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THE FRUITFUL LABOUR
But before I come to enforce the act or duty which our Saviour here exhorts unto, I must unfold the object of that act : what is meant here by the ' meat that endures to everlasting life.'
The 'meat that endures to everlasting life' is our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus, as he is contained and wrapped up in the means of salvation, with all the blessed liberties, privileges, and prerogatives, graces, and comforts, that we have by him and in him. For our blessed Saviour never goes alone. He is never embraced naked ; but with him goes his graces, com- forts, prerogatives, and liberties. We have him not now as we shall see him ' face to face ' hereafter in heaven ; but he is to be considered as wrapped up in the word and sacraments. So is Christ the food that lasts to everlasting life. And in this latitude we must take it, or else we mis- take and straiten the Holy Ghost.
But why is our blessed Saviour so considered, and the comforts, and prerogatives, and good things we have by him, termed food ?
In divers respects. To instance in a few. But, first, you must know that as the soul hath a life as well as the body, so it hath a taste as well as the body ; and as God, lest the body should pine away, hath planted in it an appetite, which is the body's longing after that which refresheth it — for if it were not for appetite, if it were not for hunger and thirst, who would care for meat and drink ? — so God hath planted in the soul, lest it should pine away, a spiritual appetite, an earnest longing and desiring after that which is the most necessary good of the soul; for the soul hath that which the body hath, taste, and smell, &c., though in a more sublime and divine sense, but as really and trulv, as we shall see afterwards. Now our blessed Saviour is this spiritual food of the soul. He is the bread of life that came down from heaven ; he is the true manna ; he is the true tree of life in paradise, in the church of God, the true paradise. He is the true shew- bread; he is the true Lamb of God.
He, considered with all the blessed prerogatives, and privileges, and comforts we have by him, is called meat or food for divers respects.
First, Whatsoever sweetness, or comfort, or strength there is in meat, it ia for the comfort, and strength, and good of the body ; so whatsoever is com- fortable and cherishing in Christ, as indeed all comfort and cherishing is in him, it is for our good ; to us he is given, for us he was born : ' To us a child is born, to us a Son is given,' Isa. ix. 6 ; all is for us, for us men, for us sinners. There is nothing in his natures, in his state and condition, both of abasement and exaltation, nothing in his offices, but it is all for our good. Consider him in his human nature, and join with his nature his abasement : that he was man, that he took upon him our nature, that he was abased in it, that he humbled himself to death, even to the death of the cross, to be a sacrifice for our sins ; how doth the soul feed on this, on the wonderful love of God in giving Christ to be incarnate, and then to die for us ! How doth the soul feed upon the death of Christ, because by that God's wrath is appeased, and he reconciled ! ' Where the dead body is, there the eagles resort,' Mat. xxiv. 28. So doth the soul prey and feed upon the dead body of Christ. Christ crucified is the special food of the soul.
Consider him in his exaltation, in his glorious resurrection and ascen- sion into heaven ; how doth the soul feed upon that? Christ our surety has risen again. Therefore our debt is discharged, the justice of God is satis- fied to the full. So for his ascension. When the soul is basely-minded on earthly things, it ascends to Christ, who is taken up to heaven for us.
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So his sitting at the right hand of God, The soul feeds on that, because he sits there till he have triumphed over all his enemies, till he have trod them all under foot.
Consider him in his offices. In ignorance the soul feeds on him as a prophet to instruct it. In the sense of wrath and anger, the soul feeds on him as a priest to make peace and reconciliation. In want of righteous- ness, the soul feeds on [his righteousness : ' he is our righteousness.' In the sense of corruption, the soul feeds on him as a king, that by his Spirit will ere long work out all corruption ; that as he will tread down all our enemies without, so he will tread down all corruption within. He will never leave the soul till he have made it a glorious house, fit for himself.
So the prerogatives we have by him, the soul feeds on them, feeds on his redemption ; that by his redemption we are freed from our enemies and all that hate us, and all that we feared ; that we are set at liberty from the law, from sin, and from death ; and notwithstanding all the debasements of this world, we are ' the sons of God and heirs of heaven.'