Church discipline

The Manner of the Lord's Supper

The day when the Lord's Supper is ministered, which commonly is used once a month, or so oft as the congregation shall think expedient, the minister uses to say as follows:

Let us mark, dear brethren, and consider how Jesus Christ did ordain unto us his Holy Supper, according as St. Paul makes rehearsal in the 11th chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians:
I have, says he, received of the Lord that which I have delivered unto you, (to wit) that the Lord Jesus, the same night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, saying, Take ye, eat ye, this is my body which is broken for you; do ye this in remembrance of me. Likewise after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new Testament or covenant in my blood, do ye this so oft as ye shall drink thereof, in remembrance of me. For so oft as ye shall eat this bread and drink of this cup, ye shall declare the Lord's death until his coming. Therefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, he shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Then see that every man prove and try himself, and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this cup; for whosoever eateth or drinketh unworthily, he eateth and drinketh his own damnation, for not having due regard and consideration of the Lord's body.

This done, the minister proceeds to the exhortation.

Dearly beloved in the Lord, forasmuch as we are now assembled to celebrate the holy communion of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ, let us consider these words of St. Paul, how he exhorts all persons diligently to try and examine themselves before they presume to eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For as the benefit is great, if with a truly penitent heart and lively faith we receive that holy sacrament (for then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood,[a] then we dwell in Christ and Christ in us, we are one with Christ and Christ with us), so is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily, for then we are guilty of the body and blood of Christ our Saviour, we eat and drink our own damnation, not considering the Lord's body; we kindle God's wrath against us, and provoke him to plague us with diverse diseases and sundry kinds of death.
Therefore if any of you be a blasphemer of God,[b] hinderer or slanderer of his word, an adulterer, or be in malice or envy, or in any other grievous crime: bewail your sins, and come not to this holy table, lest after the taking of this holy sacrament, the Devil enter into you as he entered into Judas,[c] and fill you full of all iniquities, and bring you to destruction both of body and soul.
Judge therefore yourselves, brethren, that you be not judged of the Lord; repent yourselves truly for your sins past,[d] and have a lively and steadfast faith in Christ our Saviour, seeking only your salvation in the merits of his death and passion,[e] from henceforth refusing and forgetting all malice and debate,[f] with full purpose to live in brotherly amity and godly conversation all the days of your life.
And albeit we feel in ourselves much frailty and wretchedness, as that we have not our faith so perfect and constant as we ought, being many times ready to distrust God's goodness through our corrupt nature,[g] and also that we are not so thoroughly given to serve God, neither have so fervent a zeal to set forth his glory as our duty requires, feeling still such rebellion in ourselves, that we have need daily to fight against the lusts of our flesh;[h] yet, nevertheless, seeing that our Lord has dealt thus mercifully with us, that he has printed his gospel in our hearts,[i] so that we are preserved from falling into desperation and misbelief; and seeing also he has endued us with a will and desire to renounce and withstand our own affections,[k] with a longing for his righteousness and the keeping of his commandments, we may be now right well assured, that those defaults and manifold imperfections in us shall be no hindrance at all against us, to cause him not to accept and impute us as worthy to come to his spiritual table. For the end of our coming thither is not to make protestation that we are upright and just in our lives,[l] but contrariwise, we come to seek our life and perfection in Jesus Christ, acknowledging in the meantime, that we of ourselves are the children of wrath and damnation.[m]
Let us consider, then, that this sacrament is a singular medicine for all poor sick creatures, a comfortable help to weak souls, and that our Lord requires no other worthiness on our part, but that we unfeignedly acknowledge our naughtiness and imperfection. Then to the end that we may be worthy partakers of his merits and most comfortable benefits (which is the true eating of his flesh, and drinking of his blood),[n] let us not suffer our minds to wander about the consideration of these earthly and corruptible things (which we see present to our eyes, and feel with our hands) to seek Christ bodily present in them, as if he were enclosed in the bread or wine, or as if these elements were turned and changed into the substance of his flesh and blood. For the only way to dispose our souls to receive nourishment, relief, and quickening of his substance, is to lift up our minds by faith above all things worldly and sensible, and thereby to enter into heaven, that we may find and receive Christ, where he dwells undoubtedly very God and very man,[o] in the incomprehensible glory of his Father, to whom be all praise, honour, and glory, now and ever. Amen.