The Order of the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion

Dearly beloved in the Lord, you who intend to come to the holy Communion of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, must consider how Saint Paul exhorts all persons diligently to try and examine themselves, before they presume to eat of that Bread, and drink of that Cup.¹

For as the benefit is great, if with a true penitent heart and lively faith we receive that holy Sacrament; (for then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood; then we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us; we are one with Christ, and Christ with us;)²

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; we provoke him to plague us with diverse diseases, and sundry kinds of death. Judge therefore yourselves, brethren, that you be not judged of the Lord;³

repent truly for your sins past; have a lively and steadfast faith in Christ our Saviour; amend your lives, and be in perfect charity with all men; so shall you be meet partakers of those holy mysteries.⁴

And above all things you must give most humble and hearty thanks to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ,⁵

both God and man; who did humble himself, even to the death upon the Cross,⁶

for us, miserable sinners, who lay in darkness and the shadow of death; that he might make us the children of God, and exalt us to everlasting life.⁷

And to the end that we should always remember the exceeding great love of our Master, and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, thus dying for us, and the innumerable benefits which by his precious blood-shedding he has obtained for us;⁸

he has instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of his love, and for a continual remembrance of his death, to our great and endless comfort.⁹

To him therefore, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, let us give (as we are most bound) continual thanks; submitting ourselves wholly to his holy will and pleasure, and studying to serve him in true holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. Amen.¹⁰