CONTENTS
The Preacher is still prosecuting his sermon through this Chapter;
but folding up many important sayings within short sentences.
Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.
This verse may serve to show us how frequently some of the most precious things are veiled under an unpromising cover. If we take this expression in its literal sense, no doubt it is very true. Folly will give a tinge to much reputation of wisdom, as dead flies will give an unsavory cast to the ointment of the apothecary. But if this were all to be learnt from this scripture, it required not the wisdom of Solomon, much less the teaching of the Holy Ghost, to give such information. But if by the dead flies here spoken of, the blessed Spirit intended to teach the Church, that our corrupt things (nay, our best things, which from sinners by nature dead in trespasses and sin, can be no otherwise than dead), be mingled with the righteousness of Jesus, whose name for fragrancy is as ointment poured forth; will it not cause all that is blessed in Jesus to lose in our spiritual senses, its sweetness from our ill savor? Reader! why is it that what is precious in Jesus, is not at all times alike precious to us, but from our mingling up with it what is our own?