N00426:241
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.
Am I able to Discern the Lords Body in the Lords Supper?
The well-known words of the Apostle testify this unto us; That when we come to the Lords Table, we must have not only such a Rational, but also such a Christian Exercise of our Understandings, as to be capable of Distinguishing the Sacramental Bread and Wine, from what is Common upon every Table, and to be sensible of the Use and End which these Element•• •here devoted unto. The Lords Table must not be […] upon as, An Altar to the Unknown God. To admit Children unto the Communion-Table, is a thing worse than Childish; it is not less than Folly to Receive hither those who are Natural Fools; and it is a perfect Frenzy to put these Mysteries into the Hands of those, in whom a crazy madness would father call for Hellebore. We must have in us the Conceptions of a Reasonable Creature, before we intermeddle in this Reasonable Service. If we have been so Uncatechised, as not know,who the Lord Jesus is, nor, How a Fellowship is to be maintained with Him, in this Ordinance, We are to stay till we are better acquainted with the First Principles of the Doctrine of Christ.
The well-known words of the Apostle testify this unto us; That when we come to the Lords Table, we must have not only such a Rational, but also such a Christian Exercise of our Understandings, as to be capable of Distinguishing the Sacramental Bread and Wine, from what is Common upon every Table, and to be sensible of the Use and End which these Element•• •here devoted unto. The Lords Table must not be 〈…〉 upon as, An Altar to the Unknown God. To admit Children unto the Communion-Table, is a thing worse than Childish; it is not less than Folly to Receive hither those who are Natural Fools; and it is a perfect Phrensy to put these Mysteries into the Hands of those, in whom a crazy madness would father call for Hellebore. We must have in us the Conceptions of a Reasonable Creature, before we intermeddle in this Reasonable Service. If we have been so Uncatechised, as not know,who the Lord Jesus is, nor, How a Fellowship is to be maintained with Him, in this Ordinance, We are to stay till we are better acquainted with the First Principles of the Doctrine of Christ.