N00426:74
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.
And the Council of Nice gave this general Rule, That the inward state of Penitents be observed in order to their Admission to communion with us. Now, if they that are Impenitent for this or that particular sin, may not come to the Table of the Lord, surely they that may be thought Impenitent for a whole course of Sin, are also to be kept out of Doors, which is to be esteemed the case of all them whom we may not Reasonably as well as Charitably judg Renewed by the Holy Ghost.
And the Council of Nice gave this general Rule, That the inward state of Penitents be observed in order to their Admission to communion with us. Now, if they that are Impenitent for this or that particular sin, may not come to the Table of the Lord, surely they that may be thought Impenitent for a whole course of Sin, are also to be kept out of Doors, which is to be esteem'd the case of all them whom we may not Reasonably as well as Charitably judg Renewed by the Holy Ghost.
Fourthly, That Qualification, without which a man to be there about Examined, is to be supposed as continuing under the Covenant of works, is undoubtedly to be demanded of all them that would approach unto the Supper of the Lord. Our God has in two Covenants dispensed Himself unto us; both of which have had their Sacraments. The old ⟨p. 40⟩Covenant was not without a Sacrament in the Trees which God then did set such a special Remark upon. But the Lords Supper is purely a Sacrament of the New-Covenant; And it is Folly to think, that until a man accept of the Covenant he may meddle with the Sacrament. The Lords Supper is a Sacrament provided by the Second Adam for such as become united unto Him; as for those that keep their Union with the First Adam still, our Lord says unto them, What hast thou to do to take my Sacrament into thy mouth? Now till a person make a Probable and Credible Profession of a saving Faith, he pretends to none but the Covenant of Works. He remains what he was, when First born into the World; but the Table of the Lord stands in that Kingdom of Heaven, whereof our Lord says unto us, Verily, except a man be born again, he cannot see [he is uncapable of] that Kingdom.