22t RATIONAL DEFENCE OF TISE GOSPEL. Christ, and refute and confound their own infidelity : So that if ever I had been a Jew, and did believe 111 oses and the prophets, I think I am constrained to be a christian, and believe in Jesus Christ. Thus I have endeavoured to answer those objections against the gospel, which are pretended to arise from the truths or doc- trines of it : And before I proceed to answer those cavils which are raisedagainst.it, because of the professors of it, I must finish the present discourse with aword or two ofimprovement. Use 1. If this he a gospel not tobe ashamedof, then study it well : Learn the truths and doctrines of it thoroughly : Truths anddoctrines, whichSt.. Paul, so wise, and so great a man, did not blush to profess, and preach, and die for. Value it as he va- lued it : The more you know it, the more you will esteem it ; and the better you are acquaintedwith all the glorious articles of it, the less you will be ashamed of it : The divine harmony of the whole will cast a beauty and a lustre on every part. Use 2. Furnish yourselves with arguments for it daily, that you may profess it without shame, and defenditwithout blushing : This is a day of temptation, and you know not what conversation youmaybe called into by divine providence ; you know not what cavils you may meet with to assault your faith, and attack Christi- anity. Be ready therefore togive reasonsofthe hope that is in you, and to make ajust and pertinent reply to gainsayers,andconvince those, if possible, that are led away captive by the wiles of the devil to forsake Christ andhis gospel. Let not every turn of wit, or sleight of argument and sophistry, make you waver in your Faith. It is agospel that will bear the trial of'reasonings and re- proaches. It has something in itself that is divine, and therefore it is ableto support theprofessors of it against an army ofcavillers. Use 3. Submit to all the institutions of it. Profess the whole of the gospel ; not only the doctrines, but the ordinances of this gospel, aredivineand glorious ; they have something in them thatshew they comefrom God, and they have something in them that evidently leads to God. They have all something in their sense and signification that discovers divinity. Wait upon God therefore in all his ordinances, in the assemblies of christians, that you may seehis power andhis glory in his own sanctuary, and that you may, fromyour own experience, be able to say, that thegos- pel is too great, too glorious, too divine a thing in its doctrines andworship, and in all its institutions, for you ever to be ashamed of. It has now, for sixteen ages, endured the test of the wit, and the rageof earth and hell, and it shall stand in power and glory, till the heavens be no more.
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