But is this done? Do all your members adorn the gospel? Are they all _holy as he which hath called us is holy_? I fear not. I have known some instances to the contrary; and doubtless you know many more. There are unholy, outwardly unholy men, in _your_ congregations also: men that prophane either the name or the day of the Lord; that do not honour their natural or civil parents; that know not how to possess their bodies in sanctification and honour; that are intemperate, either in meat or drink, gluttonous, sensual, luxurious; that variously offend against justice, mercy or truth, in their intercourse with their neighbour, and do not walk by that _royal law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself_. But how is this consistent with your leading principle, “That no man ought to be admitted to baptism, till he has that repentance whereby we forsake sin, and living faith in God, through Christ?” For if no man ought to be admitted into a church or congregation, who has not actual faith and repentance, then neither ought any who has them not, to continue in any congregation. And consequently an open sinner cannot remain among you, unless you practically renounce your main principle. 4. I refer it to your own serious consideration, whether one reason, why unholy men are still suffered to remain among you, may not be this; that many of you have unawares put _opinion_ in the room of _faith_ and _repentance_? But how fatal a mistake is this? Supposing your opinion to be true, yet a _true opinion_ concerning _repentance_ is wholly different from the thing itself. And you may have a _true opinion_ concerning _faith_ all your life and yet die an unbeliever. Supposing therefore the _opinion_ of _particular redemption_ true, yet how little does it avail toward salvation? Nay, were we to suppose, that _none can be saved_ who do not hold it, it does not follow, that _all will be saved_ who do. So that if the one proved a man to be in ever so _bad a state_, the other would not prove him to be _in a good one_. And consequently, whosoever leans on this opinion, _leans on the staff of a broken reed_.