By all which it appears, that it is the Will of Christ, that no scandalous person should come to the Lords table.
2. Proposition.
That it is the Will of Jesus Christ, that those who are grosly ignorant, or scandalously wicked, should be kept from the Sacrament, (if they offer to come,) by Church-Officers.
And this is evident:
1. From the power given to Church-Officers for that purpose.
2. From the evill consequents that will otherwise ensue.
1. That such a power is given to Church-Officers, appears,
Not onely
From the proportionable practice of Church-Officers under the Old Testament, who kept the charge of the holy things of God, and were appointed [80]to see that none who were unclean in any thing, or uncircumcised in flesh, or in heart, should enter into the Temple, to partake of the holy things of God, and [81]had a power to put difference between holy and unholy, which power was not meerly doctrinall or declarative, but decisive, binding, and juridicall, so far, as that according to their sentence, men were to be admitted, or excluded. That there was a power in the Old Testament to keep men from the Sacrament of the Passeover, for morall wickednesse, vide Aarons rod blossoming, lib. 1. cap. 9, 10, &c.
But also,