1. Our Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, called the Lord’s supper, to be observed in his Church up to the end of the world, for the purpose of

• the perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of himself in his death;
• the sealing of all benefits of his death to true believers;
• their spiritual nourishment and growth in him;
• their further commitment in and to all duties which they owe to him;
• and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with him and with each other, as members of his mystical body.

2. In this sacrament, Christ is not offered up to his Father, nor is any real sacrifice made at all for the remission of sins of the living or dead. It is a commemoration of that one-time offering of himself, by himself, on the Cross, once for all, and a spiritual offering of all possible praise to God for it. Thus the Roman Catholic “sacrifice of the mass” (as they call it) is abominably insulting to Christ’s one and only sacrifice, the only propitiation for all the sins of his elect.

3. In the ordinance, the Lord Jesus has 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 use to a holy one, and to take and break the bread and to take the cup and give both to the communicants (partaking also themselves), but not to those who are not present in the congregation at the time.

4. All of the following are contrary to the nature of this sacrament and the institution of Christ:

• private masses, or receiving this sacrament alone from a priest or anyone else;
• denying of the cup to the people;
• worshipping the elements, or lifting them up or carrying them around for adoration;
• and reserving them for any pretended religious use.

5. The outward elements in this sacrament, duly set apart to the uses ordained by Christ, have such relation to him crucified that truly, yet sacramentally only, they are sometimes called by the name of the things they represent, namely the body and blood of Christ. However, in substance and nature, they still remain truly and only bread and wine, as they were before.

6. The doctrine that teaches a change of the substance of the bread and wine into the substance of Christ’s body and blood (commonly called “transubstantiation”) as a result of the consecration of a priest, or by any other means, is repugnant not only to Scripture but even to common sense and reason. It overthrows the nature of the sacrament, and has been and is the cause of multiple superstitions, even more, of gross idolatries.

7. Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements of this sacrament, also inwardly by faith receive and feed on Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death, really and in fact, yet not bodily and physically but spiritually. The body and blood of Christ is not bodily or physically “in”, “with”, or “under” the bread and wine, yet is really but spiritually present to the faith of believers in this ordinance, just as the elements themselves are present to their outward senses.

8. Although ignorant and wicked people may receive the outward elements in this sacrament, yet they do not receive the thing signified by it. By their unworthily coming to it, they are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, to their own damnation. Therefore all ignorant and ungodly persons, because they are unfit to enjoy communion with him, are unworthy of the Lord’s table and cannot, without great sin against Christ, partake of these holy mysteries or be admitted to them, as long as they remain that way.