EXPOSITION OF THE BOOK OF PROVERBS. CHAPTER XIX. Ver. 1. Belter is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool. depraved are the understandings of men, that the rich are generally honoured for their wealth, although their conversation shews them to be destitute of any valuable quality; whilst the poor are despised, though they are adorned with the beauties of religion. To give an outward respect to the rich, according to the innocent fashions of the place where we live, is not a sin; for if providence make a distinction, we may do it likewise, between the rich and the poor; but it is a sign of great corruption in our minds, to value the rich as if they were worthier men, and more deserving of our esteem and affection than the poor, when grace hath made a plain difference in favour of the poor, of a kind infinitely more important than the outward gifts of providence ever made. The bad effects of this unjust preference are severely censured by James, in the first half of the second chapter of his epistle. We ought undoubtedly to follow God, in the judg◄ VOL. II. A ment which he gives of things and persons, as far as that judgment is revealed; and we find that he sets no value upon riches. He bestows them oftentimes on those whom he abhors, and denies them to his favourites. But the upright, however poor, are his delight. He glories in Job as a perfect and upright man, and he still bestows higher commendations on him, after he was stripped of all his substance, because he had given additional proof of his stedfast integrity *. When Christ was on earth, he was a poor man that walked in his integrity, and surely the lovers of Christ will never value a man the less, because he is as Christ also was in the world. In short, the upright man, however poor and mean, is not only a man of better dispositions and behaviour than the rich sinner, but he is also incomparably happier and richer, and shall be rich as long as God himself is rich. Be satisfied and thankful, ye that are taught by the Spirit of God, to walk in your integrity. You are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom; and in this world you have and shall have every thing that infinite wisdom and love sees fit for you t. Here the poor may see a certain method of being rich, or of obtaining what is far better than riches. Labour not to be rich in gold and silver, but seek after that which Christ calls the true riches, and which he will dispense unto those that seek them in his appointed way +. Let not the rich man glory in his wealth: if he is perverse in his lips, he is poor and miserable, and blind, and naked; and the esteem of men will not counterbalance the abhorrence of God ||. Go to Christ under deep impressions of your poverty, and buy of him gold tried in the fire, and you shall be truly rich. "Job i. ii. John vi. 27. Matt. vi. 33. + 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22. Psal. x. 4. Ver. 2. Also that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet, sinneth. The want of that knowledge which we need for our direction through life, is very pernicious; for we are in a dangerous world, full of pits and snares; and the man that has not eyes in his head, must fall, sooner or later, into destruction. When the blind are led by the blind, they cannot well avoid falling into the ditch. But blind sinners are led by a quick-sighted and crafty devil, who will certainly land them in perdition *. Although we have knowledge in our heads, it will not profit us, unless we have it also in our hearts. Knowledge, when it is not loved and reduced into practice, will serve only to bear testimony for God against the abuser of light, and to heighten his condemnation. A man of much knowledge, and a bad practice, carries about him, like Uriah, that which will prove his own death. To want knowledge, is not good: to have knowledge, and not to use it as the directory of our life, cannot be one jot better; and he that hasteth with his feet, and takes no heed to his way, sinneth. It is no sin, but a duty, to run in the way of God's commandments; and it was an evidence of David's wisdom, that he made haste, and delayed not to run out of the paths of sin, when he considered whither they would lead him; but to run on, without consideration, whithersoever our fancy or our passions lead us, exposes us to much sin and danger; and therefore we are commanded to walk circumspectly, keeping our eye upon the ground we tread, that it may not be slippery, and observing the rule of duty, that we may not transgress it. Even in those businesses that are lawful, we will be drawn into sin, without circumspection; for the devil has snares spread for us everywhere in this evil * Eph. ii. 3. world, and he that makes haste to be rich, shall not be innocent. Although we ought to run in the ways of the Lord, and not faint, yet rashness in our religious course will be attended with much sin. We must carry the lamp of truth with us, otherwise, by running in the dark, we will certainly stumble *. As rashness and inconsideration are sinful, so they are the causes of a great deal of the sin that is in the world. Men would not choose, or at least they would not so resolutely keep the ways of iniquity, were it not that they want knowledge and thought, as Isaiah clearly shews in the case of idolaters †. Ver. 3. The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart fretleth against the Lord. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God: God tempts no man, but every man is tempted when he is seduced into evil by the blindness of his own mind, and the perverseness of his own heart. The world and the devil may indeed persuade us to sin, but none of them can force us. When a man sins, he does more mischief to himself than all the legions of hell can do to him; and therefore, whenever our way is perverted, we must chiefly blame ourselves. It would be blasphemy to charge the most holy God with our sins, and it is folly to transfer the fault unto our seducers; for if our enemy should persuade us to stab ourselves to the heart, it is our own madness to comply. When our way is perverted, we soon feel the miserable consequences of our folly; for wretchedness, in one form or other, follows sin, as the shadow follows the body but we are so loath to blame ourselves for the consequences of our own folly, that our hearts will rather fret against the Lord, as if he were the cause of our ruin. Adam laid the blame of his fall upon the woman, whom God gave to be with him, indirectly + Isa. xliv. 19, 20. * Chap. iv. 12. |