means * The demonstration of which the Spirit is the author, and which is characterized by power ; ' so that the sense is, the powerful demonstration of the Spirit.
Demonstration (ctTroSct^is) setting forth^ exhibition of proof. Paul relied, therefore, for success, not on his skill in argument ' or persuasion, nor upon any of the resources of human wisdom, but on the testimony which the Spirit bore to the truth. The Holy Ghost demonstrated the gospel to be true.
5, That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
That, i. e. in order that. The design of the apostle in act- ing as stated in the preceding verse, was that the faith of his hearers might not rest upon human reason, but on the testi- mony of God. It might have been easy for him to argue the Corinthians into a conviction of the truth of the Gospel, by appealing to its superiority to heathenism and to the evidence of its divine origin aflforded by prophecy and miracles. He might have exhibited the folly of idolatry, and the absurdity of pagan rites and ceremonies, and convinced them of the his- torical truth of Christianity. The conviction thus produced would be rational and important ; but it would not be saving faith. Faith founded on such evidence is merely speculative. The true foundation of faith, or rather, the foundation of true faith, is the power of God. This is explained by what he had before called " the demonstration of the Spirit." That exer- cise of divine power, therefore, to which he refers as the ground of faith, is the powerful operation of the Spirit, bear- ing witness with and by the truth in our hearts. A faith which is founded on the authority of the church, or upon ar- guments addressed to the understanding, or even on the moral power of the truth as it affects the natural conscience, such as Felix had, is unstable and inoperative. But a faith founded on the demonstration of the Spirit is abiding, infalli- ble, and works by love and purifies the heart.
In these verses, therefore, we are taught, 1. That the pro- per method to convert men in any community, Christian or 1 Pagan, is to preach or set forth the truth concerning the per- son and work of Christ. Whatever other means are used must be subordinate and auxiliary, designed to remove obsta- cles, and to gain access for the truth to the mind, just as the ground is cleared of weeds and brambles in order to prepare