(Ps. xcii. 5); “His judgments unsearchable, his ways past finding out”
(Rom. xi. 33): depths that cannot be fathomed; a splendor more dazzling
to our dim minds than the light of the sun to our weak eyes. The wisdom
of one man may be comprehended by another, and over‑comprehended; and
often men are understood by others to be wiser in their actions than
they understand themselves to be; and the wisdom of one angel may be
measured by another angel of the same perfection. But as the essence,
so the wisdom of God is incomprehensible to any creature; God is
only comprehended by God. The secrets of wisdom in God are double to
the expressions of it in his works (Job xi. 6, 7): “Canst thou, by
searching, find out God?” There is an unfathomable depth in all his
decrees, in all his works; we cannot comprehend the reason of his works,
much less that of his decrees, much less that in his nature; because
his wisdom, being infinite as well as his power, can no more act to the
highest pitch than his power. As his power is not terminated by what he
hath wrought, but he could give further testimonies of it, so neither
is his wisdom, but he could furnish us with infinite expressions and
pieces of his skill. As in regard of his immensity he is not bounded
by the limits of place; in regard of his eternity, not measured by the
minutes of time; in regard of his power, not terminated with this or
that number of objects; so, in regard of his wisdom, he is not confined
to this or that particular mode of working; so that in regard of the
reason of his actions, as well as the glory and majesty of his nature,
he dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. vi. 16); and whatsoever we
understand of his wisdom in creation and providence, is infinitely less
than what is in himself and his own unbounded nature. Many things in
Scripture are declared chiefly to be the acts of the Divine will, yet
we must not think that they were acts of mere will without wisdom,
but they are represented so to us, because we are not capable of
understanding the infinite reason of its acts: his sovereignty is more
intelligible to us than his wisdom. We can better know the commands of
a superior, and the laws of a prince, than understand the reason that
gave birth to those laws. We may know the orders of the Divine will,
as they are published, but not the sublime reason of his will. Though
election be an act of God’s sovereignty, and he hath no cause from
without to determine him, yet his infinite wisdom stood not silent
while mere dominion acted. Whatsoever God doth, he doth wisely, as well
as sovereignly; though that wisdom which lies in the secret places of
the Divine Being be as incomprehensible to us as the effects of his
{a513} sovereignty and power in the world are visible, God can give
a reason of his proceeding, and that drawn from himself, though we
understand it not. The causes of things visible lie hid from us. Doth
any man know how to distinguish the seminal virtue of a small seed from
the body of it, and in what nook and corner that lies, and what that
is that spreads itself in so fair a plant, and so many flowers? Can we
comprehend the justice of God’s proceedings in the prosperity of the
wicked, and the afflictions of the godly? Yet as we must conclude them
the fruits of an unerring righteousness, so we must conclude all his
actions the fruits of an unspotted wisdom, though the concatenation of
all his counsels is not intelligible to us; for he is as essentially
and necessarily wise, as he is essentially and necessarily good and
righteous. God is not only so wise that nothing more wise can be
conceived, but he is more wise than can be imagined; something greater
in all his perfections than can be comprehended by any creature. It is
a foolish thing, therefore, to question that which we cannot comprehend;
we should adore it instead of disputing against it; and take it for
granted, that God would not order anything, were it not agreeable to
the sovereignty of his wisdom, as well as that of his will. Though
the reason of man proceed from the wisdom of God, yet there is more
difference between the reason of man, and the wisdom of God, than
between the light of the sun, and the feeble shining of the glow‑worm;
yet we presume to censure the ways of God, as if our purblind reason
had a reach above him.
7. God is “only wise” _infallibly_. The wisest men meet with rubs
in the way, that make them fall short of what they aim at; they often
design, and fail; then begin again; and yet all their counsels end in
smoke, and none of them arrive at perfection. If the wisest angels lay
a plot, they may be disappointed; for though they are higher and wiser
than man, yet there is One higher and wiser than they, that can check
their projects. God always compasseth his end, never fails of anything
he designs and aims at; all his undertakings are counsel and will; as
nothing can resist the efficacy of his will, so nothing can countermine
the skill of his counsel: “There is no wisdom, nor understanding,
nor counsel against the Lord” (Prov. xxi. 30). He compasseth his ends
by those actions of men and devils, wherein they think to cross him;
they shoot at their own mark, and hit his. Lucifer’s plot, by divine
wisdom, fulfilled God’s purpose against Lucifer’s mind. The counsel of
redemption by Christ, the end of the creation of the world, rode into
the world upon the back of the serpent’s temptation. God never mistakes
the means, nor can there be any disappointments to make him vary his
counsels, and pitch upon other means than what before he had ordained.
His “word that goeth forth of his mouth shall not return to him void,
but it shall accomplish that which he pleases, and it shall prosper in
the thing whereto he sent it” (Isa. lv. 11). What is said of his word,
is true of his counsel; it shall prosper in the thing for which it is
appointed; it cannot be defeated by all the legions of men and devils;
for “as he thinks, so shall it come to pass; and as he hath purposed,
so shall it stand; the Lord hath purposed, and who shall {a514}
disannul it” (Isa. xiv. 24, 27)? The wisdom of the creature is a drop
from the wisdom of God, and is like a drop to the ocean, and a shadow
to the sun; and, therefore, is not able to meet the wisdom of God,
which is infinite and boundless. No wisdom is exempted from mistakes,
but the Divine: he is wise in all his resolves, and never “calls back
his words” and purposes (Isa. xxxi. 2).
III. The third general is to prove that God is wise. This is ascribed
to God in Scripture (Dan. ii. 20); “Wisdom and might are his;” wisdom
to contrive, and power to effect. Where should wisdom dwell, but in
the head of a Deity? and where should power triumph, but in the arm of
Omnipotency?[765] All that God doth, he doth artificially, skilfully;
whence he is called the “Builder of the heavens” (Heb. xi. 10),
Τεχνίτης an artifical and curious builder, a builder by art: and
that word (Prov. viii. 30) meant of Christ; “Then I was by him as one
brought up with him;” some render it, Then I was the curious artificer;
and the same word, is translated, a cunning workman (Cant. vii. 5). For
this cause, counsel is ascribed to God;[766] not properly, for counsel
implies something of ignorance, or irresolution, antecedent to the
consultation, and a posture of will afterwards, which was not before.
Counsel is, properly, a laborious deliberation, and a reasoning of
things; an invention of means for the attainment of the end, after a
discussing and reasoning of all the doubts which arise, _pro re natâ_,
about the matter in counsel. But God hath no need to deliberate in
himself what are the best means to accomplish his ends: he is never
ignorant or undetermined what course he should take, as men are before
they consult. But it is an expression, in condescension to our capacity,
to signify that God doth nothing but with reason and understanding,
with the highest prudence and for the most glorious ends, as men do
after consultation and the weighing of every foreseen circumstance.
Though he acts all things sovereignly by his will, yet he acts all
things wisely by his understanding; and there is not a decree of his
will but he can render a satisfactory reason for, in the face of men
and angels. As he is the cause of all things, so he hath the highest
wisdom for the ordering of all things. If wisdom among men be the
knowledge of divine and human things, God must be infinitely wise,
since knowledge is most radiant in him; he knows what angels and men do
and infinitely more; what is known by them obscurely, is known by him
clearly; what is known by man after it is done, was known by God before
it was wrought. By his wisdom, as much as by anything, he infinitely
differs from all his creatures, as by wisdom man differs from a brute.
We cannot frame a notion of God, without conceiving him infinitely wise.
We should render him very inconsiderable, to imagine him furnished
with an infinite knowledge, and not have an infinite wisdom to make
use of that knowledge, or to fancy him with a mighty power destitute
of prudence. Knowledge without prudence, is an eye without motion;
and power without discretion, is an arm without a head; a hand to act,
without {a515} understanding to contrive and model; a strength to act,
without reason to know how to act: it would be a miserable notion of
a God, to fancy him with a brutish and unguided power. The heathens,
therefore, had, and could not but have, this natural notion of God.
Plato, therefore, calls him _Mens_;[767] and Cleanthes used to call God
Reason; and Socrates thought the title of Σοφός too magnificent to be
attributed to anything else but God alone.
Arguments to prove that God is wise.――_Reason 1._ God could not be
infinitely perfect without wisdom. A rational nature is better than an
irrational nature. A man is not a perfect man without reason; how can
God without it be an infinitely perfect God? Wisdom is the most eminent
of all virtues; all the other perfections of God without this, would be
as a body without an eye, a soul without understanding. A Christian’s
graces want their lustre, when they are destitute of the guidance
of wisdom: mercy is a feebleness, and justice a cruelty; patience a
timorousness, and courage a madness, without the conduct of wisdom; so
the patience of God would be cowardice, his power an oppression, his
justice a tyranny, without wisdom as the spring and holiness as the
rule. No attribute of God could shine with a due lustre and brightness
without it. Power is a great perfection, but wisdom a greater.[768]
Wisdom may be without much power, as in bees and ants; but power is a
tyrranical thing without wisdom and righteousness. The pilot is more
valuable because of his skill, than the galley slave because of his
strength; and the conduct of a general more estimable than the might
of a private soldier. Generals are chosen more by their skill to guide,
than their strength to act; what a clod is a man without prudence;
what a nothing would God be without it! This is the salt that gives
relish to all other perfections in a creature; this is the jewel in
the ring of all the excellencies of the Divine nature, and holiness is
the splendor of that jewel. Now God being the first Being, possesses
whatsoever is most noble in any being. If therefore wisdom, which
is the most noble perfection in any creature, were wanting to God,
he would be deficient in that which is the highest excellency. God
being the living God, as he is frequently termed in Scripture, he hath
therefore the most perfect manner of living, and that must be a pure
and intellectual life; being essentially living, he is essentially in
the highest degree of living. As he hath an infinite life above all
creatures, so he hath an infinite intellectual life, and therefore
an infinite wisdom; whence some have called God, not _sapientem_, but
_super sapientem_,[769] not only wise, but above all wisdom.
_Reason 2._ Without infinite wisdom he could not govern the world.
Without wisdom in forming the matter, which was made by Divine power,
the world could have been no other than a chaos; and without wisdom
in government, it could have been no other than a heap of confusion;
without wisdom the world could not have been created in the posture it
is. Creation supposeth a determination of the will putting power upon
acting; the determination of the will supposeth {a516} the counsel
of the understanding, determining the will: no work, but supposeth
understanding as well as will in a rational agent. As without skill
things could not be created, so without it things cannot be governed.
Reason is a necessary perfection to him that presides over all things:
without knowledge there could not be in God a foundation for government,
and without wisdom there could not be an exercise of government; and
without the most excellent wisdom, he could not be the most excellent
governor. He could not be an universal governor, without a universal
wisdom; nor the sole governor without an unimitable wisdom; nor an
independent governor without an original and independent wisdom; nor a
perpetual governor without an incorruptible wisdom. He would not be the
Lord of the world in all points, without skill to order the affairs of
it. Power and wisdom are foundations of all authority and government;
wisdom to know how to rule and command; power to make those commands
obeyed: no regular order could issue out without the first, nor could
any order be enforced without the second. A feeble wisdom, and a
brutish power, seldom or never produce any good effect. Magistracy
without wisdom, would be a frantic power, a rash conduct; like a strong
arm when the eye is out, it strikes it knows not what, and leads it
knows not whither. Wisdom without power, would be like a great body
without feet,[770] like the knowledge of a pilot that hath lost his arm,
who, though he knows the rule of navigation, and what course to follow
in his voyage, yet cannot manage the helm: but when those two, wisdom
and power, are linked together, there ariseth from both a fitness for
government. There is wisdom to propose an end, and both wisdom and
power employ means that conduct to that end. And therefore when God
demonstrates to Job his right of government, and the unreasonableness
of Job’s quarrelling with his proceedings, he chiefly urgeth upon him
the consideration of those two excellencies of his nature, power and
wisdom, which are expressed in his works (chap. xxxviii.‒xli.) A prince
without wisdom, is but a title without a capacity to perform the office;
no man without it is fit for government; nor could God without wisdom
exercise a just dominion in the world. He hath, therefore, the highest
wisdom, since he is the universal governor. That wisdom which is able
to govern a family, may not be able to govern a city; and that wisdom
which governs a city, may not be able to govern a nation or kingdom,
much less a world. The bounds of God’s government being greater than
any, his wisdom for government must needs surmount the wisdom of
all. And though the creatures be not in number actually infinite,
yet they cannot be well governed, but by One endowed with infinite
discretion.[771] Providential government can be no more without
infinite wisdom, than infinite wisdom can be without Providence.
_Reason 3._ The creatures working for an end, without their own
knowledge, demonstrate the wisdom of God that guides them. All things
in the world work for some end; the ends are unknown to them, though
many of their ends are visible to us. As there was some prime cause,
which by his power inspired them with their several {a517} instincts;
so there must be some supreme wisdom, which moves and guides them to
their end. As their being manifests his power that endowed them, so the
acting according to the rules of their nature, which they themselves
understand not, manifests his wisdom in directing them. Everything
that acts for an end, must know that end, or be directed by another to
attain that end. The arrow doth not know who shoots it, or to what end
it is shot, or what mark is aimed at; but the archer that puts it in,
and darts it out of the bow, knows. A watch hath a regular motion, but
neither the spring, nor the wheels that move, know the end of their
motion; no man will judge a wisdom to be in the watch, but in the
artificer that disposed the wheels and spring, by a joint combination
to produce such a motion for such an end. Doth either the sun that
enlivens the earth, or the earth that travels with the plant, know
what plant it produceth in such a soil, what temper it should be of,
what fruit it should bear, and of what color? What plant knows its
own medicinal qualities, its own beautiful flowers, and for what use
they are ordained? When it strikes up its head from the earth, doth it
know what proportion of them there will be? yet it produceth all these
things in a state of ignorance. The sun warms the earth, concocts the
humors, excites the virtue of it, and cherishes the seeds which are
cast into her lap, yet all unknown to the sun or the earth. Since,
therefore, that nature, that is the immediate cause of those things
doth not understand its own quality, nor operation, nor the end of
its action, that which thus directs them must be conceived to have an
infinite wisdom. When things act by a rule they know not, and move for
an end they understand not, and yet work harmoniously together for an
end, that all of them, we are sure, are ignorant of, it mounts up our
minds to acknowledge the wisdom of that Supreme Cause that hath ranged
all these inferior causes in their order, and imprinted upon them
the laws of their motions according to the ideas in his own mind, who
orders the rule by which they act, and the end for which they act, and
directs every motion according to their several natures, and therefore
possessed with infinite wisdom in his own nature.
_Reason 4._ God is the fountain of all wisdom in the creatures, and,
therefore, is infinitely wise himself. As he hath a fulness of being in
himself, because the streams of being are derived to other things from
him, so he hath a fulness of wisdom, because he is the spring of wisdom
to angels and men. That being must be infinitely wise from whence all
other wisdom derives its original; for nothing can be in the effect,
which is not eminently in the cause; the cause is alway more perfect
than the effect. If, therefore, the creatures are wise, the Creator
must be much more wise. If the Creator were destitute of wisdom, the
creature would be much more perfect than the Creator. If you consider
the wisdom of the spider in her web, which is both her house and
net; the artifice of the bee in her comb, which is both her chamber
and granary; the provision of the pismire in her repositories for
corn,――the wisdom of the Creator is illustrated by them: whatsoever
excellency you see in any creature, is an image of some excellency in
God. The skill of the artificer is visible in {a518} the fruits of his
art; a workman transcribes his spirit in the work of his hands. But
the wisdom of rational creatures, as men, doth more illustrate it; all
arts among men are the rays of Divine wisdom shining upon them, and,
by a common gift of the Spirit, enlightening their minds to curious
inventions, as (Prov. viii. 12): “I, wisdom, find out the knowledge of
witty inventions;” that is, I give a faculty to men to find them out;
without my wisdom all things would be buried in darkness and ignorance:
whatsoever wisdom there is in the world, it is but a shadow of the
wisdom of God, a small rivulet derived from him, a spark leaping
out from uncreated wisdom (Isa. liv. 16): “He created the smith that
bloweth the coals in the fire, and makes the instruments.” The skill to
use those weapons in warlike enterprises is from him: “I have created
the waster to destroy;” it is not meant of creating their persons, but
communicating to them their art; he speaks it there to expel fear from
the church of all warlike preparations against them; he had given men
the skill to form and use weapons, and could as well strip them of it,
and defeat their purposes. The art of husbandry is a fruit of divine
teaching (Isa. xxviii. 24, 25). If those lower kinds of knowledge, that
are common to all nations, and easily learned by all, are discoveries
of Divine wisdom, much more the nobler sciences, intellectual and
political wisdom (Dan. ii. 21): “He gives wisdom to the wise, and
knowledge to them that know understanding;” speaking of the more
abstruse parts of knowledge, “The inspiration of the Almighty gives
understanding” (Job xxxii. 8). Hence the wisdom which Solomon expressed
in the harlot’s case (1 Kings iii. 28), was, in the judgment of all
Israel, the wisdom of God; that is, a fruit of Divine wisdom, a beam
communicated to him from God. Every man’s soul is endowed, more or
less, with those noble qualities; the soul of every man exceeds that
of a brute; if the streams be so excellent, the fountain must be fuller
and clearer. The first Spirit must infinitely more possess what other
spirits derive from him by creation; were the wisdom of all the angels
in heaven, and men on earth, collected in one spirit, it must be
infinitely less than what is in the spring; for no creature can be
equal to the Creator. As the highest creature already made, or that we
can conceive may be made by infinite power, would be infinitely below
God in the notion of a creature, so it would be infinitely below God in
the notion of wise.
IV. The fourth thing is, wherein the wisdom of God appears. It appears,
1st, In creation. 2dly, In government. 3dly, In redemption.