CONTENTS.
In this chapter we have set before us the very different proposals of wisdom and folly. And we are shewn no less, how certainly the former leads to happiness, and the latter to misery.
Proverbs 9:1-6 Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
We must still behold Christ under the office character of Wisdom, proclaiming grace and a fulness of blessings to his church and people. The house here said to be built with seven pillars, and the feast here said to be furnished, and the invitation sent forth for guests with the blessedness of those who accept thereof, and are made the partakers of it; these are plain representations of the gospel fulness, and the infinite mercy provided for poor sinners in Jesus. The house which Jesus hath built in the body of his temple, is the whole church at large; and the seven pillars spoken of, whether intended as an indefinite number to represent the whole, or referring by any allusion to what is said of the seven spirits which are said to be before the throne, the sense is the same. The Holy Ghost hath explained the whole of this subject to the church, when saying by his servant Paul, that it is built upon the foundation of the apostles, and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. Ephesians 2:20-21. And that Christ, the Wisdom-Mediator hath prepared and built the whole, the Holy, Ghost confirmed, when drawing a comparison between Moses as a servant in his house, and Christ as the Lord of this house; and determining the glory of Christ therefrom as proving his Godhead by having built all things. Hebrews 3:3-4. Perhaps by the seven pillars may be intended to represent the seven-fold gifts of the Holy Ghost. Revelation 1:4. And we know that the whole gospel is uniformly represented throughout the Bible, under the similitude of a rich feast. Jesus hath prepared it, and it is he which giveth it. He hath mingled it also. For here is his body broken, and his blood shed; his flesh being meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed, to all that partake. And it is mingled as the paschal feast, which was typical of it set forth; for it is received by faith with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. A whole unleavened Christ into a broken, leavened, contrite heart. The righteousness, peace, and, joy, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, are the blessed food of the soul, received, and lived upon by faith; when the poor sinner is made to see and feel his need, and turns in at wisdom's gracious invitation to the rich table. Isaiah 25:6-8; Exodus 12:7; Exo 12:12; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. The servants sent forth to call in the guests correspond to the gospel call by the ministers, and the plentiful means adopted to bring in the objects, for whom both the house and the feast are prepared: namely, the poor and the needy, the wretched and the miserable. Luke 14:16-24