I have shewn, in the next place, what St. Paul meant, when he told the Romans he was not ashamed of this gospel: He was neither ashamed to believe it as a man, nor to profess it as a christian, nor to preach it to others as a minister, nor to defend it as a good soldier of Christ, nor to suffer and die for it as a martyr. The third thing which I proposed, was to make it appear, that all the occasions of shame, which men of infidelity pretend to raise from this gospel, may be answered upon the fair and just principles of reason and argument. The first sort of reproaches are those which are cast upon the doctrines of the gospel, and I hope I have rolled them away. I repeat no more of these things, but proceed to the next sort of occasions of shame, and these are such as are supposed to arise from the professors of this gospel; and I shall endeavour to shew you also Low they may be answered. They are chiefly these four. I. Some will say, “The professors of this gospel in the beginning were the weak, and foolish, and mean things of this world; but it was despised by the wise, it was scorned by the great and honourable, and persecuted by the mighty. Why should a Paul, a pharisee, a doctor of the law, become a follower of a carpenter’s Son, and associate with a parcel of fishermen? This is a scandal, and foolish indeed. _Who among the pharisees or rulers have believed on him_; John vii. 48.” This was the stumbling-block of the gospel in that age, and it is the stumbling-block at which many persons take offence in our age too. “It is the unthinking multitude, say they, the mere mob of mankind, that are led away with the noise of strange things and the gospel. And it is only those who have no relish of good sense that can dispense with mysteries. The poorer and weaker sort of men and women flock after your powerful preachers of the gospel, but wise men despise it.” I am very glad, my friends, if in your conversation you meet with no such persons that ridicule the gospel at this rate. But there are many in our age and nation arrived at this height of pride and contempt of the gospel. This objection may have more answers than one given to it; as _first_, it is a matter of unjust reproach, and it is false in fact; for all the professors of this gospel are not weak and unlearned. There have been in the very beginning of christianity some wise, some great persons, that have given testimony to this gospel by their believing it. St. Paul was a man of no weak reason, no mean understanding, no small learning, and yet he believes this gospel, and professes he is not ashamed of it.