Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_600.lzh/4_606.TXT

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either love or hatred by all that is be. fore them; no man
knows his own love and hatred, his passions are so
fickle and inconstant; what he loves now, he presently
hates, as may be seen in the instances of Arenon,
Ahasuerus, and others: or he knows not that what he
loves and hates shall befall him, all depending on di-
vine Providence; or he does not know the love and
hatred of others, who are his friends or his foes, there
is such deceitfulness in men: or rather, he does not
know the love and hatred of God, with respect to him-
self or others, by the outward conduct of Providence;
since the same things Imppen to one as to another; as
health and strength, wealth and riches, honour and
fame, wisdom and learning, long life, arid the like:
good men may know that they are loved of God, by
his love being shed abroad in them, by the blessings
of grace bestowed on them, and the witnesslags of the
spirit to them; and know that sin is abominable to
God, and wicked men are hated by him; and living-
.and dying in sin, will be eternally damned; but who
is an elect person, and who a reprobate, is not to be
known by the outward estate of men, as to the things
of life. Some render it, even love and hatred {q}1, in con-
ncxion with the preceding clause; that is, these are
in the hands of God also; his love to his people is
purely sovereign, according to his own will; not
through any motives in them, as their love, loveliness,
or good works; and his hatred of others, or the pu-
nishment of them for sin, and appointment of thein to
it; for the same is also as he pleases; see Rum. ix.
11--22. or the love and hatred of men; for God has
the hearts and passions of all men in his hand, and at
his command, and can raise or restrain them at his
pleasure, Prov. xxi. 1. the love and hatred of good
men; he works in tllem love to himself and all divine
things, and hatred of that which is evil; and also of
bad men, he can make them love his people, and he
can restrain their wrath when he pleases, Prov. xvi. 7.
Psal. lxxvi. 10. and then the last clause is rendered,
no man knoweth all that is before them {r}; either before
Elohim, the three divine Persons, to whom all things
are manifest, or that were before decreed, as Aben
Ezra; the purposes and decrees of God, which are
the secret and deep things of God, and cannot be
known but by his promises or providenoes: or man is
so short-sighted, that he cannot discern the things
that are plain arid manifest befbre him; and much less
things future, that are yet to come. But the words,
according to the accents, may be better rendered, as
by Minister, neither lore nor hatred man knows; whe-
ther the love professed to him is sincere, and what se-
cret hatred is bore to him: but all things are before
hint; Elohim, the three divine Persons.
Ver. 2. All things come-alike to all, &c.] That is,
all outward things in this life, good and bad men share
in alike; which proves that neither love nor hatred
can be known by them: so the emperor Mark Anto-
nine, in speaking of life and death, of honour and dis-
honour, of pain and pleasure, riches and poverty,
says {}, all these things happen alike to good men and
bad men. -There is one event to the righteous and to the
wiclced; the same prosperous ones happen to one as
to another, as riches, honour, health, wisdom and
learning, fame and reputation: if Abraham was rich
in cattle, gold, and silver, so was Nabal, and the rich
fool in the Gospel; if Joseph was advanced to great
dignity in Pharaoh's court, so was Haman in the
court of Ahasuerus; if Caleb was as hearty and strong
at fourscore and five as ever, it is true of many wicked
men, that there are no bands in their death, and their
strength is firm to the last; if MoseS, Solomon, and
Daniel, were wise men, and of great learning, so were
the idolatrous Egyptians, and so are many God is not
pleased. to call by his grace; if Demetrius had a good
report of all men, so had the false prophets of old: and
the same adverse things happen to one as to another
as the instances of Job, Lazarus, and the good figs,
the Jews carried into captivity, show; of whom the Mid-
rasll, and Jarchi from that, interpret this and the follow-
ing clauses: to the righteous and to the wicked: to Noah
the righteou's, and to Pharaoh, not Necho, as Jarchi, but
he whose daughter Solomon married, who, the Jews say,
were both lame. To the good, and to the clean, and to
the unclean; who are good, not naturally, and in and of
themselves, but by the grace of God; and who are
clean, not by nature, nor by their own power, but
through the clean water of divine grace being sprinkled
on them, and through the blood and righteousness of
Christ applied to them; and who are uncleart, through
the corruption of nature, and the pollution of actual
sins, they live in. Some traderstand this of a ceremo-
nial cleanness and uncleanness. The above Jews ap-
ply these characters to Moses, who was good; to
Aaron, who was clean; and to the spies, who were
unclean; and the same thing happened to them all,
exclusion from the land of' Canaan. To him that sacri-
ficeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: that serves
and worships the Lord, and who does not, one branch
of service and worship being put for all; and whether
they offer themsol'yes, their contrite hearts and spi-
ritual sacrifices, or not. The Jews exemplify this
Josiah, who sacrificed to the Lord; and in AhaL,
who made sacrifice to cease; and both were slain with
arrows. As is the good, so is the sinner ; alike in their
outward condition and circumstances, whether as to
prosperity or adversity. And he that swearorb, as he
thatfcareth an oath; the common sweater, or he that
is perjured, and has no reverence of God, nor regard
to truth, nor any concern to make good his oath; and
he th'ut is cautious about taking one does it with
awe and reverence of the divine Being, and is careful
of keeping, it, even to his own hurt. The Jews
stance in Zedekiah and Samson; the former broke his
oath with the king of Babylon, anti the latter was a
religious observer of an oath; and yet both had their
eyes put out; but it does not appear that Samson ever
took an oath: the opposition in the text seems to he
between one that is ready to take an oath on every
casion, without considering the solemnity of one, and
without due care of what he swore to; and one that


{q} \^hanv Mg hbha Mg\^ etiam amor, etiam odium, i.e. in many
Dei, De Dieu, Gouge, Gussetius, p. 150, 873.
{r} \^Mhynpl lkh Mdah edwy Nya\^ non norunt homines quiequam
corum quae ante se sunt, De Dieu; non est homo quisquam qui cog-
noscat omnes qui sunt coram ipsis, Gussetius, p. 873.
{s} De seipso, l. 2. c. 11.