A10652:218
Meditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper Written many years sinceMeditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper Written many yeares since
Meditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper Written many years since by Edward Reynolds then fellow of Merton College in Oxford.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: printed by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostock, 1638
MEDITATIONS ON THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE LORDS LAST SUPPER. › Chapter 19
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
CHAP. XIX.
Of the form or manner of Examination required, which is touching the main qualification of a worthy receiver, Faith: The demonstration whereof is made, first, from the causes secondly, from the nature of it.
Of the forme or manner of Examination required, which is touching the maine quallification of a worthy receiver, Faith: The demonstration whereof is made, first, from the causes secondly, from the nature of it.
Having thus discovered the necessity of preparation, and that standing in the examination and trial of a mans Conscience; it followeth that we conclude with setting down very compendiously the manner of this examination, only naming some principal particulars. The main query is whether I am a fit guest to approach Gods Table, and to share in the fellowship of his sufferings. The sufferings of Christ are not exposed unto the rapine and violence of each bold intruder, but he who was first the Author, is for ever the dispenser of them. And as in the dispensation of his miracles, for the most part, so of his sufferings likewise, there is either a question premised, believest thou, or a condition included, be it unto thee as thou believest. But a man may be alive, and yet unfit to eat, nor capable of ⟨p. 186⟩any nourishment by reason of some dangerous diseases, which weaken the stomach, and trouble it with an apepsy, or difficulty of concoction. And so faith may sometimes in the Habit lye smothered, and almost stifled with some spiritual lethargy, binding up the vital faculties from their proper motions. And therefore our faith must be an operative, and expedite faith, not stupefied with any known and practised course of sin, which doth ever weaken our appetite unto grace, they being things unconsistent. The matter then we see of this trial must be that vital qualification which predisposeth a man for the receiving of these holy mysteries, and that is faith. To enter into such a discourse of faith, as the condition of that subject would require were a labour beyond the length of a short meditation, and unto the present purpose impertinent. We will therefore only take some generalities about the causes, nature, properties or effects of faith (which are the usual mediums of producing assents) and propose them by way of interrogation to the Conscience, that so the major and minor being contrived, the light of reason in the soul may make up a practical syllogism and so conclude either its fitness or indisposition towards these holy mysteries.