not believe even when they had seen.

66

And our Lord further informs these, who boasted to have "one Father, even God," that this was the mark of God's children, their readiness to come to Him: as He says a little further on, Every man that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me:" and in a subsequent conversation, "If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God':" and as He had before reproved them, "Ye have not His word abiding in you for whom He hath seen, Him ye believe not"." Thus He shews them how their rejection

But possibly the reference

Contained substantially in ch. v. 38. 43. may be to one of our Lord's many unrecorded sayings.

1 ch. xx. 29.

1 ch. viii. 42.

k v. 45. inf.

m ch. v. 38.

XXIV.

LECT. of Him was a rebellion against the Father, whom they professed to honour; as He saith also in another place, "he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him."

For the whole body of believers, here designated by Christ, "all" that the Father giveth me," is made up of those who come unto the Son. "The Holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee." If we are the elect of the Father, we are believing in the Son. And "whosoever will" may become of that number; any one that is willing may be reckoned among that company: for our Lord adds, for the encouragement even of any among that generally hostile audience who might really think better things, "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out"."

And then the Lord proceeds to confirm His previous position: for, He proceeds to say, there is no opposition between Him and His Father. They think and will the same thing, for they are one. The " Messenger of the covenant" came down from heaven to do the will of the Father, which is indeed His own will. He that was sent came to do the will of Him that sent Him, with which His own will is identical. Christ could have no private will or purpose of

n ch. v. 23.

• "Sic de Synagoga dicitur, ix. 34, 35. Hic quasi de Schola. Ea enim cœpta est translatio: Non faciam ut morosi Magistri, non expellam eum ; nempe si perpetuo voluerit meus esse, per me non stabit quominus sit." Grotius.

The Vulgate has " Non ejiciam foras."

Quale est intus illud, unde non exitur foras! Magnum penetrale, et dulce secretum." Aug. in Jo. Tr. xxv. 14.

See Trench's note, Parable of the Draw Net.