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A10652 Meditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper Written many yeares since by Edvvard Reynolds then fellow of Merton College in Oxford. Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676. 1638 (1638) STC 20929A; ESTC S112262 142,663 279

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MEDITATIONS ON THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE Lords last Supper Written many yeares since BY EDVVARD REYNOLDS then Fellow of Merton College in Oxford LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostock and are to be sould at his shop in S. Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Kings Head 1638. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL SIR HENRY MARTEN Knight Iudge of the Admiralty and of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Sir SAint Hierom having in the heate of his Youth written an allegoricall Exposition upon the Prophet Obadiah did in his riper Age solemnly bewaile unto his Friend Pammachius both his rashnesse in that attempt aud his infelicity further heerein that what hee thought had beene buried amongst his private papers was gotten into the hands of a certaine Young man and so saw the Light The selfe same complaint am I forced to make touching this little Manuell of Sacramentall Meditations which I humbly put into your hands It was written with respect onely to mine owne private use many yeares since when I was a young Student in the Vniversity as my first Theologicall Essay And now lately by meanes of a private Copy long agoe communicated unto a Friend it had without my knowledge received a Licence for the Presse my earnest care was upon the first notice thereof wholly to have suppressed the Publication but the Copy which had beene licenced being by I know not what miscarriage lost I have found it necessary for feare of the like inconvenience againe to review a broken Copy which I had by mee and have rather chosen to let it passe forth with some briefe and sudden Castigations of mine owne than once more runne the hazard of a surreptitious Edition Mine Apology shall bee no other than that of the good father Infanseram nec dum scribere noveram Nunc ut nihil aliud profecerim saltem Socraticum illud habeo scio quod nescio And now since I finde that the Oblation of the first fruits though haply they were not alwayes the best and ripest did yet finde favourable acceptance with God himself I have bin embolden'd to present this small Enchiridion the very first fruits of my Theologicall studies unto the hands and patronage of so greatly learned eloquent and judicious a person and that upon this assurance That as many times aged men when they walke abroad leane upon the hand of a little Childe so even in this little and youthfull Treatise such comfortable Trueths may bee though weakly delivered as may help ●n your journey towards a better Country to refresh and sustaine your aged thoughts The Blood of Christ and the Food of Life are subjects worthy of all acceptation though brought unto us in an earthen vessell Elisha was not a whit the lesse valued by that noble Naaman though it were an handmaid which directed unto him Neither was Davids comfort in rescuing of his Wives and recovering of the spoiles from the Amalakites any jot the smaller because a yong man of Egypt made way for the discovery The Soveraignty of the Gospell is herein most excellently set forth in that it many times leadeth the Soule by the hand of a childe and is as truly though not as abundantly powerfull from young Timothy as from Paul the aged As christ can use weake elements to exhibite so can hee also use a weake penne to expresse the vertue and comforts of his Body and Blood In this confidence I have made bold to prefixe your name before these Meditations that therein I might make a publike acknowledgement of my many and deepe engagements for your abundant favours and might with most hearty prayers commend you and yours to that Blood of sprinckling which speaketh better things for us than that of Abe● In which desires I daily remaine Yours in all humble observance EDVVARD REYNOLDES MEDITATIONS ON THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE LORDS LAST SUPPER CHAP. I Mans Being to bee imployed in working that working directed unto some Good which is God that Good a free and voluntary Reward which wee here enjoy onely in the right of a Promise the seale of which Promise is a Sacrament THE Almighty power and wisdome of God hath given unto his creatures a triple degree of perfection their Being their Working and their Good which three are so subordinate to each other that Working is the end and scope of Being and Good is the end and scope of Working But no Being can produce any Work no Work reach unto any Good without something that may be a rule of working and a way to Good and therefore Almightie God in the work of the Creation imprinted in each creature a secret principle which should move governe and uniformly direct it to its proper work and end and that principle we call a Law which by assigneing unto each thing the kinde measure and extent of its working doth lead it on by a strait and in fallible line unto that Good for which it worketh All other Creatures below the spheare of reason being not only in the quality of their nature of a narrow and strait perfection but in their duration finite and perishable the good unto which this Law of their creation directs them is a finite Good likewise But men and Angels being both in nature more excellent than all others and in continuance infinite and immortall cannot possibly receive from anything which is a meere creature and lesse perfect than themselves any compleat satisfaction of their desires and therefore must by a circle turne back unto God who is aswell the Omega the end and object of their working as the Alpha the cause and authour of their being Now God being most free not only in himselfe but in the diffusion and communication of himselfe unto any thing created which therefore he cannot be naturally or necessarily bound unto and being also a God infinitely beyond the largest compasse of the creatures merit or working it followes that neither Men nor Angels can lay any necessary claime unto God by a debt of Nature as a stone may unto the Center by that naturall impresse which directs it thither but all our claime is by a right of Promise and voluntary Donation so that that which in other meere naturall creatures is cald the Terme or Scope is in reasonable creatures the Promise or Reward of their working Feare not Abraham I am thy exceeding great reward So then we have here our Good which is God to bee communicated unto us not in the manner of a necessary and naurall debt but of a voluntary and supernaturall Reward Secondly we have our working required as the meanes to lead us in a strait line unto the fruition of that Good and in as much as mans will being mutable may carry him unto severall operations of different kinds wee have thirdly a Rule or Law to moderate the kind and manner of our working whereby we reach unto our desired Good which Rule when it altereth as in the new Covenant of