probable that inaccuracies and mistakes occur which might otherwise have been avoided. I have given to it, however, all the attention I could command; and I hope that the marks of labour will be most obvious to those who are most familiar with the subject. There are few of the important questions which have been agitated respecting the Eucharist which are not somewhere introduced, and of which the fundamental and determining principles are not more or less fully indicated. It has been my desire to show a becoming respect for the writers I have quoted, and I doubt not that I shall receive the candid, and, where it is needed, the charitable interpretation I have been solicitous to concede. But it is a small thing to be judged of man's judgment; he that judgeth us is the Lord. May He pardon what is human, and bless what is divine, and commend his gracious and forgiving condescension in wielding a feeble instrumentality for the advancement of his praise! GLASGOW, April, 1846. CONTENTS. SECT. I.-Institution of the Passover, SECT. II.-The Passover as observed by Christ and his Apostles, 98 CHAP. V.-THR LORD'S SUPPER A COMMEMORA- SECT. I.-The Parties holding Fellowship-Saints with the Saviour, 135 SECT. II.-The Parties holding Fellowship-Saints with each other, 151 SECT. III.-Means of Guarding Fellowship-Self-Examination, SECT. IV.-Means of Guarding Fellowship-Ecclesiastical Discipline, 189 SECT. I.-It will remain in Force till the Second Advent of Christ, . 234 SECT. II.-The Lord's Supper shall be Superseded at his Second THE LORD'S SUPPER. CHAPTER I. THE PASSOVER. SECT. I.-INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER. JERUSALEM, in ordinary circumstances, was comparatively tranquil: in the language of Isaiah it was 'a quiet habitation.'* The laws of Moses, with all their particularity, gave no directions about internal commerce; and a foreign trade, bringing Jews and Gentiles into ensnaring communication, was wholly antagonist to the genius of that economy. Besides, Jerusalem was not a sea-port town, nor did any considerable river flow in its vicinity, to facilitate intercourse with distant localities. Indeed, the holy city had ceased, in the days of our Lord, to be the capital of the country. Cæsarea, of Palestine, so called by Herod the Great, who enlarged and adorned it, in honour of his patron, Cæsar Augustus, had become the resi * Is. xxxiii. 20. B dence of the Roman governor, and was the principal seat of fashionable resort, and civil administration.* It may be supposed, then, that on common occasions the old metropolis was sufficiently quiescent, and wore something of a sombre and deserted appearance. But if a traveller, taking up his abode there, had remained for some months, he would have seen a wonderful alteration in the aspect of affairs. There were three annual feasts, named respectively the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, which all the males of the Jews were imperatively required to celebrate in the place which the Lord had chosen, to put his name there.' Besides these, there were two other annual feasts-those of Trumpets and Expiation, which were celebrated in Jerusalem; and though attendance on these last was voluntary, they were numerously frequented.† When any of these solemnities was at hand, it gave note of its approach. Houses of merchandise were taking in stores. The various sections of the priesthood were all activity about the temple. The streets resounded with the bleeting of sheep and the lowing of cattle that were *The principal city of Samaria, in the time of the Romans, was Cæsarea (Kysaryah), which, from its being the metropolis of Palestina Prima, and the seat of the Roman Proconsul, was named Cæsarea Palestinæ. It was formerly an insignificant place, called Turris Stratonis, and appears to have been originally a Greek colony. It derived all its importance from Herod, who built on the spot a magnificent city and port, calling it Cæsarea, in honour of Augustus Cæsar.'-Arrowsmith's Geography, p. 525. See Goodwin's Moses and Aaron, B. iii. c. 2; Jennings' Jewish Antiquities, B. iii. c. 2-8. |