Imatges de pàgina
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blood, ye have no life in you." Wherein there is not only an obligation laid upon them for doing of this, which in no likelihood could be intended of the external eating of the sacrament, that was not as yet in being: but also an absolute necessity imposed, non præcepti solum ratione, sed etiam medii. Now to hold that all they are excluded from life, which have not had the means to receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper, is as untrue as it is uncharitable.. And therefore many of the papists themselves, as Biel, Cusanus, Cajetan, Tapper, Hessels, Jansenius, and others, confess that our Saviour, in the sixth of John, did not properly treat of the sacrament.

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The third of the points proposed may be collected out of the first part of Christ's speech, in the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth verses. "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger: and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, that ye also have seen me, and believe not." But especially out of the last, from the sixty-first verse forward. "When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them; Doth this offend you? What then you should see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that believe not." Which words Athanasius (or whosoever was the author of the tractate upon that place; Quicunque dixerit verbum in filium hominis) noteth our Saviour to have used; that his hearers might learn "that those things, which he spake, were not carnal but spiritual. For how many could his body have sufficed for meat, that it should be made the food of the whole world? But therefore it was that he

ι ὅτι ἅ λέγει, οὐκ ἔστι σαρκικά, ἀλλὰ πνευματικὰ· πόσοις γὰρ ἤρκει τὸ σῶμα πρὸς βρῶσιν, ἵνα καὶ τοῦ κόσμου παντὸς τοῦτο τροφὴ γένηται; ̓Αλλὰ διὰ τοῦτο τῆς εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἀναβάσεως ἐμνημόνευσε τοῦ υιοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ἵνα τῆς σωματικῆς ἐννοίας αὐτοὺς ἀφελκύση, καὶ λοιπὸν τὴν εἰρημένην σάρκα βρῶσιν ἄνωθεν οὐράνιον, καὶ πνευματικὴν τροφὴν παρ' αὐτοῦ διδομένην μάθωσιν. ἃ γὰρ λελάληκα (φησίν) ὑμῖν, πνεῦμά ἐστι Kai Zon. Athanas.

made mention of the Son of man's ascension into heaven, that he might draw them from this corporal conceit; and that hereafter they might learn, that the flesh, which he spake of, was celestial meat from above, and spiritual nourishment to be given by him: For the words which I have spoken unto you, saith he, are spirit and life." So likewise Tertullian; "Although he saith that the flesh profiteth nothing, the meaning of the speech must be directed according to the intent of the matter in hand. For, because they thought it to be a hard and an intolerable speech, as if he had determined that his flesh should be truly eaten by them; that he might dispose the state of salvation by the spirit, he premised; It is the spirit that quickeneth: and so subjoined, The flesh profiteth nothing; namely to quicken, &c. And because the Word was made flesh, it therefore was to be desired for causing of life, and to be devoured by hearing, and to be chewed by understanding, and to be digested by faith. For a little before he had also affirmed, that his flesh was heavenly bread: urging still, by the allegory of necessary food, the remembrance of the fathers, who preferred the bread and the flesh of the Egyptians before God's calling." Add hereunto the sentence of Origen; "There is in the New Testament also a letter which killeth him, that doth not spiritually conceive the things that be spoken. For if according to the letter you do follow this same which is said, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and

Etsi carnem ait nihil prodesse, ex materia dicti dirigendus est sensus. Nam quia durum et intolerabilem existimaverunt sermonem ejus, quasi vere carnem suam illis edendam determinasset: ut in spiritum disponeret statum salutis, præmisit; Spiritus est qui vivificat, atque ita subjunxit, caro nihil prodest; ad vivificandum scilicet. Tertull. de resurrect. carnis, cap. 37.

h Quia et Sermo caro erat factus, proinde in causam vitæ appetendus, et devorandus auditu, et ruminandus intellectu, et fide digerendus. Nam et paulo ante carnem suam panem quoque cœlestem pronuntiarat; urgens usquequaque, per allegoriam necessariorum pabulorum, memoriam patrum, qui panes et carnes Ægyptiorum præverterant divinæ vocationi. Idem ibid.

i Est et in novo Testamento litera quæ occidit eum, qui non spiritualiter ea quæ dicuntur adverterit. Si enim secundum literam sequaris hoc ipsum, quod dictum est, Nisi manducaveritis carnem meam, et biberitis sanguinem meum, occidit hæc litera. Orig. in Levit. hom. 7. op. tom. 2. pag. 225.

drink his blood; this letter killeth." And those sayings, which every where occur in St. Augustine's tractates upon John: "How shall I send up my hand unto heaven, to take hold on Christ sitting there? Send thy faith, and thou hast hold of him. Why' preparest thou thy teeth and thy belly? Believe, and thou hast eaten. Form this is to eat the living bread, to believe in him. He, that believeth in him, eateth. He is invisibly fed; because he is invisibly regenerated. He is inwardly a babe; inwardly renewed: where he is renewed, there is he nourished."

The fourth proposition doth necessarily follow upon the third. For, if the eating and drinking here spoken of be not an external eating and drinking, but an inward participation of Christ, by the communion of his quickening Spirit; it is evident, that this blessing is to be found in the soul, not only in the use of the sacrament of the Lord's supper, but at other times also. "It" is no ways to be doubted by any one," saith Fulgentius, "that every one of the faithful is made partaker of the body and blood of our Lord, when he is made a member of Christ in baptism; and that he is not estranged from the communion of that bread and cup, although, before he eat that bread and drink that cup, he depart out of this world; being settled in the unity of the body of Christ. For he is not deprived of the participation and the benefit of that sacrament, when he hath found that which this sacrament doth signify:" And hereupon we see, that divers of the

Quomodo in cœlum manum mittam, ut ibi sedentem teneam? Fidem mitte, et tenuisti. Augustin. in evang. Johan. tract. 50. op. tom. 3. pag. 630. Ut quid paras dentes et ventrem? Crede, et manducasti. Id. ibid. tractat. 25. pag. 489.

Credere enim in eum, hoc est manducare panem vivum. Qui credit in eum, manducat. Invisibiliter saginatur, quia invisibiliter renascitur. Infans intus est, novus intus est: ubi novellatur, ibi satiatur. Id. ibid. tract. 26. pag. 494.

n Nulli est aliquatenus ambigendum, tunc unumquemque fidelium corporis sanguinisque Dominici participem fieri, quando in baptismate membrum Christi efficitur: nec alienari ab illius panis calicisque consortio, etiamsi, antequam panem illum comedat et calicem bibat, de hoc seculo in unitate corporis Christi constitutus abscedat. Sacramenti quippe illius participatione ac beneficio non privatur, quando ipse hoc, quod illud sacramentum significat, invenit. Fulgentius in fine libelli de baptismo Æthiopis, Augustini nomine citatus apud Bedam, in 1 Cor. cap. 10.

fathers do apply the sixth of John to the hearing of the word also; as, Clemens" Alexandrinus, Origen", Eusebius Cæsareensis, and others. "We are said to drink the blood of Christ," saith Origen, "not only by way of the sacraments; but also when we receive his word, wherein consisteth life even as he himself saith, The words, which I have spoken, are spirit and life. Upon which words of Christ, Eusebius paraphraseth after this manner; "Do not think that I speak of that flesh wherewith I am compassed, as if you must eat of that; neither imagine that I command you to drink my sensible and bodily blood: but understand well that the words, which I have spoken unto you, are spirit and life. So that those very words and speeches of his are his flesh and blood; whereof who is partaker, being always therewith nourished as it were with heavenly bread, shall likewise be made partaker of heavenly life. Therefore let not that offend you, saith he, which I have spoken, of the eating of my flesh and of the drinking of my blood; neither let the superficial hearing of those things, which were said by me of flesh and blood, trouble you. For these things sensibly heard profit nothing; but the spirit is it, which quickeneth them that are able to hear spiritually." Thus far Eu

o Clem. Alexan. pædagog. lib. 1. cap. 6.

P Orig. in Levit. cap. 10. hom. 7.

4 Bibere autem dicimur sanguinem Christi, non solum sacramentorum ritu, sed et cum sermones ejus recipimus, in quibus vita consistit; sicut et ipse dicit: Verba, quæ locutus sum, spiritus et vita est. Origen in Num. hom. 16. op. tom. 2. pag. 334.

· Μὴ γὰρ τῶν σάρκα ἢν περίκειμαι νομίσητέ με λέγειν ὡς δέον αὐτὴν ἐσθίειν, μηδὲ τὸ αἰσθητὸν καὶ σωματικὸν αἷμα πίνειν ὑπολαμβάνατε με προστάττειν· ἀλλ ̓ εὖ ἴστε ὅτι τὰ ῥήματα ὁ λελάληκα ὑμῖν πνεῦμά ἐστι καὶ ζωή. ὥστε αὐτὰ εἶναι τὰ ῥήματα καὶ τοὺς λόγους αὐτοῦ τὴν σάρκα καὶ τὸ αἷμα· ὧν ὁ μετέχων ἀεὶ ὡσανεὶ ἄρτῳ οὐρανίῳ τρεφόμενος, τῆς οὐρανίου μεθέξει ζωῆς. Μηδὲ οὖν, φησὶ, σκανδαλιζέτω ὑμὰς τοῦτο ὃ περὶ βρώσεως τῆς ἐμῆς σαρκὸς καὶ περὶ πόματος τοῦ ἐμοῦ αἵματος εἴρηκα, μηδὲ ταραττέτω ὑμᾶς ἡ πρόχειρος ἀκοὴ τῶν περὶ τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ αἵματος εἰρημένων μοι. Ταῦτα γὰρ οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ αἰσθητῶς ἀκουόμενα, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμά ἐστι τὸ ζωοποιοῦν τοὺς πνευματικῶς ἀκούειν δυναμένους. Euseb. lib. 3. ecclesiast. theologiæ, contr. Marcell. Ancyran. MS. in publica Oxoniensis academiæ bibliotheca: et in privatis virorum doctissimorum, D. Richardi Montacutii et M. Patricii Junii. (postea edit. una cum Demon. Evang. Paris. 1628.)

sebius: whose words I have laid down the more largely, because they are not vulgar.

There remaineth the fifth and last point, which is oftentimes repeated by our Saviour in this sermon; as in the fiftieth verse: "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.” And in the fifty-first: "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." And in the fifty-fourth: "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life." And in the fifty-sixth: "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him." And in the fifty-eighth: "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 shall live for ever." Whereupon Origen rightly observeth the difference that is betwixt the eating of the typical or symbolical (for so he calleth the sacrament) and the true body of Christ. Of the former, thus he writeth: "Thats which is sanctified by the word of God, and by prayer, doth not of its own nature sanctify him that useth it. For if that were so, it would sanctify him also, which doth eat unworthy of the Lord: neither should any one for this eating be weak, or sick or dead. For such a thing doth Paul shew, when he saith: For this cause many are weak and sickly among "Manyt you, and many sleep. Of the latter, thus things may be spoken of the Word itself, which was made flesh, and true meat; which whosoever eateth shall certainly live for ever: which no evil person can eat. For if it could be, that he who continueth evil might eat the

Quod sanctificatur per verbum Dei, et per obsecrationem, non suapte natura sanctificat utentem. Nam id si esset, sanctificaret etiam illum, qui comedit indigne Domino: neque quisquam ob hunc esum infirmus aut ægrotus fuisset, aut obdormisset. Nam tale quiddam Paulus demonstrat, quum ait : Propter hoc inter vos infirmi, et male habentes, et dormiunt multi." Origen. in Matt. op. tom. 3. pag. 499.

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Multa porro et de ipso Verbo dici possent, quod factum est caro, verusque cibus, quem qui comederit omnino vivet in æternum; quem nullus malus potest edere. Etenim si fieri possit ut, qui malus adhuc perseveret, edat Verbum factum carnem, quum sit Verbum et panis vivus, nequaquam scriptum fuisset : Quisquis ederit panem hunc, vivet in æternum.

Id. ibid.

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