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SERMON XVII.
A
RATIONAL
DEFENCE
OF
THE 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
of
it;
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 a
mat-
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,
from
which 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
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