to receive the Son of God, even to all those that believe in his name. And unto such as in this manner do worthily and with faith repair unto the Lord’s table, the body and blood of Christ is not only signified and offered, but also truly exhibited and communicated.
95. The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Lord’s Supper only after a heavenly and spiritual manner; and the mean whereby the body of Christ is thus received and eaten is Faith.
96. The wicked, and such as want a lively faith, although they do carnally and visibly (as St. Augustine speaketh) press with their teeth the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, yet in nowise are they made partakers of Christ; but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the sign or Sacrament of so great a thing.
97. Both parts of the Lord’s Sacrament, according to Christ’s institution and the practice of the ancient Church, ought to be ministered unto God’s people; and it is plain sacrilege to rob them of the mystical cup, for whom Christ hath shed his most precious blood.[1]
98. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was not by Christ’s ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshiped.
99. The sacrifice of the Mass, wherein the priest is said to offer up Christ for obtaining the remission of pain or guilt for the quick and the dead, is neither agreeable to Christ’s ordinance nor grounded upon doctrine Apostolic; but contrariwise most ungodly and most injurious to that all-sufficient sacrifice of our Saviour Christ, offered once forever upon the cross, which is the only propitiation and satisfaction for all our sins.
100. Private mass—that is, the receiving of the Eucharist by the priest alone, without a competent number of communicants—is contrary to the institution of Christ.
OF THE STATE OF THE SOULS OF MEN AFTER THEY BE DEPARTED OUT OF THIS LIFE, TOGETHER WITH THE GENERAL RESURRECTION AND THE LAST JUDGMENT.
101. After this life is ended the souls of God’s children be presently received into heaven, there to enjoy unspeakable comforts; the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, there to endure endless torments.
- ↑ Comp. Eleven Articles, § x.
