There was good
reason for his personal friends to remember their friend and repeat
his words. It was only too probable that among the half converted
Pagans and Jews, any rite, any form, would find favor, whilst yet
unable to comprehend the spiritual character of Christianity.
The circumstance, however, that St. Paul adopts these views,
has seemed to many persons conclusive in favor of the institution. I
am of opinion that it is wholly upon the epistle to the Corinthians,
and not upon the Gospels, that the ordinance stands. Upon this
matter of St. Paul's view of the Supper, a few important
considerations must be stated.
The end which he has in view, in the eleventh chapter of the
first epistle is, not to enjoin upon his friends to observe the
Supper, but to censure their abuse of it. _We_ quote the passage
now-a-days as if it enjoined attendance upon the Supper; but he wrote
it merely to chide them for drunkenness. To make their enormity
plainer he goes back to the origin of this religious feast to show
what sort of feast that was, out of which this riot of theirs came,
and so relates the transactions of the Last Supper.
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