might have been for the celebration of the Passover-supper; for there was a synagogue of Jews at Corinth, of whom some had been converted. Or they might have been for the celebration of the Passover as spiritualized by Jesus Christ, or for the breaking of bread; which customs both the Jewish and Gentile converts might have adopted. The custom, however, at which these irregularities took place, is called by St. Paul the Lord's Supper. And this title was not inapplicable to it in either of the cases supposed, because it must have been, in either of them, in commemoration of the last supper, which Jesus Christ, or the Lord and Master, ate with his disciples before he suffered.

But, whichever ceremonial it was that St. Paul alluded to, the circumstances of the irregularities of the Corinthians obliged him to advert to, and explain, what was said and done by Jesus on the night of the Passover-supper. This explanation of the apostle has thrown new light upon the subject, and has induced the Quakers to believe that no new institution was intended to take place as a ceremonial to be observed by the Christian world.

St. Paul, in his account of what occurred at the original Passover, reports that Jesus Christ made use of the words "this do in remembrance of me." By this the Quakers understand, that he permitted something to be done by those, who were present at this supper.

He reports also that Jesus Christ used these words not only after the breaking of the bread, but after the giving of the cup; from whence they conclude, that St. Paul considered both the bread and

the wine as belonging to that, which had been permitted.

St. Paul also says, For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." By these words they believe they discover two things; first, the nature of the thing permitted; and secondly, that the thing permitted, whatever it was, was to last but for a time.

The thing, then, which was permitted to those, who were present at the Passover-supper, was to show or declare his death. The words "show or declare" prove, in the first place, the connection of the thing permitted with the Jewish Passover; for, after certain ceremonies had been performed on the Passover-night, "the showing forth or declaration," as it was called, followed, or the object of the meeting was declared aloud to the persons present; or it was declared to them publicly, in what particulars the Passover-feast differed from all the other feasts of the Jews. Secondly, the word "death" proves the thing permitted to have been the Passover, as spiritualized by Jesus Christ; for, by the new modification of it, his disciples, if they were unable to overcome their prejudices, were to turn their attention from the type to the antitype, or from the sacrifice of the paschal lamb to the sacrifice of himself, or to his own sufferings and death. In short, Jesus Christ always attempted to reform by spiritualizing. When the Jews followed him for the loaves, and mentioned manna, he tried to turn their attention from material to spiritual bread. When he sat upon Jacob's well, and discoursed with the woman of Samaria, he directed her attention from

ordinary or elementary to spiritual and living water. So he did upon this occasion. He gave life to the dead letter of an old ceremony by a new meaning. His disciples were from henceforth to turn their attention, if they chose to celebrate the Passover, from the paschal lamb to himself, and from the deliverance of their ancestors out of Egyptian bondage, to the deliverance of themselves and others, by the giving up of his own body, and the shedding of his own blood, for the remission of sins.

And as the thing permitted was the Passover spiritualized in this manner, so it was only permitted for a time, or "until he come."

By the words "until he come" it is usually understood, until Christ come. But though Christians have agreed upon this, they have disagreed as to the length of time, which the words may mean. Some have understood that Jesus Christ intended this spiritualized Passover to continue for ever, as an ordinance of the Church, for that "till he come" must refer to his coming to judge the world. But it has been replied to these, that in this case no li mitation had been necessary; or it would have been said at once, that it was to be a perpetual ordinance, or expressed in plainer terms than in the words in question.

Others have understood the words to mean the end of the typical world, which happened on the destruction of Jerusalem, when the Jews were dispersed, and their Church, as a national one, done away. For the coming of Christ and the end of the world have been considered as taking place at

the same time. Thus the early Christians believed that Jesus Christ, even after his death and resurrection, would come again, even in their own lifetime, and that the end of the world would then be. These events they coupled in their minds ;* “ for they asked him privately, saying, Tell us when these things shall be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world." Jesus told them in reply, that the end of the world and his coming would be, when there were wars, and rumours of wars, and earthquakes, and famine, and pestilence, and tribulations on the earth; and that these calamities would happen even before the generation, then alive, would pass away. Now all these things actually happened in the same generation; for they happened at the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus Christ therefore meant by the end of the world the end of the Jewish world, or of the world of types, figures, and ordinances: and he coupled naturally his own coming with this event; because he could not come fully into the hearts of any, till these externals were done away. He alluded, in short, to the end of the Jewish dispensation, and the beginning of his own spiritual kingdom, or to the end of the ceremonial and the beginning of the Gospel-world.

Those, therefore, who interpret the words "till he come" to mean the end of the typical world, are of opinion that the Passover, as spiritualized by Jesus Christ, was allowed to the disciples while

Matth. xxiv.

they lived among a people so wedded to religious ceremonies as the Jews, with whom it would have been a stumbling-block in the way of their conversion if they had seen the apostles, who were their countrymen, rejecting it all at once; but that it was permitted them till the destruction of Jerusalem; after which event the Jews being annihilated as a nation, and being dispersed and mixed among the infinitely greater body of the Gentiles, the custom was to be laid aside, as the disuse of it could not be then prejudical to the propagation of the Gospel among the community at large.

The Quakers, however, understand the words "till he come" to mean simply the coming of Christ substantially in the heart. Giving the words this meaning, they limit the duration of this spiritualized Passover, but do not specify the time. It might have ceased, they say, with some of those present on the day of Pentecost, when they began to discover the nature of Christ's kingdom; and they think it probable, that it ceased with all of them when they found this kingdom realized in their hearts. For it is remarkable that those, who became Gospel-writers (and it is to be presumed that they had attained great spiritual growth when they wrote their respective works) give no instruction to others, whether Jews or Gentiles, to observe the ceremonial permitted to the disciples by Jesus, as any ordinance of the Christian Church. And in the same manner as the Quakers conceive the duration of the spiritualized Passover to have been limited to the disciples, they conceive it to have been limited to all other Jewish converts, who might have adopted