with the Apostles for ever that is so long as they liv'd to guide them into the knowledge of Truth and by them to guide the Church in all After-Ages There are many things in this Discourse of our Saviour to his Apostles which cannot be applied to any Age of the Church after theirs And therefore what is and what is not limited to them must be argued out from the Nature of the things themselves which are said And lastly though you will not have this Promise limited to the Persons of the Apostles but annext to their Function as in some sence I grant it may be yet you ought to have taken notice that the Promise is however limited by a Condition even in the Words foregoing and following the Promise If ye love me keep my Commandments and there the Condition is once express'd For it follows And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth And now mark once again what follows Whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him Where if by the World be meant worldly and wicked Men as I believe you will grant you see here is no absolute Promise of such a Guidance to a Succession of Pastors as shall make it at any time of the Church Heresie to contradict whatsoever they teach or Schism to withdraw from their Obedience As to the last If you had prov'd such a Succession of Infallible Teachers as you speak of yet I tell you once more that the hardest part of your Task would be still behind which is to prove That you have had all along and still have that Succession which I desire you to do in your next if you can if it be but for the Instruction of a Lay-man that desires to be led into all Truth necessary or even profitable for his Salvation And because I would not have you lose your labour I will open my greatest Difficulty against this Belief I am sure you cannot go about this Work without taking Scripture in to furnish out your Argument Now I desire you to bring me such Scriptures which shall at least make it as evident that your Church was always to have a Succession of Infallible Teachers as it is to me from divers other Scriptures evident that your Pastors have most certainly contradicted the Doctrine of the Scriptures And when you have done this you shall hear farther from me In the mean time your loose Affirmations concerning the Catholick Church have been so often answered that you need not wonder that a Lay-man of our Church can tell what to say to them But to come to that wherein I am particularly concern'd You are disturb'd at my saying That the Worship Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome are so extreamly dangerous that nothing but Invincible Ignorance of which God only can judge can give us any reasonable hopes of their Salvation who live and die in their Communion Now surely the uncharitableness of this does not lie in supposing that Invincible Ignorance will be pleadable in this Case for 't is a Plea which will go a great way amongst those of the Roman Communion which I say with the more Confidence because in the Romish Countries where I have been the People seem to me to have the fairest Claim to the benefit of Ignorance that can be well imagin'd amongst Christians Now since at last you are brought in this Pamphlet of yours to agree with Protestants that Ignorance will save Men and that we yield the greatest part of the People have an indisputable Right to it are not the Protestants charitable to a high degree If this will not please you I do not know what will Surely Sir you do not expect that Protestants should believe and say that you with all your Errors about you are in as safe a way to Salvation as they themselves who have renounced them If this could be what I pray ye made our Fore-fathers suffer themselves to be separated from your Communion or make us that we cannot joyn with you Certainly this was and is still nothing but want of sound Faith purity of Doctrines and Worship And I know nothing else can or ever was pretended to justifie our Separation And this alone one would think might be sufficient to vindicate my Assertion from being uncharitable But perhaps I may do it more by and by But you 'll tell me that nevertheless Protestants are as uncharitable as Papists and come not an Ace behind them Indeed I should be very sorry this were true And though it is I know an untoward Question to Papists yet I must ask How do you prove this Sir Why thus Protestants only allow Salvation to Papists upon Invincible Ignorance and Papists do the same to Protestants I must confess that in this Paper of yours you grant Salvation to Protestants who live piously and repent sincererely of all Offences and through invincible Ignorance remain in that Communion Now whatever Truth there is in the Saying it self yet from you we look upon this Concession as a piece of New Popery The Old Popery was Protestancy unrepented of Damns Neither Invincible Ignorance nor Piety nor any Repentance that included not a leaving the Protestants Communion and joining with the Romish could Save But here we take notice that of this as well as of all the other unreasonable Pieces of Old Popery you begin at last to be asham'd or at least to think it for the Interest of your Design on foot to deny them or disguise and soften them that so they may go the better down with those People who are not so well read in your Controversies and suspect no Snake in the Grass But to go on with my Point Did not the Author of Charity Mistaken and Charity maintain'd Charity maintain'd p. 1. c. 7. Sect. 6. and in divers other places of that and Charity Mistaken which produc'd that incomparable Book of Mr. Chillingworth stiffly and boldly assert That all Roman Catholicks not one excepted Do with unanimous Consent believe and profess that Protestancy unrepented destroys Salvation Did not the Jesuite in his Relation of Bishop Land's Conference swear upon his Soul That there was but one saving Faith and that is the Roman And now in our days has not a * Lucilla and Elizabeth late Paper endeavour'd to make us as great Schismaticks as the Donatists And according to you can Schismaticks dying such go to Heaven And does not that Author force St. Austin to tell us in plain Terms That whosoever is separated from the Catholick Church by which against all Modesty and Truth you always mean your own particular Church how laudably soever he thinks himself to live for this only Crime that he is disjoyn'd from the Unity of Christ that is to say in your Language the Pope he shall not have Life but the Wrath of God abideth on him Pray Sir
he shall need no other means of obtaining Everlasting Life than to become my Disciple 36. Do not think that I take that for granted which I ought to prove for you have already seen enough to convince you that I speak the Truth But as I told you before ver 26. Signs and Miracles will not work true Faith in you so long as you follow me for Temporal Benefits and have not learned to prefer Spiritual good Things and everlasting Life above Meat and Drink and all the Enjoyments of this World whatsoever V. 36. These Persons of whom our Lord said that they believed not were those very Men who the day before having seen the Miracle which he did said This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the World Whereby it should seem that then they believed but that their Minds were now changed tho' upon no other reason than that they now perceived his great Design was to feed their Minds with good Doctrine and not to pamper their Bodies Which is a plain Instance how great an hindrance worldly-mindedness is to True Faith since in this Case the same Evidence which convinced these Men while they took our Saviour to be a Benefactor to their Bodies had lost all its force with them when they once perceived that his great Business was to save their Souls Some also of our Lord's Disciples were of this Disposition and it had the same effect upon them as you may see v. 64. 37. So that the reason why you believe me not is because you are not prepared by a good and honest Heart to receive the Truth And now I tell you that the Father who would have all to be saved does not expect that I should give a good account of any other Persons but such as are of a towardly and teachable Disposition These he hath committed to my special care and they will learn of me and not one of them shall want means requisite for his Conviction and Instruction But though I came to save the World v. 51. I am not bound to bring those to Faith and to Salvation that obstinately set themselves against all that Evidence which is sufficient for honest Minds V. 37. It seems very reasonable to interpret these Phrases of the Fathers giving some to Christ and drawing them by what our Lord said v. 26. that these Men followed him because they did eat of the Loaves i. e. not from a sincere desire of learning the Truth and attaining Eternal Life but for worldly Ends For on the one side the Lusts of these Men were the cause of their Unbelief on the other side our Saviour says that all who are given and drawn by the Father would believe and become his Disciples and none else Therefore the Father gives those only to Christ who are prepared by an honest Heart and willingness to learn The Phrase is an Allusion to what is often seen amongst us i. e. to a Man's committing the Care of educating a hopeful and promising Child to a wise and skilful Master with the expectation of having a good account of him at last Not but that these Expressions also imply the preparations of the Heart to be from the Lord Neither does this hinder but that our Lord must be understood to have done what was fit to prepare those whom he found so averse as these Men were See Notes on v. 45. But the meaning is that if Men obstinately persisted in their sensual and worldly Prejudices against the Truth God hath provided no Remedy for such Men. And therefore as St. Chrysostome shews we must not argue in this manner If every one whom the Father draweth or giveth cometh to Christ and none else then those whom the Father giveth not are discharged of all Fault and cannot justly be accused For says he these are vain words and meer pretences since the free Choice of our own Wills must go to the effecting of this Matter For to be taught and to believe depends much upon our own chusing 38. For in this matter as well as in all others I do what is as much the Fathers Will as my own And I came from Heaven to do it and cannot depart from it Observe therefore what I say 39. It was his pleasure to commit to my care all Persons of honest and well-disposed Minds that not one of them should be lost but that I should do all things which would bring them to Faith and Repentance and should take care of their Salvation from the First to the Last even till I shall raise them from the Dead at the last Day V. 39. Although the Wicked shall be raised up at the last day by the Power of Jesus as well as the Just yet when the Resurrection is simply mentioned it is commonly understood of the Resurrection to eternal Life i. e. the Resurrection of the Just And by speaking of this Resurrection at the last Day our Lord did now put them out of doubt that he meant not to pamper their Bodies and to take care for their Pleasures in this Life but that he spake to them of a better Life after this and the means of attaining it 40. For it was his Decree also that every one who seeing the Works that I do v. 36. and attentively considering the Evidence whereby it appears that I came from God does thereupon believe and follow my Doctrine that he I say should have everlasting Life and that I should for that end raise him up at the last Day Now as my Father doth not expect that I should save any but those that believe and obey the Gospel so neither doth he expect that I should bring any to Faith but those that are of teachable Dispositions But if Men obstinately set themselves to oppose all means of Conviction and Reformation it was no part of the Trust committed to me by the Father to reclaim them notwithstanding their incorrigibleness V. 40. To see Jesus signifies the same that it does v. 36. i. e. seeing his Miracles and all other Testimones of a Divine Authority that were discernable in him Only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to note an attentive consideration of them which is proper to ingenuous and honest Men and will certainly produce Faith Whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 36. may signifie that careless and superficial sight of his Works proper to those Men in whom Prejudice so prevailed that they saw and yet believed not Now that our Saviour does here and elsewhere repeat his Doctrine concerning that inward Work of God viz. an honest and godly Disposition is an Argument that he laid great stress upon it and that indeed this was the main thing they were to take pains with themselves about For the outward Evidence was given them whether they would or not but the inward Preparation without which the outward Evidence would do them no good at all must in some part be their own Work as well as God's which was plain from
Christ's speaking to them so much about it as he did For if it was not their own fault that they were not inwardly prepared and if it was impossible for them to do any thing considerable towards it his Reproof had seemed something unreasonable and unjust and if they had so understood it they had not been wanting to tell him so 41. But the People were by no means pleased with what Jesus said for they expected he would give them Bread from Heaven as Moses had done for their Fathers v. 34. but now they plainly perceived that by the Bread of Life coming down from Heaven which he spake of he meant Himself and his Doctrine v. 35. and that instead of feeding their Bodies he promised them everlasting Life which they were not greatly concerned about And upon this disappointment they again set themselves to disparage him all they could 42. And said one to another Why does this Man whom we know to be the Son of Joseph and Mary pretend such high things of himself How could he come from Heaven who was born into this World as other Men are and in as mean Circumstances as the most 43. To these Cavils Jesus answered Do not lose time by raising Difficulties about my Person and Doctrine There is another Work that lies upon your Hands which is at present more seasonable and necessary for you than to strain for Objections against what I say and that is to mend your Tempers to shake off your worldly Spirits to make eternal Life your End and sincerely to desire the Knowledge of that Way which leads to it 44. For if you are not thus qualified all my Sayings and Works will never convince you of the Truth For the Father did not send me into the World with any other Charge than that I should do what is abundantly sufficient to save Men of plain Honesty and sincere Intention which Dispositions therefore you should endeavour after and if by the Grace of God you obtain them then you will readily understand and embrace the Truth But till then you do but entangle your selves to no purpose And therefore I advise you to leave off objecting and disputing till you have learnt plain Duties and to become honest Men. And I tell you again I will take care that no such Persons shall want abundant means of Conviction and Salvation but they shall be my peculiar Charge from the time that they are so disposed till I shall raise them up at the last Day V. 44. St. Chrysostom observes that upon this saying the Manichees confidently affirmed that nothing was in our own Power For said they If a man comes to him what needs he to be drawn But says he this does not take away all power over our own Actions but rather shews that we stand in need of God's help and that not every negligent Person but he that takes great pains with himself will come to Christ The true sence of this Verse is more largely expressed in the Paraphrase and in Notes upon V. 37. 45. And these Admonitions I give you are warranted by the Prophets who have foretold that when the Kingdom of Christ shall begin to be established upon the Earth Men shall not want any reasonable means of Conviction for the saving of their Souls because God will then vouchsafe to appear more remarkably to instruct Men than ever he did since the World began And therefore if any Man remains in Unbelief or refuses to obey it cannot be for want of means to make him wise unto Salvation but for want of an humble and an honest Mind and a sincere Intention without which God's speaking to Men by his own Son will have no success upon them but will leave them as bad as they were before But because God is a Master in whom nothing can be wanting to instruct every one that desireth to know the Truth and to be saved will submit to the Doctrine of his Son and become his Disciple V. 45. The 54th Chapter of Isaiah containeth a Description of God's gracious Care and Providence over his Church one Instance whereof v. 33. is this And all thy Children shall be taught of God Which must needs imply these two things 1. That God would reveal that Truth which the Church should profess and this was eminently done by the Son of God himself coming down from Heaven to make it known and by the Holy Ghost inspiring the Apostles afterward 2. That God would abundantly satisfie Men by Divine Testimonies that he had sent his Son into the World for that purpose For these Reasons all that believe in Christ are taught of God Now the force of our Saviour's Argument from this Prediction lies in this If God hath promised to reveal to Men the knowledge of saving Truth and to convince them that he doth reveal it then no Man to whom this Revelation is made shall want sufficient means of Instruction and Conviction and consequently every Man that is not under the power of worldly Lusts and Interests will be effectually wrought upon by them And this freedom from such Prejudices our Lord here calls hearing and learning of the Father which is the same with being given or drawn to Christ the Phrase used before and this intimates that it is something we do towards the preparing our selves and that we may also hinder it For Hearing and Learning are voluntary Actions A Man may stop his Ears against Instruction and alienate his Mind from what is suggested to him Therefore something Men may do to attain that honest Heart which the Divine Inspiration worketh They may also quench this Work of the Holy Spirit The meaning of the whole is as if our Lord had said You must have God for your Master before you can be the Disciples of the Son You must be prepared by those qualities which there is no need of a new Revelation to teach you before you are fit to receive that Doctrine which the Son brings And now it is plain that these very Speeches and Reasonings of our Saviour tended to prepare them for Conviction and Faith For by shewing them the great need of a teachable Spirit in hearing and learning of God and what Blessings the want of this Disposition would bereave them of and by repeating and inculcating upon them that great Concernment of the Resurrection at the last Day he did what was most proper in it self to dispose them to a better Mind to weaken their Prejudices and to make them attend to those Testimonies of his coming from God which they had already seen instead of desiring more Signs which in the temper they were in at present would have done them no good if they had been granted 46. The meaning of which Scriptures is not that any Man shall be immediately taught by the Father For the Will of the Father is not thus to be manifested to any of you it being the Priviledge of the only begotten Son intimately to know his Mind
talked amongst themselves as if these Sayings of their Master must needs be offensive to the Ears of all Persons that had a sence of Humanity and as for themselves that they knew not what to make of them 61. Neither did they desire him to explain himself further but he by his Divine Spirit knowing what they muttered amongst themselves applied himself to them in particular and upbraided them in this manner for taking so unreasonable an offence against him 62. When you shall see me ascend up to Heaven it will not seem strange that I came down from thence and because even then it will remain necessary that you should eat my Flesh and drink my Blood you may be sure I do not mean that gross feeding upon my Flesh and drinking my Blood in which you understand what I have said for my Body will then be too far removed from the Conversation of mortal Men to be capable of being so used 63. No when I speak to you of the Conditions of obtaining everlasting Life though I have now expressed them by eating my Flesh and drinking my Blood yet you had reason to understand me of spiritual Actions which do indeed tend to the bettering of the inward Man For they are such things only that feed the Soul and can preserve it to Eternal Life But to this purpose the flesh profiteth nothing No not my own Flesh if you should eat it as grosly as you understand my Sayings For even this would be but bodily Nourishment but would have no Influence upon the Mind But if you would know what those things are that better the Soul and it is my Business to call you off from that sollicitous Care you take of your mortal Bodies to mind your Souls and to provide for a blessed Resurrection If I say you would know what things are proper for the Improvement of the Mind they are the Words that I speak unto you they are those Precepts of a heavenly Life and those Promises of eternal Life which I have laid before you that Faith which I require you to have in my Death and that Example of Doctrine Charity and Humility which I require you to follow These are the spiritual means of renewing your Minds and therefore Means also of fitting you for Eternal Life V. 61 62 63. Our Lord perceiving how grosly the Jews and some of his own Disciples understood those Expressions of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood did upon this occasion explain his own meaning as fully as he did to Nicodemus in the point of Regeneration For Nicodemus having said How can a Man be born when he is old Can he enter the second time into his Mothers Womb and be born Jesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Which was as much as to say The Flesh profiteth nothing as here V. 63. And if you were by a strange Miracle to be born again the natural way by this fleshly Birth you would come again but into a mortal Life but that fleshly Birth would not avail you for everlasting Life In the very same manner our Saviour repeated in this Chapter those Sayings which the Jews and some of his own Disciples were offended at and in the same manner he explained them afterwards It is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life Which being compared with the Answer to Nicodemus now mentioned and explained by the light that Answer affords can yield no other meaning than that which I have expressed in the Paraphrase As for the 62d V. it might be intended as an Answer to that particular Exception against him mentioned V. 42. that he was the Son of Joseph and could not therefore reasonably pretend to come down from Heaven To which if our Lord referred his words are a proper Answer viz. that when they should see him ascend into Heaven they would no longer doubt of the truth of his coming from thence But I rather think those words refer to that great Offence which some of his own Disciples took against him that he should speak of their eating of his Flesh and drinking of his Blood For they were his Disciples only that saw him ascend And when they should know that he was in Heaven they could not without great Stupidity think that he would give them his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink in that gross sence wherein they understood him However I have put both these Interpretations into the Paraphrase 64. But no wonder that you wrest my Sayings to so absurd a sence as you do for there are some amongst you that dislike my Doctrine and are grown weary of following me and wait for an opportunity to leave me For as soon as any Man professed himself his Disciple Jesus knew how he stood affected towards him And he did not only know who of the Multitude that follow'd him would revolt but likewise which of his Apostles would betray him See V. 36. 65. And Jesus added Because I knew that there were some such amongst you therefore I thought fit to tell you before V. 37 39 44. that my Doctrine would never be heartily entertained by any but those whom God had prepared for it by enduing them with a Mind willing to learn and with a prevailing desire of obtaining God's Favour and Eternal Life 66. Upon this close application of his Doctrine to the Consciences of those insincere Disciples of his they finding themselves discovered and that it was to no purpose to dissemble resolved to pretend themselves his Disciples no longer and went off from him without more ado 67. Jesus seeing them turn their Backs upon him took this occasion both to shew that some of his Disciples were sincere and that he cared not to be followed by any but those that were willing and therefore he said to the Twelve You see I do not compel Men to follow me but that I let them depart if they will go Now what say you will ye still continue my Disciples or follow the Example of these Men and go away 68. Whereupon Peter who was still the most forward Speaker in his Master's Cause answered for himself and the rest Lord our greatest concern is to attain eternal Life and there is none other but thy self who can guide us to it And we understand that those very Sayings of thine with which these Men were so unreasonably offended do shew us the necessity of believing thy Words and Doctrine as thou didst now tell them V. 63. that we may live for ever V. 68. Thou hast the words of eternal Life This saying of St. Peter confirms the Interpretation I have given of V. 63. For here he seems plainly to repeat our Lord's sence almost in the