Are not all the Modern Objections and Difficulties of our Adverfaries couch'd in this one Question of the Yews: How can this Man give us his Flefb to eat? Have they any Force but what centers in the feeming Difficulty of the thing? It is beyond our Comprehenfion, how therefore can it be? Is not this the conftant Language of our Adverfaries? And suppose our Saviour were now on Earth, what more cou'd be objected to him than what the Jews did, or how cou'd he answer in ftronger and plainer Terms than he did to the fame Jews? The thing is Myfterious, our Undertandings are limited, we cannot comprehend all the Works of his Almighty Power: Explication then as to the How wou'd be vain: He therefore fpeaks as an omnipotent Mafter to a Weak Difciple: The thing is beyond your reach, my Word is fufficient, my Meaning is plain, and Verily, Verily, 1fay unto you, except ye eat the Flefb of the Son of Man, and drink his Blood, ye bave no Life in you.

Here are all your Grace's Difficulties, and Reasonings anfwer'd, and filenced in one Sentence, by him who is able to Work what exceeds the reach of our Understanding; and whose infallible Word is a better Security to us, than all the Demonftrations of Senfe, or Reason.

Was it not then providential that the Jews fhou'd have murmur'd, and made Difficulties, at the firft Mention of the Inftitution of this divine Myftery? Truths that have been received without Contradiction, and handed down to us without Doubt or Difficulty may be, indeed, queftionable and fuppos'd to have been too easily admitted by the Supiness and Credulity of our An

cestors

ceftors; but this Doctrine cannot be liable to any fuch Sufpicion. It was oppos'd, and contradicted to our Saviour's own Face, and he whose Power was affronted, and Veracity question'd, And who was gracioufly pleased to come down from Heaven for our Redemption and Inftruction, and to leave us a perpetual Teftament in his Blood; and of whom it wou'd be horrid Blafphemy to fay, that he came to puzzle or lead us into Error; He I fay, alone who cou'd, and ought to have explain'd his own Words, had we been capable of Understanding them (as we undoubtedly fhou'd, had they been spoken figuratively) filences the Objection of the Jews, and infifts upon the Truth of the Bread's being his Flesh, in Words that ought to ftrike Terror into the Minds of thole, who venture to doubt or deny it; give me Leave, My Lord to repeat them to you once more Verily, Verily, I Say unto you, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his Blood, ye have no Life in you. When our Saviour speaks in this pofitive Manner, what Room is there left for Enquiry? What will it avail us to have Recourse to the Teftimony of our Senfes? The Almighty Lord of Hofts bears Teftimony against them: His Evidence is of a Higher Nature, if it be not fo clear to our Reafon, it is of infinitely greater certainty to our Faith. And though this fhou'd feem a hard faying, as it did to the Jews, Is it not much better to fay with Simon Peter, at the Head of the twelve Apoftles, Lord to whom fball we go, thou haft the Words of Eternal Life; Than depart from him, as fome of his falfe Dif ciples did, and walk'd no more with him; becaufe his Doctrine was, forfooth, beyond the

Teftimo

Teftimony of their Senfes, or the Reach of their weak Reafon ?

Nor will your Lordship, I hope, think it of any Weight to fay, that Christ did afterwards, Verfe the 63. explain himself in a contrary Senfe, when he faid: It is the Spirit that quickeneth the Flefb profiteth nothing. The Words that I Speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are, Life For this was an Answer to those incredu lous Difciples who murmur'd and faid: This is a hard faying. They took his Words in a grofs and Carnal Senfe, and thought his Flesh was to be eaten in a fenfible Manner, that is, as Flesh from the Shambles, or as they had the Day be.. före eaten the Loaves and the Fifhes, that he had miraculoufly multiplied for their Nourishment. And it was therefore to disabuse these Faithless Disciples, and to let them know, that his Body was not to be kill'd, mangled or con fumed by them, that he verfe 62. Spoke to them of his. Afcenfion into Heaven, in an impaffible; and glorified Manner fuch as he was to be eaten in.

1

.. For though the Body and Blood of Chrift are really and truly in the Sacrament, Yet they are not only really and truly eaten and drank, but likewife Spiritually. For to be eaten in the Grofs Manner thofe Difciples understood it, his Body must be dead, divisible, corruptible and changeable into another Subftance; All which is repugnant to his State of Immortality and Impaffibility. So that though his Body be as to it's being really and truly in the Sacrament, and really and truly eaten by the Faithful: Yet it is, as to the Manner of it, not only Spiritual y in the Sacrament, but Spiritually eaten. Nor is there F

any

any Contradiction in this, because the Manner of his Body's being in the Hoft, is not according to the ufual Laws of Body's, but rather,áccording to the Idea we have of the Being of Spirits As God is in all Places, and as the Soul is present to the Body.

Nor if it were otherwife cou'd it profit us to Salvation to eat his Flesh in the grofs Manner they understood it: For as the Body of Chrift hath all it's Salutiferous Qualities from his Spirit and Divinity, fo it cannot profit or nourish our Souls unless it be received Spiritually that is, with a pure Heart and other Difpofitions fuitable to fo heavenly a Food, for the unworthy Communicant, though he eats the true Flesh of Chrift, eats Judgment and Death to himself for want of that Spirit that quickneth; that is for want of thofe Spiritual Difpofitions that makes it Life to the Worthy and well prepared Communicant. And I think it is plain, My Lord, that it is in this Senfe that our Saviour's Words are Spirit and Life. And thus it was that St. Auguftin Underfood them. Tract. 27. in Joan. "Quid "eft ergo: Non prodeft quicquam Caro? Non "prodeft quicquam: Sed quomodo illi intellexe"runt, quomodo in Cadavere dilaniatur, aut in "Macello venditur: Non quomodo Spiritu Ve"getatur. -Nam fi Caro nihil prodeffet Ver

"bum Caro non fieret, ut inhabitaret in Nobis. What Means: The Flesh profits nothing: fays St. Auguftin. It profits nothing, viz. As they underfood it; as it is torn in Pieces in a Dead Body, or Sold in the Shambles; but it profits as animated by the Spirit. For if the Flesh profited nothing, the Word wou'd not have been made Flefb, that he might dwell in us.

And

And if thefe Words of our Saviour were to be understood to be an Explanation of the foregoing Words: The Bread that I will give, &c. So as to prove that he spoke Figuratively. Pray, My Lord, how can we believe the Difciples wou'd have taken fuch Offence as to go back, and never walk more with him, on Account of a Doctrine fo eafily understood; or where was the Need of Simon Peter's Solemn Profeffion of Faith, in his having the Words of eternal Life. And his being Chrift the Son of God; in order to build his Faith upon, that the Bread he was to give, was no more than a meer Type, Figure, or Symbol of his Flefh? And does not this whole Behaviour of Chrift, as well as of his Difciples, fhew evidently that thefe Words. The Bread that I will give is my Flefb, are not as fairly to be accounted for in a Figurative Senfe, as when he faid: I am the Vine, I am the Door; and that notwithstanding this pretended Explanation, the Capharnaites, as well as fome of his own Difciples ftill continued to believe he intended to give them his real Flesh; and thereupon went back from him; and that Simon Peter with the rest of the twelve, except perhaps Judas, did really and firmly believe they were to receive his real Flesh and drink his Blood, notwithstanding the feeming Difficulties, and Reluctance of their Senfes, And that for this very good Reafon, given by themselves becaufe they belived he was Chrift the Son of God, and had the Words of eternal Life. And that there was no other Mafter to go to; neither Senfes nor Reasonings, on which they cou'd depend fo fafely as on his Word, which was Eternal Life.