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    fond 3 and they are generally supp osed to have laid an inordinate stress on the mer itorious virtue of their sacrificed animal victims :

    thinking them to be peculiarly acceptable to the God whom they worshiped , and to be sufficiently efficacious to compensate even for their immoral as well as for their ceremonial

    transgressions . Is it then any matter of wonder to find the mixed members of the infant church in Corinth entertaining" some such persuasion ? And under its influence , with their having heard that Jesus had sacrificed himself for the benefit of his

    followers , would they not be naturally aild strongly induced to consult the founder of their society to ascertain whether , in their Christian worship , they were bound to respect the death of Christ as having ( like their

    ancient sacrifices , ) any sacrifical or federal influence and efficacy for gaining the future and final favour and acceptance of Almighty God ? From a regard both to his own recent prejudices and engagements , and to those of the Corinthian converts , we should

    expect to find the apostle ' s reply to be exactly such as we now find it ; that is to say , peculiarly cautious , mild and tender ;—not enjoining on his correspondents any precise or specific duty , but simply informing them what w ; ould and ought to be the certain effects of their eucharistic

    devotions or Christian worship . Commemorating and shewing the Lord ' s death , are doubtless two different acts or things ; for such was evidently the apostle's distinction . The former ( which was probably the notion entertained by the Corinthian worshipers , ) seems to imply an estimate and recollection of the

    certainty and expiatory virtue , efficacy and benefits of Christ ' s death during its access , and home to its actual accomplishment . The latter , on the other hand , might only denote a declaration of the early

    resuit or issue of that death , together with its appointed , necfessary and beneficial tendency to ( what it actuall y and soon attained / namely ) a resurrection from the dead . And nence St . Paul , without enjoining t « e stated commemoration of the

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    death of Christ , seems to have been fully warranted in the implied distinction he made between " commemorating" and " shewing the Lord ' s death ; " and also in the ground aud reason of the instruction , on this

    point , which he gave to his Corinthian correspondents : — As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death ; ' * ( i . e . ) C € your eucharistic and devotional acts , or your Christian worship ,

    plainly shew and declare the actual result and beneficial tendency of your Lord ' s death . This , it is presumed , is the true and accurate meaning of this apostolic reflection on the eucharistic rite ; being fairly justified by the circumstances in which it was

    penned , and also by the true sense of the original w , ords in which it was expressed : for - ^ XP ^ ° ^ av sXQtj connected , as it ought to be , with its subject , ( d&valosy and not Kvpio $ , should have been rendered into the

    following English terms : " The Lord ' s death ye shew" [ not " till he ( Jesus Christ ) come , " but ] " to what it went or tended . " If the elliptic phrase , Avp ; £ aw ov be supplied and

    completed , as Mr . Wakefield did to the writer of this critique , it would assume this form , * A % pi $ av ntpog ov ( TKOits e \ 6 y ) > and might then be translated , in its reference to or connexion

    with O Srccvofl os , " to what issue , object or termination it went or did go . " For the verb s \ Qy ] 9 being the second Aorist , may be rendered by the preterimperfect tense as well as by the future . This 26 th verse , which is subjoined to the apostle Paul ' s eucharistic record , is often

    cited to prove the perpetuity ; but relative to the Corinthian Christians , this application of the words would have been quite irrelevant or incongruous ; for the Corinthian worshipers were censured for the intemperate and indecent use of our Lord ' s

    rite , but not for its omission or infrequent observance . And the period prescribed for its duration is expressed in a term so extremely indefinite and ambiguous , that the most learned and pious divines are at a loss to ascertain its true extent and meaning . P-K .

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    Miscellaneous Notes intended to explain the Christian Eucharist . 751

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1815, page 751, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1767/page/23/