Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_400.lzh/4_410.TXT

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will-worship; nor does he care that his doctrines and
practices should be bronght to this test, or that the
people should have knowledge of them; but keeps
them from them, and sets up his own infallibility as
the rule of judgment; and it is one character of his
followers, that they receive not the love of the truth,
e Thess. ii. 10. and both he and they are represented
by a beast, Rev. xiii. 1, 11. and xvii. 3. and are more
brutish than anv man; see ch. v. 11,
Ver. e. A good man obtaineth favour of the Lord, &c.]
One that is made so by the grace of God, for no man
is so naturally; there is none good, nor does good, no,
not one, until some good thing is put into him, or the
good work of grace is begun in him. And such a man
obtains favour or good will from the Lord; that is, as
Gersom explains it, what he himself wills, for the will
of God is his will; or rather the good will of God, his
grace, and layout; fresh manifestations and discoveries
of which he obtains and enjoys, not by merit, throu
any goodness of his own, or by means of his obediem
but he draws it out, as the word {l} signifies, as out of a
fountain, by prayer and supplication, and by fresh re-
~eated acts of faith upon it; which may be said to be
ad and enjoyed, when it is remembered to him, he is
encompassed with it, or it is shed abroad in his heart,
or his heart is directed into it; and he also obtains and
enjoys all the blessings, of grace here, and glory here-
after, as springing from it. But a man of wicked de-
vices will he condemn; whose thoughts, and the ima-
ginations of his heart, are evil continually; who is al-
ways contriving mischief to others: such a man shall
be so far from enjoying the favour of God, that he shall
be pronounced guilty of death, and condemned to it;
he shall be banished fi'om the presence of the Lord,
and be punished with everlasting destruction. As the
man of sin is continually devising wicked things against
God, against Christ, against his interest and people;
he shall be condemned by the Lord, consumed with
the breath of his mouth; go into perdition, and be
east into the lake burning with fire and brimstone: and
this will be the portion of all his followers, that join
with him in forming and executing his wicked devices.
Vet. 3. A man shall not be established by wickedness,
&c.] Not any man, though he may be established in
his wickedness, so as not to be rooted out of it; yet
he cannot be so established by it as not to be removed
from a prosperous state and condition into an unhappy
and distressed one; he may seem to be in a firm and
settled state of prosperity, amidst all his wickedness;
be like a green bay-tree, spreading itself, and seemingly
immovable, when on a sudden it is blown down and
rooted up, and is no more: so Babylon will seem to be
in a settled state of grandeur, ease, and rest, and say, I
sit a queen, and shall see no sorrow; when in one day,
and in one hour, her destruction shall come upon her,
Rev. xviii. 7, 8. But the root of the righteous shall not
be moved; they are rooted and grounded in the love of
God, which is immovable; they are rooted and built
up in Christ, and so are as Mount Zion, which can
never be removed; the root of the matter, or of grace,
is in them, which can never be lost; whilst others
wither away, because they have no root in them, these
abide; and though they may be shaken with the per-
secutions of men, the temptations of Satan, the errors of
the wicked, and their own corruptions, yet they afresh
take root again downward, and bring forth fruit upward.
Ver. 4. A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband,
&c.] One that is loving and chaste, constant and faith-
ful, obsequious and submissive to him; that is diligent
in the afthits of her house, takes care of her family,
brings up her children, and keeps up a goad order and
decorum among her servants, is an honour and c,edit
.to her husband. Such is the true church of Christ, who
is compared to a woman, Rev. xii. 1. to a woman of
purity and chastity, whose members are virgins, not
defiled with the corruptions, errors, and superstition
of the apostate church; to a woman of fortitude and
courage,. as the word {m} signifies, who resists sin, temp-
tation, error, heresy, and idolatry, even unto. blood;
and whose true members love not their lives unto
death, but freely lay them down in the cause of truth;
such an one is an honour to Christ her husband. But
she that maketh ashamed; makes her husband ashamed,
by her levity and wantonness, her negligence and sloth-
fulness, so that he is ashamed to be seen with her, or
to be known that he stands in such a relation to her;
she is as rottenness in his bones; a constant grief to h. is
mind, a pressure upon his spirits, a wasting of his
body, and a consumption of hi,s estate; she is, as the.
Targum has it, as a worm in wood, which rots and con-
sumes it{n}; so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic ver-
sions. Thus the apostate church of Rome, that pro-.
fesses to be the spouse of Christ, has made him ashamed
of her; as being the Jezebel, that seduces his servants
to fornication or idolatry;and whose doctrine and
superstition eat, like a canker, the vitals of religion.
Ver. 5. The thoughts of the righteous are right, &c.]
Or judgment °. The thoughts of men's hearts are na-
turally evil, nor can any think a good thought of them-.
selves; but the thoughts of the righteous are directed
and influenced by the grace of God, and are formed
according to that Word which is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart; their thoughts con-
cerning God and religion, concerning Christ and bis
Gospel, his ways and worship, his truths and ordi-
nances, they are judiciously framed according to the
rule of God's word, the revelation he has made, and
so are right; and snch are their resolutions and designs.
to serve the Lord their God, and him only, and to
cleave to him with full purpose ofheart. But the coun-
sels of the wicked are deceit; the designs, schemes, and
contrivances of wicked men, are to trick, and overreach,
and defraud their neighbours in civil affairs; and of
false teachers, to deceive the hearts of the simple in
religious ones. The coming of the man of sin was
with all deceivableness; and all the gaudy shew and
pageantry he makes, and pretended miracles he works,
are to deceive the inhabitants of the earth; and. by his

{l} \^qypy\^ educet, Pagninus, Montanus; hauriet, V. L. haurit, Mercerus,
Gejerus.
{m} \^lyx tva\^ mulier virtutis, Montanus, Vatablus; uxor strenua,
Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius; mulier fortis, Pagninus,
Gejerus.
{n} Such as are called Cossi, Tabani, Teredines, Thrypes; Plin. Nat.
Hist. l. 11. c. 33. & l. 16. c. 41.
{o} \^jpvm\^ judicium, Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Cocceius,
Gejerus.