About this book
Preparing for the Lord’s Supper presents practical instruction from two Puritans.
William Bradshaw’s contribution explains the dangers of taking Communion unworthily and how to prevent it. His work concludes with a set of questions to aid Christians in self-examination as they prepare for the Lord’s Supper. Bradshaw’s piece is supplemented with Arthur Hildersham’s thorough catechetical tool for understanding and properly partaking of the sacred meal. These treatises exemplify what Puritan ministers taught to common people in ordinary, obscure towns and villages as they prepared to take the Lord’s Supper. They are a similar challenge to us today to prepare ourselves thoughtfully and prayerfully before coming to the Lord’s Table.
In the broadest sense, they supply a helpful guide for proving our faith through self-examination. As Bradshaw says, “The duty of trying and examining a man’s self is of use to the best of Christians.”
Contents
Introduction
A Preparation to the Receiving of the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood By William Bradshaw by William Bradshaw
Dedicatory Epistle
To the Reader
Part 1: Showing What a Dangerous Sin It Is to Receive This Sacrament Unworthily
1. Preparation in General, and the Apostles’ form Thereof
2. The Author and Institutor of This Sacrament
3. The First Administrator of This Sacrament
4. When This Sacrament Was Instituted
5. The Religious Manner of Instituting and Administering This Sacrament
6. Outward Signs and Elements of This Sacrament
7. Things Signified by the Signs Aforesaid
8. The End and Use of This Sacrament in Respect of the Communicant
9. The End and Use of This Sacrament in Respect of Others
10. What It Is to Be Guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ
11. By What Means in Receiving This Sacrament Men Become Guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ
12. Why Unworthy Receivers Are Guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ
Part 2: Showing How to Prevent the Dangerous Sin of Profaning This Sacrament
1. The Method of This Second Part
2. The Trial of Ourselves in General
3. The Trial of Our Faith by the Grounds Thereof
4. The Trial of Our Faith by the Object or Matter Thereof
5. The Trial of Our Repentance
6. New Obedience and the Trial Thereof
7. The Persons That Are to Make This Trial
8. The Continuance in Trial till We Find That We Seek For
9. The Curse That Follows the Neglect of the Trial Aforesaid
10. The Special Signs and Tokens of the Aforesaid Curse in the Church of Corinth
Part 3: A Brief Form of Examination
Q&A 1–75
The Doctrine of Communicating Worthily in the Lord’s Supper By Arthur Hildersham by Arthur Hildersham
To the Reader
Q&A 1–100
