N02341:259
Ratio disciplinae fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A faithful account of the discipline professed and practised; in…
Ratio disciplinae fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A faithful account of the discipline professed and practised; in the churches of New-England. : With interspersed and instructive reflections on the discipline of the primitive churches. : [Seven lines from Ezekiel]
Boston: printed for S. Gerrish, 1726
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.
The Prayer being finished, the Communicants again sit down, and the Pastor says, Our Lord JESUS CHRIST having Blessed the Bread, He BROKE it. Whereupon he proceeds to the Breaking of the Bread, in the View of the Communicants, who for the most Part are silently left unto their own Meditations, during this Action; though some of the Pastors Excite and Assist the Meditations of the People, by now and then uttering a Sentence of the sacred Scriptures, or of their own Pathetic Thoughts, unto them.
When the Bread is all Broken into convenient Parcels, he says to this Effect: Our Lord JESUS CHRIST, having broken the Bread, He GAVE IT unto His Disciples, saying, This is my Body which is broken for you, take it, and eat of it, and do it in Remembrance of me. Wherefore in the Name of that Glorious Lord, I now invite you, to TAKE, and EAT hereof; and to do it in Remembrance of Him. So, He himself Takes and Eats of this Bread: But as he takes it himself, he gives the Dishes unto the ⟨p. 99⟩Deacons, by whose Help they are handed about among the Communicants, until they do all, sitting in a Devout Manner [In the Primitive Times, Reader, we are very certain, they did not use to do it, Kneeling!] Take and Eat thereof. In Tertullian's Time and Place the Communicants did not receive the Elements, De aliorum Manu quam Praesidentium: But in the Churches of New-England they do as in Justin Martyr's; ΔΙΑΚΟΝΟΙ ΔΙΔΟΑΣΙΝ. The Deacons give the Consecrated Bread and Wine to those that are present.
The Deacons returning with the Remainders, the Pastor stands up, and Enquires, Whether any to whom that Bread of the Lord, and of Life, should have been given, have not received it? If a Sign of any such be given, 'tis carried unto them. And when all are served, the Deacons do then sit down and partake of their Portion also.