publishing the gospel. He did not employ philosophers, but fishermen;
used not acquired arts, but infused wisdom and courage. This treasure
was put into, and preserved in earthen vessels, that the wisdom, as
well as the power of God, might be magnified. The weaker the means are
which attain the end, the greater is the skill of the conductor of them.
Wise princes choose men of most credit, interest, wisdom, and ability,
to be ministers of their affairs, and ambassadors to others. But what
were these that God chose for so great a work, as the publishing a new
doctrine to the world? What was their quality but mean, what was their
authority without interest? What was their ability, without eminent
parts for so great a work, but what Divine grace in a special manner
endowed them with? Nay, what was their disposition to it? as dull and
unwieldy. Witness the frequent rebukes for their slow‑heartedness,
from their Master, when he conversed in the flesh with them. And one of
the greatest of them, so fond of the Jewish ceremonies and Pharisaical
principles, wherein he had been more than ordinarily principled, that
he hated the Christian religion to extirpation, and the professors of
it to death; by those ways which were out of the road of human wisdom,
and would be accounted the greatest absurdity to be practised by men
that have a repute for discretion, did God advance his wisdom (1 Cor.
i. 25): “The foolishness of God is wiser than man.” By this means it
was indisputably evidenced to unbiassed minds, that the doctrine was
divine. It could not rationally be imagined, that instruments destitute
of all human advantages, should be able to vanquish the world, confound
Judaism, overturn heathenism, chase away the devils, strip them of
their temples, alienate the minds of men from their several religions,
which had been rooted in them by education, and established by a long
succession. It could not, I {a579} say, reasonably be imagined to be
without a supernatural assistance, an heavenly and efficacious working:
whereas, had God taken a course agreeable to the prudence of man, and
used those that had been furnished with learning, tipped with eloquence,
and armed with human authority, the doctrines would have been thought
to have been of a human invention, and to be some subtle contrivance
for some unworthy and ambitious end: the nothingness and weakness
of the instruments manifest them to be conducted by a Divine power,
and declare the doctrine itself to be from heaven. When we see such
feeble instruments proclaiming a doctrine repugnant to flesh and blood,
sounding forth a crucified Christ to be believed in, and trusted on,
and declaiming against the religion and worship under which the Roman
empire had long flourished; exhorting them to the contempt of the
world, preparation for afflictions, denying themselves, and their own
honors, by the hopes of an unseen reward, things so repugnant to flesh
and blood; and these instruments concurring in the same story, with
an admirable harmony in all parts, and sealing this doctrine with
their blood; can we upon all this, ascribe this doctrine to a human
contrivance, or fix any lower author of it than the wisdom of heaven?
It is the wisdom of God that carries on his own designs in methods most
suitable to his own greatness, and different from the customs and modes
of men, that less of humanity, and more of divinity might appear.
(4.) The wisdom of God appears in the ways and manner, as well as in
the instruments of its propagation, by ways seemingly contrary. You
know how God had sent the Jews into captivity in Babylon, and though he
struck off their chains, and restored them to their country, yet many
of them had no mind to leave a country wherein they had been born and
bred. The distance from the place of the original of their ancestors,
and their affection to the country wherein they were born, might
have occasioned their embracing the idolatrous worship of the place.
Afterwards the persecutions of Antiochus scattered many of the Jews for
their security into other nations; yet a great part, and perhaps the
greatest, preserved their religion, and by that were obliged to come
every year to Jerusalem to offer, and so were present at the effusion
of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and were witnesses of the
miraculous effects of it. Had they not been dispersed by persecution,
had they not resided in several countries, and been acquainted with
their languages, the gospel had not so easily been diffused into
several countries of the world. The first persecutions also raised
against the church, propagated the gospel; the scattering of the
disciples enflamed their courage, and dispersed the doctrine (Acts viii.
3), according to the prophecy of Daniel (xii. 4): “Many should run to
and fro, and knowledge should be increased.” The flights and hurryings
of men should enlarge the territories of the gospel. There was not a
tribunal, but the primitive Christians were cited to; not a horrible
punishment, but was inflicted upon them. Treated they were, as the
dregs and offals of mankind, as the common enemies of the world; yet
the flames of the martyrs brightened the doctrine, and the captivity of
its professors made way for the throne of its empire. The imprisonment
of {a580} the ark was the downfall of Dagon. Religion grew stronger
by sufferings, and Christianity taller by injuries. What can this be
ascribed to, but the conduct of a wisdom superior to that of men and
devils, defeating the methods of human and hellish policy; thereby
making the “wisdom of this world foolishness with God” (1 Cor. iii. 19)?
V. The _Use 1._ Of Information. If wisdom be an excellency of the
Divine nature; then,
1. Christ’s Deity may hence be asserted. Wisdom is the emphatical
title of Christ in Scripture (Prov. viii. 12, 13, 31), where wisdom
is brought in speaking as a distinct person; ascribing counsel, and
understanding, and the knowledge of witty inventions to itself. He is
called also the power of God, and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. i. 24).
And the ancients generally understood that place (Col. ii. 3), “In him
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” as an assertion of
the Godhead of Christ, in regard of the infiniteness of his knowledge;
referring wisdom to his knowledge of divine things; and knowledge to
his understanding of all human things. But the natural sense of the
place seems to be this, that all wisdom and knowledge is displayed by
Christ in the gospel; and the words, ἐν αὐτῷ, refer either to Christ,
or the mystery of God spoken of, (ver. 2). But the Deity of Christ,
in regard of infinite wisdom, may be deduced from his creation of
things, and his government of things; both which are ascribed to him in
Scripture. The first ascribed to him (John i. 3): “All things were made
by him;” and (ver. 27), “Without him was not any thing made, that was
made.” The second (John v. 22): “The Father hath committed all judgment
to the Son;” and both put together (Col. ii. 16, 17). Now since he hath
the government of the world, he hath the perfections necessary to so
great a work. As the creation of the world, which is ascribed to him,
requires an infinite power, so the government of the world requires an
infinite wisdom. That he hath the knowledge of the hearts of men, was
proved in handling the omniscience of God. That knowledge would be to
little purpose without wisdom to order the motions of men’s hearts,
and conduct all the qualities and actions of creatures, to such an
end as is answerable to a wise government; we cannot think so great an
employment can be without an ability necessary for it. The government
of men and angels is a great part of the glory of God; and if God
should entrust the greatest part of his glory in hands unfit for so
great a trust, it would be an argument of weakness in God, as it is in
men, to pitch upon unfit instruments for particular charges; since God
hath therefore committed to him his greatest glory, the conduct of all
things for the highest end, he hath a wisdom requisite for so great an
end, which can be no less than infinite. If then Christ were a finite
person, he would not be capable of an infinite communication; he could
not be a subject wherein infinite wisdom could be lodged; for the
terms finite and infinite are so distant, that they cannot commence
one another; finite can never be changed into infinite, no more than
infinite can into finite.
2. Hence we may assert the right and fitness of God for the
government {a581} of the world, as he is the wisest Being. Among men,
those who are excellent in judgment, are accounted fittest to preside
over, and give orders to others; the wisest in a city are most capable
to govern a city; or at least, though ignorant men may bear the title,
yet the advice of the soundest and skilfullest heads should prevail
in all public affairs: we see in nature, that the eye guides the body,
and the mind directs the eye. Power and wisdom are the two arms of
authority; wisdom knows the end, and directs the means; power executes
the means designed for such an end.[804] The more splendid and strong
those are in any, the more authority results from thence, for the
conduct of others that are of an inferior orb; now God being infinitely
excellent in both, his ability and right to the management of the world
cannot be suspected; the whole world is but one commonwealth, whereof
God is the monarch. Did the government of the world depend upon the
election of men and angels, where could they pitch, or where would they
find perfections capable of so great a work, but in the Supreme Wisdom?
His wisdom hath already been apparent in those laws, whereby he formed
the world into a civil society, and the Israelites into a commonwealth.
The one suited to the consciences and reasons of all his subjects, and
the other suited to the genius of that particular nation, drawn out of
the righteousness of the moral law, and applicable to all cases that
might arise among them in their government; so that Moses asserts,
that the wisdom apparent in their laws enacted by God, as their chief
magistrate, would render them famous among other nations, in regard of
their wisdom, as well as their righteousness (Deut. iv. 6, 7, 9). Also,
this perfection doth evidence, that God doth actually govern the world.
It would not be a commendable thing for a man to make a curious piece
of clock‑work, and take no care for the orderly motion of it. Would God
display so much of his skill in framing the heaven and earth, and none
in actual guidance of them to their particular and universal ends? Did
he lay the foundation in order, and fit every stone in the building,
make all things in weight and measure, to let them afterwards run at
hap‑hazard? Would he bring forth his power to view in the creation,
and let a more glorious perfection lie idle, when it had so large a
field to move in? Infinite wisdom is inconsistent with inactivity.
All prudence doth illustrate itself in untying the hardest knots, and
disposing the most difficult affairs to a happy and successful issue.
All those various arts and inventions among men which lend their
assisting hand to one another, and those various employments their
several geniuses lead them to, whereby they support one another’s
welfare, are beams and instincts of Divine wisdom in the government
of the world. He that “made all things in wisdom” (Ps. civ. 24), would
not leave his works to act and move only according to their own folly,
and idly behold them jumble together, and run counter to that end he
designed them for; we must not fancy Divine wisdom to be destitute of
activity.
3. Here we may see a ground of God’s patience. The most impotent
persons are the most impatient, when unforeseen emergencies {a582}
arise; or at events expected by them, when their feeble prudence was
not a sufficient match to contest with them, or prevent them. But the
wiser any man is, the more he bears with those things which seem to
cross his intentions, because he knows he grasps the whole affair, and
is sure of attaining the end he proposeth to himself; yet, as a finite
wisdom can have but a finite patience, so an infinite wisdom possesses
an infinite patience. The wise God intends to bring glory to himself,
and good to some of his creatures, out of the greatest evils that can
happen in the world, he beholds no exorbitant afflictions and monstrous
actions, but what he can dispose to a good and glorious end, even to
“work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. viii. 28); and,
therefore, doth not presently fall foul upon the actors, till he hath
wrought out that temporary glory to himself, and good to his people
which he designs. The times of ignorance God winked at, till he had
brought his Son into the world, and manifested his wisdom in redemption,
and when this was done he presseth men to a “speedy repentance” (Acts
xvii. 30); that, as he forbore punishing their crimes, in order to
the displaying his wisdom in the designed redemption; so when he had
effected it, they must forbear any longer abusing his patience.
4. Hence appears the immutability of God in his decrees. He is not
destitute of a power and strength to change his own purposes, but his
infinite perfection of wisdom is a bar to his laying aside his eternal
resolves and forming new ones (Isa. xlvi. 10); he resolves the end from
the beginning, and his counsel stands; stands immovable, because it
is his counsel. It is an impotent counsel, that is subject to a daily
thwarting itself. Inconstant persons are accounted, by men, destitute
of a due measure of prudence. If God change his mind it is either for
the better or the worse; if for the better, he was not wise in his
former purpose; if for the worse, he is not wise in his present resolve.
No alteration can be without a reflection of weakness upon the former
or present determination. God must either cease to be as wise as he was
before, or begin to be wiser than he was before the change, which to
think or imagine is to deny a Deity. If any man change his resolution,
he is apprehensive of a flaw in his former purpose, and finds an
inconvenience in it, which moves him to such a change, which must be
either for want of foresight in himself, or want of a due consideration
of the object of his counsel, neither of which can be imagined of God
without a denial of the Deity. No, there are no blots and blemishes in
his purposes and promises. Repentance, indeed, is an act of wisdom in
the creature, but it presupposeth folly in his former actions, which
is inconsistent with infinite perfection. Men are often too rash in
promising; and, therefore, what they promise in haste, they perform at
leisure, or not at all: they consider not before they vow, and make
after‑inquiries, whether they had best stand to it. The only wise God
needs not any after‑game: as he is sovereignly wise, he sees no cause
of reversing anything, and wants not expedients for his own purpose;
and as he is infinitely powerful, he hath no superior to hinder him
from executing his will, and making his people enjoy the effects of his
wisdom. If he had a recollection of thoughts, as man hath, and {a583}
and saw a necessity to mend them, he were not infinitely wise in his
first decrees: as in creation he looked back upon the several pieces of
that goodly frame he had erected, and saw them so exact that he did not
take up his pencil again to mend any particle of the first draught, so
his promises are made with such infinite wisdom and judgment, that what
he writes is irreversible and forever, as the decrees of the Medes and
Persians. All the words of God are eternal because they are the births
of righteousness and judgment (Hos. ii. 19); “I will betroth thee to
me forever, in righteousness and judgment.” He is not of a wavering
and flitting discretion: if he threatens, he wisely considers what he
threatens; if he promises, he wisely considers what he promises; and
therefore is immutable in both.
5. Hence it follows that God is a fit object for our trust and
confidence: for God being infinitely wise, when he promises anything,
he sees everything which may hinder, and everything which may promote
the execution of it, so that he cannot discover anything afterwards
that may move him to take up after‑thoughts: he hath more wisdom than
to promise anything hand over head, or anything which he knows he
cannot accomplish. Though God, as true, be the object of our trust,
yet God, as wise, is the foundation of our trust. We trust him in his
promise; the promise was made by mercy, and it is performed by truth;
but wisdom conducts all means to the accomplishment of it. There are
many men, whose honesty we can confide in, but whose discretion we are
diffident of: but there is no defect, either of the one or the other,
which may scare us from a depending upon God in our concerns. The words
of man’s wisdom the apostle entitles “enticing” (1 Cor. ii. 4), in
opposition to the words of God’s wisdom, which are firm, stable, and
undeniable demonstrations. As the power of God is an encouragement
of trust, because he is able to effect, so the wisdom of God comes
into the rank of those attributes which support our faith. To put a
confidence in him, we must be persuaded, not only that he is ignorant
of nothing in the world, but that he is wise to manage the whole course
of nature, and dispose of all his creatures, for the bringing his
purposes and his promises to their designed perfection.
6. Hence appears the necessity of a public review of the management
of the world, and of a day of judgment. As a day of judgment may be
inferred from many attributes of God, as his sovereignty, justice,
omniscience, &c., so, among the rest, from this of wisdom. How much
of this perfection will lie unveiled and obscure, if the sins of men
be not brought to view, whereby the ordering the unrighteous actions
of men, by his directing and over‑ruling hand of providence, in
subserviency to his own purposes and his people’s good, may appear in
all its glory! Without such a public review, this part of wisdom will
not be clearly visible; how those actions, which had a vile foundation
in the hearts and designs of men, and were formed there to gratify some
base lust, ambition, and covetousness, &c. were, by a secret wisdom
presiding over them, conducted to amazing ends. It is a part of Divine
wisdom to right itself, and convince men of the reasonableness of its
laws, and the unreasonableness of their contradictions {a584} to it.
The execution of the sentence is an act of justice, but the conviction
of the reasonableness of the sentence is an act of wisdom, clearing up
the righteousness of the proceeding; and this precedes, and the other
follows (Jude 15); “To convince all that are ungodly of all their
ungodly deeds.” That wisdom which contrived satisfaction, as well as
that justice which required it, is concerned in righting the law which
was enacted by it. The wisdom of a sovereign Lawgiver is engaged not
to see his law vilified and trampled on, and exposed to the lusts and
affronts of men, without being concerned in vindicating the honor of
it. It would appear a folly to enact and publish it, if there were
not a resolution to right and execute it. The wisdom of God can no
more associate iniquity and happiness together, than the justice of
God can separate iniquity from punishment. It would be defective,
if it did always tamely bear the insolences of offenders, without a
time of remark of their crimes, and a justification of the precept,
rebelliously spurned at. He would be unwise, if he were unjust;
unrighteousness hath no better a title in Scripture than that of
folly. It is no part of Wisdom to give birth to those laws which he
will always behold ineffectual, and neither vindicate his law by a due
execution of the penalty, nor right his own authority, contemned in
the violation of his law, by a just revenge: besides, what wisdom would
it be for the Sovereign Judge to lodge such a spokesman for himself as
conscience in the soul of man, if it should be alway found speaking,
and at length be found false in all that it speaks? There is, therefore,
an apparent prospect of the day of account, from the consideration of
this perfection of the Divine nature.
7. Hence we have a ground for a mighty reverence and veneration of the
Divine Majesty. Who can contemplate the sparklings of this perfection
in the variety of the works of his hands, and the exact government of
all his creatures, without a raised admiration of the excellency of his
Being, and a falling flat before him, in a posture of reverence to so
great a Being? Can we behold so great a mass of matter, digested into
several forms, so exact a harmony and temperament in all the creatures,
the proportions of numbers and measures, and one creature answering
the ends and designs of another, the distinct beauties of all, the
perpetual motion of all things without checking one another; the
variety of the nature of things, and all acting according to their
nature with an admirable agreement, and all together, like different
strings upon an instrument, emitting divers sounds, but all reduced to
order in one delightful lesson;――I say, can we behold all this without
admiring and adoring the Divine wisdom, which appears in all? And
from the consideration of this, let us pass to the consideration of
his wisdom in redemption, in reconciling divided interests, untying
hard knots, drawing one contrary out of another; and we must needs
acknowledge that the wisdom of all the men on earth, and angels in
heaven, is worse than nothing and vanity in comparison of this vast
Ocean. And as we have a greater esteem for those that invent some
excellent artificial engines, what reverence ought we to have for
him that hath stamped an unimitable wisdom upon all his works! Nature
orders {a585} us to give honor to our superiors in knowledge, and
confide in their counsels; but none ought to be reverenced as much
as God, since none equals him in wisdom.
8. If God be infinitely wise, it shows us the necessity of our address
to him, and invocation of his Name. We are subject to mistakes, and
often overseen; we are not able rightly to counsel ourselves. In some
cases, all creatures are too short‑sighted to apprehend them, and too
ignorant to give advice proper for them, and to contrive remedies for
their ease; but with the Lord there is counsel (Jer. xxxii. 19), “He is
great in counsel, and mighty in working;” great in counsel to advise us,
mighty in working to assist us. We know not how to effect a design, or
prevent an expected evil. We have an infinite Wisdom to go to, that is
every way skilful to manage any business we desire, to avert any evil
we fear, to accomplish anything we commit into his hands. When we know
not what to resolve, he hath a counsel to “guide us” (Ps. lxxiii. 24).
He is not more powerful to effect what is needful, than wise to direct
what is fitting. All men stand in need of the help of God, as one man
stands in need of the assistance of other men, and will not do anything
without advice; and he that takes advice, deserves the title of a wise
man, as well as he that gives advice. But no man needs so much the
advice of another man, as all men need the counsel and assistance
of God: neither is any man’s wit and wisdom so far inferior to the
prudence and ability of an angel, as the wisdom of the wisest man and
the most sharp‑sighted angel, is inferior to the infinite wisdom of God.
We see, therefore, that it is best for us to go to the fountain, and
not content ourselves with the streams; to beg advice from a wisdom
that is infinite and infallible, rather than from that which is finite
and fallible.
_Use 2._ If wisdom be the perfection of the Divine Majesty, how
prodigious is the contempt of it in the world? In general, all sin
strikes at this attribute, and is in one part or other a degrading
of it: the first sin directed its venom against this. As the devils
endeavored to equal their Creator in power, so man endeavored to equal
him in wisdom: both indeed scorned to be ruled by his order; but man
evidently exalted himself against the wisdom of God, and aspired to be
a sharer with him in his infinite knowledge; would not let him be the
only wise God, but cherished an ambition to be his partner. Just as
if a beam were able to imagine it might be as bright as the sun; or a
spark fancy it could be as full fraught with heat as the whole element
of fire. Man would not submit to the infinite wisdom of God in the
prohibition of one single fruit in the garden, when by the right of
his sovereign authority, he might have granted him only the use of
one. All presumptuous sins are of this nature; they are, therefore,
called reproaches of God (Num. xv. 30), “the soul that doth ought
presumptuously, reproacheth the Lord.” All reproaches are either for
natural, moral, or intellectual defects. All reproaches of God must
imply either a weakness or unrighteousness in God: if unrighteousness,
his holiness is denied; if weakness, his wisdom is blemished. In
general, all sin strikes at this perfection two ways.