SERMON XIV.

ST. JOHN vi. 48,49,50.

Jesus said,-I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.

IT

was a common practice with our Divine Master, during the period of His intercourse with men, to institute comparisons, or contrasts between earthly and heavenly things. With whatever sensible objects the minds of the people, who came about Him, were chiefly engrossed, He, being able at all times to discern their thoughts, took occasion of thence representing to them the excellent nature, and better things, of His kingdom. In order to quicken and enlighten their understandings, His manner was, to set forth what He would have them receive, under the image of something with which they were already familiar, so far as a resemblance could be made out between the two; and then, to draw their hearts on His side, He placed the same in opposition to each other, asserting the superiority of His gospel to the best and most needful worldly goods,

which men are apt eagerly to desire and lay hold on, for the benefit of their mortal lives.

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There is in the chapter from which my text is taken, a striking instance of such a method of address pursued by Jesus to a very considerable extent. He is described, in the opening of it, to have fed a great multitude with a few loaves and fishes; and in consequence, whithersoever He would betake Himself, they followed Him with an extraordinary perseverance. Their motive for doing so He understood, and saw fit in downright terms to reprove it: " Verily, verily," Jesus said unto them, "ye seek me, "not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." It was not so much with a disinterested desire of hearing Him, as a person who, by His mighty works, had proved Himself sent from God, as with an unworthy hope of being again fed in some marvellous way, whenever they should again be in need of refreshment, that they continued diligently to track His steps. Wherefore, He proceeded also to exhort them, "Labour "not for the meat which perisheth, but for "that meat which endureth unto everlasting

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life, which the Son of man shall give unto "you." Perceiving them to be chiefly desirous of food for their bodies, Jesus endeavoured, accordingly, to make them understand,

that they should more earnestly desire that food for their souls, the dispensation of which had been solemnly committed to Him by His Father. What His late distribution of bread had been to the one, the like, He signified, or rather much more beneficial, would His spiritual ministry be to the other, provided they would equally follow after, and receive it. And when the Jews reminded Him of the manna which had been given from heaven to their fathers, as superior in its origin to the bread which He had lately increased by His blessing for the multitude, Jesus in no respect shrank from the comparison. God, and not Moses, was the person who had rained down manna on the Israelites, during the years of their sojourning in the desert; only the promise of it had been committed to Moses, with instructions how it should be collected, and used. So, that ancient leader of the people had not at all displayed more power in procuring food, than had just been exhibited by Himself. But if His adversaries meant to insinuate, that the manna was better nourishment than He could supply, Jesus declared that, like almost every thing under the Law, to have been only an earnest, or foretaste of the excellence of His final covenant. "Moses," He replied, gave દર્દ you not that bread from heaven; but my Fa

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"ther giveth you the true bread from heaven. "For the bread of God is He which cometh "down from heaven, and giveth life unto "the world.—I am that bread of life. Your "fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and

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are dead. This is the bread which cometh "down from heaven, that a man may eat "thereof, and not die."

My design, on this occasion, is, to point out the resemblance, and the contrast, herein declared by our Lord, between Himself, or His doctrine, and bread; and then to offer, on the whole, a few practical inferences and observations.

In the first place, then, Jesus, regarding the eagerness with which the people were following Him for bread, took the opportunity of proposing Himself to them under that interesting title: "I," said He, "am the bread of life." The resemblance, signified by these words, between bread and the Saviour of the world, may be traced through various particulars of a more or less obvious description. Let us begin, however, with generally remembering, that both are alike gifts of God to His creatures, notwithstanding the diligence which all must use, who would secure the benefit of either to themselves.

It is not wonderful, that thoughtless and

vainglorious persons frequently ascribe to their own counsel and might, the good which follows on their own exertions. The man, who, from seedtime until harvest, hath been watching and labouring in his field, naturally assumes praise to himself for the abundance which at length crowns the year: the Christian, who worketh out his own salvation, can at times hardly refrain from accounting it his own work. Yet God is equally the original Author of both. And truly, prudent men will see fit to exert themselves for both, because God hath already, in a manner, prepared and bestowed them. Whatever bread we obtain for our bodily nourishment, was ordained in the beginning by that declaration of the Almighty, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing "seed, which is upon the face of all the earth; "to you it shall be for meat." (Genesis i. 29.) Whatever saving health we receive for our souls, hath been set forth ever more and more distinctly, from the first promise in paradise, "that the seed of the woman should bruise the "serpent's head," (Genesis iii. 15.) until "the "fulness of the time" arrived, and "the Father "sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." (1 John iv. 14.) Accordingly, in neither case have we to make the feast, but only to lay hold on and possess it, in the way appointed by our