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    tnand was solely to the Apostles * thry , I suppose , are the Levitical tribe ; yet if we should be disposed U > admit their descendants

    to exercise the sacerdotal function , I fear the succession is lost , and that even the Rev . J . Evans will find it as difficult to trace his lineal descent from the Apostles as his holiness the Pope from Peter . Again , Sir , as a Jew I

    should have thought this a social ordinance , in which no provision is made for the sick or absent , but my construction would have been wrong , since thte Rev . J . Evans is obliged to travel from Islington * lo Brixton to carry Mrs . Pool the Lord's Supper .

    But why should I labour to enforce this point , the endless disputes and heterogeneous opinions that 3 our Christian brethren have held in all ages concerning this ordinance prove that Jesus has left it vague $ equivocal and incomprehensible .

    And it is not a little remarkable , that on this very subject the same imbecility is manifested by the apostles and writers of the Christian history ; for ' Matthew , who was present at ihis supper , has neglected altogether to give the command of Jesu * to observe it ; Mark is guilty of the same unpardonable omission ; Luke , who was not there , and who onl y tells the tale from whut he had ¦ i heard of others , does , it is true , give the command , which , entre nous , he might as well have spared , for nobody understands it ; but John , who tells you he leant on Jesub ' s breast at supper * jtime , most likely fell asleep , since the whole of this stupendous ordinance slipt by without his no-

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    tice , or most assuredl y he would have related it . And now we conic to Paul , Vyho is supposed to have received his account from heaven , which truly he stood in need of , if the above were the most correct historians extant : — he ,- it is certain , is more circumstantial ; he has given you the cup , and though you are not tol 4

    how often to drink , yet whenever you choose to take it you shew forth the Lord ' s death till he come , —but after ail Paul has only involved the subject in greater obscurity , for to be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord , to eat and drink damnation to oneself , to discern the Lord ' s body , to incur death or sickness for u-n wort hi ness at this

    particular ceremony ^ is a species of acroamatical polyphonism , intelligible to none but a Catholic . If such is the nature of divine commands among Christians , and such the authority on which they rest , I am no longer surprised that your forefathers in the name of God should have confiscated

    our property and plundered our Synagogues to enrich and decor , ate your churches and communion-fables . Permit me once more to tresi pass on your patience , by ^ everting to the example of Moses as a Lawgiver , and prejudiced indeed must be that man ib whose breast no sympathetic chord is found to vibrate in unison with those scnti ? ments with which I feel jnyself inspired on this occasion— his laws were not given to a few

    friends in the privacy of the chamber , —his institutions were not made regardless of time , place and manner , — his

    com-* If my friend ha * fghtiy i n formed jqae , Islington \ s the place of his abode ..

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    362 v Argument against Christianity .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1809, page 362, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1738/page/8/