Proverbs 9
I. Wisdom hath builded her house, she hatu V*n hr seven pillars: 2. She fiatii killed her beasts? she hath mingled her tciw; se hrtl also furnished her table. 3. She hath sent forth her maidens: she cri«ii U?OK 1fo highest places of the city, 4. Whoso is simple, let him {urn in hither ’ as for ton* that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, 5. Come, eat of my bread, anJ 4wk of the wire which I have mingled. 6. Forsake the foolish, and live; aiu* i»i the way of understanding.
WE have delighted to contemplate the Divine Si wur in hi? glorious majesty, and specially in his wondrous love to t*w now of men.3 Here his love is poured out before us. The parent oi tho marriage-feast so clearly identifies the speaker, that w« mistake the voice. For who hath blessings so rich? WS $ivec an invitation so free — a welcome so encouraging? Ther tin King made the feast, and sent his servants to invite the gu*«te.- Here Wisdom is a Queen, attended, according to Eastern inwtorn, by her maidens,5 and sending them, forth to bid to the fe?** She hath builded her house — “the church of the living God,”- firm upon the pillars of eternal truth.6 The great sacrifice supplies her feast.7 And now that she hath killed her beasts — min gied her wine with the choicest spices,8 arid plentifully /wrmsAer her table, let the simple and ignorant turn in hither — come, eai of the bread of life — drink of the wine of gospel grace and joy. Is there not besides a special invitation for her children — a tabh richly furnished for their refreshment; where they eat of tha bread, and drink of the wine, such as “the world know not of?”1
But are not all comers welcome to the Gospel feast? The Master’s heart flows along with every offer of his grace. His servants are ministers of reconciliation.11 Their message is to tell of the bounty of Messiah’s house, and bid sinners welcome to their Sa viour. Here, sinner, is thy warrant — not thy worthiness, but thy need, and the invitation of thy Lord. All the blessings of his Gos pel are set before thee — love without beginning, end, or change. Honor the freeness of his mercy. Let him have the full glory of his own grace.12
1 Wisdoms. Heb. Comp. note Chap. i. 20.
2 Comp. Gen. xliii. 16. Marg. 3 Chap. viii. 22.
4 Matt xxii. 1 — 4, also Luke xiv. 16, 17. 5 Ex. u. 5. Esth. iv. 4.
e 1 Tim. iii. 15. Comp. Eph. ii. 20 — 22. Heb. Hi. 3, 4, also Matt. xvi. 18. i 1 Cor. v. 7, with Psalm xxxvi. 7, 8. Isa. xxv. 6.
8 Bishop Lowth remarks the difference between the Classics and the Hebrews. The one lsjmxngled wine understand wine diluted with water; the other intend wine made stronger by spices, or other exhilarating ingredients. Note on Isa. i. 22. Comp. chap xxiii. 29 — 31. ‘Cant, viii. 2.
9 Matt xxii 4 Isa. Iv. 1. Comp. Bishop Hall’s note.
10 Ibid. xxvi. 26 — 28. ll 2 Cor. v. 18 — 20.
12 Calvin speaks of the pleading invitations of Christ, as ’ his sweet and more thai. ,-notherly allurement,’ and beautifully adds- -that ‘the word of God is never opened to us but that he with a motherly sweetness opens his own bosom to us.’ — On Matt. xxiu. 61
But this blessing can never be valued, till the path of the foolish be forsaken. Thou must forsake either them or Christ. To abide with them, is to “remain in the congregation of the dead.“2 To forsake them, is the way of life and understanding*” Save thyself then from this untoward generation.”” Come out, and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive thee, saith the Lord Almighty.7’4
7. He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. 8. Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. 9. Give instructor to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
Wisdom’s messengers must discriminate in the proclamation of their message. Only the simple will welcome it. The scorner and wicked will rebel. “Let them alone.”6 Yet we must distinguish between the ignorant and the wilful scorner — between one who rejects from the first rising enmity, arid one, who deliberately refuses the blessing — self-excluded from the general ministerial commission.6
This is also the rule of Christian prudence. The Gospel is a thing too holy to be exposed to scoffing fools.7 Why should we reprove, where more harm than good may be occasioned? Avoid irritations. Await a favorable opportunity. Sometimes a sad, serious, intelligible silence is the most effective reproof.8 Whereas open rebuke might stir up a torrent of hatred9 and abuse;10 and, under provocation of spirit, the reprover might get to himself a blot.11
Yet this prudence must not degenerate into cowardice, and compromise the primary obligation boldly to rebuke sin,12 and confess our Master.13 Every sinner is not a scorner. And a ’ vtford spoken in due season, how good is it!”14 That false delicacy therefore, which recoils from an unflinching profession, is treachery to our Lord, and deep — perhaps eternal* — injury to our fellow-sinners. Has not each of us a tongue to speak? To suffer any therefore to rush into perdition without opening our mouths to save them is a sin of omission, which will cause a bitter pang to the awakened conscience.
The wise and just man gladly encourages well-timed reproof.15 Conscious of his own failings, he loves his reprover as a friend to
James iv. 4. 2 Chap. xxi. 1 6.
Chap. xiii. 20. Psalm xxvi. 3 — 6; xxxiv. 12 — 14; cxix. 115. Amos v. 14.
Acts ii. 40 — 46. 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. 5 Matt. xv. 14.
Acts xiii. 45, 4b’, 50; xviii. 6. Comp. Matt. x. 14, 15.
Matt. vii. 6. 8 Amos v. 13; vi. 10.
Chap. xv. 12; xxiii. 9. 1 Kings xxi. 10; xxii. 8. 2 Chron. xxv. 16.
Gen. xix. 7 — 9. Amos vii. 10. Matt, vii, 6.
Isa. xxix. 21. Comp. Ecclus. viii. 10.
Eph. v. 10. 1 Thess. v. 14. 1 Tim. v. 20. Comp. Matt. xiv. 3. 4.
Matt. x. 32, 33. Acts iv. 19, 20.” Chap. xv. 33.
Chap, xxviii. 23.
his best interest;1 and would receive instruction from the lowest, as a means of becoming yet wiser and increasing in learning*
After all — wisely to give, and humbly to receive, reproof, require* much prayer, self-denial, love, and sincerity. But where the miria of Christ is mutually exhibited, it cements a bond of the warmest affection.3 “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.”4 Happy is that church, which receives the loving admonitions of the Christiau pastor with humility and thankfulness !5
10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. 1 1. For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the, years of thy life shall be increased.
The repetition of this weighty sentence6 deepens our estimate of its importance. The fear of the Lord was a lovely grace in the perfect humanity of Jesus.7 Let it be the test of our “predestination to be conformed to his image.”8 It is the genuine spirit of adoption. The child of God has only one dread, to offend his Father; only one desire — to please and delight in him. The fear of God is therefore connected with his love. ‘The heart that is touched with the loadstone of Divine love trembles still with godly fear.’9 If this temper is the beginning, it is also (as the word imports) the head — of wisdom — not only its first rudiment, but its matured exercise. It is obviously combined with the knowledge of the Holy One.10 For if men did but know his holiness — “who would not fear thee, O Lord?”11 Days multiplied were the Old Testament reward.12 And truly the value of life is only realized in the knowledge and service of God. Inconceivably joyous to us is the prospect of years of life increased into a boundless eternity — infinite desires, fully satisfied; yet excited unceasingly to more full and heavenly enjoyment.
1 Lev. xix. 17. Psalm cxli. 5. Comp. 1 Sam. xxv. 33. 2 Sam. xii. 7 — 14, with 1 Kings i. 32 — 34.
2 Chap. i. 5. Comp. Ex. xviii. 17 — 24. Acts xviii. 26.
3 1 Sam. xxv. 32 — 42. chap, xxvii. 6.
5 2 Cor. ii. 1 — 9. Mr. Martyn — his Biographer observes — ’ felt reproof to be “a duty of unlimited extent and almost insuperable difficulty.” But, said he, “the way to know when to address men, and when to abstain, is to love.” And, as love is most genuine where the heart is most abased, he resolved not to reprove others, when he could conscientiously be silent, except he experienced at the same time a peculiar contrition of spirit.’ — Life, chap. ii.
6 Chap. i. 7. Comp. Job xxviii. 28. Psalm cxi. 10. i Isa. xi. 2, 3. 8 Rom. viii. 29. a Leighton on 1 Peter ii. 17.
10 The parallelism with the former clause seems to demand this meaning. The application of the plural number to the sacred name is elsewhere used by Solomon (ver. i. z — 20. Ecc. xii. 1.) as well as by others of the inspired Writers. Gen. i. 20. Job xxxv. 10. Isa. liv. 5. Bishop Horsley remarks — ‘God is the only being, to whom the same name in the singular and in the plural may be indiscriminately applied. And this change from the one number to the other, without any thing in the principles of language to account for it, is frequent in speaking of God in the Hebrew tongue, but unexampled in the case of any other being.’ See his ingenious Sermon on the Watchers. The reason of this peculiar usage — we may add — is obvious to any one, who receive* with implicit and reverential faith the Scriptural revelation of the Divine Essence.
»l Rev. xv. 4. i* chap. iii. 2, 16 j iv. 10; x. 27.
12. If thou be wise, thou shall be wise for thyself: but if thou scornesi, thou alone shall bear it.
The consequences of our conduct — good or bad — chiefly reflect on ourselves. God cannot be profited by us ;2 and he is infinitely above our injury.3 The wise man’s light is a blessing to the church and to the world.4 But he is wise for himself — for his own advantage.9 The scorner is a grief to. his minister, and a stumbling to his church. But he hurts no one so much as himself. He alone shall bear it.6 A surety indeed there is. But his scorning rejects him. He sinks therefore into perdition under a mill stone of guilt — without remedy.7 This then is the ordinance of God. “Every man shall bear his own burden. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” life or death — a double harvest — for time and for eternity.8
13. A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple and knoweth nothing. 14. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city. 15. To call passengers who go right on their ways: 16. Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth under standing i she saith to him, 17. Stolen watei’i are sweet, and bread eaten in secret (of secrecies, Marg.) is pleasant. 18. But ht, knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
Wisdom’s free and gracious invitation has been before us. And we might almost ask — who could resist it? Now we have an allurement from the opposite quarter. For sin is no less earnest to destroy, than wisdom is to save. Fleshly lusts are directly opposed to Divine wisdom. ‘The delight of the soul fixed on any thing but God and his grace is but spiritual adultery.’9 The -woman of foolishness is clamorous™ and, though “subtil in heart,”11 in the devices of Satan, is simplicity itself in her utter ignorance of right. So fearfully do sensual pleasures darken the understanding, that the tempter, from the very habit of deceiving, becomes the victim of her own delusion! 12 With a shameless front she dares to present herself in the high places of the city,13 alluring, not only those who are “going the way to her house,”14 but the inexperienced, who are going right on their ways. Thus even the high-way of God, though a path of safety,13 is beset with temptation. Enticement or assaults wait on every step. Stolen waters19 — secret indulgences17 — forbidden pleasures — are the bait. This was the successful snare in paradise.18 And who has not felt, that restraint provokes the dormant power of sin; as children will do that which is forbidden, because it is forbidden ?19 But let the vie-
1 Chap. xvi. 26.
2 Job xxii. 2, 3. Psalm xvi. 2. Luke xvii. 10. 3 Job xxxv 6, 7.
* Matt. v. 14 — 16. s Chap. iii. 13 — 18; xxiv. 3. Ecc. viii. 1.
6 Chap. viii. 36. Ezek. xviii. 20. Luke vii. 30.
1 Chap. xxix. 1. Heb. x. 28, 29. Comp. Lev. xxiv. 15. 8 Gal. vi. 5, 7, 8.
Diodati. Heb. Chap. vii. 10. n Ibid. ver. 11.
12 Hos. iv. 11. 2 Tim. iii. 13.
Chap. vii. 10 — 12. Gen. xxxviii. 14, 21. Jer. iii. 2, 3. Ezek. xvi. 24, 25, 31. i* Chap. vii. 8. is Chap. x. 9. w Chap. v. 15 — 17. 2 Sam. xi. 2.
17 Chap. xx. 17. 2 Sam. xii. 12. Comp. Job xx. 12. 18 Gen. iii. 1 — 6.
18 Rom. vii. 8. 1 Cor. xv. 56. See Augustine’s description of his robbing the pear* tim — ere it be too late — contemplate the fearful close in eternity. It is as if we might almost see that the dead are there; and that her guests — the wilful despisers of wisdom — are in the very depths of hell. Ah! if the blinded fool know not this, what but wilful inconside ration can have closed his eyes ?2
Reader — the wisdom of God, and the great deceiver of man — stand before you. Both are wooing thine heart — the one for life — the other for death. Both are intensely anxious for success. Wisdom crieth. The foolish woman is clamorous.3 Both take their station in the high places of the city.* Both spread out this feast for the simple and ignorant.5 But how opposite the purpose of each! The one ready to make the simple wise unto eternal life. The other bearing away her willing captive into unutterable misery. Which is the voice that arrests thine ear — allures thine heart? Which is the feast, that excites thine appetite? Whose guest art thou? — Oh! remember that listening to the enticement cheats thee of thy present — no less than of thine eternal — happiness, and will banish thee forever from the paradise re-opened aa thy home. The Lord preserve thee from the tempter’s snares, by keeping thee closely walking with himself!