AIM ( 2sG ) SERMONXV. A RATIONALDEFENCE OFTHE GOSPEL; OR, COURAGE IN PROFESSING CHRISTIANITY. Rom. i. 16. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. THE FIRST PART. SHAME is a very discouraging passion of the mind; it sinks the spirits low, it enfeebles all the active powers, and forbids the vigorous execution of any thing whereof we are ashamed. It was necessary therefore, that St. Paul should be endued with sacred courage, and raised above the power of shame, when he was sent to preach the gospel of Christ among the Jews or the heathens, to face an infidel world, and to break through all the re- proaches and terrors of it. I am a debtor, says he, verse 14, to the Greeks and to the barbarians; that is, to the learned and the unlearned nations ; to thewise and to the unwise : I have a commission fromChrist to pub- lish his gospel among all the nations of men, and I esteem myself their debtor, till I have delivered my message : And though Rome be the seat of worldly power and policy, the mistress of the nations, and sovereign of the earth, where I shall meet with opposition and contempt in abundance, yet I have courage enough to preach this doctrine at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gos- pel of Christ. My friends, this is an age wherein the gospel of our Redeemer meets with much contempt and opposition. There are many in a baptized nation, and who have been brought up in the christian belief and worship, that begin to be weary of Christ and his religion ; they are endeavouring to find blemishes and defects in this sacred gospel, and in that blessed word of God that reveals this grace to us. The divine truths, that belong to this gos- pel, meet with mockery and profane reproach fromdeists and unbelievers. I may call it therefore a day of. rebuke and blasphemy.. God grant we may never .became
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