immediately respect the temporall deliverance of that People out of Egypt by the sprinkling of their doores with blood which was it selfe but a shadow of our freedome from Satan so that their Sacrament was but the Type of a Type and therefore must needs have so much the weaker and more obscure reference unto Christ even as those draughts doe lesse resemble the face of a man which are taken from a former piece or that light the brightnesse of its originall which shines weakly through a second or third reflexion Besides this small light which shined from the Passeover on the people of the Iewes and by which they were something though darkly enabled to behold Christ was but like the light in a house or family which could not shine beyond the narrow compasse of that small people and therefore it was to bee eaten in such a family to signifie as I conceive that the Church was then but as a handfull or houshold in respect of that fulnesse of the Gentiles which was to follow Now then the Church being to enlarge its borders and to bee coextended with the World it stood in need of a greater light even that Sunne of Righteousnesse who was now to be as well the light to lighten the Gentiles as he had beene formerly the Glory of his People Israel And therefore we may observe that this second Sacrament was not to bee eaten in a private separated Family but the Church was to come together and to stay one for another that in the confluence of the People and the publikenesse of the action the encrease and amplitude of the Church might be expressed Besides the Gentiles were uninterested in that temporall Deliverance of the Iewes from Pharaoh it being a particular and nationall benefit and therefore the commemoration thereof in the Paschall Lambe could not by them who in the loines of their ancestours had not beene there delivered be literally and with reflexion on themselves celebrated Requisite therefore in this respect also it was in as much as the partition wall was broken downe and both Iew and Gentile were incorporated into one head that nationall and particular relations ceasing such a Sacrament might bee reinstituted wherein the universall restoring of all mankinde might bee represented And certainely for a man at mid-day to shut his windowes from the communion of the generall light and to use onely private lampes of his owne as it is towards men madnesse so it is impiety and Schisme in Religion There is betweene the Gospell and the Legall Ceremonies as I observed the same proportion of difference as is betweene houshold Tapers and the common Sun-shine as in regard of the amplitude of their light and of the extent of their light so in the duration of it likewise for as Lampes within a small time doe of themselves expire and perish whereas the light of the Sunne doth never waste it selfe even so Iewish rites were by Gods institution perishable and temporary during that infancy of the Church wherein it was not able to looke on a brighter object but when in the fulnesse of time the Church was growne unto a firmer sense then in the death of Christ did those Types likewise die and were together with the sinnes of the World cancelled upon the Crosse. Amongst the Persians it was a solemne observation to nullifie for a time the force of their Lawes and to extinguish those fires which they were wont idolatrously to adore upon the death of their King as if by him both their policy and Religion had beene animated even so at the death of our blessed Saviour were all those Legall Ordinances those holy fires which were wont to send up the sweet savour of incense and sacrifices unto heaven abolished he who before had substituted them in his roome and by an effectuall influence from himselfe made them temporary instruments of that propitiation which it was impossible for them in their owne natures to have effected being himselfe come to finish that worke which was by them onely foreshadowed but not begunne much lesse accomplished CHAP. XV. The last End of this holy Sacrament namely the Celebration and Memory of Christs Death A briefe Collection of all the benefits which are by his Death conveyed on the Church The Question touching the quality of temporall Punishments stated THe last and most expresse End of this holy Sacrament is to celebrate the Memory of Christs Death and Passion which was that unvaluable price of our double Redemption Redemption from Hell and Redemption unto Glory Great Deliverances as they have mooved the Church unto anniversary celebrations of them which Christ himselfe hath beene pleased to honour with his owne Presence so have they drawne even heathen men also not onely to solemnize the Festivals and deifie the memories of those unto whose inventions they owed the good things which they enjoy but farther to honour even brute creatures themselves with solemne triumphs and memorials nay beasts have not beene forgetfull of those unto whom they owe any way their life and safety how much more then doth it become Christians to celebrate with an eternall memory the Author of their Redemption a worke beyond all that ever the Sunne saw yea a worke whose lustre darkened the Sunne it selfe and which the Angels cannot comprehend matters circumstantiall as Time and Place and matters Typicall and representative as Ceremonies Sacrifices and Sacraments as they receive their particular advancement and sanctification from those workes which they immediately respect so are they not by us to be solemnely celebrated without continued memories of those workes which doe so dignifie them All places naturally being but severall parcels of the same common aire and earth are of an equall worth But when it pleaseth God in any place to bestow a more especiall ray of his Presence and to sanctifie any Temple unto his owne service as it is then by that extraordinary Presence of his made a holy and consecrated Place so are wee when wee enter into it to looke unto our feete to pull off our shooes to have an eye unto him that filleth it with his Presence or otherwise if wee enter into it as into a common place wee shall offer nothing but the sacrifice of fooles All Times are naturally equall as being distinguished by the same constant and uniforme motion of the heavens yet notwithstanding when God shall by any notable and extraordinary worke of his honour and sanctifie some certaine daies as hee did the Jewish Sabbath with respect to the Creation and our Lords day by raising up Christ from the dead as they are by this wonderfull worke of his severed from the ranke of common times so are wee ever when wee come unto them not to passe them over without the memory of that worke which had so advanced them otherwise to solemnize a day without reference unto the cause of its
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 â—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 Abeâ— 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
Christ in his Church of his more peculiar presence with and in his people of our spirituall ingrasture into him by faith of those more neere and approaching relations of Brotherhood and coinheritance between Christ and us that mutuall interest fellowship and society which wee have each to other with infinite other expressions of that divine and expresselesse mixture whereby the faithfull are not only by a consociation of affections and confederacy of wills but by a reall though mysticall union ingrafted knit and as it were joynted unto Christ by the sinew of faith and so made heires of all that glory and good which in his person was purchased for his members and is from him diffus'd on them as on the parts and portions of himselfe So that it pleaseth Gods spirit as some do observe so farre sometimes to expresse this union betwixt Christ and his Church as to call the Church it selfe by the name of Christ and every where almost to interest himselfe in the injuries and suffrings of his Church yea to esteeme him self incompleat and maimed without it And here this mysticall unity between Christ his Church being by eating and drinking so expressely signified and in the Sacrament so gratiously obsignated unto us it will not be impertinent to enlarge somewhat on so divine a point whersoever any thing hath so inward a relation and dependancy on something else as that it subsisteth not nor can retaine that integrity of being which is due unto it without that whereon it dependeth there is necessarily requir'd some manner of union between those two things by meanes whereof the one may derive unto the other that influence and vertue whereby it is preserved for broken discontinued and ununited parts receive no succour from those from which they are divided All manner of activity requiring a contract and immediatnesse between the Agent and the subject and this one proofe of that omnipresence and immensity which we attribute unto God whereby he filleth all creatures bestowing on them all that generall influence and assistance of his Providence whereby they live and move and have their being But besides this universall presence of God wherwith he doth equally fill all things by his essence which were from eternity wrapped up in his power and wisedome there is a more speciall presence and union of his unto the creature according as he doth in any of them exhibit more expresse Characters of his glorious Attributes In which sense he is said to be in Heaven because hee doth there more especially manifest his power wisedome and majesty in the soft and still voice because there his lenity was more conspicuous in the burning bush and in the light cloud because in them his mercy was more express'd in the mount Sinah because there his â—errour was especially declared According unto which different diffusions of himselfe on the Creature and dispensation of his Attributes God without any impeachment of his Immensity may be said to be absent to depart and to turne away from his Creature as the words are every where in the Scriptures used Thus is God united to the creature in generall by the right of a Creator upholding all things by his mighty word without the participation whereof they could not but be annihilated and resolved into their first nothing but besides there is a more distinct and nobler kind of union unto his more excellent Creature man for as there are some things which partake only of the vertue and efficacy others which partake of the Image and nature of the Sunne as the bowels of the earth recceive only the vertue heat and influence but the beame receives the very Image and forme of it light so in the creatures some partake of God only as an Agent as depending on his eternall power from whence they did originally issue and by which they doe now still subsist and so receive only some common Impressions and foot prints of divine vertue whereby they declare his glory others partake of the Image of God of the divine nature as Saint Peter speaks and receive from him those two speciall properties wherein principally consists the Image of God holinesse and happinesse that giving perfection to our working and this to our being which two satisfie the whole compasse of a created desire and so declare his love some acknowledge God as their maker others as their Father in them is dependance and gubernation only in these is cognition and inheritance The bond of this more speciall union of the reasonable creature unto God was originally the Law of mans creation which did prescribe unto him the forme and limits of his working and subordination unto God which knot he by his voluntary aversation violating and untying there did immediately ensue a dis-union between God and man so saies the Prophet your sinnes have separated between you and your God Now as the parts of a body so long as they are by the naturall bonds of joynts and sinewes united to the whole doe receive from the fountaines of life the heart and the braine all comfortable supplies for life and motion which are due unto them but being once dissolved and broken off there then ceaseth all the interest which they had in the principall parts so as long as man by obedience to the Law did preserve the union between God and him intire so long had he an evident participation of all those graces spirituall which were requisite to the holinesse and happinesse of so noble a creature but having once transgress'd the Law and by that meanes broken the knot he is no more posses'd of that sweet illapse and influence of the spirit which quickneth the Church unto eternall life but haveing united himselfe unto another head and subjected his parts unto another Prince even the Prince that ruleth in the children of disobedience hee is utterly destitute of all divine communion an alien from the common-wealth and by consequence from all the priviledges of Israel a stranger from the covenant of promise unacquainted with yee unable to conceive aright of spirituall things quite shut out from the Kingdome yea without God in the world And thus farre wee have considered the severall unions which are between the creatures either in generall as creatures or in particular as reasonable and God consider'd in the relation of a Creator which will give great light to understand both the manner and dignity of this mysticall and evangelicall union betwixt the Church and Christ consider'd under the relation of a Redeemer by whom we have re-union and accesse to the Father in whom only he hath accepted us againe and given unto us the adoption of children Now as in the union of God to the creatures we have before observed the differences of it that it was either generall unto all or speciall unto some in which he did either more expressely
by which we fell from it Satan and Death did first assault our eare and then tooke possession of us by the mouth Christ and faith chose no other gates to make a re-entry and dispossesse them Thus as skilfull Physitians doe often cure a body by the same meanes which did first distemper it quench heats with heat and stop one flux of blood by opening another so Christ that he may quell Satan at his owne weapons doth by the same instruments and actions restore us unto our primitive estate by which he had hurried us downe from it That those mouthes which were at first open to let in death may now much more be open not only to receive but to praise him who is made unto us the Author and Prince of life CHAP. XII Inferences of Practice from the consideration of the former Actions THESE are all the holy actions we finde to have been by Christ and his Apostles celebrated in the great mystery of this Supper all other humane accessions and superstructions that are by the policy of Satan and that carnall affection which ever laboureth to reduce Gods service unto an outward and pompous gaudinesse foisted into the substance of so divine a work are all of them that straw and stubble which hee who is a consuming fire will at last purge away Impotent Christ was not that he could not nor malignant that hee would not appoint nor improvident that he could not foresee the needfulnesse of such actions which are by some proposed not as matter of ornament comelinesse and ceremony a thing left ever arbitrary to the Church but are obtruded on consciences swayed with superstitious pompousnesse for matters substantiall and necessary to be observed As if God who in the first Creation of the world from nothing did immediately after the work produc'd cease from all manner of further Creations did in the second creation of the world from sinne not finish the work himselfe but leave it imperfect to be by another consummated and finished Certainly whatsoever humane Inventions doe claime direct proper and immediate subscription of Conscience and doe propose themselves as essentiall or integrall or any way necessary parts of divine mysteries they doe not onely rob God of his honour and intrude on his Soveraignty but they doe farther lay on him the aspersion of an imperfect Saviour who standeth in need of the Churches concurrence to consummate the work which he had begunne Away then with those Actions of elevation adoration oblation circumgestation mimâ—call gestures silent whisperings and other the like incroachments in the supposed proper and reall sacrifice of Christ in the Masse wherein I see not how they avoyd the guilt of Saint Pauls fearfull observation To crucifie againe the Lord of glory and put him unto an open shame In which things as in sundry others they do nothing else but imitate the carnall ordinances of the Jewes and the Heathenish will-worship of the Ethnicks who thought rather by the motions of their bodies than by the affections of their hearts to wind into the opinion and good liking of their Gods Certainly affectation of Pomp Ceremony and such other humane superstructions on the divine institution I alwaies except Ecclesiasticall observances which being imposed for order and used with decencie Paucity and indifferencie are not lawfull only but with respect to the Authority which requires them obligatory also I say all other pompous accumulations unto the substance of Christs Sacramentr are by Tertullian made the characters and presumptions of an Idolatrous service True it is indeed that the Ancients make mention out of that fervour of Love and Piety towards so sacred mysteries of Adoration at them and of carrying the remainders of them unto the absent Christians but as in other things so here likewise wee finde it most true that things by devout men begunne piously and continued with zeale doe after when they light in the handling of men otherwise qualified degenerate into superstition the forme purpose end and reason of their observation being utterly neglected It being the contrivance of Satan to raise his Temple after the same forme and with the same materialls whereof â—ods consisteth to pretend the practice of the Saints for the enforcement of his owne Projects to transforme himselfe into an Angel of light that hee may the easier mislead unstable and wandring soules and to retaine at least a forme of Godlinesse that he may with lesse clamor and reluctancy with-draw the substance And as in many other things so hath hee herein likewise abus'd the Piety of the best men unto the furtherance of his owne ends That Adoration which they in and at the mysteries did exhibit unto Christ himselfe as indeed they could not choose a better time to worship him in he impiously derives upon the creature and makes it now to bee done not so much at as unto the elements making them as well the terme and object as occasion of that worship which is due only to the Lord of the Sacrament That carrying about and reserving of the Eucharist which the primitive Christians used for the benefit of those who either by sicknesse or by persecutions were with-held from the meetings of the Christians as in those dayes many were is by him now turned into an Idolatrous circumgestation that at the sight of the Bread the people might direct unto it that worship which is due only to the person whose passion it representeth but whose honour it neither challengeth nor knoweth and certainly if wee veiw the whole fabrick either of Gentilisme or Heresie we shall observe the methods and contrivances of Satan most often to drive at this point that either under pretence of divine truth or under imitation of divine Institutions retaining the same materiall Actions which God requires or with the godly have piously or upon temporary reasons observed he may convay into the hearts of men his owne poyson and imprint an opinion of holinesse towards his owne devices for howsoever his power and tyranny have done much mischiefe to Gods Church yet his master-peece is that cunning and deceit which the Scriptures so often takes notice of Secondly we see here what maner of men wee ought to be in imitation of these blessed Actions that we may be conformable unto the death of Christ. First as he when hee took these elements did consecrate them unto a holy use so we when we receive them should first consecrate our selves with thanksgiving and prayer unto a holy life For if not only amongst Christians but even amongst Heathens themselves it hath been by the Law of nature receiv'd for a religious custome not to eat their ordinary food without blessing and prayer with how much more fervency of prayer should we call upon the name of the Lord when we take this Cup of salvation this bread of life wherein we doe not only taste how gratious the Lord is but
speciall presence doth much vary unto this speciall union of the creature unto God in vertue whereof the creature is quickned and doth in some sort live the Life of God There is necessarily presupposed some sinew or ligament which may be therefore called the medium and instrument of life This knot in the estate of mans Creation was the obedience of the Law or the covenant of workes which while man did maintaine firme and unshaken he had an evident Communion with God in all those vitall influences which his mercy was pleased to shed downe upon him but once untying this knot and cutting asunder that bond there did immediately ensue a seperation betweene GOD and man and by an infallible consequence death likewise But God being rich in mercy and not willing to plunge his creature into eternall misery found a new meanes to communicate himselfe unto him by appointing a more easie Covenant which should be the second knot of our union unto him onely to beleeve in Christ incarnate who had done that for us which we our selves had formerly undone And this new Covenant is the covenant of faith by which the just doe live But here a man may object that it is harder for one to discerne that hee doth live in Christ then that he beleeves in him and therefore this can be noe good meane by which we may finde out the truth of our Faith To this wee answer that life must be discerned by those tokens which are inseperable from it and they are first a desire of nourishment without which it cannot continue for nature hath imprinted in all things a love of its owne being and preservation and by consequence a prosecution of all such meanes as may preserve and a removeall of all such as may endanger or oppresse it Secondly a conversion of nourishment into the nature of the body Thirdly augmentation growth till we come unto that Stature which our life requires Fourthly participation of influences from the vitall parts the Head the Heart and others with conformity unto the principall mover amongst them for a dead part is ever withered immoveable and disobedient to the other faculties Fiftly a sympathy and communion in paines or delights with the fellow members Lastly a free use of our senses and other faculties by all which we may infallibly conclude that a creature liveth And so it is in Faith It frameth the heart to delight in all such spirituall food as is requisite thereunto Disposing it upon the view at lest upon the taste of any poysonous thing to be pained with it and cast it up The food that nourisheth Faith is as in little Infants of the same quality with that which begat it even the word of life wherein there is sincere Milke and strong meate The poyson which endangereth it is heresie which tainteth the roote of Faith and goeth about to prevert the assent and impiety which blasteth and corrupteth the branches All which the soule of a Faithfull man abhorreth Secondly in Faith there is a conversion likewise the vertue whereof ever there resides where the vitall power is In naturall life the power of altering is in the man and not in the meate and therefore the meate is assimilated to our flesh but in spirituall life the quickning faculty is in the meate and therefore the man is assimilated and transformed into the quality of the meate And indeed the word is not cast into the heart of man as meate into the stomacke to be converted into the corrupt quality of nature but rather as seed into the ground to convert that Earth which is about it into the quality of it selfe Thirdly where Faith is there is some growth in grace wee grow neerer unto Heaven then when we first beleeved an improvement of our knowledge in the mysteries of godlines which like the Sunne shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day An increase of willingnes to obey God in all things and as in the growth of naturall bodies if they be sound and healthy so in this of Faith likewise it is universall and uniforme one part doth not grow and another shrivell neyther doth one part grow too bigge and disproportioned for another the Head doth not increase in knowledge and the Heart decay in love the Heart doth not swell in zeale and the Hand wither in charity but in the nourishment of Faith every grace receives proportionably its habituall confirmation Fourthly by the spirituall life of Faith the faithfull doe partake of such heavenly influences as are from the head shed downe upon the members The influences of Christ in his Church are many and peradventure in many things imperceptible Some principall I conceive to be the influence of his truth and the influence of his power His truth is exhibited in teaching the Church which is illumination his power partly in guiding the Church and partly in defending it that is direction this protection Now in all these doe they who are in Christ according to the measure and proportion of his Spirit certainely communicate They have their eyes more or lesse opened like Paul to see the terrours of God the fearefulnesse of sinne the rottennesse of a spirituall death the pretiousnesse of Christ and his promises the glimpses and rayes of that glory which shall be revealed they have their feete loosned with Lazarus that they can now rise and walke and leape and praise God Lastly they are strengthned and cloathed with the whole armes of God which secureth them against all the malice or force of Satan Fiftly where faith is there is a naturall compassion in all the members of Christ towards each other If sinne be by one member committed the other members are troubled for it because they are all partakers of that Spirit which is grieved with the sinnes of his people If one part bee afflicted the other are interested in the paine because all are united together in one head which is the Fountaine and originall of Sense The members of the Church are not like paralyticke and unjoynted members which cannot move towards the succour of each other Lastly where Faith is there all the faculties are expedite and free in their operations The eye open to see the wonders of Gods Law the eare open to heare his voyce the mouth open to praise his name the arme enlarged towards the reliefe of his servants the whole man tenderly sensible of all pressures and repugnant qualities The secondary effects of faith are amongst sundry others such as these First a love and liking of those spirituall truths which by faith I assent unto For saving Faith being an assent with adherence and delight contrary to that of Divils which is with trembling and horror which delight is a kinde of relish and experience of the goodnesse of those objects wee assent unto It necessarily followes even from the dicate of Nature which instructeth a man to love that which worketh in him delight and comfort that from this