( 88 ) SERMON XVII. ARATIONAL DEFENCE 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 unte salvation to every one that believeth. THE THIRD PART. THOUGH the passion of shame has something in it that sinks, . our nature, and enfeebles our spirits, yet it is a very becoming passion, where .sin is the object ofit; and indeed it was wisely ordained by our Creator to be a guardian to those small remains of natural virtue that abide in us since the fall. We find the first young sinners clothed with shame in the garden of Eden at the presence of God. But the growing corruption of our natures, the subtilty of Satan, and the' temptations of this world have joined together to take this piece of ar- tillery out of the hands of virtue, and make use of it in their attacks upon religion . and goodness. We ought to be ashamed indeed of nothing but our sin, our folly, and our wretchedness; but we have been too ready to be ashamed, even of the grace of God, and the methods . of our recovery from folly,. wretchedness, and sin. The gospel itself; the glorious gospel, has been made amat- ter of reproach among men, and its professors have been sometimes, tempted to be ashamed of it. The blessed apostle in my text' had gained a victory over this temptation, for be was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Whatsoever there might be contained in the doctrines of this gospel, or whatsoever might be found among the professors of it, fromwhich infidels or unbelievers might take occasion to throw shame and scandal upon it; yet I have shewn in the two foregoing discourses, that all this is unjustly charged on the gos- pel, and have given particular answers to both sorts of cavils. ,I go on now to the last proposal, which is to explain the force of the apostle's argument against shame in 4
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