N00426:335
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.
Secondly, We have the Effect of it. It is thus Expressed, my Spikenard sends forth the smell thereof. Which is to be understood rather Actively, than Passively. It signifies not only, That the Lord Jesus doth here Perfume His Church with the Liquid and precious Nard of His own Spirit; and that, We have an Unction from the Holy One; But it also and chiefly Signifies, that the Church doth here very sweetly Delight the Lord Jesus, by Exercising of much Grace upon Him. The Grace of God, is as a pure and rich Spice in ⟨p. 138⟩the Souls of them that have it; when this Grace is Exercised, it is like a Perfume in the Resentments of our Lord Jesus Christ; and He says upon it, My Spouse, how much better is the smell of thine Ointments, than all Spices? Our Lavender, which is a Bastard Spikenard, is very sweet; but the true and right Spikenard of the East- Indies, is unspeakably more Delicious; however, the Grace of God Exercised in us, is far more fragrant and grateful to that Holy Lord.
Secondly, We have the Effect of it. It is thus Expressed, my Spiknard sends forth the smell thereof. Which is to be understood rather Actively, than Passively. It signifies not only, That the Lord Jesus doth here Perfume His Church with the Liquid and precious Nard of His own Spirit; and that, We have an Unction from the Holy One; But it also and cheefly Signifies, that the Church doth here very sweetly Delight the Lord Jesus, by Exercising of much Grace upon Him. The Grace of God, is as a pure and rich Spice in ⟨p. 138⟩the Souls of them that have it; when this Grace is Exercised, it is like a Perfume in the Resentments of our Lord Jesus Christ; and He says upon it, My Spouse, how much better is the smell of thine Ointments, than all Spices? Our Lavender, which is a Bastard Spiknard, is very sweet; but the true and right Spiknard of the East- Indies, is unspeakably more Delicious; however, the Grace of God Exercised in us, is far more fragant and grateful to that Holy Lord.
But we have this Doctrine then to think upon.