Jesus Christ calls himself upon this occasion the living bread. He says
that this bread is his flesh, and that this flesh is meat indeed. The
first conclusion which the Quakers deduce on this subject, is, that this
bread, or this flesh and blood, or this meat, which he recommends to his
followers, and which he also declares to be himself, is not of a
material nature. It is not, as he himself says, like the ordinary meat
that perisheth, nor like the outward manna, which the Jews ate in the
wilderness for their bodily refreshment. It cannot therefore be common
bread, nor such bread as the jews ate at their passover, nor any bread
or meat ordered to be eaten on any public occasion.
Neither can this flesh or this bread be, as some have imagined, the
material flesh or body of Jesus. For first, this latter body was born of
the virgin Mary; whereas the other is described as having come down from
heaven. Secondly, because, when the Jews said, "How can this man give us
his flesh?" Jesus replied, "It is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh
profiteth nothing;" that is, material flesh and blood, such as mine is,
cannot profit any thing in the way of quickening; or cannot so profit as
to give life eternal. This is only the work of the spirit. And he adds,
"the words I have spoken to you, they are spirit, and they are life.
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