Calvin, however,
confessed himself unable to explain even this his own doctrine. For he
says, "if it be asked me how it is, that is, how believers sacramentally
receive Christ's body and blood? I shall not be ashamed to confess, that
it is a secret too high for me to comprehend in my spirit, or explain in
words."
But independently of the difficulties which have arisen from these
different notions concerning the nature and constitution of the Lord's
supper, others have arisen concerning the time and the manner of the
celebration of it.
The Christian churches of the east, in the early times, justifying
themselves by tradition and the custom of the passover, maintained that
the fourteenth day of the month Nissan ought to be observed as the day
of the celebration of this feast, because the Jews were commanded to
kill the Paschal Lamb on that day. The western, on the other hand,
maintained the authority of tradition and the primitive practice, that
it ought to be kept on no other day than that of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. Disputes again of a different complexion agitated the
Christian world upon the same subject. One church contended that the
leavened, another that unleavened bread only should be used upon this
occasion: others contended, whether the administration of this sacrament
should be by the hands of the clergy only: others, whether it should not
be confined to the sick: others, whether it should be given to the young
and mature promiscuously: others, whether it should be received by the
communicant standing, sitting, or kneeling, or as the Apostles received
it: and others, whether it should be administered in the night time as
by our Saviour, or whether in the day, or whether only once, as at the
passover, or whether oftener in the year.
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