cannot endure doctrines, which level all vain distinctions, and require
the noble, the affluent, and the learned, to assume the same station of
penitence and contrition, with the lowliest peasant. They cannot consent
to lay their honours in the dust, and address themselves only to
sovereign mercies. It is beyond endurance, that the messages of grace
should come _to them_, as condemned, guilty, and perishing sinners; and
that as such they should be invited to the cross. Hence the scornful
air, the undissembled disgust, with which so many, in high life, turn
their backs upon _the preaching of the cross_. And hence, encouraged by
their example, multitudes cluster round the standard of a haughty and
malignant opposition to the Gospel.

While thus so many regard _the preaching of the cross as foolishness_,
and earnestly wish it were utterly false; it is not wonderful, that
efforts should be made to prove that it actually is so. Probably some,
engaged in this opposition, are perfectly sincere, and actually suppose,
as Saul of Tarsus did, that they are _doing God service_, by combating
the doctrines of the cross. But whoever obeys the natural dictates of
his own heart, and submits himself to the guidance of his own perverted,
blinded reason, refusing to supplicate the illuminations of divine
grace, will be likely to come under the power of _strong delusion to
believe a lie_.

One other cause of opposition to the Gospel is found in the absolute
contrariety of its requisitions, to the habits of life, which men have
contracted, and which they are resolved not to abandon. While _the
preaching of the cross_ prescribes, as indispensable to salvation,
conditions with which many, who have no doubt of being saved, wholly
refuse to comply; and while it declares that eternal perdition will be
the result of a course, which they are determined to pursue; it must be