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SERM.
XVII.)
A
RATIONAL DEFENCE
OF
THE GOSPEL.
93
Jesus
himself
preached
hell and
terror
to
sinners
with
a
sacred
vehemence,
and set everlasting
fire
in
a clearer
and
more
dreadful light
than
ever had
been
done
by
all
the philosophers
in
the
world.
The
soul
of
every
saint
has
been
in
some
measure a
witness
of
this
truth,
when
it
lay
under the
work
of
divine conviction.
And
not
only
the horrid
nature
and
evil
of
sin,
and
the
dreadful consequences
of
it,
are
powerful motives
to
make us
stand afar
off,
and fear
it;
but
"The
sweet
and
constraining
influence
of
the
love
of Christ
does
most effectually incline
me,
saith the
believer,
to hate
every
sin,
and
to
follow
after
universal holiness
:
Shall
I
build
up
again
the
things
which my Saviour
died
to
destroy
?
This
would be
to make him
suffer
agonies in
vain, and
run counter
to
all
the
designs
of
his
bleeding
love, and
the
voluntary
sacrifice
of
his soul
!"
"
I
have also the glorious
and perfect
example
of
my
blessed
Lord
:
Never
did
virtue and religion
shine
-sci
bright, and look
so-
amiable
as in 'his
life;
and
he
has
set
it
before
me as my
pattern
:
I
feel
the
attractive
and di-
vine
power'
of
it
:
Where
my
Lord
leads,
I
must
follow
;
for
I
would
fain be like him."
"
He
draws
me
by his
example, and he draws
me
too
by his
heavenly promises.
He spreads the
glories
and
the joys
of
heaven before
me,
to
allure
my
hope; I
see
those sacred
glories,
I
long
after
the
possession
of
these
unfading joys, and
I
must and
will
keep the path
that
leads
to
paradise,
that
where
my
Lord
is,
I
may
be
also."
"
The rules
and precepts
of
holiness, which
my
Lord
has
taught
me,
are more pure, more
clean,
more
per-
fect,
more divine and godlike,
than
ever any
other
scheme
of
rules
and duties was;
and the
joyful and
dreadful
motives
given me to press
after
this holiness,
are
infinitely beyond
all
the
motives
that
any
doctrine
or religion
has
proposed.
Blessed be
God that I ever
learnt
those holy rules,
that
I
ever felt the power
of
these divine motives,
and
am become
a lover
of
holi-
ness."
4.
Thus
the
gospel
prepares the saint
for
heaven,
and
fits
every power
of
his
soul for
the
business
and
blessed-
ness
of
those
happy
regions.
"
Once,
says he,
I
had no
delight
in
spiritual things;
I
had
no relish
of
spiritual
u