SERMON XXV. CHRIST CRUCIFIED, A STUMBLING-BLOCK TO THE JEWS, AND FOOLISHNESS TO THE GREEKS. 1 COR. i. 22-24. 22. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23. But we preach Christ crucified; unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power and the wisdom of God. of God, ADVERTISEMENT. THE substance of the following Discourse was preached at the opening of a chapel in the country in the year 1825. Not only the substance but the plan is the same; but several of the points are considerably expanded, as I wished to speak more in detail on subjects of a nature entirely analogous to those in the text, and which I could not well introduce in an occasional sermon. Many attempts have been made to corrupt Christianity ever since its establishment in the world, and strange to tell, it was its professed friends that made them. From its enemies it never had any thing to fear, whether they employed their pens or their swords as instruments of their enmity. It met all malevolence with the meekness of wisdom; and all open persecution with a patience ennobled by fortitude; and thus it quenched the fire and blunted the edge of the sword, while the holiness, innocence, and usefulness of the lives of its followers, gave it a continual triumph over calumny and malevolence. None but its professed friends could hurt it, and they only in two ways; either by corrupting the general creed by false doctrines, or impairing and degrading the simple apostolic worship by gaudy rites and useless ceremonies. With false creeds, the Christian Church had often to contend; and with useless and worldly ceremonies it was often encumbered. God, in His mercy, always brought forward means to counteract these corruptions; and revivals of pure and undefiled religion were His grand instruments; and these never failed to call back those who were resting on their lees, and sinking into the spirit of the world, to first principles in doctrine, and simplicity in worship. From these two causes, the pure religion of Christ is now in danger; and in the house of its friends, religion has received some alarming wounds. It is fashionable to split hairs in doctrine, so as to perplex the simplicity of truth; to bring in strange opinions, which, even allowing them to have the semblance of truth, are but mint and cummin, to those weightier matters of the law, which they jostle and put aside. The discipline of Christianity has been opposed and often supplanted by rites and ceremonies; which were introduced either by superstition or worldly mindedness. In no age of the world was Christianity more corrupted than in that of the school-men, who were all hair-splitting men; and the world wondered at their subtlety and dexterous sophistry, till religion itself became evanescent, and the works of Thomas Aquinas were put in place of the Bible. Something like this splendid trifling is now beginning to shew itself in the Christian Church. May the spirit of judgement and of burning, sit upon and refine it! and may it come pure out of the wilderness, having lost nothing but its dross and tin! Even so, Lord Jesus. Amen, Amen. A. C. THE city of Corinth, to whose inhabitants this epistle was directed, was one of the oldest cities of Greece, being founded more than 1500 years before the Christian era. It was situated on the isthmus which connected Peloponnesus, or Achaia, now called the Morea, to the main land. It had what was called the port Lecheum, in the gulf of Lepanto, on the west; and Cenchrea, in the gulf of Egina, on the east. By which it commanded the commerce of the Ionian and Egean seas, and consequently all Italy on the one hand, and all the Greek Islands on the other. In a word, it embraced the commerce of the whole Mediterranean sea, from the Straits of Gibraltar, on the west, to the port of Alexandria, on the east; with all the coast of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia-Minor: Being so exceedingly well situated for trade, its riches became immense, and, for a time, these produced great power and great influence; but in the end, as is ever the case, riches produced luxury; luxury, effeminacy; and this, a general corruption of manners. Sciences, arts, and literature, however, flourished much among its inhabitants, and Cicero termed it the luminary of Greece-the sun that gave light to all the other states. It was ambitious of power, covetous of wealth, proud of its literature and learned men; vain of its public édifices, emulous of all that was great and splendid among its neighbours; and to all these qualities, it added the most degrading sensuality, and the most extensive ever known in the world. Public prostitution formed a considerable part of their religion; they were accustomed in their public prayers, to request the gods to multiply their prostitutes; and the temple of Venus in this city, one of the most splendid of its buildings, had no less than 1000 courtezans, who were the means of bringing an immense concourse of strangers to the place. In the midst of all this corruption, neither their literature nor the arts were forgotten; in these respects the Corinthians were enriched in all utterance, and in all knowledge in oratory and philosophy :—and although among all the states of Greece, they were the most likely to have rejected the pure and holy gospel of Jesus Christ, yet in this city the Apostle ventured to proclaim his crucified Master, and though single, against their ocean of learning, and unparalleled sink of pollution, he converted multitudes, and founded here a very eminent and flourishing Church, to which he wrote the two epistles which go under his name, and their address. But so powerful are old deeply rooted propensities, till the heart is entirely purified by the grace of God, that he found it difficult to preserve many of them from lapsing into their former practices, which are pointedly noticed, sharply reprehended, and strongly guarded against in these epistles. The doctrine of Christ crucified, finally prevailed over all subtlety and cor ruption; and, though many Jews continued to blaspheme, and Gentiles to gain-say, the cross of Christ, even at Corinth, became the Christian's glory. To whom he preached, what he preached, and how he preached at Corinth, the verses just read declare and to enter fully into these points, I shall, I. Give the history of what is contained in the twenty-second verse. II. Explain the doctrine specified in the twenty-third verse. III. Make an application of the whole, from what is laid down in the twenty-fourth verse. I. I shall give the history of what is contained in the twen ty-second verse, viz.:— The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 1st. Here we have two nations of people mentioned; the Jews and the Greeks. 2d. We have their chief moral employment specified the Jews were requiring signs; the Gentiles were seeking after wisdom. 1. However divided and subdivided the habitable globe may now be, originally there was no distinction of nations. As all human beings proceeded from one father and mother, there could be no distinction; natúral, moral, or civil, all were one family children, and children's children, being ever able to trace themselves up to the parent stock; and as the Crea tor had given no distinctive marks to any, so it is evident He designed they should consider themselves as one people, all having the same origin, and all referring themselves and their work to His glory, who gave them their being, and appointed them their labour. Had primitive innocence continued, this state would have continued; for we find that the first divisions and distinctions which obtained, were occasioned by moral differences; the inhabitants of the world being first distinguished by character-the religious and the profane; between those who served God, and those who served Him not: the posterity of Cain, and the posterity of Seth. But even this distinction was not decisively prominent till the confusion of tongues at Babel, in the year of the world 1757: for previously to this time, all the inhabitants of the earth were of |