Things, being familiar to us, do not strike with Wonder and Admiration.

When Naaman the Syrian came to the Prophet of Ifrael to be cured of his Leprofy, Elifba fent a Meffenger unto him, faying, Go and wash in Jordan feven Times, and thy Flefh fhall come again unto thee, and thou shalt be clean. The haughty Syrian disdained the eafy Cure, and fcorned the Prophet: Is this your Man of God, and this his mighty Power to fend me to a pitiful River of Ifrael? Behold, fays he, I thought he will furely come out to me, and ftand and call on the Name of the Lord his God, and firike his Hand over the Place, and recover the Leper. Are not Abana and Pharphar, Rivers of Damafcus, better than all the Waters of Ifrael? may I not wash in them, and be clean? 'So be turned, and went away in a Rage. But his Servants, not a little wiser than their Mafter, thus reafon the Cafe with him: My Father, if the Prophet had bid thee do fome great Thing, wouldst thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he faith unto thee, Wash and be clean? Upon this gentle Rebuke his Stomach came down, and he condefcended to follow the Prophet's Direction; and his Flesh came again, like the Flesh of a young Child, and he was clean. Not H 2 unlike

unlike to Naaman's Folly is theirs, who take offence at the Poverty and Meannefs of the Author of our Redemption. His Sentiments and theirs agree: He expected to have seen fome furprizing Wonder wrought for his Cure; and, when he was bid only to wash, he thought there could be nothing of God in fo trifling a Remedy. And is not this their Senfe, who think that fo obfcure, fo mean a Person as Jefus could never be the Meffenger of God upon fo great an Errand as the Salvation of the World? who thus expoftulate, Why came he not in a Majesty fuitable to his Employment, and then we would have believed him; but how can we expect to be raised to the Glory of God by him who was himself the Scorn and Contempt of Men?

If we fearch this Prejudice to the Bottom, we shall find that it arifes from a falfe Conception of the Power and Majefty of God, as if the Succefs of his Purposes depended upon the vifible Fitnefs of the Inftruments he made choice of. With Men we know the Cafe is fo; they must use Means which they can judge to be adapted to the End they aim at, if they intend to profper in what they undertake: But with God it is otherwife. To ftop the Current even of the

smallest

smallest River, Banks must be raised, and
Sluices cut, when the Work is done by
Man: But in the Hand of God the Rod
of Mofes was more than fufficient to curb
the Rage of the Sea, and force it to yield
a Paffage to his People. The Foolishness of
God, fays the Apostle, is wiser than Men,
and the Weakness of God is stronger than Men :
Teaching us that we should not presume to
fit in Judgment upon the Methods of Pro-
vidence; fince, how foolish or how weak

foever they may feem to us, they will be
found in his Hand to be the wifeft and the
strongest. And this Reasoning the Apostle
applies to the Cafe now before us: The Cross
of Chrift was a Stumbling-block to the Jews,
and to the Greeks Foolishness; but unto all them
that are called, the Power of God, and the
Wisdom of God; because the Foolishness of God
is wifer than Men, and the Weakness of God
Stronger than Men. However the Jews, or
however the Greeks conceived of the crucified
Jefus, yet to every Believer he is the mighty
Power of God to Salvation, because God or-
dained him so to be; and this Ordmation gives
full Efficacy to the Cross of Christ, however
in itself contemptible, and to all human Ap-
pearance unfit for the Purpose. The Waters
of Jordan had no natural Efficacy to cleanse
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a Leper;

a Leper; in the Rod of Mofes there was no Power to divide the Sea: But, when ordained by God to thefe Purposes, the Sea fled back at the Touch of Mofes's Rod, and the Leprofy of Naaman was purged by the fo much despised Waters of Ifrael. If we would judge truly, the more fimple and plain the Methods of Providence are, the more do they speak the Power of the Almighty. When God faid, Let there be Light, and there was Light, his uncontrolable Power more evidently appeared, than if all the Angels of Heaven had been employed to produce it. When our Lord faid, I will be thou clean, and the Perfon was cleanfed, his Divinity fhone forth more brightly, than if he had commanded all the Powers above visibly to affist him. So likewife, when God committed the Redemption of the World to Jefus, a Man of Sorrow and Affliction, and of no Form or Comelinefs, and gave him the Power of doing fuch Works as never Man did, in confirmation of his Commiffion, he appeared as plainly in him, as if he had clothed him with visible Majesty and Power. If we confider him afflicted and tormented, and given up to a cruel Death, it proves indeed that he was weak and mortal; but ftill God is strong, and not the less able to establish

3.

establish the Word which he spoke by this weak, this mortal Man.

As to this Part of the Offence then, fo far as the Majefty and Power of God are concerned, it proceeds from very wrong Notions in both Cafes, and fuppofes that the Majefty of God wants the fame little Supports of outward Pomp and Grandeur as that of Men does, and that his Power depends upon the Fitness of inftrumental or material Caufes, as human Power plainly does; whereas the Majesty and Power of God are never more clearly feen, than when he makes choice of the weak Things of the World to confound the Things which are mighty.

Let us then in the next Place confider, with refpect to Men, whether the Advantages on their Side would have been greater, had Chrift appeared in greater Splendor and with more vifible Power and Authority.

How far the Imaginations of fome Men may rove upon fuch Inquiries as thefe, or what Degrees of Splendor and Glory they would judge fufficient for their Purpose, I cannot tell. This we are fure of, That the Majesty of the Almighty is not to be approached by human Eyes; that therefore, whenever it defcends to treat with Men, it must be veiled and obfcured under fuch Representations

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