THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION; OR, INSTRUCTIONS AND HELPS FOR THE RIGHT RECEIVING OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. BY MATTHEW HENRY. LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY; Instituted 1799. DEPOSITORIES, 56, PATERNOSTER ROW, 65, ST. PAUL'S AND SOLD BY THE BOOKSELLERS. 1865- 138.9.24. TO THE READER. I HERE humbly offer you, Christian reader, some assistance in that great and good work which you have to do, and are concerned to do well, when you attend the table of the Lord: a work wherein I have observed most serious people desirous of help, and willing to use the helps they have: which, I confess, was one thing that invited me to this undertaking. I offer this service, with all due deference and respect to the many excellent performances of this kind which we are already blessed with, done by far better hands than mine; who yet have not so fully gathered in this harvest, but that those who come after may gather up plentiful gleanings without robbing their sheaves. "Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room; room enough to enlarge upon a subject so copious and of so great a compass that it cannot be exhausted. I do this also with a just sense of my own unworthiness and unfitness to bear the vessels of the Lord, and to do any service in his sanctuary. Who am I, and what is my father's house, that I should have the honour to be a door-keeper in the house of my God, to show his guests the way to his table; and that I should be employed thus to hew wood and draw water for the congregation of the Lord? I reckon it true preferment; and by the grace of God, his free grace, I am what I am. It is service which is its own recompense; work which is its own wages. In helping to feed others we may feast ourselves; for our Master hath provided, that the mouth of the ox be not muzzled when he treads out the corn. For my part, I would not exchange the pleasure of converse with the Scriptures and Divine things for all the delight of the sons and daughters of men, and the peculiar treasure of kings and provinces. It was a noble saying of the Marquess of Vico, "Let their money perish with them, who esteem all the wealth of this world worth one hour's communion with God in Jesus Christ." In doing this, I hope I can truly say, My desire and design is to contribute something to the faith, holiness, and joy of those that in this solemn ordinance have given up their names to the Lord Jesus. And, if God by his grace will make this endeavour some way serviceable to that end, I have what I wish, I have what I aim at; and it will not be the first time that praise hath been perfected, and strength ordained out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. In this essay I have an eye particularly to that little handful of people among whom I have been (in much weakness) ministering in these holy things now seventeen years; during all which time, through the good hand of our God upon us, we have never once been disappointed of the stated solemnities, either of our new moons, or our sabbaths. As I designed my Scripture Catechism, and the other little one that followed it, to be a present, and perhaps before long it may prove my legacy to the young ones, the lambs of the flock; so I recommend this to the adult, and leave it with them, being desirous that the sheep we are charged to feed may go in and out, and find pasture. And I earnestly wish, that both these may prove successful expedients to preserve some of those things they have been taught from being quite forgotten; and that, after my decease, they and theirs will have those things always in remem brance. And, lastly, I send this abroad under the protection and blessing of heaven; with a hearty prayer to God to forgive what is mine;.that is, whatever is amiss and defective in the performance; and graciously to accept what is his own; that is, whatever is good and profitable. Hoping that if God pardon my defects and infirmities, my friends also will overlook them. And that if He favourably accept my endeavours through Christ, they also will accept them: for truly it is the top of my ambition to approve myself, A faithful Servant to Christ and Souls, MATTHEW HENRY. CHESTER, June 21, 1704. |