as long as Men keep close 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 designed them, and not for the Exercise 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 inte the Reason of his Doings.

DISCOURSE

DISCOURSE IV.

PART I.

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I COR. i. 21.

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 Wisdom knew not God. There is fome Difficulty in ascertaining

9 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

to

to the true Knowledge of God, it pleased God to take another Mtehod, 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 Apoftle 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 feem ftrange, that the Preaching of the Gospel fhould by an Apostle of Chrift 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 Wifdom 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 Philosophy had fo poffeffed the polite

Parts of the Heathen World, that they could not fubmit 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, Chrift fent him to preach the Gospel, not with the Wisdom of Words. The Wisdom of the World, thus difcarded, took its Revenge of the Gospel, and called it the Foolishness of Preaching. Be it fo, fays the Apoftle; 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 wiser 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 fo efteemed 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:

History: 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 superftitious Rites were, which had fpread themselves over the Heathen World. We can scarcely conceive what fhould move Men to confecrate Birds and Beafts, Stocks and Stones, and to fall down and worship them. But, these Follies being once introduced, and propagated from Father to Son, it is easy 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 fomething wiser than the reft, and faw perhaps many and great Abfurdities in the common Practice: And, though there did appear in