N00426:65
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.
None but Believers are to Enjoy the Supper of the Lord. I am sorry that so much Controversy lies in our way, as we go along; but there MUST BE such things as Truth is to conflict withal. I have now particularly advanced an Assertion, for which you must have the patience for a while to see me Contend earnestly against a sort of men, who tell us, That a bare profession of a Dogmatical or Historical Faith (which Faith and Profession they themselves find it hard enough to describe, but must leave the business in a perpetual confusion) together with a submission to the Government of the Visible Church, will entitle a man to Sacraments! Against this Opinion, I lay down this Conclusion.
None but Believers are to Enjoy the Supper of the Lord. I am sorry that so much Controversy lies in our way, as we go along; but there MUST BE such things as Truth is to conflict withal. I have now particularly advanc'd an Assertion, for which you must have the patience for a while to see me Contend earnestly against a sort of men, who tell us, That a bare profession of a Dogmatical or Historical Faith (which Faith and Profession they themselves find it hard enough to describe, but must leave the business in a perpetual confusion) together with a submission to the Government of the Visible Church, will entitle a man to Sacraments! Against this Opinion, I lay down this Conclusion.
That Regeneration is the Thing without which a Title unto Sacraments is not to be ⟨p. 30⟩pretended unto. Real Regeneration, is that which before God (in foro coeli) renders men capable of claiming Sacraments. And Visible, or Expressed Regeneration is that which before Men, (in foro Soli) enables us to make such a claim. Or, take it so, A probable and credible Profession of a Saving Faith, (and no less than That) must be made by a man, before the Supper of the Lord may be Administered unto him.
That Regeneration is the Thing without which a Title unto Sacraments is not to be ⟨p. 30⟩