49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.



Ver. 49. Did eat manna] They fed upon sacraments, and yet many of them perished eternally. A man may go to hell with font water on his face, and be haled from the table to the tormentor, as he, Mat_22:13.



Your fathers did eat, &c.] They sought only the satisfying of their bodily hunger, and they had it, but yet are dead. Manna could not immortalize them, as the poets feign their ambrosia did their dunghill deities. "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God will destroy both it and them." These mentioned in the text fed upon sacraments, and yet they died in God’s displeasure, 1Co_10:3; 1Co_10:5. The carcase of the sacrament cannot give life, but the soul of it, which is Christ; neither do the sacraments work as a medicine, whether men sleep or wake, by virtue inherent in them, ex opere operate, sed ex opere operantis, i.e. according to the disposition and qualification of the party that partaketh.