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t'St
A
RATÍ6;äAL
DEFENCE
OF
THE
coarat.
[SERM.
ATT.
unknown reasons there
may.
be
in
the counsels and pro-
vidence
of
.
God
in
permitting
heresies to arise for the
farther trial of
his own
people,
is
too
hard and
high
a
point
for
us
to
determine.
The
apostle.
saith
;
l
Cor.
xi.
19.
There must
be
also heresies among
you,
that
they
which
are
,approved
may
be
made
manifest
If
such
a
thing
as this
is,
shall be
abused by
men
of,corrupt
minds,
to turn
them
quite
away from the aospel_of
Christ, and
to
support their
ow'n
infidelity, they
must answer for
it
at
the
great
day
to
Christ
their.
Judge.
Thus
I
have
done
with the third charge
or accusation
brought against
the
gospel,
and removed the scandal
and
shame that
some men have
thrown
upon
it because
them
are
such
sects,
and
parties,
aid
divided opinions
among
the
professors
of
it.
IV.
Another
occasion
of
scandal
which infidels
charge
upon
the gospel
of
Christ,
is
this,
"
That
some who
have
long
professed
it
have
forsaken
it
;
and one should be
ashamed
to
embrace
such a faith
-as
this
is,
for it has
been tried, and found
to be
vain and groundless, even
by those
who have
known it
long,
and searched
it
throu-gh
and
through, and therefore
at
last
they have
abandoned and
cast
it
off"
But
in
answer
to this, give me
leave
to
say,
first,
that
the chief and
most common reason
why.
persons
who
have
professed .christianity cast
it
off,- is
not
because they
found
any
just
reason
of
blame
either
in its
principles
or
rules
;
but
because they
think it
too
strict for
them,
and
it
curbs
their
vicious
appetites
more than they
like.
I
will
allow,
that
perhaps there
may,
be
some
persons
who have
abandoned
the christian religion
from a wan-
tonness
of
fancy,
from a
licentiousness of thought,
from
a
pride
of
reasoning,
and
who
make
it their
glory
to
have
thrown
off the bonds
of
their education, and
tó
have
ob-
tained
the
honour
of
free
-
thinkers, or from
a
presuming
conceit that
they must comprehend
every
thing
in
their
religion, and
will
believe
nothing
that
bath
mysteries in
it.
Such vain
principles
as
these may have influenced
some minds
and
given them up
to apostacy
:
But,
I
fear, far
-the
greatest
part of
those who
forsake the gos-
pel,
have been
tempted
to
it
by
the power
of
their lusts,
which
the gospel
would
restrain,
and
sóme
of
these
per-
sons
upon their death
-beds
have
confessed it too.
This
is
also sufficiently visible
in the world,
that
when