N00426:206
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.
Assertion 2.
We should Examine our Ways, before our coming to the Table of the Lord, because our Sins are to be mortified with a Renewed Repentance before our Entertainment there. The Jews before their Passover, searched all over their Houses for what Leaven might be found therein; and so should we before a Sacrament, see that our Leaven be turned out of Doors. The more Bitter that Sin has been to us before the Sacrament, the more sweet will Christ be to us in it. When we come to the Lords Table, we come for a General Acquittance of all our Sins; we are therefore to see that we make our Accounts even before we come, tha• we have Mourned for all our sins, that we have Turned from all our sins, and that we have […] away the Spears which gave unto our Lord the Wounds that we are now coming to be contemplation of. The Body of our Lord ⟨p. 100⟩was not to see Corruption in the Grave, nor will it mingle with any Corruptions in our Hearts, which we shall Hate to have reformed.
We should Examine our Wayes, before our coming to the Table of the Lord, because our Sins are to be mortifi'd with a Renewed Repentance before our Entertainment there. The Jews before their Passeover, searched all over their Houses for what Leaven might be found therein; and so should we before a Sacrament, see that our Leaven be turn'd out of Doors. The more Bitter that Sin has been to us before the Sacrament, the more sweet will Christ be to us in it. When we come to the Lords Table, we come for a General Acquittance of all our Sins; we are therefore to see that we make our Accounts even before we come, tha we have Mourn'd for all our sins, that we have Turn'd from all our sins, and that we have away the Spears which gave unto our Lord the Wounds that we are now coming to be contemplation of. The Body of our Lord