Use 1. Well, then, let us often admire the wisdom of God ; look up to the heavens, and what do you find there ? The work of a wise God, Jer. x. 12. Look to the structure of all things round about you, and what offereth itself to your thoughts ? ' By his wisdom he hath established the world.' Look within you, and you cannot choose but say, ' 0 God ! I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made,' Ps. cxxxix. 14. Look into the scriptures, and consider the stupendous mysteries that are revealed there ; of the Trinity in unity, God manifested in our flesh, a virgin conceiving, Christ dying ; and can you hold from crying out, ' Oh ! the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! ' Eom. xi. 33. View these things again and again ; we cannot take up all of God in one or many or all our meditations.
Use 2. Let not it be a bare speculation, but improve it. (1.) To quicken you to prayer ; where should we go for wisdom when we need it, but to the wise God? See Job xxviii. 12, James i. 5, Job. xxxii. 9. Solomon asked wisdom and had it. (2.) Improve it to thanks, when you are able to discern your way and your work, Prov. ii, 6. (3.) Improve it to waiting : Isa. xxx. 18, ' He is a God of judgment ; blessed are all they that wait for him.' When things grow cross, let tlie wise God alone till you see the end of his work ; will you be his counsellor, and teach him how to manage his affairs ? ' He knoweth how to deliver the godly,' &c., 2 Peter ii. 9. (4.) Improve it to patience and
^ Qu. ' united ' ? — Ed. " ' Dolus an virtua quis in lioste requirit.'
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conteiitation ; the wise God knoweth how to make use of thee ia every condition ; wherever thou art, say, I am there where God hath set me. God knoweth what is better for me than I do myself. He that hath put all things in their places hath put me in this place, and here I will glorify him, 1 Cor. xii. 20. Every cross is chosen and elected as well as your persons. There are ' secrets of wisdom ' in providence, that are not always to be found in the surface and outside of it. Job xi. 6. Though it appear in a way of rigour, yet God may have a design in it of mercy to me and glory to himself.
Obs. 2. The next point is, that God is o?^(?/ wise : see the same ex- pression, 1 Tim. i. 17, and Kom. xvi. 27. Why, you will say, this is a communicable attribute ; God hath endowed man with a spirit of wisdom, and human prudence is an emblem and resemblance of divine providence, how then is God only wise ? I answer — Wisdom in God is in such an infiniteness and excess that wisdom in man is but folly in comparison of it : there is none wise as he, there is none wise but from him ; in short, God in three respects is only wise : —
1. Originally and independently wise, not by communication from another, but of himself. Our wisdom is but a ray communicated from ' the father of lights,' James i. 17, a drop from the ocean, a beam from the sun ; the whole knowledge of the angels is but a spark of this light.
2. God is essentially wise, and so only wise. Do not understand God to be wise as if wisdom had made him wise, as it happeneth among the creatures ; in them wisdom is a separable quality, distinct from their essence. Now God's wisdom is himself, and himself is his wisdom. The perfections of the creature are like the gilding which may be laid on upon vessels of wood or stone, the matter is one thing and the varnish or ornament is another ; but the perfections of God are like a vessel made of pure beaten gold, where the matter and the splendour or adorning is the same.
3. God is infinitely wise, and so only wise. As the candle giveth no light when the sun shineth, our wisdom is bounded within narrow limits, and extendeth but to a few things, but God's to all things. We count them fools that can only manage petty matters, buy and sell and keep out of harm's way. Such fools are all creatures to God, whose wisdom is unlimited and incomprehensible. They that can manage a small commonwealth with advice and counsel are cried up for wise men ; but now God manageth the affairs of the whole world, both visible and invisible. He careth for all things, from the ant to the angels, nothing so small as to escape his knowledge, nothing so great as to burden his mind. The sun doth with the same easiness shine upon the whole world as upon one field, so doth God manage the government of the whole world as of one person or creature. Our wisdom is gotten by learning, but ' who hath directed the Sj)irit of the Lord?' Isa. xl. 13. Our wisdom is bettered by experience, therefore old men are most prudent ; but God's wisdom is incapable of increase, as being in an infinite fulness. We are often deceived. Men of the greatest sagacity and cunning fail in their plots and enterprises, and so their ' wisdom is turned into folly ;' but it is not so wath God, ' his counsel shall stand,' Ps. xxxiii. 11. There can no difficulty occur but