N00426:128
A companion for communicants. Discourses upon the nature, the design, and the subject of…
A companion for communicants. Discourses upon the nature, the design, and the subject of the Lords Supper; with devout methods of preparing for, and approaching to that blessed ordinance. / By Cotton Mather, Pastor of a church at Boston. ; [Seven lines from Augustine]
Boston: printed by Samuel Green for Benjamin Harris, 1690
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Once more, Look upon the Souls that you Wrong by this Omission. You sin against your Neighbours, and lay a Woeful scandal before their Souls; I say, a Woeful one; because, Woe to the world because of offences, but (much more) woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! I must blacken this your Sin, as Mem•can did the flatly Coyness of the Persian Empress, when she kept from the Table which the King had Commanded her unto, in Est.1.16. This is not a Wrong done to the King only, but to all the people. Even so, when you keep from the Table of the Eternal ⟨p. 69⟩King, This Deed will come abroad, and when it shall be Reported, That the Lord Commanded you to be brought before Him, and you came not, all the people will despise the King of Heaven. By this Impiety, (for I do again without scruple call it so) you strengthen the Hands of a Multitude in the doing of Evil: and you Encourage all the Enmity in the world against those Flocks of the Lord Jesus, which you will not Feed among. I pray tell me, What Supper would our Lord Jesus have in the world, if all were like you?
Once more, Look upon the Souls that you Wrong by this Omission. You sin against your Neighbours, and lay a Woful scandal before their Souls; I say, a Woful one; because, Wo to the world because of offences, but (much more) wo to that man by whom the offence cometh! I must blacken this your Sin, as Mem•can did the flately Coyness of the Persian Empress, when she kept from the Table which the King had Commanded her unto, in Est.1.16. This is not a Wrong done to the King only, but to all the people. Even so, when you keep from the Table of the Eternal ⟨p. 69⟩King, This Deed will come abroad, and when it shall be Reported, That the Lord Commanded you to be brought before Him, and you came not, all the people will despise the King of Heaven. By this Impiety, (for I do again without scruple call it so) you strengthen the Hands of a Multitude in the doing of Evil: and you Encourage all the Enmity in the world against those Flocks of the Lord Jesus, which you will not Feed among. I pray tell me, What Supper would our Lord Jesus have in the world, if all were like you?