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A
RATIONAL DEFENCE OF
TYIE
GOSPEL.
[SEAN.
Xvrr.
up
in
your
memory,
and
all
the reasonings
that
your
in
-.
vention
can
supply
you with,
will
hardly
be
able to keep
your
faith and hope
firm
and
stecl'fast;
for Satan
goes
be-
fore
you in skill
and
rational argument
;
and though
your
arguments are strong
and
solid,
yet
he may
baffle
you
by
his hellish
sophistry,
and
thus
cheat
you
of
your
faith, and
your
hope, and
your
heaven,
if
you have
not
got
this gospel
wrought into your hearts
with power,
if
you
have
not
felt
it
to
be
the power
of God
unto salva-
tion.
Hence
it
comes to pass,
that
in
times
of
great
tempta-
tion and persecution there are
many.
fall
away,
as
the
leaves
of
a tree
in
the
blasts
of
autumn,
when
but
here
and there one
stands
and endures the
shock
:
It
is
be-
cause there
are
so few
of the
professors
of the
gospel
have
felt
it to
be
the
power
of
God
to the conversion
of
their
souls, and
turning their hearts
to
Gód and
heaven.
And hence
it
comes to pass
also,
that
several
unlearned
christians.in
all ages,
that
could
not
argue
much
for the
faith
in
a
rational
way,
yet
could
dare
to die for
it,
be-
cause they had this
argument
wrought
in
their
own
souls;
they had felt a
divine
power going along
with
it
to change
their
natúxes,
Vo.make
them
new
creatures,
to
give
them
the hope
of
heaven,:
and
a
preparation
for
it.
.
IIL.
Inference.
From what you
have heard
of
this
subject,
learn
the
wide
extent of
this
argument for the
defence
of
the
gospel
of
Christ,
and
the invaluable worth
of
it
to every
christian,
viz,
that
the
gospel
is
the power
of
God
to your
salvation.
It
is
an
argument
of
wide
extent:
for
it
belongs to
every christian, to the
wise
and to
the
unwise, to
the
-weak
and the
strong;
there.
is
no sincere
christian, no
true
believer
in
Christ,
but
bath got
the foundation
of
this
argument
wrought
within
hirn
:
He
knows this
gospel
is
divine,
and
he
should
not
he
ashamed
to believe
and
profess
it;
for
he
bath felt
it support
his soul
under a
sense
of
guilt,
and
.give
him solid
hope
of
pardoning
grace
:
He
bath found
it
change
his sinful
nature,
soften
his
heart
into
repentance, and turn,
him
from
a sinner
into a
saint; it
bath
laid
the foundation
of
eternal.
life
within
him.
And
as
it is
an
argument that
belongs to every
true
christian;
so
it
answers every objection
that
an infidel