Serm.CXXXVIII. as a proper IVfeans ofour Salvation,. 24,5 Elders, inlfted upon the fame Thing; Ver. 41, 42, 45. Likewife alfa the chiefPriells mocking him, with the Scriber and Elders, faid, He Pavedothers, himfel f he cannot fave : If he be the Kingof IfraeI, let him now come down from the Croft, and we will believe him. He treed in God ; let him deliver him now, if he will have him : for he laid, I art the Son ofGod. By this Paffage you fee what it was the yew: expe&ed ; that if our Saviour had been the Son ofGod, he fhould have faved himfelf; when they went about to crucify him, that God shouldhave refuted him out of their Hands, and given fome extraordinary Tettimony from Heaven to his Innocency; and for this Reafon, the Preaching of Chrifl crucified was very offenfive to them : The Jews require a Sign , but we preach Chrifl crucified. Such was the Temper and Difpofition of the 7ewt: But now the Gentiles, .ac- cording to their Way of Inftitution, they expe&ed that the Apoftles fhould have difcourfed to them upon Philofophical Principles, and have demonftrated Things to them in their Way. The Greeks finkafter Wifdoeu they were great Searchers after Wifdom and Knowledge, and they valued nothing but what had the Ap- pearance of it, and what was delivered with great Sharpnefs of Wit and Reafon- íng, and fet off withArt andEloquence. Had theApoftles pretended to fomenew Theory of Natural or Moral Philofophy, and difcourfed to them about the heft Principles of all Things, about the Chief Good, or about the Nature of the Soul, they would have heard them with great Patience and Delight. Nothing butdeep and fubtle Speculations, about theCe Kind of Arguments, did relifh with them, and pleafe their Palates. But the Hiflory of our Saviour, his Life, and Death, and Refurre&ion, and the plain Precepts of his Do&rine, were dry and infipid Things to them, and were fo far from having a Shew ofWifdom and Philofo- phy, that they appeared foolifh and ridiculous to them. But the Defign ofGod in the Chriftian Religion, being not to pleafe the Hu- mour, and gratify the Curiofityof Men ; but really to do them Good, and to re- form the Manners of Mankind, he ufed quite another Method; which how of fenfive foever it might be to thofe who thought themfelves wife, yet it was really the wifeft and more powerful Means to that End: So the Aponte tells us here in the Text ; But we preach Chrifl crucified, to the Jews a Stumbling - block, and to the Greeks Foolifhnefs : but unto them that are called, that is, to thofe whofe Minds are unduly prepared to confider Things impartially, and to receive the Truth, the PowerofGod, and the Wifdom ofGod; a molt wife and powerful Means to reform the World, an eminent Inftanceof the Divine Power andWifdom. In thefeWords, we have thefe two Things confiderable : Firff, The Exception which the World took at the Dotarine of the Gofpel, upon account of our Saviour's Sufferings: ChrifI crucified was to theJews a Stum- bling- block, andto the Greeks Foolifbnef . Secondly, That notwithftanding the feeming Unreafonablenefs and_Abfurdity of it, it was a molt wife and effe&ual Contrivance for the End to which it was defigned and appointed : But unto themwhich are called, bothJews and Greeks, Chrili the Power ofGod, and the WifdomofGod. I (hall fpeak fomething to each of there, as briefly and plainly as I can. I begin with the Firfi, The Exception which the World took at the Do&rine of the Gofpel, upon Account of our Saviour's Sufferings. The World were generally of- fended at it, but not all upon the fame Account; theJews took one Kindof Ex- ception againft it, and the Heathen.another : We preach Chr f crucified, unto thk Jews a Stumbling-block, andunto the Greeks Fooltfhnefs. They were both offended at the fame-Thing, the low and fuffering Condition of our Saviour; but not upon the fame Reafon. TheJews thought, that this mean Appearance and Con- dition of our Saviour, was unfuitable to the Power of God ; and the Heathen; that it was not agreeable to the Wifdom ofMen. The Jews from the Traditionof their Fathers, to which (juft as the Church of Rome does now a-days) they paid agreater Reverence, than to the written Word of God, . were poffefs'd with a ftrong Perfwafon, that the Meas whom they expefted, and was foretold by the Prophets, was to be a great Temporal Prince, to appear in great Splendor and Glory, to be a might Conqueror, and 2 not
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