Then shall the Priest, kneeling down at the Lord's Table, say in the name of all them that shall receive the Communion, this Prayer following.

WE

VE do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

When the Priest, standing before the Table, hath so ordered the Bread and Wine, that he may with the more readiness and decency break the Bread before the people, and take the Cup into his hands, he shall say the Prayer of Consecration, as followeth.

The priest here prepares to celebrate the most solemn part of the service. When the priest touches the plate which is called the paten, he reminds us of Jesus being laid hold of by the soldiers who laid Him down on the cross as the priest here lays down Christ's body on the altar. He is handled by men unworthy to touch even His clothes, and after they have received Him and He is made one with their souls, they too often sin again, and thus drive nails (their sins) into what He has made part of Himself, the hands and feet of His body.

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father,

who of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world; and did institute, and in his holy Gospel command us to continue, a perpetual memory of that his precious death, until his coming again; Hear us, O merciful Father, we most humbly beseech thee; and grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine, according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood: who, in the same night that he was

Here we see, remembered, and represented before God the Father, the lifting up of Jesus on the cross; and here we see Jesus torn and jerked in that raising of the cross from its place on the ground to its upright position.

betrayed, (a) took Bread; and, when he had given thanks, (b) he brake it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat, (c) this is my BODY which is given for you Do this in remembrance of

me.