P
R O V E R B S
CHAP. V.
The
scope of this chapter is much the same with that of ch. ii. To write
the same things, in other words, ought not to be grievous, for it is safe,
Phil. iii. 1. Here is, I. An exhortation to get acquaintance with and submit
to the laws of wisdom in general, ver. 2. II. A particular caution against the
sin of whoredom, ver. 3-14. III. Remedies prescribed against that sin. 1.
Conjugal love, ver. 15-20. 2. A regard to God's omniscience, ver. 21. 3. A
dread of the miserable end of wicked people, ver. 22, 23. And all little
enough to arm young people against those fleshly lusts which war against the
soul.
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Parental
Instructions; Cautions against Sensuality.
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1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow
thine ear to my understanding: 2 That thou mayest regard
discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. 3 For the
lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is
smoother than oil: 4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a
twoedged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold
on hell. 6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways
are moveable, that thou canst not know them. 7 Hear
me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my
mouth. 8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door
of her house: 9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy
years unto the cruel: 10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth;
and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; 11 And thou
mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, 12
And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them
that instructed me! 14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of
the congregation and assembly.
Here we have,
I. A solemn preface, to introduce the caution which follows, v. 1, 2.
Solomon here addresses himself to his son, that is, to all young men, as unto
his children, whom he has an affection for and some influence upon. In God's
name, he demands attention; for he writes by divine inspiration, and is a
prophet, though he begins not with, Thus saith the Lord. "Attend, and
bow thy ear; not only hear what is said, and read what is written, but
apply thy mind to it and consider it diligently." To gain attention he
urges, 1. The excellency of his discourse: "It is my wisdom, my
understanding; if I undertake to teach thee wisdom I cannot prescribe any
thing to be more properly called so; moral philosophy is my philosophy, and
that which is to be learned in my school." 2. The usefulness of it:
"Attend to what I say," (1.) "That thou mayest act wisely--that
thou mayest regard discretion." Solomon's lectures are not designed
to fill our heads with notions, with matters of nice speculation, or doubtful
disputation, but to guide us in the government of ourselves, that we may act
prudently, so as becomes us and so as will be for our true interest. (2.)
"That thou mayest speak wisely--that thy lips may keep knowledge,
and thou mayest have it ready at thy tongue's end" (as we say), "for
the benefit of those with whom thou dost converse." The priest's lips are
said to keep knowledge (Mal. ii. 7); but those that are ready and
mighty in the scriptures may not only in their devotions, but in their
discourses, be spiritual priests.
II. The caution itself, and that is to abstain from fleshly lusts, from
adultery, fornication, and all uncleanness. Some apply this figuratively, and
by the adulterous woman here understand idolatry, or false doctrine, which
tends to debauch men's minds and manners, or the sensual appetite, to which it
may as fitly as any thing be applied; but the primary scope of it is plainly
to warn us against seventh-commandment sins, which youth is so prone to, the
temptations to which are so violent, the examples of which are so many, and
which, where admitted, are so destructive to all the seeds of virtue in the
soul that it is not strange that Solomon's cautions against it are so very
pressing and so often repeated. Solomon here, as a faithful watchman, gives
fair warning to all, as they regard their lives and comforts, to dread this
sin, for it will certainly be their ruin. Two things we are here warned to
take heed of:--
1. That we do not listen to the charms of this sin. It is true the lips of
a strange woman drop as a honey-comb (v. 3); the pleasures of
fleshly lust are very tempting (like the wine that gives its colour in the
cup and moves itself aright); its mouth, the kisses of its mouth,
the words of its mouth, are smoother than oil, that the poisonous pill
may go down glibly and there may be no suspicion of harm in it. But consider,
(1.) How fatal the consequences will be. What fruit will the sinner have of
his honey and oil when the end will be, [1.] The terrors of conscience: It is
bitter as wormwood, v. 4. What was luscious in the mouth rises in
the stomach and turns sour there; it cuts, in the reflection, like a
two-edged sword; take it which way you will, it wounds. Solomon could
speak by experience, Eccl. vii. 26. [2.] The torments of hell. If some that
have been guilty of this sin have repented and been saved, yet the direct
tendency of the sin is to destruction of body and soul; the feet of it go
down to death, nay, they take hold on hell, to pull it to the
sinner, as if the damnations slumbered too long, v. 4. Those that are
entangled in this sin should be reminded that there is but a step between them
and hell, and that they are ready to drop into it. (2.) Consider how false the
charms are. The adulteress flatters and speaks fair, her words are honey and
oil, but she will deceive those that hearken to her: Her ways are movable,
that thou canst not know them; she often changes her disguise, and puts on
a great variety of false colours, because, if she be rightly known, she is
certainly hated. Proteus-like, she puts on many shapes, that she may keep in
with those whom she has a design upon. And what does she aim at with all this
art and management? Nothing but to keep them from pondering the path of
life, for she knows that, if they once come to do that, she shall
certainly lose them. Those are ignorant of Satan's devices who do not
understand that the great thing he drives at in all his temptations is, [1.]
To keep them from choosing the path of life, to prevent them from being
religious and from going to heaven, that, being himself shut out from
happiness, he may keep them out from it. [2.] In order hereunto, to keep them
from pondering the path of life, from considering how reasonable it is that
they should walk in that path, and how much it will be for their advantage. Be
it observed, to the honour of religion, that it certainly gains its point with
all those that will but allow themselves the liberty of a serious thought and
will weigh things impartially in an even balance, and that the devil has no
way of securing men in his interests but by diverting them with continual
amusements of one kind or another from the calm and sober consideration of the
things that belong to their peace. And uncleanness is a sin that does
as much as any thing blind the understanding, sear the conscience, and keep
people from pondering the path of life. Whoredom takes away the heart,
Hos. iv. 11.
2. That we do not approach the borders of this sin, v. 7, 8.
(1.) This caution is introduced with a solemn preface: "Hear me now
therefore, O you children! whoever you are that read or hear these lines,
take notice of what I say, and mix faith with it, treasure it up, and depart
not from the words of my mouth, as those will do that hearken to the words
of the strange woman. Do not only receive what I say, for the present merely,
but cleave to it, and let it be ready to thee, and of force with thee, when
thou art most violently assaulted by the temptation."
(2.) The caution itself is very pressing: "Remove thy way far from
her; if thy way should happen to lie near her, and thou shouldst have a
fair pretence of being led by business within the reach of her charms, yet
change thy way, and alter the course of it, rather than expose thyself to
danger; come not nigh the door of her house; go on the other side of
the street, nay, go through some other street, though it be about." This
intimates, [1.] That we ought to have a very great dread and detestation of
the sin. We must fear it as we would a place infected with the plague; we must
loathe it as the odour of carrion, that we will not come near. Then we
are likely to preserve our purity when we conceive a rooted antipathy to all
fleshly lusts. [2.] That we ought industriously to avoid every thing that may
be an occasion of this sin or a step towards it. Those that would be kept from
harm must keep out of harm's way. Such tinder there is in the corrupt nature
that it is madness, upon any pretence whatsoever, to come near the sparks. If
we thrust ourselves into temptation, we mocked God when we prayed, Lead us
not into temptation. [3.] That we ought to be jealous over ourselves with
a godly jealousy, and not to be so confident of the strength of our own
resolutions as to venture upon the brink of sin, with a promise to ourselves
that hitherto we will come and no further. [4.] That whatever has
become a snare to us and an occasion of sin, though it be as a right eye
and a right hand, we must pluck it out, cut it off, and cast it from
us, must part with that which is dearest to us rather than hazard our own
souls; this is our Saviour's command, Matt. v. 28-30.
(3.) The arguments which Solomon here uses to enforce this caution are taken
from the same topic with those before, the many mischiefs which attend this
sin. [1.] It blasts the reputation. "Thou wilt give thy honour unto
others (v. 9); thou wilt lose it thyself; thou wilt put into the
hand of each of thy neighbours a stone to throw at thee, for they will all,
with good reason, cry shame on thee, will despise thee, and trample on thee,
as a foolish men." Whoredom is a sin that makes men contemptible and
base, and no man of sense or virtue will care to keep company with one that
keeps company with harlots. [2.] It wastes the time, gives the years,
the years of youth, the flower of men's time, unto the cruel,
"that base lust of thine, which with the utmost cruelty wars against
the soul, that base harlot which pretends an affection for thee, but
really hunts for the precious life." Those years that should be given to
the honour of a gracious God are spent in the service of a cruel sin. [3.] It
ruins the estate (v. 10): "Strangers will be filled with
thy wealth, which thou art but entrusted with as a steward for thy family;
and the fruit of thy labours, which should be provision for thy own
house, will be in the house of a stranger, that neither has right to it
nor will ever thank thee for it." [4.] It is destructive to the health,
and shortens men's days: Thy flesh and thy body will be consumed
by it, v. 11. The lusts of uncleanness not only war against the
soul, which the sinner neglects and is in no care about, but they war
against the body too, which he is so indulgent of and is in such care to
please and pamper, such deceitful, such foolish, such hurtful lusts are they.
Those that give themselves to work uncleanness with greediness waste their
strength, throw themselves into weakness, and often have their bodies filled
with loathsome distempers, by which the number of their months is cut off in
the midst and they fall unpitied sacrifices to a cruel lust. [5.] It will fill
the mind with horror, if ever conscience be awakened. "Though thou art
merry now, sporting thyself in thy own deceivings, yet thou wilt
certainly mourn at the last, v. 11. Thou art all this while
making work for repentance, and laying up matter for vexation and torment in
the reflection, when the sin is set before thee in its own colours."
Sooner or later it will bring sorrow, either when the soul is humbled and
brought to repentance or when the flesh and body are consumed, either
by sickness, when conscience flies in the sinner's face, or by the grave; when
the body is rotting there, the soul is racking in the torments of hell, where
the worm dies not, and "Son, remember," is the constant peal.
Solomon here brings in the convinced sinner reproaching himself, and
aggravating his own folly. He will then most bitterly lament it. First,
That because he hated to be reformed he therefore hated to be informed, and
could not endure either to be taught his duty (How have I hated not
only the discipline of being instructed, but the instruction itself,
though all true and good!) or to be told of his faults--My heart despised
reproof, v. 12. He cannot but own that those who had the charge of
him, parents, ministers, had done their part; they had been his teachers; they
had instructed him, had given him good counsel and fair warning (v.
13); but to his own shame and confusion does he speak it, and therein
justifies God in all the miseries that were brought upon him, he had not obeyed
their voice, for indeed he never inclined his ear to those that
instructed him, never minded what they said nor admitted the impressions
of it. Note, Those who have had a good education and do not live up to it will
have a great deal to answer for another day; and those who will not now
remember what they were taught, to conform themselves to it, will be made to
remember it as an aggravation of their sin, and consequently of their ruin. Secondly,
That by the frequent acts of sin the habits of it were so rooted and confirmed
that his heart was fully set in him to commit it (v. 14): I was
almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. When he
came into the synagogue, or into the courts of the temple, to worship God with
other Israelites, his unclean heart was full of wanton thoughts and desires
and his eyes of adultery. Reverence of the place and company, and of the work
that was doing, could not restrain him, but he was almost as wicked and vile
there as any where. No sin will appear more frightful to an awakened
conscience than the profanation of holy things; nor will any aggravation of
sin render it more exceedingly sinful than the place we are honoured with in
the congregation and assembly, and the advantages we enjoy thereby. Zimri and
Cozbi avowed their villany in the sight of Moses and all the congregation
(Num. xxv. 6), and heart-adultery is as open to God, and must needs be most
offensive to him, when we draw nigh to him in religious exercises. I was in
all evil in defiance of the magistrates and judges, and their assemblies;
so some understand it. Others refer it to the evil of punishment, not to the
evil of sin: "I was made an example, a spectacle to the world. I was
under almost all God's sore judgments in the midst of the congregation of
Israel, set up for a mark. I stood up and cried in the congregation,"
Job xxx. 28. Let that be avoided which will be thus rued at last.
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Conjugal
Fidelity Enjoined.
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15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and
running waters out of thine own well. 16 Let thy fountains be
dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. 17
Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. 18 Let
thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts
satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace
the bosom of a stranger? 21 For the ways of man are before
the eyes of the LORD,
and he pondereth all his goings. 22 His own iniquities shall take
the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he
shall go astray.
Solomon, having shown the great evil that there is in adultery and
fornication, and all such lewd and filthy courses, here prescribes remedies
against them.
I. Enjoy with satisfaction the comforts of lawful marriage, which was ordained
for the prevention of uncleanness, and therefore ought to be made use of in
time, lest it should not prove effectual for the cure of that which it might
have prevented. Let none complain that God has dealt unkindly with them in
forbidding them those pleasures which they have a natural desire of, for he
has graciously provided for the regular gratification of them. "Thou
mayest not indeed eat of every tree of the garden, but choose thee out one,
which thou pleasest, and of that thou mayest freely eat; nature will be
content with that, but lust with nothing." God, in thus confining men to
one, has been so far from putting any hardship upon them that he has really
consulted their true interest; for, as Mr. Herbert observes, "If God
had laid all common, certainly man would have been the encloser."--Church-porch.
Solomon here enlarges much upon this, not only prescribing it as an antidote,
but urging it as an argument against fornication, that the allowed pleasures
of marriage (however wicked wits may ridicule them, who are factors for the
unclean spirit) far transcend all the false forbidden pleasures of whoredom.
1. Let young men marry, marry and not burn. Have a cistern, a well
of thy own (v. 15), even the wife of thy youth, v.
18. Wholly abstain, or wed.--Herbert. "The world is wide, and
there are varieties of accomplishments, among which thou mayest please
thyself."
2. Let him that is married take delight in his wife, and let him be very fond
of her, not only because she is the wife that he himself has chosen and he
ought to be pleased with his own choice, but because she is the wife that God
in his providence appointed for him and he ought much more to be pleased with
the divine appointment, pleased with her because she is his own. Let thy
fountain be blessed (v. 18); think thyself very happy in her, look
upon her as a blessed wife, let her have thy blessing, pray daily for her, and
then rejoice with her. Those comforts we are likely to have joy of that
are sanctified to us by prayer and the blessing of God. It is not only allowed
us, but commanded us, to be pleasant with our relations; and it particularly
becomes yoke-fellows to rejoice together and in each other. Mutual delight is
the bond of mutual fidelity. It is not only taken for granted that the bridegroom
rejoices over his bride (Isa. lxii. 5), but given for law. Eccl. ix. 9, Live
joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of thy life. Those
take not their comforts where God has appointed who are jovial and merry with
their companions abroad, but sour and morose with their families at home.
3. Let him be fond of his wife and love her dearly (v. 19): Let her
be as the loving hind and the pleasant roe, such as great men sometimes
kept tame in their houses and played with. Desire no better diversion from
severe study and business than the innocent and pleasant conversation of thy
own wife; let her lie in thy bosom, as the poor man's ewe-lamb did in his (2
Sam. xii. 3), and do thou repose thy head in hers, and let that satisfy
thee at all times; and seek not for pleasure in any other. "Err
thou always in her love. If thou wilt suffer thy love to run into an
excess, and wilt be dotingly fond of any body, let it be only of thy own wife,
where there is least danger of exceeding." This is drinking waters,
to quench the thirst of thy appetite, out of thy own cistern, and running
waters, which are clear, and sweet, and wholesome, out of thy own well,
v. 15. 1 Cor. vii. 2, 3.
4. Let him take delight in his children and look upon them with pleasure (v.
16, 17): "Look upon them as streams from thy own pure fountains"
(the Jews are said to come forth out of the waters of Judah, Isa.
xlviii. 1), "so that they are parts of thyself, as the streams are of the
fountain. Keep to thy own wife, and thou shalt have," (1.) "A
numerous offspring, like rivers of water, which run in abundance, and
they shall be dispersed abroad, matched into other families, whereas those
that commit whoredom shall not increase," Hos. iv. 10. (2.)
"A peculiar offspring, which shall be only thy own, whereas the
children of whoredom, that are fathered upon thee, are, probably, not so, but,
for aught thou knowest, are the offspring of strangers, and yet thou must keep
them." (3.) "A creditable offspring, which are an honour to thee,
and which thou mayest send abroad, and appear with, in the streets, whereas a
spurious brood is thy disgrace, and that which thou art ashamed to own."
In this matter, virtue has all the pleasure and honour in it; justly therefore
it is called wisdom.
5. Let him then scorn the offer of forbidden pleasures when he is always
ravished with the love of a faithful virtuous wife; let him consider what
an absurdity it will be for him to be ravished with a strange woman (v.
20), to be in love with a filthy harlot, and embrace the bosom of a
stranger, which, if he had any sense of honour or virtue, he would loathe
the thoughts of. "Why wilt thou be so sottish, such an enemy to thyself,
as to prefer puddle-water, and that poisoned too and stolen, before pure
living waters out of thy own well?" Note, If the dictates of reason may
be heard, the laws of virtue will be obeyed.
II. "See the eye of God always upon thee and let his fear rule in thy
heart," v. 21. Those that live in this sin promise themselves
secrecy (the eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Job xxiv.
15); but to what purpose, when it cannot be hidden from God? For, 1. He sees
it. The ways of man, all his motions, all his actions, are before
the eyes of the Lord, all the workings of the heart and all the outgoings
of the life, that which is done ever so secretly and disguised ever so
artfully. God sees it in a true light, and knows it with all its causes,
circumstances, and consequences. He does not cast an eye upon men's ways now
and then, but they are always actually in his view and under his inspection;
and darest thou sin against God in his sight, and do that wickedness under his
eye which thou durst not do in the presence of a man like thyself? 2. He will
call the sinner to an account for it; for he not only sees, but ponders all
his goings, judges concerning them, as one that will shortly judge the
sinner for them. Every action is weighed, and shall be brought into
judgment (Eccl. xii. 14), which is a good reason why we should ponder
the path of our feet (ch. iv. 26), and so judge ourselves
that we may not be judged.
III. "Foresee the certain ruin of those that go on still in their
trespasses." Those that live in this sin promise themselves impunity, but
they deceive themselves; their sin will find them out, v. 22, 23. The
apostle gives the sense of these verses in a few words. Heb. xiii. 4, Whoremongers
and adulterers God will judge. 1. It is a sin which men with great
difficulty shake off the power of. When the sinner is old and weak his lusts
are strong and active, in calling to remembrance the days of his youth,
Ezek. xxiii. 19. Thus his own iniquities having seized the wicked
himself by his own consent, and he having voluntarily surrendered himself
a captive to them, he is held in the cords of his own sins, and such
full possession they have gained of him that he cannot extricate himself, but
in the greatness of his folly (and what greater folly could there be
than to yield himself a servant to such cruel task-masters?) he shall go
astray, and wander endlessly. Uncleanness is a sin from which, when once
men have plunged themselves into it, they very hardly and very rarely recover
themselves. 2. It is a sin which, if it be not forsaken, men cannot possibly
escape the punishment of; it will unavoidably be their ruin. As their own
iniquities do arrest them in the reproaches of conscience and present rebukes
(Jer. vii. 19), so their own iniquities shall arrest them and bind them over
to the judgments of God. There needs no prison, no chains; they shall be holden
in the cords of their own sins, as the fallen angels, being incurably
wicked, are thereby reserved in chains of darkness. The sinner, who,
having been often reproved, hardens his neck, shall die at length
without instruction. Having had general warnings sufficient given him
already, he shall have no particular warnings, but he shall die without seeing
his danger beforehand, shall die because he would not receive instruction, but
in the greatness of his folly would go astray; and so shall his
doom be, he shall never find the way home again. Those that are so foolish as
to choose the way of sin are justly left of God to themselves to go in it till
they come to that destruction which it leads to, which is a good reason why we
should guard with watchfulness and resolution against the allurements of the
sensual appetite.
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