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1. When our Lord Jesus Christ, as we have heard in the Gospel
when it was read, had said that He was Himself the bread which came
down from heaven, the Jews murmured and said, "Is not Jesus the
son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that
he saith, I came down from heaven?" These Jews were far off from
the bread of heaven, and knew not how to hunger after it. They had
the jaws of their heart languid; with open ears they were deaf, they
saw and stood blind. This bread, indeed, requires the hunger of the
inner man: and hence He saith in another place, "Blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be
satisfied." But the Apostle Paul says that Christ is for us
righteousness. And, consequently, he that hungers after this bread,
hungers after righteousness, that righteousness however which cometh
down from heaven, the righteousness that God gives, not that which
man works for himself. For if man were not making a righteousness for
himself, the same apostle would not have said of the Jews: "For,
being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish
their own righteousness, they are not subject to the righteousness of
God." Of such were these who understood not the bread that cometh
down from heaven; because being satisfied with their own
righteousness, they hungered not after the righteousness of God.
What is this, God's righteousness and man's righteousness? God's
righteousness here means, not that wherein God is righteous, but that
which God bestows on man, that man may be righteous through God.
But again, what was the righteousness of those Jews? A
righteousness wrought of their own strength on which they presumed, and
so declared themselves as if they were fulfillers of the law by their
own virtue. But no man fulfills the law but he whom grace assists,
that is, whom the bread that cometh down from heaven assists. "For
the fulfilling of the law," as the apostle says in brief, "is
charity." Charity, that is, love, not of money, but of God;
love, not of earth nor of heaven, but of Him who made Heaven and
earth. Whence can man have that love? Let us hear the same: "The
love of God," saith he, "is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit which is given unto us." Wherefore, the Lord, about to
give the Holy Spirit, said that Himself was the bread that came down
from heaven, exhorting us to believe on Him. For to believe on Him
is to eat the living bread. He that believes eats; he is sated
invisibly, because invisibly is he born again. A babe within, a new
man within. Where he is made new, there he is satisfied with food.
2. What then did the Lord answer to such murmurers? "Murmur not
among yourselves." As if He said, I know why ye are not hungry,
and do not understand nor seek after this bread. "Murmur not among
yourselves: no man can come unto me, except the Father that sent me
draw him." Noble excellence of grace! No man comes unless drawn.
There is whom He draws, and there is whom He draws not; why He
draws one and draws not another, do not desire to judge, if thou
desirest not to err. Accept it at once and then understand; thou art
not yet drawn? Pray that thou mayest be drawn. What do we say here,
brethren? If we are "drawn" to Christ, it follows that we believe
against our will; so then is force applied, not the will moved. A
man can come to Church unwillingly, can approach the altar
unwillingly, partake of the sacrament unwillingly: but he cannot
believe unless he is willing. If we believed with the body, men might
be made to believe against their will. But believing is not a thing
done with the body. Hear the apostle: "With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness." And what follows? "And with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation." That confession springs from the
root of the heart. Sometimes thou hearest a man confessing, and
knowest not whether he believes. But thou oughtest not to call him one
confessing, if thou shouldest judge him to be one not believing. For
to confess is this, to utter the thing that thou hast in thy heart: if
thou hast one thing in thy heart, and another thing on thy tongue,
thou art speaking, not confessing. Since, then, with the heart man
believeth on Christ, which no man assuredly does against his will,
and since he that is drawn seems to be as if forced against his will,
how are we to solve this question, "No man cometh unto me, except
the Father that sent me draw him"?.
3. If he is drawn, saith some one, he comes unwillingly. If he
comes unwillingly, then he believes not; but if he believes not,
neither does he come. For we do not run to Christ on foot, but by
believing; nor is it by a motion of the body, but by the inclination
of the heart that we draw nigh to Him. This is why that woman who
touched the hem of His garment touched Him more than did the crowd
that pressed Him. Therefore the Lord said, "Who touched me?"
And the disciples wondering said, "The multitude throng Thee, and
press Thee, and sayest Thou, Vho touched me?" And He repeated
it, "Somebody hath touched me." That woman touched, the multitude
pressed. What is "touched," except "believed"? Whence also He
said to that woman that wished to throw herself at His feet after His
resurrection: "'Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to the
Father." Thou thinkest me to be that alone which thou seest;
"touch me not." What is this? Thou supposest that I am that alone
which I appear to thee: do not thus believe; that is, "touch me not
for I am not yet ascended to the Father." To thee I am not
ascended, for thence I never departed. She touched Him not while
He stood on the earth; how then could she touch Him while ascending
to the Father? Thus, however, thus He willed Himself to be
touched; thus He is touched by those by whom He is profitably
touched, ascending to the Father, abiding with the Father, equa to
the Father.
4. Thence also He says here, if thou turn thy attention to it,
"No man cometh to me except he whom the Father shall draw." Do not
think that thou art drawn against thy will. The mind is drawn also by
love. Nor ought we to be afraid, lest perchance we be censured in
regard to this evangelic word of the Holy Scriptures by men who weigh
words, but are far removed from things, most of all from divine
things; and lest it be said to us, "How can I believe with the will
if I am drawn?" I say it is not enough to be drawn by the will;
thou art drawn even by delight. What is it to be drawn by delight?
"Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of
thy heart." There is a pleasure of the heart to which that bread of
heaven is sweet. Moreover, if it was right in the poet to say,
"Every man is drawn by his own pleasure," not necessity, but
pleasure; not obligation, but delight, how much more boldly ought we
to say that a man is drawn to Christ when he delights in the truth,
when he delights in blessedness, delights in righteousness, delights
in everlasting life, all which Christ is? Or is it the case that,
while the senses of the body have their pleasures, the mind is left
without pleasures of its own? If the mind has no pleasures of its
own, how is it said, "The sons of men shall trust under the cover of
Thy wings: they shall be well satisfied with the fullness of Thy
house; and Thou shalt give them drink from the river of Thy
pleasure. For with Thee is the fountain of life; and in Thy light
shall we see light"? Give me a man that loves, and he feels what I
say. Give me one that longs, one that hungers, one that is
travelling in this wilderness, and thirsting and panting after the
fountain of his eternal home; give such, and he knows what I say.
But if I speak to the cold and indifferent, he knows not what I
say. Such were those who murmured among themselves. "He whom the
Father shall draw," saith He, "cometh unto me."
5. But what is this, "Whom the Father shall draw," when Christ
Himself draws? Why did He say, "Whon the Father shall draw"?
If we must be drawn, let us be drawn by Him to whom one who loves
says, "We will run after the odor of Thine ointment." But let
us, brethren, turn our minds to, and, as far as we can, apprehend
how He would have us understand it. The Father draws to the Son
those who believe on the Son, because they consider that God is His
Father.
For God begat the Son equal to Himself, so that he who ponders,
and in his faith feels and muses that He on whom he has believed is
equal to the Father, this same is drawn of the Father to the Son.
Arius believed the Son to be creature: the Father drew not him; for
he that believes not the Son to be equal to the Father, considers not
the Father. What sayest thou, Arius? What, O heretic, dost
thou speak? What is Christ? Not very God, saith he, but one whom
very God has made. The Father has not drawn thee, for thou hast not
understood the Father, whose Son thou deniest: it is not the Son
Himself but something else that thou art thinking of. Thou art
neither drawn by the Father nor drawn to the Son; for the Son is
very different from what thou sayest.
Photius said, "Christ is only a man, he is not also God." The
Father hath not drawn him who thus believes. One whom the Father has
drawn says: "Thou art Christ, Son of the living God." Not as a
prophet, not as John, not as some great and just man, but as the
only, the equal, "Thou art Christ, Son of the living God."
See that he was drawn, and drawn by the Father. "Blessed art
thou, Simon Barjonas: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to
thee, but my Father who is in heaven." This revealing is itself the
drawing. Thou holdest out a green twig to a sheep, and thou drawest
it. Nuts are shown to a child, and he is attracted; he is drawn by
what he runs to, drawn by loving it, drawn without hurt to the body,
drawn by a cord of the heart. If, then, these things, which among
earthly delights and pleasures are shown to them that love them, draw
them, since it is true that "every man is drawn by his own
pleasure," does not Christ, revealed by the Father, draw? For
what does the soul more strongly desire than the truth? For what ought
it to have a greedy appetite, with which to wish that there may be
within a healthy palate for judging the things that are true, unless it
be to eat and drink wisdom, righteousness, truth, eternity?
6. But where will this be? There better, there more truly, there
more fully. For here we can more easily hunger than be satisfied,
especially if we have good hope: for "Blessed," saith He, "are
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness," that is here; "for
they shall be filled," that is there. Therefore when He had
said," No man cometh unto me except the Father that sent me draw
him," what did He subjoin? "And I will raise him up in the last
day." I render unto him what he loves, what he hopes for: he will
see what, not as yet by seeing, he has believed; he shall eat that
which he hungers after; he shall be filled with that which he thirsts
after. Where? In the resurrection of the dead; for "I will raise
him up on the last day."
7. For it is written in the prophets, "And they shall all be
taught of God." Why have I said this, O Jews? The Father has
not taught you; how can ye know me? For all the men of that kingdom
shall be taught of God, not learn from men. And though they do learn
from men, yet what they understand is given them within, flashes
within, is revealed within. What do men that proclaim tidings from
without? What am I doing even now while I speak? I am pouring a
clatter of words into your ears. What is that that I say or that I
speak, unless He that is within reveal it? Without is the planter of
the tree, within is the tree's Creator. He that planteth and He
that watereth work from without: this is what we do. But "neither he
that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth; but God that giveth
the increase." That is, "they shall be all taught of God." All
who? "Every one who has heard and learned of the Father cometh unto
me." See how the Father draws: He delights by teaching, not by
imposing a necessity. Behold how He draws: "They shall be all
taught of God." This is God's drawing. "Every man that hath
heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." This is
God's drawing.
8. What then, brethren? If every man who has heard and learned of
the Father, the same cometh unto Christ, has Christ taught nothing
here? What shall we say to this, that men who have not seen the
Father as their teacher have seen the Son? The Son spoke, but the
Father taught. I, being a man, whom do I teach? Whom,
brethren, but him who has heard my word? If I, being a man, do
teach him who hears my word, the Father also teacheth him who hears
His word. And if the Father teacheth him that hears His word, ask
what Christ is, and thou wilt find the word of the Father. "In the
beginning was the Word." Not in the beginning God made the Word,
just as "in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth."
Behold how that He is not a creature. Learn to be drawn to the Son
by the Father: that the Father may teach thee, hear His Word.
What Word of Him, sayest thou, do I hear? "In the beginning was
the Word" (it is not "was made," but "was"), "and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God." How can men abiding in the
flesh hear such a Word? "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us."
9. He Himself explains this also, and shows us His meaning when
He said, "He that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto
me." He forthwith subjoined what we were able to conceive: "Not
that any man hath seen the Father, save he who is of God, he hath
seen the Father." What is that which He saith? I have seen the
Father, you have not seen the Father; and yet ye come not unto me
unless ye are drawn by the Father. And what is it for you to be drawn
by the Father but to learn of the Father? What is to learn of the
Father but to hear of the Father? What is to hear of the Father but
to hear the Word of the Father that is, to hear me? In case,
therefore, when I say to you, "Every man that hath heard and
learned of the Father," you should say within yourselves, But we
have never seen the Father, how could we learn of the Father? hear
from myself: "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He who
is of God, He hath seen the Father." I know the Father, I am
from Him; but in that manner in which the Word is from Him where the
Word is, not that which sounds and passes away, but that which
remains with the speaker and attracts the hearer.
10. Let what follows admonish us: "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, he that believeth on me hath eternal life." He willed to reveal
Himself, what He was: He might have said in brief, He that
believeth on me hath me. For Christ is Himself true God and eternal
life. Therefore, he that believeth on me, saith He, goeth into
me; and he that goeth into me, hath me. But what is the meaning of
"to have me"? To have eternal life. Eternal life took death upon
itself; eternal life willed to die; but of thee, not of itself; of
thee it received that whereby it may die in thy behalf. Of men,
indeed, He took flesh, but yet not in the manner of men. For having
His Father in heaven, He chose a mother on earth; both there
begotten without mother, and here horn without father. Accordingly,
life took upon itself death, that life might slay death. "For he
that believeth on me," saith He, "hath eternal life:" not what is
open, but what is hid. For eternal life is the Word, that "in the
beginning was with God, and the Word was God, and the life was the
light of men." The same eternal life gave eternal life also to the
flesh which it assumed. He came to die; but on the third day He rose
again. Between the Word taking flesh and the flesh rising again,
death which came between was consumed.
11. "I am," saith He, "the bread of life." And what was the
source of their pride? "Your fathers," saith He, "did eat manha
in the wilderness, and are dead." What is it whereof ye are proud?
"They ate manna, and are dead." Why they ate and are dead?
Because they believed that which they saw; what they saw not, they
did not understand. Therefore were they "your" fathers, because you
are like them. For so far, my brethren, as relates to this visible
corporeal death, do not we too die who eat the bread that cometh down
from heaven? They died just as we shall die, so far, as I said, as
relates to the visible and carnal death of this body. But so far as
relates to that death, concerning which the Lord warns us by fear,
and in which their fathers died: Moses ate manna, Aaron ate manna,
Phinehas ate manna, and many ate manna, who were pleasing to the
Lord, and they are not dead. Why? Because they understood the
visible food spiritually, hungered spiritually, tasted spiritually,
that they might be filled spiritually. For even we at this day receive
visible food: but the sacrament is one thing, the virtue of the
sacrament another. How many do receive at the altar and die, and die
indeed by receiving? Whence the apostle saith, "Eateth and drinketh
judgment to himself." For it was not the mouthful given by the Lord
that was the poison to Judas. And yet he took it; and when he took
it, the enemy entered into him: not because he received an evil
thing, but because he being evil received a good thing in an evil way.
See ye then, brethren, that ye eat the heavenly bread in a spiritual
sense; bring innocence to the altar. Though your sins are daily, at
least let them not be deadly. Before ye approach the altar, consider
well what ye are to say: "Forgive us our debts, even as we forgive
our debtors." Thou forgivest, it shall be forgiven thee: approach
in peace, it is bread, not poison. But see whether thou forgivest;
for if thou dost not forgive, thou liest, and liest to Him whom thou
canst not deceive. Thou canst lie to God,, but thou canst not
deceive God. He knows what thou doest. He sees thee within,
examines thee within, inspects within, judges within, and within He
either condemns or crowns. But the fathers of these Jews were evil
fathers of evil sons, unbelieving fathers of unbelieving sons,
murmuring fathers of murmurers. For in no other thing is that people
said to have offended the Lord more than in murmuring against God.
And for that reason, the Lord, willing to show those men to be the
children of such murmurers, thus begins His address to them: "Why
murmur ye among yourselves," ye murmurers, children of murmurers?
Your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; not because manna was an
evil thing, but because they ate it in an evil manner.
12. "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven." Manna
signified this bread; God's altar signified this bread. Those were
sacraments. In the signs they were diverse; in the thing which was
signified they were alike. Hear the apostle: "For I would not that
ye should be ignorant, brethren," saith he, "that all our fathers
were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the
same spiritual meat." Of course, the same spiritual meat; for
corporally it was another: since they ate manna, we eat another
thing; but the spiritual was the same as that which we eat. But
"our" fathers, not the fathers of those Jews; those to whom we are
like, not those to whom they were like. Moreover he adds: "And did
all drink the same spiritual drink." They one kind of drink, we
another, but only in the visible form, which, however, signified the
same thing in its spiritual virtue. For how was it that they drank the
"same drink"? "They drank," saith he "of the spiritual Rock
that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." Thence the bread,
thence the drink. The rock was Christ in sign; the real Christ is
in the Word and in flesh. And how did they drink? The rock was
smitten twice with a rod; the double smiting signified the two wooden
beams of the cross. "This, then, is the bread that cometh down from
heaven, that if any man eat thereof, he shall not die." But this is
what belongs to the virtue of the sacrament, not to the visible
sacrament; he that eateth within, not without; who eateth in his
heart, not who presses with his teeth.
13. "I am the living bread, which came down from heaven." For
that reason "living,'' because I came down from heaven. The manna
also came down from heaven; but the manna was only a shadow, this is
the truth. "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." When did flesh comprehend this flesh which He called bread?
That is called flesh which flesh does not comprehend, and for that
reason all the more flesh does not comprehend it, that it is called
flesh. For they were terrified at this: they said it was too much for
them; they thought it impossible. "Is my flesh," saith He, "for
the life of the world." Believers know the body of Christ, if they
neglect not to be the body of Christ. Let them become the body of
Christ, if they wish to live by the Spirit of Christ. None lives
by the Spirit of Christ but the body of Christ. Understand, my
brethren, what I mean to say. Thou art a man; thou hast both a
spirit and a body. I call that a spirit which is called the soul;
that whereby it consists that thou art a man, for thou consistest of
soul and body. And so thou hast an invisible spirit and a visible
body. Tell me which lives of the other: does thy spirit live of thy
body, or thy body of thy spirit? Every man that lives can answer;
and he that cannot answer this, I know not whether he lives: what
cloth every man that lives answer? My body, of course, lives by my
spirit. Wouldst thou then also live by the Spirit of Christ. Be in
the body of Christ. For surely my body does not live by thy spirit.
My body lives by my spirit, and thy body by thy spirit. The body of
Christ cannnot live but by the Spirit of Christ. It is for this
that the Apostle Paul, expounding this bread, says: "One
bread," saith he, "we being many are one body." O mystery of
piety! O sign of unity! O bond of charity! He that would live has
where to live, has whence to live. Let him draw near, let him
believe; let him be embodied, that he may be made to live. Let him
not shrink from the compact of members; let him not be a rotten member
that deserves to be cut off; let him not be a deformed member whereof
to be ashamed; let him be a fair, fit, and sound member; let him
cleave to the body, live for God by God: now let him labor on
earth, that hereafter he may reign in heaven.
14. The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" They strove, and that
among themselves, since they understood not, neither wished to take
the bread of concord: "for they who eat such bread do not strive with
one another; for we being many are one bread, one body." And by
this bread, "God makes people of one sort to dwell in a house."
15. But that which they ask, while striving among themselves,
namely, how the Lord can give His flesh to be eaten, they do not
immediately hear: but further it is said to them, "Verily, verily,
I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink
His blood, ye will have no life in you." How, indeed, it may be
eaten, and what may be the mode of eating this bread, ye are ignorant
of; nevertheless, "except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and
drink His blood, ye will not have life in you." He spoke these
words, not certainly to corpses, but to living men. Whereupon, lest
they, understanding it to mean this life, should strive about this
thing also, He going on added, "Whoso eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, hath eternal life." Wherefore, he that eateth
not this bread, nor drinketh this blood, hath not this life; for men
can have temporal life without that, but they can noways have eternal
life. He then that eateth not His flesh, nor drinketh His blood,
hath no life in him; and he that eateth His flesh, and drinketh His
blood, hath life. This epithet, eternal, which He used, answers
to both. It is not so in the case of that food which we take for the
purpose of sustaining this temporal life. For he who will not take it
shall not live, nor yet shall he who will take it live. For very
many, even who have taken it, die; it may be by old age, or by
disease, or by some other casualty. But in this food and drink, that
is, in the body and blood of the Lord, it is not so. For both he
that doth not take it hath no life, and he that doth take it hath
life, and that indeed eternal life. And thus He would have this meat
and drink to be understood as meaning the fellowship of His own body
and members, which is the holy Church in his predestinated, and
called, and justified, and glorified saints and believers. Of
these, the first is already effected, namely, predestination; the
second and third, that is, the vocation and justification, have taken
place, are taking place, and will take place; but the fourth,
namely, the glorifying, is at present in hope; but a thing future in
realization. The sacrament of this thing, namely, of the unity of
the body and blood of Christ, is prepared on the Lord's table in
some places daily, in some places at certain intervals of days, and
from the Lord's table it is taken, by some to life, by some to
destruction: but the thing itself, of which it is the sacrament, is
for every man to life, for no man to destruction, whosoever shall have
been a partaker thereof.
16. But lest they should suppose that eternal life was promised in
this meat and drink in such manner that they who should take it should
not even now die in the body, He condescended to meet this thought;
for when He had said, "He that eateth my flesh, anti drinketh my
blood, hath eternal life," He forthwith subjoined, "and I will
raise him up on the last day." That meanwhile, according to the
Spirit, he may have eternal life in that rest into which the spirits
of the saints are received; but as to the body, he shall not be
defrauded of its eternal life, but, on the contrary, he shall have it
in the resurrection of the dead at the last day.
17. "For my flesh," saith He, "is meat indeed, and my blood
is drink indeed." For whilst by meat and drink men seek to attain to
this, neither to hunger nor thirst, there is nothing that truly
affords this, except this meat and drink, which doth render them by
whom it is taken immortal and incorruptible; that is, the very
fellowship of the saints, where will be peace and unity, full and
perfect. Therefore, indeed, it is, even as men of God understood
this before us, that our Lord Jesus Christ has pointed our minds to
His body and blood in those things, which from being many are reduced
to some one thing. For a unity is formed by many grains forming
together; and another unity is effected by the clustering together of
many berries.
18. In a word, He now explains how that which He speaks of comes
to pass, and what it is to eat His body and to drink His blood.
"He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me,
and I in him." This it is, therefore, for a man to eat that meat
and to drink that drink, to dwell in Christ, and to have Christ
dwelling in him. Consequently, he that dwelleth not in Christ, and
in whom Christ dwelleth not, doubtless neither eateth His flesh
[spiritually] nor drinketh His blood [although he may press the
sacrament of the body and blood of Christ carnally and visibly with his
teeth], but rather doth he eat and drink the sacrament of so great a
thing to his own judgment, because he, being unclean, has presumed to
come to the sacraments of Christ, which no man taketh worthily except
he that is pure: of such it is said, "Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God."
19. "As the living Father hath sent me," saith He, "and I
live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by
me." He says not: As I eat the Father, and live by the Father;
so he that eateth me, the same shall live by me. For the Son, who
was begotten equal, does not become better by participation of the
Father; just as we are made better by participation of the Son,
through the unity of His body and blood, which thing that eating and
drinking signifies. We live then by Him, by eating Him; that is,
by receiving Himself as the eternal life, which we did not have from
ourselves. Himself, however, lives by the Father, being sent by
Him, because "He emptied Himself, being made obedient even unto
the death of the cross." For if we take this declaration, "I live
by the Father," according to that which He says in another place,
"The Father is greater than I;" just as we, too, live by Him
who is greater than we; this results from His being sent. The
sending is in fact the emptying of Himself, and His taking upon Him
the form of a servant: and this is rightly understood, while also the
Son's equality of nature with the Father is preserved. For the
Father is greater than the Sun as man, but He has the Son as God
equal, whilst the same is both God and man, Son of God and Son of
man, one Christ Jesus. To this effect, if these words are rightly
understood, He spoke thus: "As the living Father hath sent me,
and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live
by me:" just as if He were to say, My emptying of myself (in that
He sent me) effected that I should live by the Father; that is,
should refer my life to Him as the greater; but that any should live
by me is effected by that participation in which he eats me.
Therefore, I being humbled, do live by the Father, man being
raised up, liveth by me. But if it was said, "I live by the
Father," so as to mean, that He is of the Father, not the Father
of Him, it was said without detriment to His equality. And yet
further, by saying, "And he that eateth me, even he shall live by
me," He did not signify that His own equality was the same as our
equality, but He thereby showed the grace of the Mediator.
20. "This is the bread that cometh down from heaven;" that by
eating it we may live, since we cannot have eternal life from
ourselves. Not," saith He, "as your fathers did eat manna, and
are dead: he that eateth this bread shall live forever." That those
fathers are dead, He would have to be understood as meaning, that
they do not live forever. For even they who eat Christ shall
certainly die temporally; but they live forever, because Christ is
eternal life.
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