THE LORD'S SUPPER, A FEAST AFTER SACRIFICE. WITH INQUIRIES INTO THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSUBSTANTIATION AND THE PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT AS APPLIED TO THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE. BY JAMES BOOTH, LL.D., F.R.S., F.R.A.S. &c. VICAR OF STONE, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. LONDON: 1870. 138. f. 108. PREFACE. IN ANY RATIONAL ATTEMPT to establish the true nature of the Lord's Supper, our chief reliance must be placed on the brief narratives of the four Evangelists and of St. Paul, supplemented by a knowledge of the language, history, antiquities, and customs not only of the Jews but also of the contemporary heathen nations of the East. These will supply the materials which we must put together so as to build up that doctrine, and draw those inferences which would seem most likely to be true. We must bear in mind that our access to those materials—at least, to any that are of real importance-is as full and open as it was to the early ecclesiastical writers. In many points our advantages are greater. In the art of printing, facilities of travelling, more general and more precise knowledge of the ancient languages, but above all, in the accumulated stores of learning-the fruit of the choicest mental gifts, devoted for centuries past to the |