An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

The word which we translate inward parts, signifies sometimes the Reins, and sometimes the Heart. The Chaldee paraphrase renders, Who hath put wisdom into the heart: The matter is not much, to which of them we determine it; for, though the heart in Scripture, is usually put for the seat of wisdom, and the Reins for the seat of the affections; yet David saith, My reins instruct me in the night season (Psal. 16.7.) To instruct or teach, is properly the work of wisdom. The word is well rendered by us, the inward parts, for that takes in all; wisdom lieth within (Psal. 51.6.) Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden (part) thou shalt make me to know wisdom. The inward parts, in the former part of that verse, and the hidden (part) in the latter, are the same; by both, or either, he means his soul in all the faculties or operations of it. And indeed, neither the Reins not the Heart, nor any, nor all the members of the body, are properly o• strictly wisdoms seat. Wisdom is lodged in the ⟨p. 267⟩soul, in the man of man, as some call it; and therefore that must needs be intended here:¹ but because Naturalists speak of wisdom, as lodged and exercised in bodily parts, some placing it in the heart, some in the head, others in the reins; therefore we may well place it (as our Translation expresseth it) in the inward parts. The original word strictly imports, that which is covered over, the root is rendered to cover; and Grammarians give this reason of it, because the reins and kidneys are covered with fat. But seeing all the inward parts of man are in a sense covered parts, that notation of the word may very well sort with our Translation; as also with that which is the exposition of the inner parts, the mind or soul of man. So then, Who hath put wisdom into the inward parts, is plainly this; Who hath planted it in the mind or soul of man? who hath rooted it there? who hath made man wise? some give the sense thus, Who hath made man a reasonable creature? or bestowed that rational faculty upon man, whereby he is able to apprehend the truth of the works of God, and to inquire into, and find out many secrets in nature?