For this bread fills
and satisfies. By extinguishing all carnal desires, it leaves neither
hunger nor thirst after worldly things. It redeems from the pollutions
of sin. It so quickens as to raise from death to life, and it gives
therefore to man a sort of new and divine nature, so that he can dwell
in Christ and Christ in him.
This supper, which consists of this manna, or bread, or of this flesh
and blood, may be enjoyed by Christians in various ways. It may be
enjoyed by them in pious meditations on the Divine Being, in which the
soul of man may have communion with the spirit of God, so that every
meditation may afford it a salutary supper, or a celestial feast. It may
be enjoyed by them when they wait upon God in silence, or retire into
the light of the Lord, and receive those divine impressions which
quicken and spiritualize the internal man. It may be enjoyed by them in
all their several acts of obedience to the words and doctrines of our
Saviour. Thus may men everyday, nay, every hour, keep a communion at the
Lord's table, or communicate, or sup, with Christ.
SECT. III.
_The question then is, whether Jesus Christ instituted any new supper,
distinct from that of the passover, (and which was to render null and
void that enjoined at Capernaum) to be observed as a ceremonial by
Christians--Quakers say, that no such institution can be collected from
the accounts of Matthew, or of Mark, or of John--The silence of the
latter peculiarly impressive in the present case.
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