Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one So the Lord fcattered them abroad from thence And the Lord faid unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's houfe, unto a land that And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; And I will blefs them that bless thee, and curse Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after ftrange For they got not the land in poffeffion by their own fword, neither did their own arm fave them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and SER- SERMON I 1 PET. iii. 15. Be ready always to give an answer to every man, that asketh you a reafon of the hope that is in you, with meekness and reverence. I T is the plain intention of the Apostle in the text, to exhort Chriftians of every degree, to furnish themselves with fuch a competent knowledge of the principles and evidences of the religion they profess, as to be always ready, always prepared, to ftand up in its defence and support; and to render, whenever they are called upon, a clear, just, and fatisfactory account of it: fuch an account as may convince any candid, unprejudiced inquirer, that their " "faith and VOL. 1. hope" B hope" are well grounded; have a folid foundation in truth and reason; and confequently, that they act a most rational part in believing and profeffing that religion, which conveys to them fuch affured hopes. But though the exhortation is addreffed to Chriftians in general, and requires no more than what Chriftians in general are able to perform; for the evidences of religion, and its leading principles, are in the main obvious to the moft common underftanding yet it must be owned, that feveral objections have been made to both; both to the proofs, and to the principles of religion; which require for their folution a much larger ftock of learning and knowledge, than 'falls to the fhare of its ordinary profeffors; and which therefore might be apt to weaken at leaft, if not to "overthrow the faith of fome," were they left, unaffifted, to defend themfelvés. a So read fome ancient Latin copies, and the Syriac verfion.. Comp. ch. i. 21. |