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DISCOURSE IV.

ON WHAT IS CALLED RATIONAL CHRIS

TIANITY.

I COR. i. 20. part of.

Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this

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world?

HE question feems extraordinary: and

it is asked, we may observe, as if intended to be very ftrongly affirmed. It muft in fact be affirmed, or the honour of God's own word will be impaired: for God hath faid exprefsly by his prophets; "The wif"dom of their wife men fhall perish, and "the understanding of their prudent men "fhall be hid *." And again, "The "wise men are ashamed, they are dif

mayed and taken; lo, they have rejected "the word of the Lord, and what wisdom " is in them?" These, and other paffages * Ifai. xxix. 14. † Jer. viii, 9.

of the fame nature, show that, in the mighty system of redemption, to which the prophecies referred, there was intended to be fomething fo unlike the wifdom of this world as to defeat its expectations, and confound its reafonings.

This conclufion had been actually justified in the time of the apostle, as he himself informs us, by the coming of our Saviour; whofe appearance in the flesh, fo very different from what human wisdom looked for, and whofe death upon the cross, so contrary to all that reafon might have concluded to be fit and proper, had exposed the wisdom of the world to be moft justly branded with the name of folly. How could it be otherwise, when that which men despised and stumbled at, was fhown to be in truth" the power of "God, and the wisdom of God *?"

When wisdom is so proudly vaunted as it is at prefent, and reafon, as if recovered from this first defeat, presents herself, and her admirers, as competent to judge, and form decifions of irrefragable force on all things human and divine; at fuch a time, it may be prudent to enquire concerning Revelation,

whether this distinctive property of confounding human reason, be conftantly inherent in it, or whether it was only once, and with a retrospect to its paft notions, that God made foolish the wisdom of this world.

We have lately heard much faid within the christian world, of a profeffion which its admirers have denominated rational Chriftianity, or, in other words, the fyftem of God's Revelation accommodated to the wisdom of this world, and made entirely level to the reach of human Reafon: which, if it be true that God has formed his Revelation altogether, fo as to confound the vanity of man, in arguing and difputing about heavenly things, muft, it is very evident, be fomething different from real Chriftianity, and from the truth of that great system which proceeded from Almighty Wisdom.

Let us, however, before we proceed to the main question, understand clearly what is meant by turning wifdom into foolishness; and why God, who gave man fuch an understanding as he has, fhould be inclined thus to reduce it to confufion and to fhame. Human wisdom is, it must be owned, the inftrument that God himself has given us, to conduct

conduct us in our progrefs through this life; and it may be thought a little strange, that he should thus determine to expose its imperfections, and deprive it of our confidence.

To these previous questions the folutions are very obvious. Wisdom becomes folly when it employs itself on objects far above its comprehenfion. All wisdom must be eftimated by comparison, and that of an inferior being, however excellent within its proper fphere, is folly when it is found in oppofition to the wisdom of one infinitely higher. God, therefore, turns the wisdom of mankind to folly, when he displays his own in oppofition to it, and thus detects its feeblenefs and imperfection. Why he should do this is also clear; not to decry it altogether, or to discourage it from acting where the task is well proportioned to its powers, but to point out its proper sphere, and there confine its energy and action. This, we must confess, is worthy of the wisdom, and of the benevolence of God.

To discover whether the property of confounding human wisdom in this manner, still belongs to Revelation, let us confider in what manner it had operated, at the time when it

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was firft declared. "Howbeit," fays St. Paul," we speak wisdom among them that "are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this "world, nor of the princes of this world, "that come to nought; but we speak the "wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hid"den wisdom which God ordained before "the world unto our glory. Which none "of the princes of this world knew: for "had they known it, they would not have "crucified the Lord of Glory *." The matter then in which the wifdom of this world was convicted principally of foolishness, was the ignorance of men concerning the great counfels of God, and their fuppofition that Jefus was a mere man, who was in truth the Lord of Glory. In confequence of which fuppofition, co-operating with their evil paffions, they prefumed to crucify him. Surely then to that very point of folly and of wickednefs have they fallen back, crucifying him afresh, and putting him, as far as in them lies, to open fhame, who maintain that he who then was crucified was mere man, and not the Lord of Glory.