Doctrine · The Articles of Religion

Article XVIII — Of the Lord's Supper. The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death… The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the means whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith.

highly contested

What it says

“The Lord's Supper is not just a fellowship sign but a sacrament of redemption: those who receive rightly and by faith partake of the body and blood of Christ — received in a heavenly and spiritual manner, the means being faith, not transubstantiation.”

The stake
Real partaking *by faith* — against bare memorialism on one side and transubstantiation on the other.
Why it matters
It is the article behind Wesley's call to *constant* communion and the largest body of eucharistic hymnody in English; quarterly Methodist communion departs from it.
The Wesleyan take
Wesley's high receptionism: real partaking, the manner heavenly and spiritual, the means faith — and therefore frequent, and a *converting* as well as a confirming ordinance.
Original English
The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death; insomuch that, to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ; and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ. Transubstantiation, or the change of the substance of bread and wine in the Supper of our Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture… The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the means whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith. Wesley's abridgment of Thirty-Nine Articles Article XXVIII. He kept the high realism ('a partaking of the body of Christ'), the rejection of transubstantiation, and the decisive Reformed clause: the body is received 'only after a heavenly and spiritual manner,' and 'the means whereby the body of Christ is received… is faith.' ¶104 footnote 4 lists Article XVIII among XIV–XXI for ecumenical reading (Resolution of Intent, 2016). This is the article behind Wesley's *Duty of Constant Communion* and the 166 *Hymns on the Lord's Supper*.
VersionRendering
United Methodist Book of Discipline (¶104) The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death… The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the means whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith.
Thirty-Nine Articles (1571), Article XXVIII …The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith. kept by Wesley; the 'heavenly and spiritual manner… by faith' is the Reformed receptionism the article confesses; cf. *Book of Resolutions* #3144.

Traditions cited patristic ·roman catholic ·reformed ·wesleyan ·modern ecumenical

Article XVIII — Of the Lord’s Supper

The Text

Article XVIII threads the Reformation’s sharpest needle. Against the bare-memorial view, the Supper is “not only a sign of… love… one to another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption,” in which those who “rightly, worthily, and with faith receive” truly partake of the body and blood of Christ. Against transubstantiation (named and rejected as “repugnant to the plain words of Scripture”). And then the decisive resolution: the body is “given, taken, and eaten… only after a heavenly and spiritual manner,” and “the means whereby the body of Christ is received… is faith.” Real partaking; not by a change in the elements; received by faith. Wesley kept it, and on it he built the most demanding eucharistic practice and the largest eucharistic hymnody in the English-speaking church.

Translation Notes

“not only a sign… but rather… a sacrament of our redemption.” The Article XVI hinge again: not merely a fellowship token — rather an effective participation in Christ’s redeeming death. Memorialism is excluded by the same “but rather” that excluded it for sacraments in general.

“a partaking of the body of Christ.” Partaking (Greek koinōnia, 1 Corinthians 10:16) — real participation, not bare remembrance. The article will not let the Supper be only a mnemonic.

“only after a heavenly and spiritual manner… the means… is faith.” The two clauses that locate the realism precisely. How is the body received? “After a heavenly and spiritual manner” — not by a physical change in bread and wine (transubstantiation rejected above). By what means is it received? “Faith.” This is classic Reformed receptionism: a true partaking of the real Christ, through faith, by the Spirit — neither Roman (substance changed) nor Zwinglian (mere sign).

Historical Context

Article XXVIII of the Thirty-Nine is the English settlement’s eucharistic via media: it rejects transubstantiation by name, rejects (in clauses Wesley kept) the reservation and adoration of the elements, yet insists on real partaking by faith — the Calvin-shaped middle between Rome and Zurich. ¶104’s footnote places it among the articles read under the 2016 Resolution of Intent: the rejection of transubstantiation is doctrinal, not a license for anti-Catholic contempt.

The historically decisive fact for Methodism is what Wesley did with the article he kept. He communicated, by his own record, on average every four or five days for sixty years. He preached and republished The Duty of Constant Communion (in 1787, near the end). And with Charles he produced the Hymns on the Lord’s Supper (1745) — 166 hymns, the largest eucharistic hymn collection in English. Quarterly Methodist communion is not a development of Article XVIII; it is a departure from it that the article, still printed, still measures.

Lines of Interpretation

The disputed question is the mode of Christ’s presence: real (the article insists) but how — and the answer “by faith, after a heavenly and spiritual manner” is itself the contested settlement.

Patristic

Tradition: real participation; the eucharist as the church’s life

The Fathers held a strong realism (Ignatius, Cyril, Augustine’s “visible word”) within the Spirit and faith. Article XVIII’s “partaking of the body of Christ” is patristic; its denial of a substantial change is the Reformation’s added precision.

Strengths

  • Grounds the article’s realism in antiquity, not mere Calvinism
  • Keeps the Supper the church’s central means, as Wesley did

Weaknesses

  • Patristic realism did not specify the mechanism the article fixes (“by faith”)
  • Some Fathers’ language is stronger than the article’s reserved “heavenly and spiritual manner”

Roman Catholic

Tradition: transubstantiation; real, substantial presence

Rome holds the substance of bread and wine changed into Christ’s body and blood. Article XVIII rejects this by name as “repugnant to the plain words of Scripture,” while affirming a real partaking.

Strengths

  • Names honestly that the article takes a definite side against transubstantiation
  • Shares with Rome the realism (against memorialism) the modern dialogues highlight

Weaknesses (of the dispute)

  • The Resolution of Intent asks the rejection not be read as contempt for Catholic eucharistic faith
  • “Repugnant to plain Scripture” is a strong polemic the article’s own positive realism complicates

Reformed

Tradition: receptionism; Calvin’s true partaking by the Spirit

Article XVIII is the Reformed doctrine: a true feeding on the real Christ, received “by faith,” “after a heavenly and spiritual manner,” the Spirit uniting the believer to the ascended Christ — neither local presence in the elements nor bare sign.

Strengths

  • Fits the article’s two decisive clauses exactly
  • Holds realism and anti-transubstantiation together coherently

Weaknesses

  • Receptionism can be slackened toward the memorialism the article’s “but rather” forbids
  • “By faith” overstressed can make the gift seem to depend on the communicant rather than on Christ

Modern / Ecumenical

Tradition: Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (Lima, 1982); real presence convergence

Modern dialogue has converged on a real, Spirit-effected presence received by faith — substantially Article XVIII — easing (not erasing) the transubstantiation dispute.

Strengths

  • The ecumenical center now sits where the article sits: real, pneumatological, faith-received
  • Recovers the Supper from Methodist neglect

Weaknesses

  • Convergence language can blur the real remaining difference on substance
  • “Presence” talk can drift from the article’s careful “by faith… heavenly and spiritual manner”

Wesleyan Voice

Wesley is the great refutation of “low-church Methodism” from Methodism’s own constitution. Holding exactly Article XVIII — real partaking, no transubstantiation, received by faith — he drew two conclusions modern Methodism mostly forgot. First, frequency. The Duty of Constant Communion argues frequent reception as a plain command of Christ and dismantles every evasion (unworthiness, familiarity breeding contempt, lack of time). If the Supper is a real partaking of Christ’s redeeming body and blood, to receive it rarely is to starve at a set table. Second, the Supper as a converting ordinance, not only a confirming one: because the means of receiving is faith, and faith is God’s gift, the not-yet-assured may come to the table to find Christ, not only after finding him — the same anti-stillness logic as The Means of Grace. This is why Wesley would commune the seeker, not fence the table against the awakened.

The hymnody is where the Wesleyan reading of Article XVIII is most fully stated, because Charles Wesley turned the article’s reserved clauses into adoration without ever breaching them. “O the depth of love divine, the unfathomable grace! Who shall say how bread and wine God into man conveys?” holds the article exactly: the conveyance is real (“God into man conveys”) and the manner is mystery (“who shall say how”) — never transubstantiation, never mere sign. “Victim divine, thy grace we claim” sings the Supper as a true partaking of the one redeeming sacrifice (Article XVIII with Article XX). “Come, Holy Ghost, thine influence shed, and realize the sign” is “the means… is faith… after a heavenly and spiritual manner” prayed: the Spirit makes the sign effective to the believing receiver. The 166 hymns are unintelligible on a memorialist reading; their very existence is the Wesleyan exegesis of Article XVIII.

The deepest Wesleyan note is the constitutional argument the document keeps making. Article XVIII (the doctrine) plus the General Rules’ Third Rule, “the Supper of the Lord” ([[general-rules/the-ordinances-enumerated]]), plus The Duty of Constant Communion (the practice) form one fabric: a real means of grace, commanded, frequent. Methodist quarterly communion is the clearest case in the whole corpus of the church keeping the printed standard and abandoning the practice it requires — the same pattern as the lapsed class meeting and the unkept slavery clause. The article does not need revising; the church needs to do what it already confesses.

Hymnody

Uniquely in this corpus, Article XVIII is a hymn collection: the Hymns on the Lord’s Supper (1745), 166 of them, are this article expounded stanza by stanza. Beyond those, “Author of life divine, who hast a table spread, and in thy presence cause to shine unceasing wine and living bread” is the article’s “sacrament of our redemption” in two lines. “Jesu, we thus obey thy last and kindest word” sings constant communion as obedience, The Duty of Constant Communion set to music. The scale and intensity of Wesleyan eucharistic song is the proof the article’s “but rather” demands: a movement that wrote 166 communion hymns did not believe the Supper was a bare memorial, and did not intend to keep it four times a year.

Pastoral and Liturgical Use

The first pastoral use is to recover frequency from the article’s own logic. The pastoral argument is not “high churchmanship” but Wesley’s plain one: if the Supper is a real partaking of Christ (Article XVIII), infrequency is spiritual starvation by schedule. Preach The Duty of Constant Communion’s dismantling of the evasions — unworthiness (then you are unworthy to pray), familiarity (then so is daily prayer), no time (then no time to be saved) — and let the congregation feel that quarterly communion contradicts the church’s own confession.

The second use is the open, converting table. Because “the means… is faith,” and faith is God’s gift, the table is for the seeker as well as the assured — Wesley communed the awakened toward Christ. Pastorally this forbids fencing the table against the spiritually hungry-but-unsure: the Supper is a means by which grace comes, not a reward for grace already certified.

The third use is the Wesleyan reverence that needs no mechanism. Teach the article’s two clauses as the cure for both eucharistic errors: to the member who finds communion “just a symbol,” the real partaking; to the one anxious about how Christ is present, “after a heavenly and spiritual manner… the means is faith” — adore the mystery, do not solve it. Charles Wesley’s hymns are the catechesis: real, by faith, mystery, frequent, glad.

Further Reading

  • 1 Corinthians 10:16–17; 11:23–29; John 6:53–58; Luke 22:19–20 — the partaking by faith
  • Thirty-Nine Articles, Article XXVIII (1571) — Wesley’s source; Book of Resolutions #3144
  • John Wesley, The Duty of Constant Communion (Sermon 101) — the frequency argument and its converting force
  • John and Charles Wesley, Hymns on the Lord’s Supper (1745) — the article as 166 hymns
  • Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (Lima, 1982) — the modern convergence
  • The sacramental principle behind it: [[articles-of-religion/article-16-of-the-sacraments]]
  • The one finished sacrifice it partakes: [[articles-of-religion/article-20-of-the-one-oblation-of-christ]]
  • The rule that commands it: [[general-rules/the-ordinances-enumerated]]

Related

The Articles of Religion

Article I — Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Article II — Of the Word, or Son of God, Who Was Made Very Man. The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided; whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men. Article III — Of the Resurrection of Christ. Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took again his body, with all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he return to judge all men at the last day. Article IV — Of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God. Article V — Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation. The Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. Article VI — Of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and Man. Although the law given from God by Moses as touching ceremonies and rites doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil precepts thereof of necessity be received in any commonwealth; yet notwithstanding, no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral. Article VII — Of Original or Birth Sin. Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually. Article VIII — Of Free Will. The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will. Article IX — Of the Justification of Man. We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith, only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort. Article X — Of Good Works. Although good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruit. Article XI — Of Works of Supererogation. Voluntary works — besides, over and above God's commandments — which they call works of supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety. For by them men do declare that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake than of bounden duty is required; whereas Christ saith plainly: When ye have done all that is commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants. Article XII — Of Sin After Justification. Not every sin willingly committed after justification is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore, the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after justification. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and, by the grace of God, rise again and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned who say they can no more sin as long as they live here; or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent. Article XIII — Of the Church. The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments duly administered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. Article XIV — Of Purgatory. The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon, worshiping, and adoration, as well of images as of relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to the Word of God. Article XV — Of Speaking in the Congregation in Such a Tongue as the People Understand. It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the primitive church, to have public prayer in the church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understood by the people. Article XVI — Of the Sacraments. Sacraments ordained of Christ are not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they are certain signs of grace, and God's good will toward us, by which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm, our faith in him. There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Article XVII — Of Baptism. Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christians are distinguished from others that are not baptized; but it is also a sign of regeneration or the new birth. The Baptism of young children is to be retained in the Church. Article XVIII — Of the Lord's Supper. The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death… The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the means whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith. Article XIX — Of Both Kinds. The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay people; for both the parts of the Lord's Supper, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be administered to all Christians alike. Article XX — Of the One Oblation of Christ, Finished upon the Cross. The offering of Christ, once made, is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifice of masses, in the which it is commonly said that the priest doth offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, is a blasphemous fable and dangerous deceit. Article XXI — Of the Marriage of Ministers. The ministers of Christ are not commanded by God's law either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage; therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other Christians, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness. Article XXII — Of the Rites and Ceremonies of Churches. It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. Every particular church may ordain, change, or abolish rites and ceremonies, so that all things may be done to edification. Article XXIII — Of the Rulers of the United States of America. The President, the Congress, the general assemblies, the governors, and the councils of state, as the delegates of the people, are the rulers of the United States of America, according to the division of power made to them by the Constitution of the United States and by the constitutions of their respective states. And the said states are a sovereign and independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction. Article XXIV — Of Christian Men's Goods. The riches and goods of Christians are not common as touching the right, title, and possession of the same, as some do falsely boast. Notwithstanding, every man ought, of such things as he possesseth, liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his ability. Article XXV — Of a Christian Man's Oath. As we confess that vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ and James his apostle, so we judge that the Christian religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so it be done according to the prophet's teaching, in justice, judgment, and truth. Of Sanctification (appended 1939; legislative, not constitutionally protected). Sanctification is that renewal of our fallen nature by the Holy Ghost, received through faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood of atonement cleanseth from all sin; whereby we are not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but are washed from its pollution, saved from its power, and are enabled, through grace, to love God with all our hearts and to walk in his holy commandments blameless. Of the Duty of Christians to the Civil Authority (appended 1939; legislative, not constitutionally protected). It is the duty of all Christians, and especially of all Christian ministers, to observe and obey the laws and commands of the governing or supreme authority of the country of which they are citizens or subjects or in which they reside, and to use all laudable means to encourage and enjoin obedience to the powers that be.