LORD’S SUPPER. 
£lie real dignitaries of the church ; hence it is we frequently 
meet with entries of diminutive habits and ornaments in 
the church inventories : as, tina viitra parva, cum petris, pro 
epifcopo puerorum ; that is, “a fmall mitre, with jewels, for 
the bifliop of the boys.” Invent. York Cathedral. See 
alfo Dugdale’s Hift. of St. Paul’s, p. 205.—After the death 
Of Mary, this filly mummery was totally difcontinued. 
Strutt's Sports and Pafiimes, b. iv. ch. 3. 
LORD NORTH’S I'SLAND, a fmall low and uninha¬ 
bited ifland in the Pacific Ocean, fo called in 1781. It 
fias alfo been called Nevil's Ifland, and JohnJion's IJland. 
Lat. 3. 8. N. Ion. 131. 12. E. 
LORD’S SUP'PER, commonly called the Commu¬ 
nion, one of the facraments in the Chriftian church ; 
<n the proteftant chufches but one other rite is called 
a facrament , which is baptifm. The fourth council 
of Lateran decrees, that every believer (hall receive 
the Lord’s Supper, at leaf!, at Eafter; which feems to 
■import a tacit defire that they fliould do it oftener, as 
in effeft they did much oftener in the primitive days. 
Cratian, and the Mafter of the Sentences, prefcribe it as 
yule for the laity, to communicate three times a-year ; at 
Eafter, Whitfuntide, and Chriftmas. But in the thir¬ 
teenth century, the practice was got on foot, never to ap¬ 
proach the Lord’s table except at Eafter; and the council 
thought fit to enjoin it then by a law, left the coldnefs 
and remiffnefs fliould go farther ft ill. The council of 
Trent renewed the fame injunction, and recommended 
frequent communion, without enforcing it by an exprefs 
decree. In the ninth century, the communion was ftill 
received by the laity in both kinds; or rather the fpecies 
of bread was dipped in the wine, as is owned by the Ro- 
manifts themfelves. M. de Marca obferves, that they re¬ 
ceived itatfirftintheirhands; andibelieves the communion 
Cinder one kind alone to have had its rife in the Weft under 
pope Urban, 1096, at the time of the conqueft of the Holy 
Land ; and it was more folemnly enjoined by the coun¬ 
cil of Conftance in 1414''. The twenty-eighth canon of the 
council of Clermont enjoins the communion to be received 
under both kinds, diftinftly; adding, however, two ex¬ 
ceptions ; the one of neceftity, the other of caution : the 
firft in favour of the fick, the fecond of the abftemious, 
or thofe who had an averfion for wine. It was formerly 
a kind of canonical- puniftiment, for clerks guilty of any 
crime, to be reduced to lay ■communion, i.e. only to receive 
as the laity did, viz. under one kind. 
It is an important doFrrine of the Romifti church, that 
the words of the pried: tranfubftantiate the bread and the 
wine into the body and blood of Chrift. Hence, in that 
church, proceeds the cuftom of taking the facred wafer 
in the kneeling pofture, the pofture of adoration : hence 
too, in the church of England, that embraces the doctrine 
of the divinity of Chrift, the confecrnted bread is re¬ 
ceived in the fame pofture of adoration, kneeling : whereas 
the Socinians, who believe that Chrift is only a man, and 
a few other Chriftians, receive it fitting. 
Some inftances occur in the early ages of the church, of 
the praffice of adminiftering the eucharift to infants ; and 
fome few have imitated this praflice in more modern times. 
Mr. Pierce pleads the ufe of it even to this day among the 
Greeks, and in the Bohemian churches, till near the time 
of the reformation; and he refers to the ufage of the an¬ 
cient churches, recorded by Photius, Augultine, and Cy¬ 
prian. He urges from Scripture the right which children 
have to all the privileges of which they are capable, as 
well as the Jewilh children under the law, who were al¬ 
lowed to eat of the pafiover, and other facrifices; and he 
replies to the objedlion founded on the incapacity of in¬ 
fants to examine themfelves, and difeern the Lord's body, 
(1 Cor. xi. 28, 29.) by obferving, that the precept extends 
only to thofe who were capable of underftanding and 
complying with it; on the fame ground that faith is re¬ 
quired previous to baptifm. So children were circum- 
ciied, who could not underftand the reafon of it, and the 
fame alfo did eat the pafiover; and fo did children bap- 
yop.XIII. No. 934. 
0<5& 
tized, in the primitive church, communicate In the Lord’s 
Supper. But it has been alleged, that the foundation of 
this practice was a miftaken apprehenfion of the abfolute 
necellity of this ordinance in order to falvation, refulting 
from an erroneous interpretation of John vi. 53. 
From the early accounts of this ceremony, it is unquef- 
tionable, that it received its origin from the laft paffover- 
fupper which Chrift ate with his difciples ; at which time, 
agreeable to the cuftom of the jews at their ordinary meals, 
(and continued to this day, every fabbath-night,) Chrift took 
bread, and bleffed it, or gave thanks, and afterwards gave 
thanks for the wine. At the paffover-fupper, it was ufual 
for the mafter of the houfe to break the bread into mor- 
fels and to deliver it to the guefts, in commemoration of 
the deliverance of the Jews out of Egypt, faying, “This 
is the bread of affli&ion, which your fathers did eat in 
Egypt.” In allufion to this cuftom, Chrift faid, “This 
do in remembrance of me," fpeaking to perfons (Jews) in 
the habit of praftifing Inch ceremonies; and, in order 
to preferve the diftintlion from ike body of the pafover, (for 
fo the lamb was called,) he faid, “ Take eat, this is my body" 
In the new edition of Calmet’s Didlionary of the Bible, 
Fragment CIX. we have the following paflage : “ It will 
be obferved of this loaf [engraved in that work], that it 
is divided into twelve parts ; I would not affirm, that the 
loaf ufed by our Lord at the eucharift was alfo divided 
into twelve parts; but, if it was, it (hows how conveni¬ 
ently it might be diftributed among his difciples; to each 
a part: and, pojjibly, may be thought to tend toward fet¬ 
tling the queftion whether judas partook of it? I con¬ 
ceive too, that fuch a divided loaf gives no improper com¬ 
ment on the paflage, We, being many, are one bread —many 
partakers, each having his portion from the fame loaf.’* 
1 Cor. x. 17. Upon referring to the article Eating, in 
the fame work, we find this paragraph. After deferibing 
certain Jewifli 'ceremonies at table, the author (ays, “ They 
take care, that after meals there (hall be a piece of bread, 
remaining on the table ; the mafter of the houfe orders a 
glafs to be waflied, fills it with wine, and, elevating it, 
fays, Let us blefs him of whofe benefits we have been partaking ; 
the reft anfvver, BleJJed be he, who has heaped favours on us, 
and by his goodnefs has now fed us. Then he recites a pretty 
long prayer; all prefent anfwer Amen! They recite 
Pfalm xxiv. 9, 10. Fear the Lord, 0 ye his faints, &c. Then, 
giving the glafs with the little wine in it to be drunk, 
round, he takes off what is left, and the table is cleared.’* 
By way of expofing a principle when carried too far in 
practice, we (hall infert the following quotation from 
“ Obfervations on a journey to Naples, 1704.” Does the cuf¬ 
tom ftill exift ? Is it not analogous to what Bruce relate6 
of Abyflinia ? Which is furtheft removed from the ori¬ 
ginal inftitution, the denial of the cup to the communi¬ 
cants, or the too frequent potations of its conteuts ? 
“ I will give you a relation here of what I have feen prac- 
tifed at Mentz in Germany, where I happened to be for 
two years together on Holy Thurfday. This day, after 
morning fervice, and waftring of feet, the archbifiiop, the 
great canons, and all the other prielts that ierve the ca¬ 
thedral, go in proceftion to a great hall, that is near tire 
church, which they call the chapter-houfe, there to ce¬ 
lebrate the (upper. The feculars, that are of rank, alfo 
enter. Great benches are placed round the hall, where the 
company feat themfelves ; in the midft is a great table, co¬ 
vered with a table-cloth, upon which are placed large cups, 
with other veffels full of wine, and a vaft quantity of °rear 
wafers, divided into pounds and half-pounds. The arch¬ 
bifiiop, arrayed in his pontifical habits,’reads aloud the gof- 
pel, and bleffes the bread and wine ; having taken his part 
of the wafers, which is two or three pounds, becaufe of 
his dignity, he goes and dirtributes to the reft, one pound 
to every grand canon, and half a pound to the reft. This 
they begin to eat. The archbiftiop in the mean time takes 
the cup, or rather it is held to him while he drinks; for 
it is fo large, and fo full of wine, that two of the canons 
can hardly fupport it. After he hath drunk, he fends it 
2 B round. 
