3. Make not the lesser circumstances and appendages of your religion the matter of loud contest, and a party-strife. We are called to _contend earnestly for the_ great and necessary doctrines of _faith_, which were once delivered to the saints: But we are commanded also to receive those that are weak in the faith, without involving them _in doubtful disputations_ about matters of less moment. Give no occasion to the infidel to blaspheme the gospel by your factions and quarrels, and the rage of a bitter and unsanctified zeal. Oh that the time were come, when _the wolf and lamb shall lie down together, and there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain_! But surely, it is very hard if the lambs themselves, who belong to the flock of Christ, cannot live without hurting and destroying one another; that christians cannot live without exposing their divine and heavenly religion to the blasphemies of sinful men. Happy were the christian world, if we could all behave ourselves so as never to give occasion to the adversary to reproach the professors of the christian faith, nor throw shame and dishonour upon the gospel of Christ! May the blessed Spirit of God teach us this lesson effectually, and let it be copied out in our lives daily, till we arrive at the regions of perfect holiness and love! _Amen._ SERMON XVII. _A Rational Defence of the Gospel: Or, Courage in Professing Christianity._ ROM. i. 16.——I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. THE THIRD PART. Though the passion of shame has something in it that sinks our nature, and enfeebles our spirits, yet it is a very becoming passion, where sin is the object of it; and indeed it was wisely ordained by our Creator to be a guardian to those small remains of natural virtue that abide in us since the fall. We find the first young sinners clothed with shame in the garden of Eden at the presence of God. But the growing corruption of our natures, the subtilty of Satan, and the temptations of this world have joined together to take this piece of artillery out of the hands of virtue, and make use of it in their attacks upon religion and goodness. We ought to be ashamed indeed of nothing but our sin, our folly, and our wretchedness; but we have been too ready to be ashamed, even of the grace of God, and the methods of our recovery from folly, wretchedness, and sin. The gospel itself, _the glorious gospel_, has been made a matter of reproach among men, and its professors have been sometimes tempted to be ashamed of it.