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A45354 A defence of revealed religion in six sermons upon Rom. I, 16 : wherein it is clearly and plainly shown that no man can possibly have any real ground or reason to be ashamed of Christianity / by Henry Hallywell. Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703? 1694 (1694) Wing H459; ESTC R26653 55,183 216

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A DEFENCE OF Revealed Religion IN Six SERMONS Upon ROM I. 16. Wherein it is clearly and plainly shown That no Man can possibly have any real Ground or Reason to be ashamed of Christianity By HENRY HALLYWELL Master of Arts and Vicar of Cowfold in Sussex LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1694. Imprimatur Decemb. 23. 1693. Ra. Barker To the Most Reverend Father in GOD JOHN Lord Archbishop of YORK AND Metropolitan of England May it please Your Grace TO permit these Sermons to go under the Protection of Your Great Name Books often receive a more favourable Acceptance upon the Account of the Worth and Merit of the Person they are addressed to But that is not my Design which if it were I could never have made a more agreeable choice of a Patron than Your Grace whose known Integrity and Learning and whose Noble and Generous Sentiments of Religion which you have studiously endeavoured to instill into others are enough to inspire the most sluggish Genius to attempt something that is not Common I am obliged in Justice and Gratitude to present Your Grace with something and this being the best I have if it may not merit Praise and Approbation yet at least I hope it may appear to Your Grace to be not altogether Contemptible And if some uncertain and wavering Sceptick shall by the reading of these Discourses reap any Benefit and Satisfaction I shall think my self to have obtained the chiefest end I aimed at For as I am sensible I cannot do all that Good that I would in that narrow Sphere of Action wherein I move so I had rather venture the various Censures of Men in the publishing my own Thoughts than not be aiding and assisting according to the utmost of my Ability to form in the Minds of others the truest Conceptions of that Religion by which the Christian World expects Immortal Blessedness I most humbly beg Your Grace's Pardon both for the boldness of my Address and for the Imperfections Your Grace will find in what I offer which I hope I shall the more easily obtain upon the score of the long Acquaintance I have had the Honour to have with Your Grace Now that GOD would long prosper Your Grace in Health and Happiness for the good of his Church is the earnest Prayer of MY LORD Your Grace's most Humble and Devoted Servant Henry Hallywell A DEFENCE OF Revealed Religion SERMON I. ROM I. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ For it is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek WE Live in an Age wherein Vice and Sin does infinitely abound and as if the Depravity of our Nature were not a sufficient Evil and too great a cause of Mens Sorrow and Shame they add to it and encrease it by despising scorning and trampling under Foot the great means of redressing all their Evils and doing themselves good The Atheist strives to undermine Religion by exposing it to the World as a ridiculous piece of Folly And this indeed is very agreeable and consentaneous to his own Principles for if there be no God there can be no Religion And as for the Prophane and Debauched Person though he be not arrived to so high a pitch of Wickedness as to say There is no God yet he wishes there were none and endeavours to discountenance Religion as a flat and dull thing unfit for a lively and brisk Spirit And he would have all the World to believe that Religion is only adapted to slavish Minds who are ignorant of the Liberty of their own Natures and do not know what a rare thing it is for a Man to enjoy all manner of sensual Pleasures to the full Some such Persons as these the Apostle had met withal who scorned the Preaching of the Cross of Christ as a weak and contemptible piece of Folly And they seem to upbraid him as if he had undertook to instruct the World in a thing that he was not able to make good For there seems to be implied an Objection made by some Persons something after this manner as if some one had said to the Apostle You have introduced a new Religion into the World and you seek to perswade Men to embrace it in By-corners and remote Parts of the Empire There you Preach it to a Company of poor silly and illiterate People and lead them away because they are easily deceived and know nothing But if this which you call the Gospel be a thing of such mighty concernment to the World and if it be a Doctrine so highly Rational as you pretend why do you not come and Preach it at Rome it self the Eye and Glory of the World where all sorts of wise Men on Earth are gathered together who are able to detect and discover the Vanity of that Religion you would fain disseminate and spread abroad This seems to have been objected to the Apostle to which he answers Ver. 15. So as much as in me is I am ready to Preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ As if he had said That Gospel or Religion which I declare is of such high Consequence to Mankind and of such an admirable Frame and Divine Contrivance that I am not ashamed of it wheresoever I come but am ready to Preach it at Rome it self and do tell you that it is not like an empty Piece of Jangling and vain Philosophy but the Power of God to the Salvation of the World and the most effectual Instrument to wind off the Souls of Men from their Slavery to Sin and Satan that ever was yet made known and therefore both Jew and Gentile are obliged to believe and embrace it From whence we may make this Observation That the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we call the Christian Religion and is contained in the Books of the New-Testament is of such a Nature that no Man need to be ashamed of the Profession of it For the Apostle tells us That it is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believes And elsewhere he declares the Gospel to be both the Power and the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 We Preach Christ Crucified that is the Gospel of Christ Crucified the Power of God it being so effectual to disengage Men from the Kingdom of Satan and the Wisdom of GOD in the fitness and suitableness of it for the obtaining that great End and Purpose Now surely he that looks upon Religion with a reasonable Eye as he ought to do can never think he has any cause to be ashamed of a thing that hath so much of God's Power and Wisdom conspicuous in it And for those that can so confidently deride and scoff at it they would do well to consider how far they are from good Manners and from that common Civility that even Nature it self