_"I have
received of the Lord,"_ he says, _"that which I delivered to you."_
By this expression it is often thought that a miraculous
communication is implied; but certainly without good reason, if it is
remembered that St. Paul was living in the lifetime of all the
apostles who could give him an account of the transaction; and it is
contrary to all reason to suppose that God should work a miracle to
convey information that could so easily be got by natural means. So
that the import of the expression is that he had received the story
of an eye-witness such as we also possess.
But there is a material circumstance which diminishes our
confidence in the correctness of the Apostle's view; and that is, the
observation that his mind had not escaped the prevalent error of the
primitive church, the belief, namely, that the second coming of
Christ would shortly occur, until which time, he tells them, this
feast was to be kept. Elsewhere he tells them, that, at that time
the world would be burnt up with fire, and a new government
established, in which the Saints would sit on thrones; so slow were
the disciples during the life, and after the ascension of Christ, to
receive the idea which we receive, that his second coming was a
spiritual kingdom, the dominion of his religion in the hearts of men,
to be extended gradually over the whole world.
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