and this reasoning the Apostle applies to the case before us: however the Jews or however the Greeks conceived of the crucified Jesus, yet to every true believer he is the mighty power of God unto salvation, because God ordained him to be so; and this gives full efficacy to his Cross, however contemptible and unfit for the purpose it may seem to be. If we would judge truly, the more simple and plain the methods of Providence are, the more do they speak his power; as when he said, Let there be light, and there was light: so when our Lord said, I will, be thou clean, and the person was cleansed, his divinity shone forth more bright than if he had been assisted by all the powers above. And the same may be said respecting the redemption of the world committed to Jesus, a man of sorrow and affliction, but endued with such mighty powers.

In the next place it is considered, with respect to men, whether the advantages would have been greater, had Christ appeared in greater splendor and with more visible power. One thing is certain, that the majesty of God is not to be approached by human eyes; therefore when it descends to treat with men, it must be veiled under such representations as they can bear: but, it may be said, is there no medium between his immediate presence, and so vile a state both of life and death? No doubt there are many degrees of visible glory, in any of which Christ might have appeared; but none in which he could have come with greater advantage to religion: this shown to be the case. But, it may be said, though he came not with worldly state and temporal dominion, he might at least have exhibited some visible manifestation of his divine authority in answer to this, his miraculous works are enumerated, than which higher signs of a divine commission cannot be required: under all the meanness of his appearance therefore, the evidence of his divine authority is the same as it would have been had he come in the greatest pomp and power. To us, who are removed at a distance from the scene of action, the evidence is much greater. Had he come in surprising glory, we might have suspected the relations of men who saw and heard every thing while their faculties were lost in astonishment but now we have the evidence of those who lived with him familiarly, and saw his mighty works without astonishment, being reconciled to them by daily use, and the long-experienced gentleness and love of their master: from his poverty and meanness therefore arises the stability of our faith, which standeth not in words or works of man's wisdom or power, but in the power and wisdom of him who knows how to produce strength out of weakness.

PART II.

From the offence taken at the mean condition of our Lord, the cross became to the Jews a stumbling-block: it became also foolishness to the Greeks; for they sought after wisdom; and not finding that wisdom which they sought after in the gospel, it was esteemed by them as foolishness. The nature of God, the manner of the soul's

existence, the nature of rewards and punishments in a future life, are not philosophically explained in the gospel: yet it is said by someWho would not have expected from a person sent from God, to have had all difficulties solved which affect the belief and practice of religion? As it is, we are taught only the plain doctrines of morality, and are bid to take his word for the rest. To clear up this great and unreasonable offence against the gospel, three subjects of consideration are proposed. First; This objection does not lie against the gospel of Christ; but, if there be any force in it, it strikes at the wisdom and goodness of God in the creation. As long as men keep to the plain simple points in which religion is concerned, there is no danger of their splitting on these insuperable difficulties: if they seek after God, the whole creation will lead them to him: if they search after the immortality of the soul and the certainty of future retribution, these truths will be suggested to them by their natural sense of good and evil, and their notions of God's wisdom and justice and goodness, compared with the present unequal distribution of rewards and punishments: but if they are not content with knowing that God is, without knowing what he is; or if, not satisfied with the moral certainty of a future state, they wish to look into the texture of the soul, it is no wonder if they make shipwreck both of their reason and their faith at once; for this knowlege is too high for us; nor has God given us faculties to comprehend such mysteries of nature; not even are the seeds of such knowlege implanted in us, and therefore no cultivation can ever produce it. This being the condition of men, it had been to little purpose, if our Lord had attempted to let them into those great secrets. His business was to instruct them in the ways of virtue, awaken them to a sense of goodness, and show them the way to happiness, by setting before them the precepts of God and nature in their true uncorrupted purity; and this he has done, even by the confession of his greatest enemies. It is the great business of a teacher to speak to the sense and understanding of the people; otherwise his words are mere air and sound; and therefore whatever wisdom and knowlege were in our blessed Saviour, it is folly to expect from him any greater degrees of either than we can comprehend: instead of improving the nature of man, he must have destroyed it, and re-created him, to have made him capable of a clear insight into all the mysteries which the curious seem desirous of knowing. If more be required on this head, the cause must be pleaded with God, and not with Christ; we must inquire of God why he made us no wiser. And, it may be said, would it not have been better, if he had done so? To this it may be answered; that I would rather be an angel than a man; but I know of no right I had to be either; and that I am either, is owing purely to the goodness of my Creator. Had God given us only the faculties of men, and required of us the service of angels, then indeed we might have complained with some justice. Our present faculties, rightly applied, will lead us to a knowlege of God's being and excellency, and will instruct us in what our reasonable service to him consists: when we know that there is an all-sufficient being, and that it is our duty to serve him, to suspend

our duty because we cannot comprehend his nature and manner of existence, is as unreasonable as it would be for a merchant not to trade to the Indies, until he can account to himself for the nature of all the surprising objects of those wealthy regions. God has given us knowlege enough for the foundation of our duty; and if we use the light we have, we shall be happy: the great mistake is, that men suppose they should have better evidence for the things of another world, could they overcome these difficulties which cross them in a search after nature: and this would be an advantage to religion, if it were so; but that it is not, appears from the following considerations; for, Secondly, The difficulties which arise in considering the natural properties of things, affect not the certainty and reality of their existence: if they did, we could be certain of the real existence of no one thing: there cannot be two more distinct inquiries, than when we examine whether a thing really is, and when we examine what it is; these things do not at all depend one on the other as we can imagine the properties of some things, without reflecting whether there

ever

were such things or no, (as for instance, an exact circle or square,) so we can examine and come to the certainty of the existence of things without knowing, or attempting to know, their properties; for the peasant knows there is a sun and moon as surely as the astronomer. Nor is this true only in things that are objects of sense; but also in those, the existence of which we collect from reason. From visible effects to invisible causes the argument is conclusive; though in many cases it extends only to the reality of the cause, and does not in the least lead to the knowlege of its nature: thus when we see distempers cured by plants or drugs, we are sure that some virtue is in them, on which the effect depends, though what, we seldom or never can tell.

Now, in the case before us, what sort of knowlege is necessary to support religion in the world? If we are sure there is a God who will judge the world, is not that a sufficient foundation for holiness? if such an event will certainly take place, it concerns not us to know how. Since then our Saviour has given us the best evidence of the certainty of a future state and of the soul's existence after death, it is impertinent and unphilosophical to confront it with difficulties arising from our conceptions as to the nature and manner of these things: it is in truth to set up ignorance against knowlege.

Since, then, religion depends on the certainty and reality of these and other like articles, and not in the least on a knowlege of their nature or philosophical account of them, it had been absurd in our Saviour, who was a preacher of religion only, to have entered into those difficulties which did not belong to his province; and it is ridiculous in us to expect the solution of them in the gospel, when, if solved, they would not serve any one point in which the gospel is concerned. It may, however, be said all this is true, where the existence of things is out of doubt; but when this is doubtful, these seeming contradictions, which arise in considering the nature of things, shake greatly the presumption of their existence. In the third place, therefore, it is shown that the gospel has given us the best evidence

of our own immortality and a future state, that can be conceived or desired. Two things on which our resurrection to life depends; as we learn from our Saviour's answer to the Sadducees-ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. We can desire to know nothing more than that he can raise us, and that he will: the first is to be learnt from our natural notions of God, the second from his declared will, i. e. the holy Scriptures: as to the power of God, it cannot be brought into question without throwing off all pretence to natural religion; it remains therefore to inquire after his will: now we have our Saviour's promise for our resurrection often repeated : he also raised persons from the dead, and he raised himself; he therefore has the power: take both propositions then together, and they will amount to this, that he who has the power of raising the dead has promised to raise us. God, we know, cannot lie, and therefore must ratify every word which he spoke by his holy child Jesus; and hence arises a security which no doubts can shake. As to difficulties in nature and philosophy, he answered them when he himself rose from the grave.

PART III.

The prejudices which men conceive against the gospel vary according to the views under which they consider it: as some take offence at the gospel for not clearing up the doubts and difficulties which religion contained before, so others take offence at the new doctrines introduced by it: this attached itself even to many of Christ's disciples: what purpose of religion or morality, it is said, can be served by our receiving articles of faith which we cannot understand? This charge, if it were as true as it is heavy, might possibly shake the foundations of the gospel: but to set the matter in a clear light, we must consider the different notions of the word mystery, as used in the gospel, and as in common use amongst men at this time: hence it will appear, I. That the objection does not reach the gospel sense of the word, and cannot affect its mysteries: II. That the use and sense of the word which is liable to this objection, does not belong to the gospel; as it does not contain any such mysteries as may justify the complaint.

First, then, The whole design of the gospel in the salvation of mankind, is styled a mystery, because it was kept secret since the world began, in allusion to this time of secresy and silence; but on the revelation of it by Jesus Christ it is no longer looked on as such, but as the manifestation of God's will and goodness to men; see Rom. xvi. 26. the opposition here is between mystery and revelation; in this sense therefore there can lie no objection against the gospel. As the gospel itself is in this sense styled a mystery, so also are the several parts of it: 1 show you a mystery, says St. Paul, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Other instances of the same kind enumerated. Against this gospel-sense of mystery the common objections have no place. It is therefore, in the second

place, shown that the notion of mysteries, against which the objection lies, does not belong to the gospel. It represents a mystery as a thing inconceivable, and altogether irreconcilable to human reason: but such mysteries are not in the gospel of Christ: men may have run into contradictions by endeavoring to explain the mysteries of God farther than he has explained them; but let not the gospel be charged with their errors: nothing is more fatal to religion than attempts to explain and account for the hidden wisdom of God on principles of human reason. Concerning the persons of the Godhead there are indeed great mysteries, which are not revealed: God has not told us how his Son and his Spirit dwell in him, or how they came from him : these therefore are properly mysteries, hidden in his secret wisdom, and which we are no where called on to inquire into: we might readily take God's word for them, without entering into natural and philosophical inquiries; especially as they are well qualified to be objects of faith. Common sense might teach us not to call God to account, or pretend to enter into the reason of his doings.

DISCOURSE IV.

I CORINTHIANS, CHAP. I. VERSE 21.

For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

PART I.

THE expression, in the wisdom of God, considered. Two main assertions in the text:-I. That the world by wisdom knew not God: II. That it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save believers. The meaning of the term foolishness of preaching explained: adopted by the Apostle as having been used by the ancient philosophers in derision of the gospel: he calls on them in their own language to compare their boasted wisdom with this foolishness of preaching, and to judge by the effects. It is hard to account for the great corruption of religion, and the absurd superstitious rites that prevailed in the world; but being once introduced and propagated, it is easy to account for the difficulty of removing them. The corruption of the world was so general, that those who were most endowed with wisdom were unable to extricate themselves or others from the prevailing superstition and idolatry: hence the truth of the first proposition, that the world by wisdom knew not God.' With regard to the second proposition, as far as true notions of God and religion go, the truth of it will be admitted: even the enemies of revelation, in spite of themselves, bear witness in some measure to this truth: they now see clearly the great truths of reli