Chapter 30: Of the Lord's Supper

Our Lord Jesus in the night wherein he was betrayed, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood, called the Lords Supper, to be observed in his Churches to the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance, and shewing forth of the Sacrifice of himself in his death, the sealing of all benefits thereof to true believers, their spiritual nourishment, and growth in him, their further ingagement in and to all duties which they owe to him, and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with him, and with each other.

II.

In this Sacrament Christ is not offered up to his Father, nor any real sacrifice made at all for remission of sin of the quick or dead, but only a memorial of that one offering up of himself by himself upon the Cross once for all, and a spiritual oblation of all possible praise to God for the same; so that the Popish sacrifice of the Mass (as they call it) is most abominable, injurious to Christ's own only sacrifice, the alone propitiation for all the sins of the elect.

III.

The Lord Jesus has in this ordinance appointed his ministers to pray and bless the elements of bread and wine, and thereby to set them apart from a common to an holy use, and to take and break the bread, to take the cup, and (they communicating also themselves) to give both to the communicants, but to none who are not then present in the congregation.

IV.

Private Masses, or receiving the Sacrament by a priest, or any other alone, as likewise the denial of the cup to the people, worshiping the elements, the lifting them up, or carrying them about for adoration, and the reserving them for any pretended religious use, are all contrary to the nature of this Sacrament, and to the institution of Christ.

V.

The outward elements in this Sacrament duly set apart to the uses ordained by Christ, have such relation to him crucified, as that truly, yet sacramentally only, they are sometimes called by the name of the things they represent, to wit, the Body and Blood of Christ; albeit in substance and nature they still remain truly and only bread and wine as they were before.

VI.

That doctrine which maintains a change of the substance of bread and wine into the substance of Christ's Body and Blood (commonly called Transubstantiation) by consecration of a priest, or by any other way, is repugnant not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason, overthrows the nature of the Sacrament, and has been, and is the cause of manifold superstitions, yes of gross idolatries.

VII.

Worthy receivers outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this Sacrament, do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive and feed upon Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death; the Body and Blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally in, with, or under the bread or wine; yet as really, but spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.

VIII.

All ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with Christ, so are they unworthy of the Lords Table, and cannot without great sin against him, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries, or be admitted thereunto; yes, whoever shall receive unworthily, are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord, eating and drinking judgment to themselves.