N00426:52
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
Invitations to the SUPPER of the LORD, With a DISCOURSE on the Natu… › Proposition 1
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.
Fourthly, The Bread and the Wine are to be given. As our Lord, put first the Bread, and anon the Wine into the Hands (not into the Mouths) of the Disciples; thus the Pastors are still to do, by the Mediation of the Deacons. We do not find that Christ or They rose up, for Him to deliver the Bread and the Wine to each of them immediately; but He gave it unto the First, and the First gave it unto the Next; and thus we find in the Primitive Ages, there were Distributors of these Holy Things to the Communicants. But there seems no Necessity of Repeating the Invitations of the Lord Jesus over again, to each person at the Delivery of the Bread and Wine; tho' in some of the Primitive Churches, there seems to have been such a Thing, which every Communicant answered an, Amen, unto▪ Well, This is to signify, That God now giveth Christ, He gives that matchless Gift, both To and For His People. The ⟨p. 25⟩Lord now as it were saith, Beh•ld, I have provided a Saviour for thy Soul. Here, I freely give Him to thee; Accept Him as thy own for ever.
Fourthly, The Bread and the Wine are to be given. As our Lord, put first the Bread, and anon the Wine into the Hands (not into the Mouths) of the Disciples; thus the Pastors are still to do, by the Mediation of the Deacons. We do not find that Christ or They rose up, for Him to deliver the Bread and the Wine to each of them immediately; but He gave it unto the First, and the First gave it unto the Next; and thus we find in the Primitive Ages, there were Distributors of these Holy Things to the Communicants. But there seems no Necessity of Repeating the Invitations of the Lord Jesus over again, to each person at the Delivery of the Bread and Wine; tho' in some of the Primitive Churches, there seems to have been such a Thing, which every Communicant answered an, Amen, unto▪ Well, This is to signifie, That God now giveth Christ, He gives that matchless Gift, both To and For His People. The ⟨p. 25⟩Lord now as it were saith, Beh•ld, I have provided a Saviour for thy Soul. Here, I freely give Him to thee; Accept Him as thy own for ever.