3. I am not ashamed to preach it to others as a minister, that is, to invite others to believe it. It is a communicable good, and I am sent to diffuse it, nor am I ashamed of my commission. See 2 Tim. i. 12, 13. _Our Lord Jesus Christ has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light by the gospel_, and has appointed me a preacher, and an apostle to the gentiles: I preach the gospel, and _am not ashamed_, though I have suffered for it. I venture my soul upon it unto the last great day, and I bid thee, Timothy, as a preacher unto others, _to hold fast the same form of sound words which thou hast learned of me_. I long to teach the whole world this faith and this doctrine, therefore _I am a debtor to the Greeks and barbarians_; I would make others partakers of the same hope. _Would to God, that not only thou, Agrippa, but all those that hear me, were not only almost, but altogether such as I am, except only these bonds, these sufferings_ which I endure for Christ’s sake; Acts xxvi. 22. 4. I am not ashamed to contend for it as _a good soldier of Christ_; to defend it when it is attacked, and to vindicate the cause of my Lord and Master. Where it is assaulted I endeavour to secure it, though with many reproaches from the carnal prejudices of mankind. I oppose them all; for they oppose my Saviour and his cross, and I build my everlasting hopes there. _I am set for the defence of the gospel of Christ_; Phil. i. 17. and I will _contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints_; Jude ver. 3. And he gave us an instance of it, that when Peter, who was an apostle, seemed to diminish some of the glory and the liberty of the gospel, he _withstood him to the face_; Gal. ii. 11. “There shall no man silence me, or stop my mouth, when I am preaching a crucified Saviour, and when I express my faith in the liberty and latitude of the gospel of Christ. For if I durst withstand an apostle under his criminal concealments, and in his diminution of the honour of this doctrine, surely I dare oppose all the world besides.” 5. _Lastly_, I am not ashamed to suffer and die for it as a martyr. Load me with reproaches, ye Jews, my countrymen, and load me with chains, ye magistrates of Rome; of none of these am I ashamed or afraid, but with all boldness I am always ready that Christ should be magnified in my life, or my death; Phil. i. 14, 20. And as for my friends that are full of sorrow lest Paul should be sacrificed for the faith of Christ. What mourn ye, and break my heart for? _I am not only ready to be bound, but to die for the sake of Christ. I count nothing dear to me, no nor my life precious to myself, that I may finish with joy the course of my ministry of this gospel, that I may testify the grace of my God_; Acts xx. 24. and xxi. 13.