CONTENTS
We are now in this Chapter, entering upon the Proverbs. From this Chapter to the twenty-fifth, we meet with a great abundance of those divine sayings. The one part is descriptive of the blessed effects of following wisdom's ways; and the other of the contrary consequences.
Proverbs 10:1 The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.
If the Reader, while going over the whole body of Proverbs, will pray the Holy Ghost, that he may be always on the lookout for his divine teaching, I think very frequently he will discover in these Proverbs, that a greater than Solomon is here. I am very free to confess and believe, that many of the maxims here found, are maxims of morality and sound policy. But while I say this, I must be allowed to believe also, that very many sweet spiritual instructions are veiled under them. And I would beg the Reader to recollect what was said in the very first opening of the book of Proverbs, that the design for which they are given to us among the books of God, and as a part of the Bible was, that we might understand a Proverb, and the interpretation thereof; the Words of the wise, and their dark sayings. Proverbs 1:6. If a mere code of moral sayings was all that was intended, what dark sayings are there in the very plain truths, which for the most part those Chapter s from the 10th to the 25th contain? I cannot therefore refrain from desiring the Reader to be as attentive as possible at every verse, more or less, as he passeth through to the enquiry; what further than the first and most obvious sense, the passage may, without violence be supposed to imply. And while I beg his close attention towards a discovery, that may be for his own profit; I yet more earnestly desire that his eyes and his heart may be directed to Him, from whom cometh every good, and every perfect gift: with whom is the residue of the Spirit; and in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And once for all, now at the commencement of the Proverbs, I would desire to impress these views of them upon his mind, and in this manner recommend. the perusal of them to his heart. And having said this much, which if diligently followed by the Reader, will tend to his improvement in the knowledge of this blessed book of God, better than by anything that I can propose for his help in the perusal, I beg to observe that I shall make but short comments here and there, as a passage may strike me, in order to avoid swelling this Commentary unnecessarily, and which hath indeed already extended very much beyond what was originally intended.