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bring in their train, disease, poverty, and shame, and how drowsiness clothes a man with rags. If we will but attend

to what is constantly going on before our eyes, we cannot fail to know that a companion of fools shall be destroyed; that hasty suretyship involves men in ruin; that pride is the forerunner of disgrace, and that riches are an uncertain and unsatisfying possession. And so in every department of morals and religion. "Common sense, universal experience, and the law of justice written on the heart, as well as the law of God, testify against rapine and wrong of every kind." In this sense, Wisdom, by a beautiful personification, may be said to stand and cry continually at the corners of the streets, inviting men to come and learn of her the way to true happiness. To exalt still higher our idea of her dignity and priceless value, Wisdom proceeds to represent herself as the eldest child of God, as dwelling with Him from eternity, and as present with Him at the creation of the world.

In sharp contrast with this view is the opposite extreme, which understands Wisdom throughout these passages, directly and simply, of our Lord Jesus Christ in His personal presence and ministry. "We are to understand, not the attribute of divine wisdom displayed in the works of creation, nor the light of nature in man, nor the law of Moses given to the Israelites, nor the revelation of the divine will in general, as it is delivered out in the sacred Scriptures, nor the Gospel and the ministry of it in particular, but our Lord Jesus Christ; for the things spoken of wisdom and ascribed to it in this book, especially in the eighth and ninth chapters, show that a divine person is intended, and most properly belong to Christ, who may be called Wisdom in the plural number, as in the Hebrew text, because of the consummate and perfect wisdom that is in Him; as He is a divine person, He is the Logos, the Word and Wisdom of God; as Mediator, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Him; and as man, the Spirit of Wisdom rests upon Him without measure. This, with what follows to the end of

'Adam Clarke's Commentary on Prov. 1: 20.

the chapter, is a prophecy of the ministry of Christ in the days of His flesh, and of the success of it, and of the calamities that should come upon the Jews for the rejection of it." 1

2

In the above quotation from Dr. Gill, the reader is particularly requested to notice the various limitations. It is not "the revelation of the divine will in general, as it is delivered out in the sacred Scriptures, nor the Gospel and the ministry of it in particular." It is "a prophecy of the ministry of Christ in the days of His flesh." It is these limitations that constitute the main defect of the view. It has, as we shall endeavor to show further on, a true side, and is faulty not so much in what it affirms, as in what it denies, or at least omits. When we consider the remarkable agreement of this description of Wisdom, particularly as given in Chap. viii. 23-31, with that of the Logos, as given by John and Paul, we cannot wonder that the ancient interpreters were so unanimous in understanding it of the hypostatic Wisdom of God in Christ, "in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." In finding Christ in these passages Dr. Gill is right; but in finding in them only "the personal ministry of Christ in the days of His flesh," he is manifestly wrong. It is plain beyond contradiction that the invitations and admonitions of heavenly Wisdom, speaking through Solomon, are addressed to the men of Solomon's day, as well as to those of following generations. Nay more, she is introduced as one that not only existed before the beginning of human history, but has always been calling men, since their creation upon the earth, from their folly and wickedness into the paths of virtue and blessedness. We do not obtain from these passages the idea that now, for the first time, Wisdom comes forth to address men, or that she will address them hereafter"in the last days;" but that now, as always, she lifts up her voice to them continually. But in "the personal ministry of our Lord in the days of His flesh," the generations that lived before Him could have no share. In these

'Dr. Gill on Prov. 1: 20.

2 Col. 2: 9.

there was, as it was proper there should be, a fulness of light and power such as the world had never before enjoyed. "Blessed are your eyes," said the Saviour, "for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." But the eyes of those who lived before Christ were not left without the light of which he is the original Fountain, and the divinely appointed Revealer. This view then, in the narrow form in which Dr. Gill states it, must be decidedly rejected.

If we turn, now, to the first view, which regards wisdom only as a poetic personification, we shall find that this also has a true side, and is, like the other extreme, more at fault in what it denies than in what it affirms. Here the following remarks are in place:

First: The personification of Wisdom, as representing simply an impersonal order of nature and history, or one in which the presence and providence of a personal God are either denied or left out of view, is not to be thought of for a moment. None but a pantheist would separate nature and history from the God of nature and history; least of all would a Hebrew do it, who was accustomed to see God's hand directly in all the movements of nature, and in all the events of history. To the Hebrew writer God's personal presence fills heaven and earth, and whatever takes place in the sphere of either nature or human society, His agency is in it, and by it He fulfils His holy counsels. Is it of nature that He speaks? Nature is plastic like clay in His almighty hand, and He directs all her powers to the accomplishment of His own most free and wise purposes. "He giveth snow like wool; He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes; He casteth forth His ice like morsels; who can stand before His cold? He sendeth out His word and melteth them; He causeth His wind to blow and the waters flow." 2 Or is it of the

1 Matt. 13: 16, 17.

Ps. 147: 16-18.

1

course of human affairs? All these are in like manner directed and controlled by God. In every transaction, good or evil, his hand is present and must be acknowledged. "As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive." Of the conduct of Jeroboam in following the foolish counsel of the young men who were brought up with him, the sacred historian says: "Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the Lord, that he might perform his saying, which the Lord spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat."2 Such is the uniform view which the sacred writers take of the movements of human society. To the Hebrew, then, all the lessons which nature and history inculcate, come directly from God himself. Through them He speaks, and in them his voice is heard. When Wisdom, therefore, addresses men, it is the personal Wisdom of God that speaks.

Secondly: A Hebrew, when discoursing of divine wisdom, could never leave out of view God's revealed word. To him that was, as it is in truth, the sun of the moral world. He could never be guilty of the unspeakable folly (which seems to have been reserved for the boasted philosophy of these latter days) of expatiating at great length on the lessons which nature teaches, but omitting all allusion to the direct instruction of revelation; as if one were to eulogize in glowing terms the brilliancy of the moon's rays, but carefully withhold all reference to the sun, whence she derives her brightness. It is because the world needs needs because of its moral perverseness and blindness alone, if one chooses thus to limit the proposition, but still needs—a more direct and authoritative revelation of God and duty than that which nature and conscience furnish, that God has given such a revelation. The sacred writers never for a single moment, put the light of nature in competition with even the comparatively dim and imperfect teachings of the Old Testament. When the rich man in hell beseeches Abraham

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1 Gen. 50: 20.
VOL. XV. No. 58.

31

21 Kings 12: 15.

that Lazarus may be sent to warn his five brethren, the reply is: "They have"-what? "the light of nature"? "the inward monitor of conscience"? No, not a word of these; but," Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." The Wisdom of God, speaking through "Moses and the prophets," constituted at once the highest privilege and the most cherished prerogative of God's chosen people. "What advantage then hath the Jew, or what profit is there in circumcision? Much every way; chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." 2 In that beautiful Psalm of David in which he sets forth the lessons which the heavens teach concerning God's infinite power and skill, the work of warning men against sin, converting them and making them wise unto salvation, is assigned, not to nature, but to God's written Word. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handy work." 8 But "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." 4" More-. over by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward." 5 Such is, from first to last, the spirit of the Old Testament not less than of the New. When Solomon, therefore, represents Wisdom as solemnly addressing men, it is certain that he has primary reference to the Wisdom of God, speaking as well in his written Word, as in the unwritten messages of his prophets.

But we need not, for this reason, understand him as excluding either the outward revelations of nature and providence, or the inward revelations of conscience in the human soul. Nature, providence, conscience and scripture, these all have the same God for their Author, and their teachings are all in mutual harmony with each other, and constitute one self-consistent whole. mands the divine law.

the voice of conscience.

"Thou shalt not steal," com"Thou shalt not steal," responds

"Thou shalt not steal," proclaims

the course of divine providence; for though a man may seem for a time to prosper by dishonest methods, the end is always

1 Luke 16: 29.

4 Ps. 19: 7.

2 Rom. 3: 1, 2.

5

3 Ps. 19: 1.

3 P's. 19: 11.

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