The next attribute is God’s wisdom, which is one of the brightest beams of the Godhead. ‘He is wise in heart.’ Job 9:9. The heart is the seat of wisdom. Cor in Hebraeo sumitur pro judicio. Pineda. ‘Among the Hebrews, the heart is put for wisdom.’ ‘Let men of understanding tell me:’ Job 34:44: in the Hebrew, ‘Let men of heart tell me.’ God is wise in heart, that is, he is most wise. God only is wise; he solely and wholly possesses all wisdom; therefore he is called, ‘the only wise God.’ I Tim 1:17. All the treasures of wisdom are locked up in him, and no creature can have any wisdom but as God is pleased to give it out of his treasury. God is perfectly wise; there is no defect in his wisdom. Men may be wise in some things, but in other things may betray imprudence and weakness. But God is the exemplar and pattern of wisdom, and the pattern must be perfect. Matt 5:58. God’s wisdom appears in two things. I. His infinite intelligence. II. His exact working.
I. His infinite intelligence. He knows the most profound secrets. Dan 2:28. He knows the thoughts, which are the most intricate subtle things. Amos 4:43. ‘He declareth to man what is his thought.’ Let sin be contrived ever so politically, God will pull off all masks and disguises, and make a heartanatomy. He knows all future contingencies, et ante intuita [and, already foreseen], all things are before him in one clear prospect.
II. His exact curious working. He is wise in heart; his wisdom lies in his works. These works of God are bound up in three great volumes, where we may read his wisdom.
[1] The work of creation. The creation is both a monument of God’s power, and a looking-glass in which we may see his wisdom. None but a wise God could so curiously contrive the world. Behold the earth decked with variety of flowers, which are both for beauty and fragrance. Behold the heaven bespangled with lights. We may see the glorious wisdom of God blazing in the sun, twinkling in the stars. His wisdom is seen in marshalling and ordering everything in its proper place and sphere. If the sun had been set lower, it would have burnt us; if higher, it would not have warmed us with its beams. God’s wisdom is seen in appointing the seasons of the year. ‘Thou hast made summer and winter.’ Psa 74:17. If it had been all summer, the heat would have scorched us; if all winter, the cold would have killed us. The wisdom of God is seen in chequering the dark and the light. If it had been all night, there had been no labour; if all day, there had been no rest. Wisdom is seen in mixing the elements, as the earth with the sea. If it had been all sea, we had wanted bread; if it had been all earth, we had wanted water. The wisdom of God is seen in preparing and ripening the fruits of the earth, in the wind and frost that prepare the fruits, and in the sun and rain that ripen the fruits. God’s wisdom is seen in setting bounds to the sea, and so wisely contriving it, that though the sea be higher than many parts of the earth, yet it should not overflow the earth; so that we may cry out with the Psalmist, ‘O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all.’ Psa 104:24. There is nothing to be seen but miracles of wisdom. God’s wisdom is seen in ordering things in the body politic, that one shall have need of another. The poor need the rich man’s money, and the rich need the poor man’s labour. God makes one trade depend upon another, that one may be helpful to another, and that mutual love may be preserved.
[2] The second work wherein God’s wisdom shines forth is the work of redemption. (1.) Here was the masterpiece of divine wisdom, to contrive a way to happiness between the sin of man and the justice of God. We may cry out with the apostle, ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.’ Rom 11:13. This astonished men and angels. If God had put us to find out a way of salvation when we were lost, we could neither have had a head to devise, nor a heart to desire, what God’s infinite wisdom had found out for us. Mercy had a mind to save sinners, and was loath that the justice of God should be wronged. It is a pity, says Mercy, that such a noble creature as man should be made to be undone; and yet God’s justice must not be a loser. What way then shall be found out? Angels cannot satisfy for the wrong done to God’s justice, nor is it fit that one nature should sin, and another nature suffer. What then? Shall man be for ever lost? Now, while Mercy was thus debating with itself, what to do for the recovery of fallen man, the Wisdom of God stepped in; and thus the oracle spake: - Let God become man; let the Second Person in the Trinity be incarnate, and suffer; and so for fitness he shall be man, and for ability he shall be God; thus justice may be satisfied, and man saved. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom of God, thus to make justice and mercy to kiss each other! Great is this mystery, ‘God manifest in the flesh.’ 1 Tim 3:36. What wisdom was this, that Christ should be made sin, yet know no sin; that God should condemn the sin, yet save the sinner! Here was wisdom, to find out the way of salvation. (2.) The means by which salvation is applied sets forth God’s wisdom; that salvation should be by faith, not by works. Faith is a humble grace, it gives all to Christ; it is an adorer of free grace; and free grace being advanced here, God has his glory; and it is his highest wisdom to exalt his own glory. (3.) The way of working faith declares God’s wisdom. It is wrought by the word preached. ‘Faith comes by hearing.’ Rom 10:17. What is the weak breath of a man to convert a soul? It is like whispering in the ears of a dead man. This is foolishness in the eye of the world; but the Lord loves to show his wisdom by that which seems folly. ‘He has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.’ I Cor 1:17. Why so? verse 29. ‘That no flesh should glory in his presence.’ Should God convert by the ministry of angels, then we should be ready to glory in angels, and give that honour to them which is due to God; but when God works by weak tools, makes use of men who are of like passions with ourselves, and by them converts, then the power is plainly seen to be of God. ‘We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.’ 2 Cor 4:4. Herein is God’s wisdom seen, that no flesh may glory in his Presence.