N00426:230
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.
Thirdly, Let none of the Due Times for Self Examination ship without your making of it.
And here Let me say; First, This Day, even the present season is a proper season for your Self Examination; This day, on which you have this voice and call of Heaven sounding in your Ears, O Examine yourselves; take This day for the doing of it. What if you should before you Rise from the Seats which you are now upon, receive that Message, Set all in order for thou shalt die before many Days are out? What if it should be signified unto you, as it was to the Muckworm in the Parable, This night thy Soul shall ⟨p. 111⟩is Required of thee? Would you not presently enter upon some Examination, Am I own that the second Death shall have no power over? Well, then be advised; This is as like to come upon you as Not. Oh then do not Procrastinate your Self-Probation; tis a thing not to be Delayed, or Dallied in I Indeed Every Day is a season for it. A Watchful Christian will not find it easy to sleep in that Evening wherein he ha's not cleared Accounts between God and him, Our liableness to a speedy and a sudden Death, makes this a fit Question for us to sleep withal, If I Die this Night is my immortal Spirit safe? Moreover, Every solemn, settled, Fixed Meditation, brings a season for it. When we are in a Daily course thinking on the ••ings of God, we should first Enlighten our ••nds, and then Enliven our Hearts; now that second part of our work, we should ••rk, what our own Failings have been […] out that point which we have been mediating of. May the Children of Isaac, accustom themselves to this Ingredient in their meditations!