N00426:185
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.
Conclusion. 2.
There are Multitudes who count themselves ⟨p. 90⟩in a Good State, when God knows, They are far from being so. There are indeed some Self Condemned Hypocrites unto whom it may be said, as it was to Shimei, Th•• knowest the wickedness that thine own heart is privy to. But there are also some Self▪Deluded Hypocrites, who like some of the members in the Church of La•dicca, fancy themselves to Stand in Need of Nothing, while they are in, the want of all things. It is too general a character for the most of mankind, which we have in Jam. 1.26. He seems to be Religious, but he Deceives his own Heart, the mans Religion i• Vain▪ Truly, Tis very rare to meet with a man; but be he never so Ignorant, never so Heretical, never so Worldly-minded, still he counts himself Assured of this, God will not cast me off forever? He that made me, will have mercy on me, and He that formed me will show me some Favour. In the Old World, no doubt they generally Dreamed of a D•y Sum••er, when a Desolating Flood was a the Door. In blind Sodom, doubtless they generally Scoffed at the warnings of Sulphurous Fiery consuming Thunderstorm impending over them. The most of men, are by Security and Pr•su•••ion about the Good State of their Souls trepanned into Eternal miseries. Very seldom are any convinced, of their being out of the Way; until their End come upon them; and