John Trapp on John 6:51-52

Verſe 51. If any man eat, &c.] Hic edere eſt credere, ſaith Auguſtine: Faith being the ſouls hand, mouth, ſtomack, &c. The Fathers commonly expounded this part of our Saviours Sermon, as ſpoken of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper; and ſo fell into that errour, that none but Communicants could be ſaved: Wherefore alſo they gave the Sacrament to Infants, and put it into the mouthes of dead men, &c. We are not to think that either our Saviour ſpake [illegible: 2 letters]re properly, and eex profeſſo, of the Sacramentall eating of his fleſh, and drinking of his bloud; or that this diſcourſe pertains nothing at all thereunto. The Papiſts have expunged a great part of Origens Commentary upon this Chapter, as directly making againſt their monſter of Tranſubſtantiation. Act. and Mon. fol. 772. And Cardinall Campeius affirmed againſt Luther, that faith is not neceſſary to him that receiveth the Sacrament. As for Bellarmine, although we beleeve, Bell. lib. 3. cap. a. de Eccleſ. milit. ſaith he, that all vertues are found in the Church, yet that any man may be abſolutely ſaid to be a member of the true Church, we do not think that any inward vertue is required, but only an externall profeſſion of the faith, and ſuch communion of the Sacraments, as is received by the outward man. This mark very well agrees to the Church of Rome, wherein if any be truly vertuous, it is by meer accident; as Cicero wittily ſaid of the Epicures, Si quando viri boni ſint, vinci bonitate naturae. that if any one of them were good, he was meerly overcome by the goodneſſe of his nature; for they taught a licencious looſeneſſe.