TEXT.

18 For the doctrine of the crofs is foolishness to those indeed who perish, but it is the power of GOD to us who are faved.

19 For it is written, "I will • destroy the wisdom of the wife, "and will bring to nothing the "prudence of the prudent."

20 Where is the wife man? where is the scribe? where is the difputant of this age? hath not GOD made foolish the wifdom of this world?

21 For, whereas mankind by its wisdom did not know God in the wisdom of GOD, GOD was pleafed to fave thofe, who believe, (M) by the preaching of foolishness:

PARAPHRASE.

phiftical difcourfe is over: 18 I
fay, left the preaching the cross of
Chrift fhould be in vain, because the

account and doctrine of the cross
is looked upon by unbelievers,
who are in a perishing state, as a
foolish doctrine: human eloquence
cannot move and convince them
to it: but they who are faved, i.e.
the Chriftian converts, those who
profefs Christianity, know and fee
that our preaching, both by reason
of the wide fpreading of it, and
because of the miracles which ac-
company it, is no less than the
power of GoD. 19 For, GOD fays
in Scripture, If. xxix. 14. I will
deftroy the wisdom of the wife, and
bring to nothing (LXX. make to dif
appear) the understanding of the pru-
dent: 20 Let me then afk you
these questions; where is the wife
man? where is the Jewish fcribe?
where is the difputing philofopher
of this age? hath not GoD in this
inftance of the crofs fhewed, that
the pretended wisdom of this world
is folly? 21 for, fince mankind did
not rightly discover the nature and
the will of God by the natural
reafon and wifdom which he had
implanted in them, it pleased GoD
to make these things known to
men, and fave the believers by the
preaching of that doctrine which
is efteemed foolishness among

feems to have read óywv; and in ch. ii. 4. we have λóyoi copias, the words of wisdom. But, though I have no countenance from any MSS. I am inclined to read ἐκ ἐν λόγῳ σοφίας, or ἐκ ἐν τῷ σοφίας λόγῳ : for σοφία λόγες is no where else found in the whole N. Teft. but óyes copias is found in ch. xii. 8. According to this new reading, which I propofe, it must be rendered, not with the doctrine of wisdom, i. e. human wifdom, to which is oppofed foolishness in ver. 18. Nor do the French verfions of Mons and L'Enfant differ much from this: for they have non avec difcours de la fageffe humaine. But after all, perhaps Wolfius's opinion is right, who thinks, that St. Paul ules here ἐν σοφίᾳ λόγω for ἐν λόγῳ σοφῷ, οἱ ἐν λόγοις σοφός.

(M) By the preaching of foolishness] The Greek is da Tñs paplas tã anpúfuales, which in our Eng. verfion is rendered by the foolishness of preach

ing:

ing: inftead of which Clemens Alex. (according to Dr. Mills) has dià re ançúlμalos tus μapias, by the preaching of foolifbnefs: and this order of the words feems to be confirmed by ver. 23. and is followed in the French verfions of Mons and L'Enfant. The apostle here may have put popía κηρύγματος for μωρὸν κήρυγμα, i. e. fuch preaching as was accounted foolil; as in ver. 17. σοφία λόγω may have been put for σοφὸς λόγος.

(N) The MSS. Alex. Boern. with many other MSS. ancient Verfions and Fathers, have not onμetor, but onμsta, as in John iv. 48.

(0) Ye fee then I read v and not yag, by the authority of MSS. Augi. Boern, Gr. and Lat. Clar. Gr. Ger. Gr. and the Ethiop. verfion.

PARAPHRASE.

fools (as it were) and men of none but ordinary fenfe, unimproved by education and converse, to put to fhame in difpute the wife philofophical men; and he hath chosen the weak and impotent part of mankind, to put to fhame the powerful and mighty part of it: 28 Nay, what more especially regards the Jews, God hath chofen the heathens, who were reputed by the Jews to be men of base birth, who were defpifed by them, and even faid not to exift, (Rom. iv. 17.) not to have lite in them, I fay, God hath chosen even these men, fo contemned and ill-thought of by the Jews, to confound the Jews who boasted that they alone exifted, that they only were God's favourite, and covenanted people. 29 This has GOD done on purpofe to fhew us, that no man hould boast of his own ability and fufficiency before him. 30 But ye, Chriftians, have dependance upon God by means of your faith in Chrift; by whom according to God's appointment, we have been made wife, ver. 24. have been juftified, vi. 11. fanctified, ib. and redeemed, Eph. i. 7. from

NOTE S.

(P) Even the things which are not] The word xal is wanting in the Alex. and other good MSS. If xa be preferved in the text as copulative, the words ay and iubempéra will have no words to answer them in the end of the fentence: but if xai be left out (in which fenfe our Eng. verfion ufes it) or rendered by the word even (as in ch. ii. 10.), the words rà la will comprehend the fenfe both of yarn and iubemuéva; and confequently rà una in the latter end of the verfe will answer to the whole firft part of the verfe.

(Q) Juftification] The word dixaloon in this and many other places of St. Paul's writings fignifies, not righteousness, but that by which we are ac counted righteous, viz. juftification, or (if I may be allowed to coin a new word), juftifyingness: fo it is well known that fixare, fignifies to juftify, to look upon as juft and righteous. When xaosun is applied to man, it fignifies righteousness, or alms, as in 2 Cor. ix. 9 or mercifulness: but when it is faid of GOD or Chrift, as a quality belonging to them with relation to man, it generally fignifies in St. Paul's writings justifyingness and fo

think

TEXT.

31 (R) So that (as it is written) "let him, who boafteth, boast in "the Lord."

PARAPHRASE.

our fins: 31 So that, confidering what benefits they are, and how we receive them, let him who glories and boafts (as the Scripture, Jerem. ix. 23, 24. fays) boaft in the Lord only; he having nothing but from the Lord, which he ought to glory in.

NOTE

S.

think it ought to be rendered in Rom. i. 17. and iii. 21, 22. in 2 Cor. iii. 9. 21. and in Galat. v. 5.

(R) So that, &c. "Iva, xabw's yéypaπlai -navɣáolw] The word "ve fignifies here as above in ver. 15. Jo that: and an ellipfis follows, which may be thus filled up, fo that we may conclude with this rule, or fo that this inference is juft; let him who boafteth, boaft in the Lord. "Iva is thus ufed before an imperative mood, and with an ellipfis in ch. iv. 6. ¡va μù Quoiêols, &c. And in like manner is ά^^ά ufed with an ellipfis after it in Rom. xv. 3. and in 1 Cor. ii. 9. and are in ch. iii. 21. and ch. iv. 5. and ch. v. 8. va is ufed alfo before an indicative mood in 1 Cor. ix. 18. and by Xenoph. in Cyrop. p. 94. edit. Hutchinson: fee the paffage under my note on ch. iv. 6.

After the Commentary are printed miscellaneous tracts by the fame author, particularly the Miracles of Jefus vindicated; being an answer to Woolfton's difcourfes on the Miracles of our Saviour, published in 1727 and 1728. This tract of our author's ran through five or fix editions in a few years, and was looked upon, at that time, as a seasonable antidote to the peftilential effufions of Woolfton.

Next follow Two Letters to Dr. Waterland on the Eucharift, with two Latin Epiftles to Dr. Bentley on that writer's propofals for printing an Edition of the New Teftament. R.

A Journey from Gibraltar to Malaga; with a View of that Garrifon and its Environs; a particular Account of the Towns in the Hoya of Malaga; the Ancient and Natural History of those Cities, of the Coast between them, and of the Mountains of Ronda. Illuftrated with the Medals of each Municipal Town; and a Chart, Perspectives, and Drawings, taken in the Year 1772, by Francis Carter, Efq. 2 vols. 10s*. 8vo. Cadell. Amidft the variety of voyages, travels and journeys, with which the present age is fo abundantly furnished, there are

Without the plates, which are fold feparately at 25 fhillings in boards; they are thirteen in number, and confift of elegant engravings from the author's original drawings of the principal places and views defcribed in the work; including four capital views of Malaga and its Cathedral, the Moorith Monuments in that city, with perfpectives of the Roman Colony of Carteia and ancient town of Cartama.

few,

few, if any, that lay a better claim to the attention of the curious than fuch as join the profpect of the present circumftances of countries, with a retrospective view to their original or ancient state. Among thefe, the journey before us attracts alfo peculiar regard; the writer appearing to be fo genuine an antiquarian that he fometimes quotes authorities of fifteen centuries back to prove things to be, what he is supposed actually to have found them.-This may feem nugatory to a mere modern reader, who concerns himself fo little about paft ages as to think nothing worth attending to but the present. To the antiquarian and the claffical ftudent, it will, on the contrary, appear as important as it will prove inftructive and entertaining. Of the importance of the tour itself and the author's abilities for defcribing it to advantage, we have the following account in the Preface.

"There have been hitherto no other accounts of this coaft published in our language, but the curfory remarks and vague defcriptions of English gentlemen, who, making but a few days refidence at its capital towns, often only as many hours, could not be expected (how much merit foever they might otherwife poffefs) to give any regular history of a people, with whofe language they were wholly unacquainted: I have known Spain from my very childhood, fince the year 1753, to 1773; all my time (except five years spent in France) was paft in Andalucia and the kingdom of Granada: during fo long an abfence from my native country, I fought confolation through the ftudy of that in which it was my lot to refide.

"I have engraved a geographical and claffical chart of the country I defcribe, which was drawn by myfelf on an entirely new plan; and, fenfible of the utility, advantage, and, I had almost faid. abfolute neceffity, of perfpective views, to complete and illustrate, even the beftwritten defcriptions; from feven and twenty drawings, which I took of the different towns and places I paft through, I have selected and engraved thirteen, in a fcale fuitable to the edition, and to be bound up with it entertaining the most liberal opinion of the publick, I have not hesitated to advance a large fum, which I can ill fpare, being defirous that a work which has coit me fo many years labour, might be accompanied with every poffible embellishment.

"The numerous infcriptions I met with in my rout, I have, with no fmall pains, accurately copied, and presented to the publick in their original characters. When I was at Cartama, a poor illiterate native offered me for fale, on a fheet of Spanish paper, what he called copies of the Roman ftones in that town; this manufcript, as foon as I caft my eye on it, I found to be a miferable unintelligible fcrawl, and immedíately returned it, informing him that it could be of ufe to no one; and yet I have the greatest reafon to be affured, from the information of a learned member of the Society of Antiquaries, that this very paper has been prefented to them by an actual member of the Royal Society, who was for a few hours at Cartama fome weeks after me; and who did not, I am perfuaded, reflect that fuch erroneous infcriptions, authorized VOL. V. M m by