this world too uneasy to permit them to leave the professors of it at quiet. You may be particular as you please on any other head nobody is hurt, and so no one blames. But here, as soon as you are particular by living conformably to the Gospel, all about you are troubled, cannot treat you with cordiality, but at last lose all conscience, and you find yourself become the object of dislike even where you have the greatest desire to please. It is no little matter therefore not to be ashamed of the Gospel, and consequently a point worthy our particular consideration. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.' From which words we may treat of these two things:

First.

When we may be said not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

Secondly. Why we should not be ashamed of it.

First. We may inquire when we may be said not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. And this is the case, First. When we own it. We are ashamed of that we dare not own but what we avow, we cannot be said to be ashamed of. To own Christ is to let the world see you belong to him. This is confession of Christ before men. But if you would be Christ's, yet decline acting in such a manner as to be thought his, you do not confess him, you deny him before men, and are plainly ashamed of him. The question is not whether you have more or less an inward shame upon your heart; but whether you oppose that sinful shame of your heart, lament it, and are not restrained by it from owning Christ and his words. In that case it is plain enough you confess him; and that you do it in direct contradiction to the strivings of your own spirit argues evidently that you prefer his honour to your own. Now it must be observed that all of us either own or disown the Gospel; we must do the one or the other: and I am sure it behoves us to consider whether of the two we do. Do we own Christ to be the only Saviour of the world, and are all that know us acquainted with our steadfast persuasion that there is salvation in none other; that all the liberality, harmlessness, honesty, and sobriety in the world, will not bring any man to heaven, but that only through the merits of the Redeemer we can have

the least ground of hope toward God? And do they know also that we avow the words of Christ, and the way of a Gospellife, and hold ourselves and all others obliged to walk as Christ also walked, though in the world, yet above it; in a spiritual, not a carnal life; and under the influence of a prevailing concern for God's glory in the world, and of an unfeigned regard for the salvation of our neighbours? Is this the reckoning others make of us? Then it is plain we must have owned Christ and his words. But if the world does not thus think of us, and we pass for those that are of the world, for those who will do as do others, and are not for more religion than is common, it is not less manifest in that case that we have not owned the Gospel; a little inquiry into our conduct may convince us we have disowned it; and it is but too plain that we have been held in the fetters of a worldly shame of the Gospel of Christ.

Secondly. We are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ when we live agreeably to it. And whatever profession we otherwise make of it, however bold we may be to own it, and however warmly we may contend for it, yet, if we do not live it, all is but false fire, it is manifest that we do not love it, and our contention for the Gospel is not for the Gospel's sake, but our own, for the sake of our own pride and vanity We act under a mistaken zeal, propped up by passion, self, and conceit; and, were these false props taken away, should find it as hard a matter for us as for our neighbours not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. I am not contending for cowardice and hiding the head, nor do I in the least desire to restrain that pure zeal which is begotten by humility, faith, and love: but since there is such a thing as mistaken zeal, vastly apt to deceive those who are under the guidance of it into a good, if not a high, opinion of their state, for this very reason, because they are bold in owning the Gospel, I am observing that all such confession as is not accompanied with a Gospel-life is not owning Christ, but self. If I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, I am nothing.* If, while we are not ashamed to own the Gospel, we be careful to live it, and to show the regard we bear to it by the effect it has upon our hearts and lives, engaging

* 1 Cor. xiii. 3.

us to a conduct wherein by the belief of the things revealed and promised, and conferred in Jesus Christ, we are manifestly influenced to a pure, holy, and self-denying conversation, then we may be assured that we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. If we live as becometh the Gospel in the midst of an adulterous world, then there can be no question concerning the matter, it is plain that we are not ashamed of it.

Thirdly. If we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, we shall endeavour to recommend it to the world. When people are not for making a show of religion, as they will perversely call all profession, but industriously keep to themselves the little piety they think themselves possessed of, no way reproving the works of darkness, but fashioning their behaviour after the smooth easy way of the times; such as these are perfectly strangers to a Gospel spirit, understand not the force of the precept, Let your light shine before men,' and have struck out of Christianity the two glorious distinguishing principles of it, concern for God's honour, and for the souls of others: so under the cloak of a false humility, and dread of ostentation, they are chained down, enslaved, and actuated by a worldly shame of the Gospel of Christ. Whereas they who are not ashamed of it, but glory in it, will desire and endeavour it may spread for the common welfare and for the glory of its Author, nor will be wanting to use their influence (whatever it be) toward promoting and enlarging it. And while they are so doing, they will not be without a proof that they are opposing the natural shame of their hearts under the influence of an evangelical spirit of zeal and charity.

Fourthly. It will be a good mark of our not being ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, if we are not ashamed of any, because they are ill-liked by others for living in conformity with it. It was a strong symptom of subjection to worldly shame in Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, that no one should know it; but it was a sign of a better spirit in Lydia, when she received Paul and Silas into her house. When Peter denied that he knew Christ, his worldly apprehensions had got the better of him; but when he afterwards bore witness to his Master in the face of the Jewish council, grace prevailed against

nature. When men are run down by the world for following Christ and their consciences according to the Scripture rule, then to stand up in their defence, and not to disown or give them up to a general outcry, is manifestly to show we are not under the guidance of worldly shame.

What has been said may suffice to teach us when we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. I am now to show,

Secondly. The reason here alleged why we should not be ashamed of it. For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.' What we are to understand by the Gospel's being the power of God unto salvation may be learnt from the same expression in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.'* The Gospel is mighty through God, or powerful through God, to the pulling down of strong holds. So the sense of the passage before us is, the Gospel is efficacious through the might and power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

And if it be the only means of salvation, and is made effectual to salvation by the power of God, we need not be ashamed of it, but rather ought exceedingly, and above all things, to glory in it. Here are two arguments for our glorying in and not being ashamed of the Gospel:

First.

It is the only means of salvation.

Secondly. It is made effectual to the salvation of those that believe, by the power of God.

First. We need not be ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the only means of salvation. The Gospel is the remedy for man's misery. It has healing under its wings. Its healing qualities are manifest, it brings with it pardon and peace, grace and glory. Look upon yourself. What are you? Are you not a man of sorrows? does not disappointment come to you with every hour? are you not complaining of bodily infirmity? is not the grave opening its mouth to receive you, and moulder you into your original dust? And are you not a sinner too as well as a mortal man, and have you no apprehensions from that side? if you fear not God's present judgments, have you no dread of his future? have you no shrinking at the thought of a judgment* 2 Cor. x. 3.

day and an eternal world? Now where will you fix your foot? Alas! you can turn no whither but to the Gospel. And does that make ample provision for all your complaints? It does; it proclaims to you free pardon, it promises you the communications of divine grace and love, it discovers to you another life, and therein a body no more capable of pain, sickness, or corruption, a soul purged from sin, and in both a happy eternity with God in a new heaven and a new earth. It presents all these glorious things to us as unquestionably certain, being procured by the transactions of the Son of God, according to the purpose of the covenant of grace, devised and determined before the worlds were made. I beseech you, my dear friends, is this a thing for a man to be ashamed of? Does it become a sinful creature, for whose sake the eternal God has prepared it, to be ashamed of such a work of God as this? Angels ushered Jesus into the world with songs of triumph, and shall we be ashamed of him? ashamed to own him who cometh to us, bringing salvation so great, so full, so eternal? Shall we be ashamed of his very name, ashamed to be thought his disciples? through shame shall we betray his interests, and shun any for belonging to him? What is there any other Saviour? is the great God our Saviour one to be ashamed of? or is the salvation he proposes to us such as may justly be treated with ridicule by a lost world, or which we should forbear to own, to practise, to recommend and encourage, because sinful men are so obstinate that they will not receive it? Did our Apostle thus regard it? Who can express the glorying of his heart in a Gospel, which, through the merits of his honoured Master, was the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth? He confessed it, lived it, carried it from kingdom to kingdom in the face of every persecution which men or devils could raise against him; he was the friend, the father, of all that embraced it. He was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. It was the Gospel, glad tidings of salvation; it was the Gospel of Jesus his adored Lord and God: he could not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

But, Secondly.-We need not be ashamed of the Gospel, because it is made effectual by the power of God to the salvation of those that believe. Sufficient as the Gospel is to salvation in itself, it is not effectually salvation to any soul to whom