---- CHAPTER VII: That Jesus is proposed to our faith as a spiritual Christ and Saviour.
preaching of Christ himself, yet a man will not come to Christ. Whom doth Christ pitch upon for an instance but upon Judas, that had been with him from the beginning, and had heard him preach all his sermons, and heard his parables? and yet he is a devil for all this.
'For he knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. Therefore I said,' says he, 'that no man can come to me, except it were given unto him of the Father,' ver. 65.
Therefore there must be a teaching from God, and none but those that are taught by a secret work, beyond what any powerful minister in the world can make, will believe. A man otherwise will never do it, he will never give up himself to God and Christ, but there will be 'a heart departing from the living God,' Heb. 3:12, that is, from Christ, as the coherence of the words shew. So that it is a plain case, that those who live in gospel-times, must all of them be taught of God, if they ever come to Christ. They that live under never so powerful means, if God doth not touch their hearts, they will never come. Oh bless the Lord, that hath taught you to know his free grace, and to believe on his Son, which is the great work of God, as Christ calls it,
John 6:29. It is instead of all else to believe on God, and him whom he hath sent. To him to whom the gathering must be, to him you must come, as members to a head, and as lost creatures to a Saviour.
Do not come to this and that sign, and think you have none of Christ, because you cannot find them; but come to him, and dwell with him, and remain with him, day and night.
CHAPTER VII
That Jesus is proposed to our faith as a spiritual Christ and Saviour.
That unless he was the Son of God, he could not be a quickening Spirit to us.
In the 6th chapter of John our Lord makes it the set subject of his discourse, to draw his hearers unto a true spiritual faith upon himself; and to that end proposeth himself altogether (as indeed he was) a spiritual Messiah, and inculcates it over and over. The occasion which he took was the falling short of this spiritual faith, in that faith which those of Capernaum had of him. They acknowledged him indeed upon the miracle of the loaves,—ver, 14, 'This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world,'—a prophet, and a far greater prophet than Moses, who had given their fathers bread from heaven in the wilderness, ver. 31. But Christ speaking of a living bread which his Father would give, and which himself would give, vers. 27 and 32, and that it was the 'true bread' typified by Moses his manna, and which endured to eternal life, they had upon that speech a further advance of faith concerning him, viz., That he was able, by his interest in God his Father, to procure a bread whereby their bodies might live for ever, as Adam's should have done by eating of the tree of life: ver. 34, 'Then said they, Lord, evermore give us this bread.' Thus far they went in believing on him. But when they heard him say that he himself was that living bread that came down from heaven, and that he who eateth that bread should live for ever; yea, and that it was his flesh, as he was Son of man, which they must eat, and that which he would give for the life of the world; there they stopped and left him, and were offended (vers. 61 and 66) at his sayings, which were too hard to bear, ver. 60. That glorious sermon wherein he makes this very argument his subject, you may read from ver. 27 to the very end of that chapter. At ver. 63 he opens and unriddles all, and discovers the mystery to them to lie in this: 'It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life,' thereby explaining how and whence it was that he was living bread, and what made his very flesh or human nature to be eternal life, and gives a perfect reason why those who do eat it, and receive it, and himself therewith, in that manner as he and his Father intended in the giving of it, and agreeably to the nature of it, should live. The words are the key to all that sermon foregoing, and unto what follows after; and it is as if he had said, You must all know that my very person, whom you do not
yet truly understand and fully believe in as you ought; for you see and behold me but as a man who works these wonders (as ver. 36,
'Ye have also seen me, and believe not'); you must yet know, that this my person consists of more than a mere man consisting of body and soul, which you only look at, and whom you suppose God is present with, more than ever with any man that hath been in the world; but know I am God in my person as well as man, and it is that Spirit or Godhead which is that which gives the life that I speak of, 'it is the Spirit that quickens,' which elevates and advanceth my flesh or humanity to that high state of life, as to give life to men, in that I who am God united unto that flesh in one person, and giving and offering it as a sacrifice to my Father 'for the life of the world' (they being sinners)—as his words are, ver. 51, 'And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world'—I who am God have sublimated and spirited this sacrificed flesh (by reason of this union) to be a spiritual food to your spirits and souls, which flesh alone, if it had been separated from, and not thus united to this
Spirit, would have profited nothing as to giving that life I have been speaking of; and therefore you must understand all my former words
I have been speaking about eating my flesh, &c., spiritually, and of a spiritual eating, for so the nature of the thing requires; for I am a spiritual Christ, and a spiritual Saviour, and not a fleshly. And hence it is that 'my words' which I have uttered 'are spirit and life,' and do become such to any of you that hear and understand me aright; and there were some present who at that time, and in that manner understood those words, and found him and these his words to be spiritual life unto them, as ver. 67, 68 shews. And as my flesh is by virtue hereof the procurer of life unto you as sinners, so my person, consisting of God-man, is eternal life in itself to them who as sinners do eat my flesh by faith. And they have not only eternal life from me, but I am in my person eternal life unto them in their communion with me.
This passage, as thus interpreted of his Godhead and human nature, is the centre into which all the lines of that sermon do run, and will approve itself to be the true and genuine meaning, as wherein he
doth at once not simply give an explanation of what his scope and meaning was, namely, that the eating his flesh, &c., was in a spiritual way to be understood by faith, and not of a carnal eating (which his last words of that verse do import, 'My words they are spirit and life'), but chiefly beyond that, it is to give the account and ground why it was so in those first words: 'It is the Spirit that quickens,' &c., which putting life into the human nature, and offering it up to God to give us life, made his flesh and himself to be altogether a spiritual food (though the most real of foods, 'meat indeed,' as ver. 55) unto the souls of men; and also, because thereby he answers all their cavils, queries, and exceptions they had before made. And the view of all these have confirmed me in the foresaid interpretation of his
Godhead to be meant by spirit, and by flesh his human nature, which was the sense of the ancients. And I have wondered that the most of our latest interpreters have diverted from it, and betaken themselves wholly to expound this scripture to design the manner of eating to be spiritual (as Beza, and after him divers), and have rested solely in that sense as full and adequate; whereas this other interpretation I have given not only takes in that of theirs, but beyond it gives the reason of it, why it can be no other than a spiritual eating, for the life the Godhead gives cannot be corporeally eaten. And then the concurrence of other scriptures, using the same words to express the Godhead's dwelling in his human nature personally, doth further confirm me in it. And lastly, the disciples' words which they return in answer to this discourse of Christ's (which shews how they understood it), doth put me out of all doubt that this was indeed his meaning; and I am more confirmed in it by the concurrence of other scriptures.
1. We have the concurrence of Rom. 1:3, 4, 'Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.' Where, as his
'flesh' is his humanity, so that 'Spirit of holiness' is the Godhead of him, as he is the Son of God, and termed here the 'Spirit of holiness;' as Heb. 9:14, it is called the 'eternal Spirit,' the Son of God being the
fulness of the Godhead dwelling in that flesh, which (as he adds) he was declared to be, by the resurrection from the dead, that Spirit or Godhead of his raising him up again by his own power. For which cause he is also said to be 'quickened in the Spirit,' or by the Spirit
'having been put to death in the flesh,' 1 Peter 3:18, and likewise 'justified in the Spirit,' 1 Tim. 3:16, namely, to be God as well as man, as himself had declared himself to be. But would you have this of the first chapter to the Romans more plainly deciphered? The same apostle doth it in plainer words in the same Epistle. That parallel in the same Epistle, Rom. 9:5, relates to what hath been said, 'Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is God over all, blessed for ever. Amen.' As in that first chapter he had distinguished about his person, saying, as concerning the flesh, that is, his human nature received from David his forefather, as his seed, so in this chap. 9 he useth the same again, 'Of whom' (viz., the fathers), 'as concerning the flesh, Christ came.' And in his so cautious distinguishing in both places as concerning the flesh, doth evidently import he had somewhat else, some other thing or nature besides which his person (the Christ) consisted of. And what that other nature should be, required a farther declaration, and might be expected he should say it, which the apostle doth with the highest solemnity and adoration of him, when he addeth, 'who is God, blessed for ever. Amen,' which Godhead acknowledged in the 9th chapter he had styled 'Spirit' in chap. 1, and which you find also in John 6, in Christ's speech: 'It is the Spirit that quickens, the flesh profiteth nothing,' that is, of itself alone. And this Spirit or Godhead, thus united into one person, is said to 'be made a quickening Spirit' to us, 1 Cor. 15:45, 46, in similitude to Adam his being a living soul; that is, a person consisting of a reasonable soul, united to a body which it dwelleth in and inspireth, and then by generation propagateth us the like unto him therein; so here in Christ typified by him, his Godhead or Spirit dwelleth bodily in his flesh or human nature, and thereby doth first quicken and spirit that flesh even by the spiritualness and heavenliness, above all that is communicated to mere creatures; and therefore he is himself there styled a spiritual and heavenly man, who in the virtue hereof is then made, by a
regeneration both of our souls and bodies, 'a quickening Spirit' to us.
And though this there spoken of him (as to us) is particularly in relation to his quickening and raising our bodies, yet his so doing must first and more specially be understood, that he is a quickening
Spirit to the souls of those in this life, whose bodies he raiseth at the resurrection, as Eph. 2:1 the phrase is used.
2. This interpretation doth alone solve all the riddles and quarrels which had been raised before by the Capernaites; and this sense therefore, containing a sufficient answer unto all and each of them, must needs have been intended and directed as an answer to them, whereas that other narrowed sense mentioned falls short of this scope. They murmured, ver. 41, 42, because he said, 'I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?' Now this one speech of his, 'It is the Spirit that quickeneth,' is a sufficient account how both might stand. I am God, says he, the Son of God, and the Godhead (which he calls Spirit, and is the Spirit of that Son) is in me, and it was that which came down from heaven; but my flesh, my human nature, that indeed I had from my mother, whom you knew; and yet let me withal further tell you, says he, that this Son of man, whom you think only to be a mere earthly man, should, by the right of natural inheritance had from his being united into one person with the Godhead and Son of God, have been in heaven at the first instant of that union, and by due never have lived upon earth in frail flesh, but only to that end to redeem you by giving his life for the world, ver. 51, and this Christ tells them in the very words before: ver. 61, 62, 'When Jesus knew they murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this also offend you?
What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?' i.e., in his due right. And accordingly, in 1 Cor. 15, it is from this very ground of his union with that Spirit, the quickening Spirit, his Godhead, ver. 45, that he, the man, is said to be the Lord from heaven; ver. 47, 'The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven;' and an heavenly man, ver. 48, for in the right of that union he was to have been 'in heaven;' and in that
respect he is said to be 'from heaven' here in John 6, as also in this to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 15, because that his due was to have been there before ever he came on earth. They had also quarrelled with him how he, being but a mere man, could be the living bread that came down from heaven, as he had said, ver. 41 and 52, and that 'he that eateth of that bread shall live for ever,' ver. 58. Now this word quickening spirit resolves the difficulty, for it was his Godhead, united to that flesh, that was the principle of that eternal life which we partake of from him; therefore 'he that eateth me,' saith he, 'even he shall live by me,' ver. 57, and yet so as it was that his manhood and flesh, as it was united to the Godhead, which made him to become bread and food to us, without which his Godhead alone simply would not have been fit meat either for soul or body; nor would his flesh alone, if it had been separated from the Godhead, have profited anything. And thus the personal union between both natures is not only asserted, but made the ground of all he had spoken of himself.
3. Again, that question, ver. 52, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' is by this mystery unfolded, even that he is in his person Spirit united to flesh. And it is the Spirit that gives the life; and therefore it was that his flesh must be understood to be a spiritual food, made to be such by the Spirit in him. And this also shews his speeches to have been so intended, that thence and therefore answerably their eating must be a spiritual eating of the soul or spirit by faith; and that any one hearing and understanding those his words which he had uttered concerning it, and receiving them by faith, their souls should find them to be spirit and life to them, by conveying himself (who is eternal life) to them through faith on him, who, as a quickening
Spirit, is their life: and thus their cavil (how can this be?) is solved; for thus it might and could well be, according to spiritual principles, rationally suited to and corresponding one with another. And, moreover, it further appears that he meant it not at all of a corporeal eating, as our bodies do our ordinary food, by that saying he subjoineth, ver. 56, 'He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him;' for no man is said to dwell in his meat,
though for a while, till concocted, his meat may be said to be in his body; but, says he, 'He that eateth my flesh dwells in me, and lives in and by me, even as I live in the living Father,' as it follows, ver. 57.
Thus this interpretation answers all their exceptions.
4. That confession which his disciples hereupon made, which is the last part of the chapter, is indeed but a short sum of all this, even a brief exposition and confirmation of Christ's whole sermon, but especially of this, ver. 63. The print and impression on their souls who had savingly believed punctually answered to this his doctrine; for when our Saviour saw that his new disciples of Capernaum had so soon left him (ver. 66, 'From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him'), he turneth himself to his old disciples, Peter, and the rest of them that had stood by, and heard all the discourse; thus speaking to them, ver. 67, 'Then said Jesus to the twelve, Will ye also go away?' And now hear them speak according to their experimental sense: ver. 58, 59, 'Then Simon Peter,' in the name of the rest, 'answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life; and we believe, and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.' They had by blessed experience found him to be a fountain of spiritual life to their souls, because he was God's Son. They had found, they had felt him to be their life, because that flesh, that is, that man, whom they saw with their eyes, whom they had conversed with, and had heard so many words and sermons from, and this among the rest, was indeed in his person the Son of God, and united to the Son of God personally, and that the Spirit or Godhead in him the Son had quickened their souls full many a time; for they had found that his words he had spoken concerning himself, in declaring that he was the Son of God, and God, had been eternal life to them. They therefore cry out as men that should be undone if they should ever come once to leave him;
'Whither shall we go?' say they; 'thou hast the words of eternal life.'
And this life he had in his very person, and in his being God's Son, which, therefore, Simon, ver. 69, superadds, 'And we believe, and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.' If, therefore, there should be a parting of us and thee, farewell eternal
life, and let go our souls, and all, for thou art the soul of our souls, the life of our lives; which life he withal affirms to be conveyed to them, and maintained in them, by and through their believing on him as the Son of God.
And now observe the full and express correspondency which the words of this their confession holds in reference unto Christ's words, specially those in ver. 63. Our Lord had, in the 57th verse, ascended higher in setting open the fountain and original source or cause of his own blessed and eternal life, to the end that, carrying their thoughts to the well-head of all life, they might know to whom ultimately to attribute the glory of this life together with himself, and might discern the blessedness of that life itself derived to them, and the descent and derivation of it. His words are, 'As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me shall live by me.' It is as if he had said, The Father is the primum vivens, the original principle of all spiritual life; being a Spirit (as John 4:24), the fountain of that life which is in me, and from me let down to you; whence it is that the life with which I quicken you and other believers is a communication of the life that is in my Father himself through me; and the foundation of my own life in myself, and of being life unto you, or any believers, lies in this, that I am his Son, the Son of God; having the same, the very same life essentially in me who am
God that is in my Father, so as there is the same Spirit and Godhead in both. I am the living Son of this living God, who, as such, is my
Father, and have life in myself, though from him; and he sent me who am this life down from heaven in this flesh, which you behold with your bodily eyes, to give life to the world; and therefore I am able, through and by means of this my flesh, who is one person with me, to derive and let down this life to you, and the life which my
Father himself hath, even eternal life; for he is the eternal God, and therefore I am eternal life also; and therefore it is that the life I can and do communicate from him to you is eternal life likewise. And again, as my Father is a Spirit (as John 4:24), so am I, and therefore it is a spiritual life which I make souls partakers of, which is conveyed to those souls by a spiritual means, wrought on purpose by
my Father in their hearts, unto whom he hath appointed to give this life; which means is believing on me with their whole hearts, and by that faith entertaining my words which I speak of myself, who am life to them.
Now let us come to their short and summary confession forementioned: ver. 69, 'We believe and are sure thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.' This they allege as the ground and reason why they found that he was eternal life to them; concerning which confession I note three things, answering to what had gone afore in Christ's speeches.
(1.) That he is God; which is evident they acknowledge, by saying the Son of the living God, the natural Son of the living Father, as he had said before, ver. 57. Creatures that are living themselves, animals, as we call them, do beget living creatures too, endowed with a life like their own, and they beget in their kind, as a lion begets a lion, and a man begets a man. Thus God begetting this Son (and he is his only begotten Son), he begets him like himself, a God; and therefore to say he is the Son of the living God, imports that he is God, and that living God.
(2.) Observe (which in substance is the very same), he had said of himself in ver. 63, 'It is the Spirit,' or the Godhead in me, 'that quickeneth.'
(3.) Observe that it was by faith on him and his word that they had life eternal derived unto their souls from him. 'We believe,' say they; which is in return unto all that Christ had spoken of believing, and eating his flesh, to be that spiritual eating by faith throughout that sermon, from ver. 14.
(4.) And let me cast in this to this confession of theirs. One of those apostles that then stood by (the apostle John, who survived, and wrote his first Epistle after all the rest of them were dead), reviveth this very same confession of theirs, here made, in his own name, and
in the names of them all (as Peter here), though dead, and allegeth that their general sense and experience they had of the same of which they here spoke. Thus in 1 John 1:1, 2, 'That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.' We, by which he means these his fellow-apostles that had been, not himself only, nor other fellowChristians then alive, for he speaks of those who had seen, heard, and handled of the Word of life, viz., the true Christ; and how they had all found that he was that Word of life, and eternal life that was with the Father afore the world was; whom after often in that Epistle he styles his Son, and God, and concludes the Epistle with the same, even as he had begun—'This is the true God, and eternal life.'
Thus we have seen the truth of all this justified by wisdom's children, and sealed to by their experience.
Now, in the last place, take notice (and it is to our purpose) that in the midst of this sermon it is that Christ lets fall the words of my grand text, for a part of this sermon it is; and that for this cause, and on this occasion it was, that because he is so spiritual a Messias, that therefore it is necessary that every one that believes in Christ, so as to have life, must be 'taught,' and have 'learned from the Father,' that grand teacher of his Son; and that all this is put upon this very ground, because they are to know and receive him spiritually,— spiritually, I say, in both those respects fore-mentioned at the entrance; for he is a spiritual Christ, who is the object, and the faith he is to be received withal, in the subject, must be spiritual, suited unto the true spiritualness that is in this object; his person, as Godman, or a quickening Spirit in flesh, and as he is a Saviour, giving his flesh for the life of the world (both which he treats of in that sermon) in the real savoury eating whereof, and in whom eternal life consists, and is derived, neither of which no man can do unless first taught by the Father to know him, and then drawn by God to him as to a