What is the duty of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's supper?
The duty of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's supper, is seriously to consider how they have behaved themselves therein, and with what success;1 if they find quickening and comfort, to bless God for it,2 beg the continuance of it,3 watch against relapses,4 fulfil their vows,5 and encourage themselves to a frequent attendance on that ordinance:6 but if they find no present benefit, more exactly to review their preparation to, and carriage at, the sacrament;7 in both which, if they can approve themselves to God and their own consciences, they are to wait for the fruit of it in due time:8 but, if they see they have failed in either, they are to be humbled,9 and to attend upon it afterwards with more care and diligence.10
Scripture proofs
The Westminster Assembly's proof texts (KJV). The bracketed numbers in the answer above mark the clause each set of references supports; expand a row to read the verses.
1 Ps. 28:7, Ps. 85:8; 1 Cor. 11:17, 30–31
Ps. 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.
Ps. 85:8 I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
1 Cor. 11:17 Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.
1 Cor. 11:30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
1 Cor. 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
2 2 Chron. 30:21, 16; Acts 2:42, 46
2 Chron. 30:21 And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness: and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the LORD.
2 Chron. 30:16 And they stood in their place after their manner, according to the law of Moses the man of God: the priests sprinkled the blood, which they received of the hand of the Levites.
Acts 2:42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
3 Ps. 36:10; Song 3:4; 1 Chron. 29:18
O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.
It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:
4 1 Cor. 10:3–5, 12
1 Cor. 10:3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
1 Cor. 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
1 Cor. 10:5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
1 Cor. 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
5 Ps. 50:14
Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
6 1 Cor. 11:25–26; Acts 2:42, 46
1 Cor. 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
1 Cor. 11:26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.
Acts 2:42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
7 Song 5:1–6; Eccl. 5:1–6
Song 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.
Song 5:2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
Song 5:3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
Song 5:4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.
Song 5:5 I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.
Song 5:6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
Eccl. 5:1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
Eccl. 5:2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
Eccl. 5:3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.
Eccl. 5:4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
Eccl. 5:5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
Eccl. 5:6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
8 Ps. 42:5, 8; Ps. 43:3–5; Ps. 123:1–2
Ps. 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
Ps. 42:8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
Ps. 43:3 O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.
Ps. 43:4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.
Ps. 43:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
Ps. 123:1 Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.
Ps. 123:2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.
9 2 Chron. 30:18–19; Isa. 1:16, 18
2 Chron. 30:18 For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, The good LORD pardon every one
2 Chron. 30:19 That prepareth his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.
Isa. 1:16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Isa. 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
10 2 Cor. 7:11; 1 Chron. 15:12–14
For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
1 Chron. 15:12 And said unto them, Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it.
1 Chron. 15:13 For because ye did it not at the first, the LORD our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order.
1 Chron. 15:14 So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel.
This doctrine across the Standards
Where the Confession and the Westminster Shorter Catechism treat the same matter, so the question can be studied alongside its parallel statements.
In the Westminster Confession
XXIX.1 Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein he was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, …
Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein he was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, called the Lord's Supper, to be observed in his Church, unto the end of the world; for the perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of himself in his death, the sealing all benefits thereof unto true believers, their spiritual nourishment and growth in him, their further engagement in and to all duties which they owe unto him; and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with him, and with each other, as members of his mystical body.
→ XXIX.1 · Of the Lord's SupperXXIX.2 In this sacrament Christ is not offered up to his Father, nor any real sacrifice made at all …
In this sacrament Christ is not offered up to his Father, nor any real sacrifice made at all for remission of sins of the quick or dead, but only a commemoration of that one offering up of himself, by himself, upon the cross, once for all, and a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto God for the same; so that the Popish sacrifice of the mass, as they call it, is most abominably injurious to Christ's one only sacrifice, the alone propitiation for all the sins of the elect.
→ XXIX.2 · Of the Lord's SupperXXIX.3 The Lord Jesus hath, in this ordinance, appointed his ministers to declare his word of institution to the …
The Lord Jesus hath, in this ordinance, 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 to an holy use; and to take and break the bread, to take the cup, and (they communicating also themselves) to give both to the communicants; but to none who are not then present in the congregation.
→ XXIX.3 · Of the Lord's SupperXXIX.4 Private masses, or receiving this sacrament by a priest, or any other, alone; as likewise the denial of …
Private masses, or receiving this sacrament by a priest, or any other, alone; as likewise the denial of the cup to the people; worshipping the elements, the lifting them up, or carrying them about for adoration, and the reserving them for any pretended religious use, are all contrary to the nature of this sacrament, and to the institution of Christ.
→ XXIX.4 · Of the Lord's SupperXXIX.5 The outward elements in this sacrament, duly set apart to the uses ordained by Christ, have such relation …
The outward elements in this sacrament, duly set apart to the uses ordained by Christ, have such relation to him crucified, as that truly, yet sacramentally only, they are sometimes called by the name of the things they represent, to wit, the body and blood of Christ; albeit, in substance and nature, they still remain truly, and only, bread and wine, as they were before.
→ XXIX.5 · Of the Lord's SupperXXIX.6 That doctrine which maintains a change of the substance of bread and wine, into the substance of Christ's …
That doctrine which maintains a change of the substance of bread and wine, into the substance of Christ's body and blood (commonly called transubstantiation) by consecration of a priest, or by any other way, is repugnant, not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason; overthroweth the nature of the sacrament; and hath been, and is the cause of manifold superstitions, yea, of gross idolatries.
→ XXIX.6 · Of the Lord's SupperXXIX.7 Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this sacrament, do then also inwardly by faith, really …
Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this sacrament, do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive and feed upon Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death: the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally in, with, or under the bread and wine; yet as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are, to their outward senses.
→ XXIX.7 · Of the Lord's SupperXXIX.8 Although ignorant and wicked men receive the outward elements in this sacrament, yet they receive not the thing …
Although ignorant and wicked men receive the outward elements in this sacrament, yet they receive not the thing signified thereby; but by their unworthy coming thereunto are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, to their own damnation. Wherefore all ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with him, so are they unworthy of the Lord's table, and can not, without great sin against Christ, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries, or be admitted thereunto.
→ XXIX.8 · Of the Lord's SupperIn the Westminster Shorter Catechism
Q.96 What is the Lord's Supper?
The Lord's Supper is a sacrament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ's appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment, and growth in grace.
→ Open Q.96Q.97 What is required for the worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper?
It is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord's Supper, that they examine themselves of their knowledge to discern the Lord's body, of their faith to feed upon him, of their repentance, love, and new obedience; lest, coming unworthily, they eat and drink judgment to themselves.
→ Open Q.97