eft the Cross of Chrift should have been of none Effect: 18 For the Preaching of perish, Foolishness: But the Cross is to them that unto us which are faved, it is the Power of GOD. 221 3. have been the natural Confequence, when Men Sect. I might well be cautious on this Head; for 18. the Doctrine of the Crofs is indeed Folly, with Refpect to the Judgment of them that are perishing; to wretched Creatures, who are in the Way to be for ever undone. They, in that fatal Madness, which leads them to fpeedy Ruin, think it a ridiculous and mean Thing, to expect Salvation from one, who seemed unable to fave himfelf; and Glory from one that expired in Ignominy. But to us, who are faved from the Contagion of fo wicked an Age, and are in the Way to everlasting Salvation, it is a moft illuftrious Display of the Power of GOD, to the nobleft Purposes our Minds can conceive.. For it is written, and the Words are remarkably applicable to this great Event, (Ifai. xxix. 14.) I will deftroy the Wisdom of the Wife, and abolish the Sagacity of the Prudent; thus hath GOD, by this Difpenfation, poured Confufion on human Wit 20 Where is the Wife? and Learning, Eloquence and Philofophy: So 200 that, in Allufion to other Words of the fame Prophet, we may fay (c), (Ifai. xxxiii. 18.) Where [is] the celebrated Sage, whofe wife Counsel and penetrating 19 For it is written, I will deftroy the Wisdom of the Wife, and will bring to nothing the Understanding of the Prudent. Where of GOD for the Sons of Men be indeed true, it is undoubtedly a Truth of the higheft Importance, and it might reasonably be expected, that a Perfon, who had been inftructed in it by fuch extraordinary Methods, fhould appear to lay the main Strefs of his Preaching upon it. The Defign of this wonderful Difpenfation might therefore have been in a great Mea fure fruftrated, if it had been the Care of the firft Preachers of it, and particularly of Paul, to ftudy a vain Parade of Words, and to fet off their Difcourfes with thofe glittering Ornaments which the Grecian Orators fo often fought, and which the Corinthians were fo ready to affect. But amidst all the beautiful Simplicity, which a deep Conviction of the Gospel. tended to produce, there was Room left for the most manly and noble Kind of Eloquence; which therefore the Chriftian Preacher fhould labour to make habitual to him, and of which this Apoftle himself is a moft illuftrious Example. (c) In Allufion to other Words of the fame Prophet we may say.] I think it would be a ve ry unnecessary Labour, to endeavour to prove that thefe Words are an exact Tranflation of the Paffage referred to; or to fhew that Paffage to be a Prophecy of the Succefs of the Gospel. The 19 222 Sect. 3. ■ Cor. L. 20. Where is the Scribe? Where is the Difputer of made foolish the Wildom of this World. this World? Hath not GoD For GOD bath made the Wisdom of this World foolish, penetrating Genius, have been held in greatest Efteem? Where the learned Scribe? Where the oftentatious Difputer of this World (d), who hath been moft admired for the Subtilty of his Reasoning, and Accuracy of his Distinctions? As God of Old delivered his People, in Spite of all the proud Preparations, and infolent Boastings, of the Affyrians, not by their own Counfels or Arms, but by his Almighty Power; fo doth he now Conduct his grand Defign for the immortal Happiness of his Chofen. Look upon the Dif-boyuk que allde penfation of the Gospel as now administered, and fay, bath not GOD made the Wisdom of this World appear to be foolish, and vain, when the higheft Refults of it are compared with those great Effects which he knows how to produce without it, and even in Oppofition to it all. 21 For it is indeed fo: Since in the Wisdom of GOD, in the Midft of the moft ftupendous Difplays World by Wisdom' knew of the Divine Wisdom, with which they were always furrounded, the World, by all the Improvements of its boasted Wisdom, knew not the living and true GOD, but run into the wildeft and moft abfurd Sentiments that can be imagined concerning Deity; (fome of them abfolutely de nying 21 For after that, in the Wisdom of God, the The Context in Ifaiah xxxiii. refers to the Deliverance of Judea from Sennacherib; and the 18th Verfe defcribes the Jews as reviewing and meditating on the Terror, into which they had been thrown; and then crying out in a noble Exultation over all the baffled Schemes of the Enemy; Where is the Scribe, that muftered the Forces? Where the Receiver, or Paymafter, who diftributed Money or Stores among them? Where the Engineer, that counted the Towers, to determine where the Attack might moft conveniently be made? In a bold and beautiful Allufion to, and Imitation of thefe Words, tho' with very different Ideas, the Apoftle proceeds, in the animated Claufe that follows, to triumph-over the Oppofitions of human Science in its various Forms, then levelled againft GOD's victorious Gospel (d) Sage, Scribe, Difputer.] Notwithstanding all the learned Pains, which Dr. Fuller, in his Mifcellanies, (Lib. III. Cap. 7.) or Godwin, in his Hebrew Antiquities, (Lib. II. Cap. 6.) have taken to prove, that thefe three Words refer to three Orders of learned Men among the Jews, the natural Philofopher, and the Literal, and the Allegorical Interpreter of Scripture; I rather think the Apostle meant to include Perfons moft eminent for their Learning and Sagacity, whether among Jews, or Gentiles. The Sages of the latter, and Scribes of the former, are well known; and the Difputer of the Age may include fuch of both, as, proud of their natural Sagacity, were fond of engaging in Controverfies, and fancied they could confute every Adverfary. If, as Mr. Locke fuppofes, the chief Leader of the Faction against St. Paul, (whom that learned and ingenious Writer ftiles the falfe Apofile,) called himself a Scribe, there will be a peculiar Propriety in the Ufe of the Word here; but without that Suppofition, it might eafily be understood by the Corinthians, who had fo confiderable a Synagogue of Jews among them. (e) The lieve, I 223 olleby the preaching of Salvation throa Christ crucified ; not Gee, it pleafed GOD nying it, and others reprefenting it under the Sect. 3. by the Foolishness of Preaching to fave them that be- moft monftrous Notions and Forms;) when this fay was generally the Cafe, it pleafed GOD, by 1 Cor. I. 25. that which they have impioufly ridiculed as the moft egregious Folly of Preaching, by Preaching, which is indeed deftitute of all the Wisdom of which they boaft, to fave Multitudes: And thofe, not fuch as are the moft artful Cavillers, or the moft fagacious Reafoners; but those that with honeft Simplicity and Plainnefs of Heart, believe what is credibly teftified to them, and taught by a fuperior Authority. 22 For the Jews require a Sign, and the Greeks feek after Wisdom: 23 But we preach Chrift crucified, unto the Jews a Stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks Foolishness ; For whereas the Jews demand a Sign (e) from 22 (e) The Jews demand a Sign, &c.] When we confider how many Miracles were continually wrought by, and upon the first Preachers and Converts of Chriftianity; this may feem an aftonishing Demand; but from a memorable Paffage in Jofephus, in which he speaks of an Impoftor, promifing his Followers to fhew them a Sign of their being fet at Liberty from the Roman Yoke, compared with their requiring from Chrift, amidst the full Torrent of his Miracles, a Sign from Heaven; I am led to conclude, that the Senfe given in the Paraphrafe is the genuine Interpretation of this much controverted Paffage. (f) To the Jews indeed a Stumbling-block.] 'Tis well known, that nothing expofed Chriftianity more to the Contempt of the Jews, than the Doctrine of the Cross; they therefore called Chrift, in Derifion, Tolvi, the Man that was hanged, that is, on the Cross; and Chriftians, y Abde Tolui, the Difciples of the crucified Malefactor; and by a Paranomafia, or malignant playing on the Word, they called suayyor, Aven Gelon, a Revelation of Vanity. See Leigh's Critica Sacra in Loc. 1 (g) To the Greeks Foolifbnefs.] It is well known, how profanely Lucian infults the Chrif tians, on worshipping a crucified Impoftor; and many of the Fathers fpeak of the fame Reproach. Archbishop Tillotson appears to have given Credit to the Charge brought against the Jefuits, who, to avoid the like Offence of the Chinese, denied that Chrift was crucified and reprefented it, as an Invention of the Jews to afperfe Chriftianity. Tillotson's Works, Vol. iii. pag. 284. (b) The Which, tho' defpifed, is the Power of GOD to them who are called: hardly worth the lealt Degree of Notice: But unto them which 24. But to those who are by Divine Grace effectually called, are called, both Jews and Greeks, Chrift the Power of GOD, and the Wisdom of GoD 25 Because the Foolish nefs of GOD is wifer than GOD is ftronger than Men. Men; and the Weakness of 1 Cor. 1. 24. both Jews and Greeks, Chrift, amidst all the Difhonours of his Crofs, is known and acknowledged, as the Power of GOD, and the Wisdom of GOD; to the converted Jews his Miffion is confirmed by miraculous Evidence, and the Accomplishment of Prophecies, far more important than any Event which their carnal Brethren expect; and the believing Gentile finds it infinitely fuller of Divine Wisdom and Goodness to a loft World, than any Syftem of Philofophy, that 25 was ever invented. And well may they thus judge, because what the World profanely cenfures as a Folly moft unworthy of GOD (b), is, and in its Effects appears to be, incomparably wifer, than all the Projects which the Wit of Men can devife; and what it impioufly infults, as the one Weakness of Chriftian Teachers, which it charges them with falfely afcribing to GOD, being really his own Work, will be found to be stronger than all the Efforts which Men can make, either to reform the World any other Way, or to obftruct the Prevalency and Succefs of this: And this is the neceffary Confequence of its being indeed Divine. And for the farther Illuftration of this Thought, let me call you to bebold, and seriously ling, Brethren, how that to contemplate, your Calling (i), Brethren; confider the State of your Fellow-Chriftians in general, and even of thofe, who are employed as Minifters of the Gofpel, and you will perceive, [there are] not many wife according to the Flefb, according to thefe Maxims, which a fenfual World governs itself by, in its Principles of fecu 26 lar 26 For ye fee your Cal not many wife Men after the Flesh, (b) The Folly of GOD, &c.] As it is abfolutely impoffible, that there fhould be either Folly or Weakness in GOD, fo it is certain, that the World did not in general believe that there was; and confequently thefe ftrong Phrafes, muft be ufed in a very peculiar Senfe, and muft mean that Scheme, which was really his, tho the World, for Want of understanding it, reprefented it as Weakness and Folly unworthy of GOD. (i) Your Calling.] L'Enfant renders it, thofe among you, who are called; which, with many other Paffages of this Verfion, retains the Senfe, but departs from the Exactnefs of St. Paul's Expreffion. (k) Things But not many Mighty, or Noble, or Wife are called; 27 But God hath chofen the foolish Things of the Wife; and GOD hath chofen the weak Things of the World to confound the Things which are mighty; the World, to confound 4 225 I Cor. I. 27. Flesh, not many Mighty, lar Policy, there are not many mighty Heroes, Sect 3. not many Noble are called. renowned for their martial Courage, there are not many of noble Birth and illuftrious Rank among Men, to be found on their List. But GOD, bath chofen thole, that are reputed the foolish Things of the World, that he may fhame the wife Men, of whom it is moft ready to boast; and the weak Things of the World, who pretend to no extraordinary Strength or Valour, hath GOD chofen, that he may, by their heroick Patience under the feverest Sufferings, Shame its mighty Things, which have never been able with all their boafted Fierceness to equal that meek Fortitude, with which we trace the Footsteps of the Lamb of GoD: And 28 ignoble Things of the World bath GOD chofen, that Things moft commonly and scornfully fet at nought (k) among Men; yea, and Things, which are not (1) in the leaft regarded, but overlooked, as if they had no Being, and were below Contempt itself, hath GoD chofen, that be may abolish and annihilate Things, that are in the highest Efteem, and make the moft illuftrious Figure among the Children of Men; That his great 29 28 And bafe Things of the World, and Things which are defpifed, hath GOD chofen, yea, and Things which are not, to bring to nought Things that are: 29 That no Flesh should glory in his Prefence. 30 But of him are ye in Christ Jefus, who of GOD is made unto us Wif. dom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption: For 30 End of humbling us might be more effectually (k) Things fet at nought.] Agreeable to this, the Danish Miffionaries tell us, that most of the Malabarian Converts were the pooreft of the People; the Poets and Wits, who valued themselves upon their Genius, Learning, and Politenefs, defpifing the Gospel, and doing their utmost to oppofe its Progrefs. See Nieuchamp's excellent History of this important Miffion. (1) Things, which are not.] Dr. Whitby fhews here, how well this reprefents the fupreme Contempt, in which the fews held the Gentiles. Compare Deut. xxxii. 21. Ifai. xl. 17. (m) Wifdem VOL. IV. Ff |