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    the subject of our late discourse ; the death of & Mrs . tool , of Brixton , to whom , it is stated , that a person , called the Rev . J . Evans , had been in the habit of ad minis * tering the Lord ' s , Supper during

    her severe indisposition . —Now , Sir , you must know , my friend had been oppugning the holy ceremonies of our religion , he considered thorn only applicable to circumstances and adapted to the

    then gross ideas of the Jews ; iC but Christianity ( said he ) is a spiritual religion—a religion of the mind , and free from all these carnal ordinances which neither

    you nor your fathers were able to bear . '' The above cited article was alone sufficient to confute ail his argument , it was a dam that turned the torrent of his declamation on himself—Mr . Evans had been in the habit of

    administering the Lord ' s Supper!—Alas Sir , J saw that however Christian teachers may reprobate carnal ordinances ^ yet Jesus , the Pope , and Priestley have all found them necessary ;—strange inconsistency to browbeat Moses and baptise Aaron .

    But now that \ ye have- come to the same conclusion , that forms and ceremonies are necessary to religion , the only question between ' us is , whether Je ^ us or Moses , as an institutor of diviae ordinances

    is to be preferred ; with your permission I shall attempt to argue thjs point . And to go no farther than the subject before me , the institution of the Lord ' s supper , we have in that the mo § t staking proof of the utter incapacity of Jesus to supersede Moses . Mark Sir , he meets together with his Apostles to celebrate one of the many splendid

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    events with which the history of our nation abounds ; he personates the master of the family , takes the cup , gives thanks , and commands them to divide it a ^ mong themselves ; he then takes

    the bread , gives thanks , breaks it and presents it unto them , saying , u this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me , " the cup is again handed

    round after supper , and thus ends the account ( See Luke ) . Jfow , do this in femembrance of me , is the sole command given , and y et in these six words of the most vasue

    and indeterminate nature , an authority is supposed to be conveyed sufficient to establish this nevr and portentous ordinance on the ruins of that which was laid down by our Lawgiver in the most positive manner , and with that perspicuity which marks the messenger of heaven ai > d bespeaks his divine authority . Excuse me if I dwell more particularly o \\ this strange mode of establishing the ceremonials of religion ; "do this in remembrance of me ; " do what ? eat the bread and drink the wine , say Christians , yet if I can make any thing of this command I should have

    thought it was the bread alone ; for though the wine was given , be ? fore and after the bread yet Jesus gave no command for that to be done in remembrance of him . Again , how often was this ceremony to be celebrated ? weekly , monthly , yearly or septennially r your Lawgiver has not told you . How long was if to be continued } if Jesus intended it to be perpetual he has not so expressed it : but who , it may be j rsked , are to assume the priestly office and administer thi 9 § acramcnt ? the com-

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    Argument against Christianity . 361

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1809, page 361, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1738/page/7/