deforming and blemishing our own souls, which, as they are the prime
creatures in the lower world, so they have greater characters of Divine
wisdom in the fabric of them: but this image of God is ruined and
broken by sin. Though the spoiling of it be a scorn of his holiness, it
is also an affront to his wisdom; for though his power was the cause of
the production of so fair a piece, yet his wisdom was the guide of his
power, and his holiness the pattern whereby he wrought it. His power
effected it, and his holiness was exemplified in it; but his wisdom
contrived it. If a man had a curious clock or watch, which had cost him
many years pains and the strength of his skill to frame it; for another,
after he had seen and considered it, to trample upon it, and crush it
in pieces, would argue a contempt of the artificer’s skill. God hath
shown infinite art in the creation of man; but sin unbeautifies man,
and ravisheth his excellency. It cuts and slasheth the image of God
stamped by divine wisdom, as though it were an object only of scorn
and contempt. The sinner in every sin acts, as if he intended to put
himself in a better posture, and in a fairer dress, than the wisdom of
God hath put him in by creation.
2. In the slighting his laws. The laws of God are highly
rational; they are drawn from the depths of the Divine understanding,
wherein there is no unclearness, and no defect. As his understanding
apprehends all things in their true reason, so his will enjoins all
things for worthy and wise ends. His laws are contrived by his wisdom
for the happiness of man, whose happiness, and the methods to it, he
understands better than men or angels can do. His laws being the orders
of the wisest understanding, every breach of his law is a flying in
the face of his wisdom. All human laws, though they are enforced by
sovereign authority, yet they are, or ought to be, in the composing of
them, founded upon reason, and should be particular applications of the
law of nature to this or that particular emergency. The laws of God,
then, who is _summa ratio_, are the birth of the truest reason; though
the reason of every one of them may not be so clear to us. Every law,
though it consists in an act of the will, yet doth pre‑suppose an act
of the understanding. The act of the Divine understanding in framing
the law, must be supposed to precede the act of his will in commanding
the observance of that law. So every sin against the law, is not only
against the will of God commanding, but the reason of God contriving,
and a cleaving to our own reason, rather than the understanding or
mind of God: as if God had mistaken in making his law, and we had more
understanding to frame a better, and more conducing to our happiness:
as if God were not wise enough to govern us, and prescribe what we
should do, and what we should avoid; as if he designed not our welfare
but our misfortune. Whereas, the precepts of God are not tyrannical
edicts, or acts of mere will, but the fruits of counsel; and, therefore,
every breach of them is a real declamation against his discretion and
judgment, and preferring our own imaginations, or the suggestions of
the devil, as our rule, before the results of Divine counsel. While we
acknowledge {a587} him wise in our opinion, we speak him foolish by our
practice; when, instead of being guided by him, we will guide ourselves.
No man will question, but it is a controlling Divine wisdom, to make
alterations in his precepts; dogmatically, either to add some of
their own, or expunge any of his: and is it not a crime of the like
reflection to alter them practically? When we will observe one part
of the law, and not another part; but pick and choose where we please
ourselves, as our humors and carnal interest prompt us; it is to charge
that part of the law with folly, which we refuse to conform unto. The
more cunning any man is in sin, the more his sin is against Divine
wisdom, as if he thought to outwit God. He that receives the promises
of God, and the “testimony of Christ, sets to his seal, that God
is true” (John iii. 33). By the like strength of argument, it will
undeniably follow, that he that refuseth obedience to his precepts,
sets to his seal that God is foolish. Were they not rational, God would
not enjoin them; and if they are rational, we are enemies to infinite
wisdom, by not complying with them. If infinite prudence hath made the
law, why is not every part of it observed; if it were not made with
the best wisdom, why is any part of it observed? If the defacing of
his image be any sin, as being a defaming his wisdom in creation, the
breaking his law is no less a sin, as being a disgracing his wisdom in
his administration. ’Tis upon this account, likely, that the Scripture
so often counts sinners fools, since it is certainly inexcusable folly
to contradict undeniable and infallible Wisdom; yet this is done in the
least sin: and as he that breaks one tittle of the law, is deservedly
accounted guilty of the breach of the whole (James ii. 10), so he that
despiseth the least stamp of wisdom in the minutest part of the law,
is deservedly counted as a contemner of it, in the frame of the whole
statute‑book. But, in particular, the wisdom of God is affronted and
invaded.
(1.) By introducing new rules and modes of worship, different
from Divine institutions. Is not this a manifest reflection on this
perfection of God, as though he had not been wise enough to provide
for his own honor, and model his own service, but stood in need of our
directions, and the _caprichios_ of our brains? Some have observed,
that it is a greater sin in worship to do that we should not, than to
omit what we should perform.[805] The one seems to be out of weakness,
because of the high exactness of the law; and the other out of
impudence, accusing the wisdom of God of imperfection, and controlling
it in its institutions. At best, it seems to be an imputation of
human bashfulness to the Supreme Sovereign; as if he had been ashamed
to prescribe all that was necessary to his own honor, but had left
something to the ingenuity and gratitude of men. Man has, ever since
the foolish conceit of his old ancestor Adam, presumed he could be
as wise as God; and if he who was created upright entertained such
conceits, much more doth man now, under a mass of corruption, so
capable to foment them. This hath been the continual practice of men;
not so much to reject what once they had received as Divine, but add
something of their own inventions to it. The {a588} heathens renounced
not the sacrificing of beasts for the expiation of their offences
(which the old world had received by tradition from Adam, and the
new world, after the deluge, from Noah). But they had blended that
tradition with rites of their own, and offered creatures unclean in
themselves, and not fit to be offered to an infinitely pure Being; for
the distinction of clean and unclean was as ancient as Noah (Gen. viii.
20), yea, before (Gen. vii. 2). So the Jews did not discard what they
had received from God, as circumcision, the Passover, and sacrifices;
but they would mix a heap of heathenish rites with the ceremonies of
Divine ordination, and practise things which he had not commanded,
as well as things which he had enjoined them. And, therefore, it is
observable, that when God taxeth them with sin, he doth not say, they
brought in those things which he had forbidden into his worship; but
those things which he had not commanded, and had given no order for, to
intimate, that they were not to move a step without his rule (Jer. vii.
31): “They have built the high palaces of Tophet, which I commanded
them not, neither came it into my heart;” and (Levit. x. 1); Nadab’s
and Abihu’s strange fire was not commanded; so charging them with
impudence and rashness in adding something of their own, after he
had revealed to them the manner of his service, as if they were as
wise as God. So loth is man to acknowledge the supremacy of Divine
understanding, and be sensible of his own ignorance. So after the
divulging of the gospel, the corruptors of religion did not fling off,
but preserved the institutions of God, but painted and patched them up
with pagan ceremonies; imposed their own dreams with as much force as
the revelations of God. Thus hath the papacy turned the simplicity of
the gospel into pagan pomp, and religion into politics; and revived
the ceremonial law, and raked some limbs of it out of the grave, after
the wisdom of God had rung her knell, and honorably interred her; and
sheltered the heathenish superstitions in christian temples, after the
power of the gospel had chased the devils, with all their trumpery,
from their ancient habitations. Whence should this proceed, but from a
partial atheism, and a mean deceit of the Divine wisdom? As though God
had not understanding enough to prescribe the form of his own worship;
and not wisdom enough to support it, without the crutches of human
prudence. Human prudence is too low to parallel Divine wisdom; it is
an incompetent judge of what is fit for an infinite Majesty. It is
sufficiently seen in the ridiculous and senseless rights among the
heathens; and the cruel and devilish ones fetched from them by the
Jews. What work will human wisdom make with divine worship, when it
will presume to be the director of it, as a mate with the wisdom of
God! Whence will it take its measures, but from sense, humor and fancy?
as though what is grateful and comely to a depraved reason, were as
beautiful to an unspotted and Infinite Mind. Do not such tell the world,
that they were of God’s cabinet council, since they will take upon them
to judge, as well as God, what is well‑pleasing to him? Where will it
have the humility to stop, if it hath the presumption to add any one
thing to revealed modes of worship? How did God tax the Israelites with
making idols “according to their own understanding” {a589} (Hos. xiii.
2)! imagining their own understandings to be of a finer make, and a
perfecter mould than their Creator’s; and that they had fetched more
light from the chaos of their own brains, than God had from eternity in
his own nature. How slight will the excuse be, God hath not forbidden
this, or that, when God shall silence men with the question, Where,
or when did I command this, or that? There was no addition to be
made under the law to the meanest instrument God had appointed in
his service. The sacred perfume was not to have one ingredient more
put into it, than what God had prescribed in the composition; nor was
any man upon pain of death to imitate it; nor would God endure that
sacrifices should be consumed with any other fire than that which came
down from heaven. So tender is God of any invasions of his wisdom and
authority. In all things of this nature, whatsoever voluntary humility
and respect to God they may be disguised with, there is a swelling
of the fleshly mind against infinite understanding, which the apostle
nauseates (Col. ii. 18). Such mixtures have not been blessed by God: as
God never prospered the mixtures of several kinds of creatures, to form
and multiply a new species, as being a dissatisfaction with his wisdom
as Creator; so he doth not prosper mixtures in worship, as being a
conspiracy against his wisdom as a Lawgiver. The destruction of the
Jews was judged by some of their doctors to be, for preferring human
traditions before the written word; which they ground on (Isaiah
xxix. 33): “Their fear for me was taught by the precepts of men.”
The injunctions of men were the rule of their worship, and not the
prescripts of my law.[806] To conclude, such as make alterations in
religion, different from the first institution, are intolerable busy
bodies, that will not let God alone with his own affairs. Vain man
would be wiser than his Maker, and be dabbling in that which is His
sole prerogative.
2. In neglecting means instituted by God. When men have risings of
heart against God’s ordinances, “they reject the counsel of the Lord
against themselves,” or, in themselves (Luke vii. 30), ἠθέτησαν.
They disannulled the wisdom of God, the spring of his ordinances. All
neglects are disregards of Divine prescriptions, as impertinent and
unavailable to that end for which they were appointed, as not being
suited to the common dictates of reason; sometimes out of a voluntary
humility, such as Peter’s was, when he denied Christ’s condescension
to wash his feet (John xiii. 8), and thereby judged of the comeliness
of his Master’s intention and action. Such as continually neglect the
great institution of the Lord’s supper, out of a sense of unworthiness,
are in the same rank with Peter, and do, as well as he, fall under the
blame and reproof of Christ. Men would be saved, and use the means,
but either means of their own appointment, or not at all the means of
God’s ordering.[807] They would have God’s wisdom and will condescend
to theirs, and not theirs conformed to God’s; as if our blind judgments
were fittest to make the election of the paths to happiness. Like
Naaman, who, when he was ordered {a590} by the prophet, for the cure
of his leprosy, to “wash seven times in Jordan,” would be the prophet’s
director, and have him touch him with his hand; as if a patient, sick
of a desperate disease, should prescribe to his skilful physician what
remedies he should order for his cure, and make his own infirm reason,
or his gust and palate, the rule, rather than the physician’s skill.
Men’s inquiries are, “Who will show us any good?” They rather fasten
upon any means than that which God hath ordained.[808] We invert the
order Divine wisdom hath established, when we would have God save us in
our own way, not in his. It is the same thing as if we would have God
nourish us without bread, and cure our disease without medicines, and
increase our wealth without our industry, and cherish our souls without
his word and ordinances. It is to demand of him an alteration of his
methods, and a separation of that which he hath by his eternal judgment
joined together. Therefore for a man to pray to God to save him when he
will not use the means he hath appointed for salvation, when he slights
the word, which is the instrument of salvation, is a contempt of the
wisdom of Divine institutions. Also in omissions of prayer. When we
consult not with God upon emergent occasions, we trust more to our
own wisdom than God’s, and imply that we stand not in need of his
conduct, but have ability to direct ourselves, and accomplish our ends
without his guidance. Not seeking God is, by the prophet, taxed to be
a reflection upon this perfection of God (Isa. xxxi. 1, 2): “They look
not to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord” &c. And the like
charge he brings against them (Hos. viii. 9): “They are gone up to
Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself, not consulting God.”
3. In censuring God’s revelations and actions, if they be not
according to our schemes: when we will not submit to his plain will
without penetrating into the unrevealed reason of it, nor adore his
counsels without controlling them, as if we could correct both law
and gospel, and frame a better method of redemption than that of God’s
contriving. Thus men slighted the wisdom of God in the gospel, because
it did not agree with that philosophical wisdom and reason they had
sucked in by education from their masters (1 Cor. i. 21, 22), contrary
to their practice in their superstitious worship, where the oracles
they thought divine were entertained with reverence, not with dispute,
and though ambiguous, were not counted ridiculous by the worshipper.
How foolish is man in this wherein he would be accounted wise! Adam,
in innocence, was unfit to control the doctrine of God when the eye of
his reason was clear; and much more are we, since the depravation of
our natures. The revelations of God tower above reason in its purity,
much more above reason in its mud and earthiness. The rays of Divine
wisdom are too bright for our human understandings, much more for our
sinful understandings. It is base to set up reason, a finite principle,
against an infinite wisdom; much baser to set up a depraved and
purblind reason against an all‑seeing and holy wisdom. If we would have
a reason for all that God speaks, and all that God acts, our wisdom
must become infinite as his, or his wisdom become finite as {a591}
ours. All the censures of God’s revelations arise from some prejudicate
opinions, or traditional maxims, that have enthroned themselves in
our minds, which are made the standard whereby to judge the things of
God, and receive or reject them as they agree with, or dissent from,
those principles (Col. ii. 8). Hence it was that the philosophers,
in the primitive times, were the greatest enemies to the gospel: and
the contempt of Divine wisdom, in making reason the supreme judge of
Divine revelation, was the fruitful mother of the heresies in all ages
springing up in the church, and especially of that Socinianism, that
daily insinuates itself into the minds of men. This is a wrong to
the wisdom of God. He that censures the words or actions of another,
implies that he is, in his censure, wiser than the person censured
by him. It is as insupportable to determine the truth of God’s plain
dictates by our reason, as it is to measure the suitableness or
unsuitableness of his actions by the humor of our will. We may sooner
think to span the sun, or grasp a star, or see a gnat swallow a
Leviathan, than fully understand the debates of eternity. To this we
may refer too curious inquiries into Divine methods, and “intruding
into those things which are not revealed” (Col. ii. 18). It is to
affect a wisdom equal with God, and an ambition to be of his cabinet
council. We are not content to be creatures, that is, to be every way
below God; below him in wisdom, as well as power.
4. In prescribing God’s method of acting. When we pray for a thing
without a due submission to God’s will; as if we were his counsellors,
yea his tutors, and not his subjects, and God were bound to follow our
humors, and be swayed according to the judgment of our ignorance; when
we would have such a mercy which God thinks not fit to give, or have
it in this method, which God designs to convey through another channel.
Thus we would have the only wise God take his measures from our
passions; such a controlling of God was Jonah’s anger about a gourd
(chap. iv. 1): “It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.”
We would direct Him how to dispose of us; as though he, that had
infinite wisdom to contrive and rear the excellent fabric of the world,
had not wisdom enough, without our discretions, to place us in a sphere
proper for his own ends, and the use he intends us in the universe.
All the speeches of men (would I had been in such an office, had
such a charge; would I had such a mercy, in such a method, or by such
instruments,) are entrenchments upon God’s wise disposal of affairs.
This imposing upon God is a hellish disposition, and in hell we find
it. The rich man in hell, that pretends some charity for his brethren
on earth, would direct God a way to prevent their ruin, by sending one
from the dead to school them, as a more effectual means than “Moses
and the prophets” (Luke xvi. 29, 30). It is a temper also to be found
on earth; what else was the language of Saul’s saving the Amalekites’
cattle against the plain command of God (1 Sam. xv. 15)? As if God in
his fury had overshot himself and overlooked his altar, in depriving it
of so great a booty for its service; as if it were an unwise thing in
God, to lose the prey of so many stately cattle, that might make the
altar smoke with their entrails, and serve to expiate the sins of the
people; and therefore he would rectify that which he {a592} thought
to be an oversight in God, and so magnifies his own prudence and
discretion above the Divine. We will not let God act as he thinks fit,
but will be directing him, and “teaching him knowledge” (Job. xxi. 22).
As if God were a statue, an idol, that had eyes and saw not, hands,
but acted not; and could be turned as an image may be, to what quarter
of the heaven we please ourselves. The wisdom of God is unbiassed; he
orders nothing but what is fittest for his end, and we would have our
shallow brains the bias of God’s acting. And will not God resent such
an indignity, as a reflection upon his wisdom as well as authority,
when we intimate that we have better heads than he, and that he comes
short of us in understanding?
5. In murmuring and impatience. One demands a reason, why he hath
this or that cross? Why he hath been deprived of such a comfort, lost
such a venture, languisheth under such a sickness, is tormented with
such pains, oppressed by tyrannical neighbors, is unsuccessful in such
designs? In these, and such like, the wisdom of God is questioned and
defamed. All impatience is a suspicion, if not a condemnation of the
prudence of God’s methods, and would make human feebleness and folly
the rule of God’s dealing with his creatures. This is a presuming
to instruct God, and a reproving him for unreasonableness in his
proceedings, when his dealings with us do not exactly answer our
fancies and wishes; as if God, who made the world in wisdom, wanted
skill for the management of his creatures in it (Job xl. 2): “Shall he
that contends with the Almighty, instruct him? he that reproveth God,
let him answer it.” We that are not wise enough to know ourselves,
and what is needful for us; presume to have wit enough to guide God in
his dealing with us. The wisdom of God rendered Job more useful to the
world by his afflictions, in making him a pattern of patience, than if
he had continued him in a confluence of all worldly comforts, wherein
he had been beneficial only in communicating his morsels to his poor
neighbors. All murmuring is a fastening error upon unerring Wisdom.
6. In pride and haughtiness of spirit. No proud man, but sets his
heart “as the heart of God” (Ezek. xxviii. 2, 3). The wisdom of God
hath given to men divers offices, set them in divers places; some have
more honorable charges, some meaner. Not to give that respect their
offices and places call for, is to quarrel with the wisdom of God, and
overturn the rank and order wherein he hath placed things. It is unfit
we should affront God in the disposal of his creatures, and intimate to
him by our carriage, that he had done more wisely in placing another,
and that he hath done foolishly in placing this or that man in such
a charge. Sometimes men are unworthy the place they fill; they may be
set there in judgment to themselves and others: but the wisdom of God
in his management of things, is to be honored and regarded. It is an
infringing the wisdom of God, when we have a vain opinion of ourselves,
and are blind to others. When we think ourselves monarchs, and treat
others as worms or flies in comparison of us. He who would reduce all
things to his own honor, perverts the order of the world, and would
constitute another {a593} order than what the wisdom of God hath
established; and move them to an end contrary to the intention of God,
and charges God with want of discretion and skill.
7. Distrust of God’s promise is an impeachment of his wisdom.
A secret reviling of it, as if he had not taken due consideration
before he past his word; or a suspicion of his power, as if he could
not accomplish his word. We trust the physician’s skill with our bodies,
and the lawyer’s counsel with our estates; but are loath to rely upon
God for the concerns of our lives. If he be wise to dispose of us, why
do we distrust him? If we distrust him, why do we embrace an opinion
of wisdom? Unbelief also is a contradiction to the wisdom of God in
the gospel, &c., but that I have already handled in a discourse of the
nature of unbelief.
_Use 3._ Of comfort. God hath an infinite wisdom, to conduct us in
our affairs, rectify us in our mistakes, and assist us in our straits.
It is an inestimable privilege to have a God in covenant with us; so
wise, to communicate all good, to prevent all evil; who hath infinite
ways to bring to pass his gracious intentions towards us. “How
unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out” (Rom.
xi. 33)! His judgments or decrees are incomprehensibly wise, and the
ways of effecting them are as wise as his resolves effected by them.
We can as little search into his methods of acting, as we can into his
wisdom of resolving; both his judgments and ways are unsearchable.