N00426:78
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.
Sixthly, If the Supper of the Lord be not appointed for a converting Ordinance, then a probable and credible Profession of a saving Faith, (or Conversion) is to be first made by them that would approach unto it. They that plead for more promiscuous Admissions to the Lords Table, usually suppose, That the Holy Supper is to be used for the Conversion of such as come unto it. But against this, I assume, That the Lords Supper is not Ex Instituto, a converting Ordinance. That this Ordinance has never by Accident, been sanctified for the First Conversion of them that had never bin brought home to God before, I do not now say; tho' I suppose it would puzzle any man to prove ⟨p. 43⟩that, It ever has. If it have, what of that? I can tell the Name of a man converted by hearing himself Preach; yet I hope the Church will be loth to admit unto the Ministry such as they may not be first well persuaded about the Conversion of. I have know some, whom a Dream has been very instrumental in converting unto God; yet a Dream I suppose, is not now a converting Ordinance. But this Ordinance is not by Appointment such an one as is to be employed for the First Conversion of such as have never yet given themselves up to the Lord Redeemer. 'Tis impossible to tell why the very Heathens are not capable of it, if it were a converting Ordinance; and why we should not be as charitable in driving men to the Lords Supper, as the Papists are in driving them to Baptism; among whom we read of one old Priest that Baptized seven hundred thousand. No, There is Another Ordinance directed thereunto; Faith comes by Hearing, and Hearing by the Word of God; but it is no where said, That Faith comes by Receiving of the Sacrament; nor is there so much as one instance in the Bible to countenance any such expectations. Indeed, this Dog• is A New Thing; the Assertors run Counter to the common sense of the Church in all Ages, and have an Army to a man against them. I would humbly ask, ⟨p. 44⟩If the Sacraments had been converting Ordinances, would Pauls Commission have Run that way, Sent not to Baptize, but to Preach the Gospel? Baptism it self is no converting Ordinance; we do not find in Scripture that it was ever applied unto any but such as had likely signs of the New-birth upon them; 'tis, The washing of Regeneration, a washing only for them that be Regenerate.