Proverbs 3

Proverbs 3:1-6

Excellens is the adviser here given. May we be enabled to follow it.

1. We must be confident to our duty, because that is the way to be happy, ver. 1-4. 2. We must live a life of dependance upon God, because that is the way to be life, ver. 6, 7. 3. We must keep up the fear of God, because that is the way to be healthful, ver. 7, 8. 4. We must serve God with our statutes, because that is the way to be rich, ver. 9, 10. 5. We must bear afflictions well, because that is the way to get good by them, ver. 11, 12. 6. We must take pains to obtain wisdom, because that is the way to gain her, and to gain by her, ver. 13-20. 7. We must always govern ourselves by the rules of wisdom, because that is the way to be always safe, ver. 21-26. 8. We must do all the good we can, and no hurt to our neighbour, because according as men are just or unjust, charitable or uncharitable, humble or haughty, accordingly they shall receive of God, ver. 27-35. By all which it appears what a tendency religion has to make men both blessed and blessed.

MY son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments; a. For length of day, and long life, and peace shall they add to thee. 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart. 4. So shalt thou find favour, and good understandings in the light of God and man. 5. Truth in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

To be truly religious is not only our bounden duty, but our highest interest, as appears in the threefold blessedness here promised thereupon.

1. My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments, store them up in thy memory, cleave to them with hearty affection, obey them with unrelieved surrender, and with that delight and love which flamps the obedience genuine, and childlike. For length of days, and long life, and peace shall they add to thee: on earth a life of usefulness, continued to old age, with God’s peace, and the comfortable enjoyment of his favour; in honour, a life endearing through the ages of eternity, and perfection of peace and blessedness shall be the everlasting portion of the faithful soul.

2. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, shew every kindness to men’s bodies and souls, compassionate their disbeliefs, and believe to relieve them. In truth let every word be spoken; and to the gospel-word steadially adhere: bind them, the commandments and doctrines of wisdom, about thy neck, as the richest ornament, write them upon the table of thine heart to deep, that the divine impecition may never be erased. So shalt thou find favour, or grace, and good understanding, or beauty, in the light of God and man; God will approve and delight in the work of his own hands; for all good cometh from him, and the children of God will with pleasure behold these tokens of genuine wisdom, and give the right hand of fellowship, wishing thee prosperity in the name of the Lord.

3. Truth in the Lord, rejecting all other dependance and false confidence, trust him at all times, in every disloyalty, for the accomplishment of all that Father, Son, and Spirit have engaged to do for their redeemed, in the everlasting covenant of grace; trust him with all thine heart, unfeignedly and universally, and lean not unto thine own understanding, but on his wisdom, grace, and providence, to direct and guide us; without which, all our contrivances will disappoint us, and our understanding be foolishness. In all thy ways acknowledge him, consult his word, set him ever before thee; by prayer commit thy ways to him, ascribe to him the success of every undertaking, and submit with entire resignation to his corrections, and he shall direct thy path, so that the end of it shall be peace: he will guide us here by his counsel, and afterwards bring us to his glory.

4. ¶ Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. 8. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. 9. Ho-nour the LORD with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase. 10. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. 11. ¶ My son, despite not the chastising of the LORD: neither be weary of his correction. 12. For whom the LORD loveth, he correcteth, even as a father the son, to whom he delighteth.

Proverbs 3:7-12

Godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life which now is, as well as of that which is to come. We have here the best counsel, and the strongest motives to attend thereto.

1. Be not wise in thine own eyes, passed up with a vain conceit of our own abilities; presuming to be wise above what is written, and flighting the advice of others; fear the Lord, in true humility depending upon him, reverencing his word, and sub-misture to his will, and depart from evil, from sin, from the appearances of it, keep at the greatest distance possible, as from the abominable thing which God hases. It shall be health to thy navel, and morrow to thy bones; it will contribute to the health of body as well as soul, to have God’s fear upon our hearts, and sin far removed; temperance and connofure of mind being the best preservatives.

2. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase, supporting the ministers of the sanctuary and the cause of truth, affecting the industrious, and giving liberally, and according to our abilities, to the poor and needy. The only true enjoyment of worldly wealth is thus to employ it for the glory of God, and the good of mankind. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine; for he that lendeth to the Lord, shall never be a loser; what he layeth out, it shall be paid him again, often overpaid in kind, always in comfort.

3. My son, despite not the chastising of the Lord, which the Apostle quotes, Heb. xii. 5. and intimates that the exhortation is addressed to every child of God. Prosperity has been spoken of above as their lot, but sometimes God sees it for their good, to make them feel the rod of correction; and under all their trials, of whatever kind, his hand must be acknowledged. It is the rod of parental tenderness, not to be despised, however light it falls, or to be pulled over with a disability or insurrection: neither be weary of his correction, murmuring under the weight or continuance of the afflictions, debarring of their removal, or impatiently led to take undue methods to extricate ourselves from them. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth,

and

and that is the most powerful argument for our patient fulmin. It is a love, not wrath, which directs the stroke; it is intended purely for our good, it is the proof of God’s paternal heart towards us, even as a father the son, in whom he delighteth, and wilson therefore to remove whatever would render him unamukta, or make him more pleading, as those fruits of righteousness do, which grow out of patient suffering. Let no child of God therefore disloes himself with fears, selling from the weight, or severity of his trials; rather let him take comfort from them, as marks of God’s regard, and evidences of his adoption.

Proverbs 3:13-20

13. ¶ 7. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that geteth understanding. 14. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. 15. She is more precious than nature; and all the things thou can’t desire, are not to be compared unto her. 16. 7. Length of days is in her right hand: and in her left hand riches and honour. 17. Her ways are ways of pleasanter, and all her paths are peace. 18. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her; and happy is every one that retameth her. 19. The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. 20. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.

The unpeakable advantages of true wisdom are here returned, and the happiness of the man asserted who geteth understanding, or draweth it out from the well of the scriptures, where this living water flows.

1. Wilson is the most valuable acquisition; silver, gold, you, even rubies, and all the delights of the sons of men cannot compete with her: these are perfusing, that endures to everlasting ages. The spiritual merchant, who, in the scriptures, hath found and embraced by faith the Lord Jesus, is made partake of his unfeasible riches of grace and glory; compared with which, the brightest jewels are but dunge.

2. As a queen, she fits distributing her bounties to her subjects. Length of days are in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour, temporal blessings, such as are generally most esteemed; at least, so much of them, as God knows will be good for his people: or eternal blessings, a glorious immortality, treasures in the heaven that never gerish, and the transcendent honour of fitting down with Jesus on his throne. Her ways are ways of pleasanter, and all her paths are peace. Gloomy and melancholy as the ways of godliness are represented by the enemy of souls, and his servants, who, like the lying spots, would bring up an evil report on the good land; they who have made the experiment can testify, that in the sense of God’s love and favour, is the most substantial delight; in his service, the truest freedom; and in the paths of his truth, that peace to be found which poseth all understanding; and if such be the way, how unutterably excellent then must the end be, to which these paths of wisdom conduct us!

3. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, alluding to Gen. xi. 9. for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all, who believe, be made alive, and be restored to the privileges forfeited by one man’s disobedience. Yea, they shall eat, and live for ever, and know no second death: and happy is every one that retameth her, no holes for faith, who, by faith, cleaves to the Lord Jesus, and steadily perseveres in the profession and practice of his gospel, which will issue in his eternal blessedness.

4. The excellence of wisdom is seen in all the creation. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by his Son, his essential wisdom; by understanding hath he established the heavens, with the vast orbs that roll in the immensity of space, where all is harmony and order: by his knowledge the depths are broken up, and a place provided for the swelling flood, and the clouds drop down the dew, formed by his power, and falling at his command. If we then are partakers of his wisdom, and joined to this Lord in one spirit, then all things are ours, since we are Christ’s, and happiness present and eternal our assured portion.

¶ 21. My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep found wisdom and discretion. 22. So shall they be his unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. 23. Thee shall thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. 24. When thou left down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt be down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. 25. Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. 26. For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.

Proverbs 3:21-26

Solomon had declared those happy who walked in wisdom’s ways. And he here, 1. Exhorts us to persevere in so doing. My sin, let them not

depart from thine eyes, keep them ever in thy view, the words of the Lord, which our Father Christ and his gospel, on which our hearts must abidingly be freed: keep found wisdom and discretion, maintain found principles, and adorn them by a suitable practice.

2. Our labour will not be in vain in the Lord. Wilson will be the life of our soul; when we were dead in trespass and sin, by this were we quickened, and hereby in the midst of every trial are we carried safe to the life of glory: it will be grace to our neck, the nobler ornament of the soul; by this secured, we are enabled to walk without stumbling in the midst of snares, v. 23. to keep unshattered with guilt or fear, v. 24. And whatever vengeance overtakes the ungodly, we shall be preserved, as Noah, amidst the desolation that suddenly swings away the sinner from the earth; and all this because God is our strength and hope. For the Lord shall be the confidence, and under his wings we shall be safe from fear of evil, either of sin, or of suffering, and he shall keep thy foot from being taken in the steps, which Satan, the world, and his lay for us, and from which we never could escape, unless these everlasting arms were under us, and the power and grace of our covenant God engaged for our support.

3. ¶ Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. 28. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee. 29. ¶ Devile not evil against thy neighbour, seeing the dwelleth securely by thee. 30. ¶ Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm. 31. ¶ Envy thou not it the oppression, and choose none of his ways. 32. For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous. 33. ¶ The curle of the LORD is in the house of the wicked: but he beleste the habitation of the just. 34. ¶ Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the howy. 35. The wife shall inherit glory, but shame § shall be the promotion of fools.

Proverbs 3:27-35

The conscientious discharge of our duty towards our neighbour, is among the best proofs of our being possessed of the wisdom which cometh from above. Many excellent instructions in that behalf are here laid down.

1. We must do justice, and love mercy. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, tribute to magistrates, debts to creditors, wages to servants, or alms to the poor, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it, and therefore to withhold it would shew abhorred covetousness; nor delay till to-morrow the good that may be done to-day: our time is short and precarious, and need be redeemed: Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give, when thou hast it by thee; but what thine hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.

2. We must do him no evil, in body, name, or good: do wife not, or plow not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwells securely by thee, his confidence in us lays forth obligations upon us to answer the good opinion he hath conceived of us, and doubly criminal would it be to take advantage of that, to injure him.

3. Avoid all litigious suits. Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm, never quarrel about trifles; suspect not that affronts or injuries were meant, where none were intended; or if no real harm be done, it is malicious to take any advantage to harass others: nay usually it is better fit down by some considerable loss, than fly to the law for relief: the remedy here is often won’t than the disease.

4. Envy thou not the oppression, great and prosperous as he may be in his iniquity, and cheap none of his ways, by covetousness, rapine, or injustice, to increase thy store; for unnumbered worlds would be dearly earned at the loss of an immortal soul, and the condition of the poorest professed taint of God is infinitely preferable to that of his proud oppression. For the froward is abomination to the Lord; they who walk thus contrary to him, he will walk contrary to them, and make them feel his vengeance: but his secret is with the righteous, he makes them know the designs of his grace and love towards them, and the end he purposes in his providences; and admits them into sweet communion with himself, as a man talking with his friend. The curle of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, all he hath is under wrath, his possessions are embittered by it, and his comforts are turned into guilt and wormwood: but he delights the habitation of the just, and that can make a cottage a palace, and a dry craft (like the paths of the three children) afford a more delicious meal, than all the luxuries of the great; no reason, therefore, have they to envy them their deceitful meat. Surely he scorneth the scorners; those who treat religion with contentment shall themselves meet with bitterer scorn, when he that sitteth on the heavens shall have them to desolate: but he giveth grace unto the lawful; it was by his grace they became so, and where this is improved, he increaseth his gifts, and addeth more grace. The wife shall inherit glory; it is as there to them as an inheritance.

Before Christ and whatever shame and disgrace they may be exposed to here, this eternal honour God will put upon them, shall abundantly incomparable their suffering; but shame shall be the promotion of souls; they hoped for great things, and flattered themselves with the fancies of their future honours; but lo! the fœme is changed, death lays them in the doft, in order to awake in a judgment day to shame, and everlasting contempt.