truth, as opposed to the unrenewed. According to this view, Paul means to say that the gospel, although foolishness to the Greek, was the highest wisdom in the estimation of the truly- enlightened. In favour of this view of the passage, and in opposition to the other, it may be argued, 1. That those who regarded Paul's doctrine as foolishness were not the babes in Christ, but the unrenewed, " the wise of this world ; " conse- quently those to whom it was wisdom were not advanced Christians, but beUevers as such. Throughout the whole context, the opposition is between " the called " or converted, and the unconverted, and not between one class of believers and another class. 2. If " the perfect " here means advanced Christians as distinguished from babes in Christ, then the wis- dom which Paul preached was not the gospel as such, but its higher doctrines. But this cannot be, because it is the doc- trine of the cross, of Christ crucified, which he declares to be the power of God and the wisdom of God, 1, 24. And the description given in the following part of this chapter of the wisdom here intended, refers not to the higher doctrines of the gospel but to the gospel itself. The contrast is between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God, and not be- tween the rudimental and the higher doctrines of the gospel. Besides, what are these higher doctrines which Paul preached only to the elite of the church ? No one knows. Some say one thing, and some another. But there are no higher doc- trines than those taught in this epistle and in those to the Romans and Ephesians, all addressed to the mass of the peo- ple. The New Testament makes no distinction between (TTtcTTts and yvwo-is) higher and lower doctrines. It does indeed speak of a distinction between milk and strong meat, but that is a distinction, not between kinds of doctrine, but between one mode of instruction and another. In catechisms designed for children the church pours out all the treasures of her know- ledge, but in the form of milk, i. e. in a form adapted to the weakest capacities. For all these reasons we conclude that by " the perfect " the apostle means the competent, the people of God as distinguished from the men of the world ; and by wisdom, not any higher doctrines, but the simple gospel, which is the wisdom of God as distinguished from the wisdom of men.
The apostle describes this wisdom, first negatively, by say- ing it is not the wisdom of this loorld^ or, wisdom not of this loorld, i. e. it belongs not to the world, and is not attained by