How art thou admonished and assured in the Lord's Supper, that thou art a partaker of that one sacrifice of Christ, accomplished on the cross, and of all his benefits?
Thus: That Christ has commanded me and all believers, to eat of this broken bread, and to drink of this cup, in remembrance of him, adding these promises:1 first, that his body was offered and broken on the cross for me, and his blood shed for me, as certainly as I see with my eyes, the bread of the Lord broken for me, and the cup communicated to me; and further, that he feeds and nourishes my soul to everlasting life, with his crucified body and shed blood, as assuredly as I receive from the hands of the minister, and taste with my mouth the bread and cup of the Lord, as certain signs of the body and blood of Christ.
What is it then to eat the crucified body, and drink the shed blood of Christ?
It is not only to embrace with believing heart all the sufferings and death of Christ and thereby to obtain the pardon of sin, and life eternal;2 but also, besides that, to become more and more united to his sacred body,3 by the Holy Ghost, who dwells both in Christ and in us; so that we, though Christ is in heaven4 and we on earth, are notwithstanding "flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone"5 and that we live, and are governed forever by one spirit,6 as members of the same body are by one soul.
5 Eph. 3:16; Eph. 5:29, 30, 32; 1 Cor. 6:15, 17, 19; 1 John 3:24; 1 John 4:13; John 14:23.