|


| |
|
Chapter 29:
Of the Lord’s Supper
29:1 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 (1Co_10:16,
1Co_10:17,
1Co_10:21;
1Co_11:23-26;
1Co_12:13).
29:2 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 the
dead ( Heb_9:22,
Heb_9:25,
Heb_9:26,
Heb_9:28);
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 (Mat_26:26,
Mat_26:27;
1Co_11:24-26):
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 His elect (Heb_7:23,
Heb_7:24,
Heb_7:27;
Heb_10:11,
Heb_10:12,
Heb_10:14,
Heb_10:18).
29:3 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
( Mat_26:26-28,
and Mar_14:22-24,
and Luk_22:19,
Luk_22:20,
with 1Co_11:23-27);
but to none who are not then present in the congregation (Act_20:7;
1Co_11:20).
29:4 Private masses, or receiving this sacrament by a priest or any
other alone ( 1Co_10:6);
as likewise, the denial of the cup to the people (Mar_4:23;
1Co_11:25-29),
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
(Mat_15:9).
29:5 The outward elements in this sacrament, duly set apart to the
uses ordained be 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 ( Mat_26:26-28)
albeit in substance and nature they still remain truly and only bread and
wine, as they were before (Mat_26:29;
1Co_11:26-28).
29:6 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 ( Luk_24:6,
Luk_24:39;
Act_3:21
with 1Co_11:24-26).
29:7 Worthy receivers outwardly partaking of the visible elements
in this sacrament ( 1Co_11:28),
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 (1Co_10:16).
29:8 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 ( 1Co_11:27-29;
2Co_6:14-16),
or be admitted thereunto (Mat_7:6;
1Co_5:6,
1Co_5:7,
1Co_5:13;
2Th_3:6,
2Th_3:14,
2Th_3:15).
|
|