he possessed
was his own,' or appropriated them to his own use, but readily
parted with them for the supply of his brethren. There is no
evidence that the conduct of the Church of Jerusalem was followed by
any other Church, even in the apostolic age; but as far as it is an
example of generous love triumphing over the selfish affections, and
exciting men to pursue the welfare of others as their own, it is
worthy to be imitated to the end of the world."



29. Of the Lord's Supper

SECTION 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.

Exposition of 29.1

This chapter treats of the Lord's supper; and the present section
declares—1. The author of this sacrament; 2. The time of its
institution; 3. Its permanent continuance in the Church; 4. The uses
and ends for which it is designed.

I. The author of this sacrament is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the
prerogative of Christ, as king and head of the Church, to institute
religious ordinances; and we are not at liberty to add to, or to
diminish from, his appointments. The institution of this ordinance
by our Savior is recorded by the three first Evangelists (Matthew
26:26–28; Mark 14:22–24; Luke 22:19, 20), and by the Apostle Paul,
who declares that he "had received of the Lord that which he
delivered" to the Church.—1 Corinthians 11:23–26.

II. This sacrament was instituted by our Lord Jesus "the same night
in which he was betrayed." It was when Jesus was eating the Passover
with his disciples that he instituted this sacred ordinance; from
which circumstance we infer that the one was changed into the other,
and that the latter was henceforth to supply the place of the
former. This also accounts for the designation usually given to this
sacrament. Being instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ, and being
appointed by him immediately after eating the Passover, which was
always celebrated in the evening, it is with the utmost propriety
called the Lord's supper. When we reflect on the time of the
institution of this ordinance, we have a striking view of the
fortitude with which Jesus met his unparalleled sufferings, and of
the singular love which he cherished towards his people; and we
ought to feel the sacred obligation laid upon us to keep this feast.
On that night the Jewish rulers and the chief priests were met in
close cabal, to concert measures for apprehending Jesus, and
bringing him to an ignominious death. In that night he was to be
perfidiously betrayed by one of his own disciples, denied by
another, and abandoned by them all to the rage of his malicious
foes. He was to be smitten by the sword of Justice, and forsaken of
his God—to be cruelly mocked and scourged—to be led away to a cross,
and there to pour out his soul unto death. Of all this Jesus was
fully apprised; yet in the immediate view of the dreadful sufferings
he was about to undergo, such was the calm serenity of his mind,
such his matchless love to his people, and such his concern for
their spiritual benefit, that he instituted this ordinance for their
encouragement and consolation in all succeeding ages. Did he
remember them in such affecting circumstances?—and shall not this
engage them to remember him?—shall they undervalue, by a willful
neglect, an ordinance which he settled immediately before his death,
and disregard the dying command of that friend who laid down his
life for them?

III. The sacrament of the Lord's supper is to be observed in the
Church to the end of the world. This is plainly implied in the words
of the Apostle Paul: "For as often as you eat this bread, and drink
this cup, you do show the Lord's death until he come." 1 Corinthians
11:26. So universally has it been understood that the observance of
this ordinance is obligatory upon all Christians to the end of the
world, that, with the exception only of the Quakers, it has been
observed in the Christian Church from the earliest times to the
present day.

IV. The ends and uses of this sacrament are various. 1. It was
instituted to be a memorial of the death of Christ. That it is a
commemorative ordinance, appears from the Savior's words: "This do
in remembrance of me;" and that it is especially a memorial of his
death, is evident from his words in distributing the elements. While
he gave the bread to his disciples, he said: "This is my body, which
is broken for you;" and of the cup he said: "This cup is the New
Testament in my blood." The ordinance is eminently fitted to bring
to our remembrance the reality and the painful nature of the death
of Christ—to remind us of the vicarious nature of his death, of its
acceptableness to God as a satisfaction for our sins, and of its
present and perpetual efficacy. And we should remember his death
with a lively and appropriating faith; with ardent love to him who
first loved us; with deep contrition for our sins, the procuring
cause of his death; with holy joy in God; and with the warmest
gratitude to Christ, who gave himself for us an offering and a
sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. 2. This sacrament seals
the benefits of Christ's death unto true believers. It seals not the
truth of Christ's death, nor the truth of their faith; but it seals
the right and interest of faith, as the seal affixed to a deed seals
the right and interest of the person in the property conveyed by
that deed. 3. It promotes the spiritual nourishment and growth of
believers. A devout participation of this ordinance is fitted to
confirm and invigorate their faith, to inflame their love, to deepen
their godly sorrow, to enliven their joy, and to enlarge and
strengthen their hopes of the Savior's second coming, and of the
glory then to be revealed. 4. It is a sign and pledge of the
believers' communion with Christ. This is evident from the words of
Paul (1 Corinthians 10:16): "The cup of blessing which we bless, is
it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we
break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" These words
certainly import that, in the holy supper, believers have communion
with Christ in the fruits of his sufferings and death. 5. It is an
emblem of the saints' communion with each other. All true saints are
members of one body, and in the holy supper they have communion, not
merely with those who sit along with them at the same table, but
"with all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ,"
their common Lord. "We being many," says Paul, "are one bread, and
one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread." 1 Corinthians
10:17. This ordinance is very expressive of the communion of saints,
and has a powerful tendency to cherish it. They meet together at the
same table, as brethren and children of the same family, to partake
of the same spiritual feast. 6. In this ordinance believers engage
themselves to all the duties which they owe to Christ. They
acknowledge him as their master, and engage to do whatever he has
commanded them. Persons may come under engagements by performing
certain significant actions, as well as by express words. Submission
to the ordinance of circumcision, under the former dispensation,
made a man "a debtor to do the whole law." Baptism, in like manner,
under the Christian dispensation, involves an engagement to be the
Lord's; and Christians, in partaking of the Lord's supper, renew
this engagement. They acknowledge that they are not their own, but
are bought with a price, and bind themselves to glorify God with
their bodies and spirits which are his.

SECTION 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 dead; but only a commemoration of that one offering up of
him self, by himself, upon the cross, once for all, and a spiritual
oblation of all possible praise unto God for the same; so that the
Popish sacrifice of the mass, as they call it, is most abominably
injurious to Christ's one only sacrifice, the alone atoning
sacrifice for all the sins of the elect.

SECTION 3. The Lord Jesus has, 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; but to none who are not then present in
the congregation.

SECTION 4. Private masses, or receiving this 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.

SECTION 5. 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.

SECTION 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; overthrows the nature of the sacrament;
and has been and is the cause of manifold superstitions, yes, of
gross idolatries.

Exposition of 29.2–29.6

In these sections certain dangerous errors and superstitious
practices of the Church of Rome are condemned; and we have placed
all these sections together, that we may include the leading error,
called transubstantiation, which has given rise to the absurd
doctrine of the sacrifice of the mass, and the various other tenets
and practices here rejected.

I. The Church of Rome holds that the words, "This is my body," and,
"This is my blood," are to be understood in their most literal
sense; and that the priest, by pronouncing these words, with a good
intention, changes the substance of the bread and wine into the real
body and blood of Jesus Christ; which change is known by the name of
transubstantiation. This doctrine receives no support from
Scripture, but is founded on a gross perversion of its language. The
words, "This is my body," and, "This is my blood", were manifestly
used by our Savior in a figurative sense; and must have been so
understood by the apostles, to whom they were immediately addressed.
Such figurative expressions are of frequent occurrence in Scripture.
No one supposes that, when our Lord said, "I am the vine," "I am the
way," "I am the door," he meant us to understand that he is
literally a vine, a way, and a door; and no satisfactory reason can
be assigned for understanding the words of institution in a literal
sense. Our Savior plainly meant that the bread and wine signify or
represent his body and blood; and nothing is more common in
Scripture than to affix to a type or symbol the name of the thing
signified by it; thus circumcision is called God's covenant (Genesis
17:10); the paschal lamb, the Passover (Exodus. 12:11); and the
smitten rock, Christ.—1 Corinthians 10:4. But, not only is the
doctrine of transubstantiation destitute of any support from the
inspired writings, it is repugnant to Scripture; for the Apostle
Paul gives to the elements after blessing the very same names they
had before it; which certainly intimates that there is no change of
their substance.—1 Corinthians 11:26, 28. It is also contradicted by
our senses; for we see and taste that the bread and wine after
blessing, and when we actually receive them, still continue to be
bread and wine, without any change or alteration whatever. It is
equally repugnant to reason; for this tells us that Christ's body
cannot be both in Heaven and on earth at the same time; but
according to the Popish doctrine of transubstantiation, though the
body of Christ remains in Heaven, it is also present, not in one
place on earth only, but in a thousand places—wherever the priest
has, with a good intention, pronounced the words of institution.
This doctrine likewise overthrows the nature of the sacrament. Two
things are necessary to a sacrament—a sign and a thing signified—an
object presented to our senses, and some promised blessing which is
represented and sealed by it. But by transubstantiation the sign is
annihilated, and the thing signified is put in its place.

Transubstantiation is not only contrary to Scripture, and reason,
and common sense, but it has been, and is, the cause of manifold
superstitions, yes, of gross idolatries. In the fourth section,
several of these superstitious and idolatrous practices are
specified. Conceiving that the bread and wine are changed into the
real body and blood of Christ, Papists reserve part of the
consecrated wafers, for the purpose of giving them to the sick, or
other absent persons, at some future time. In direct opposition to
the command of Christ, "Drink you all of it," they deny the cup to
the people; on the pretense that, as the bread is changed into the
body of Christ, they partake, by concomitance, of the blood together
with the body. When the priest is supposed to have changed the bread
into the body of Christ, he adores it with bonded knee, and rising,
lifts it up, that it may be seen and adored by the people which is
called the elevation of the host; it is also carried about in solemn
procession, that it may receive the homage of all who meet it; and,
in short, it is worshiped as if it were Christ himself. All these
practices are declared by our Confession to be "contrary to the
nature of this sacrament, and to the institution of Christ." They
were unknown in the primitive ages of the Church, and have evidently
originated in the absurd doctrine of transubstantiation.

II. In the Church of Rome, the priest being supposed to have charged
the bread and wine into the very body and blood of Christ, it is
also conceived that, in laying upon the altar what has been thus
transubstantiated, he offers to God a sacrifice which, although it
be distinguished from all others by being without the shedding of
blood, is a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living
and the dead. This is called the sacrifice of the mass. As this is
founded upon the doctrine of transubstantiation, if the one be
unscriptural so must the other. But we may adduce a few of those
pointed declarations of Scripture, by which this particular doctrine
is refuted. "Once in the end of the world has he appeared