N01147:37
A dissertation, wherein the strange doctrine lately published in a sermon, the tendency of…
A dissertation, wherein the strange doctrine lately published in a sermon, the tendency of which, is, to encourage unsanctified persons (while such) to approach the holy table of the Lord, is examined and confuted. With an appendix, showing what Scripture ground there is to hope, that within a very few years there will be a glorious reformation of the church throughout the world. / By I. Mather, D.D. ; [Six lines of Scripture texts]A dissertation, wherein the strange doctrine lately published in a sermon, the tendency of which, is, to encourage unsanctified persons (while such) to approach the holy table of the Lord, is examined and confuted. With an appendix, shewing what Scripture ground there is to hope, that within a very few years there will be a glorious reformation of the church throughout the world. / By I. Mather, D.D. ; [Six lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Benj. Eliot, 1708
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
It remains then, that the Lord will Condemn those men who come into his Church, and so to his Holy Table without true Faith and Holiness. Learned Mr. Gillespy (c)replies to Mr. Prin, who maintained (as Mr. S. does) that the Lords Supper is a Converting Ordinance; that if it were so, the intruding Guest needed not to have stood speechless, when the King said to him, how camest ⟨p. 6⟩thou in hither? Mr. Prin's Divinity (Mr. S. his Divinity say I) might have put the answer into his mouth, I thought it to be a Converting Ordinance, and that thou wouldest not have Condemned those that came without a Wedding Garment, since here at the Marriage Feast they may get one. Another Scripture, (and a terrible one it is) which is very contrary to Mr. S. his impleaded Assertions, is that, 1 Cor. II. 27, 29. Whosoever shall Eat this Bread, & Drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body & Blood of the Lord. He that Eats & Drinks unworthily, Eats & Drinks Damnation (or Judgment) to himself. The last mentioned, Judicious and Learned Authors argues very rationally; that if the unworthiness of a particular Act in respect of the manner of doing it, may make a man Guilty, and expose him to Judgment, how much more the unworthiness of his Person? He that in respect of his state is an unworthy person, will not eat & drink worthily, or with a due meetness & preparedness for such an Ordinance: But this is true of every Unregenerate man. He that is yet in his Sins without true Repentance for them, and that has not an interest in Christ by Faith is unworthy, and therefore will Eat and Drink unworthily at the Lords Table, if he shall presume ⟨p. 7⟩to come thither. A particular act of Ungodliness may render a man unworthy; that is to say, unmeet to partake at the Lords Table. A Church-Member falling into a scandalous Sin is justly kept from the Sacrament, until he has manifested sincere Repentance: Then surely they that are in a state of Ungodliness, and that never Repented of any Sin, are not worthy or meet Communicants. If impenitence for a particular sin makes a man unfit for the Lords Supper, certainly impenitence under a state or course of sin does so much more. As long ago as the famous Council of Nice, it was given as a Rule, that they who are admitted to the Communion, should as to their inward State be true Penitents, which therefore should be Enquired into.