The Rule of the New Creature: A Classic Puritan Manual of Daily Godly Living (1658)

REYNER, Edward (d. 1669).  Precepts for Christian Practice; or, The Rule of the New-Creature: Containing Duties to be Daily Observed by Every Beleever; with a Preface Introductory to the Work of Walking by Rule. Hereunto Is Added a Direction for the Government of the Thoughts and of the Affections.

London: Printed for T. N., and are to be sold by John Clark, 1658.

Eleventh edition. Octavo (180 × 120 mm). [30], 462 pp. Pagination complete despite typographical irregularities. Title-page within a decorative border of fleurons. A very handsome copy, clean and crisp throughout, in a recent full best morocco calf binding over raised bands, red morocco lettering-piece to spine with gilt lettering.

Wing R1227.

This is one of the most popular and enduring manuals of seventeenth-century English Puritan devotion, a practical guide to daily godly living that remained continuously in demand for decades. Reyner’s Precepts for Christian Practice belongs to the same spiritual lineage as Lewis Bayly’s Practice of Piety and Richard Baxter’s Christian Directory, but is more intimate, methodical, and inward-looking in tone.

Structured as a rule-book for the “new creature” in Christ, the work lays out:

• Daily duties of prayer, meditation, and self-examination
• Rules for holy speech, conduct, and conscience
• Spiritual discipline in family and private devotion
• A detailed government of the thoughts and affections, reflecting Puritan psychology and moral theology
• Guidance for resisting temptation and cultivating assurance

Reyner’s overriding concern is not speculative theology but practical sanctification: how the regenerate Christian should order every faculty of the soul and every action of daily life according to Scripture.

Edward Reyner was a Puritan divine and devotional writer, educated at St John’s College, Cambridge, and later serving as minister in Lincoln, where he acquired a strong reputation as a preacher and spiritual guide.

He was a committed nonconformist, and after the Restoration was ejected from his living in 1662 under the Act of Uniformity. Like many ejected ministers, Reyner continued to exercise a quiet but influential ministry through his writings, which circulated widely among dissenting and godly readers.

Reyner is remembered chiefly for his devotional works, of which Precepts for Christian Practice is the most important and enduring. His writings exemplify the pastoral Puritan tradition, aimed not at controversy but at the formation of conscience, character, and inward holiness.

He died in 1669, having lived to see the suppression of the Puritan ministry to which he had devoted his life.

Bibliographical & Rarity Notes

This title went through numerous editions between the 1640s and the late seventeenth century, reflecting its exceptional popularity. Despite this, surviving copies are surprisingly scarce in good condition, owing to heavy domestic use.

This eleventh edition (1658) is scarcely represented in institutional libraries and is notably difficult to obtain in commerce, particularly in a clean, complete state.