A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 2: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of FriendsClarkson, Thomas
Religion
A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 2: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of Friends
Clarkson, Thomas
Society of Friends
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 connexion 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."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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