This [is] one [thing], therefore I said [it], He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
Ver. 22. This is one thing, therefore I say it] And will stand to it, though I stand alone; this being the one thing wherein I differ in opinion from you; and because it is the hinge upon which the whole dispute between us is turned, therefore I will abide by it, and be Doctor resolutus, resolute in the maintenance of it, viz.
He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked] A harsh doctrine, yet a good one, saith an interpreter. Grace is no shield against the greatest affliction. See Ecc 9:1-3 Malachi 3:14 Eze 21:3 Heb 11:36-38 shows that none out of hell have ever suffered more than God's dearest children; and Hebrews 12:6, He not only chasteneth, but scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. God will not cast away a righteous man, said Bildad, Job 8:20; that is, totally destroy him in temporals, but restore him again. No such matter, saith Job, for it may, and many times doth happen, that a godly man may, as to this life present, perish, as well as a wicked man; he may be totally and finally bereft of outward comforts, the righteous perisheth, Isaiah 57:1; only with this difference, as hath been before noted, God's judgments on the wicked are penal and typical of eternal torment; whereas upon the godly they are no more than medicinal or probational, &c.