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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
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Matthew Henry |
P R O V E R B S
CHAP. I.
Those who read David’s psalms, especially those towards the latter end,
would be tempted to think that religion is all rapture and consists in
nothing but the ecstasies and transports of devotion; and doubtless
there is a time for them, and if there be a heaven upon earth it is in
them: but, while we are on earth, we cannot be wholly taken up with
them; we have a life to live in the flesh, must have a conversation in
the world, and into that we must now be taught to carry our religion,
which is a rational thing, and very serviceable to the government of
human life, and tends as much to make us discreet as to make us devout,
to make the face shine before men, in a prudent, honest, useful
conversation, as to make the heart burn towards God in holy and pious
affections. In this chapter we have,
I. The title of the book, showing the general scope and design of it,
II. The first principle of it recommended to our serious consideration,
III. A necessary caution against bad company,
IV. A faithful and lively representation of wisdom’s reasonings with
the children of men, and the certain ruin of those who turn a deaf ear
to those reasonings,
ver. 20-33.
| The Design of the Proverbs. | |
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1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of
understanding;
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment,
and equity;
4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge
and discretion.
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man
of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of
the wise, and their dark sayings.
We have here an introduction to this book, which some think was
prefixed by the collector and publisher, as Ezra; but it is rather
supposed to have been penned by Solomon himself, who, in the beginning
of his book, proposes his end in writing it, that he might keep to his
business, and closely pursue that end. We are here told,
I. Who wrote these wise sayings,
v. 1.
They are the proverbs of Solomon.
1. His name signifies peaceable, and the character both of his
spirit and of his reign answered to it; both were peaceable. David,
whose life was full of troubles, wrote a book of devotion; for is
any afflicted? let him pray. Solomon, who lived quietly, wrote a
book of instruction; for when the churches had rest they were
edified. In times of peace we should learn ourselves, and teach
others, that which in troublous times both they and we must practise.
2. He was the son of David; it was his honour to stand related
to that good man, and he reckoned it so with good reason, for he fared
the better for it,
He had been blessed with a good education, and many a good prayer had
been put up for him
(Ps. lxxii. 1),
the effect of both which appeared in his wisdom and usefulness. The
generation of the upright are sometimes thus blessed, that they
are made blessings, eminent blessings, in their day. Christ is often
called the Son of David, and Solomon was a type of him in this,
as in other things, that he opened his mouth in parables or
proverbs.
3. He was king of Israel–a king, and yet it was no
disparagement to him to be an instructor of the ignorant, and a teacher
of babes–king of Israel, that people among whom God was known and his
name was great; among them he learned wisdom, and to them he
communicated it. All the earth sought to Solomon to hear his
wisdom, which excelled all men’s
it was an honour to Israel that their king was such a dictator, such an
oracle. Solomon was famous for apophthegms; every word he said had
weight in it, and something that was surprising and edifying. His
servants who attended him, and heard his wisdom, had, among them,
collected 3000 proverbs of his which they wrote in their day-books; but
these were of his own writing, and do not amount to nearly a thousand.
In these he was divinely inspired. Some think that out of those other
proverbs of his, which were not so inspired, the apocryphal books of
Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon were compiled,
in which are many excellent sayings, and of great use; but, take
altogether, they are far short of this book. The Roman emperors had
each of them his symbol or motto, as many now have with their coat of
arms. But Solomon had many weighty sayings, not as theirs, borrowed
from others, but all the product of that extraordinary wisdom which God
had endued him with.
II. For what end they were written
(v. 2-4),
not to gain a reputation to the author, or strengthen his interest
among his subjects, but for the use and benefit of all that in every
age and place will govern themselves by these dictates and study them
closely. This book will help us,
1. To form right notions of things, and to possess our minds with clear
and distinct ideas of them, that we may know wisdom and
instruction, that wisdom which is got by instruction, by divine
revelation, may know both how to speak and act wisely ourselves and to
give instruction to others.
2. To distinguish between truth and falsehood, good and evil–to
perceive the words of understanding, to apprehend them, to judge of
them, to guard against mistakes, and to accommodate what we are taught
to ourselves and our own use, that we may discern things that
differ and not be imposed upon, and may approve things that are
excellent and not lose the benefit of them, as the apostle prays,
3. To order our conversation aright in every things,
v. 3.
This book will give, that we may receive, the instruction of
wisdom, that knowledge which will guide our practice in justice,
judgment, and equity
(v. 3),
which will dispose us to render to all their due, to God the things
that are God’s, in all the exercises of religion, and to all men what
is due to them, according to the obligations which by relation, office,
contract, or upon any other account, we lie under to them. Note, Those
are truly wise, and none but those, who are universally conscientious;
and the design of the scripture is to teach us that wisdom,
justice in the duties of the first table, judgment in
those of the second table, and equity (that is sincerity) in
both; so some distinguish them.
III. For whose use they were written,
v. 4.
They are of use to all, but are designed especially,
1. For the simple, to give subtlety to them. The instructions
here given are plain and easy, and level to the meanest capacity,
the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein; and
those are likely to receive benefit by them who are sensible of their
own ignorance and their need to be taught, and are therefore desirous
to receive instruction; and those who receive these instructions in
their light and power, though they be simple, will hereby be made
subtle, graciously crafty to know the sin they should avoid and the
duty they should do, and to escape the tempter’s wiles. He that is
harmless as the dove by observing Solomon’s rules may
become wise as the serpent; and he that has been sinfully
foolish when he begins to govern himself by the word of God becomes
graciously wise.
2. For young people, to give them knowledge and discretion.
Youth is the learning age, catches at instructions, receives
impressions, and retains what is then received; it is therefore of
great consequence that the mind be then seasoned well, nor can it
receive a better tincture than from Solomon’s proverbs. Youth is rash,
and heady, and inconsiderate; man is born like the wild ass’s
colt, and therefore needs to be broken by the restraints and
managed by the rules we find here. And, if young people will but take
heed to their ways according to Solomon’s proverbs, they will soon gain
the knowledge and discretion of the ancients. Solomon had an eye to
posterity in writing this book, hoping by it to season the minds of the
rising generation with the generous principles of wisdom and
virtue.
IV. What good use may be made of them,
Those who are young and simple may by them be made wise, and are not
excluded from Solomon’s school, as they were from Plato’s. But is it
only for such? No; here is not only milk for babes, but strong meat for
strong men. This book will not only make the foolish and bad wise and
good, but the wise and good wiser and better; and though the simple and
the young man may perhaps slight those instructions, and not be the
better for them, yet the wise man will hear. Wisdom will be
justified by her own children, though not by the children sitting in
the market-place. Note, Even wise men must hear, and not think
themselves too wise to learn. A wise man is sensible of his own
defects (Plurima ignoro, sed ignorantiam meam non ignoro—I
am ignorant of many things, but not of my own ignorance), and
therefore is still pressing forward, that he may increase in
learning, may know more and know it better, more clearly and
distinctly, and may know better how to make use of it. As long as we
live we should strive to increase in all useful learning. It was a
saying of one of the greatest of the rabbin, Qui non auget
scientiam, amittit de ea–If our stock of knowledge by not increasing,
it is wasting; and those that would increase in learning must study
the scriptures; these perfect the man of God. A wise man, by
increasing in learning, is not only profitable to himself, but to
others also,
1. As a counsellor. A man of understanding in these precepts of
wisdom, by comparing them with one another and with his own
observations, shall by degrees attain unto wise counsels;
he stands fair for preferment, and will be consulted as an oracle, and
entrusted with the management of public affairs; he shall come to
sit at the helm, so the word signifies. Note, Industry is the
way to honour; and those whom God has blessed with wisdom must study to
do good with it, according as their sphere is. It is more dignity
indeed to be counsellor to the prince, but it is more charity to be
counsellor to the poor, as Job was with his wisdom.
I was eyes to the blind.
2. As an interpreter
(v. 6)
—to understand a proverb. Solomon was himself famous for
expounding riddles and resolving hard questions, which was of old the
celebrated entertainment of the eastern princes, witness the solutions
he gave to the enquiries with which the queen of Sheba thought to
puzzle him. Now here he undertakes to furnish his readers with that
talent, as far as would be serviceable to the best purposes. “They
shall understand a proverb, even the interpretation,
without which the proverb is a nut uncracked; when they hear a wise
saying, though it be figurative, they shall take the sense of it, and
know how to make use of it.” The words of the wise are sometimes
dark sayings. In St. Paul’s epistles there is that which is
hard to be understood; but to those who, being well-versed in
the scriptures, know how to compare spiritual things with
spiritual, they will be easy and safe; so that, if you ask them,
Have you understood all these things? they may answer, Yea,
Lord. Note, It is a credit to religion when men of honesty are men
of sense; all good people therefore should aim to be intelligent, and
run to and fro, take pains in the use of means, that their
knowledge may be increased.
| Parental Admonitions. | |
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7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not
the law of thy mother:
9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and
chains about thy neck.
Solomon, having undertaken to teach a young man knowledge and
discretion, here lays down two general rules to be observed in
order thereunto, and those are, to fear God and honour his parents,
which two fundamental laws of morality Pythagoras begins his golden
verses with, but the former of them in a wretchedly corrupted state.
Primum, deos immortales cole, parentesque honora–First worship the
immortal gods, and honour your parents. To make young people such
as they should be,
I. Let them have regard to God as their supreme.
1. He lays down this truth, that the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of knowledge
(v. 7);
it is the principal part of knowledge (so the margin); it is the
head of knowledge; that is,
(1.) Of all things that are to be known this is most evident, that
God is to be feared, to be reverenced, served, and worshipped;
this is so the beginning of knowledge that those know nothing who do
not know this.
(2.) In order to the attaining of all useful knowledge this is most
necessary, that we fear God; we are not qualified to profit by the
instructions that are given us unless our minds be possessed with a
holy reverence of God, and every thought within us be brought into
obedience to him. If any man will do his will, he shall know of his
doctrine,
John vii. 17.
(3.) As all our knowledge must take rise from the fear of God, so it
must tend to it as its perfection and centre. Those know enough who
know how to fear God, who are careful in every thing to please him and
fearful of offending him in any thing; this is the Alpha and Omega of
knowledge.
2. To confirm this truth, that an eye to God must both direct and
quicken all our pursuits of knowledge, he observes, Fools
(atheists, who have no regard to God) despise wisdom and
instruction; having no dread at all of God’s wrath, nor any desire
of his favour, they will not give you thanks for telling them what they
may do to escape his wrath and obtain his favour. Those who say to the
Almighty, Depart from us, who are so far from fearing him that
they set him at defiance, can excite no surprise if they desire not the
knowledge of his ways, but despise that instruction. Note, Those are
fools who do not fear God and value the scriptures; and though they may
pretend to be admirers of wit they are really strangers and enemies to
wisdom.
II. Let them have regard to their parents as their superiors
(v. 8, 9):
My son, hear the instruction of thy father. He means, not only
that he would have his own children to be observant of him, and of what
he said to them, nor only that he would have his pupils, and those who
came to him to be taught, to look upon him as their father and attend
to his precepts with the disposition of children, but that he would
have all children to be dutiful and respectful to their parents, and to
conform to the virtuous and religious education which they give them,
according to the law of the fifth commandment.
1. He takes it for granted that parents will, with all the wisdom they
have, instruct their children, and, with all the authority they have,
give law to them for their good. They are reasonable creatures, and
therefore we must not give them law without instruction; we must draw
them with the cords of a man, and when we tell them what they must do
we must tell them why. But they are corrupt and wilful, and therefore
with the instruction there is need of a law. Abraham will not only
catechize, but command, his household. Both the father and the mother
must do all they can for the good education of their children, and all
little enough.
2. He charges children both to receive and to retain the good lessons
and laws their parents give them.
(1.) To receive them with readiness: “Hear the instruction of thy
father; hear it and heed it; hear it and bid it welcome, and be
thankful for it, and subscribe to it.”
(2.) To retain them with resolution: “Forsake not their law;
think not that when thou art grown up, and no longer under tutors and
governors, thou mayest live at large; no, the law of thy mother
was according to the law of thy God, and therefore it must never be
forsaken; thou wast trained up in the way in which thou shouldst go,
and therefore, when thou art old, thou must not depart from it.” Some
observe that whereas the Gentile ethics, and the laws of the Persians
and Romans, provided only that children should pay respect to their
father, the divine law secures the honour of the mother also.
3. He recommends this as that which is very graceful and will put an
honour upon us: “The instructions and laws of thy parents, carefully
observed and lived up to, shall be an ornament of grace unto thy
head
(v. 9),
such an ornament as is, in the sight of God, of great price, and shall
make thee look as great as those that wear gold chains about their
necks.” Let divine truths and commands be to us a coronet, or a
collar of SS, which are badges of first-rate honours; let us value
them, and be ambitious of them, and then they shall be so to us. Those
are truly valuable, and shall be valued, who value themselves more by
their virtue and piety than by their worldly wealth and dignity.
| Parental Admonitions. | |
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10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us
lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as
those that go down into the pit:
13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our
houses with spoil:
14 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot
from their path:
16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily
for their own lives.
19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;
which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
Here Solomon gives another general rule to young people, in order to
their finding out, and keeping in, the paths of wisdom, and that is to
take heed of the snare of bad company. David’s psalms begin with this
caution, and so do Solomon’s proverbs; for nothing is more destructive,
both to a lively devotion and to a regular conversation
(v. 10):
“My son, whom I love, and have a tender concern for, if
sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” This is good advice for
parents to give their children when they send them abroad into the
world; it is the same that St. Peter gave to his new converts,
(Acts ii. 40),
Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Observe,
1. How industrious wicked people are to seduce others into the paths of
the destroyer: they will entice. Sinners love company in sin; the
angels that fell were tempters almost as soon as they were sinners.
They do not threaten or argue, but entice with flattery and fair
speech; with a bait they draw the unwary young man to the hook. But
they mistake if they think that by bringing others to partake with them
in their guilt, and to be bound, as it were, in the bond with them,
they shall have the less to pay themselves; for they will have so much
the more to answer for.
2. How cautious young people should be that they be not seduced by
them: “Consent thou not; and then, though they entice thee, they
cannot force thee. Do not say as they say, nor do as they do or would
have thee to do; have no fellowship with them.” To enforce this
caution,
I. He represents the fallacious reasonings which sinners use in their
enticements, and the arts of wheedling which they have for the
beguiling of unstable souls. He specifies highwaymen, who do what they
can to draw others into their gang,
See here what they would have the young man to do: “Come with us
(v. 11);
let us have thy company.” At first they pretend to ask no more; but the
courtship rises higher
(v. 14):
“Cast in thy lot among us; come in partner with us, join thy
force to ours, and let us resolve to live and die together: thou shalt
fare as we fare; and let us all have one purse, that what we get
together we may spend merrily together,” for that is it they aim at.
Two unreasonable insatiable lusts they propose to themselves the
gratification of, and therewith entice their pray into the snare:–
1. Their cruelty. They thirst after blood, and hate those that are
innocent and never gave them any provocation, because by their honesty
and industry they shame and condemn them: “Let us therefore
lay wait for their blood, and lurk privily for
them; they are conscious to themselves of no crime and consequently
apprehensive of no danger, but travel unarmed; therefore we shall make
the more easy prey of them. And, O how sweet it will be to swallow
them up alive!”
These bloody men would do this as greedily as the hungry lion devours
the lamb. If it be objected, “The remains of the murdered will betray
the murderers;” they answer, “No danger of that; we will swallow them
whole as those that are buried.” Who could imagine that human nature
should degenerate so far that it should ever be a pleasure to one man
to destroy another!
2. Their covetousness. They hope to get a good booty by it
(v. 13):
“We shall find all precious substance by following this trade.
What though we venture our necks by it? we shall fill our houses
with spoil.” See here,
(1.) The idea they have of worldly wealth. They call it precious
substance; whereas it is neither substance nor precious; it is a
shadow; it is vanity, especially that which is got by robbery,
It is as that which is not, which will give a man no solid
satisfaction. It is cheap, it is common, yet, in their account, it is
precious, and therefore they will hazard their lives, and perhaps their
souls, in pursuit of it. It is the ruining mistake of thousands that
they over-value the wealth of this world and look on it as precious
substance.
(2.) The abundance of it which they promise themselves: We shall
fill our houses with it. Those who trade with sin promise
themselves mighty bargains, and that it will turn to a vast account
(All this will I give thee, says the tempter); but they only dream
that they eat; the housefuls dwindle into scarcely a handful, like
the grass on the house-tops.
II. He shows the perniciousness of these ways, as a reason why we
should dread them
(v. 15):
“My son, walk not thou in the way with them; do not associate
with them; get, and keep, as far off from them as thou canst;
refrain thy foot from their path; do not take example by them,
not do as they do.” Such is the corruption of our nature that our foot
is very prone to step into the path of sin, so that we must use
necessary violence upon ourselves to refrain our foot from it, and
check ourselves if at any time we take the least step towards it.
Consider,
1. How pernicious their way is in its own nature
(v. 16):
Their feet run to evil, to that which is displeasing to God and
hurtful to mankind, for they make haste to shed blood. Note, The
way of sin is down-hill; men not only cannot stop themselves, but, the
longer they continue in it, the faster they run, and make haste in it,
as if they were afraid they should not do mischief enough and were
resolved to lose no time. They said they would proceed leisurely (Let
us lay wait for blood,
v. 11),
but thou wilt find they are all in haste, so much has Satan filled
their hearts.
2. How pernicious the consequences of it will be. They are plainly
told that this wicked way will certainly end in their own destruction,
and yet they persist in it. Herein,
(1.) They are like the silly bird, that sees the net spread to take
her, and yet it is in vain; she is decoyed into it by the bait, and
will not take the warning which her own eyes gave her,
But we think ourselves of more value than many sparrows, and
therefore should have more wit, and act with more caution. God has
made us wiser than the fowls of heaven
(Job xxxv. 11),
and shall we then be as stupid as they?
(2.) They are worse than the birds, and have not the sense which we
sometimes perceive them to have; for the fowler knows it is in vain to
lay his snare in the sight of the bird, and therefore he has
arts to conceal it. But the sinner sees ruin at the end of his way; the
murderer, the thief, see the jail and the gallows before them, nay,
they may see hell before them; their watchmen tell them they shall
surely die, but it is to no purpose; they rush into sin, and rush on in
it, like the horse into the battle. For really the stone they roll will
turn upon themselves,
They lay wait, and lurk privily, for the blood and lives of others, but
it will prove, contrary to their intention, to be for their own
blood, their own lives; they will come, at length, to a shameful
end; and, if they escape the sword of the magistrate, yet there is a
divine Nemesis that pursues them. Vengeance suffers them not
to live. Their greediness of gain hurries them upon those practices
which will not suffer them to live out half their days, but will cut
off the number of their months in the midst. They have little reason to
be proud of their property in that which takes away the life of the
owners and then passes to other masters; and what is a man
profited, though he gain the world, if he lose his life? For then he
can enjoy the world no longer; much less if he lose his soul, and that
be drowned in destruction and perdition, as multitudes are by the love
of money.
Now, though Solomon specifies only the temptation to rob on the
highway, yet he intends hereby to warn us against all other evils which
sinners entice men to. Such are the ways of the drunkards and unclean;
they are indulging themselves in those pleasures which tend to their
ruin both here and for ever; and therefore consent not to them.
| Wisdom’s Exhortations; Doom of Obdurate Sinners. | |
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20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the
streets:
21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings
of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the
scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit
unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out
my hand, and no man regarded;
25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of
my reproof:
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your
fear cometh;
27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction
cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they
shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear
of the LORD:
30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and
be filled with their own devices.
32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the
prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall
be quiet from fear of evil.
Solomon, having shown how dangerous it is to hearken to the temptations
of Satan, here shows how dangerous it is not to hearken to the calls of
God, which we shall for ever rue the neglect of. Observe,
I. By whom God calls to us–by wisdom. It is wisdom that
crieth without. The word is plural–wisdoms, for, as there
is infinite wisdom in God, so there is the manifold wisdom of
God,
Eph. iii. 10.
God speaks to the children of men by all the kinds of wisdom, and, as
in every will, so in every word, of God there is a counsel.
1. Human understanding is wisdom, the light and law of nature, the
powers and faculties of reason, and the office of conscience,
By these God speaks to the children of men, and reasons with them.
The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord; and, wherever men
go, they may hear a voice behind them, saying, This is the way;
and the voice of conscience is the voice of God, and not always a still
small voice, but sometimes it cries.
2. Civil government is wisdom; it is God’s ordinance; magistrates are
his vicegerents. God by David had said to the fools, Deal not
foolishly,
Ps. lxxv. 4.
In the opening of the gates, and in the places of
concourse, where courts were kept, the judges, the wisdom of the
nation, called to wicked people, in God’s name, to repent and reform.
3. Divine revelation is wisdom; all its dictates, all its laws, are
wise as wisdom itself. God does, by the written word, by the law of
Moses, which sets before us the blessing and the curse, by the priests’
lips which keep knowledge, by his servants the prophets, and all the
ministers of this word, declare his mind to sinners, and give them
warning as plainly as that which is proclaimed in the streets or courts
of judicature by the criers. God, in his word, not only opens the case,
but argues it with the children of men. Come, now, and let us reason
together,
Isa. i. 18.
4. Christ himself is Wisdom, is Wisdoms, for in him are hidden all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and he is the centre of all
divine revelation, not only the essential Wisdom, but the
eternal Word, by whom God speaks to us and to whom he has
committed all judgment; he it is therefore who here both pleads
with sinners and passes sentence on them. He calls himself
Wisdom,
Luke vii. 35.
II. How he calls to us, and in what manner.
1. Very publicly, that whosoever hath ears to hear may hear, since all
are welcome to take the benefit of what is said and all are concerned
to heed it. The rules of wisdom are published without in the
streets, not in the schools only, or in the palaces of princes, but
in the chief places of concourse, among the common people that
pass and repass in the opening of the gates and in the
city. It is comfortable casting the net of the gospel where there
is a multitude of fish, in hopes that then some will be enclosed. This
was fulfilled in our Lord Jesus, who taught openly in the temple, in
crowds of people, and in secret said nothing
and charged his ministers to proclaim his gospel on the
housetop,
Matt. x. 27.
God says
(Isa. xlv. 19),
I have not spoken in secret. There is no speech or language
where Wisdom’s voice is not heard. Truth seeks not corners,
nor is virtue ashamed of itself.
2. Very pathetically; she cries, and again she cries, as
one in earnest. Jesus stood and cried. She utters her
voice, she utters her words with all possible clearness and
affection. God is desirous to be heard and heeded.
III. What the call of God and Christ is.
1. He reproves sinners for their folly and their obstinately persisting
in it,
Observe,
(1.) Who they are that Wisdom here reproves and expostulates with. In
general, they are such as are simple, and therefore might justly
be despised, such as love simplicity, and therefore might justly
be despaired of; but we must use the means even with those that we have
but little hopes of, because we know not what divine grace may do.
Three sorts of persons are here called to:–
[1.] Simple ones that love simplicity. Sin is simplicity, and
sinners are simple ones; they do foolishly, very foolishly; and the
condition of those is very bad who love simplicity, are fond of their
simple notions of good and evil, their simple prejudices against the
ways of God, and are in their element when they are doing a simple
thing, sporting themselves in their own deceivings and flattering
themselves in their wickedness.
[2.] Scorners that delight in scorning–proud people that take a
pleasure in hectoring all about them, jovial people that banter all
mankind, and make a jest of every thing that comes in their way. But
scoffers at religion are especially meant, the worst of sinners, that
scorn to submit to the truths and laws of Christ, and to the reproofs
and admonitions of his word, and take a pride in running down every
thing that is sacred and serious.
[3.] Fools that hate knowledge. None but fools hate
knowledge. Those only are enemies to religion that do not understand it
aright. And those are the worst of fools that hate to be instructed
and reformed, and have a rooted antipathy to serious godliness.
(2.) How the reproof is expressed: “How long will you do so?”
This implies that the God of heaven desires the conversion and
reformation of sinners and not their ruin, that he is much displeased
with their obstinacy and dilatoriness, that he waits to be gracious,
and is willing to reason the case with them.
2. He invites them to repent and become wise,
And here,
(1.) The precept is plain: Turn you at my reproof. We do not
make a right use of the reproofs that are given us for that which is
evil if we do not turn from it to that which is good; for for this end
the reproof was given. Turn, that is, return to your right mind, turn
to God, turn to your duty, turn and live.
(2.) The promises are very encouraging. Those that love simplicity
find themselves under a moral impotency to change their own mind and
way; they cannot turn by any power of their own. To this God answers,
“Behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you; set yourselves to
do what you can, and the grace of God shall set in with you, and work
in you both to will and to do that good which, without that grace, you
could not do.” Help thyself, and God will help thee; stretch forth
thy withered hand, and Christ will strengthen and heal it.
[1.] The author of this grace is the Spirit, and that is promised: I
will pour out my Spirit unto you, as oil, as water; you shall have
the Spirit in abundance, rivers of living water,
John vii. 38.
Our heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those that ask
him.
[2.] The means of this grace is the word, which, if we take it aright,
will turn us; it is therefore promised, “I will make known my words
unto you, not only speak them to you, but make them known, give you
to understand them.” Note, Special grace is necessary to a sincere
conversion. But that grace shall never be denied to any that honestly
seek it and submit to it.
3. He reads the doom of those that continue obstinate against all these
means and methods of grace. It is large and very terrible,
Wisdom, having called sinners to return, pauses awhile, to see what
effect the call has, hearkens and hears; but they speak not
aright
(Jer. viii. 6),
and therefore she goes on to tell them what will be in the end
hereof.
(1.) The crime is recited and it is highly provoking. See what it is
for which judgment will be given against impenitent sinners in the
great day, and you will say they deserve it, and the Lord is righteous
in it. It is, in short, rejecting Christ and the offers of his grace,
and refusing to submit to the terms of his gospel, which would have
saved them both from the curse of the law of God and from the
dominion of the law of sin.
[1.] Christ called to them, to warn them of their danger; he
stretched out his hand to offer them mercy, nay, to help them
out of their miserable condition, stretched out his hand for
them to take hold of, but they refused and no man
regarded; some were careless and never heeded it, nor took notice
of what was said to them; others were wilful, and, though they could
not avoid hearing the will of Christ, yet they gave him a flat denial,
they refused,
They were in love with their folly, and would not be made wise. They
were obstinate to all the methods that were taken to reclaim them. God
stretched out his hand in mercies bestowed upon them, and, when
those would not work upon them, in corrections, but all were in vain;
they regarded the operations of his hand no more than the declarations
of his mouth.
[2.] Christ reproved and counselled them, not only reproved them for
what they did amiss, but counselled them to do better (those are
reproofs of instruction and evidences of love and good-will),
but they set at nought all his counsel as not worth heeding, and
would none of his reproof, as if it were below them to be
reproved by him and as if they had never done any thing that deserved
reproof,
This is repeated
(v. 30):
“They would none of my counsel, but rejected it with disdain;
they called reproofs reproaches, and took them as an insult
(Jer. vi. 10);
nay, they despised all my reproof, as if it were all a jest, and
not worth taking notice of.” Note, Those are marked for ruin that are
deaf to reproof and good counsel.
[3.] They were exhorted to submit to the government of right reason and
religion, but they rebelled against both. First, Reason should
not rule them, for they hated knowledge
(v. 29),
hated the light of divine truth because it discovered to them the evil
of their deeds,
They hated to be told that which they could not bear to know.
Secondly, Religion could not rule them, for they did not
choose the fear of the Lord, but chose to walk in the way of
their heart and in the sight of their eyes. They were pressed to
set God always before them, but they chose rather to cast him
and his fear behind their backs. Note, Those who do not
choose the fear of the Lord show that they have no
knowledge.
(2.) The sentence is pronounced, and it is certainly ruining. Those
that will not submit to God’s government will certainly perish under
his wrath and curse, and the gospel itself will not relieve them. They
would not take the benefit of God’s mercy when it was offered them, and
therefore justly fall as victims to his justice,
The threatenings here will have their full accomplishment in the
judgment of the great day and the eternal misery of the impenitent, of
which yet there are some earnests in present judgments.
[1.] Now sinners are in prosperity and secure; they live at ease, and
set sorrow at defiance. But, First, Their calamity will
come
(v. 26);
sickness will come, and those diseases which they shall apprehend to be
the very arrests and harbingers of death; other troubles will come, in
mind, in estate, which will convince them of their folly in setting God
at a distance. Secondly, Their calamity will put them into a
great fright. Fear seizes them, and they apprehend that bad will be
worse. When public judgments are abroad the sinners in Zion are
afraid, fearfulness surprises the hypocrites. Death is the king
of terrors to them
&c.); this fear will be their continual torment. Thirdly,
According to their fright will it be to them. Their fear shall
come (the thing they were afraid of shall befal them); it shall
come as desolation, as a mighty deluge bearing down all before
it; it shall be their destruction, their total and final
destruction; and it shall come as a whirlwind, which suddenly
and forcibly drives away all the chaff. Note, Those that will not admit
the fear of God lay themselves open to all other fears, and their fears
will not prove causeless. Fourthly, Their fright will then be
turned into despair: Distress and anguish shall come upon them,
for, having fallen into the pit they were afraid of, they shall see no
way to escape,
Saul cries out
(2 Sam. i. 9),
Anguish has come upon me; and in hell there is weeping, and
wailing, and gnashing of teeth for anguish, tribulation and
anguish to the soul of the sinner, the fruit of the indignation
and wrath of the righteous God,
Rom. ii. 8, 9.
[2.] Now God pities their folly, but he will then laugh at their
calamity
(v. 26):
“I also will laugh at your distress, even as you laughed at my
counsel.” Those that ridicule religion will thereby but make themselves
ridiculous before all the world. The righteous will laugh at
them
(Ps. lii. 6),
for God himself will. It intimates that they shall be for ever shut out
of God’s compassions; they have so long sinned against mercy that they
have now quite sinned it away. His eye shall not spare, neither
will he have pity. Nay, his justice being glorified in their ruin,
he will be pleased with it, though now he would rather they should
turn and live. Ah! I will ease me of my adversaries.
[3.] Now God is ready to hear their prayers and to meet them with
mercy, if they would but seek to him for it; but then the door will be
shut, and they shall cry in vain
(v. 28):
“Then shall they call upon me when it is too late, Lord,
Lord, open to us. They would then gladly be beholden to that mercy
which now they reject and make light of; but I will not answer,
because, when I called, they would not answer;” all the answer then
will be, Depart from me, I know you not. This has been the case
of some even in this life, as of Saul, whom God answered not by
Urim or prophets; but, ordinarily, while there is life
there is room for prayer and hope of speeding, and therefore this must
refer to the inexorable justice of the last judgment. Then those that
slighted God will seek him early (that is, earnestly), but in
vain; they shall not find him, because they sought him not when
he might be found,
The rich man in hell begged, but was denied.
[4.] Now they are eager upon their own way, and fond of their own
devices; but then they will have enough of them
(v. 31),
according to the proverb, Let men drink as they brew; they shall
eat the fruit of their own way; their wages shall be according
to their work, and, as was their choice, so shall their doom be,
Gal. vi. 7, 8.
Note, First, There is a natural tendency in sin to destruction,
Sinners are certainly miserable if they do but eat the fruit of
their own way. Secondly, Those that perish must thank themselves,
and can lay no blame upon any other. It is their own device; let
them make their boast of it. God chooses their delusions,
Isa. lxvi. 4.
[5.] Now they value themselves upon their worldly prosperity; but then
that shall help to aggravate their ruin,
First, They are now proud that they can turn away from God and
get clear of the restraints of religion; but that very thing shall slay
them, the remembrance of it shall cut them to the heart.
Secondly, They are now proud of their own security and
sensuality; but the ease of the simple (so the margin reads it)
shall slay them; the more secure they are the more certain and
the more dreadful will their destruction be, and the prosperity of
fools shall help to destroy them, by puffing them up with
pride, gluing their hearts to the world, furnishing them with fuel for
their lusts, and hardening their hearts in their evil ways.
4. He concludes with an assurance of safety and happiness to all those
that submit to the instructions of wisdom
(
v. 33):
“Whoso hearkeneth unto me, and will be ruled by me, he shall,”
(1.) “Be safe; he shall dwell under the special protection of
Heaven, so that nothing shall do him any real hurt.”
(2.) “He shall be easy, and have no disquieting apprehensions of
danger; he shall not only be safe from evil, but quiet from the fear
of it.” Though the earth be removed, yet shall not they
fear. Would we be safe from evil, and quiet from the fear of it?
Let religion always rule us and the word of God be our counsellor. That
is the way to dwell safely in this world, and to be quiet
from the fear of evil in the other world.
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