A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3) by Thomas Clarkson
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Thomas Clarkson >> A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3)
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The Quakers believe, as a farther argument in their favour, that there
is reason to presume that St. Paul never looked upon the spiritualised
passover as any permanent and essential rite, which Christians were
enjoined to follow. For nothing can be more clear than that, when
speaking of the guilt and hazard of judging one another by meats and
drinks, he states it as a general and fundamental doctrine of
Christianity, that [189] "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but
righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
[Footnote 189: Romans 14. 17.]
It seems also by the mode of reasoning which the Apostle adopts in his
epistle to the Corinthians on this subject, that he had no other idea of
the observance of this rite, than he had of the observance of particular
days, namely, that if men thought they were bound in conscience to keep
them, they ought to keep them religiously. "He that regardeth a day,
says the Apostle, regardeth it to the Lord." That is, "as he that
esteemed a day, says Barclay, and placed conscience in keeping it, was
to regard it to the Lord, (and so it was to him, in so far as he
regarded it to the Lord, the Lord's day,) he was to do it worthily: and
if he were to do it unworthily, he would be guilty of the Lord's day,
and so keep it to his own condemnation." Just in the same manner St.
Paul tells the Corinthian Jews, that if they observed the ceremonial of
the passover, or rather, "as often as they observed it," they were to
observe it worthily, and make it a religious act. They were not then
come together to make merry on the anniversary of the deliverance of
their ancestors from Egyptian bondage, but to meet in memorial of
Christ's sufferings and death. And therefore, if they ate and drank the
passover, under its new and high allusions, unworthily, they profaned
the ceremony, and were guilty of the body and blood of Christ.
It appears also from the Syriac, and other oriental versions of the New
Testament, such as the Arabic and Ethiopic, as if he only permitted the
celebration of the spiritualized passover for a time in condescension to
the weakness of some of his converts, who were probably from the Jewish
synagogue at Corinth. For in the seventeenth verse of the eleventh
chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians, the Syriac runs thus:
[190] "As to that, concerning which I am now instructing you, I commend
you not, because you have not gone forward, but you have gone down into
matters of less importance." "It appears from hence, says Barclay, that,
the Apostle was grieved, that such was their condition that he was
forced to give them instruction concerning these outward things, and
doting upon which they showed that they were not gone forward in the
life of Christianity, but rather sticking in the beggarly elements; and
therefore the twentieth verse of the same version has it thus:
[191]'When then ye meet together, ye do not do it as it is just ye
should in the day of the Lord; ye eat and drink.' Therefore showing to
them, that to meet together to eat and drink outward bread and wine, was
not the labour and work of that day of the Lord."
[Footnote 190: The Syriac is a very ancient version, and as respectable
or of as high authority as any. Leusden and Schaaf translate the Syriac
thus: "Hoc autem, quod praecipio, non tanquam laudo vos, quia non
progressi estis, sed ad id, quod minus est, descendistis." Compare this
with the English edition.]
[Footnote 191: Quum igitur congregamini, non sicut justum est die domini
nostri, comeditis et bibites. Leusden et Schaaf lordoni butavorum.]
Upon the whole, in whatever light the Quakers view the subject before
us, they cannot _persuade_ themselves that Jesus Christ intended to
establish any new _ceremonial_, distinct from the passover-supper, or
which should render null and void, (as it would be the tendency of all
ceremonials to do) the supper which he had before commanded at
Capernaum. The only supper which he ever enjoined to Christians, was the
latter. This spiritual supper was to be eternal and universal. For he
was always to be present with those "who would let him in, and they were
to sup with him, and he with them." It was also to be obligatory, or an
essential, with all Christians. "For except a man were to eat his flesh,
and to drink his blood, he was to have no life in him." The supper, on
the other hand, which our Saviour is supposed to have instituted on the
celebration of the passover, was not enjoined by him to any but the
disciples present. And it was, according to the confession of St. Paul,
to last only for a time. This time is universally agreed upon to be that
of the coming of Christ. That is, the duration of the spiritualized
passover was to be only till those to whom it had been recommended, had
arrived at a state of religious manhood, or till they could enjoy the
supper which Jesus Christ had commanded at Capernaum; after which
repast, the Quakers believe they would consider all others as empty, and
as not having the proper life and nourishment in them, and as of a kind
not to harmonize with the spiritual nature of the Christian religion.
END OF THE SECOND VOLUME
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