SERMON XV. .01 Rational Defenceof the Gospel: Or, Courage in professing Christianity. ROM. i. 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is thepower of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. THE FIRST PART. SHAME is a very discouraging passion of the mind ; it sinks the spirits low, it enfeebles all the active powers, and forbids the vigorous execution of any thing whereof we are ashamed. It was necessary therefore, that St. Paul should be endued with sacred courage, and raised above the power of shame, when he was sent to preach the gospel of Christ among the Jews or the heathens, to face an infidel world, and to break through all the reproaches and terrors of it. I ama debtor, saith he, verse 14, to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; that is, to the learned and the unlearned nations ; to the wise and to the unwise: I havea commission fromChrist to publish his gospel among all the nations of men, and I esteem myself their debtor, till I have delivered my message : And though Rome be the seat of wordly power and policy, the mistress of the nations, and sovereign of the earth,where I shall meet with opposition and contempt in abun- dance, yet Ihave courage enough to preachthis doctrineat Rome also, for I am not ashamedof thegospel of Christ. My friends; this is an age wherein the gospel of our Re- deemer meets with much contempt and opposition. There are many in a baptized nation, and who have been brought up in the christian belief and worship, that begin to be weary of Christ and his religion ; they are endeavouring to find blemishes anddefects in this sacred gospel, and in that blessed word of Godthat reveals this grace to us. The divine truths, that belong to this gospel, meet with mockery and profane . reproach from deists and unbe- lievers. I may call it therefore a day of rebuke and blasphemy. God grant wemay neverbecome a land ofheathens again ! Those of us that believe this gospel from the heart, haveneed of cou- rage to maintain our profession of it, especially in some compa- nies and conversations. Weshould prepareourselves to encomia ter the false reasonings of unbelievers, as well as harden our faces against their ridicule. Let us therefore meditate this sa. r3
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