Edward Reynolds

son of Austin Reynolds one of the Customers of Southampton, (by Bridget his wife) son of John Reynolds of Langport in Somersetshire, and he the son of another John, was born in the parish of Holyrood within the said borough of Southampton, in the month of Nov. 1599, bred up in Grammar learning in the Free-School there founded by K. Ed. 6. in the 7. year of his raign, became one of the Portionists or Postmasters of Merton Coll. in 1615, and Probationer Fellow in 1620, in which place (which he got by his skill in the Greek tongue) as also throughout his Bachelaurship, he shewed himself a good Disputant and Orator. After he had taken the degree of Master he entred into holy Orders and became a noted Preacher, (tho of an hoarse voice,) afterwards Preacher to the honorable society of Lincolns Inn, and Rector of Braunston or Braynton in Northamptonshire. At length the grand rebellion breaking forth in 1642 he sided with the Presbyterian party (having long before that time been puritanically affected) and in the year 1643 he became one of the Assembly of Divines, a Covenantier, a frequent preacher in London, and somtimes before the Long Parliament. In 1646 he was appointed by the Parliament one of the six Ministers to go to, and settle in, Oxon to preach the Scholars into obedience to the said Parliament, afterwards one of the Visitors to brake open, turn out, and take possession, Dean of Ch. Ch. in the place of Dr. Sam. Fell ejected, and Vicechancellour of the University; at which time he became Doctor of Div. by actual creation, and what not. But being forced to leave his Deanery in the latter end of 1650 because he refused to take the Independent Engagement, he retired to his former cure for a time: Afterwards he lived mostly in London, preached there and flatterd Oliver and his Gange, and after his death, being then Vicar of S. Lawrence in the Jewry, he did the like to Richard, and was the Orator or Mouth of the London Ministers to welcome that Mushroom Prince to his Throne, 11. Octob. 1658. Also when hopes depended on Monke’s proceedings from Scotland, he struck in with him, and who more ready than he (Dr. Reynolds) and other Presbyterians, when he and they saw how things would terminate, and could not be otherwise holpen, to bring in the King, after his long exile, by using his interest in the City of London, where he was the pride and glory of the Presbyterian party. When the secluded Members were restored to sit in Parliament, they restored him to his Deanery of Ch. Ch. on the eleventh of March 1659, with hopes to continue there and carry on the Presbyterian discipline. In May following (1660) when his Majesty was at Canterbury in order to his restauration, he and Edm. Calamy another zealous Presbyterian, were admitted his Chaplains on the the 26. of that month, and after his restauration he preached several times before him, as he did also before the Houses of Parliament. But in the latter end of June following, he being desired to leave his Deanery, to make room for an honest and Orthodox man, he was in the next month elected, by vertue of the Kings Letter, Warden of Mert Coll, choosing rather to have somthing than nothing. Soon after, upon the feeling of his pulse, the King bestowed on him the Bishoprick of Norwych; which See, he willingly taking without a Nolo, was, after he had taken the Covenant, and had often preached against Episcopacy and the Ceremonies of the Church of England, consecrated thereunto in S. Peters Church within the City of Westminster, on the sixth day of January an 1660; by vertue of which Bishoprick he became an Abbat, (a strange preferment, me thinks, for a Presbyterian) I mean Abbat of S. Bennet in the Holme, which he kept (with great regret to his quondam Brethren, whom he then left to shift for themselves) to his dying day. He was a person of excellent parts and endowments, of a very good wit, fancy and judgment, a great Divine, and much esteemed by all parties for his preaching and florid stile. A writer ((a))((a)) Dr. Tho. Pierce in his Introduction to his Divine purity defended. of another persuasion tells us that he was a person of great authority, as well as fame, among the men of the Calvinistical perswasion, &c. and many there were that were of the like opinion: One that knew him well saith ((*))((*)) Sir Th. Browne Doct. of Phys. in his Repertorium of the Cath. Ch. of Norwych, MS. that he was a person of singular affability, meekness and humility, of great learning, a frequent preacher and constant Resident: And it was verily thought by his contemporaries, that he would have never been given to change, had it not been to please a covetous and politick ((b))((b)) Mary the daughter of Dr. Joh. Hardyng somtimes President of Madg. Coll. Oxon. Consort, who put him upon those things he did. His works are these,

The vanity of the creature, on Eccles. 1.14.

Sinfulness of sin, on Rom. 7.9. and on 6.12.

Use of the Law, on Rom. 7.13.

Life of Christ, on 1. Joh. 5.12.

An explication of 110. Psal.

Meditations on the holy Sacrament of the Lords l [•] st suppper.

Explication of the 14 chapter of Hosea, in seven humiliation Sermons.

Treatise of the Passions and faculties of the soul of man.

All or most of which having been printed several times, in qu. were all printed in one folio at London an. 1658, with the authors picture before them, and went by the name of Dr. Reynolds his works. They were much bought up, read and commended by men of several persuasions and one ((c))((c)) Rob. Wilde in his Iter Bor. and Poems, printed 1670. oct. (who was es [•] e [•] me [•] by all that knew him a jovial wet Presbyterian) that had read them several times could not forbear to write two short Poems in commendation of them.

Thirty Sermons preached on several solemn occasions.—They were preached between the year 1634 and that of his death, and some of them had been printed several times. At length they were reprinted in the second impression of his works, at Lond. 1679 fol. Among them is his Lat. Sermon preached at Oxon. 1649 entit. Animalis homo, on 1. Cor. 2.14. He also wrot the Ass. of Divines Annotations which are on Ecclesiastes, which being admirably done, it was wished by many learned men of the Presbyterian perswasion that the rest had been all wrote pari filo, & eruditione. He also was the author of the Epistolary preface to Will. Barlee’s Co [•] reptory Correction, &c. of some notes of Tho. Pierce concerning Gods decrees, especially of Reprobation: which book of Barlee with the said Ep. Preface, a second of Tho. Whitfield, and a third of Dan. Cawdrey somtimes of Cambridge, were printed at Lond. 1656. qu. At length this learned Bishop Dr. Reynolds, who probably hath written other things besides those I have already mention’d, made his last change in this world on the 28 of July in sixteen hundred seventy and six,1676. and was buried at the upper end of the Chappel (built by him 1662) joyning to the Bishops Pallace in in Norwych. Over his grave was soon after fastned marble to the wall, with this Epitaph engraven thereon. H. I. S. I. Edoardus Reynolds SS. T. P. primus a reditu Regis Caroli II. felicissimo Norvicensis Episcopus, quod honoris fastigium uti minime ambivit, ita pietate, prudentiâ, comitate, modestiâ, loco non animo elatus, maxime decoravit. Pastorum merentium pater amantissimus, pacis pietatisque culior devotissimus, potestatis arbiter equus & mitissimus. Quantus fuerit Theologus, tam multifaria lectione instructus, quam Scripturis potens, tam felix eorundem interpres & fidelis Praeco, silente hoc marmore, Scripta eloquuntur, caput eruditum, os facundum, cor caeleste spirantia, expirante authore suavissimo; cui nihil inerat duri acerbi praeter calculi stranguriaeque cruciatus, quos christiana, adeo atque invicta tulit side & patientia, ut albi lapilli, licet mortis instrumenta tessera forent vitae & victoriae, immortalitatis ascriptus est Jul. XXIIX. A. D. 1676 aetatis suae 76. Mortalitatis exuviae prope hinc depositae Augusti IX. Sacellum hoc ab ipso fundatum, dicatumque, denuo consecravit. In his Deanery of Ch. Ch. succeeded Dr. George Morley, afterwards the most worthy Bishop of Winchester, in his Wardenship of Merton Coll. Sir Tho. Clayton a Physitian, and in his Bishoprick Dr. Anthony Sparrow of Cambridge, translated from the See of Exeter.