A man shall be commended according to his wisdom: but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.
Ver. 8. A man shall be commended according to his wisdom.] And all wisdom consists in this, Ut Deum quis cognoscat et colat, saith Lactantius; - That a man rightly know and worship God. This did not Apollonius, whom yet Philostratus commendeth, that he was non doctus, sed natus sapiens, not instructed, but born wise. See the contrary, Job 11:12. Nor Archimedes, who yet had the name and note, saith Plutarch, of a divine, and not human wisdom; a nor Aristotle, whom yet Averroes admires, as the very rule and copy that nature invented, wherein to set forth the utmost of human perfection; and further saith, that his doctrine was the chiefest truth, and his understanding the utmost extent of human wisdom. These were wise, I confess, in their generations, and so accounted; but by whom? Not by St Paul; he had another opinion of them. See Romans 1:22,23 1 Corinthians 2:6. Not by our Saviour. See Matthew 11:25. Not by any that are rightly instructed to the kingdom of heaven, and have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. The Italians arrogate to themselves the monopoly of wisdom in that proverb of theirs, Italus sapit ante factum, Hispanus in facto, Germanus post factum. Italians, say they, both seem and are wise; whereas Spaniards seem wise, and are fools; Frenchmen seem fools, and are wise; Portuguese neither are wise, nor so much as seem so. Thus the Jesuits - those great clerks, politicians, and wizards of the world - do vaunt that the Church is the soul of the world, the clergy of the Church, and they of the clergy. But what saith that great apostle that knew more than twenty of them? "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord"; 1Co 1:31 for "not he that commendeth himself is approved," - no, nor he whom the world cries up for a wise man - "but he whom the Lord commendeth." 2Co 10:18
But he that is of a perverse heart.] As all are that are not heavenly wise, and that show not "out of a good conversation their works with meekness of wisdom." James 3:13 ; Jam 3:17 But so did none of those heathen sages, whom God, for their unthankfulness, "gave up unto vile affections" Rom 1:20 and vicious conversation; and so set a noverint universi, as it were, upon them. Know all men that these men know nothing aright, and as they ought to know; "professing themselves to be wise, they proclaim themselves fools." Rom 1:22
a εκ ανθρωπινες αλλα δαιμονιου τινος συνεσεως. - Plut.