Com. 2. who outruns us in tenderness and proficiency (touched in these two laft) is, as very natural to us, fo moft dangerous; it participates of curfed Cain's: this fin is the worst of all malig nity, and is always accompanied with a woful and devilish fatisfaction with, and complacency in, the fhortcomings of others, that fo we may be the more noticed. 21. Secret dif dain at tender chriftians, befides us, as hypocritical. 22. Turning afide to live like others who have been debarred; as if there ought to be no difference put betwixt those who have this badge, and those who want it: or fitting up, as if all were done, when we have communicated. 23. Want of watchfulness against recurring tentations and finares; vanity and conceit, if we attain any thing; and want of pity to thofe who did not come fo good fpeed. 24. Indifcreet speaking, either to the commending or cenfuring of fpeakers and forms, but little or nothing to edification.

In the last place, We fhall fpeak a little to this question; If, and bow the admiffion of fcandalous perfons doth pollute the communion? And if it be finful to receive it with fuch perfons? Or, if joint communicants be thereby defiled? Let us, for anfwer, confider pollution distinctly, with reference to these four things; 1. In reference to the facraments themselves. 2. In reference to the admitted that are fcandalous. 3. In reference to the admitters. 4. In reference to the joint communicants.

Ift, As to the facraments, there is a two-fold pollution : The firft is intrinfick and effential, which, by corruption of the inftitution of Chrift, turneth it then to be no facrament, as it is in the mafs; or to be hurtful, as when fignificant ceremonies, finfully devifed by men, are mixed and added befides, and contrary to Chrift's inftitution. firft everteth the nature of the facrament, and 'tis henceforth no more a facrament; the fecond poifoneth it, fo that it may not be received without partaking of that fin atively.

The

There is another way of polluting the facrament, that is extrinfick and circumftantial, not in effentials, but in our ufemaking of it, and the application thereof beyond Chrift's warrant; as when it is adminiftred to one upon whom Chrift alloweth it not: In that cafe, it is not a facrament to that perfon; yet it is fo in itself. This pollution is a profaning of it to us, or making it common. Thus the word of pro

mife generally applied in a congregation, without feparation, in application, betwixt the precious and the vile, is a profaning of the word (for the word of promife fhould not be made common more than the facrament) as it is marked, Ezek. 22. 26. The priests have profaned my holy name, they bave put no difference between the holy and the profane, between the clean and the unclean: Yet, in that cafe, the word ceaseth not to be God's word, tho' it be fo abused. Or, as an admonition caft before a profane mocker, is but the abufing of an holy thing, yet it altereth not the nature of it; as a pearl, caft before a fow, is puddled and abused, yet it doth not alter its inward nature, but it ftill remaineth a pearl: So it is here in the word and facraments; they are abufed in their ufe, when mifapplied, yet ftill (the inftitution being kept) they are the ordinances of God. Thus was the temple faid to be profaned, when it was made more common in its use than was allowed; yet was it ftill the temple of the Lord : and fo, admiffion of fcandalous perfons may thus be called a polluting of the facraments, but not effential in themselves. 2dly, Confider pollution with reference to perfons who are admitted; and fo the facraments may be polluted, 1. By grofly fcandalous perfons. 2. By bypocrites. 3. By believers not exercifing their graces. The facrament is polluted by, and to all thefe, because, as to the pure all things (lawful) are pure, fo to the unclean and unbelieving, nothing is pure, their mind and confcience being defiled. Thus their praying, facrificing, hearing, plowing, &c. all is unclean; and, by proportion, to believers, tho' in a good and clean ftate, yet in an evil and unholy frame, the facrament may be faid in fome fenfe to be unclean and polluted by them to themselves. 3dly, As to the office-bearers, who are the admitters, the facrament cannot be profaned effentially, the inftitution being kept pure; yet may they fin, and be guilty of profaning it, by opening the door wider than Chrift has allowed, and not keeping the right bounds: And minifters may fo fin, in promifcuous applying of the promises and confolations of the covenant, as well as in applying its feals; and both these are fins to them yet thefe cafes would be excepted;

1. When fuch a scandal is not made known to them: Scandalous perfons may be admitted, because they are not bound to look on them as fuch, till difcovered.

2. When fuch scandals cannot be made out judically, th

poffibly they be true in themfelves. They may, tho' against the inclination and affection of the admitters, be admitted, yet not against their confcience; becaufe, that being a high cenfure in Chrift's house, his servants are not to walk arbitrarily (for that would bring confufion with it) but by rules given them, whereof this is one, Not to receive an accufation, but under two or three witnesses.

3. When by fome circumftances it proveth not edifying, but rather hurtful to the church, or the perfons concerned; as, (1.) When the scandal is in fuch a matter as is not exprefly determined in the word, but is by confequence to be deduced from it; as,fuppofe it be meant fuch a point of truth as has divines, that are godly, diffentient in it; or in such a practice (fuppofe perjury) as is evil indeed in itself, but by deduction and confequence (which is not fo clear) to be applied; or it is in fuch things as affect not a natural conscience, as fornication, drunkenness and adultery, &c. do; or in fuch things as contradict not exprefly any truth. And, (2.) When the scandal of thefe fins is by univerfality become little among men, or there is not eafy accefs, in an edifying way, to decide in them, or cenfure them; there is ftill a right and a wrong in thefe, which a minifter in doctrine may reprove, yet he may forbear a judicial fentence in such cases, as it feemeth Paul did with the Corinthians, amongst whom there were feveral forts of offenders. 1. Incestuous fornicators, or fuch as finned against nature's light; thefe, 1 Cor. 5. 3, 4, 5, &c. he commandeth to be excluded or excommunicated. 2. Such as by corrupt doctrine made fchifms, and mifled the people in factions, to the prejudice of the apoftle's authority and doctrine, Chap. 3. 3, &c. Deceitful workers, 2 Cor. 11. 13. these for a time, 2 Cor. 10. 6. he fpareth for the peoples fake, 2 Cor. 12. 19. 3. Some weakly, and carnally milled into factions, 1 Cor. 13. 1, 2, 3, 4. these he en deavoureth to recover. 4. Some guilty of faults about the facrament, in their wrong manner of going about it, 1 Cor. 11. these he reproveth, and laboureth to amend, yet alloweth them to go on and celebrate the facrament, but doth not debar for the time, either factious minifters or people from it, as he had done the other: neither is it likely that the communion was omitted, or they debarred'; for he doth not reprove for debarring them, as he doth for wronging the inftitution The reason is, because that which warranteth de

bar

barring, and cenfures of all forts, is edification; and, when that end cannot be gained to a people or perfon, fuch cenfures may be omitted; and, except fome bounds were to be fixed here, the difficulty in abounding differences would prove inextricable: And therefore, when a fin is become epidemical, and very univerfal, one the one hand, the more tender and confcientioufly-fcrupulous would be inftructed to much fobriety, and earneftly dealt with, not to indulge themselves a liberty to rend the church, or to divide from it when fuch perfons are admitted, being otherwife capable of the privi lege; because exclufion in this cafe, by a fentence, from the facrament, would probably mifs its end, which is edification, and would weaken the authority of the ordinance of difcipline, if not hazard the liberty of the gofpel: On the other hand, minifters would by all means take heed, and be obtefted in the name of the Lord, that they (which is readily incident in an hour of tentation) run not on the extreme of fhifting their duty; infulting as it were over tender confciences, and ftrengthning the hands of the wicked by compliance with, or acceffion to thefe fins; but would, under the pain of making themfelves horridly guilty, manage obvious ways, deal freely and faithfully in making ufe of the key of doctrine, when the ufe of the other will not in all appearance be fo much for edification; that by publick doctrinal feparating the precious from the vile, and by ftraight" down-right private dealing, they may in the fight of God commend themselves to every man's confcience.

4thly, Let us confider if this ordinance be polluted to the joint receivers, fuppofe that fome are finfully admitted by the office-bearers of the church. And we fay, that it is not a pollution or fin to them to partake with fuch; for the facrament may be bleffed to them notwithstanding, as Christ's ordinance; even as when the word is unwarrantably applied in promises and admonitions, fo that pearls are caft before fwine Yet, fuppofing fome tender fouls to be prefent, they may meddle warrantably with that abused word as God's word, and it may prove useful to them. For confirming this truth, we offer these reasons ;

1. The word and facraments are of one nature, and are polluted, or made ufe of, one and fame way; only the difference is in this, that the one ufually is doctrinally wrong ed, the other difciplinary. 2. Because that unwarrantab

adm

Com. 2: admiffion of others is not the communicator's, but the minifter's fin; therefore it cannot wrong them more than want of preparation in others who come. 3. Any others fin cannot foofen me from my obligation to a duty: now, it is the duty of every one, as to examine themselves, fo, being prepared by fuitable felf-examination, to eat, I Cor. 11. 28. and yet, in that church of Corinth, many did finfully approach to the Lord's table. Now, tho' the command, requiring felf-examination, will not warrant rulers not to examine; yet it will warrant private communicants to endeavour rightly to go about that duty themselves, and not to be much anxious what others do, as if other mens carriage were the ground of our approaching to the Lord's table. 4. It is notwithftanding a facrament, without any mixture of mens corrupt additions; and fo the neglecting of it, is the neglecting of a facrament. 5. If fcandalous receivers did corrupt it to others, then a corrupt minifter could never celebrate a facrament; which would contradict the Lord's way in appointing fuch fometimes to difpenfe his myfteries both in the old and new teftament; and, if the minifters corrup tion pollute not the ordinance, much lefs will the fcap dal of any others. 6. The practice of the Lord's people in receiving facraments this way, both before Chrift's incar anation, and fince, proveth it. 7. It would be a great and inextricable fnare to confciences, if the fruit of their comraunicating depended not only on their own preparing themfelves, but alfo on the minifters and joint receivers; if their not preparation, or failing in it, brought guilt on us, it vjero impoffible that ever we could with clearnefs receive the fa

Crament.

For, (1.) It is hard to think a communion is celebrated, but there is one or more who fhould not be admitted; and the admiffion of one or two, as well as of many, is a. profaning of the ordinance: yea, if we thought them to be scandalous, yea, if we knew them not to be holy, we could not in faith communicate with them, left the ordinance b; defiled by us, if their defiling were ours.

(2.) The prefence of a hypocrite would defile it to us; for his hypocrify defileth it to him, and he has not, right be fore God to come, Neither would it warrant is that we knew not: For, 1. Many do fin when they know not. 2. It is not pur knowing his fir that defileth the facrament, but it

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