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258
A
RATIONAL DEFENCE-
OF
.THE
GOSPEL.
,ÇSERM.
XP.
veries
of
it
made to mankind, ever
since Adam first
sinned,
and
God,
visited
biin,with the
first
pròmise
of
grace before
he
turned
him
out of
paradise.
But
the
last
and most complete revelation
of
this
gospel
was
made
by
the personal ministry
of
our Lord
Jesus
Christ, and more especially
by bis
apostles, when
his
own
death, resurrection, and exaltation had
laid the
complete foundation
for
it.
From
the books
of
the New
Testament therefore
we
may
derive this
larger description
of
the
gospel
of
Christ.
It
is
a
wise,
a
holy,
and gracious constitution
of God
for the recovery
of
sinful
man,
by
sending
his own
Son
Jesus
Christ
into
the
flesh,
to
obey
his
laws
which
man
bad
broken,
to
make a proper: atonernent
for sin
by his
death,
and
thus
to
procure the
favour of God, and
eter-
nal
happiness for
all
that
believe.and
repent,,
and receive
the
offered salvation
;
together
with
,a
promise
of
the
Holy Spirit
to work
this
faith
and
repentance
in
their
hearts,
to,
renew
their
sinful
natures
.
unto
holiness,
to
form
them
on
earth
fit
for this happiness,
,
and
to
bring
them
to the full possession
of it
in heaven.
It
might
bd
proved
that
this
is
the sense
and substance
of
the gospel
of
Christ
from many
of
the
prophecies
of
the Old Testament,,
and
the ceremonies'
and
figures
of
the Jewish
church,
as well as from a
variety
of
citations
from the writings
of
the
evangelists and apostles
:
Yet
there
have
arisen
some persons,
I mean;the
Socinians and
their
disciples,
in
the
last
age
and
in this also, who call
themselves christians,
but
they
so
curtail
and
diminish
the
gospel
of
Christ,
as
to
make
it
signify
very little
more than the dictates and
hopes
of
the
light
of
nature,
.`f
,That
if
we
repent
of
our
sins
past,
and
obey the
commands
of
God
as well
as
we
can for the future,
Christ
as
a
great prophet,
has
made a
full
declaration
that there
is
pardon for
such
sinners, and they shall
be
accepted
unto
eternal
life
:"
and
all
this
without
any de-
pençlance on
his
death
as a
proper
sacrifice,
and
with little
regard
to the
operations of
his
Holy
Spirit
Now I
need
use no other,
argument
to
refute
this
mis-
taken notion
of
the
gospel,
than what
may be derived
from, the
words
of
myxext,
viz.
that
,St.
Paul expresses
it
with a
sort
of
emphasis,
and
as
a matter
of
import»
anee,
that
he was
not
ásharaed
of
the
gospel of Chi
ist,-