A Treatise Concerning the Lord’s Supper (Doolittle)

Description

The Lord’s Supper should be a feast for God’s children. So why do so few Christian truly enjoy it?

Jesus provided us with the Lord's Supper to remind us of the spiritual benefits our union with Him to nurture us in His grace. But neglecting the table and eating in an unworthy manner keeps many believers from receiving this gracious gift.

Puritan Thomas Doolittle's simple treatise instructs us on the true meaning of the Lord’s Supper, giving practical advice on preparing our hearts for the table. Complete with three dialogues that catechize weak Christians, this simple work will help you feast on the Lord's benefits in His table.

A Soli Deo Gloria Publication

Soli Deo Gloria Publications began publishing works by the English and American Puritans in the 1980s and has reprinted more than 250 titles since then. Our goal is to reprint works that drive men to see the holiness of God, the evil of Sin, the glory of Christ, and the necessity of obedience.

Contents

Contents

To the Reader

Chapter 1: Containing the explication of the text, and the general conclusion handled in this treatise

Chapter 2: Containing the first conclusion, and the explication thereof

Chapter 3: Showing that Christ's disciples must receive the Lord's Supper

Chapter 4: Containing twelve questions to those believers who neglect the Lord's Supper

Chapter 5: Containing some doubts of weak Christians that hinder them from receiving the Lord's Supper, with a resolution of those doubts

Chapter 6: Showing that believers must often receive the Lord's Supper

Chapter 7: We are to apply great diligence to prepare ourselves for the receiving of the Lord's Supper

Chapter 8: Containing several questions to excite us to greater diligence in preparation

Chapter 9: Containing some directions to get our hearts rightly disposed to receive the Lord's Supper

Chapter 10: Twenty properties of the blood of Christ

Chapter 11: How faith is to be exercised at the Lord's Table

Chapter 12: How love, desire, and other graces are to be exercised in the sacrament

Chapter 13: The necessity of examination after the sacrament

Chapter 14: Reasons why some receive no benefit by the Lord's Supper

Chapter 15: How we may know whether we get good by coming to the Lord's Supper

Chapter 16: How we are to live after we have been at the Lord's Supper

Dialogue 1: A short dialogue between a minister and a private Christian who desires to partake of the Lord's Supper

Dialogue 2: A dialogue between a weak believer who dares not come to, and a strong believer who dares not absent himself from, the Lord's Supper

Dialogue 3: A dialogue between one believer who has assurance, another who has hopes, and another who doubts the love of God and of good by the sacrament, as they come away from the Lord's Table

Endorsement

“Thomas Doolittle’s A Treatise Concerning the Lord’s Supper is a warm, searching, and pastorally rich guide to the Lord’s Supper. . . Deeply theological and intensely practical, this treatise aims not only to inform the mind but to move the soul toward reverent joy and fruitful communion with Christ as we show the Lord’s death till He come (1 Cor. 11:26).”
—Randall J. Pederson, editor of Day by Day with the English Puritans

About the Author

Thomas Doolittle (ca. 1630–1707) graduated from Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and served as a Presbyterian minister at St. Alfege London Wall until he was dismissed under the Act of Uniformity in 1662. Doolittle continued to minister the gospel among Nonconformists, serving a congregation on Monkwell Street and operating the Pioneer Nonconformist Academy.