546 THE SACRi1ÍCE er CHRIST,' 'descriptions of these blessings of the gospel in their own most evident and proper sense ? Why should not Agrippa understand them as we do in their plain meaning, since I am persuaded Agrippa wants them as much as we? Why does he not humbly receive them, and live upon them as the favoursof a condescend- ing God ? . Or let himhim boldly declare, that he does not want them, and therefore he cannot believe them. N. And now the very last enquiry I shall put to Agrippa and hisfrieisds, is this, which I mentioned before in my discourse, when you turn these peculiar glories and blessings of the gospel into tropes and figures, What is it you aim at, or expect to gain by it ? What is the advantage pretended or hoped for by all this force upon the scripture, but by stripping the religion of Christ of its peculiar honours, to make it appear more like the religion of nature, both to ourselves and our infidel acquaintance ? But give- me leave to ask in the name of God, why are we so much ashamed of these peculiar and supernatural glories of the gos- pel, which were sent from heaven as the choicest blessings to a wretched world? Must all the revealed doctrines of God and his Son be brought down to the relish and gust of infidels, be- fore we who call ourselves christians dare to believe them? Is there no truth of God to be credited unless it square with their opinions ? Why should we be so solicitous to avoid the displea- sure of those who deny and ridicule these articles of faith, which are the obvious and sacred meaning of the words of scripture, andWhich are given us to be the life of our souls ? Why are we so fond to please and flatter those men who deny the plain and express doctrines of the New Testament, and destroy the most natural sense and design of the two sacraments, the two only ceremonies of the christian religion ? Why so zealous and foolish to compliment the professed adversaries of Christ and his blessed gospel at so dear a rate, as to part with the noblest favours of heaven to humour and please them ? 'ro conclude, if these were doctrines or propositions only mentioned occasionally, and but once or twice in the bible ; if they were only taught in emblems and metaphors and dark pro- ,. phecies : if they were only hinted-in the warm and pathetic parts of scripture, and never mentioned in those places where the doctrines of christianitywere professedly taught ; if they were preached only by one apostle, or only written in one part of an 'epistle if they were such doctrines as stood contrary to the na- tureof -God or the reason of man ; if they receivedno testimony or support from the former revelations of God, or from other parts of the divine dispensations towards men, a honest and studioús man might be ready to suspect, whether the words which express them ought to be construed in the literal sense; or at least, whether they were articles of any importance in chris-
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