Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_400.lzh/4_438.TXT

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to do, he is easily counterworked, and his purposes
disappointed.  But in the multitude of counsellors they
are established; his purposes are, as in ch. xx. 18.
having the advice of others, and these many, he is con-
firmed that he is right in what he has thought of and
purposed to d6; and therefore goes about it with the
greater spirit and cheerfulness, and is most likely to
succeed, and generally does; see ch. xi. 14.
Ver. 23. A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth,
· &c.] When his advice is asked, and he gives good
and wholcsome counsel, and that being taken succeeds;
it is a pleasure to a man that he is capable of assisting
his friend, and doing him service, or a common good,
whether it be in things naW. ral, civil, or religious;
when his speech is with salt, seasoned with grace, and
he knows how he ought to answer every man; when
that which is good proceeds from him, and is to the
use of edifying, and ministers grace to the hearers, and
is acceptable to them; when with readiness he gives an
answer to every man that asks him a reason of the
hope that is in him, with meekhess and fear, Col. iii. 6.
Ephes. iv. o_9. I Pet. iii. 15. And a word spoken in due
season, how good is it ? whether by way of advice and
counsel to such who stand in need of it, or of exhor-
tation and instruction to those that want it, or of corn'
fort to those that are distressed; such is a word of
promise spoken and applied by the spirit of God to the
hearts of his people in a time of need; and such is the
Gospel of peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation,
as spoken by Christ and his ministers to weary and
wounded souls; it cannot be well and fully expressed
how sweet, how good, how suitable, as well as season-
able, it is: see ch. xxv. 11. Isa. 1.4.
Vet. 24. The way of life is above to the wise, &c.]
Of the way of life; see the note on ch. x. 17. this is said
to be above, or it tends to what is above; it leads to
heaven and happiness above; the life itself it is the
way of or to is above, it is hid with Christ in God;
eternal life, glory, and happiness, is above; it is a
house eternal in the heavens, an inheritance reserved
there, and will be there enjoyed by the saints: the way
to it is above; Christ is the way, and he is in heaven,
at the Father's right hand, through whom only men
can come at this life; wherefore those who are in the
way of it have their thoughts, their hearts, their affec-
tions and conversations, above, Matt. vi.. 21. Col. iii. 1,
· 2. Phil. iii. 20. Faith, which deals with Christ the
way, and by which men walk in him, is signified by
soaring aloft, mounting up with wings as eagles, by
entering within the vail, and dwelling on high, and by
looking upwards, and at things unseen, and being the
evidence of them. The Vulgate Latin version renders
it, the way of life is above the learned man, or wise man;
the man that has no other than natural learning and wis-
dom, this way of life and salvation by Christ lies out of his
knowledge; it is what the most sagacious and pene-
trating man could never discover; it is hid from the
wise and prudent, and revealed to babes; or this is
only known to such who are truly wise unto salvation;
it is plain to .them, and they highly esteem it, and
choose to walk in it; it is an ascent to him that under-
stands, as the Syriac version renders it; it is a going up
hi!l, it is an ascending upwards and heavenwards; such
a man is continually looking upwards unto Christ, the
author and finisher of his faith; pressing towards him,
the mark for the prize; keeping his eye,. not on things
on earth, things temporal, which are seen here below,
but on things above, things unseen, which are eternal
in the heavens. That he may depart from hell beneath;
not from the grave, as sheol sometithes signifies: for
wise men die as well as fools, and come to the grave,
which is the house appointed for all living; even those
who are in the way of life that is above do not escape
death and the grave: but such are secured from ever-
lasting ruin and destruction, from being destroyed
soul and body in hell; they steer quite a different
course and. road from that; every step they take up-
wards carries them so far off from hell; which is the
contrary way; the broad road of sin is the lower way,
or what leads to hell anti destruction beneath; the nar-
row way of faith in Christ is the upper way, and that
leads to eternal life above.
Ver. 25. The Lord will destroy the house of the proud,
&c.] To whom he has the utmost aversion; he sets
himselfagainst them and resists them, and will not
only destroy them, but their stately houses too, which
their have fancied shall continue for ever; and also their
families, their children and posterity; these shall be as
stubble, and shall be burnt up in his wrath, and neither
root nor branch left. Mor.eover, the man of sin, the son
of perdition, may be more especially intended, that
exalts himself above all that is called God, with all
the sons of pride supported by him; his house, which
is the house of the foolish and adulterous woman, the
idolatrous church of Rome, shall be rooted up; the city
of Rome, the seat of the beast itself, where his house
or palace is, shall be destroyed, and all that belong
unto him, even all they that have destroyed the earth,
Rev. xi. 18. But he will establish the border of the
widow; whose advocate, judge, and defender he is;
when men, rich, proud, and oppressive, attempt to
remove the landmark of the widow's border, and so
lessen her land and enlarge their own, God will not
suffer it to be done, but will establish it in its place;
that is, such who are weak and helpless, as widows are,
and cannot defend themselves and their property, he
will protect them and secure it for them. So the
 church of Christ, during the reign of antichrist, being
obliged to flee into the wilderness, looks like a widow
deprived of her husband, and has but little strength to
support and defend herself, as is said of the church of
Philadelphia, Rev. iii. 8. yet the Lord will secure and
preserve her, and firmly settle and establish her, yea,
enlarge her borders, and make them of pleasant stones;
spread the kingdom of Christ from sea to sea, and
from the river to the ends of the earth. Frequent men-
tion is made of the establishing of the church in the
latter day, Psal. xlviii. 8. and lxxxvii. 5. Isa. ii. 2.
Ver. 26. The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination
to the Lord, &c.] They are known unto the Lord,
who is the searcher of the heart, and a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of it; he knows they are vain and
sinful, yea, that they are only evil, and thatcontinually,
and therefore are hateful and abominable to him; it
may be rendered the thoughts of evil, as by the Tar-
gum; or evil thoughts, as the Septuagint, Vulgate
Latin, and the Oriental versions; but Aben Ezra inter-
prets as we, the thoughts of a wicked man, which are