283 / 514
GERM.
XVI.]
A.
RATIONAL DEFENCE
OF
THE
GOSPEL.
275
was
scorned
by the
great and honourable,
and
persecuted
by
the
mighty.
Why should
a
Paul, a
pharisee,
a
doctor
of
the
law,
become a follower
of
a carpenter's
Son,
and
associate with
a
parcel
of
fishermen
?
This
is
a
scandal,
and
foolish
indeed. Who among the pharisees or
rulers
have believed
on
him ?
John
.vii.
48." This
was
the
stumbling-ibloék
of
the gospel
in
that
_age,
and
it
is
the
stumnbling
-block
at
which
:
many persons take
offence in
,our
age too.
"
It
is
the nhthinking multitude,
say
they,.
the mere
Mob
of
mankind,
that are
led away with
the
noise
of
strange
things and the gospel. And it
is
only
those
who have no
relish
of
good sense_that can
dispense
with mysteries.
The poorer and
weaker
sort
of
men
and
women
flock
after your
powerful
preachers
of
the
gos
-.
pel,
but
wise
men despise
it."
I
am very glad,
my
friends,
if
in
your
conversation
you
meet
with no such
persons
that
ridicule the
gospel
at
this
rate. But there are
many
in
our
age
and
nation
.
arrived
at
this
height
of
pride,
and contempt
of
the
gospel.
This objection
may
have
more answers
than
one given
to
it;
as
first,
it
is
a
matter
of
unjust reproach,
and
it
is
false
in
fact;
for
all
the professors
of
this gospel
are
not
weak
and unlearned.
There
have
been
in the very be-
ginning
of
christianity
some
wise,
some
great
persons,
that
have
given testimony' to this gospel
by
their
believ
ing
it.
St.
Paul
was
a man
of
no weak
reason, no mean
understanding,
no small
learning, and yet
he
believes
this
gospel,
and
professes he
is
not
ashamed
of
it.
And
there
have been
in
most
ages
of
the church
some
instances
of
the
power and success
of
this gospel in
con-
verting philosophers and senators, and princes.
The
learned, the
ingenious,
and
the noble amongst
mankind
have sometimes
given
up
their
names
to Christ,
have
yielded
their assent
to his
doctrines, and conformed
their
hearts
and
lives
to the
rules
of
his
gospel.
Men of
wit
and
reason
have been
converted
to the
faith, and
then
have exerted their peculiar talents
in
the
defence
of
christianity, and they have convinced the world
that
they had
neither
left their reason
nor their
wit
behind
them
when
they became christians.
Men
of
grandeur
and power
have sometimes also
supported
it
with ho-
nour,
T,