N00426:345
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
DEVOTIONS At the SUPPER of the LORD; With Some Touches upon the con… › Application,
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.
Which this Truth is designed for; Tis this, Let us come to THIS Table of the Lord, on which we have the Supper of the Lord, with such an Exercise of Grace, as He calleth for; and let our Spikenard HERE so send forth the smell thereof, as that we may be ⟨p. 141⟩accounted Worthy Receivers of this Blessed Sacrament. You are now coming to a Cable which the King of Heaven is peculiarly and eminently present at. O be careful to come so Graciously, as that you may be reckoned to come Worthily hereunto: and this the rather, because a Godly man, may fall into that Pernicious miscarriage of coming a miss unto the Table of the Lord; a man that shall not at last be Condemned with the World, yet may smart very terribly for being a Negligent Communicant. I would set before you, these two Considerations.
Which this Truth is designed for; Tis this, Let us come to THIS Table of the Lord, on which we have the Supper of the Lord, with such an Exercise of Grace, as He calleth for; and let our Spiknard HERE so send forth the smell thereof, as that we may be ⟨p. 141⟩accounted Worthy Receivers of this Blessed Sacrament. You are now coming to a Cable which the King of Heaven is peculiarly and eminently present at. O be careful to come so Graciously, as that you may be reckoned to come Worthily hereunto: and this the rather, because a Godly man, may fall into that Pernicious miscarriage of coming a miss unto the Table of the Lord; a man that shall not at last be Condemned with the World, yet may smart very terribly for being a Negligent Communicant. I would set before you, these two Considerations.
Consider. 1. Very Black is the SIN committed by them, who do not in a Gracious and a Worthy manner approach to this Holy Table. We read in 2 Cor.30.15. The Priest & Levites were Ashamed, and Sanctified themselves Truly Tis a great Shame for us, to come ••to the Table of the Lord, in an Unsanctified manner; a Great Shame it is, because it is a great Sin. Tis an Affront unto Him who says, I am a great King, and my Name is Dreadful; tis a Vile thing to be Undecent and Uncivil, but so tis, to be ungracious, at the Table of such a King. A great prince being too poorly and meanly treated by another person, gave him that up braid, Non putabam ess me tibitam Famiearem; I did not look for this Familiarity!