IV. We are now to consider what the minister is to do, antecedent to the church’s partaking of the Lord’s supper: He is to set apart the outward elements of bread and wine from a common, to this particular holy use. Upon which account it may be said to be _sanctified by the word of God and prayer_, 1 Tim. iv. 5. The words of institution contain an intimation that these elements are to be used in this ordinance, by Christ’s appointment; without which, no significant sign could be used in any religious matters. And, as for prayer, this is agreeable to Christ’s practice; for, he _took bread and blessed it_, or prayed for a blessing on it; and as the apostle expresses it; this was accompanied with thanksgiving, as he says; _When he had given thanks he brake it_, Matt. xxvi. 26. 1 Cor. xi. 24. which is agreeable to the nature and design of the ordinance, as herein we pray for the best of blessings, and express our thankfulness to him for the benefits of Christ’s redemption. Here I cannot but observe how the Papists pervert this ordinance in the manner of consecrating the bread, which the priest does only by repeating these words in Latin; _This is my body_; and from thence they take occasion to advance the absurd doctrine of transubstantiation; and suppose, that, by these words pronounced, the bread is changed into the body and blood of Christ; which they assert, contrary to all sense and reason, as well as the end and design of the ordinance; and from hence it will follow, that man has a power to make the body and blood of Christ; and another consequence thereof, will be, that the human nature of Christ is omnipresent, which is inconsistent with a finite nature, and those properties that belong to it as such; from whence it is to be concluded, that it is no where else but in heaven; and it involves in it the greatest contradiction to suppose that it is bread, and having all the qualities thereof; and yet our senses must be so far imposed on, as that we must believe that it is not so, but Christ’s body. It also supposes, that Christ has as many bodies as there are wafers in the world; which is a monstrous absurdity. It likewise confounds the sign with the thing signified, and is very opposite to the sense of those words of scripture, _This is my body_; which implies no more, than that the bread, which is the same in itself, after the words of consecration, as it was before, is an external symbol of Christ’s body, that is, of the sufferings which he endured therein for his people.