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 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 cross, 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 so poffeffed the polite parts of the heathen world, that they could not fubmit to a method of falvation which was above the reach of their philofophy, and which refufed to be tried by the difputes and fubtilties of their fchools. The Apoftle, ver. 17, fays, Chrift fent him to preach the Gospel, not with the wisdom of words. The wifdom of the world, thus difcarded, took its revenge of the Gospel, 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 Gofpel the foolishness of preaching. The great and the learned fo efteemed it, and fo called it: the Apostle speaks to them in their own language, and calls upon them in the text

to compare their much-boafted wifdom 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 falvation 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 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 hiftory of the ancient 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 spread themfelves over the heathen world. We can fcarcely conceive what should move men to confecrate birds and beafts, stocks and ftones, and to fall down and worship them. But, these follies being once introduced, and propagated from father to fon, it is eafy to account for the great difficulty of removing them. Cuftom and education, and the reverence which men naturally have for what they efteem to be religion, were foundations too ftrong to be removed by the reasoning and fpeculations of a few who were fomething wifer than the reft, and faw perhaps many and great abfurdities in the common practice and, though there did appear in the hea

then world fome fuch great and good men, who were as lights fhining in a dark place; yet was there not one found able to extricate himself from all the fuperftition of his country, much lefs to reduce the people to a practice confonant to the pure principles of natural religion. And it is an observation true in itself, and of great weight in this case, that not one country, nay not one city, ever embraced the principles of pure natural religion upon the ftrength of their own reafon, or upon conviction from the reafon and wifdom of others. And, fince the world continued under idolatry for many ages together before the coming of Chrift, notwithstanding that they had as much fenfe and reafon in, those days as we have in ours, what pretence is there to imagine that they would not have continued in the same 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 second 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 of falvation, the truth of the affertion will be admitted.

The enemies of revelation will of themselves, and in fpite of themselves, bear witness fo far to this truth. They now fee clearly the great truths of religion; they can now demonftrate the being and attributes of God, and from the relation we bear to him deduce the duties owing to him, the worship,

and the purity of the worship, that is to be paid him. Are they wifer than all who lived before them? or do they owe this new degree of light and knowledge to fome advantage which others before them had not? They will hardly fay they are wifer than all who lived when learning and arts and fciences flourished in the Eaft, in Greece, and at Rome; and, fhould they fay it, it will be harder ftill to believe them and yet what one advantage have they above the others, this only excepted, that in their days the light of the Gospel has been fpread over the world?

But, however, this comparifon between the wife and learned of different ages will not determine the cafe before us; for religion is not made for scholars only the use of it is to govern and direct the world, and to influence the practice of mankind. And the great question lies between the religion of the world in general before the coming of Chrift, and fince; and the influence which religion in one ftate and the other naturally had, or may be fupposed to have had, by just consequence, on the morality of mankind. To give you an account of the religion and divinity of the vulgar in the days of heathenifm, would be to entertain you with an history of folly and fuperftition; fome parts of which for the barbarity of them, and fome for the lewdnefs of them, are very unfit to be related in a Chriftian congregation. The people thought of their gods much after the rate that the poets write of them; and their facred hiftory was an account of the battles and quarrels, and of the loves and amours of their deities. Their practice in religion

was agreeable to their articles of belief: their impure deities were worshipped in acts of impurity or barbarity and how could it be otherwife? for, when vice itself was confecrated, and had temples dedicated to it, how could the worshippers be untainted?

But confider now how the cafe ftands in countries where the Gospel is preached in any tolerable degree of purity. The common people now are no greater reasoners than they were formerly: yet go into our villages, you will find there a firm persuafion of the unity of God, who made heaven and earth, and all things in them: the meaneft of the people will tell you, that an honeft heart is the only acceptable facrifice to God, and that there is no way to please him but by doing justly and righteously.

Let me afk now, whence comes this change? Is it for the better, or no? If it is, furely the world is greatly indebted to the hand that wrought this change, that rooted out all the false notions deftructive of virtue and the happiness of mankind, and planted in the room thereof principles which do fo much honour and glory to God, and are full of present peace and future hopes for the children of men.

I am aware that it will be said, that the common people now are no more able to give a reason of the faith that is in them, than their heathenish ancestors were before them; and that cuftom and the prejudices of education have influenced both equally; and that these Chriftians, had they been born heathens, would have been heathens, or, if Mahometans, they would have been still Mahometans.