Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_400.lzh/4_467.TXT

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the Targum renders it, "many of the children of men
"are called merciful men ;" and so the Vulgate Latin
version; and they like to be so called and acco.unted,
whether they are so or no. But a faithful man who
can find? who answers to the character he gives Of
himself, or others upon. his own representation give
him; who is as good as his word, and, having promised
assistance and relief, gives it; and who, having boasted
that he has done a kindness to such an one and such
an one, does the same likewise to another when ap-
piled to; or who sticks to his friend, and does not for-
sake him in his adversity, but supports and supplies
him whom he knew in prosperity; it is hard and rare
-to find such a man; see Psal. xii. 1. Or, though every
man is talking of his good works, and boasting of his
goodness, it is difficult to find an Israelite indeed, in
whom the true grace of God is,
Ver. 7. The ,just man walkcth in his integrity, &c.]
This is the faithful and upright man, who is made
righteous by the obedience of Christ; and walks by faith
in him, and according to the truth of the Gospel..His
children are blessed after him; with temporal blessings;
and, walking in the same integrity as he does, they are
blessed with spiritual blessings here, and eternal bless-
-edness hereafter; see PsaI. xxxvii. 26. It is an obser. va-
tion ofan Heathen poet{c}, that good things befall the chil-
dren of the godly, but not the children of the ungodly.
Ver. 8. A king that sitteth in the throne of .iudgment,
&c.] 'Fhat executes judgment himself, as David and
Solomon did; who ascends the throne, and sits per-
soually there, and hears and tries causes himself, and
not by his servants: scattereth away all evil with his
eyes; all evil men, as the Targum; every one that is
evil, as Aben Ezra: he will easily and quickly discern
who is evil, or who is in a-bad cause before him, and
will pass sentence on him, and drive him away from
him with shame and disgrace, and to receive deserved
punishment; or he will terrify persons from coming
before him with false witness against their neighhour,
or with a wrong cause. This may be applied to Christ,
the King of kings, and Judge of all; whose eyes are as
a flame of fire; who will clearly see into all hearts and
actions, when he shall sit on his throne of judgment;
aud shall pass the righteous and definitive sentence,
and shall drive the wicked into hell, into everlasti
punishment.
'Ver. 9. Who can say, I have made my heart clean,
&c.] The heart of than is naturally unclean, the
mind, conscience, understanding, will, and affections;
there is no part cleats, all are defiled with sin; and
though there is such a thing as a pure or clean heart,
yet not as made so by men; it is God that llas made
the heart, that can only make it clean, or create a cican
heart in men; it is not to be done by themselves, or
by any thing that they can do; it is done only by the
grace of God, and blood of Christ: God has promised
to do it, and he does it; and to him, and to him only,
is it to be ascribed. I am pure from my sin? the sin
of nature or of action: such indeed who are washed
from their sins in the blood of Christ; whose sins are
all pardoned for his sake, and who.are justified from
all things by his righteousness; they are pure from sin,
noue is to be seen in them, or found upon them in a
law-sense: they are all fair and comely, and without
fault in the sight of God; their iniquities are caused
to pass from them; and they are clothed with fine
inch, clean and white, the righteousness of the saints:
but then none are pure from in-dwelling sin, nor from
the commission of sin; no man can say this, any n;ore
than the former; if he does, he is an ignorant man, and
does not know the plague of his heart; and he is a vain
pharisaical man; yea, a man that does not speak the
truth, nor is the truth in him, 1 John i. 8.
Ver. 10. Divers weights, and divers measures, &c.]
Or, a' stone and a stone, and an ephah and an ephah a.
Stones being in old time used in .weighing, and an
ephah was a common measure among the Jews; and
these ought not to be different; one stone or weight
for buying, and another for selling; and one measure
to buy goods in with, and another to sell out with;
the one too heavy, the other too light; the one too
large, and the other too scanty; whereby justice is not
done between man and man; whereas they ought to
be just and equal, Lev. xix. 35, 36. Both of them are
alike abomination to the Lord; who loves righteousness
and hates iniquity, and requires of men to do justly;
and abhors every act of injustice, and whatever is
detrimental to rnen's properties; see oh. xi 1. and
xvi. 11.
Ver. 11. Even a child is known by his doings, &c.]
As well as a man; ye shall know them by their fruits,
Matt. vii. I6. professors and profane. So a child soon
discovers its genius by its actions; it soon shews its in-
clination and disposition; and some shrewd guesses
may be made how it will turn out, a wise man or a
fool, a virtuous or a vicious man; though this does
not always hold good, yet something may be ob-
served, which may be a direction to parents in the
education of their children, and placing them out to
what is proper and suitable for them. Some observe,
that 'the word has a quite contrary meaning, that a child
carries himself a stranger by his doings{e}; so that he is
not known by them: -he so conceals and disguises
himself, he acts so fraudulently and deceitfully, and
plays the hypocrite, and puts the cheat on men, that
they cannot tell what he is, nor what he will be;
and ifchildren can thus dinsemble, as not to be known
by their actions, then ranch more grown persons.
Whether his work be pure, and whether it be right; not
what his present work is, or actions are, but what his
after-life and conversation will be; which in some
measure may be judged of, though not with certainty
and exactness; see ch. xxii. 6. especially when he
acts a covert and deceitful part.
Ver. 12. The hearing car, and the seeing e.ye, &c.]
There may be an ear that hears not, and an eye that
seeth not, and which men may make; the painter
can paint an ear and an eye, and a carver can carve
both; but they are ears that hear not, and eyes that
see not, Psal. cxv. 5, 6. but such as can hear and see

{c} Theocrit. Idyll. 27. v. 32.
{d} So Montanus, Schultens.
{e} \^rknty\^ ignotus erit, i. e. non facile cognoscitur, Vatablus; so R.
Joseph Kimchi; simulat se alium esse, Gussetius, p. 413. dissimula-
torem agit, Schultens.