116 CEREMONIES NOT AT ONCE DISCONTINUED. us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. They had a satisfaction that Moses was an eminent servant of God, and the great instrument whereby the law and its ceremonies were delivered to the children of Israel; and they were also acquainted with the eminent services of Elias, and beheld Moses and Elias with Jesus, and were for making for each of them a tabernacle. Who Moses was, could not be doubted; but concerning Elias, it seems, there was some question, till Christ said to them, "Elias is already come, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Then the Disciples understood that he spake to them of John the Baptist."1 What are we to learn herefrom, but that the making three tabernacles was, the continuation of the dispensation of Moses, the dispensation of John the Baptist, and the dispensation of Christ, that all three might stand together. And we find the practice of the believing Jews spake as much, for they were for circumcision, and the baptism of John, as well as that of Christ, which John described to be with the Holy Ghost and fire; as if they had not heard or well considered that "While Peter yet spake, a bright cloud overshadowed them and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. And when the Disciples heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, be not afraid; and when they had lift up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only."s : (1) Matt xvii, 12. (2) Acts xix, 3. (3) - 5, 6, 7. EATING THE BODY OF CHRIST. 117 So that Moses and Elias disappeared, their dispensa-. tions not being to stand with that of Christ. And when they of the Jews were about to impose upon the Gentiles the practice of the shadow, viz. circumcision, Paul said plainly, "If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing;"1 nevertheless this did not avail, but they continued still the use of circumcision; insomuch that for fourteen successions, it seems, their bishops were circumcised, even to Anno 137, or thereabouts, as Eusebius writes, lib. 4, cap. 5. So zealous were they for the continuance of the first tabernacle, 2 for under that name the dispensation of Moses was spoken of. But their practising thereof can be no more an obligation to us in the other things than in the case of circumcision. But a little more as to outward bread and outward drink. We ought to suppose, the eating and drinking which our Lord recommended, was of the same substance, both in John vi, 48 to 58, and John vii, 38, 39, and 40. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and they are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.. I am that living bread3 which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever. Who will say, that the outward bread they eat came down from heaven? But it was food from heaven they were to eat, and whoever eateth instead thereof that which doth not come from heaven, are not in the precept of Christ; outward bread cometh (1) Gal. v, 2. (2) Heb. ix, 8. (3) Piscator Vivificus, Lifegiving bread. 118 EATING THE BODY OF CHRIST. not down from heaven, therefore outward bread was not that they were to eat. The literal Jews were apt to understand his words in a literal sense, as many now do, supposing he had intended bodily eating, and as if he meant the eating his visible body. For, says the Evangelist, The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”1 Yea, it was not barely the Jews who understood him in this manner, but many, therefore, of his Disciples, when they had heard this, said, this is an hard saying, who can hear it ?2 To whom Christ replied, "What, and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life." As if he had said, the flesh profits nothing, if ye could eat it in a literal sense; yet there is somewhat doth profit, and that is the Spirit and Life. Believe his own testimony, It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. "3 What our Lord spake of in the 6th chapter, under the term eating, the same substance he also spake of in the 7th chapter under the term drinking, which the Evengelist John brings in with a sort of solemnity. "In the last, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."4 What poor divinity would men make of this, should they take his words literally, and expect his believers should have rivers of (1) John vi, 52. (2) 60. (3) 62, 63. (4) — 37, 38. CONCERNING SPIRITUAL DRINKING. 119 material water running out of them? But as he said, It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.1 So that when he invited them, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, we ought not to suppose he spake either of bodily thirst or bodily drinking, or the drinking material water. They were in the last and great day of a solemn feast appointed of God by Moses, wherein we cannot doubt they had plenty of good eating and drinking of outward nutriment, and that when the Son came to invite them to him, it was to higher entertainment, even living water, under which words he spake of the Spirit which they should receive who believed on him. The Lord greatly complained of the Jews, saying, My people have committed two great evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed out to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water, 3-no living water. We can, with no reason, conclude the water here spoken of was material water; nor that the cisterns here spoken of were material cisterns, but that both expressions were figurative. They had forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water; Christ came to restore them to what they had forsaken, inviting those that were a-thirst after living water to come unto him and drink, as he said to the Samaritan woman, "Whosoever drinketh of the (1) John vii, 39. (2) Lev. xxiii, 36. (3) Jer. ii, 13. 120 CONCERNING SPIRITUAL DRINKING. water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." The woman was like some of our days, apt to understand him of material water, and of bodily drinking; and therefore said, Give me this water that I thirst not, nor come hither to draw.2 But this spake he of the same water, of which he spake after in the last and great day of the feast, of which John the Evangelist saith, This spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive. 3 As it was the manner of his servants the Prophets to speak of divine things by figures, so our Lord, in the days of his flesh, spake of religious things by parables; as when he said, I am the vine, ye are the branches; I am the door, &c. If any should take these words literally, what strange interpretation would they make? Yet, why will not men as well allow, that he spake by way of parable also, and held forth a spiritual mystery, when he said, He that eateth me shall live by me? Those who eat and drink of the substance, they receive that which is meat indeed; in the eating his flesh and drinking his blood is the fellowship of the saints; the heavenly bread that he breaks he blesseth, and the water that he gives becomes a well of living water within, springing up within them unto everlasting life. This is the substance of many figurative things; and the substance being come, the shadows flee away. I have considered the allegations of some serious people, who are conscientious in their outward obser- vii, 39. (1) John iv. 14. (2) - - 15. (3) |