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302
A
RATIONAL DEFENCE
OP
THE GOSPEL.
TSERM.
JiVIL.
called christians,
whose lives
are
vicious
?
Surely, they
never
knew this gospel in
truth
;
they
are
but
false
pro-
fessors
of
it.
There
are thousands
that
can bear
this
witness to the gospel,
that
it
has
changed their hearts
;
it
has renewed
their
natures
;
it
has
made
them hate
every
vice,
and
their
lives
shine
amongst
men
glorious
in
holiness, and resembling
God
himself.
Are the senti-
ments
of
some
of
them different
from
others
?
It
is
chiefly
in points of
lesser
importance; but
the
substantial truths
of
it,
which
are
the power
of God
to salvation,
are pro-
fessed
and
acknowledged
by us all.
And though a
thou-
sand should
forsake this
gospel,
and
become
apostates,
yet
I can'never
part
with
it,
while
I
feel
the blessed
effects
of
it
abiding upon
my
heart, and
I
trust, through the
grace
of
God,
they shall
abide
for ever."
This
leads
me
to the last inference.
IV
Inference.
What
strong
engagements
is
every
true
christian under to maintain
the profession
of
this gospel
?
Not
only
is
he laid
under
many obligations from the
commands
of
God,
and the
bonds
of
duty,
and grati-
tude, and
love,
but
he has
a
constant
pressing obligation
within
him.
"
How
can
I
be
ashamed
of
my
hope,
my
portion,
my
everlasting
all
?
Shall
I
be
ashamed
of that
gospel,
upon
which
my
salvation
is
founded, and
my
best and
highest interest, even
my
expectations
of
end-
less
felicity
?
If
I
let
go this faith,
if
I
lose my hold
of
this gospel,
I
let
go my
hold
of
Christ,
of
God, and his
love
;
I
let
go
my
hold
of
heaven, and
all
my
happiness
:
My
sins all.
return
upon
me with
their
unsuf
erabl'e
loads
of
guilt and anguish
of
conscience,
if I
lose my
faith
in
this gospel; for
all my
hope
of pardon
is
built upon
this
foundation
:
heaven
with
the joys
of
it
vanish from
my
soul,
if
I
part
with
this glorious gospel
of
Christ, and
death and
hell face me with
all
their terrors."
There
is
an awful and solemn motive derived
from
the
great judgment
-day to maintain the profession
of
this
glorious gospel; for
our
Lord
himself
has
pronounced
this
threatening, and
he will fulfil
it,
Whosoever
shall
be
ashamed
of
me
and
my
words
amongst a
sinful genera-
tion
of
men,
I
will
also
be
ashamed
of
him before
my
Fa-
ther
and
his
holy
angels.
But
this
text
shall
be
the sub-
ject
of
some
future
discourses.