CHAPTER XXIX. OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. SECTION 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.1 11 Cor. xi. 23-26; x. 16, 17, 21; xii. 13. EXPOSITION. 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 Saviour is recorded by the first three evangelists, (Matt. xxvi. 26-28; Mark xiv. 22-24; Luke xxii. 19, 20), and by the apostle Paul, who declares that he had received of the Lord that which he delivered" to the Church. 1 Cor. xi. 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 apprized; 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 wilful neglect, an ordinance which he settled immediately before his death, and disregard the dying com. mand 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 im. plied in the words of the apostle Paul: "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." 1 Cor. xi. 26. So universally has it been understood that the observance of this ordinance is ob ligatory 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 Saviour's words, "This do in remembrance of me;" and that i tis 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 grati tude to Christ, who gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. 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 invigo rate their faith, to inflame their love, to deepen their godly sorrow, to enliven their joy, and to enlarge and strengthen their hopes of the Saviour'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 Cor. x. 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 Cor. x. 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 ordi nance believers engage themselves to all the duties which they owe to Christ. They acknowledge him as their master, and engage to do whatsoever 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 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;2 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;3 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.4 SECTION 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; but to none who are not then present in the congregation." SECTION IV.-Private masses, or receiving this sacrament by a priest, or any other alone; as likewise the denial of the cup to the people; worshipping the elements, the lifting them up, or carrying them about for adoration, and the reserving them for any 2 Heb. ix. 22, 25, 26, 28. 31 Cor. xi. 24-26. Matt. xxvi. 26, 27. • Acts xx. 7. 1 Cor. xi. 20. • Mark xiv. 23. 1 Cor. xi. 25–29. pretended religious use; are all contrary to the nature of this sacrament, and to the institution of Christ.9 SECTION 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;10 albeit, in substance and nature, they still remain truly and only bread and wine, as they were before."1 SECTION 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. 12 9 Matt. xv. 9. 10 Matt. xxvi. 26-28. 11 1 Cor. xi. 26-28. Matt. xxvi. 29. EXPOSITION. 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 is my blood," were manifestly used by our Saviour 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 occur |