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 the spiritualized passover, but do not specify the time.  It might have ceased with some of them, they say, 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 instructions 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 it in those times, that is, till they should find by the substantial enjoyment of Christ in their hearts, that ceremonial ordinances belonged to the old, but that they were not constituent parts of the new kingdom.

SECT.  VI.

Quakers believe, from the preceding evidence, that Jesus Christ intended no ceremonial for the Christian church—­for if the custom enjoined was the passover spiritualized, it was more suitable for Jews than Gentiles—­If intended as a ceremonial, it would have been commanded by Jesus to others besides his disciples, and by these to the Christian world—­and its duration would not have been limited—­Quakers believe St. Paul thought it no Christian ordinance—­three reasons taken from his own writings on this subject.

The Quakers then, on an examination of the preceding evidence, are of opinion that Jesus Christ, at the passover-supper, never intended to institute any new supper, distinct from that of the passover, or from that enjoined at Capernaum, to be observed as a ceremonial by Christians.

For, in the first place, St. Matthew, who was at the supper, makes no mention of the words “do this in remembrance of me.”

Neither are these words, nor any of a similar import, recorded by St. Mark.  It is true indeed that St. Mark was not at this supper.  But it is clear he never understood from those who were, either that they were spoken, or that they bore this meaning, or he would have inserted them in his Gospel.

Nor is any mention made of such words by St. John.  This was the beloved disciple who was more intimate with Jesus, and who knew more of the mind of his master, than any of the others.  This was he who leaned upon his bosom at the passover-supper, and who must have been so near him as to have heard all that passed there.  And. yet this disciple did not think it worth his while, except manuscripts have been mutilated, to mention even the bread and wine that were used upon this occasion.