Iesus to death yea to the shamefull death of the Crosse for our redemption and that he was so gracious a God and so mercifull and indulgent a Father to vs that he suffered his blessed Sonne to dye for vs Tit. 2.14 That hee might redeeme vs from all iniquitie and purge vs to be a peculiar people to himselfe For wretched sinners that we are In Paradise where our Forefathers gained their life there by their wilfull disobedience and transgression they lost their righteousnes and we in them because the foule staine and Leprosie of that their originall sin hath successively and actually made vs their vnfortunate seede and posteritie guilty both of Death and Hell and there iustly adiudged to haue our Portions with the Devill and his Angels But notwithstanding all this God yet hath beene as mercifull to vs as we have bene sinnefull to him for although wee were lost in Adam by Nature yet we are againe both found and saved in Iesus Christ by grace 1 Tim. 2.6 Who hath given himselfe a ransome for all men Isai 53.4,5 Hath borne our infirmities and carried away our sinnes and sorrows by suffering himselfe to bee wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities So that it is the present ioy of our hearts and the future happinesse of our soules Eph. 2.4,5 That God who is rich in mercie Eph 2.4,5 through the great loue wherewith he loved vs when we were dead by our sins hath quickned vs together in Iesus Christ by whose grace we are saved And to the ende that all true Christians should not despaire of Christs promises vnto them nor so much give themselues over either to the reprobate sense and pleasures of sinne or to the sugred insinuations and trecherous temptations of Satan as any way to doubt of their salvation in the Lord Why this our sacred Lord Master Christ Iesus the great Shepheard of his Flocke and Saviour of his people who by incorporating his Divinitie with his humanitie was wholly composed of loue mercy toward them Hee I say a litle before his bloody yet blessed death and passion on the Crosse was gratiously pleased to honour and sanctifie his Apostles and in them vs who are of the true seed of Abraham with the holy Sacrament of his most blessed Supper as a diuine pledge and a firme authenticall confirmation of his inestimable loue towards vs and of his watchful care and vigilancy for our saluation I meane for the full perfecting and accomplishing of our glorification in Heaven with God his father Rom 6.4 That sin might haue no more dominion over ver vs because we are now no longer vnder the Law but vnder Grace but that by the worthy receiving and holy partaking thereof In the imitation of Christ and his blessed Apostles Ephes 2.6 wee might be raysed vp together with him in heavenly places It is therefore not our owne merits but onely Gods mercies not our own workes which are sinfull but onely the blessed death and passion of Christ Iesus which is sacred that must be both the triumph and glory of a Christian And I confesse with ioy and acknowledge with Confidence and Consolation that this holy Sacrament of his most blessed Supper wherin the bread of his body was broken and the wine of his blood powred out and shed for the sinnes of all mankind is the perfect pledge the sacred seale the full ransome and the divinest mysterie of our redemption in Iesus Christ And that as wee are absolutely cleansed and washed from our originall sinne by the water of Baptisme when wee enter into the State of Grace in the Church militant heere on earth That so by the blood of this Paschall Lambe Christ Iesus in the Sacrament of his blessed Supper our sinnes are wholly defaced and washed away and consequently that therefore wee shall enter into the state of glory in the Church triumphant in heaven So that fighting vnder the banner of Christ his Crosse and being spiritually armed with these two sacred Sacraments we may boldly beleeue confidently assure our selues that neither Sathan nor hell shall have power to prevaile against vs. And here Christian Reader before I proceed farther in this my Preface to thee I give thee to vnderstand That I am not ignorant with what a great world of different opinions and controversies this our little world of Christendome is perplexed and troubled with about this blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper betwixt the Protestant and the Papist especially about Transubstantiation the Reall Presence and communicating in one kind In so much that an infinite number yea too great a number of pens pulpits and presses are pittifully because vnprofitably oppressed therwith and that Christs blessed body in this Sacrament without pietie reason or charity is daily dilacerated and torne in peeces with these contentions whereas his owne Coate or vesture was without peece or seame So that our silly soules may well feare drowning when the barke of our weake faith masted and rigged with curiositie sayleth in so dangerous and turbulent an Ocean that hath neither bottome nor shoare and which is daily and hourly tossed and ready to be split and dashed in peeces either with the wavering waves of levity and inconstancy or with the boysterous winds of propensd malice or scandalous and erronious virulency without looking vp to the true day-Starre of their hope Iesus Christ or to the Sunne of their saluation God or without endevoring or thinking safely to arrive and cast anchor in the Cape of good hope Heaven O that the spirit of Pietie should without piety thus bee conuerted and transformed into the spirit of Contention And as for mee who am the meanest and most vnworthie of all Gods Seruants and Children bingeniously confesse and acknowledge that in some few languages I have read so many of these intemperate Contreversies and vntimely Contentions that I am wearie of reading them And yet so That I rather pitie then maligne first their Authors for their sakes and then them for their Authors sakes and my witnesse is in heaven in mine own besome that with my heart soule I wish that all these vnspirituall quarells might be composed in peace and amitie and that these vnfortunate disputes and lynes might terminate in one and the same Centre Charitie and that their learned Authors having their curiosity vanquished with the honour and glory of God as Christian members might bee inseparably fast knit and vnited to their Head and grand Captaine Iesus Christ and because contention is not the way to heaven and that God was found in the still and quiet and not in the whirle and tempestuous winds As also that where the great Lamps of learning and lights of the Church contend fight about matters of faith that there assuredly the weake ones and the more illiterat Christians doe infinitly suffer in this quarell That therefore in the name and feare of God they would
THE DIVINE POVRTRAIT OR A true and liuely Representation of the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper with our due Preparation how to receiue the same worthily Delivered in a Sermon at the Reformed Church of Paris on Easter day last By Monsieur Iohn Mestrezat Minister of the Word of God there Vpon these words of our Saviour This is my Body Englished by John Reynolds LONDON Printed by A. M. for G. Baker and are to be sold at his shop neere Charing-crosse 1631. TO THE RIGHT HOnourable Most Religious and Vertuous Lady MARIE Countesse of DORSET Gouernesse to our High and Hopefull young Lord and Master Prince Charles MADAME KNovving and considering that your Honour as a sanctified vessell of Pietie and as another Elect Ladie spendes the greatest part of your time and of your Selfe in Prayer and in the sweet and sacred calmes of Heavenly Meditations and Contemplations And that you make and esteeme the first to bee as indeed it is your chiefest Ioy the second your greatest Delight and both of them your divinest Ambition and Felicitie heere on Earth I therefore according to the dignitie of your merits and the qualitie of my duetie doe heere embolden my selfe most humbly to present and Dedicate to your Honour a small Translation of mine from French Of a Sermon lately delivered by a worthie Servant of the Lord in the Protestant Church of Paris vpon the firmest poynt of our Faith and the greatest and most Sacred Mysterie of our Salvation The Lords most blessed Supper And if my affection to the Authour thereof doe not deceiue my iudgment He hath drawen this Divine Pourtrait of that blessed Sacrament so divinely and so artificially and curiously depaynted it at life according to the sacred Will and Testament of the Great and Heavenly Institutour thereof Our Lord and Saviour CHRIST IESVS as I both hope with confidence and presume with safetie that your Honour will receiue it graciously behold it affectionately and loue and cherish it religiously and consequently that all other Readers will doe the like by the powerfull Influence of your Honourable President and pious Example And in regard that your constant Pietie and inflamed Zeale towards God as the Queene of all your other relucent Vertues generally makes you to bee rather admyred then imitated of the best and Noblest Ladyes of Great BRITAINE Therefore neither to flatter your Honour or to infringe the truth I confidently beleeue that this Pietie and this Zeale of yours was the primarie cause which first mooved God to mooue and inspire the heart of our Potent and Prudent King to giue you the Superintendencie over his young Son our Prince A singular favour of God a most speciall honour of our Soveraigne towards you which yet your Honour deserved before desired and received before you any way expected or dreamt thereof And the which so infinitely reioyceth the hearts and and soules of the most and best of all his Subiects that they tryumph in this his Maiesties happie choyce and election of you and in your Honourable and Vertuous Administration over this our Royall Faglet As fully hoping and therefore perfectly assuring themselues that as you are now made Governesse to the first Sonne of one of the first and greatest Kings of the world So that your Illustrious vertues in your selfe your watchfull eye over him and vigilant care of and for him will by Gods propitious Favour and Assistance infallibly crowne his Royall Parents with true Content and their Kingdomes and Subiects with perfect Felicitie to see this Princely Blossome and Royall Plant futurely flourish and sprout foorth to be one of the loftyest Cedars of Christendome and next to our Sacred Soveraigne King CHARLES his Father the greatest Champion of Christ and his Gospell and the Truest Defender of his Heavenly Spouse the Church And Madame because if wee make Pietie and Religion the Soule of our life heere on Earth That wee are therefore assured God will then heereafter infallibly make it the life of our Soules in Heaven was likewise a strong motive and a most pleasing and acceptable Inducement to me to make this Sermon or Divine Pourtrait of the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper to speake English for that this spirituall and celestiall Banquet given by our great Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST to his beloved Apostles and in them to vs a little before his glorious departure and ascension from Earth to Heaven is the very true life and essence yea the spirituall Food and sacred Manna whereby all faithfull and regenerate Christians are eternally incorporated into Christ and Christ into them A sweet and sacred Meditation for every one to know and contemplate and also most infinitely necessarie for all by a liuely Faith verie often and frequently to apply vnto their Consciences and Soules because it is a matchlesse Iewell and an inestimable Treasure which includeth all earthly riches and compriseth and containes all Heavenly benefits and felicities in it Neither am I or so Ignorant or so Presumptuous to direct this Sermon of the Lords Supper to your Honour out of the least shadow of any premeditated intent or purpose thereby to instruct or teach you in this sacred Mysterie of your Salvation because contrariwise I firmely know that your Honour is truely able to teach and infinitely capable to instruct others therein But I did it purposely to recreate your Zeale and to foment and cherish your Pietie in this your solemne Preparation to receiue that blessed Sacrament now at this approaching great and ioyfull Feast of Easter and next therevnto as an eternall pledge and testimony of my dutie to your Honors Service The operation â—ind benefite which the reading and meditating of this small Booke may worke in your heart and soule I wholly leaue to the Divine Providence and Pleasure of Almightie God whom I religiously pray may ever blesse your Honor and yours with all true prosperitie and happinesse in this life and with all perfect felicity and glory in that to come Aprill 2. 1631. Your Honours humblest servant Iohn Reynolds THE TRANSLATOR his Preface to the Christian Reader IT was with a holy admiration and a religious and sanctified zeale that the Royall Prophet King David contemplating on the excellency of Gods creatures and meditating on the preheminence and dignitie which hee gaue man over them Cryed out Psal 8.4 O Lord our God how excellent is thy name in all the world And what is man that thou art so mindefull of him and the Sonne of man that thou visitest him If David who was a liuely Type and Figure of Christ were rapt into this spirituall extasie of admiration and ioy when he considered of Gods power and providence in the workes of his creation How much more infinitly and thankfully should wee poore miserable sinners reioyce with true admiration and admire with perfect ioy at the vnspeakable and incomprehensible love of God towards mankinde Phil. 2.8 Col. 1.14 In giving vp his onely begotten Sonne Christ