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.

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N the Wisdom of God, the World by Wisdom knew not God. There is fome Difficulty in ascertaining the precife Meaning of the first Words; In the Wisdom of God. Some understand the Meaning to be, That, since 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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to the true Knowledge of God, it pleased God to take another Method, and by the Foolishness of Preaching to fave them that believe. But, fince this Difficulty does not affect the main Affertions of the Apostle in the Text, I will not spend Time in inquiring what has been, or may be, faid upon this Point.

The main Affertions of the Apostle in the Text are two:

First, That the World by Wisdom knew not God.

Secondly, That it pleafed God by the Foolishness of Preaching to fave Believers.

The Language made use of here by St. Paul may want explaining; for it may seem strange, that the Preaching of the Gospel should by an Apostle of Christ be called the Foolishness of Preaching. But the Meaning and Language of St. Paul will be accounted for by confidering what led him to this kind of Expreffion.

The Doctrine of the Crofs, and of the Redemption of the World by the Death and Paffion of Chrift, was received by the great Pretenders to Wisdom and Reason with Scorn and Contempt: The Greeks, fays the Apostle, feek after Wisdom and Chrift crucified is to the Greeks Foolishness. The Pride of Learning and Philofophy had fo poffeffed the polite

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Parts of the Heathen World, that they could not submit to a Method of Salvation which was above the Reach of their Philosophy, and which refused to be tried by the Disputes and Subtilties of their Schools. The Apostle, Ver. 17, fays, Christ sent him to preach the Gofpel, not with the Wisdom of Words. The Wisdom of the World, thus difcarded, took its Revenge of the Gofpel, and called it the Foolishness of Preaching. Be it fo, fays the Apostle; yet by this Foolishness of Preaching God intends to fave them who believe: For this Method is of God, and not of Man; and the Foolishness of God is wifer than Men. You fee what led St. Paul to use this Expreffion, and to call the Preaching of the Gospel the Foolishness of Preaching. The Great and the Learned so esteemed it, and fo called it: The Apoftle speaks to them in their own Language, and calls upon them in the Text to compare their much-boasted Wisdom with this Foolishness of Preaching, and to judge of them by their Effects: The World by Wisdom knew not God; but the Foolishness of Preaching is Salvation to every Believer.

Whether this Charge of Ignorance imputed to the Gentile World be true, or no, is a Matter depending on the Evidence of History:

Hiftory: If it be not true, there can be no Difficulty in difproving it: The Time and Place, may be named, when and where the true Knowledge of God prevailed, and Religion in its Purity was profeffed by the People. But this has not been attempted, nor will it be, by any one who is acquainted with the History of the antient World..

It may be hard perhaps to account for the general Corruption of Religion which prevailed in the World; especially when we confider how abfolutely abfurd, and contrary to common Sense, many of the superstitious Rites were, which had fpread themselves over the Heathen World. We can scarcely conceive what should move Men to confecrate Birds and Beafts, Stocks and Stones, and to fall down and worship them. But, thefe Follies being once introduced, and propagated from Father to Son, it is eafy to account for the great Difficulty of removing them. Custom and Education, and the Reverence which Men naturally have for what they esteem to be Religion, were Foundations too ftrong to be removed by the Reasoning and Speculations of a few who were something wiser than the reft, and faw perhaps many and great Abfurdities in the common Practice: And, though there did appear in

the Heathen World fome fuch great and good Men, who were as Lights shining in a dark Place; yet was there not one found able to extricate himself from all the Superstition of his Country, much less to reduce the People to a Practice confonant to the pure Principles of Natural Religion. And it is an Obfervation true in itself, and of great Weight in this Cafe, That not one Country, nay not one City, ever embraced the Principles of pure Natural Religion upon the Strength of their own Reason, or upon Conviction from the Reason and Wisdom of others. And, fince the World continued under Idolatry for many Ages together before the Coming of Christ, notwithstanding that they had as much Senfe and Reason in those Days as we have in ours, what Pretence is there to imagine that they would not have continued in the fame State to this Day, if the Light of the Gospel had not appeared?

Whoever confiders this Matter seriously and fairly, cannot but be convinced of the Truth of the Apostle's Affertion, That by Wisdom the World knew not God.

As to the fecond Propofition, That it hath pleafed God by the Foolishness of Preaching to fave them that believe; as far as true Notions of God and Religion are neceffary Means

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