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"Chrift fent me, ("fays the apostle) not to baptize, but to preach the gofpel; not with wifdom

" of words, left the cross of Christ should be of

none effect, for the preaching of the cross is to "them that perish, foolishness; but to us who are "faved, it is the power of God: for it is written, I "will destroy the wisdom of the wife, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where "is the wife, where is the fcribe, where is the difputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish "the wisdom of the world? for after (in the wisdom "of God) the world, by its wisdom, knew not God, "it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to "fave them that believe. For the Jews require a fign, "and the Greeks feek after wifdom, but we preach "Christ crucified-unto the Jews a stumbling block, "and to the Greeks foolishnefs; but unto them "which are called, both Jews and Greeks, the power "of God, and the wifdom of God: because the "foolishness of God is wifer than men, and the "weakness of God is ftronger than men. For you "fee your calling, brethren, how that not many wife "men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many "noble, have called you: but God hath chofen the "foolish things of the world to confound the wife; "and the weak things of the world to confound the

u I Cor. i. 17.

* This important alteration in the translation, I adopt from Dr. Macknight, who has, to my mind, fully evinced its propriety.

mighty; and bafe things of the world, and things "that are defpifed, hath he chofen; yea, and things "that are not, to bring to nought things that are; "that no flesh fhould glory in his prefence."

Bold and overftrained as this paffage might feem, when we do not attend to its occafion and its context, it will, I think, appear founded on certain fact, and perfectly confiftent with reafon, when we reflect on the ill fuccefs of both Jews and Greeks in religious enquiries-on the violent oppofition they made to Christianity-on the natural weakness, and even ignorance of the first teachers of the gospel—on their fuccefs in overcoming the oppofition of the Jewish Rabbies, and the Greek philofophers, by the exhibition of plain and uncontrouled miracles, with the clear discovery they made of the undoubted, but neglected and forgotten truths of natural religion to mankind, as well as of the more peculiar doctrines of the Christian scheme.

Perfecution from external enemies was not, however, the only fource of embarrassment to the apostle: the oppofition he encountered from mistaken zealots, or falfe teachers, even in the churches which he himself had planted, at the hazard of his life, was another subject of constant anxiety; and a great part of his epistles is occupied in expofing and confuting the false doctrines which these, his opponents, had introduced; in vindicating his character from the mifreprefenta

tions and calumnies with which they had loaded it; rebuking the misconduct of those whom they had feduced; commanding the infliction of public cenfure and punishment on the most grofs offenders; and threatening the obftinate and contumacious with ftill greater punishments, which he would himself inflict, by the miraculous and apoftolical power with which he was invested.

Such topics as thefe, it would furely have been unnatural, nay, almost impoffible to treat of, without a confiderable degree of warmth and earnestness. We cannot wonder at the apostle being obliged, frequently, to recall to the recollection of his converts his own preaching and miracles, his labours and his his fufferings; at his appealing to them, with the greatest earnestness, in attestation of his integrity and affection towards them; at his urging and entreating them to adhere to that faith which he had taught; at his describing the misconduct and unworthy views of the false teachers, in the strongest colours, and pointing out the dangers they incurred by following them, in the most forcible manner.

If the conviction the apoftle entertained of the divine origin of the doctrines he inculcated was firm; if his sense of their importance was exalted; if he was fully conscious of having taught and acted with fingleness of heart; if he confidered the guilt of wilfully apoftatizing from the truth in Christ as great

and hazardous, he could not but speak freely, and boldly, and urgently, when oppofed by error and calumny; when the interests of the gofpel, and the virtue and happiness of thofe churches, which were most dear to him, were at stake. Since then a fincere teacher of divine truths, however fober and genuïne his infpiration is fupposed, must have entertained these feelings, and expreffed them with freedom and earneftnefs; furely fuch feelings, and fuch a mode of expreffing them, is no proof of weakness and fanaticism.

In confidering the effect which the general perfècuted state of the church, as well as the perfonal opposition particularly offered to the apostles, must have produced in their feelings and writings, it is neceffary to remark, that such persecution and oppofition contribute materially to confirm the certainty of a divine interpofition at the first promulgation of Christianity; because no human means exifted to overpower fuch perfecution, and no human artifice could have efcaped detection, when into that very fociety, which was formed, as infidels suppose, merely by fuch artifice, difcord and controversy fo early crept, inducing fome of its chief leaders to oppofe and question each others opinions and pretenfions; a contest which, if these claims had not, on the part of the apostle, been founded on truth, would undoubtedly have expofed the fallacy by which they were fupported. It is alfo neceffary further to remark,

that

that the fame circumftances give the adverfary to Christianity every advantage he could defire, for detecting enthusiasm in the writings and conduct of its first teachers, if it had really existed; because external perfecution, and internal controverfy, were, of all imaginable circumstances, the most directly calculated to roufe, and to inflame the smallest fparks of enthusiasm into extravagance and violence. If then, notwithstanding this powerful bias, we difcover in the writings of the apoftles clear traces of found judgment and steady self-command, we may without hesitation conclude, that the fobriety, as well as the fincerity of their mind, has fuftained the feverest trial, and been established by the fullest proof.

This conclufion applies with peculiar force to the, writings of St.Paul; because his natural temper was certainly warm, his train of ideas rapid, his turn of style bold and emphatic, and his education fuch as was calculated to strengthen his impreffion of the importance of religion. A mind fuch as. this, controuled and directed by a fuperintending inspiration, was an admirable inftrument for the laborious task of spreading the gofpel through the wide extent of the Heathen world, in despite of all oppofition; but such a mind uncontrouled, and undirected by the Spirit of God, if once infected by enthusiasm, would have exhibited it in all its extravagance, especially when agitated and irritated by fuch malignant perfecution

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