QUESTION 1II. 8y practice in life, as may make the profession of the lips appear, in thecommon judgment of men, to be the sincere sense of the heart :" By which we are not to understand a perfection of virtue, or a freedom from every vice: for there is no man living onearth, that Both good, and sinneth not ; in many things we offend all; and the best of men have reason to complain, that the evil they would not do, sometimes prevails over them, and they are led captive to the law of sin ; James ifi. 2. Rom. vii. 19, 20. But it is necessary that persons professing christianity should be free from all gross and scandalous sins, nor be guilty of those crimes in their allowed practice, which in many places of scrip- ture exclude men from the kingdom of heaven 1 Cor. v. 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neitherfornicators, nor idolaters, nor adùlterers, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor re- vilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God ; 1 Cor. v. 11. I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covet- ous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extor- i-toner, with such an one, no not to eat: And if this text forbids us to keep free and sociable converse with such persons, or to sit down at our tables with those who professchristianity, and practise wickedness, much more does it become achurch to exclude them from its sacred society and fellowship, and to forbid them to sit down at the table of the Lord. Common railers and slanderers, such as the apostle James describes, are to be shut out from communion ; James i. 26. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain; that is, his religious performances are evidently ineffectual for his own salvation ; therefore while he indulges his tongue in a scandalous liberty, his pretences andprofession of christianity are vain and incredible, and consequently he has no right to christian com-. tmunion. The glory of God who is holy, the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ who is our pattern of holiness, the credit of the gospel which is a doctrine according to godliness, as well as the common sense of mankind, exclude all such persons from societies of strict and pure religion. In the very first dawning of the gospel, John the Baptist, the fore-runner of Christ, forbid the professing Pharisees from baptism, for want of fruits of repentance answerable to their profession ; Mat. iii. 7, 8. And in following times the Ephesian converts made theirfaith appear by confessing what they believed, and shewing their deeds; Acts xix. 18, 19. And if there be not a frequent account of such instances in scripture, it is because the nature and reason of things render thenecessity of it suf&- s2
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