Proverbs 25:2 [It is] the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings [is] to search out a matter.
Ver. 2. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.] That what we conceive not, we may admire (mirari non rimari), and cry out with Paul, "O the depth," Rom 11:33 as the Romans dedicated to their goddess Victoria a certain lake, the depth whereof they could not dive into. God is much to be magnified for what he hath revealed unto his people in the holy Scriptures for their eternal good. But those unsearchable secrets of his - such as are the union of the three persons into one nature, and of two natures into one person, his wonderful decrees, and the no less wonderful execution thereof, &c. - these make exceeding much to the glory of his infinite wisdom and surpassing greatness, in speaking whereof our "safest eloquence is our silence," a since tantum recedit quantum capitur, saith Nazianzen - much like that pool spoken of by Polycritus, which in compass at the first scarce seemed to exceed the breadth of a shield; but if any went in to wash, it extended itself more and more.
But the honour of kings is to search out a matter.] As Solomon did that of the two harlots (1Ki 3:16-28 Job 29:16). There are those who divide this book of Proverbs into three parts. In the first nine Chapter s things of a lower nature, and fit for instruction of youth, are set down and described. Next, from thence to this twenty-fifth chapter, the wise man discourseth of all sorts of virtues and vices, suitable to all sorts of people. Lastly, from this chapter to the end, he treateth, for the most part, higher matters, as of kings' craft and state business.
a Aristotle