SEEM. %VI.] A RATIONAL DEFENCE OF TAE GOSPEL. Zg5.. men have long professed this gospel, and forsaken 'it, . they seldom grow more pious, more sober, more honest or good than before ; but, on the contrary, they gene- rally have indulged vicious excesses, and neglected all piety, and this is rather aground of glory to the.gospel than a just reason of shame. If these persons had generally grown more holy, if they had feared God.more afterwards than ever theydid before, if they had more aimed at the glory ofGod, and loved him better, when they forsook Christ and his gos- pel, then we might have some reason to suspect this os- pel was. false, and .a mere mistake or imposture. But when these persons grow more unjust than before, lave their neighbour less, are become more sensual, more selfish, . disregard God more than they did before; I re- peat it again, this is rather a ground of glory to the gos- pel of Christ, than of shame. Demas bath forsaken us, saith Paul, because he loved this present world, 2 Tim. iv. 10. A covetous Demas is nogood argument why St. Paul should forsake Christ, or be ashamed of the gospel. And the apostle has shewn that those who have made shipwreck of their faith, have parted with a good. con- science too, and lost their virtue. 1 Tim. i. 19. 20. But there is another answer which the apostle John gives to this objection inhis first epistle, chap. ii. ver. 19. They went outfrom us, but they were not ofus ; fr :f they had been of us, they would no doubt have co»tinued with us : but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all ofus. They might make a profession of thegospel, and perhaps give a real assent to the truths and doctrines of it by the convincing in- fluence of miracles and human reason, or perhaps 'they became christians merely by the force of education, be- cause they were taught this religion from their childhood, and professed it without thought; but they never had such a powerful belief of this gospel of Christ, as to change their hearts, to renew their natures, to form their souls after the image of Christ into, real holiness ; and therefore like the hearers that are compared to stony ground, the seed did not sink deep into their hearts, though they might receive the word at first with joy, but having no root in themselves; they endure hut for 'awhile, _and when any temptation arises, they are
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