He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.
Ver. 2. He that walketh uprightly] This is God's answer, for men are unsound, and unfit to judge, saith Calvin. They judge according to opinion and appearance many times, and send those to heaven that can never come there; as the pope doth his canonized saints; Mahomet, those that die in defence of Turkism; and parasitical preachers their irreligious benefactors. But God only admitteth such as are righteously religious and religiously righteous; such as through whose whole lives godliness runneth, as the woof doth through the warp. He, then, that shall be an inhabitant of heaven must first walk uprightly, or evenly. Christians, saith Tertullian, are funambulones, as those that walk on ropes, if they tread but one step awry they are utterly gone; they must be sine terrena et profunda fraude, as R. David here glosseth, without guile, and unacquainted with the depths of the devil, Proverbs 11:22; the upright in their way are opposed to the froward in heart. And such only shall dwell with devouring fire, that is, with God, Isaiah 33:14,15. The Arabic version for uprightly here hath, without a cloud of vices.
And worketh righteousness] This is wrought by faith, Hebrews 11:33, and such a man is acceptable to God, Acts 10:35. But the whole life of unbelievers is sin, saith Austin, neither is there anything good without the chiefest good. It was well said of Luther, Walk in the heaven of the promise, but in the earth of the law; that in respect of believing, this of obeying.
And speaketh the truth in his heart] His λογος ενδιαθετος and προφορικος are all one, he speaks as he thinks; his speech is the lively image of his inward affection. That was no commendation to that pope and his nephew, of whom it was said, that the one never spoke as he thought, the other never performed what he spoke.