21. Yea that those who were polluted with sins and crimes were reckoned among the unclean in the law, Maimonides (in More Nevoch., part. 3, ch. 47,) proveth out of Lev. xx. 3; xviii. 24; Num. xxxv. 33, 34. Therefore seeing the shedding of man's blood was rightly esteemed the greatest pollution of all, hence it was that as the society of the leprous was shunned by the clean, so that the company of murderers by good men was most religiously avoided, Lam. iv. 13-15. The same thing is witnessed by Ananias the high priest, in Josephus, Jewish War, book 4, ch. 5, where he saith that those false zealots of that time, bloody men, ought to have been restrained from access to the temple, by reason of the pollution of murder; yea, as Philo the Jew witnesseth (in his book of the Offerers of Sacrifices), whosoever were found unworthy and wicked, were by edict forbidden to approach the holy threshold.
22. Neither must that be passed by which was noted by Zonaras, book 4, of his annals (whereof see also Scaliger agreeing with him, [pg 5-012] in Elench. Triheres. Nicserrar., cap. 28), namely, that the Essenes were forbidden the holy place, as being heinous and piacular transgressors, and such as held other opinions, and did otherwise teach concerning sacrifices than according to the law, and observed not the ordinances of Moses, whence it proceeded that they sacrificed privately; yea, and also the Essenes themselves did thrust away from their congregations those that were wicked. Whereof see Drusius, Of the Three Sects of Jews, lib. 4, cap. 22.
23. God verily would not have his temple to be made open to unworthy and unclean worshippers; nor was it free for such men to enter into the temple. See Nazianzen, Orat. 21. The same thing is witnessed and declared by divers late writers, such as have been and are more acquainted with the Jewish antiquities. Consult the Annotations of Vatablus, and of Ainsworth, an English writer, upon Psal. cxviii. 19, 20; also Constantine L'Empereur, Annot. in Cod. Middoth, cap. 2, p. 44, 45; Cornelius Bertramus, Of the Commonwealth of the Hebrews, cap. 7; Henry Vorstius, Animadvers. in Pirk. Rab. Eliezer, p. 169. The same may be proved out of Ezek. xxiii. 30, 38; Jer. vii. 9-12; whence also it was that the solemn and public society in the temple, had the name of the assembly of the righteous, and congregation of saints, Psal. lxxxix. 5, 7; cxi. 1; cxlvii. 1; hence also is that (Psal. cxviii. 19, 20) of the gates of righteousness by which the righteous enter.
24. That which is now driven at, is not that all wicked and unclean persons should be utterly excluded from our ecclesiastical societies, and so from all hearing of God's word; yea there is nothing less intended: for the word of God is the instrument as well of conversion as of confirmation, and therefore is to be preached as well to the unconverted as to the converted, as well to the repenting as the unrepenting: the temple indeed of Jerusalem had special promises, as it were pointing out with the finger a communion with God through Christ, 1 Kings viii. 30, 48; Dan. vi. 10; 2 Chron. vi. 16; vii. 15, 16. But it is far otherwise with our temples, or places of church assemblies, “because our temples contain nothing sacramental in them, such as the tabernacle and temple contained,” as the most learned [pg 5-013] Professors of Leyden said rightly in Synops. Pur. Theologiae, disp. 48, thes. 47.
25. Wherefore the point to be here considered, as that which is now aimed at, is this, that howsoever, even under the New Testament, the uncleanness of those to whom the word of God is preached be tolerated, yet all such, of what estate or condition soever in the church, as are defiled with manifest and grievous scandals, and do thereby witness themselves to be without the inward and spiritual communion with Christ and the faithful, may and are to be altogether discharged from the communion of the Lord's supper until they repent and change their manners.
26. Besides, even those to whom it was permitted to go into the holy courts of Israel, and to ingratiate themselves into ecclesiastical communion, and who did stand between the court of Israel and the outer wall, were not therefore to be kept back from hearing the word; for in Solomon's porch, and so in the intermurale or court of the Gentiles, the gospel was preached, both by Christ, John x. 23, and also by the apostles, Acts iii. 11; v. 12, and that of purpose, because of the reason brought by Pineda, Of the things of Solomon, book v. chap. 19, because a more frequent multitude was there, and somewhat larger opportunity of sowing the gospel: wherefore to any whomsoever, even heathen people meeting there, the Lord would have the word to be preached, who, notwithstanding, purging the temple, did not only overthrow the tables of money-changers, and chairs of those that sold doves, but also cast forth the buyers and sellers themselves, Matt. xxi. 12; for he could not endure either such things or such persons in the temple.
27. Although, then, the gospel is to be preached to every creature, the Lord in express words commanding the same, Mark xvi. 15, yet not to every one is set open an access to the holy supper; it is granted that hypocrites do lurk in the church, who hardly can be convicted and discovered, much less repelled from the Lord's supper; such therefore are to be suffered, till by the fan of judgment the grain be separated from the chaff; but those whose wicked deeds or words are known and made manifest are altogether to be debarred from partaking [pg 5-014] those symbols of the covenant of the gospel, lest that the name of God be greatly disgraced, whilst sins are permitted to be spread abroad in the church unpunished; or lest the stewards of Christ, by imparting the signs of the grace of God to such as are continuing in the state of impurity and scandal, be partakers of their sins. Hitherto of suspension.
28. Excommunication ought not to be proceeded unto except when extreme necessity constraineth: but whensoever the soul of the sinner cannot otherwise be healed, and that the safety of the church requireth the cutting off of this or that member, it behoveth to use this last remedy. In the church of Rome, indeed, excommunication hath been turned into greatest injustice and tyranny (as the Pharisees abused the casting out of the synagogues, which was their excommunication) to the fulfilling of the lust of their own minds; yet the ordinance of Christ is not therefore by any of the reformed religion to be utterly thrust away and wholly rejected. What Protestant knows not that the vassals of Antichrist have drawn the Lord's supper into the worst and most pernicious abuses, as also the ordination of ministers, and other ordinances of the gospel? Yet who will say that things necessary (whether the necessity be that of command, or that of the means or end) are to be taken away because of the abuse?
29. They, therefore, who with an high hand do persevere in their wickedness, after foregoing admonitions stubbornly despised or carelessly neglected, are justly, by excommunication in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, cut off and cast out from the society of the faithful, and are pronounced to be cast out from the church, until being filled with shame and cast down, they shall return again to a more sound mind, and by confession of their sin and amendment of their lives, shall show tokens of repentance, Matt, xviii. 16-18; 1 Cor. v. 13, which places are also alleged in the Confession of Bohemia, art. 8, to prove that the excommunication of the impenitent and stubborn, whose wickedness is known, is commanded of the Lord: but if stubborn heretics or unclean persons be not removed or cast out from the church, therein do the governors of the church sin, and are found guilty, Rev. ii. 14, 20.
30. But that all abuse and corruption in ecclesiastical government may be either prevented and avoided, or taken away, or lest the power of the church, either by the ignorance or unskilfulness of some ministers here and there, or also by too much heat and fervour of mind, should run out beyond measure or bounds, or contrariwise, being shut up within straiter limits than is fitting, should be made unprofitable, feeble, or of none effect,—Christ, the most wise lawgiver of his church, hath foreseen and made provision to prevent all such evils which he did foresee were to arise, and hath prepared and prescribed for them intrinsical and ecclesiastical remedies, and those also in their kind (if lawfully and rightly applied) both sufficient and effectual: some whereof he hath most expressly propounded in his word, and some he hath left to be drawn from thence by necessary consequence.