no-body can understand; but that God had entrusted them with his Purposes and Intentions in the Salvation of Mankind, which they, like good Stewards, were to dispense. to the whole Family, by declaring and revealing the whole Will of God.

The fame Apostle fays, Chap. ii. 7. We Speak the Wisdom of God in a Mystery; and in the next Words explains what he means by Mystery, even the hidden Wisdom which God ordained before the World to our Glory: And in the tenth Verfe he tells us, this is no longer hidden, but the Mystery is laid open; God having revealed it unto us by his Spirit. In the fame Sense we read of the Myftery of Faith: Where we are not to understand the Apostle to mean incomprehenfible Articles of Faith, but the Revelations of God's Purposes and Defigns, which through Faith we receive, and are therefore styled the Mysteries of Faith.

In this Senfe the Gofpel is full of Myfteries, as containing the fecret Purposes of God's hidden Wifdom in the Redemption of the World, which were made manifest by Christ Jefus, who brought Life and Immortality to Light. Against this Gospel Sense of Mystery the common Objections have no Force; since Mysteries here are not understood to be fuch Things

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Things as Reason cannot receive, but such Things as proceed from the hidden Wisdom of God, and are made manifest in the Gospel of Chrift.

Let us then, in the fecond Place, proceed to fhew, That the Notion of Mysteries, against which the Objection lies, does not belong to the Gospel, The Objection represents a Mystery as a Thing inconceivable, and altogether irreconcileable to human Reafon. But fuch Mysteries there are none in the Gofpel of Chrift, If Men, learned or unlearned, have run themselves into Contradictions by endeavouring to explain the Mysteries of God farther than he has explained them, be that to themfelves: Let not the Gospel be charged with their Errors and Mistakes. Nothing indeed has proved more fatal to Religion, than the vain Attempts of Men to dive into the unrevealed Myfteries of God, and to account for, upon Principles of human Reason, the Things which proceed from the hidden Wisdom of God. All the fecret Purposes of Providence are, in the Sense of the Scripture, Mysteries; as likewife all Knowledge which God has not revealed. Of fuch Myfteries are there many: But then they concern not us to inquire after; if they did, God would reveal them

them to us. God has declared to us, That he has an only-begotten Son, and that he was the Person who came down from Heaven for our Deliverance: That he has an holy Spirit, who fhall fanctify our Hearts, and be affifting to us in working out our Salvation. This, and agreeable to this, is the Scripture Doctrine: And a Man would be put to it to fix any Abfurdity, or so much as feeming Contradiction, upon this Doctrine, or any thing faid concerning it in Scripture, Concerning these Perfons there are indeed exceeding great Mysteries, which are not revealed: God has not told us, or enabled us to conceive, how his Son and his Spirit dwell in him, or how they came from him. These therefore are properly Mysteries, which are hidden in the fecret Wisdom of God, and which we are no-where called upon to inquire after. It is eafy, I think, to take God's Word, that he has a Son and a Spirit, who dwell with him and in him. from all Eternity; a Son who came to our Affiftance, a Spirit who is ever with us to guide us into Truth: Thefe Things, I say, are easy to be believed, without entering into the Difficulties arifing from natural and philofophical Inquiries, which the Scripture nowhere encourages us to feek after: And, as

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long as Men keep clofe to the Rule and Doctrine of Scripture, they will find no Cause to enter into the great Complaints raised against Mysteries. The Scripture has revealed indeed wonderful Things to us, and for the Truth of them has given us as wonderful Evidence; fo that they are well qualified to be the Objects of our Faith: For fuch God defigned them, and not for the Exercife of our Vanity and Curiofity, or, as you call it, of our Reafon. If it is not reasonable to believe God upon the Gospel Evidence, there is an End of all Mysteries; but, if it is reasonable, there must be an End of all farther Inquiries: And I think common Senfe will teach us not to call God to Account, or pretend to enter into the Reafon of his Doings.

DISCOURSE

For, after that, in the Wisdom of God, the World by Wisdom knew not God, it pleafed God by the Foolishness of Preaching to fave them that believe.

N the Wisdom of God, the World by Wifdom knew not God. There is fome Difficulty in afcertaining **the precife Meaning of the first Words; In the Wisdom of God. Some understand the Meaning to be, That, fince the World, in the Wisdom of God, i. e. by contemplating the Wisdom of God in the great Works of the Creation, had not by Wisdom, i. e. by the Exercise of their Reason, arrived

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