' Not in fleshly wisdom.' Now wisdom is a middle word. It may be either spiritual or carnal, as the man is in whom it is. If a man have moral honesty in him, and good things in him that way, it makes him a good politician, a wise man, useful in his place. . Though he be not a sound Christian, yet he may be a wise man in his place ; and God
264 COAIMKNTAUV ON
useth such kind of men in the world, and they have iheh' reward here, they arc advanced, &c.
But if it is hght in a dovihsh nature, in a crooked, ohhque nature, then it is malicious, devilish wisdom.
And, note this by the way. All men that have flesh in them, have not fleshly wisdom ; for some ai*e carried with the flesh, with the ra^^e of fleshly lusts. As the swine in the gospel were carried headlong into the sea, they are carried by their lusts to hell, as your common swaggerers and roarers ; so that they may escape the danger of the laws, they care not for God nor man — irregular, wild persons. These have flesh, they are ruled by the flesh, but they have not so much as ' fleshly wisdom ;' for they take courses to oveithrow themselves in the world, to overthrow their names, and their bodies and all. They have not so much as policy in them, their lusts so reign in them. Such wretches we have ofttimes amongst ns, that think themselves somebody, but they have not so much as carnal wisdom in them to carry themselves better than a devil.
Now, in other men the flesh hath a wisdom that carries them not after this fashion ; but it whets their wits, and they are as bad in another kind. As, take the same man, when he is young he is carried by his brutish lusts, without any wisdom at all, even as the hurry of his lusts carry him, and transport him : when he grows old he is carried subtlely with the wisdom of the world. He is alway under lusts, alway under the flesh. When he is young he is carried with base lusts ; and when he is old he is under the flesh, and fleshly wisdom still. He is carried with slavish covetousness to the world, as formerly he was subject to base lusts in his youth. All this is naught.
Where these differ in the subject, in the person, usually the base lust serves the witty. Those that are carried with base lusts, they are subject, and enthralled, and overruled by those that are carried with the wisdom of the flesh. As your subtle men, your usurers, and subtle oppressors, great witty men, they make other men serviceable to their turn. Other men are slaves to them.
But to come nearer that that I mean to stand on.
' My conversation hath not been in fleshly wisdom.' You may see by the coherence, which I will not dwell on, what to judge of ' fleshly wisdom.'
Ohserv. Fleshly icisdom is, u-here there is no simplicity nor sincerity: be- cause he opposeth them here. WTiere ' fleshly wisdom' is, there is neither * simplicity' nor ' sincerity.' For take a subtle wise man, he is all outside, and there is no simplicity in him. He that is not wise to God, but to the world, he wraps himself in ceremonies in matters of religion, and studies the outside of things to approve himself to the world, and to attain his own ends ; but there is no simplicity or sincerity. He that is wise to the world hath no respect to God.
Sincerity hath an eye to God ; and a sincere man, as far as he is sin- cere, hath an eye to God, and he doth this and that because God seeth him, and because God is pleased with it ; but he that works according to fleshly wisdom, he hath aims contrary and distinct to that. Therefore the apostle saith, ' We walk in the sincerity of God' (as it is in the original*), ' and not according to fleshly wisdom.'
So you may know from the opposition, that fleshly wisdom is where there is no sincerity. Where there is no love to God or to men, there is •■• That is, ' siXiK^mia ©=oD.' — G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 265'
no simplicity, all is for show ; aud where there is all for show, there is double cari'iage, not in simplicity aiming at God's glory. There is ' fleshly wisdom.' That for the connection.
But the point of doctrine proper to the place is this, that
Doctrine, (jod's children liare another vuinner of rule to live Inj than the world: the rule that a (jodlij wise man (joeth by, is not Jleshli/ irisdoni:
A man that looks for any joy, that looks to be in the blessed estate that St Paul here was in, he must not be ruled by fleshly wisdom. ' Our conver- sation,' saith he, ' in the world hath not been in fleshly wisdom.' St Paul, no question but he had flesh in him, and likewise he had ' fleshly wisdom :' because flesh is in all parts, and it mingles itself with all graces. In the understanding there is light and darkness ; in the will there is rebellion and pliablcness to God. So St Paul had the stirrings of fleshly wisdom in him. AVhen he w-as in danger, no doubt but the flesh would stir in him, you may avoid it by shifts if you will. And when he was before great ones, you may flatter and betray the truth if you will.