times. As the numbers increased in any church, who would, as members of it, possess a right to attend the love-feasts, there would necessarily arise a great danger of abuse in such a practice; and that this abuse actually took place in the church of Corinth, to an alarming and disgraceful degree, we have already noticed on the authority of the apostle Paul.d

On the one hand, therefore, we may allow that those persons who continue the observance of the Lord's Supper, not as a religious ceremony constituting a necessary part of divine worship, but on the simple system of the primitive Christians, are not without their warrant in the example of those Christians, for the adoption of such a course. On the other hand, it is no less evident that the apparent unsuitableness of the custom to the present condition of the visible church, its known liability to abuse, and, more especially, its close affinity with the abolished practices of the Jewish ritual, afford very strong reasons for its discontinuance.

That there is nothing in the history of the origin of that custom which precludes, under so obvious a change of circumstances, the liberty for its disuse, the reader will probably allow, for reasons already stated. Here, however, it appears necessary to notice a particular expression of the apostle Paul, from which many persons have derived an opinion that this practice is obligatory on believers in Jesus, until the end of the world. "For as oft as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup," says the apostle, in a passage already cited,

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ye do show the Lord's death till he come." The inference deduced from these words, respecting the necessary permanence of the rite of the Lord's Supper, appears to be ill-founded. For, in the first place, they contain no command to the Corinthians to continue the practice in question until the Lord's coming; and

in the second place, it is evident, from the context, that it was not here the apostle's object to impress upon his friends the duration of the custom, but only its meaning or direction. The stress of his declaration plainly lies upon the words " Ye do show the Lord's death." The words "till he come" were probably added, as a kind of reservation, for the purpose of conveying the idea that, when the Lord himself should come, such a memorial of his death would be obsolete and unnecessary.

It appears, from various passages in the epistles, that the early Christians, and even the apostle Paul himself, lived under a strong impression that the coming of Christ in glory was near at hand. But, although this impression, on a point confessedly not revealed to any of the inspired servants of God, (Matt. xxiv, 36) was erroneous, there is a sense in which it may be truly declared, that the Lord Jesus is already come again. He is come in those spiritual manifestations of his divine presence, by which his faithful disciples, in every age, are upheld, strengthened, and comforted. While I by no means intend to assert that this is the second appearance of Christ to which Paul is here alluding, I cannot but remark that the principle on which he upholds the coming of our Lord, as the termination of the outward ordinance, is plainly consistent with the sentiment of Friends, that the spiritual manifestations of the Lord Jesus, and the direct communion with him enjoyed by his obedient followers, virtually abrogate any practice in his service, which is of a merely symbolical or typical character.

The view now taken of the apostle's doctrine will fitly introduce a concluding observation-that, while Friends consider it to be their duty to abstain from that ritual participation in bread and wine, so usually observed among their fellow-Christians, there are no

persons who insist more strongly than they do, on that which they deem to be the only needful supper of the Lord. That supper, according to their apprehension, is altogether of a spiritual nature. Now, it is a circumstance which strongly confirms the general view thrown before the reader in the arguments already stated, that, according to the narrations severally presented to us by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, of the last paschal meal of Jesus with his disciples, our Lord availed himself of the very occasion which has given rise among Christians to the rite of the Eucharist, in order to direct the attention of his disciples to the supper now alluded to—a repast of a totally different description, and one which may be enjoyed by the disciples of Christ, independently of every outward ordinance. "With desire I have desired," said Jesus to his apostles, "to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God;" Luke xxii, 15, 16. Again, "This is my blood of the New Testament, which is given for many, for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom;" Matt. xxvi, 28, 29. Again, " Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom," Luke xxii, 28–30.

We may, indeed, believe that these gracious declarations are accomplished in all their fulness, only in the heavenly state of happiness and glory; but it is sufficiently evident, and is allowed by various commentators, that our Lord's expressions, now cited, cannot be considered as relating exclusively to the world to come. When Jesus Christ had died, on the cross, a

sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, the type of the passover had received its fulfilment in the kingdom of God. When his blood had been shed for many, for the remission of sins, and when he had ascended to the right hand of the Father Almighty, that kingdom or reign, conducted through the mediation of the Messiah, was established in the earth. Then, therefore, did the day arrive, as we may fairly deduce from these impressive passages, when Jesus was again to eat the passover with his disciples, and to drink the new wine in their company: according to his own declaration, on a subsequent occasion, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me," Rev. iii, 20. When the faithful disciples of our glorified Redeemer open the doors of their hearts at the voice of his Holy Spirit; when, more especially, they are engaged in rendering unto him their joint and willing service, and in worshipping God in unison; he is often pleased to come in amongst them, to sup with them, and to permit them to sup with him. Then does he bring them into a holy fellowship with the Father, with himself, and one with another; breaks for them the bread of life; and gives them to drink of his most precious, blood; and thus, while their souls are refreshed, nourished, and comforted, they are brought, in a living and effective manner, to the remembrance of that crucified Lord, who is their strength, their joy, and their salvation.

On a general review, then, of the particular passages of the New Testament which relate to the observance of the Lord's Supper, I may venture to recapitulate my own sentiments, that such a practice has no proper or necessary connexion with a spiritual feeding on the body and blood of Christ-that the history of our

Lord's last paschal supper with his disciples affords no reason for believing that he then instituted a religious ceremony, which was thenceforth to form an essential part of the worship of Christians-that our Lord's injunction, on that occasion, may be understood, either as relating solely to the rites of the Passover, or as intended to give a religious direction to the more common social repasts of his disciples-that it was in connexion with such repasts, and particularly with their love-feasts, that the primitive Christians were accustomed to commemorate the death of Christthat the custom of those love-feasts, however appropriate to the circumstances of the earliest disciples, soon fell into abuse as the numbers of believers increased, and appears to be, in a great degree, inapplicable to the present condition of the Christian world

-and, lastly, that under the influence of the spiritual manifestations of our Redeemer, we may, without the bread and wine, participate in that true supper of the Lord, which he has himself so clearly upheld to the expectation of his disciples, and which alone is indispensable for the edification, consolation, and salvation, of his people.

Although, for the reasons detailed in the present disquisition, it may fairly be concluded that the practices of water-baptism and the Lord's Supper are by no means needful, it is certain that these practices have been very generally observed by the professors of the Christian name. This fact is easily explained, not only by the known power of example and tradition, but also by that principle in our nature, which leads us so commonly to place our dependence upon outward and visible things. Man is naturally prone to trust in any thing rather than in the invisible Creator, and he is ever ready to make the formal ordinance a part of his religious system, because he can rely upon it