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]SISC.,«j
rAITH
BUILT
ON
KNOWLEDGE.
Qgg,
every
dart;
you
are then
best furnished
to
resist
unto
death.
But
I
would
here
chide the
ignorant
and the
lazy
Christian.
What
will
you do when
ye
shall
be
assaulted
with
the
witty reproaches of
the
heathens
of
our
age,
those
apostates
from Christianity
?
When
they shall
laugh
at
you
-for
a
fool,
because
you profess to be a believer,
and
they
think
they
have
reason
to laugh,
if
you
Carr
give
no reason
why you
believe
?
What
will
you
say,
when
they
shall tell you the gospel
of
Christ
is
bu_t
a fahle,
and
en-
deavour
to scoff you
out
of
your faith? When they shall
ridicule
you
for paying
the
honours of
a
God,
to
a poor
man,
that
was
hanged upon
a.
tree
in
Jerusalem, and bath
been
dead
and
buried seventeen hundred years
ago
?
What
will
you
say,
when
they
shall
ask you,
how
you
can
imagine
that
this
man
was the
Son
of
God, or the
scriptures are
of
divine
original
?
Will
you
answer
as
a
papist
does,
I
believe
it because the
church
believes
it
?"
Or
will you
reply
<with,
the
Turk, "
I believe
in
Christ, as the
Turk
doth
in
Mahomet, because the
whole
nation
believes
?"
Or
will
you
give
the answer
of
a
child,
" I.
.believe
the
bible
is
the word
of
God,
because my
mother
told
me
so?
But
how
unworthy
is
this
of
a
per-
son
that
professes to
be
a christian, and
is
grown to
full
years
of
maturity
?
How ridiculous
is
it for
a man
to
be-
lieve,
and
he knows
not
why
?
A
man
that bath
a thou-
sand advantages
to
get
his
faith
well-
grounded, and
to
learn the
reason
of
the
hope
that
is
in
him?
Besides,
how.
will
you be
able
to
stand
in
such an
hour
of
temptation
?
Perhaps
you
will
lose
your
faith,
and all
your
religion, A
bold
jest, or
a
fair
shew
of
argument,
may
make
so
deep
an impression on a weak
and unfur-
nished mind, as
to
give
a
sudden inlet
to
the
tempter;
and your
soul may
be
filled
with
doubts and suspicions
of
Christianity
:
Then
from one degree
of
unbelief you
may
be
led on
to
another,
till you
have made shipwreck
of
the faith
and
a good
conscience
too..
Thus
you
will
part
with all
your
hopes
of
immortality and heaven, for
want
of
a
well-
grounded
knowledge
of
the
person
..
in
whom you profess
to.
trust.
But
further;
if
persecution should
grow
sharp,
And
days
of torment
and
martyrdom
return
again,
how
would
you
be
able to resist
unto
blood,
and
tç bear
the fiery
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