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sErol.
XVII
A
RATIONAL DEFENCE
OF
THE GOSPEL.
287
world in any
of the
corrupt
and
unlawful customs
and
courses of
it.
Mingle
not
your practice
of
the
lovely
duties
which
this gospel enjoins, with
lying,
and slan-
dering, and railing
;
do
not interline your
lives with
religion and
sin,
with
devotion
and shameful lusts.
It
is
a
gospel
that
forbids all iniquity,
it requires that
you
mortify
sin
and cleanse yourselves from
every
defilement
of
flesh
and
spirit,
and
that
you
go on to
perfect
holiness
in
the
fear
of
the Lord.
2
Cor.
vii.
1.
The
very design
and end
of
it
in
God's eternal
counsels
and contrivance,
is,
that
you might be holy,
and without
blame before him
in love
;
Eph.
i.
4..
If
you
pursue
this advice,
then shall
others,
who behold you, confess
that
there
is
something
divine
in
christianity,
when you thus
adorn
the
doctrine
of
God,
your
Saviour.
Thus
you
give
the
gospel its
due
honour,
by
believing all
it
reveals,
by
worshipping
ac-
cording
to
the methods
of
its
appointment, and
by
that
purity
of
conversation which
it
enjoins.
3.
Make not
the lesser circumstances
and appendages
of
your
religion the
matter of
loud contest, and a
party-.
strife.
We are
called to
contend earnestly
for the
great
and
necessary
doctrines
of
faith, which were
once
deli=
vered to
the saints: But
we
are commanded
also to
re-
ceive those
that
are
weak
in
the
faith,
without
involving
them in
doubtful disputations
about
matters
of
less
mo-
ment. Give
no
occasion to the infidel
to
blaspheme the
gospel. by
your
factions and quarrels,
and the rage of a
bitter and
unsanctified
zeal.
Oh
that
the time
were
come, when the
wolf
and the lamb shall lie down toge-
ther, and there
shall be
nothing
to
hurt
or destroy
in all
the
holy
mountain
!
But
surely,
it
is
very
hard
if
the
lambs
themselves, who
belong to the
flock
of
Christ, can-
not
live
without hurting and destroying
one
another;
that
christians cannot
live
without
exposing
their
divine
and heavenly religion
to the
blasphemies
of
sinful men.
Happy
were the
christian
world,
if
we
could all behave
ourselves
so
as
never
to
give
occasion to the
adversary
to
reproach
the professors
of
the christian faith,
nor
throw.
shame
and dishonour upon
the gospel
of Christ
!
May
the
blessed
spirit of God
teach
us
this lesson effectually,
and
let
it
be
copied
out
in
ourlives
daily, till
we
arrive
at
the regions
of
perfect
holiness
and
love
!
Amen.