who are within the bosom of his church, he hath held forth saving helps in abundance. What warnings, what reproofs, what exhortations, what invitations, what intreaties, what importunities, hath he forborne for our conversion! what menaces, what afflictions, what judgments, hath he not made use of for the prevention of our damnation! Can there be now any man so desperately mad as to shut heaven gates against him, which the merciful God leaves open for him? or as to break open the gates of hell, and rush violently into the pit of destruction, which God had latched against him?-HALL. I am that bread of life. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.-Meat and drink, we know, are, by God's own appointment, the common supports of human life. Of all meats, bread is reckoned the most strengthening. Of all drinks, wine is the most refreshing. Now, as our bodies are strengthened and refreshed by these, which are used as the outward part or sign of the Lord's Supper; so are our souls by the things signified by them, even by the body and blood of Christ, which are there verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful. It is a great refreshment to our souls, to have the pardon of our sins sealed and delivered to us, as it is there, in the blood of Christ. And our souls are as much strengthened by the grace of God, which always follows upon his pardon and reconciliation to us, and accompanieth the body and blood of Christ wheresoever it is. And therefore, all who duly receive it do thereby receive it from him, "and grace for grace," John i. 16, and so go from strength to strength, till they "come to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Eph. iv. 13. : Let us hear what he himself saith: "I am the bread of life," saith he; "he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth in me shall never thirst." "I am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." "Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." But then he adds afterwards, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John vi. 35-63. As if he had said, all that I have now spoken, is to be understood in a spiritual sense, and of a spiritual life. I am the life of your souls. It is by my body and my blood that your souls are quickened, nourished, strengthened, and preserved to eternal life. For this we have Christ's own word, and therefore may be confident, that as it is by him only that we can be regenerate, and born again to a new and spiritual life, so it is by him only, that this new and spiritual life can be maintained and excited in us, so as to put forth and manifest itself in our actions. "Without him we can do nothing," John xv. 5, as he himself said. "But we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us," Phil. iv. 13, as his apostle found by experience. But he strengthens none but those who believe in him, and therefore only because they do so. For it is by our believing in him, that we are made members of his body, and so receive strength and nourishment from him, our head. And according as our faith is stronger or weaker, so is the strength we receive from him more or less and therefore, the holy Sacrament being the most sovereign means for the confirming of our faith in him, our souls must needs be very! much strengthened and refreshed! by it; for we there receive the proper food for our souls, the bread of life, and the water of life, the blessed body and blood of Christ himself. And if his body and blood, then his Spirit too which is always with them; that Holy Spirit which purifies our hearts, which sanctifies our nature, which worketh in us both to will and to do, which strengthens and God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 1 Pet. ii. 5.—Beveridge. We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. See Commentary on Matthew XVI. 13-18, in § LIV. HYMN. Ours is a rich and royal feast, Provided by the king of heaven; To celebrate our Saviour's death; To those by whom his name is known, On earth his dying love shall be Our spring of hope, our theme of joy ; And, when in heav'n our Lord we see, His praise shall all our pow'rs employ. KELLY. $ CCXLVII. CHAP. VII. 1-24. Jesus reproveth the ambition and boldness of his kinsmen ; goeth up from Galilee to the feast of tabernacles; teacheth in the temple. AFTER these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because enables us to overcome the world, the Jews sought to kill him. to withstand temptations, to mortify our sins, to do our whole duty both to God and man, and so "offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to 18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. 19 Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? 'Why go ye about to kill me? 20 The people answered and said, 'Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee? 21 Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. 22 "Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers ;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. 23 If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, " that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? 24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. ach. v. 16, 18.-b Lev. xxiii. 34.-c Mat. xii. 46. Mark iii. 31. Acts i. 14.-d Mark iii. 21.-e ch. ii. 4: & viii. 20. ver viii. 30.-fch. xv. 19.-g ch. iii. 19.-h ch. viii. 30. ver. 6.-i ch. xi. 56.-k ch. ix. 16; & x. 19.-/ Mat. xxi. 46. Luke vii. 16. ch vi. 14. ver. 40.-m ch. ix. 22; & xii. 42 ; & xix. 38-n Mat. xiii. 54. Mark vi. 2. Luke iv. 22. Acts il. 7.- Or, learning-och. iii. 11; & viii. 28; & xii. 49; & xiv. 10, 24.-p Ecclus. xxi. 11. ch. viii. 43.-q ch. v. 41; & vili. 50.-r Ex. xxiv. 3. Deut. xxxiii. 4. John i. 17. Acts vii. 38.- Mat. xii. 14. Mark iii. 6-ch. v. 16, 18; & x. 31, 39; & xi. 53.-4 ch. viii. 48, 52; & x. 20.-u Lev xii. 3.- Gen. xvii. 10.- Or, without breaking the law of Moses.-y ch. v. 8. 9, 16. Deut. i. 16, 17. "Prov. xxiv. 23. ch. viii. 15. Jam. ii. 1. a man; I profess myself to be a Christian man. It is reason that makes me a man: it is faith that makes me a Christian. The wise and bountiful God hath vouchsafed to hold forth four several lights to men; all which move in four several orbs, one above another; the light of sense, the light of reason, the light of faith, the light of ecstatical or Divine vision. And all of these are taken with their own up proper objects: sense is busied about these outward and material things: reason is confined to things intelligible: faith is employed in matters supernatural and spiritual: Divine vision, in objects celestial, and infinitely glorious. None of these can exceed their bounds; and extend to a sphere above their own. What can the brute creature, which is led by mere sense, do, or apprehend, in matters of understanding and discourse? What can mere man, who is led by reason, discern in spiritual and supernatural things? supernatural things? What can the Christian, who is led by faith, which is "the evidence of things not seen," attain unto in the clear vision. of God and heavenly glory? READER. My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.-It is God's revelation, not the ratiocination of man, that must give us light into these Divine mysteries. Were it a matter of human disquisition, why did not those sages of nature, the learned philosophers of former times, reach unto it? but now a more learned man than they, the great doctor of the Gentiles, tells us, that the gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ yields forth the revelation of the mysteries which were "kept secret since the world began; but are now I will, therefore, follow my sense manifested by the Scriptures of the so far as that will lead me; and not Prophets; and, according to the suffer myself to be beaten off from commandment of the everlasting so sure a guide. Where my sense God, made known to all nations leaves me, I will betake myself to for the obedience of faith." Rom. the direction of reason, and, in all xvi. 25, 26. Lo, he saith not to the natural and moral things, shall be obedience of reason, but of faith; willingly led by the guidance thereof. and that faith doth more transcend But, when it comes to supernatural reason, than reason doth sense. and Divine truths; when I have the Thou urgest me, therefore, to be word of a God for my assurance, farewell reason, and welcome faith: as, when I shall have dispatched this weary pilgrimage, and from a traveller shall come to be a comprehensor, farewell faith, and welcome vision. In the mean time, I shall labour, what I may, to understand all revealed truths; and when I cannot apprehend, I shall adore: humbly submitting to that word of the great and holy God, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord: For, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah lv. 8, 9.HALL. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.It is not an hearing and knowing our duty that will stand us in any stead before God, but our doing of it; it is not our believing that we may be saved by believing in Christ, whereby we can be saved, without actual believing in him, without such a faith whereby we depend upon him, for the pardon and salvation of our immortal souls, and consequently for the assistance of his grace and Spirit, whereby we may be enabled to obey his gospel, and to perform all such things as himself hath told us are necessary in order to our everlasting hapour everlasting happiness and whatsoever faith we pretend to, unless it comes to this, that it puts us upon universal obedience to all the commands of God, we may conclude it will do us no good, for it is not such a faith as Christ requires, which always works by love, conquers the world, subdues sin, purifies the heart, and sanctifies the whole soul wheresoever it comes. It is such a faith as this which is the wedding-garment, without which no man is chosen or admitted to partake of those celestial banquets, which Christ our Saviour hath provided for us. And therefore no man can have any ground at all to believe or hope himself to be elected or chosen to eternal salvation, that is not holy in all manner of conversation; God himself hath told us expressly, "That without holiness no man shall see the Lord.". BEVERIDGE. "The wise increaseth learning." Prov. i. Wouldest thou but receive and hearken to the easiest things represented by God, these would enlighten and enlarge thy soul to receive more; especially walking by the light thou hast, be it never so little, that invites and draws in more. Be diligent in the practice of that you know; if you would know more, believe it, that is the way to grow. "Whoso observes,' (keep these things, acts according to the knowledge of them) 'he shall understand," Job vii. 17; shall understand it by finding it, (shall understand it in themselves, the word is in the reciprocal mood,) it shall be particularly and effectually shown unto him; they shall experience it, and so understand it.-LEIGHTON. |