Proverbs 8

Proverbs 8:1-11

This chapter is the voice of Christ, the wisdom of God. It contains, 1. The highest commendations of wisdom, vers. 1—21. 2. The glory of the eternal Logos, the divine Redeemer, is set forth, vers. 22—23. And then it concludes with a repeated charge to the children of men, diligently to attend to God’s word.

1. ‘D OTH not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? 2. She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. 3. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. 4. ‘Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man. 5. O ye simple, understand wisdom; and ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. 6. Hear, for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. 7. For my mouth shall speak truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness, there is nothing forward or perverse in them. 9. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. 10. ‘Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. 11. For ‘wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be defied, are not to be compared to it.

When Jesus came to teach poor mortals the way to life eternal, a voice from the Excellent Glory proclaimed, This is my beloved Son; hear him. Let therefore every ear attend the divine instructions he understands to give.

1. His words are publicly proclaimed in the places of chief concourse, that whosoever will, may come and learn of him. Thus Jesus in the days of his first preached openly on mountains, in the city, at the gates of the temple; and his prophets of old, his apostles and evangelists, wont forth publishing his word and gospel through the land. All are addressed; high and low, rich or poor; and the fools and simple, the fallen sinful sons of men, whose understanding is darkened, are invited to come, and find wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption in him. Note, The gospel excludes none who do not exclude themselves. If sinners perish for luck of knowledge, it is because they would not come to him, that they might have life.

2. The importance of the subject demands our most serious attention. The things spoken of are excellent; the doctrines of grace, the person, offices, and undertaking of the Redeemer, and the inestimable blessings obtained thereby; the knowledge of God and an eternal world, with all the glories there provided for wisdom’s children. They are right, most becoming God to command, must sit for us to obey. They are doctrines of truth, v. 7. they concern him who is the truth, and cannot deceive; for WICKERNESS is an abomination to his lips: and as lying is his abhorrence, it should be also ours. All his words are in righteousness, vers. 8. perfectly corresponding thereunto; or, concerning righteousness, the necessity and nature of that one divine righteousness, which can only be our title to eternal life. There is nothing forward or perverse in them, but the most entire harmony and suitableness in them. They are plain, and easy to be understood by all whose minds are spiritually enlightened, and really desire without prejudice to come to the sacred oresties of truth for information; though to the wisest ideal, a stranger to divine teaching, they are foolishness and darkness; and right to them that find knowledge, who readily submits to the dictates of wisdom, and approve of the perfect path God’s word points out to them. They are preferable to the riches of both the Indies, more desirable than gold and silver, or rubies, and all the delights of the sons of men, v. 10, 11. And in

proportion as we have learned Christ, and been taught of him, in such measure will our hearts be weaned from all inordinate delight in earthly things, and count them along and loth, compared with the excellency of the knowledge of him and his truth.

12. I wisdom dwell with + prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. 13. The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance, and the evil way, and the forward mouth do I hate. 14. Counsel is mine, and found wisdom: I am understanding, I have strength. 15. By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. 16. By me princes rule, and nobles, I love me, and I those that seek me early shall find me. 17. I love them that I love me, and I those that seek me early shall find me. 18. Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. 19. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice is silver. 20. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: 21. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.

Proverbs 8:12-21

Thus speaks he, like unto whom never man spake. His own glory and excellence is the subject, and we may truly say, He is the chief of ten thousand, and altogether lovely.

1. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I wisdom, the essential wisdom, the all-wise God, dwell with prudence, possess it in all its fullness, and find out knowledge of witty inventions; either detect the devices of the earth, and search into the hearts of the children of men; or the inventions here spoken of relate to the admitting continuance of the covenant of grace, wherein all the perfections of God, his sovereign grace, and inexorable justness inviolable truth, and boundless mercy, are to eminently displayed, and to highly magnified; and wherein the miserable sinner beholds in Jesus Christ a holy God, righteous and just in forgiving his Son.

2. He hath a perfect hatred of sin, and all who are taught of him abhor the thing which is evil. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; this is the constant effect produced wherever that fear is implanted, and this because God hates it. Pride and arrogance, high thoughts of our vile selves and sinful services, and conceit of our own righteousness, he abhors. The evil way, sin of every kind, and the forward mouth, that speaks in violence or rage, or propagates the doctrines of error, do I hate; and so must we. If we are spiritually proud, and our passions and forwardness unmortified, we are not wisdom’s children, but of our father the devil.

3. In him resides all wisdom and strength in perfection for the government of all things, and out of his fulness must we in every station receive wisdom and power for all the work and duty to which he calls us, v. 14. By him ordained, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, his vicegentists upon earth, kings, princes, and judges are commissioned to bear rule; and resistance against their lawful authority is rebellion against God. He endless them with capacities for their high liaison, and they then rule well, when their own hearts are brought under the guidance and government of his word and spirit.

4. He will have all affection and honour to those who love and seek him. I love them that love me; and they that seek me early, with eagerness, or in the morning of youth, the accepted time, shall find me, and therewith every blessing of grace and glory.

5. He hath all rides and honour to bestow, v. 18. as much as is for their good in this world, and with that peculiar satisfaction, that they are got in righteousness under the divine blessing. But rather the riches of grace, and the honour that cometh from God only are intended: riches that are durable, not like the perishing substance of earth, but incorruptible in the heavens; and honours transcendently great, and abiding to eternity; possessed in virtue of the divine righteousness of Jesus, the great meritorious cause of all our pretext and eternal happiness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than much fine gold; the fruits of his undertaking for us; such as redemption, reconciliation, adoption, &c. the fruits of his Spirit in us, love, joy, peace, &c. Compared with these, the glittering tinted of this world’s wealth vanishes into nothing, and is left than nothing and vanity.

6. He guides his followers in the paths of righteousness, in the midst of the path of judgment; neither deviating from it to the right hand or the left, that he may bring them to an inheritance in glory; and gives those that love him, manfrom in the skies, filled with all the treasures of immortal bliss. Happy, for ever happy, the soul whom he leads in these blessed paths, and brings, as inheritors of his kingdom, to the thrones provided for them in heaven.

8 Z 22. The

Proverbs 8:22-31

VOL. I. Before Christ come. = Rethes note. 9. John i. 1. = Pf. ii. 6. = PC. xx. 6. Or, eyes please. Or, circle. Gen. i. 9. 10. Job excited. 10. 11. PC. xx. = Jer. x. xx. xx. 12. 27. Col. i. 15. Hoh. Sporting grandy.

22. “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 23. “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 24. When there were no depths, I was brought forth: when there were no fountains abounding with water. 25. “Before the mountains were settled; before the hills was I brought forth: 26. While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. 27. When he prepared the heavens I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: 28. When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: 29. When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: 30. “Then I was by him, at one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him: 31. Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delight were with the sons of men.

That not a quality but a person is here meant, is evident; for to such alone can these properties be ascribed, and that person is the eternal Son of God. Compare John i. 1—4. We have,

1. His eternal co-existence with the Father. In person distinctly, in silence the same. In the beginning, before the earth had a being, before ever the mountains rose, or the waters retired to the bosom of the deep, the Lord possessed me, in that mysterious union which subsists between the divine persons in the Godhead. I was set up from everlasting; appointed in the eternal counsels, or unnamed, designed for, and invested with, the office of Mediator.

2. His agency in the creation of all things; for by him God made the worlds, and without him was not any thing made that was made, Eph. iii. 9. Hoh. i. 2. In each day’s work he was present, not as a spectator merely, but as the great agent, and was first the Creator of all things, before he became incarnate for the redemption of sinners, v. 27—30.

3. He was his Father’s delight; brought up with him; from everlasting the relation subsisted, co-eternal, and co-equal; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; which may refer to the fulness of delight subsisting mutually between the sacred persons in the ever-bleshed Trinity; or to the complacency of the Father in the Son, and of both in the work of creation, whereof they expressed their approbation, Gen. i. 31. or, to their satisfaction in the counsel of peace between them, respecting man’s redemption, God the Father being well-pleased in the Saviour’s undertaking, and God the Son rejoicing to fulfil the work the Father had given him to do.

4. Towards the sons of men he entertained the most enlarged affections, rejoicing in the habitable part of the earth, bestowing upon all in rich profusion the bounties of his providence; and his delights were with the sons of men; those whom he had chosen in a courtroom of everlasting love to be to the pride of his glory, in whose hearts he purposed to take up his abode, and for whose sake he was content to take our nature upon him, and, through a scene of the most astonishing sufferings, with chearfulness accomplished our salvation, satisfied to see at last in us his redeemed people the travel of his soul. What amazing love and grace! how are we bound to praise him, trust him, love him with all our hearts!