The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 11

"priest," "&!tu," with a prejudice, They were once God's ordinance. Are they 80 -fltill ? The Lord's Supper is manifestly a modification of the ancient prospective uorificial system, for the edification of the Church in retrospect. In what particulars, as regards .directions actually recorded, does the institution given under Mount Sinai differ from the Saviour's institution? In both the Saviour is typified by food at a meal. But in the latter there is no direction e.s to an "offering;" neither is the Church nor the individual instructed to "present• the bread and the wine before God, as under the former sacrificial system. There is no direction as to animal food; indeed, practically it is prohibited. There is, therefore, no ritual of blood. There is no command to confess sins in connection with an offering, as when under the older dispensation the offerer laid his hand on the head of the victim. There is no command to burn a portion of the food in the sacred fire; no sa.cred fire is vouchsafed, Hence no altar of the same character as the Jewish altar, is required; nor is one mentioned by the Saviour. There is no mention made of a priest; those who were commanded to per- petuate the ordinance were not called c.,hens by Christ, but "apostles," missionaries. Nearly all the actual ancient sacrificial duties, both of priest and people, were practically abrogated at the institution of the Lord's Supper, the only point authoritatively pre- served being the partaking of the mincha,h with wine. The Lord's Supper, then, in. that it is a typical feast, a part of the ancient feast, picturing the blessed Redeemer in his sacrifice for the life of the world-" This is my body, which is given for you;" " This is my blood of the new covenant "-has most distinctly a sacrificial aspect; but it is denuded of almost all the observances peculiar to the ancient sacrificial feast. It points to the same offering as the old-world sacrifices, and by the same method, but accompanied, as it is apparently intended to be, with much less elaborate circumstance. An adaptation, however, of the more ancient sacrificial system it most manifestly is; such an adaptation. as seemed to him, who is the All-wise, best fitted for the edification of the future Church. But is it not evident that, by the method of our Saviour's institution, many details were left to be otherwise determined? Nothing caa be more distinct than the matter, the form, and the intention of the Lord's Supper; but there is no direction as to the how, the when, or the where. Under the Mosaic dispensation every, the most minute, particular was provided for by Divine ordinance. Time, place, person, and manner are most exhaustively described. But our Saviour did not in like manner appoint the priest, the vestments, the accompaniments, the ritual of the Holy Meal. The com- mission," Do this in remembrance of me,'' was given. to the sacred society of apostles, or missionaries, who afterwards received that further commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." They, therefore, were the first -celebrants; but their exact method of procedure has not been handed down. to us. They were inspired men; had they subsequently any Divine directions? All we know on this matter is found in 1 Cor. xL Were the apostles left to their private judgments as to the arrangements necessary for the suitable celebration of the Lord's :Supper? or were they divinely directed? We cannot know. But we do know that very early in the history of the Church the Lord's Supper was separated from the "8.gapa-, and administered at a special service; that at this service there were customs which seem to be a modified revival of the customs of the ancient sacrificial system, notably the confession of sins by the congregation, and the public declaration of God's acceptance on repentance. It could not have escaped the early Christians, especially .the Jewish converts, that the Lord's Supper (established, too, as it had been, during the -observance of the most significant and important of the Jewish sacrificial feasts) was 11  AN ESSAY ON SACRIFICE. x!H