WISDOM IS JUSTIFIED OF HER CHILDEEN.
For Jolin came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Beheld a man gluttonous, a friend of publicans and sinners. But ivisdom is justified of her children. — Mat. XI. 18, 19.
In this context Christ had likened the people of the generation in which he lived to boys playing in the streets, and personating (as children are given to imitate what they have seen in elder persons) sometimes festivities, acting the part of a musician, but their fellows danced not ; sometimes funerals, acting the part of the mourning women who were to weep for the dead, cry. Ah, my brother ! but they upbraided their fellows, that they would do nothing as they should, ueither follow them in their mirth nor sadness. So the people of that generation, whatsoever messages God sent unto them, they accepted them not and obeyed them not. Some great exceptions they had still to the messengers employed. One kind of exception they have to John, and the quite contrary to Jesus ; and so they are not pleased, neither full nor fasting, as we say. Their censure of John was that he was an hypochondriac, or a frantic fellow ; the devil was in him that he was so austere. But Christ, that was gentle and affable, they censure him as a loose person, or favourer of such. ' For John came neither eating and drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, A man gluttonous, and a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.' In the words three things are observable : —
1. The different form and course of life wherein John and Christ appeared.
2. Their censures both of John and Jesus.
3. The receiving of the gospel by the unprejudiced.
1. The different course of life wherein John and Christ appeared. ' John came neither eating nor drinking ; ' that is, lived in a strict austere course of life, not after the ordinary diet of men ; for we read he had his raiment of camels' hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey. But the Son of man came eating and drinking; that is, using the ordinary diet of men, and eating promiscuously with all company, in a more free use of the creatures, taking the fare as he found it, and conversing with all sorts
94 WISDOM IS JUSTIFIED [Mat. XI. 18, 10.
of men in a familiar course of life ; sometimes with publicans, as Zaccheus ; sometimes ^vitll pliarisees, as Simon, Luke vii. He observed no such abstinency, but ate meats indilFerently. Sometimes he had nothing but barley-bread and water ; sometimes he was at feasts, and usinj; wine, and conversed with men indiflerently.
2. Their censures both of John and Jesus. John ' hath a devil ; ' that is, he is a person possessed, out of his wits : for the Jews ascribed all distempers to the devil. And of Christ their censure was that he was ' a glutton, and a friend of publicans and sinners.'
3. The receiving of the gospel by the unprejudiced, ' but wisdom is justified of her children.' This last clause needeth opening, that we may know what is wisdom, who are her children, and how they justify it.
[1.] By wisdom is meant the doctrine of the gospel, called elsewhere, ' The counsel of God,' as appeareth by the parallel place, Luke vii. 29, 30, * And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justi- fied God, being baptized with the bjiptism of John. But the pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves.' The gospel is called wisdom, because it is the result of God's eternal wisdom. The doctrine of Christ crucified is called, ' the wisdom of God,' 1 Cor. i. 24 ; and again, 1 Cor. ii. 7, ' the wisdom of God in a mystery.'
[2.] The children of wisdom are the professors of it. It is an Hebraism ; as ' children of wrath,' ' children of light,' ' children of this world,' &c. — the professors and followers of the gospel. Wisdom hath her children : all are not alike indisposed ; some are begotten to God by the doctrine of grace.
[3.] Justified. As this is opposed to crimination, so to justify is the work of an advocate. As it is opposed to condemnation, so it is the work of a judge. Wisdom's children will bear witness to their faith, or the doctrine of God, by their profession and godly life and ready obedience, and exalt it as much as others decry it, and every way manifest that they hold it for good and right.
Many points might be observed hence, as —
1. That God sendeth forth his servants with divers dispositions ; some more austere in life, others more social in their carriage ; some sad and mournful, others cheerful and pleasant; some more thundering in doctrine, others more gently inducing people to repentance. Since God maketh use of variety of gifts and tempers, let us observe this wisdom, not bring all to the law of some admired instance and example. As there is a dilTerence of stomachs, some for meats baked or roasted, others for boiled, so God fits his servants severally to do good, as the })ersons they are to treat witli need.