and reason of their obedience, in performing good works, is the revealed will and pleasure of Christ commanding them, and the ends of them are to express their thankfulness to God for his grace and love, to please and honor him, to meet with God, and to enjoy communion with him, to receive of his grace and the good of many promises; to shine as lights in the world, and to be useful unto men; to declare whose and what they are, and to lay up a reward in another world; to keep their lusts under, and their graces in use and exercise; and to manifest their respect and subjection to Jesus Christ, his authority, and law.  That the law, for the matter of it, as in the hand of Christ, is the rule of all obedience; and that all are bound to yield subjection to it.  That there shall be a resurrection of the just and unjust.  That regeneration is absolutely necessary to salvation, and that without it none can enter into the kingdom of heaven.  That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain, and exhibit unto men, the whole revealed will of God, and are sufficient to make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work; and that whatsoever they are to believe and do is contained therein; and that it is the ground of their faith, hope, and practice.  That Jesus Christ hath instituted and appointed many ordinances of worship, for his own glory and his people’s good, and that all are bound to observe and to wait on God in them.  That all persons are indispensably bound to mind, and carefully to observe the principal manner and end of all their duties, and to see that they be right, holy, and spiritual indeed, and not to please themselves with the matter of them alone.  That no man can serve God, or do any work acceptable unto him, until he be regenerated, and brought into a state of grace.

These are some of the matters of faith that they should in some measure be acquainted with and believe, that are admitted into full communion with the Church of Christ.  And these and other truths must not be known and believed in a general, notional, light, and speculative manner; but heartily, powerfully, and particularly:  not for others, but for themselves; otherwise their faith and knowledge will no way profit their souls to salvation.

III.  They must be qualified also with a blameless conversation.  Their conversation must be as becometh the gospel, otherwise they are not meet for communion with the gospel church.  Carnal walking will not suit spiritual temples:  for they will greatly pollute and defile them, and stain and obscure their beauty and glory.  Therefore they must not be brawlers and contentious persons, covetous and worldly-minded, vain and frothy.  They must not be froward and peevish, nor defraud others of their right.  Nor must they neglect the worship of God in their families, nor be careless in governing and educating them in good manners, and in the things of God.  They must not be such as are known to omit the duties and ordinances of religion in their proper seasons, or to have vicious families through their neglect:  nor to have any other kind of conversation hateful to God and to his people.  And therefore, whatever their profession be, they may not be admitted into the Church of God, until they have repented of these, or any other scandal in their life and conduct.