Ten Sermons, Collection of sermons · Sermon 5
If any of you lack Wisdom, let him ask it of God.
SERMON V.
Jam. I. 5.
If any of you lack Wisdom, let him ask of God.
THIS Epistle was written to the Christians of the Twelve Tribes that were scattered abroad. In that dispersion they were oppressed both by the Gentiles, Infidels, and by their own Countrey-men zealous of the Law, and were squeezed between these two sorts of Enemies, as Corn between two Mill-stones. Persons living among such tryals had great need to be stored with Christian wisdom, to avoid so many crosses, or to make them light but gently, and to bear those with Patience which could not be avoided or mitigated with Prudence. And as their Trials framed them to Patience, the Trials of their patience framed them to Wisdom. This is evidently the drift of the first part of this Epistle as far as my Text; James a Servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve Tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My Brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience; But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
But because the wisest Men are too weak to get that perfect work by their patience and experience, and to become perfect and entire, wanting nothing; the Apostle will have us to beg that wisdom at the hands of the Author and finisher of our faith, and doth encourage us to it by a promise of gracious acceptance. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. The first part of the Text is our part, that we must ask Wisdom of God; the rest which concerns the grant of the request, is the part of God. We will leave to God his part, and go about ours. It will be work enough for us now, and a great work, to learn to ask wisdom at God's hands. That work consisteth in three things: 1. To know the thing that we must ask, Wisdom; 2. To know our want of it, If any of you lack wisdom; 3. And that we are commanded to ask it, Let him ask of God.
Wisdom in his original is God himself. He is wisdom in substance. His eternal Son, the second Person of the Trinity, is that primitive Wisdom which God possessed from everlasting, mentioned Prov. 8. All the saving wisdom that is in the Church, and all the true knowledge and good counsel that is in the World, is an efflux and product of that original wisdom. From that spring therefore, from God the prime wisdom, we must fetch wisdom, if we will have any.
But that substantial Wisdom being above the reach of our understanding, let us look down upon such a wisdom as Men are capable of. Wisdom consisteth in two things, in fixing upon a good end, and choosing good and convenient means for it.
About these, three ordinary faults are committed. The first, that Men propound to themselves a bad end, as the filling of their lust and intemperance, and after that choice, no wonder that they use means answerable to their end; Or 2. they make that their end which should be but the Means, as some Men seek to be learned or wealthy, but seek not to glorifie God by their learning and wealth; Or 3. if they propound to themselves the true end which is the glory of God, it is with such misapprehensions of the nature of it, that they take destructive means to that end, which they would promote; Such are superstitious Persons that have the zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, and in their zeal will even kill God's best Servants and Children, thinking to do him service. Wherefore the rudiment of wisdom is to have a right apprehension and knowledge both of the end and means. Prudentia est cognitio rerum appetendarum & fugiendarum, saith Bernard, after Austin: Wisdom is the right discerning of things to be desired, and things to be avoided.
The mind being prepared and seasoned with that knowledge, the beginning and main point of wisdom is to take for our ultimate end that which is the true good, the soveraign good: If you apply your selves to that end with the right apprehension of the mind, and affection of the heart, you shall have no great labour to find out the good and comfortable means to attain it. Wherefore Solomon saith well, that the beginning of Wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Prov. 9.10. because, if you begin there, to make God your chief and only end, and resolve to set the Lord always before you, to walk before him unto all pleasing, you have laid such a ground of wisdom for your self, that you shall never want good counsel nor good success, as long as you stick to that ground.
Solomon had said in the beginning of the Chapter, that Wisdom hath built her house. After that he makes several invitations for Men to come to Wisdoms School. But the first ground that he gives, the first stone that he layeth for the building of Wisdoms house, is this, the beginning of Wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Many wise counsels have been and may be given to make one wise and happy: But this is the first and the great counsel, to fear the Lord. Miss that ground, whatsoever you build upon other ground, will prove ruinous in the end. All wisdom that is not subordinate to that great and principal wisdom of fearing the Lord, may be prudence in retail, but it is folly in the great. For he that having no fear of God, hath a great industry to get wealth and honour in the World, upon contrary grounds to that main ground, as fraud and violence, is twisting a silken halter for his own neck. All wisdom to get a fortune by an opposite course to that great wisdom, the fear of the Lord, is folly, making work for perdition.
Although the Children of this World be wiser in their generation than the children of light, as the Lord Jesus witnesseth for them, Luk. 16.8. yet the children of light may get wisdom for the businesses of the World out of God's book. So much Solomon doth express, Pro. 24.3, &c. Through wisdom is a house builded, and by understanding it is established. And by knowledge shall the Chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. What more? A wise man is strong, (saith he) a man of knowledge increaseth strength. For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy War, and in multitude of Counsellors there is safety. The Book of God containeth more wisdom than any book, even for the World. The reason that the Children of this World are wiser in their way than we are, is, that they study their books better than we do ours. Certainly godly wisdom makes a man happy in this World and in the next. Which double happiness is exprest by Solomon, Prov. 3.6. Length of days are in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. But the wise Christian will labour more to lay hold of the right hand than of the left, and prefer that length of days, that is, eternal life, before the riches and honour which last no longer than this short life.
Observe that St. James saith not, If any lack money, let him ask it of God, but if any lack wisdom. Not that God supplyeth not our temporal wants, or that we must not ask of God to supply them; for he bids us to call upon him in the day of trouble, and to ask of him our daily bread: but because we are but too sensible of our temporal wants, and too little of the spiritual. Little would serve Jacob, that great Heir of the blessing. If the Lord (said he) give me bread to eat, and rayment to put on, then shall the Lord be my God: So much we may have at God's hands with little asking, yea without asking; for if ye seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, all these things shall be added unto you, saith Christ, Matth. 6.33. That kingdom and righteousness of God is the rule of heavenly wisdom in our hearts and minds. Happy and free is he, that hath brought himself under that Royal subjection. Blessed and rich is that purchaser, who hath got that inestimable treasure of heavenly wisdom. Wherefore that purchace is so much prest upon us by Solomon, Prov. 4.5. Get wisdom, get understanding—Forget her not, and she shall preserve thee; love her, and she shall keep thee.
Much might be said of that large argument, Wisdom; but we may say more yet of the lack of it, because we are better acquainted with it. And this is our second consideration. One may wonder that St. James makes an If of it, If any man lack wisdom; as if there were any that doth not lack it. But in that short expression three doctrines lye hid; 1. That there is great lack of wisdom in the World; 2. That many in the World that lack it, do not think so; And 3. That none is capable to receive of God wisdom, nor so much as to ask it, unless he feel his want of it.
1. That there is great want of wisdom in the World; it is not the work of great learning to shew it, but it would be a matter of great length. That which is crooked cannot be made streight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbred, Eccl. 1.15. Solomon saith, Pro. 22.15. that foolishness is bound in the heart of the child. Then it is natural to man; whereas wisdom is above nature. But it is not only in the heart of a child, but in that of grown persons, that folly is bound up. Authoritatem habemus senum, vitia puerorum: We have the gray hair and gravity of old men, but the vices and foolishness of children. Look upon the Customs of Nations. It may be we see not the foolishness of our Customs, because we are bred in them; but when we travel abroad, we will laugh at the fashions of other Countries, and men of other Countries will laugh at ours. We laugh at the Turks for being covered and sitting before their Betters, and they laugh at us for expressing our respects by standing whole days on our Legs, and bare-headed, killing our selves in a complement. We laugh at Nations that bury their dead by the High-ways; But they have more reason to laugh to see us dig out the bones of our Ancestors to make room for new bodies, as if the Lord's earth were not wide enough to afford room for our bodies, without dispossessing one another after our death. We laugh at our Neighbours beyond the Sea for having no entertainment in their Funerals; and they laugh at us for drinking over our dead Parents. So the several Nations will bear witness of folly one against the other, till all the Nations of the World pass for fools by a mutual inditement.
And how much of that folly is seen in all Mens actions? To be most busie to lay in provision, when they are towards the end of their Journey; To devise ways to lose their life under the style of passing their time, for our time is our life; To damn their Souls for ever with swearing and blaspheming, and get neither pleasure nor profit by it in this life; To spend all ones care and cost upon the body, a Tenement for life, and none upon the Soul, which is a Free-hold for eternity, either of misery or glory; To take delight in that which breeds everlasting grief. To wear Plasters where there is no sore; To lose ease and health to please the eyes of others; To displease God, that we may please men; To sin in the dark, because God shall not see us; To think that by winking we shall make God wink too, and that if we think not of God, he will do as much for us.
But nothing proveth the folly of the World more fully than the several Religions. Some Nations worship the Stars, some a Monkey, some the Fruits of their Countrey, some the Onions and Leeks of their Garden. Some worship together God that he may do good, and the Devil that he do no harm. Some worship Images of Wood and Stone, and say to them, Deliver me, for thou art my God. Some Sects startle at the Lord's Prayer and the reading of God's Commandments, as binding the Spirit, and make open irreverence in God's service a point of Reformation. And the height of folly is, that to maintain these follies they have turned Kingdoms upside down, overflown the Land with a Sea of bloud, and gone about to build the Church with Cannon-shot.
And that every one may look within himself, all our several sins, all unrighteousness, fraud and wicked craft is meer folly. Wherefore all over the Proverbs the wicked are called fools. Thus Ch. 14.9. Fools make a mock of sin; and 13.19. It is abomination to fools to depart from wickedness, and Ch. 10.23. It is a sport to a fool to do mischief: for though a Man contrive mischief never so cunningly, is he not a fool to contrive mischief, since all mischief in the end falls on the pate of the contriver? Is he not a fool to make a mock of sin, seeing that sin draweth the wrath of God, and sinks the sinner into Hell? Is he not a fool to make a sport of offending his terrible Judge before his face, and play with his own perdition? Is not the unconscionable greedy man a fool, to wound his Conscience and venture his Soul to get a little Money by ill ways, seeing that when he dyeth he must leave his Money behind, and carry his galled Conscience long with him? Is not the cholerick revengeful man a very fool, to plague himself to punish his Neighbour? for the cruel man troubleth his own soul, Prov. 11.12. he shall never do half the harm to his enemy that he doth to himself. Is he not a fool to take vengeance out of God's hands to whom it belongeth, and draw vengeance upon his own head? Is not the envrious man a very fool, who cannot be well unless his neighbour be ill, and is sick because another is well? Is not the drunkard a fool, to make himself so with excess of drink lose his understanding, destroy his Family, and damn his Soul? Finally, Is not the loose Christian a very fool, who knowing that life is short, and death certain, and God's judgment terrible and unavoidable, will not take care to serve God with fear, and make provision of faith and good works? And have we not all a grain of folly, in that we labour for that bread which perisheth, more than for that which endureth unto everlasting life; and take more care of our mortal body than of our immortal soul; and repose our trust upon the temporal Gift, not upon the eternal Giver?
Our folly would be more apparent, if God left us to our selves, and did not mend or prevent by his wise providence the inconveniences that we all run into by our imprudence. Certainly all men lack wisdom; and those only have some measure of wisdom, that acknowledg their lack of wisdom, and their need to ask it of God.
2. But this is the misery of the World, (and it is the second thing implyed in these words, If any man lack wisdom) that most Men think that they do not lack it. For these words signifie so much in other words, If any feel his lack of wisdom, and would have it mended, let him ask it of God; for those that do not feel it, are the veriest fools of all fools; and those that have no wisdom, desire none, and pray for none. Ignoti nulla cupido. They that most want wisdom are they that know it less, and therefore have least desire to have it. Wisdom is too high for a fool, Prov. 24.7. And the reason why they have no desire for it, is, because they think they have it already. Of all the distributions that God hath made in the World of his gifts, there is none that is less grudged at than the distribution of Wisdom, for every one is contented with his portion. For Wealth and Honour, we envy the portion of our Neighbours; we think they have too much and we too little: But for Wisdom, every one thinks he hath enough for himself and others; and believeth that if he had the State to govern, all things would go far better than they do. If you hear one say in a jesting way, I wish thou hadst more wit and I more money; believe it, there is more than jest in that saying, for we are prone to believe in earnest that our neighbours have far less Wisdom than we have, and we far less Estate than we deserve.
Whereas we should be of the quite contrary disposition; we should be pleased and thankful for that portion of Estate which God hath allotted unto us, as more than we deserve; and lowly conceited of our proportion of Wisdom and understanding, as less than we need. We should not compare our Temporal condition with men of better means; that will make us envious and discontented: nor our Wisdom with men of lower parts; that will make us proud and careless to advance in wisdom. But we should compare our Estates with them that have less, to make us thankful and charitable; and our proportion of Wisdom with them that have a greater proportion, to make us humble by the sense of our weakness, and diligent to pray and study for more wisdom.
3. The bane of our proficiency in Wisdom and Goodness is presumption; for without God's gift it is not to be had, and he that believeth that he is already possest of that gift, shall never beg it at God's hands. It is the third thing implyed in these words, If any man lack wisdom. Si dixisti satis est, periisti (saith St. Austin) If thou sayest, I am wise and good enough, thou art undone. foreign, said Bion, Opinion of advancement is a hindrance of advancement. For as Armies must always be moving and in progress; keep them from advancing, they will undo themselves: So it is in our Christian warfare; If we think that we are gone far enough, if we advance not in holy wisdom, we go back and decay of necessity. And those will advance more, that know how short they are in their spiritual advancement. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God, Matth. 5.3. Those poor in spirit are they that are conscious of their poverty. O this is a great advance, from poverty to the kingdom of Heaven. They that think themselves near to it by their wisdom, are further from it by their presumption. Thus the Pharisee swoln with the opinion of his righteousness returned not justified to his house; But the humble Publican was justified, who stood afar off confessing his sins and bewailing his want of righteousness.
My Brethren, the more you are convinced of your lack of wisdom, the fitter are you to ask it, and more in the way to receive it. There is always shame and misery coming from a high conceit of ones self, scarce ever of a conceit too low. When you pass under a low Door (saith Bernard) if you hold your head too high, you will get a knock; but in holding your head too low there is no danger. It is better exceeding in that way, for God giveth grace to the humble, and raiseth those that are bowed down, Psal. 146.8.
Take this for a true Maxime: Never any obtained wisdom and mercy to salvation at God's hands, that did not present himself to him with acknowledgment of his lack of wisdom and need of mercy. It is the way of God's dealing with us, described by the Blessed Virgin. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. But unhappy they that will presume to draw near him, full of their opinion of wisdom and righteousness, for they shall be sent empty away. Those saving gifts are only for those that acknowledg and bewail their spiritual wants. Christ was sent to preach the Gospel unto the poor. None shall ever get of him those best riches, that applyeth not himself to God as a beggar.
I have insisted much upon that point, our lack of wisdom, and the necessity to know that want. For if we can know that once, that which follows will be learned of it self, That we must ask it of God; and that which comes next will also follow of it self, that God will give it liberally.
Of God then let us ask wisdom, which we want so much. Not of Humane and Pagan learning, although there also wisdom may be found; But it is not their own, it comes from God the giver of all good gifts. But wheresoever it be, let us ask it of the Giver himself; Let us go for wisdom to the Spring; To God who is the Counsellor and the Wonderful, Isa. 9.6. that is, (after the Hebrew style) the wonderful in counsel, the only all wise and giver of wisdom.
One may say, why shall we ask it of God? God hath given it us already. He hath given us his Son in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge: He hath given us his word, which is the mine and rich store-house of wisdom. It is very true: But as they that have their bread in their cup-board, yet ought to say, Give us this day our daily bread; Likewise they that have the holy Word of God at hand, have need to ask it of God. For as our bread without that blessing and feeding influence which floweth from God, will not feed our bodies; so the very Gospel without God's especial assistance will not feed our consciences. We may have Scripture in our hand, yea in our memory, and yet want that wisdom of God unto salvation which Scripture teacheth.
For as the Father hath sent us his Son which is his wisdom; so the Father and the Son together send us their Spirit, which Christ so often promised to his Disciples, to make the wisdom of his word effectual upon our hearts and minds. We have need then to beseech God that Christ make that promise good to us, That his Spirit work upon our spirits, with that feeling, that effectual instruction which both enlightneth the understanding and converteth the Soul. For this Wisdom from above, sinks deeper than any other knowledge, and opens a new Closet in the Soul, which all the wisdom of the World cannot find. Of which Closet David speaks, Psal. 51.6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts thou shalt make me to know wisdom. It seems then that man with all his study, yea though he have the Word of God at hand, cannot make wisdom to penetrate into those hidden inward parts of the heart, unless God himself put his immediate hand to it, to break open a way into that hidden closet for his divine wisdom to sink in.
O then let us ask of God that heavenly wisdom which we lack, and cannot get without his inward teaching, though we have it taught by our Ministers; for the natural man comprehends not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, saith St. Paul, 1 Cor. 2.14. Let us beseech the Spirit of God to be himself our teacher of wisdom, and to teach us how to ask wisdom of God, both for the matter and the manner, and so much we have ready set down in his Word.
For the matter, the wisdom that we must ask of God, consisteth in these two principal things, his knowledge, and his love; for each of which I will furnish you with a Prayer of St. Paul's prescribing. For God's knowledge this: Eph. 1.17, &c. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him: The eyes of our understanding being inlightened; that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.
The other Prayer for God's love, is, Eph. 3.14, &c. I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all Saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of God which passeth knwwledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.
This double furniture of Knowledge and Love was that which made the wise Virgins to approve themselves wise indeed, having each of them a Lamp of faith and holy knowledge, and pouring into it the oyl of love, and practice of good works. This oyl makes the Lamp to shine clear, and without it the Lamp grows dim, and soon goeth out, as the foolish Virgins found it.
O let us beseech the great and good Spirit to give us both the Lamp and the Oyl, to give the true knowledge of himself, and of his blessed will unto our understanding, and convert our hearts to love him and keep his Commandments. That he give us justifying faith to embrace God's mercy thro' the merits of Jesus Christ; And to that end that he make our faith to be working by love, and fruitful in all good works. That he endow our souls with an entire love of God, charity to our Neighbours, uprightness in our conversation, humility, patience, the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit, which before God is of great price; that ivisdom which is from above, first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easie to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisie, Jam. 3.17.
It is easie to know what wisdom we must ask of God, but it is not so easie to ask it well. We are soon satisfied about the matter to be asked, not so soon of our manner and performance of that duty of asking wisdom at God's hands; For all the difficulty lyeth on our side. God commands us to ask wisdom, and tells us what wisdom, and promiseth to give it, if we ask it well; God giveth liberally, but I fear we do not ask faithfully and according to his will. Either we ask not holy wisdom of him, or we ask it so that we are afraid that our prayers should be granted. You ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, Jam. 4.3. For he that loveth his profit and sinful pleasure with all his heart, cannot ask in good earnest that he may love God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength; for then he must love no more his lust, his pots, and his unlawful gain, upon which he hath set his whole heart; he must abstain from all unconscionable, licentious and uncharitable courses, and bid them farewel for ever. That goeth hard with carnal worldly men. If ever they ask that wisdom at God's hands, and say after the Minister this Prayer of the Church, that it may please God to give them a heart, to love and dread him, and diligently to live after Gods commandments, they are afraid to be heard; they hardly find in their heart to say, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. They feel something within that pulls them back. Then our first prayer for wisdom must be, that we may have the grace, that we may have the heart to pray for it; that God subdue our carnal aversness, and encline our appetite to ask wisdom with our whole heart, with an unfeigned sincere desire, that we may say after Isaiah 28.8. The desire of our soul is to thy Name, O Lord, and to the remembrance of thee; and say for our selves St. Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians, which shall be my conclusion, Now the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; To whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.
The End of the Fifth Sermon.