As the Jews were still unable to comprehend the meaning of his words, which they discovered by murmuring and pronouncing them to be hard sayings, Jesus Christ closes his address to them in the following words:  “It is the spirit that quickeneth.  The flesh profiteth nothing:  the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

It appears from hence, according to the Quakers, that Jesus Christ, in mentioning the loaves, took occasion to spiritualize, as he did on all other fit occasions, and to direct the attention of his followers from natural to spiritual food, or from the food that perisheth, to that which giveth eternal life.

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.”

This bread then, or this body, is of a spiritual nature.  It is of a spiritual nature, because it not only giveth life, but preserveth from death.  Manna, on the other hand, supported the Israelites only for a time, and they died.  Common bread and flesh nourish the body for a time, when it dies and perishes; but it is said of those who feed upon this food, that they shall never die.  This bread, or body, must be spiritual again, because the bodies of men, according to their present organization, cannot be kept for ever alive; but their souls may.  But the souls of men can receive no nourishment from ordinary meat and drink, that they should be kept alive, but from that which is spiritual only.  It must be spiritual again, because Jesus Christ describes it as having come down from heaven.

The last conclusion which the Quakers draw from the words of our Saviour on this occasion, is, that a spiritual participation of the body and blood of Christ is such an essential of Christianity, that no person who does not partake of them, can be considered to be a Christian; “for except a man eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, he has no life in him.”