CHAPTER 29
Of the Lord’s Supper.
I. Our Lord Jesus, in the night
wherein he was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of his body and blood,
called the Lord’s Supper, to be observed in his church unto the
end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of
himself in his death, the sealing all benefits thereof unto true believers,
their spiritual nourishment and growth in him, their further
engagement in and to all duties which they owe unto him, and to be
a bond and pledge of their communion with him, and with each other, as members
of his mystical body.a
a 1 Cor. 11:23-26; 1
Cor. 10:16,17,21; 1 Cor. 12:13.
II. In this sacrament Christ is
not offered up to his Father, nor any real sacrifice made at all for remission
of sins of the quick or dead;b
but only a commemoration of that one offering up of himself, by himself, upon
the cross, once for all, and a spiritual oblation of all possible
praise unto God for the same;c
so that the Popish sacrifice of the mass, as they call it, is most
abominably injurious to Christ’s one only sacrifice, the alone propitiation
for all the sins of the elect.d
b Heb.
9:22,25,26,28.
c 1 Cor. 11:24-26;
Matt. 26:26,27.
d Heb. 7:23,24,27;
Heb. 10:11,12,14,18.
III. The Lord Jesus hath, in
this ordinance, appointed his ministers to declare his word of institution to
the people, to pray, and bless the elements of bread and wine, and
thereby to set them apart from a common to a holy use; and to take
and break the bread, to take the cup, and (they communicating also themselves)
to give both to the communicants;e
but to none who are not then present in the congregation.f
e Matt. 26:26-28 and
Mark 14:22-24 and Luke 22:19,20 with 1 Cor. 11:23-26.
f Acts 20:7; 1 Cor.
11:20.
IV. Private masses, or
receiving this sacrament by a priest, or any other, alone;g as likewise the denial of the cup to the people;h
worshipping 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.i
g 1 Cor. 10:16.
h Mark 14:23; 1 Cor.
11:25-29.
i Matt. 15:9.
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;k
albeit, in substance and nature, they still remain truly and only bread and
wine, as they were before.l
k Matt. 26:26-28.
l 1 Cor. 11:26-28;
Matt. 26:29.
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; overthroweth the nature
of the sacrament; and hath been and is the cause of manifold
superstitions, yea, of gross idolatries.m
m Acts
3:21
with 1 Cor. 11:24-26; Luke 24:6,39.
VII. Worthy receivers,
outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this sacrament,n
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 and wine; yet
as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that
ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.o
n 1 Cor. 11:28.
o 1 Cor. 10:16.
VIII. Although ignorant and
wicked men receive the outward elements in this sacrament, yet they receive
not the thing signified thereby; but by their unworthy coming
thereunto are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, to their
own damnation. Wherefore all ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit
to enjoy communion with him, so are they unworthy of the Lord’s
table, and cannot, without great sin against Christ, while they
remain such, partake of these holy mysteries,p
or be admitted thereunto.q
p 1 Cor. 11:27-29; 2
Cor. 6:14-16.
q 1 Cor. 5:6,7,13; 2
Thess. 3:6,14,15; Matt. 7:6.
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Westminster
Confession of Faith (index)
