They said therefore to him, "Lord, always give us this bread."
      [1.] The  necessity  of our  feeding upon Christ  (John 6:53):  Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  That is,  First,  "It is a certain sign that you  have no  spiritual  life  in you if you have nodesire  towards Christ, nor  delight  in him." If the soul does not  hunger  and  thirst,  certainly it does not  live:  it is a sign that we are dead indeed if we are dead to such meat and drink as this. When  artificial  bees, that by curious springs were made to move to and fro, were to be  distinguished  from  natural  ones (they say), it was done by putting honey among them, which the natural bees only flocked to, but the artificial ones minded not, for  they had no life in them. Secondly,  "It is certain that you  can have  no spiritual life, unless you derive it from Christ by faith; separated from him you can do nothing." Faith in Christ is the  primum vivens—the first living principle  of grace; without it we have not the  truth  of  spiritual  life, nor any title to eternal life: our bodies may as well live without meat as our souls without Christ.