The law unsealed

There is another way of polluting the Sacrament, that is Extrinsic and Circumstantial, not in Essentials, but in ou• use making of it; and the Application thereof beyond Christs Warrant, as when it is Administered to one upon whom Christ alloweth it not. In that case it is not a Sacrament to that person; yet it is so in it •ell. This Pollution is a profaning of it to us, or a making it common. Thus the Word of Promise generally applied in a Congregation without separation, in Application, betwixt the Precious and the Vile, is a profaning of the Word, (for the word of Promise should not be made common more then the Sacrament,) as it is marked, Ezek. 22. verse 26. The Priests have profaned my Holy Name, they have put no Difference between the Holy and the Profane, between the Clean and the Unclean. Yet in that case, the Word ceaseth not to be Gods Word, though it be so abused: Or, As an Admonition cast before a Profane Mocker, is but the abusing of an Holy thing, yet it altereth not the Nature of it; as a Pearl cast before a Sow, is puddled and abused, yet it doth not alter its inward Nature, but it still remaineth a Pearl: So it is here in the Word and Sacraments; they are abused in their use when mis-applied, yet still (the Institution being kept) they are the Ordinances of God: Thus was the Temple said to be profaned, when it was made more common in its use then was allowed; yet was it still the Temple of the Lord: And so admission of scandalous persons may thus be called, a polluting of the Sacraments, but not essentially in themselves.

There is another way of polluting the Sacrament, that is Extrinsick and Circumstantial, not in Essentials, but in ou• use making of it; and the Application thereof beyond Christs Warrant, as when it is Administred to one upon whom Christ alloweth it not. In that case it is not a Sacrament to that person; yet it is so in it •ell. This Pollution is a prophaning of it to us, or a making it common. Thus the Word of Promise generally applyed in a Congregation without separation, in Application, betwixt the Precious and the Vile, is a prophaning of the Word, (for the word of Promise should not be made common more then the Sacrament,) as it is marked, Ezek. 22. verse 26