Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

And the Lord finally returns to that which LECT. offered at the outset, the cause and the theme of XXVII. His discourse; winding it up and closing it with the same subject wherewith He had begun; repeating once more and finally the proposition which all the discourse had gone to prove; declaring what is that bread which came down from heaven, wherein it differs from, wherein it is superior to, their boasted manna. For this bread is not as that manna, either in its nature or in its effects. So ends the Lord's sermon on "the Bread of life"."

Of course much of this was said by anticipation; nor are we to confine our Lord's address to these Jews, or look at the subject only in its connexion with those to whom it was first delivered; for it is a general truth, though addressed to a particular audience. And we, by the accumulated weight of after experience and the additional light of subsequent events, no less than by the general scope and purpose of the Scripture, are warranted in so interpreting and applying the discourse to ourselves.

Our Evangelist informs us where these words were spoken. The synagogue in Capernaum heard this wonderful Sermon". Here we have the substance of it: but our Lord seems to have taught the people many other things

* On каows, see Alford in loc.

y "Audivimus veracem Magistrum, divinum Redemptorem, humanum Salvatorem, commendantem nobis pretium nostrum, sanguinem suum. Locutus est enim nobis de corpore et sanguine suo: corpus dixit escam, sanguinem potum. Sacramentum fidelium agnoscunt fideles.'" Aug.

Ser. cxxxi. L.

2" Palam, loco publico, ubi plurimi erant testes sermonis. Facit hoc ad fidem narrationis, ut Actor. xxvi. 26." Grotius.

LECT. besides. And His teaching was public. There XXVII. was nothing secret or clandestine about it. As farther on we have His appeal and challenge to the Sanhedrim, "I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews alway resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? Ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I have said "." What signs of credibility we have here!

Let us then with teachable hearts wait upon Him in the heavenly ordinances of His house, where we may yet hear Him speak. Let us in lively faith present ourselves at His board, who there offers to us Himself": that we may eat the

a ch. xviii. 20, 21.

b It seems desirable here to subjoin a few extracts from Bp. Taylor's "Worthy Communicant," a work which the Author of this Commentary desires again earnestly to recommend to all who can buy or borrow that short and remarkable treatise. Speaking of the spiritual Manducation he says:" It is mysterious, indeed, in the expression, but very proper and intelligible in the event..... By whatsoever way Christ is taken out of the Sacrament, by the same He is taken in the Sacrament: and by some ways here, more than there." Cap. I. Sect. ii.

"Besides that there is a natural analogy between .... eating the holy bread and drinking the sacred chalice, and a participation of the Body and Blood of Christ,-it is also in the method of the Divine economy, to dispense the grace which Himself signifies, in a ceremony of His own institution..... The word of God operates as secretly as the Sacraments, and the Sacraments as powerfully as the word; nay, the word is always joined in the worthy administration of the Sacrament, which therefore operates both as word and sign; by the ear, and by the eyes, and by both in the hand of God..... Because a sacrament in the hand of God is a proclamation of His graces: He there gives us notice that the springs of heaven are opened, and then is the time to draw living waters from the fountains of salvation..... For so we are conducted to the joys of God by the methods and possibilities of man." Sect. iii. "Manna represented to every man the taste that himself did like; but it had in its own potentiality all those tastes and dispositions eminently: .... so it is here; it is that to every man's faith which his faith wisely apprehends: and though there are some who are of little faith, and such receive but a less

flesh of Christ and drink His blood; may dwell in Christ and Christ in us; may be one with Christ and Christ Amen! So be it!

that we LECT.

that we with us.

proportion of nourishment, yet by the very use of this Sacrament the appetite will increase, and the apprehensions grow greater, and the faith will be more confident and instructed; and then we shall see more and feel more..... But.... no grace is there improved but what we bring along with us; no increases but what we exercise. We must bring faith along with us; and God will increase our faith; we must come with charity, and we shall go away with more; we must come with truly penitential hearts, and to him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly: he shall be a better penitent, when he hath eaten the sacrifice that was slain for our sins, and died in the body that we might live in the spirit and die no more." Sect. v.

"It is worth observing, that, there being in the Old Testament thirteen types and umbrages of this holy Sacrament, eleven of them are of meat and drink: Such are &c." Cap. II. Sect. ii.

"In the Holy Communion all the graces of a Christian, all the mysteries of the religion, are summed up as in a divine compendium; and whatsoever moral or mysterious is done without, is, by a worthy communicant, done more excellently in this divine Sacrament. For here we continue the confession of our faith which we made in Baptism; here we perform in our own persons what was then undertaken for us by another; here that is made explicit which was but implicit before; .... here we come to Christ, and Christ comes to us; here we give Him thanks, and here we give Him ourselves..... So that if we can receive Christ's Body and drink His Blood out of the Sacrament, much more can we do it in the Sacrament." Cap. III. Sect. v.

....

The following is from his "Christian Consolations." (Cap. V.)

"There is not only the visible reception of the outward signs, but an invisible reception of the thing signified. There is far more than a shadow, than a type, than a figure. Christ did not only propose a sign at that hour, but also He gave us a gift; and that gift, really and effectually, is Himself.... As by a ring, or a meaner instrument of conveyance, a man may be settled in land, or put into an office; and by such conveyances the ratification of such grants are said to be real; how much more real is the gift and receipt of Christ's Body and Blood, when conveyed unto us by the confirmation of the Eternal Spirit?.... But faith is the mouth wherewith we eat His Body and drink His Blood; not the mouth of a man, but of a faithful man: for we hunger after Him, not with a corporeal appetite, but a spiritual..... In true divinity real and spiritual are equipollent; although with the Papists nothing is real unless it be corporeal: which is a gross way, to defraud us of the sublime and soul-ravishing virtue of the mystery. A mystery neither to be set out in words, nor to be comprehended sufficiently in the mind, but to be adored with faith,' says Calvin."

XXVII.

LECTURE XXVIII.

THE EFFECT OF CHRIST'S SERMON ON HIS DISCIPLES.

LECT.
XXVIII.

JOHN vi. 60-71.

WE have had the Lord's sermon on the bread of life; the remainder of the chapter gives us the varied event: those who are ready to be offended are offended; those who are willing to believe are confirmed in the faith. Many of those who had given Him a certain amount of attention, so long as He spake things which did not greatly try them, who had been in a general way reckoned among His disciples, being in the habit of frequenting His company, now lose all patience. This is a strange way of speaking, thought they a mere man, whose father and mother we know, that He should tell us He has come down from heaven, and that He can give us His flesh to eat. Who can stop and listen to this? It seemed to them literally non-sense. It seemed to contradict the evidence of their senses. They conclude Him beside Himself.

The Lord, knowing the rebellious and derisive thoughts passing through their minds, convicts them openly; giving them this additional proof of His divine intuition. Stumble ye at this?

b

"A saying not to be digested." Baxter in his Paraphrase.
vv. 41, 42.

c v. 52.

3 ch. x. 20.

the effect of Christ's SERMON ON HIS DISCIPLES. 269

What is there in this saying of mine that ye LECT. should despise or disbelieve it? So had that XXVIII. great Attribute of His demanded long before, saying, "All the words of my mouth are in “All righteousness”—and of this He had given them proof enough" there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth'." And the various conduct here of the false disciples and of the true was the illustration of these words.

Thus did the Saviour prove, even then, a corner-stone of reverence and regard to those who were ready to believe: but to the disobedient, to them that will stumble at the word, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. However, He proceeds to justify both the sayings at which they stumbled and took needless offence: alluding first to that at which they first murmured, His declaring Himself to have come down from heaven. He hints therefore that they should yet see plain proof of this. His ascension into heaven, should prove His descent from heaven. His return thither, that He had been there before. As the Apostle after applies the argument, "Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens h." It is like His saying to Nathanael, "Thou shalt see greater things than these:" like His reproof to Nico

ech. viii. 46.

1 Peter ii. 6-8.

f Prov. viii. 8, 9; xiv. 6.

b Eph. iv. 9, 10. See Bp. Pearson's exposition of this. On the Creed, v. i. pp. 140, 141. 269, 270.

ich. i. 50.

« PoprzedniaDalej »