N00426:144
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.
Consider: Thirdly.
'Tis impossible for you to Excuse or Defend your Not Coming to the Table of the Lord. What have you to plead for this Omission? Bring forth your strong Reasons, and let it be seen whether in the Balance of the Sanctuary they will not be found lighter than the smoke it self.
'Tis impossible for you to Excuse or Defend your Not Coming to the Table of the Lord. What have you to plead for this Omission? Bring forth your strong Reasons, and let it be seen whether in the Ballance of the Sanctuary they will not be found lighter than the smoke it self.
The Objection that so•e have made against coming to the Lords Supper, is, That the Terms of Communion which our Churches demand, are too […] and hard for them But, I pray, wherein? What […] might seem too strict and hard in the demands of these Churches formerly, is now generally Relaxed and Abated; the Churches generally require no more at the Admission of any to their Communion, than any Godly man would be willing ⟨p. 76⟩to come up unto. They do indeed Require some Relation touching the Regenerating influences of God upon the Souls of their Communicants; but they oblige YOU not unto too Critical Discourses upon the Time or Way of your Conversion; […] they are content, that you Write, if you find your selves not disposed to speak, upon those Affairs. In short, you satisfy them, if after a sound Knowledge and Belief and a commendable Conversation, you make but a modest Address unto them, Telling them, That you hope the Grace of God has quickened your souls and that you ask their Communion in the Holy Supper, for the Assistance & the Nourishment of that grace, and withal give a good […] for your thus Hoping, thus Asking. […] were ill manners to challenge a Fellowship with such a Society, […] a Church of the Lord Jesus, upon lower or easier Terms; and no Good man will boggle at them, if he do sufficiently Remember those words of our Lord Jesus, Except ye be converted, and become as Little Children, ye shall not Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.