in him, may have life everlasting; (verse 40.) yet, continues he, no man can come to me, unless the Father who has sent me, draw him. He had informed them that the manna which their fathers eat in the desart, was inferior to the bread of God which cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the world; (verse 33.) and they had earnestly desired this bread of which he spoke give us always of this bread. (ver. 34). But convinced as he was of the opposition which this mystery would meet with from the presumption of man's feeble reason, he again insists on the necessity of faith in him. Amen, amen, I say unto you, he that believeth in me hath everlasting life. (verse 47.) After insisting thus upon the necessity of their confidence in his words, he proceeds thus: I am the bread of life; (verse 48.) your fathers did eat manna in the desart, and are dead. (verse 49.) This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that if any man eat of it he may not die. (verse 50.) I am the living bread which came down from heaven; (verse 51.) if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. (verse 52.)

Here, my brethren, our blessed Saviour gives them the sign which they asked of him in opposition to the manna which their fathers

For, as St. Paul says,

had eaten in the desart: not a merely corporal food, but a food for the soul, to strengthen them unto immortality. If any man eat of this, &c. He speaks not here of any metaphorical food, but of a new sustenance, which he promises to give. The bread which I will give, says our Lord. Had he spoken merely of the spiritual food of faith, it was already received, it remained not to be given, as many of the apostles, disciples, and of those who were present already believed in him. Had the spiritual food of faith only been signified, the Jews had received and eaten it in the old law. (1 Cor. x. 3, 4.) they did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But he spoke of a real and substantial food, and in this sense he was understood by his audience: it was above the reach of human comprehension; it baffled the efforts of their reason; it amazed and staggered them. The Jews strove among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? (v..53.) That he promised to give it was clear; but not discerning the divine power, veiled under the humble form of the son of Joseph, (42.) they ask how; and though hitherto his disciples, they refuse to submit to this hard saying. (61.) But Jesus,

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approving of their interpretation of his words, but at the same time condemning their want of faith, said to them,-Amen; amen, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. (54.) He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the last day. (55.) For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. (56.) He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. (57.) As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. (58.) This is the bread that came down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread shall live for ever. (59.) After this many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. (67.) My brethren, you have heard the words of Jesus! how do you understand them? It is evident that the disciples themselves understood them not in a metaphorical sense, for so they would have contained nothing sufficient to make them doubt of his veracity, but in a plain literal sense, which being wholly new to them, and incomprehensible to human reason and understanding, alarmed their minds, and separated them from their master. But our blessed Lord, who on

other occasions always explained himself, when his meaning was not understood, could never have permitted his words to be thus mistaken. On this occasion, however, so far from informing them that they had misconceived him, he repeats it to the Jews in a still more forcible manner, adding the most solemn asseveration. Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. (54.) And so far from discountenancing the explication of his disciples, he in some degree increases the difficulty which had risen in their minds. Doth this scandalize you, says he; cannot you believe that I can give you my flesh to eat. If so, how much less will you credit my words, when I am gone to my Father? If, then, you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before. (63.) What will be your thoughts? Here again he shews them that what he said was literally to be understood; for if his meaning had been spiritual and metaphorical, it would by no means be more difficult to believe in Christ after a glorious manifestation of his power by ascending to heaven, than when here on earth, humbled, despised, veiled under the form of a servant, and made to the likeness of weak man.

Now, my brethren, join the words of Our Saviour on this occasion, with those he used at

his last supper, and which I have already mentioned, when he said to his apostles, having taken bread, blessed, and broken it: Take ye and eat; this is my body; and when blessing the cup, he gave it to them, saying, drink ye all of this; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many unto the remission of sins. (Matt. xxvi.) Did he not here give them what he before promised: this was the bread which came down from heaven; (John vi. 59.) this was truly his blood of the new alliance, which, unless you receive, ye shall not have life in you.

Having thus mentioned some few arguments which occur from a review of the sacred text, I might represent to you, if time would permit, the dispositions necessary in approaching to these divine mysteries. I might have produced a thousand more proofs in favor of this august sacrament; but I hope I have said sufficient to remove every doubt, and satisfy every difficulty. The sixth chapter of St. John, where he promises to confer this ineffable favor on his children, and the twenth-sixth of St. Matthew, in which his institution of the sacrament is recorded, if read without prevention and determined prejudice, must convince, I think, any reasonable mind and uncorrupted heart, that Jesus Christ, whose divinity was veiled under