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 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 altoget