N00426:158
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.
In all these Articles, being sensible of my own weakness, I implore and expect the Grace of the Mediator to be sufficient for me.
By suc• a Covenant now Devote your selves unto the God of Heaven: and do it not Rashly, but with clear Understanding, and much Deliberation. When this is done, then come away to the Table of your Saviour: His voice, His or, unto you now is that, Arise, my Love, my fair one, and come away. Put off no long•• […] your own Death come to be showed by your Friends in their Sighs over your Graves, before that you show the death of the Lord Jesus in his Holy Supper. Delay no more, Dally no more; 'twill be worse with you to morrow, then tis to Day, Thus would I call the people unto Zion, there to offer the sacrifices of Righteousness, and to partake of His Treasures there
By suc• a Covenant now Devote your selves unto the God of Heaven: and do it not Rashly, but with clear Understanding, and much Deliberation. When this is done, then come away to the Table of your Saviour: His voice, His or, unto you now is that, Arise, my Love, my fair one, and come away. Put off no long•• 〈…〉 your own Death come to be shewed by your Friends in their Sighs over your Graves, before that you shew the death of the Lord Jesus in his Holy Supper. Delay no more, Dally no more; t'will be worse with you to morrow, then tis to Day, Thus would I call the people unto Zion, there to offer the sacrifices of Righteousness, and to partake of His Treasures there
But is all the Fault in these culpable Non communicants, that they continue so? Truly, 'tis to be ••ared, that our Churches themselves are not a little to blame; for the paucity of them that are in Fellowship with us at the Holy Table. Is there no Duty incumbent on the Churches, towards the Children of such as are under their sacred Watch? The Continuation of Churches is Ordinarily to depend on the Addition of Members out of the Families already incorporated thereinto;