Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_400.lzh/4_426.TXT

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judgment they are warned of, and in a scoffing manner
say, where is the promise of his coming ? Some, as
Aben Ezra observes, render it a sin-offering; and in-
terpret it of the sin-offerings and sacrifices under the
law, as derided by wicked men; but may be better ap-
plied to the sin-offering or sacritice of Christ, who
made his soul an offering for sin, to make satisfaction
and atonement for the sins of his people; this is mocked
at by false teachers, who deny it; and is exposed to
derision and contempt by the Papists, by their unbloody
sacrifice of the mass, and by their merits and works of
supererogation, which they prefer to the sacrifice and sa-
tisfaction of Christ. The words may be rendered, sin
makes a mock of fools h; it deceives them, it promises
them pleasure, or profit, or honour, but gives them
neither, but all the reverse. But among the righteous
there is .fayour: they enjoy the favour of God and man;
or there is good will {i}, good will towards men; they are
so far froIn making a mock at sin, and taking delight in
the mischief that comes by it to others, that they are
willing to do all good offices unto men, and by love to
serve their friends and neighbours: or there is ac-
ceptance {k}; they are accepted with God upon the ac-
count of the sin-offering, sacrifice, and satisfaction of
Christ, which fools mock and despise.
Ver. 10. The heart knoweth his own bitterness, &c.]
Or the bitterness of his soul {l}, the distress of his con-
science, the anguish of his mind; the heart of man
only knows the whole of it; something of it may be
known to others by his looks, his words, and gestures,
but not all of it; see 1 Cor. it. 10. Job xxiii. 2. bitterness
of soul often arises from outward t'roubles, pains, and
diseases of body, losses', crosses, and disapointments,
I Sam. i. 10, 15. Job iii. 20. and vii. 11. and x. 1. Isa.
xxxviii. 15, 17. Sometimes it is upon spiritual ac-
counts; but this is not the case of every heart; men may
· be in the gall of bitterness, and have no bitterness of soul
on account of it; the sensualist and voluptuous world-
ling feels nothing of it, nor the hardened and hard-
hearted sinner; only such who are awakened and con-
vinced by the spirit of God; to these, as sin is a bitter
tiring in itself, it is so to their taste; it makes hitter
work for repentance in them; it brings trembling and
astonishment on them; fills them with shame and con-
fusion of face, causes self-loathing and abhorrence, and
severe reflections upon themselves; seeing sin in its
own colours, they are cut to the heart and killed with
it; they are pressed down with the guilt of sin, and
the load of it; and, having no views of pardon, are in
that distress and bitterness of soul which no tongue
can express nor heart conceive but what has felt the
same. And a stranger doth not intermeddle with his
.ioy; or mingle himself .with it {m}; he does not share in
it or partake of it; this is more especially true of spi-
ritual joy, which, as it is unspeakable to the man that
possesses it, it passes the understanding of a natural
man; he can form no true idea of it: spiritual joy is
what a sensible sinner partakes of upon the Gospel,
the joyful sound of salvation, reaching his ears and his
heart, at the revelation of Christ in him and to him,
as a Saytour; when an application of pardoning grace
is made to his soul, and he has a view of the complete
righteousness of Christ, and his interest in it, and can
see all his sins expiated and stoned for by his sacrifice;
when he is favoured with a sight of the fulness of grace
in Christ, and of the spiritual and eternal salvation he
has wrought out for him; and likewise when he is in-
dulged with a visit from him, and enjoys commtmion
with him; and when he has a glimpse of eternal glory,
and a well-grounded hope of right unto it, and meet-
hess for it: now a stranger, one that is a stranger to
God and godliness, to Christ and the way of salvation
by him, to the Spirit and his work of grace upon the
heart, to the Gospel and the doctrines of it, to his own
heart and the plague of it, to the saints and communion
with them; knows nothing at all of the above joy, nor
can he interrupt it, nor take it away.
Ver. 1 I. The house of the wicked shall be overthrown,
&c.] Houses built to perpetuate their names and
eternize their memory; and which, though built high
and stately, strong and firm, yet by one accident or
another shall come to ruin, when they imagined they
would continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to
all generations, Psal. xlix. 11. or their families shall
become extinct, none to be their heirs and inherit their
estates, and transmit their name to posterity; or the
substance of their house, their riches and wealth,
especially that gotten dishonestly, shall waste away:
and in a spiritual sense the house or hope of such, as
to eternal salvation, being built on the sand, or some-
thingof their own, their external duties, or an out-
ward profession of religion, shall not stand; though
they lean upon it and would hold it fast, but it shall
· fall, and great shall be the fall of it; and particularly
the apostate church of Rome, that synagogue of
Satan, that habitation of devils, that hold of every
foul spirit, and cage of every unclean bird, shall
be overthrown with an utter overthrow, shall fall
and never rise more, Rev. xviii. 2. But the tabernacle
of the upright shall flourish: their low and mean cot-
tages, which are run up slightly, like tents movable
from place to place, yet shallbe established, ch. xv.
their families shall become numerous like a flock of
sheep, Psal. evil. 4l, 42. and their substance increase;
they shall flourish in worldly things and grow rich, or
however in spirituals, in girls and grace; shall flourish
in the courts of the Lord, and tabernacles of the most
High, likc palm-trees and cedars; for the allusion is to
the fiourishingof trees, Psal. xcii. 13, 14. especially they
will be in such flourishingcircumstances in the latterday,
when antichrist will be destroyed, and when the taber-
nacleof God will be with men, Psal. lxxii. 8. Rev. xxi. 3.
Ver. l2. There is a way which seemeth right unto a
man, &c.] As the way of sin and wickedness does,
it promising much carnal pleasure and mirth; there
is a great deal of company in it, it is a broad road, and
is pleasant, and seems right, but it leads to destruc-
tion; so the way of the hypocrite and .Pharisee that

{h} \^Mva Uyly Mylywa\^ \~fronav cleuazei plhmmeleia\~, Aquila & Theo-
dotion in Drusius; delictum illudit  fatuos, Gejerus.
{i} \^Nwur\^  benevolentia, Montanus, Baynus, Piscator, Mercerus, Gejerus.
{k} Acceptatio, Cocceius, Gussetius.
{l} \^wvpn trm\^ amaritudine animae suae, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus,
Mercerus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.
{m} \^brety al\^ non immiscet se, Michaelis, so Tigurine version; non
miscebit sese, Baynus; non intermiscet se, Junius & Tremellius,
Piscator.