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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10898	A treatise of the two sacraments of the Gospell: baptisme and the Supper of the Lord Divided into two parts. The first treating of the doctrine and nature of the sacraments in generall, and of these two in speciall; together with the circumstances attending them. The second containing the manner of our due preparation to the receiving of the Supper of the Lord; as also, of our behaviour in and after the same. Whereunto is annexed an appendix, shewing; first, how a Christian may finde his preparation to the Supper sweete and easie: secondly, the causes why the sacrament is so unworthily received by the worst; and so fruitefly by the better sort: with the remedies to avoyd them both. By D.R. B. of Divin. minister of the Gospell.	D. R. (Daniel Rogers), 1573-1652.	1633 (1633)	STC 21169; ESTC S112046	376,405	453

cloathing of it and as it is sayd of Iehoshua for the typifying of the more honourable ministery of Christ above the legall that his filthy ragges should bee taken off and goodly pure garments put upon him so heere Zach. 3 4● the Lord takes off the cold coate of the creature serving for all sorts at all times for corruptible or corrupt uses so that for the time being which it serves for is is sacrilegious to conceive or use it for private uses as it s said 1 Sam 2 13. El●'s sonnes thrust their forke into Gods Caldron and pulld out holy meate for themselves but it is separate from men its Gods bread and wine for his owne table and use Secondly the Lord cloathes them with honour he brings them into his owne house and ordeynes them to be vessells of use for himselfe Not that this separation takes any thing from the natures of the creatures nor yet that it puts any inherent holinesse into them No but onely takes them from common use and puts them to an honorable and holy And yet this must not bee conceived in a generall sence onely as if there were no more in it than in other creatures made pure to the beleeeer For so each creature is pure to the pure Tit. 1.15 purified from the usurpation and curse and sanctified by the Word and Prayer to convey love from the giver and to prepare the receiver for his service But this is a further holinesse such an one as though it bee not inherent yet it is reall and in relation to the use the Elements serve for it is a cloathing of honour and holinesse during the season of it and that by vertue of Christ who hath stamped it upon them by his owne hand Secondly the Lord Iesus by taking hath setled an abiding service upon these Elements 2. Setling such as no mortall man might dare to reverse or deface adulterate or change For why Who is able to amend the worke of God or to adde to the worke of perfection it selfe This separation being in a sort as the worke of Creation which God seeing approoved as good and not to bee bettered and therefore to last and abide for all ages So that cursed be hee who shall meddle with this holy workemanship of Christ His seales are in this as his word is outlasting and outliving the devises of men through all generations and abiding for ever Chosen they were by the hand of a dying Saviour yet immortall and therefore no hand shall ever bee able to abolish them If any shall adde or diminish from them the Lord shall diminish their names from the booke of life and adde unto them all the plagues written in his booke against all sacrilegious theeves or usurpers in holy things But more in the use Vse 1 First then for the former points use It should teach us to rejoyce Of the former branch when we behold what cost God hath bestowed upon base creatures for our good when Naomi saw Ruth come home full of the bounty of Boaz she asked her Where hast thou bin my daughter Ruth 3 16. One cause of her joy was because she should fare the better for her daughters change So there is no good soule which sees this cost bestowed by the Lord upon these Elements how he separates the vile and puts on a pretious garment upon them but hee should rejoyce therein for the good of his owne soule and say Lord I see this creature cloathed with honour that it might carry him who so cloathed it into my soule and put on the Lord Iesus upon mee the more easily in all the riches of his attire in all the fulnesse of his grace and nourishment I see no use the creature hath of it but that all the excellent Nourishment which it resembles might be layd as by an hand in my lap The Disciples who saw their master usually converse with them in his poverty and basenes no doubt were ravished when they beheld him transfigured glorious Matth. 17.4 Heb 2.9 Ephe. 4.8 Oh! they sayd It s good being here they were loath to depart so may we say with the Author to the Hebrewes Behold we see Christ who was base now in glory leading captivity captive giving gifts unto men yea so glorious that he chuseth rather to appeare in the honouring of poore Elements than he would be wanting to us Abroad we see these creatures not only subject to vanity in their use but also abused by sinfull wretches to corrupt base ends but when we come to the Sacrament loe there we see them cloathed with honour set apart to heavenly ends such as no drunkard Epicure swearer or carnall minded person though hee prease to the Sacrament never so boldly can atteyne unto There they onely serve to reach out Christ the nourishment of his Church they cease there to be perishing and begin to be meate and drinke of eternall life How should we blesse God for them When Bezaleel Aholiab were endued with gifts from heaven to carve and ingrave wood brasse and gold in a curious manner Exod. 31 4 ● who could have beheld a peece of rude wood or mettall a little before common and mish apen but now curiously set foorth with pictures and delights serving for the Tabernacle and the honour of God directly but he must needs adore the wisedome of that Arch-workman who by such meane men could put such honour upon such poore creatures Labour wee to doe likewise when we see what power the Lord shewes forth by his weake Ministers and in his weake Elements and draw neare to them with more delight Vse 2 Secondly how should this point convince all Popish transubstantiation who maintaine that now the creatures are not what they were but begin to be what they were not and that in substance Such speeches of the Fathers must not be interpreted by Popery but by this act of Gods separation Which is not a separation of substances leaving unsubsisting accidents behind but onely of their common vilenesse of use unto an holy one during that time Againe how doth it convince their folly in ascribing to the Elements a divine nature an inherent holines So that by the worke wrought they should convey as a vessell sends forth liquor by a pipe an holines to the receiver No nothing can of it selfe bestow that which it hath not The Sacrament hath an holy use cast upon it which God overrules as he sees good to convey holines But in thē as themselves there is no inherent holines Their Churches Altars Superaltars Chalices Copes and vestments if they were as they pretend holy they have it from these and the like ordinances performed in them except they be of the Pharisees blinde error to think that the gold of the Altar is better than the Altar If then Bread and wine themselves confesse such holines is not in them what shall become of these implements viz. their

we are willing to get it at the best sure it is we love to get nothing at the worst which may bee come by at the best Now then the Sacraments exhibite Christ as I may say at his best And as Pharaoh's daughter is invited to come behold Salomon when he was clothed with all those costly ornaments and glory where with his mother made him glad on his crowninng day so doe the Sacraments offer Christ a greater obiect than Salomon even in his best Grace in the richest and royallest robe of his righteousnesse in the best of his Peace ioy and contentation which God can bestow him in Whose heart should not then esteeme him at this best of his with best iudgment and affection Not by foolish or Popish comparison of one ordinance with another But by considering that each ordinance with another is better than another alone and so the Sacrament with a word is above the word alone because it containes the word and hath more besides in it even Christ at his best in the fulnesse length depth and all treasures of breeding and nourishing grace not onely in himselfe but made over to my soule by the Father grace for grace to mee my Wisedome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption Alas deere friends What were the knowledge of this Lord Iesus as he is only the second person in Trinity and the eternall Word of the Father If the depth of that mystery contained in Heb. 1 3. To wit that Christ is the brightnes of the Fathers glory and the ingraven forme of his person were fully understood by a man as who doubts but such knowledge were excellent yet alas it falls short of that excellent knowledge which Paul speakes of Phil. 3 Of Christ Iesus my Lord who hath given himselfe for me loved me by which the world is crucified to me and I to it this onely is that to which all other is dung and drosse Nay further put case I knew him as the true Mediator in all three offices and namely the true onely Priest and satisfier for the sinnes of the world Were this that excellent knowledge of all other except he were crucified also in the eye and to the spirituall gaine of my soule as my Lord and God and as my satisfaction and the treader of the wine-presse of the fierce wrath of God Esay 63.1 that the anger of God might be pacified to me No verily Nay lastly put case this knowledge of Iesus Christ my satisfier could possibly bee severed from the knowledge of him my Sanctifier also and that Christ my birth could bee divided from Christ my Nourishment my support health growth and fruitfulnesse could this knowledge be counted the most excellent Were it not a rending rather of one peece of Christs garment from another yea a pulling of one especiall part of him from my soule and breaking of so precious a Diamond in peices What excellent things then must those be which present the Lord Iesus in all these three the beauty of his person the benefit of his satisfaction and the grace of his Sanctification and that to mee with seazin and delivery That offer him as I sayd at his best This doe the Sacraments and therefore of how great esteeme should they be in the Church of Christ I confesse if I presented Christ to thy view good Reader in those darke Sacraments of the Old Testament or no otherwise than Iohn Baptist could I should bring thee a burgaine at the worst hand For although Christ were in them also yet with such poore convincement that I may safely say The body of receivers who beheld the covenant of the Law as a covenant of workes and Righteousnesse thereby did receive the Sacraments as a curse rather than a blessing upon themselves and bred worse blood in themselves thereby than before they had For why They renouncing the right covenant of righteousnesse whereof they were seales as it is sayd that Abraham received circumcision as a seale of it and mistaking the law as if it required a possible obedience from them to merit life what did they but curse themselves and say Cursed be he who thinkes he can abide in all things written in the booke of the Law to doe them And not being able to doe them but deluding themselves and taking the Sacrament upon it what did they in effect but seale up that curse to themselves and their seede But lo in the Sacraments of the Ghospell is offered thee a better ministration of the spirit of the Lord Iesus in the seales of that righteousnesse which comes by faith and therefore a curse is turned into a blessing For as the covenant is which thou commest in so is the seale which thou receivest both are blessed and thou comming in faith unto them receivest from God blessing under seale so that hee hath blessed thee and thou shalt bee blessed And is not this the Lord Iesus at his best Moreover if I presented thee onely Iewish Sacraments what great thing should I offer thee Surely Christ in a darke corner circumcision in a private family the Passeover in an houshold by it selfe But lo I present Christ unto thee not with a veile before his face which is obscure but in a Mirror with open face transforming thee from glory to glory I say a Christ Sacramentall not offered by a Priest to God in a Masse and in a corner of the Church with a boy to mumble an answere but in the open view of his Church and assemblies of his Saints Looke not heere for Popish Anabaptisticall Brownisticall or Scismaticall Sacraments huddled up by a false Church in their houses barnes or corners though I taxe not corners where the Church is present as the Martyres were in woods but in the midst of his people where Christ the Lord of Sacraments is present with his owne met in his name even in the beauty of his holinesse So that as he suffered not in a corner of heaven or earth but upon an hill before his Church and refused not the world to bee witnesses and was lift up as the Serpent in the wildernes in the publike view of his people so that thou professest to bee a dove of his flocke and one of the youth of his wombe Psal 110. Mayst fly to his loover and windowes and come into his Temple with frequency as the dew falls upon the grasse saying How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of hosts My flesh longeth and my feete desire to see and stand in the courts of thine house Even in the chambers of my Mother and in the Garden of thy spices even there give me thy love There let thy Northwind of Prayer and blessing blow thy savour into my nostrills that after thine ointments powred out there the Daughters my followthe And is not this Christ at the best But to proceed a little in this argument for I have locked my selfe out of the hall therefore must stand a while in my porch rather

that requires a separation There is more required also but without this nothing can be done The hand which will compasse Gods Altar must be cleane also But first it must be empty if it be filled with nutshels and trash it can hold nothing else If we cannot so much as heare a serious story or indite a letter without privacy if we can do no choise worke well except we be solitary and serious do we thinke it easy to worship God in a Fayre a Marquet an Alehouse a Bargaine while we be working or playing or prating or dreaming No all our courage all our strength is too little a broken humble beleeving heart is little enough for it Therefore at least an empty a swept and voyded heart is necessary Vse 3 Thirdly it must admonish us of a duty meete for us if we will be fit for Sacramentall Triall Admonition we must ere we set to it abhorre that giddinesse lightnesse and fraughtnesse of our soules which the most thinke is no sinne as our bane and the destroyer of Preparation for the Sacrament We must know that as the gold weights will not try gold till they stand still so neither can the soule try her selfe till she be well stayed and poysed When we will powre any precious liquor into a vessell or glasse especially if it have a narrow necke we will set it in a steddy posture for feare of spilling No man can see any thing in roared waters As the Lord Iesus speakes of agreeing with our adversary that we must lay downe our sacrifice by the Altar the whilst Math. 5.25 1 Pet. 2.2 and do that chiefly and as Peter bids those who will covet the milke of the word that they purge out of their stomacks all superfluity so especially doe it in this Triall at the Sacrament It s manifest by mens cavils against this duty viz. that they have callings to attend and businesse to looke after and they cannot prepare themselves that I say they account it as a veniall offence to be thus cloyed with other cares but if it defile and destroy Tryall of thy selfe how can it be small Thou wilt say thy thoughts and affections are neither murtherous uncleane oppressing defrauding lying revenging profane intemperate What then Is there no other disease mortall save the plague Let it therefore be as odious unto thee to carrie a light a gadding unsavory heart about thee so full of other bables that Gods liquor must needes runne over I say to be out of frame alway to entertaine the best things Let it be unto thee as odious as very profanenesse it selfe And before thou venter upon triall clense thy selfe of this fulsome glut and doe not enterline or write Gods letters upon a blotted but cleane paper even as thou wouldest wipe thy table-Table-booke ere thou writest the Sermon And whatsoever vanity hath pressed thy heart or dares presume to come before God serve it with the same sawce that Abner is said to serve Asahel that wilde Roe whom when he perceived to perke sawcily in his presence and dare him to his face he watch'd him so closely 2 Sam. 2 19. that he smote him with the hinder end of his Speare and laid him on the earth Let thy care be so to smite thy giddy heart that it may no more annoy thee or interrupt thy spirit being well occupied Vse 4 Lastly when thou commest to this triall summon thy selfe and all the out-workes and ranging thoughts of thy soule Exhortation all thy powers and members to come in to forsake other objects for the time and close seriously and sadly with the Lord in this worke of Sacramentall triall As thou wouldst faine have thy heart close at thy tryall for the Sacrament nay at thy great tryall of death so keepe it cleane empty unsnared in thy whole course Remember when thy heart would lash out there is a Sacrament and a triall before it If my thoughts then be past call I shall have an ill worke of it or else rush to the Sacrament with a surfeit upon it Surely looke how thy heart is watcht unto in thy course so shalt thou finde it at a speciall season and so shalt thou blesse God for the Sacrament a●d say Else Lord I should have strayed endlessely but this Ordinance hath kept me at a bay from wandring not onely from thy Commandements but even from a sober and serious attending to it selfe in lawfull liberties So much for the first Touching the second point viz The persons whom this triall concernes it hath two branches First how many Secondly Who must try For the former it may soone bee answered All must try and examine Persons 1. How many against the Sacrament The charge is generall admitting no exception As it was to the Iewes for the Passeover that all who eate it must be liable to the rules of observing it Exod. 12. so must it be in the Supper none can bee exempt from Tryall None exempt who will have a part in the Sacrament Briefly not to stay the Reader long He that hath not a soule to save to thrive to prosper in grace or to be happy or to desire it He that neither cares for the losse of heaven or woe of hell See Exod. 12.43 he that abhorres the name of a child and so the allowance of his fathers house and the portion of an heire he that chooseth rather to be without among dogges and swine hee that hath cut off himselfe and is become an Heathen and Publicane a scorner and pastgrace let him exempt himselfe else the Lord exempts none at all Pearles indeed must not bee cast before swine else it is not the difference of any outward respect that can discharge from this duty All need the benefit of it all are in danger to incurre the losse by neglecting it all therefore are equally obliged to it The people cannot exempt themselves under colour of inability or not being booke learned they must not put it off to the Minister as more sufficient for it The Minister may not exempt himselfe from it as if he lesse needed it than the people Schollers are not free because their calling is to study or reade the Scriptures for they may be farre from the triall of themselves Such as have learned the doctrine of the Sacrament soundly must not wash their hands of it because of their knowledge The wife must not thinke her selfe to be tryed in her husbands carefull tryall as if she were but his shadow and hath him to answere for her much lesse the husband may quit himselfe upon hers The rich must not plead liberty by his great businesse nor the poore for lacke of leasure from his handy labour nor the aged because of their infirmities growing upon them not the more experienced because they have oft done it nor the novice because he is greene and new to begin not the travellor because in a journey not servants because they are