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These words the Quakers believe to have no reference to any new
institution; but they contain a recommendation to his disciples to meet
in a friendly manner, and break their bread together, in remembrance of
their last supper with him, or if as Jews, they could not all at once
leave off the custom of the passover, in which they had been born and
educated as a religious ceremony, to celebrate it, as he had then
modified and spiritualized it, with a new meaning.
If they relate to the breaking of their bread together, then they do not
relate to any passover or sacramental eating, but only to that of their
common meals; for all the passovers of Jesus Christ with his disciples
were in future to be spiritual. And in this sense the primitive
Christians seem to have understood the words in question. For in their
religious zeal they sold all their goods, and, by means of the produce
of their joint stock, they kept a common table, and lived together. But
in process of time, as this custom from various causes declined, they
met at each other's houses, or at their appointed places, to break their
bread together, in memorial of the passover-supper. This custom, it is
remarkable, was denominated the custom of _breaking of bread_. Nor could
it have had any other name so proper, if the narration of St. Luke be
true.
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