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Proverbs
AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N S,
OF THE
P R O V E R B S.
We have now before us,
I. A new author, or penman rather, or pen (if you will) made use of by
the Holy Ghost for making known the mind of God to us, writing as moved
by the finger of God (so the Spirit of God is called), and that
is Solomon; through his hand came this book of Scripture and the two
that follow it, Ecclesiastes and Canticles, a sermon and a song. Some
think he wrote Canticles when he was very young, Proverbs in the midst
of his days, and Ecclesiastes when he was old. In the title of his song
he only writes himself Solomon, perhaps because he wrote it
before his accession to the throne, being filled with the Holy Ghost
when he was young. In the title of his Proverbs he writes himself
the son of David, king of Israel, for then he ruled over all
Israel. In the title of his Ecclesiastes he writes himself the son
of David, king of Jerusalem, because then perhaps his influence had
grown less upon the distant tribes, and he confined himself very much
in Jerusalem. Concerning this author we may observe,
1. That he was a king, and a king’s son. The penmen of scripture,
hitherto, were most of them men of the first rank in the world, as
Moses and Joshua, Samuel and David, and now Solomon; but, after him,
the inspired writers were generally poor prophets, men of no figure in
the world, because that dispensation was approaching in the which God
would choose the weak and foolish things of the world to confound
the wise and mighty and the poor should be employed to evangelize.
Solomon was a very rich king, and his dominions were very large, a king
of the first magnitude, and yet he addicted himself to the study of
divine things, and was a prophet and a prophet’s son. It is no
disparagement to the greatest princes and potentates in the world to
instruct those about them in religion and the laws of it.
2. That he was one whom God endued with extraordinary measures of
wisdom and knowledge, in answer to his prayers at his accession to the
throne. His prayer was exemplary: Give me a wise and an
understanding heart; the answer to it was encouraging: he had what
he desired and all other things were added to him. Now here we
find what good use he made of the wisdom God gave him; he not only
governed himself and his kingdom with it, but he gave rules of wisdom
to others also, and transmitted them to posterity. Thus must we trade
with the talents with which we are entrusted, according as they are.
3. That he was one who had his faults, and in his latter end turned
aside from those good ways of God which in this book he had directed
others in. We have the story of it
and a sad story it is, that the penman of such a book as this should
apostatize as he did. Tell it not in Gath. But let those who
are most eminently useful take warning by this not to be proud or
secure; and let us all learn not to think the worse of good
instructions though we have them from those who do not themselves
altogether live up to them.
II. A new way of writing, in which divine wisdom is taught us by
Proverbs, or short sentences, which contain their whole design within
themselves and are not connected with one another. We have had divine
laws, histories, and songs, and how divine
proverbs; such various methods has Infinite Wisdom used for our
instruction, that, no stone being left unturned to do us good, we may
be inexcusable if we perish in our folly. Teaching by proverbs was,
1. An ancient way of teaching. It was the most ancient way among the
Greeks; each of the seven wise men of Greece had some one saying that
he valued himself upon, and that made him famous. These sentences were
inscribed on pillars, and had in great veneration as that which was
said to come down from heaven. A cœlo descendit, Gnothi
seauton—Know thyself is a precept which came down from
heaven.
2. It was a plain and easy way of teaching, which cost neither the
teachers nor the learners much pains, nor put their understandings nor
their memories to the stretch. Long periods, and arguments far-fetched,
must be laboured both by him that frames them and by him that would
understand them, while a proverb, which carries both its sense and its
evidence in a little compass, is quickly apprehended and subscribed to,
and is easily retained. Both David’s devotions and Solomon’s
instructions are sententious, which may recommend that way of
expression to those who minister about holy things, both in praying and
preaching.
3. It was a very profitable way of teaching, and served admirably well
to answer the end. The word Mashal, here used for a proverb,
comes from a word that signifies to rule or have
dominion, because of the commanding power and influence which wise
and weighty sayings have upon the children of men; he that teaches by
them dominatur in concionibus–rules his auditory. It is easy to
observe how the world is governed by proverbs. As saith the proverb
of the ancients
or (as we commonly express it) As the old saying is, goes very
far with most men in forming their notions and fixing their resolves.
Much of the wisdom of the ancients has been handed down to posterity by
proverbs; and some think we may judge of the temper and character of a
nation by the complexion of its vulgar proverbs. Proverbs in
conversation are like axioms in philosophy, maxims in law, and
postulata in the mathematics, which nobody disputes, but every one
endeavours to expound so as to have them on his side. Yet there are
many corrupt proverbs, which tend to debauch men’s minds and harden
them in sin. The devil has his proverbs, and the world and the flesh
have their proverbs, which reflect reproach on God and religion (as
to guard us against the corrupt influences of which God has his
proverbs, which are all wise and good, and tend to make us so. These
proverbs of Solomon were not merely a collection of the wise sayings
that had been formerly delivered, as some have imagined, but were the
dictates of the Spirit of God in Solomon. The very first of them
(ch. i. 7)
agrees with what God said to man in the beginning
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom); so that though
Solomon was great, and his name may serve as much as any man’s to
recommend his writings, yet, behold, a greater than Solomon is
here. It is God, by Solomon, that here speaks to us: I say, to
us; for these proverbs were written for our learning,
and, when Solomon speaks to his son, the exhortation is said to
speak to us as unto children,
Heb. xii. 5.
And, as we have no book so useful to us in our devotions as David’s
psalms, so have we none so serviceable to us, for the right ordering of
our conversations, as Solomon’s proverbs, which as David says of the
commandments, are exceedingly broad, containing, in a little
compass, a complete body of divine ethics, politics, and economics,
exposing every vice, recommending every virtue, and suggesting rules
for the government of ourselves in every relation and condition, and
every turn of the conversation. The learned bishop Hall has drawn up a
system of moral philosophy out of Solomon’s Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
The
of this book are reckoned as a preface, by way of exhortation to the
study and practice of wisdom’s rules, and caution against those things
that would hinder therein. We have then the first volume of Solomon’s
proverbs
(ch. x.-xxiv.);
after that a second volume
and then Agur’s prophecy
(ch. xxx.),
and Lemuel’s
(ch. xxxi.).
The scope of all is one and the same, to direct us so to order our
conversation aright as that in the end we may see the salvation of the
Lord. The best comment on these rules is to be ruled by them.
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