The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, [is] from the LORD.
Ver. 1. The preparations of the heart in man.] He saith not ‘of man' as if it were in man's power to dispose of his own heart, but "in man," as wholly wrought by God; for our sufficiency is not in ourselves, but "in him (as we live, so) we move" Act 17:28 - understand it of the motions of the mind also. It is he that "fashioneth the hearts of men," Psa 33:13 shaping them at his pleasure. He put small thoughts into the heart of Ahasuerus, but for great purposes. And so he did into the heart of our Henry VIII about his marriage with Katherine of Spain, the rise of that Reformation here, Quam desperasset aetas praeterita, admiratur praesens, obstupescet futura, a as Scultetus hath it, which former ages despaired of, the present admireth, and the future shall stand amazed at.
And the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.] For though a man have never so exactly marshalled his matter in hand, as it were in battle array, - as the Hebrew word b here imports, and as David, using the same word, saith, he will marshal his prayer, and then be as a spy upon a watch tower to see what became of it, whether he got the day, Psa 5:3 - though he have set down with himself both what and how to speak, so that it is not only scriptum in animo, sed sculpture etiam, as the orator said, yet he shall never be able to bring forth his conceptions without the obstetrication of God's assistance. The most eloquent Demosthenes being sent various times in embassy to Philip, king of Macedonia, thrice stood speechless before him, and thrice more forgot what he intended to have spoken. c Likewise Latomas of Lovain, a great scholar, having prepared a set speech to be made before the emperor, Charles V, was so confounded when he came to deliver it that he uttered nothing but nonsense, and thereupon fell into a fit of despair. So Augustine, having once lost himself in a sermon, and wanting what else to say, fell upon the Manichees (a point that he had well studied), and by a good providence of God converted one there present, that was infected with that error. Digressions are not always useless. God's Spirit sometimes draws aside the doctrine to satisfy some soul which the preacher knows not. But though God may force it, yet man may not frame it; and it is a most happy ability to speak punctually, directly, and readily to the point. The Corinthians had elocution as a special gift of God. And St Paul gives God "thanks for them, that in everything they were enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge." 1Co 1:5
a Scult. Annal. dec. 2 ep. dedic.
b ערך disponere, ordinare, et aciem instruere, significat.
c πρις αφονος εγενετο, τρισακις διελαθε τουτων α λαλειν εσκοπει .