Proverbs 1

Proverbs 1:1-6

The Psalms were full of devotion and rapture; this book, of instruction for our conduct. Both must unite; the fire of devotion, and the grace received in prayer must quicken and strengthen us for the practice of duty. In this chapter we have, 1. The title of the book, showing the general scope and design of it, vers. 1—6. 2. The first principle of it recommended to our serious consideration, vers. 7—9. 3. A necessary caution against bad company, vers. 10—19. 4. A faithful and lively representation of wisdom’s reasoning with the children of men, and the certain ruin of those that turn a deaf ear to those reasoning, vers. 20—33.

1 Kings in 3x Chap. 1. 1. & 6xx. 2. Exlief. III. 3. Heb. Equitas. b Chap. ix. 9. Or, also your speech.

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 subtlety 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.

The book of Proverbs opens with an introduction, informing us,

1. Who was the author of them: Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel; the wise son of a wise father; a king, who thought it no disparagement of his dignity to be a teacher of the ignorant; and the type of him, who in the fulness of time should arise to reign over the Israel of God.

2. What was the author’s design. He fought not fame by his works, but to make men wise unto salvation. To know wisdom, the system of divine truth revealed from God; and in-

struction, the method of attaining it ourselves, and communicating it to others. To perceive the words of understanding; to distinguish truth from error, having this infallible test to appeal to. To receive the instruction of wisdom, even the wisdom of God, the dictates of the spirit of truth, teaching us justice, judgment, and equity, in all our concerns among men; to render to all their due, according to the obligations, connections, and relation we stand in towards them. To give subtlety to the simple; the instructions here given are level to the meanest capacities; and the most illiterate, who receive them, will become wise as serpents; wise in the best sense, even unto salvation. To the young man, whose inexperience wants a guide, and his resources a check, knowledge and discretion, or thought; how to think and act alight, and in these dangerous days to demean himself according to the rules prescribed in God’s blessed word. A wise man will hear; not only the young and simple may find instruction, but there is here what the wise may attend with profit, and their attention hereunto will prove the reality of the wisdom they possess, and will increase learning; for those who have made the highest attainments, are at best defective. There are treasures of wisdom and knowledge in the book of God far, very far beyond all we have yet reached. None may think themselves too wise to learn, and too old to be taught: and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels; the counsels of God, the mysteries of his gospel, wherein the wisdom of God is most eminently displayed; and being himself instructed, he will be enabled to affix others with his advice: shall possess the helm, as the words may be rendered, whether as a teacher in the church of God, or as the pilot of the state. To understand a proverb, and the interpretation, or, the elegance; both able to resolve the truth intended to be conveyed, and point out the beauty of the manner and expression in which it is couched: the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. To a natural man, the greatest truths of scripture are enigmatical, and often in his account foolishness; yet are they the words of the wise, even of the all-wise God; and when he gives an enlightened understanding.

Chap. 1.

Before Christ standing, then, like a mathematical problem solved, what seemed confusion and nonsense to the unskilful, appears evident, clear, and striking.

7. ¶ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despite 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.

Proverbs 1:7-9

More true wisdom is contained in one maxim of God’s word, than in all the volumes of philosophers.

1. The fear of the Lord is the beginning, or summit, of knowledge. This is the first principle to be laid down and received by all who would be truly wise. God must be the object of our fear; not as dreading his wrath, but with reverential and affected before him, with holy jealousy careful not to offend him, and as all his worship and ways subsistence to please him. But fools despite wisdom and instruction. They may profess themselves to be wise, but their contempt of God’s word, and of divine teaching, shews their folly as great as their problems.

2. Next to the fear of God is the honour and attention due to our parents. My son, hear the instruction of thy father. That fathers will take pains to instruct their children in the good ways of God, is presumed; for they are unnatural monthers, who can suffer their children to grow up in ignorance, and whose wicked examples embolden them to sin. And to the instructions of a good father a dutiful son will lend an attention ear: and forsake not the law of thy mother; for we owe the same respect to both our parents; and he is equally a disobedient child, who rejects the advice of the one as of the other. For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck; in God’s sight of great price, in whose eyes shall duty and early piety is infinitely more ornamental, than in ours the collar studded with jewels, or the pendant chains of gold.

3. ¶ My son, if sinners entice thee, confest thou not. 11. If they say, Come with us, let us say 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. Calt 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 haite 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.

a. 10—19. Among the sick and most dangerous soares for young persons is bad company: to shun this, they can never enough be cautioned; and as this wicked world is full of company, we must watch indeed, if we would keep ourselves unipotted from them.

1. Their character is strongly drawn. Sinners will notice that from attending to the advice of aged, whom they call doating parents; will represent the paths of vice in every pleasing colour; and promising plenty and impunity, solicite thy content to join in their destructive ways. Come, joy they, with us; let us go soon for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause, or, with impunity; to rob the harmless traveller, and, if he resists, take his blood as well as his money. Nor should they fear a discovery: Let us swallow them up alive at the grave, and which in those that go down into the pit; to that no traces of the blood shall remain, and in the pit they can roll no talos, so that we shall be false from accusation. We shall find all precious substance, earned thus without toil: we shall fill our houses with spoil, and not in the affluence. Come, celt in thy lot with us, and be happy; or, then shall celt thy lot with us, welcome to share all our gains. Let us all have one purse, or we will, and live jovially together on the prey we have taken. Note, (1.) Evil companions are ever ready to proffer their friendship, which the prudent and pious are cautious with whom they are so neutral. (2.) The hope of feast is the great embodiment, argument to sin. (3.) Gain appears to be precious substance in a werbbling eye; but it is dearly bought at the price of the food’s carcass rum. (4.) They who once give way to sin, never know to what lengths they shall run. (5.) The love of money is the root of all evil.

2. The caution given is, Confess thee not to their solicitation. My son, wake not thou in the way of them, to associate with them, or follow their dangerous steps. Refrain thy foot from their path, when tempted thereunto, and to which current nature is to prove: for their feet run to evil, offensive to God, and hurtful to mankind; and make haite to shed blood, the ven-

grance due to which will shortly bring down the heaviest judgments upon them. Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird: they no sooner perceive the share, than they fly away; but the sinner, more infatuated, fees the devil spread his tools, knows the end of their or murder must be fatal to his body, and is affured, that hell must be his portion, yet rather into the tolls, and madly courts his ruin. They lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. Blood will cry in spite of all their care to conceal it, and their deeds of darkness come to the light, and pull down destruction on their heads. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; so lurk to him, body and soul, which taketh away the life of the owners thereof: either the robber musters the possessor of it, to obtain his wealth; or the goods he hath stolen are found upon him, and produced as evidences to take away his life. Note, (1.) If we would keep from the deeds of the wicked, we must shun their feast. (2.) What is said of robbery or murder is equally true of every other sin, that it will prove the damnation of the sinner at half. (3.) What folly, what madness is in the human heart, that can for a perishing world destroy an immortal soul, and for a momentary phasire plunge into everlasting burning?

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 of the untruth her words, saying, 22. How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the sororers 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 it. 25. But ye have set at noogles 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 auguish 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 hastened 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 stay them, and the prophecy of fools shall destroy them. 33. But whoo hearkneth unto me, shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Proverbs 1:20-33

As diligently as we are warned to fly the enticements of sinners, as earnestly are we admonished to attend the calls and warnings of God.

We have,

1. The voice of wisdom crying in the streets, in the places of greatest concourse, and in the gates, that all who will may hear the divine admonitions. This wisdom, or wisdom in the original, may be interpreted of the divine revelation in general, or rather signifies Chaith Jesus, who is the person here speaking in the words of his everlasting gospel; rebuking the wickedness of those to whom he preached, and furnishing their dreadful doom. And this voice is still heard in the public manifestation of the word, and these warnings are to us full equally needful, and the danger of neglecting them equally fatal. Note, They that perish under a preached gospel, are less peculiarly without excuse.

2. The words which wisdom utters. [1.] He expeditates, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? Indulge your own vain notions, and (post in) your own detestations, in hopes of mercy unsupported by God’s word, and in ways of folly which must end in misery: and forerest delight in fternity; scoffing at serious godliness, and counting it high humour and wit to turn things sacred into ridicule; constraining religion as a mean, love thing, as the Scribes and Pharisees did the great Author of it: and fools hate knowledge; averle to hear the gospel word, and chasing darkness rather than light. With such, with many such, God bears long. He delighteth not indeed in the death of a sinner, and therefore, [2.] He exhorts them earnestly not to worry not his patience, or provoke his wrath. Turn ye at my reproof; attend to the calls of my word; and most encouraging is the invitation. Behold, sinner, and wonder, after all thy provocations, at the grace recorded in Jesus Christ, who hath gifts even for the rebellious; behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, or upon you; upon Jesus, or death, if others continued impunity, and would not hear. I will make known my words unto you; in general to all, in the preaching of the gospel, so as to leave them unavoidable who repels it; and in a special manner to marry, by enabling them to receive the truth in the light and in the love of it. [3.] He upbraids

them

The first time with their impenitence and hardness of heart: I have called, and of refuled; as the Jews rejected his word, and finners continue to do; either by withdrawing from the place of hearing, or by their inattention there, or by their obituary nonwithstanding every warning, perishing in their sins. I have stretched out my arm, and no man regarded; as Jesus did in the temple, John v. 11, and as his zealous ministers do in their importunate discourses, but to many with small effect; they continue a disobedient and guinlaying people. To have set at weight of my counsel; the gospel of their salvation, which the Jews despised, and which the self-righteous and the careless finner Bill reject: and would have none of my reproof; would neither hear nor obey it; may, they hated knowledge, ver. 29. and did not check the fear of the Lord, but rather preferred the perverse ways of their own hearts. [4]. He therefore denounces their doom, which had a prelate fulfilment in the destruction of the Juville people, and will most eminently be accomplished in the day of the final perdition of ungodly men. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will want when your fear cometh: come it will; vain and festerly will seize on their bodies, and terrors on their guilty souls. When your fear cometh as a defalcation, overwhelming as a flood; and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, sudden and irresistible; when distress and anguish cometh upon you, as was terribly felt in the lungs of Jerusalem, and in the day of wrath will more fearfully overtake the impenitent sinner; then, instead of the least compaition, God, angels, and saints will mock at their torrents, and aggravate their wretchedness. Too late then it will be to cry for mercy, when the door is shut. Now prayer can avail, and God will hear the cries of the miserable; but this, I say, they shall call upon me, but I will not answer; deaf to their cries, though it were but for a drop of water to cool their flaming tongue. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me; all their importunity is vain; the sentence is gone forth, the decree irrevocable, their damnation eternal. And this accord, by the strictest justice: they chose their own delusions, and were impenetrably hardened, v. 29, 30. Therefore they shall not of the fruit of their own way. Sin and suffering are inseparable: they who chuse the one, must expect the other; and be filled with their own devices, in the ruin they have courted. Thus the Jews, who crucified Christ, were themselves miserably crucified, till trees were wanting to hang them on. For the turning away of the simple shall stay them: they who depart from Christ must perish; or, the rest of the simple, &c. whilst they cry, Peace, peace, I claim destruction cometh upon them; and the prosperity of full shall destroy them; their possessions enabling them to give a loose to the gratifications of their appetites, and begetting that fatal security which is the prelude to ruin. Let sinners read these awful lines, and tremble. Reader, whoever thou art, may they never be fulfilled in thee. [5]. He declares the blissedness of those who hear and obey the reproofs of God’s word. Whois harkneath unto me, to Christ and his gospel, and yields up his heart to him, shall dwell safely: no enemy shall approach to hurt him, neither Satan, sin, nor death. Sprinkled with the blood, and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, his peace on earth is secured, and in heaven shall his abode for ever be: and shall be quiet from fear of evil; entered into that eternal rest, which nothing can disturb, and which remaineth sure to all the people of God. Lord, may this be my lot and portuon.