QUESTION III. 65 SECT. -IL Secondly, a professed subjection to all the ne- cessary rules of christian duty, includes in it not only those duties that are necessary to salvation, but those duties that are necessary to practise christian communion. The first sort of christian duties are those' that are necessary to salvation, such as the fear, love and worship of God; faith, love, and obe- dience towards our Lord Jesus Christ : repentance of sin, and a humble trust or hope in the promises of the gospel, as shall be shewn at large, under the seventh question. Now this profession does not signify a mere engagement or pro- mise hereafter to fulfil these duties, but also a profession that we have begun to practise them already : for we are not re- ceived into a church in order to receive Jesus Christ theLord, but upon a credible profession that we have received Jesus Cluist already ; Rom. xv. 7. Receive .ye one another as Christ has received us. We must have therefore some evidence and hope that we have received Christ in all his necessary offices, as our Lord and Saviour, and consequently that he has receivedus before we should propose ourselves to be received by any visible church. Now if a man professes repentance, it implies that he has been made sensible of sin, that he has been taught the evil of it, that hemourns for what is past, and is daily watching against it. If a man profess faith in Christ as a propitiation and atone- ment, it implies that he is acquainted with his guilt in the sight of God, that he is in danger of divine wrath, and that he is not able to make atonement for his own sins, and therefore heflies for refuge to Jesus Christ, that he may obtain peace with God. If the professes a hope "of heaven, it implies in it that he is endeavouring to prepare for this heaven ; for every -man that bath this hope purifieth himself ; 1 John iii. 3. If he pro- fesses to take Christ for his example, it implies a desire and attempt to imitate our blessed Lord in self- denial, patience, zeal, &c. In order to make this profession of our faith and,hope cre- dible, it is the custom of some churches to require nomore than the person's own general profession that he does believe, and repent, and hope, as in Acts viii. 37. I believe, 1fc. It is the custom of other churches to desire also some further evidences of the truth of his faith, hope, and repentance, by a more par- ticular account of some of those things which are implied in the exercises of those graces; and this has been usually called, though not properly, the rendering a reason of the hope that 4 in him; as 1 Pet. iii. 15., The first of these methods bath considerable advantages towards the enlargement of particular churches; and, so far as I can judge, such churches seem to require all that is abso- Voh.. iv. E
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