"he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life." Sec Rom. x. 8. 9. and Theff. ii. 13.

Ver. 57. He points out the communion that they have with the Faber in the divine life, and with himfelf as the Father's prieft, who believe in him, and live by his death, as the truth of the communion with God in the carnal facrifices. And of this enough was faid before.

Ver. 58. He declares that this his facrifice, his flesh and blood, that brings the divine life to men, and gives them communion with God in his life, is that bread which came down from heaven when he was incarnated; and that the life this bread gives, is not temporal, as that fuftained by manna, which, though it came down from heaven in a fenfe, could not perpetuate the life that it fed; but the life this meat gives, is eternal, and he that eaterh of it fhall live for ever: Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. This eating differs as much from the fiefhly eating of the manna, as this eternal life differs from that fleihly mortal life they had by eating it. Therefore this meat, this flesh and blood, cannot be the bread and wine in the eucharift; nor can the eating of it be the confuming of that bread and wine, as Mr Johnfon fays, by manducation for that bread and wine was not then come down from heaven in any fenfe; and it fuftains this mortal life, fo far as it nourishes the body, and is incorporated with it; and thereby is but a fign of the true bread that gives eternal life and every one that eateth of that bread, and drinketh of that cup, as the fathers ate the manna, and drank of the rock, hath not eternal life, fhall not live for evermore. Yea, thefe Jews, if they had then believed that he was come down from heaven to give eternal life, as did his believing difciples, would at that time have had eternal life by him, though they could not yet eat the bread and wine in the eucharift: for the virtue and efficacy of his death to come, for the redemption of tranfgreffions that were under the firft covenant, would have reached them, if they had believed that Jefus whom they faw was the Son of God come down from heaven to give eternal life, as the believing difciples did; even as the virtue of his death reached all who from the beginning died in the faith of him to come, as the feed of the woman, or that feed of Abraham, or the Son of David.

:

Ver. 59. 60. When many of his difciples had heard all this, they said, This is an hard faying, who can hear it? Is he

then

then to be facrificed? Are men to live, not only by eating human flefl, but drinking blood? and can they have no true life without it? Is his flesh and blood to be ate and drunk, as the true meat and drink offering? Is it to be incorporated with theirs? Would this make them partakers of the divine life, and raise them from the dead? It is hard to think of living by the death of the Meffiah! And, as to this eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, who can understand it, or take it in any tolerable fenfe?

Ver. 61. 62. 63. 64. Jefus, feeing in himself that his difciples murmured about this, faid to them, Doth this offend you? If then ye fhould fee the Son of man afcend up where he was before? i. e. before he came down from heaven. If they should fee him afcend into heaven, as he did in confequence of his being flain; though this would demonftrate, that he came down from heaven to give eternal life by his death; yet it would be full as inconfiftent with their notion of the Meffiah, as any thing he had faid about his death: and, as he would not be bodily present with them, and they could no more fee him as they now did, their difficulty about living by eating and drinking his flesh and blood would be no lefs. But he fhews thenr their mistake of his words on this matter that occafioned. their difficulty. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the "flefl profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you,

are fpirit, and are life." They did not obferve what was faid in the beginning of the pfalm to which they referred him when feeking bread from heaven: "Give ear, "O my people, to my law; incline your ear to the words

of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I "will utter dark fayings of old, which we have heard "and known, and our fathers have told us." For here the Lord is accordingly speaking to them in a parable, and fignifying the way of eternal life by his death, in figures taken from the Old Teftament. Now, in every parable, the figure or letter is the flesh, and the meaning clothed with that figure, and hid under it, is the Spirit that enlivens it, without which it is unprofitable, as a carcafe without a foul. It is therefore the meaning of this eating his flesh that gives eternal life. His words have a fpiritual fenfe, clothed with that figure of bodily eating, and fo they give life to him that believeth; for they hold forth him come down from heaven to be facrificed for the life of the world: and he that believes this, fhall as verily live eternally, through

through the efficacy of his death, as Ifrael lived in the wilderness by manna; and have as real a fpiritual feast with God, as ever Ifrael had a fleshly one on the facrifices; and be as verily fed in a fpiritual manner to life eternal, as this multitude found their temporal life fed by the loaves. These are all the figures ufed in this paffage to fignify our living by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himfelf for us. And though the fame thing be reprefented to us now in the inftituted fign of eat. ing bread and drinking wine in the eucharift, yet there is not one word in this whole paffage that points to this fign, of which the hearers could know nothing, while they knew all the other figures. The thing fignified in the eucharift, is the fubject of our Lord's difcourfe here; he fpeaks of that felf-fame thing that is now fhewed to us in that action, and fo far it can be applied to the eucharift. But there is not one fyllable in this whole chapter of giving or receiving, or of eating and drinking that bread and wine; yea, the bodily eating there is as unprofitable, without the spirit and fense of it, as any eating that the Jews could be thinking of here. The Lord's fupper is not complete without the thing fignified, even the eating of Chrift's flesh and body, and drinking his blood, by faith. But, fays our Lord to thofe to whom he fignified the fame thing by other figures, There are fome of you that believe not. And fo they could not come into the fpirit of his words, as those who by faith beheld the glory of the Word made flesh, and of his fulness received grace for grace; and fo they could no more understand the fpiritual eating than Mr Johnfon does. I am, &c.

Dundee, August 10. 1742.

VOL. IV.

290

A View of the HERESY of AERIUS.

Confifting of the following articles.

I. That a prefbyter differs not in order and degree from a bishop.

II. That there is no Pafch remaining to be obferved or celebrated among Chriftians.

III. That fafts ought not to be prefixed to certain and stated annual days.

IV. That prayers are not to be poured out and made for the dead.

Non fcripta negabo.

[First published in the year 1745.]

PREFACE; or, Advertisement concerning the Author.

THE author of this little book can never pass either for a good man, or a wife man, in the place where he lives; nor indeed in any other place where riches are efteemed goodness, and where cunning, and facrificing all things to the love of gain, are thought wisdom.

He has no connection with any party of clergy ftriving about the public leading in religion, having no interest in this world to purfue or contend for in connection with his religion; though, as a human creature, he must have fome religion, and, as an animal, he muft fubfift and live on the earth.

Moft of his ftudy, for he is a fort of student, has been fpent in comparing Chriftianity, in all the shapes wherein he could obferve it appearing in the world, with the original draught of it in the fciptures: and, as he evidently fees the fcriptures fulfilled in a general falling away from that, under the Chriftian name, this ferves much to confirm him in the truth of thefe fcriptures of the apostles and prophets, on which the only true church is built, and which he can never enough value and regard, for the glorious character of God, the divine contrivance of falvation through' he death and refurrection of the Son of God, the excelnt character of Jefus Chrift, and of his true followers in the faith, and the agreeable order wherein he would have

them

them to follow him unto eternal life, as the captain of their falvation made perfect through fufferings.

He has conceived an unconquerable averfion to the character of all the forts of thofe men whose business it is to adapt this glorious revelation to their interefts in this life, and efpecially to make it fubfervient to their honour and glory in this prefent world. He fees them led by a principle, which, while it governs them, muft form them into a defperate averfion from being as low and contemptible in this world, as Jefus Chrift, his true gofpel, and his kingdom, always was, and ever will be, to the end of the world.

While he laughs at all the pretences whereby these impofe, perhaps, on themfelves, and, moft certainly, on the Chriftian world that follows their ways; he laughs no lefs at those merry fellows, who can gravely think that they are ridiculing true Chriftianity, when they ridicule the clergy. The attentive narrow obfervation he takes of the clergy under their mafk, cannot hinder him from taking notice of the pitiful grimace of thofe fine gentlemen who, neglecting altogether that proper inftinct of man by which a lone he is capable of correfponding with his Maker, are ftrutting in the airs of afters and patrons of a reason and virtue whereby it is impoffible to diftinguish them from the brutes. And, whereas they pretend to be the votaries of right reafon and-true virtue, in a grinning fneer at the word of faith which the apoftles preached, he has been forced to fee them, by feveral inftnaces, the most unreasonable and the most vitious of mankind.

The following lucubrations on Aerius fhew that he reads a little; and it cannot be denied, that he puts pen to paper too. But, as he is far from doing this to please, or to make himself agreeable to any party of men in the world, he is ready alfo to laugh even at his friend, that would advife him to fpare his pains in a way wherein he lofes himself, and wherein he is not capable to recommend himself to any fort of men of fenfe or tafte; for it is very ridiculous, to tell one that labours to please himself, and is accordingly pleafed, that he lofes his labour: and, if he be much diverted with the fault that all forts of men find, he writes, and, when that cannot be handfomely gainfaid, with his manner of writing, he thinks it not quite friendly to grudge him this fame diver

in their turn, with we

fion.

diver.