And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
Ver. 12. And say, How have I hated, &c.] When cast out with the prodigal, and hath nothing left him but a diseased body, a distressed soul, then, all too late, he fills the air with doleful complaints of his former folly, and cries out, as he did, Totum vitae meae tempus perdidi, quia perdite vixi. a Oh, what a wretch, what a beast, what a maddened devil was I, so woefully to waste the fat and marrow of my dear and precious time, the flower of mine age, the strength of my body, the vigour of my spirits, the whole of mine estate, in sinful pleasures and sensual delights! Lo, here is a kind of repentance which, though late, yet, if it were true, would be accepted, b The mole, they say, begins to see when he dies, and not till then. Oculos incipit aperire moriendo, quos clausos habuit vivendo. c But it is a rare thing, and seldom seen, that any whoremonger doth truly repent. "One such man among a thousand have I found," saith Solomon - perhaps he meant himself - "but a woman among all those have I not found." Ecc 7:28 And yet Scultetus tells us that Dr Speiser, minister of Ansborough, in Germany, preached there so powerfully, that the common harlots, there tolerated, left their filthy trade of life, and became very honest women. d
And my heart despised reproof] Experience shows that they that are once given up to this sin are more graceless, profane, and incorrigible than others, deriders and contemners of all good counsel, having lost even the very light of nature, and so set in their sin, and so wedded and wedged to their wicked ways, as that they cannot be removed but by an extraordinary touch from the hand of Heaven.
a Bernard.
b Nunquam sero si serio.
c Tostat. ex Plinio.
d Anno 1523. Scultet., Annal. p. 118.