extra Scripturam de tuo infers I receiue not that which thou bringest of thine owne invention besides the Scripture Yea as S. Iohn when he was in the world being asked who he was confessed saying y Ioh. 1.20 Ioh. 3.28 I am not the Christ I am sent before him So the blessed soules which are now in heaven if they were asked Who they are would answere We are not the living bread we are not Saviours We are come after the Saviour and are saved by him And as S. Iohn to draw away mens eyes from gazing vpon him pointed out Iesus vnto them and said a Ioh. 1.29 Behold the Lambe of God which taketh away the sin of the world So they would point at Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father and say Behold the living bread Behold the Saviour of the world And taking their harpes in their hands would joyntly fall downe before the Lambe and sing to his glory the new song which I exhort you all to sing vnto him in your hearts for conclusion of this first part of my Text b Rev. 4.11 Thou art worthy O Lord to receiue glory and honour and power c Rev. 5.8.9.10.11 For thou wast slaine and hast redeemed vs to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made vs vnto our God Kings and Priests THIRD CHAPTER I. Bread in the Scripture hath divers significations II. In all these significations Christ is our bread III. Similitudes most frequent in the Scripture IV. Christ did delight in similitudes V. The occasion which moved him to call himselfe Bread VI. Exhortation to an earnest desire of this Bread IT is then Christ Christ alone to whom the Scripture beareth Record that he is the living bread We are now to search in the second part of this Discourse the causes why he called himselfe bread For in all Metaphores which are Epitomes and Abridgements of Similitudes we must not so much regard whence they are taken as those doe which tie their eares to the leaues of the words as dig with our minds into the root of the reason wherefore they are vsed Bread in the Scripture hath divers literall significations When David saith that d Psal 104.14.15 God bringeth forth bread out of the earth and wine that maketh glad the heart of man it is taken in a vulgar sence which is common to all languages so is it taken in the words of the institutiō of the Lords Supper Wherein it is said that e Mat. 26.26 Iesus tooke bread When f 2 King 6.22 Elisha counselled the King of Israel to set bread and water before the Armie of the King of Syria bread is taken for meate without drinke When Iacob called his brethren g Gen. 31.54 to eate bread and they did eat bread he called them to a feast wherein there was both meate and drinke and both are signified by the word Bread When Salomon prayed to God h Pro. 30.8 to feed him with bread convenient for him When he saith that i Pro. 31.14 the vertuous woman is like the marchants ship shee bringeth her bread from a farre off When Christ hath taught vs to pray Giue vs this day our daily bread bread signifieth all things needfull for the sustenance of this our mortall life THAT which bread in all these literall sences is to our bodies the same in a spirituall sence is Iesus Christ vnto our soules The Iewes magnified much the Manna which Moses gaue to their Fathers in the Desert But although it was bread it was not drink vnto them els they had not murmured for want of water But Christ is both meate and drinke k Ioh. 6.35 I am saith he the bread of life He that commeth to me shall never hunger Ye see that he is meate And he that beleeveth in me shall never thirst Ye see also that he is drinke He is bread both to be eaten to be drunke The inhabitants of the Maldiuian Isles cracke much of a tree growing every where amongst them called l Theuet Cosmograph 12 booke chap. 21. Gomarra 3. booke chap. 94. Coco the onely fruit wherof furnishes vnto them bread wine oyle vinegar sugar butter to feed them deliciously physicke to heale their diseases Hemp to make Cables and Sayles for Shippes Lint to make cloths to cover their nakednesse And the tree it selfe hath all the vses that any other tree can haue for fewell or for tymberworke m Peyrard in his nauigations 2. booke One who did liue many yeares in those Isles writeth that he saw a Shippe of two hundreth tunnes whereof all the tymber and nayles were of that tree all the Cables and Sayles were of the outward skin of the fruit thereof and the whole load was of the butter sugar vinegar wine oyle other cōmodities which that fruit doth afford And indeed it is a most wonderfull tree but not to be matched with n Rev. 2.7 the tree of life which is in the middest of the Paradise of God with our Lord Iesus Christ who is all that more then all that to our soules He is here in my Text the whole and intire food of our hungry and dryed vp soules He is not onely o Esa 53.5 the Physick out and p Esa 61.1 Mat. 9.12 the Physition of our sicke and languishing consciences He is q Rom. 13.14 the garment wherewith our nakednesse is covered and our persons are graced He is r 1. Cor. 31.11 the foundation ſ Eph. 2.20 and chiefe corner stone wherevpon we are built He is t Ion. 15.1 the Vine whereof we are the branches u Eph. 4.15 The head wherof we are the members x Ose 2.19 Eph. 5.25 The husband who hath betrothed vs y Heb. 7.22 The suretie who hath answered for vs a 1 Tim. 2.6 The ransom which hath redeemed vs b Zach. 13.1 The water which cleanseth and c Ioh. 4.10 refresheth vs d Ioh. 1.9 The true light e Mal. 4.1 the Sunne of righteousnesse which inlighteneth vs and bringeth vnto vs healing in his wings He is the Prophet who teacheth salvation The high Priest which hath mented it The King fitting at the right 〈…〉 Father who keepeth it in heaven and will giue it vnto vs. In materiall things this is one thing that is another And ye seeke this thing in one place that in another In spirituall things it is not so We haue all things in Christ Christ is all things vnto vs f Clemens Paedag. lib. 1. cap. 6. Cusan Excitat lib. 6. exserm Respice Domine Father mother pedagogue health peace loue the daily bread of the reasonable soule and all in all In a word he is salvation it selfe g 1 Cor. 1.30 For of God he is made vnto vs wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption For this cause he is called Bread HERE
end of meate and drinke yet the preserving of this life should not be our principall care Doe ye not all know b 1. Cor. 6.13 that meates are for the belly and the belly for meats but God shall destroy both it and them And therefore ye should all sigh and groane for a better life not of the body but of the soule not of this world but of the world to come Wherfore listen I pray you to the Sonne of God who assureth you both by his word which now I preach vnto you and by his Sacrament which after this Sermon shall be given vnto you that he is the blessed bread of that blessed life for you and vnto you Come then come to the Table of the Lord thanking him that he vouchsafeth to be your bread and crying vnto him with a more religious and holy desire then the Iewes did c Ioh. 6.34 Lord evermore giue vs this bread FOVRTH CHAPTER I. The excellency of this bread shewed by the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth both living and quickening II. And therefore is well translated both wayes III. Christ as he is Mediator is living in himselfe quickning vnto vs. IV. This bread is wonderfull aboue all other bread V. Exhortation to labour for this bread THis desire will increase and like a woman with childe we will more and more long after this bread if we know more clearely and fully the excellent vertue and vse of it set down in the word living For Christ saith I am the living bread according to our translation Or according to the Latin translation of d Ego sum panis vivificus Beza and e Ie suis le pain vivifiant the French translation I am the quickning bread f Cotton an plagiaire de Geneue The Iesuites of France barke most spightfully against this last translation saying that the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all Greeke Authors signifieth liuing and is never taken from quickening But as we say in a common Proverbe The dog that barkes much bites but little For to discover to you their impudency both in affirming too boldly that which they know not and in denying shamelesly that which they know I. The Greeke word hath both significations in the Septuagint Interpreters whose words the Evangelists and Apostles follow when ye reade in the booke of the Psalmes g Psal 41.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord will keepe him aliue h Psal 119.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy word hath quickned me i Ver. 40.48 quicken me after thy loving kindnesse quicken me in thy righteousnesse k Psal 134.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quicken me O Lord for thy Names sake and other such like places the Greeke word is the same which is in this Text. 2. The words preceeding and following doe shew that living signifieth quickening In the 33. verse he saith The bread of God is he which commeth downe from heaven and giveth life vnto the world In the 35 verse he saith I am the bread of life He is so called saith l Tolet. 161. Dicitur panis vitae quia alio viuere facit Tolet because he maketh others to liue The words following He that commeth to me shall never hunger and he that beleeveth in me shall neuer thirst are an evident proofe that it is so In my Text he saith I am the living bread which came down from heauen and addeth in the second part of the verse If any man eate of this bread he shall liue for ever calling this bread Living because it maketh them that eate it liue for ever In the 57. verse He saith in the same sence He that eateth me even he shall liue by me 3. Many Roman Doctors Thomas Aquinas and Ferus two learned Monkes Ianssenius Emmanuel Sa Maldonat Tolet Iesuits writ vpon this Text that m Vivus pro vivificans Living is put for Quickening 4. But the Iesuites now adayes feare leaft Christ be called quickning in this verse because they expound it and all the verses following of the bodily presence of CHRIST in the Eucharist wherein they confesse that he is not quickning seeing in the Sacrament not onely many wicked men but also rats mice wormes dogs asses toads often eate him and are not quickened by him Which saying is a most horrible blasphemy WHAT then Doe I condemne our own translation God forbid The Greeke word signifieth living And is not Christ living If he were not living how could he giue life n Cusan Excit lib. 5. ex Serm. Nou in solo pane vivit bomo Panis qui noÌ„ vivit non vivificat For the bread which liveth not cannot giue life Therefore our translation is good and on it dependeth the truen of the French translation as the effect on the cause And as the first excludeth not the last â—o the 〈…〉 the first is the cause is included in the effect and the word Living signifieth both and must signifie both that the words of our 1. 1 dol Sariour may be found true For what comfort should it be vnto vs that Christ liveth in vs if he did not quicken vs And this is the drift of this whole Chapter to shew that he liveth in all them that eate him and giveth eternall life to all those in whom he liveth least we should thinke him to be like vnto o Iudg. 14.8 the swarme of Bees which did liue and make honey in the carkasse of the Lyon which Sâ—â—pson had killed but did not giue life to the Lyon War doe we fight for a word when no Christian dare deny but that Christ is both living and quickning It is safer for vs to consider how Christ is living wherefore he is so called If ye consider him as he is p Ioh. 1.1.4 the Word which was in the beginning i.e. as he is true God coessentiall and coeternall to his Father in him was life He was living formally For in God to liue and to be are one thing But in this sence we are all strangers from God For what communion can carkasses dead in sin as we are all by nature haue with God who liveth for ever ever Therefore he speaketh of himselfe as he q Ioh. 6 27.5â— is the Sonne of man that is to say the Mediator between God man for so is the Mediator called by r Dan. 7.13 Daniel or as Å¿ 1. Tim. 3.16 God made manifest in the flesh For as he is the Sonne of man or as he is Mediator between God and man the Father hath given him to haue life in himselfe not to keepe it to himselfe but to communicate it to all the members of his mystical body This is cleare by his owne words in the fist chapter of this Gospel where first he sheweth that he giveth life saying t Ioh. 5.21.25.26 As the Father raiseth vp the dead and quickneth them even so the Sonne quickneth
them whom he will And again Verily verily I say vnto you the houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voice of the Sonne of God and they that heare it shall liue Secondly he rendreth this reason why he giveth life to the dead For as the Father hath life in himselfe so hath he given to the Sonne to haue life in himselfe As the Sunne hath light the fire heat a Well-spring water in themselues not for themselues but for the vse of man and beast So Christ hath life in himselfe that he may giue life vnto vs. For this cause he is called liuing first subiectiuè because he hath life in himselfe Secondly effectiuè because he hath it not for himselfe but giveth it to all those that haue him as S. Iohn saith u 1 Ioh. 5.12 he that hath the Sonne hath life Even as the scripture calleth x Gen. 26.19 a Well of living water that which having abundance of water in it selfe springs and flowes and runnes and imparts it selfe vnto all O MOST wonderfull and powerfull bread No other bread hath life in it selfe This hath No other bread giveth life This doth No other bread is a preservatiue against death This is All other bread y Ioh. 6.27 perisheth This endureth vnto euer lasting life Not only it liveth in it selfe but also it maketh to liue eternally the soules of all those that eate it and shall at the last day of the world quicken the bodies of all those whose soules it hath quickened in this world as he saith a Ioh. 6.54 Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternall life and I will raise him vp at the last day His flesh and his bloud or rather he himselfe by tearing his flesh and renting it from his soule He by shedding his bloud in his death is the living bread b Cusan Excit lib. 4. ex Sermone Qui manducat Ipse est qui est dator vitae conservator Quare est panis vitae giuer and keeper of life and therefore most worthily called the bread of life RIGHT HONORABLE Reverend Worshipfull and beloved Auditours remember I pray you the exhortation of our Saviour to the Iewes of Capernaum and c Ioh. 6.27 labour not for the meate which perisheth but for that meate which endureth vnto everlasting life Alas it is a pitifull spectacle to behold how men labour for the meate which perisheth d Ps 127.2 they rise vp early they sit vp late they eate the bread of sorrowes e Matth. 15.17 It entreth in at the mouth it goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draught If men labour exceeding hard for such bread how should we labour for this living bread Not to purchase it for it groweth not in the earth it is not sold in the Shambles it is not to be bought in the Shops But to reach vnto it where it is but to receiue it where and when it is offered It is offered every where in the towne in the fields in our houses in our closets But namely in the Church when the Gospell is preached and particularly when the blessed Sacrament is given as to you this day The preaching of the Gospell is f Exod. 25.23 the golden Table wherevpon this shew bread is set This holy Sacrament is as it were g Ve. 29.30 the golden dish wherein it is offered vnto vs. We know what we must doe to receiue the outward Sacrament h Panem domini the bread of the Lord If we receiue it from the hand of the Minister for he is no better then i Ioh. 6.32 Moses who gaue not the true bread from heaven When we haue received it we eat◠it we let it downe into out stomacks we disgest it Nothing is more easie But 〈◊〉 receiue k Panem dominum the bread which is the Lord another worke more difficult is required l Ioh. 6.29 This is the worke of God that ye beleeue in him whom he hath sent Your soules must goe vp to heaven There the Table is covered There is the bread which is the Lord set vpon the Table of the Mercie of God There God the Father giveth it by his eternall will and decree There the Sonne giveth it by his merite and consent There the holy Ghost taketh it as it were in his hands entreth with it into your hearts and offereth it vnto your famished soules The Cherubims and Seraphims stand by and wonder Send your faith thither and there your faith shall receiue it This is the worke which God commandeth 1 Ioh. 3.23 This is the worke which God himselfe worketh in you Eph. 1.3 Phil. 1.29 This is the worke which if ye want all your workes are sinnes Rom. 14.23 and it is impossible that yee should please God Heb. 11.6 Which if ye haue by it Iesus Christ will dwell in you Eph. 3.17 and liue in you and quicken you so sensibly that ye shall say as truely as S. Paul said m Gal. 2.20 I liue yet not I but Christ liveth in me And this life of Christ or Christ living in you shall be so powerfull in you that as n 1. Kings 19.20 Elijah by the strength of that bread and of that water which the Angel of God prepared for him went fortie dayes and fortie nights without hunger without thirst without wearinesse till he came vnto Horeb the Mount of God So by the vertue of this living bread which no Angel of God but o Luk 2.31 God himselfe hath prepared ye shall walke couragiously and constantly all the dayes of your life till ye come to the kingdome of heaven where ye shall p Mat. 8.11 sit downe with Abraham and Isaac and Iacob and there be abundantly satisfied with these q Ps 16.11 pleasures which are at the right hand of God for evermore FIFT CHAPTER I. Christ came not downe from heaven as man II. Neither as God by a locall motion III. Neither as sent and approved of God IV. But as God incarnate V. Three commings of Christ VI. What should be the order of our conceptions concerning Christ WE HAVE yet the last part of my text to consider concerning the cause of the excellency of this bread For ye may aske how any bread can be so excellent that it liveth or so powerfull that quickneth And certainely no other bread can But this can because it came downe from heaven What is the meaning of these words Valentin said that he brought his body from heaven But that is false For the Scripture beareth record that r Heb. 2.16 he tooke on him the seed of Abraham ſ Rom. 1.3 was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and t Luk. 1.27.35 was borne of the Virgin Mary IF any say that his divine nature came from heaven by a locall motion That also is false u Iere. 23.24 Doe I not fill
is contained in this word of eating and sheweth vnto vs the nature and true action of faith which is to apply Christ vnto our soules so neerly that every one out of the true sence of this heavenly gift in his owne heart saith most truly as the Spouse doth m Cant. 2.16 My beloved is mine and I am his and as Thomas did n Ioh. 20.21 My Lord and my God according to the promise of the new Testament o Zach. 13.9 I will say It is my people and they shall say The Lord is my God Such was the faith of S. Paul when he said p Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I liue yet not I but Christ liveth in me And the life which I now liue in the flesh I liue by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved ME and gaue himselfe for ME. Such is the faith of every true Christian according to this saying of S. Peter q 2 Pet. 1.1 ye haue obtained like precious faith with vs. What seeke we by eating of our daily bread To liue What seeke we by eating of Iesus Christ To haue communiō with him that we may liue by him The Apostle saith that we liue by faith Therefore saith S. Cyprian r Cypr. de Coena domini Qnod est escacarni hoc animae est fides That which food is to the body the same is faith to the soule For the same cause S. Augustin expounding the words of my Text saith that ſ Aug. in Iohan trac 26 Credere enim ineum hoc est manducare panem vivum to beleeue in Christ is to eate the living bread This is not their exposition It is from Christ himselfe as we haue heard CHAPTER XI I. To eate Christ by faith it is no imagination as Papists say II. Neither is it an easie thing by nature III. It goeth beyond the whole reach of nature IV. Therefore we must aske it of God V. And although it be weake be assured that it will eate Christ IF THAT be true say Papists if to eate Christ be no other thing but to beleeue in him there is nothing more easie then to be saved What is faith An imagination in the braine that Christ hath saved vs. How easily may we imagine such a thing and so be saved by a fancie 1. Indeed if we did speake of eating of Christ as they doe it might be said most truely that there is nothing more easie What so easie to any man as to open the mouth of the body and to swallow downe that which entereth into it Is there any Papist that findeth any difficultie in it Yea they hold their eating of Christ so easie that they make it common not onely to bad as well as to good men but also to toades wormes dogs asses mice and other beasts 2. When they speake of faith as of an imagination they teach vs what they iudge and what they will haue vs to sudge of their faith They say that they beleeue in God Is their beliefe nothing but an imagination They call on God And t Rō 10.14 how shall they call on him in whom they haue not beleeved u Rō 14.23 For whatsoeuer is not of faith is sinne What Will they confesse that their prayers and in a word all their most laborious devotion is nothing but an imagination Aske of them how they know that Christs body is in the Sacrament as big and as tall as it was on the crosse although such a thing came never in Christs mind they will answer that Christ hath said it and they beleeue it That beliefe indeed is nothing but a most fond imagination But will they call it so 3. A great many of their Doctors confesse that in the first part of this Chapter till the one fiftie verse Christ speaketh of the spirituall manducation of his body and recommendeth it vnto vs and some of the most learned amongst them confirme by insoluble arguments that the whole Chapter is of the same argument And dare they say that Christ recommended nothing vnto vs but imaginations 4. Since the beginning of the world there was never any man saved but by the eating of Christ The Apostle writeth of the fathers which were in the desert that x 1 Cor. 10 3.4 they did all eate the same spirituall meate and did all drinke the same spirituall drinke y Aug. de poenit cap. 1. to 9. Eundem non inuenio quomodo intellig am nisi cum quem nos The same which we eat drink not corporall in the elemēt but spirituall in the signification For they dranke of that spirituall Rocke that followed them and that Rocke was Christ Was that eating and drinking of Christ before he came into the world nothing but an imagination How many milliōs of Christians die and are saved before they can eate Christ in the Sacrament And yet without eating of Christ spiritually there is no salvation Are they also saved by imagination When we shall be called a Rev. 19.7 to the marriage-supper of the Lambe when b Mat. 8.11 we shall sit downe with Abraham and Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heaven when there c Psal 36.8 God shall satisfie vs abundantly with the fatnesse of his house and shall make vs drinke of the river of his pleasures shall that eating and that drinking also be nothing but an imagination As we shall eate him then so must we eate him now AND to eate him so now is not an easie thing is not an imagination To see our owne misery and the mercy of God our naughtinesse and his goodnesse our emptinesse and his fulnesse our folly and his wisedome our weakenesse and his power our shame and his glory displayed in Iesus Christ is it an easie thing Is it an imagination To know and to feele how worthy I was of his hatred and how wonderfull is that loue wherwith he hath loved me in his deare Sonne Iesus Christ is it an easie thing is it an imagination To runne vnto Christ to imbrace him to take hold on him to lodge him in our hearts to say vnto him as Iacob did d Gen. 32.26 I will not let thee goe except thou blesse me Or rather with David e Ps 73.28 It is good for me to draw neere to God I haue put my trust in the Lord God And therefore I will never let thee goe that thou mayest blesse me for ever To seeke and finde grace mercie peace life and salvation in him and therevpon to say f Psal 118.6.14 The Lord is on my side I will not feare The Lord is my strength and song and is become my salvation is it an easie thing Is it an imagination SVRELY the eating of Christ by this kind of faith goeth so farre beyond the power and reach of nature that g Math. 16.17 flesh and blood doe not reveale Christ to be the Sonne of
some aske why Iesus Christ did vse such Metaphoricall words of bread of eating seeing he might haue said in proper cleare tearmes that h Heb. 5.9 he is the author of eternall salvation vnto all them that obey him as the Apostle calleth him in the Epistle to the Hebrewes I answere first O man wilt thou teach the Word and Wisdome of God to speake i Exod. 4.11 Who hath made mans mouth Or who maketh the dumbe or deafe the seeing or the blind Is it not I saith the Lord And wilt thou to render him like for like make his mouth Secondly I say that of all words those are most cleare and easie to be vnderstood which haue greatest conformitie with our affections desires For which cause God framing his stile to our capacity by similitudes of worldly things which are most esteemed and affected of vs leadeth vs from the lower parts of the earth far aboue all the visible heavens from carnall and sensuall imaginations to spirituall and godly meditations from the vaine cōceit which we haue of our owne worthinesse to bungring and thirsting after his righteousnesse Neither did he fetch such similitudes from a farre off but e re natâ as his servants did light on such or such things he maketh allusion vnto them and by them instructeth his people in the knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven Because men prise gold aboue all mettall and value precious stones at an high rate he saith that he k Efa 54.11 Rev. 21.18 will lay the foundations of his Church with precious stones make her gates of pearles her wals of iasper her streets of pure gold Because the Iewes were much given to bodily exercise and to renting their clothes in the dayes of their fasting he speaketh vnto them of a spirituall fasting which he calleth l Esa 58.6 the loosing of the bands of wickednesse c. and m Ioel. 2.11 the renting their hearts Because also they were ever bragging that they were Iewes and had the Circumcision the Apostle teacheth them that the true Iew n Rom. 2.28.29 whose praise is not of men but of God is one inwardly that the true Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit that all true Christians o Phil. 3.3 are the Circumcision CHRIST by whose Spirit the Prophets and Apostles spake did delight in such similitudes He exhorteth those which are addicted to gathering of perishable and momentarie treasures p Mat. 6.22 to lay vp for themselues treasures in heaven To them which told him when he was preaching that q Mat. 10.47.50 his mother and brethren desired to speake with him he answered whosoever shall doe the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother When the woman of Samaria which was drawing water had said vnto him r Ioh. 4.9.10.14 How is it that thou being a Iew askest drinke of me which am a woman of Samaria He tooke occasion of her speech to call his doctrine his grace his owne selfe the living water whereof whosoever drinketh shall never thirst and by such speeches he brought her to the spirituall drinking of the water of grace whereof the well-spring is in heaven When his Disciples prayed him to take some meate he refused saying ſ Ioh. 4.34 My meate is to doe the will of him that seni me and to finish his worke In the last day of the feast of Tabernacles seeing the people very busie about drawing of water and powring of it out before the Lord as if that had beene the principall part of Gods seruice he stood and cryed t Ioh 7.37.38.39 If any man thirst let him come to me and drinke He that beleeveth in me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water This spake he of the Spirit which they that beleeue in him should receiue AFTER the same manner perceiving that those fiue thousand men which he had miraculously fed and filled with fiue loaues and two small fishes were come to make him a King not for any true loue vnto him but onely because they had bin fed by him and had conceived a new hope that following such a wonderfull King meate should never be wanting to their bellies yea that he would make bread to raine downe vpon them as Moses did vpon their fathers in the Wildernesse he by diversion speaketh to them of a farre more excellent bread which he would giue them even of the true bread which came downe from heaven and endureth vnto everlasting life exhorteth them to labour for it Shewing in all the Chapter and particularly in this verse that he is that bread and that the onely meane to labour for it is to beleeue in him If he had clothed them miraculously as miraculously he had fed them and if they had followed him thervpon to make him King he would vndoubtedly advised them to labour for the raiments which wax never old and said that he is that raiment As indeed the holy Apostle will haue vs to beleeue that Christ is our garment when he saith that u Gal. 3.27 as many as haue beene baptized into Christ haue put on Christ and exhorteth vs x Rō 13 14 to put on the Lord Iesus Christ Which no man that is not witlesse or besides himselfe will take literally neither also any of the other similitudes whereof there is great plentie in the Scripture and I haue related some few Let then Papists tell vs Why the words of this Chapter should be taken in a literall sence which they shall never be able to doe BVT to leaue Papists let vs who are to communicate this morning to the blessed seales of this doctrine weigh in our minds how Christ per allegoriam necessariorum pabulorum by the allegory of necessary food as y Tertull. de Resurrect Carnis cap. 37. Tertullian speaketh withdraweth the thoughts of his followers from the outward to the inward man from the flesh to the Spirit from the food of the body to the food of the soule a Aug. in Ioh. tract 25. Ille post miraculi Sacramentum sermonem infert vt si fieripotest qui pasti sunt pascantur quorum satiauit panibus ventres satiet sermonibus mentes sed si capiunt Et si non capiunt sumatur quod non capiunt ne fragmenta percant that if it be possible those which are fed may be fed againe and as he had filled their bellies with bread he may also fill their minds with his speeches But if they take them And if they take them not as indeed they tooke them not i.e. they vnderstood them not let vs take them least the fragments perish as we are exhorted by S. Austin Let vs I say now even now ponder with our selues that although we doe eate and drinke to maintaine this mortall and ever-dying life and that this is the