EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (5)

Verse 11.—“Oh,” says Pharaoh, “take away these filthy frogs, this dreadful thunder!” But what says holy David? “Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant!” The one would be freed from punishment, the effect of sin; the other from sin, the cause of punishment. And it is most true that a true Christian man is more troubled at sin than at frogs and thunder; he sees more filthiness in sin than in frogs and toads, more horror than in thunder and lightning.—Jeremiah Dyke’s “Worthy Communicant,” 1645.

Verse 11.—Pharaoh more lamented the hard strokes that were upon him, than the hard heart which was within him. Esau mourned not because he sold the birthright, which was his sin, but because he lost the blessing, which was his punishment. This is like weeping with an onion; the eye sheds tears because it smarts. A mariner casts overboard that cargo in a tempest, which he courts the return of when the winds are silenced. Many complain more of the sorrows to which they are born, than of the sins with which they were born: they tremble more at the vengeance of sin, than at the venom of sin; one delights them, the other affrights them.—William Secker.

Verse 12.—“What man is he that feareth the Lord?” Blessed shall he be—1. In the sacred knowledge of Christ’s will; “Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.” 2. Blessed shall he be in the quiet peace of a good conscience; “His soul shall dwell at ease.” 3. Blessed he shall be in the present comfort of a hopeful progeny; “His seed shall inherit the earth.”—Robert Mossom.

Verse 12.—“What man is he that feareth the Lord?” There is nothing so effectual to obtain grace, to retain grace, as always to be found before God not over wise, but to fear: happy art thou, if thy heart be replenished with three fears; a fear for received grace, a greater fear for lost grace, a greatest fear to recover grace.—Bernard.

Verse 12.—“He that feareth the Lord.” Present fear begetteth eternal security: fear God, which is above all, and no need to fear man at all.—Augustine.

Verse 12.—“Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose,” i.e., that the good man shall pitch upon. God will direct him in all dealings to make a good choice, and will give good success. This is not in a man’s own power to do. Jer. x. 23.—John Trapp.

Verse 13.—“His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.” The holy fear of God shall destroy all sinful fears of men, even as Moses’ serpent devoured all those serpents of the magicians. The fear of God hath this good effect that it makes other things not to be feared; so that the soul of him who feareth the Lord doth dwell, as in rest, so in goodness; as in peace, so in patience, till this moment of time be swallowed up in the fulness of eternity, and he change his earthly dwelling for an heavenly mansion, and his spiritual peace for an everlasting blessedness.—Robert Mossom.

Verse 13.—“His soul shall dwell at ease.” Shall tarry in good things, as it is in the Vulgate. Unlike the soul of Adam, who, being put into possession of the delights of paradise, tarried there but a few days or hours.—Gerhohus, quoted by J. M. Neale.

Verse 13.—“His soul shall dwell at ease.” He expresses with great sweetness spiritual delectation, when he says, “His soul shall tarry in good things.” For whatever is carnally sweet yields without doubt a delectation for the time to such as enjoy it, but cannot tarry long with them; because, while by its taste it provokes appetite, by its transit it cheats desire. But spiritual delights, which neither pass away as they are tasted, nor decrease while they refresh, nor cloy while they satiate, can tarry for ever with their possessors.—Hugo Victorinus (1130), quoted by J. M. Neale.

Verse 13 (first clause).—In the reception of the gifts of God, they do not devour them without feeling a sense of their sweetness, but really relish them, so that the smallest competency is of more avail to satisfy them that the greatest abundance is to satisfy the ungodly. Thus, according as every man is contented with his condition, and cheerfully cherishes a spirit of patience and tranquility, his soul is said to dwell in good.—John Calvin.

Verse 13.—“The earth,” or the land, to wit, Canaan; which was promised and given, as an earnest of the whole covenant of grace, and all its promises, and therefore it is synecdochically put for all of them. The sense is, his seed shall be blessed.—Matthew Pool.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,” etc. It is the righteous that is God’s friend, it is to him that God is joined in a loving familiarity, it is to him that God revealeth his secret, telling him what misery and torments he hath reserved for them who by wickedness flourish in this world. And indeed the Lord doth not more hate the wicked than he loves the godly: if he keeps far from the froward, as being an abomination unto him, his very secret shall be with the righteous, as with his dearest friend. It is an honour to him to whom a secret is committed by another, a greater honour to him to whom the king shall commit his own secret; but how is he honoured to whom God committeth his secret? for where the secret of God is, there is his heart and there is himself. Thus was his secret with St. John, of whom St. Bernard saith, by occasion of the beginning of his gospel, “Doth he not seem unto thee to have dived into the bowels of the divine Word, and from the secrets of his breast, to have drawn a sacred pith of concealed wisdom?” Thus was his secret with St. Paul, who saith, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which none of the princes of this world knew.” 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8. St. Gregory reads, for the secret of God, as the Vulgar Latin doth sermocinatio Dei, the communication of God is with the righteous; but then addeth, Dei sermocinari est per illustrationem suæ præsentiæ humanis mentibus arcana revelare, God’s communication is, by the illustration of his presence, to reveal secrets to the minds of men. But to consider the words somewhat more generally. There is no less a secret of godliness, than there is of any other trade or profession. Many profess an art or a trade, but thrive not by it, because they have not the secret and mystery of it; and many profess godliness, but are little the better for it, because they have not the true secret of it: he hath that, with whom God is in secret in his heart; and he that is righteous in secret, where no man sees him, he is the righteous man with whom the secret of the Lord is.—Michael Jermin, D.D., 1591-1659.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord, is with them that fear him,” etc. There is a vital sense in which “the natural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God;” and in which all the realities of Christian experience are utterly hid from his perceptions. To speak to him of communion with God, of the sense of pardon, of the lively expectation of heaven, of the witness of the Holy Ghost, of the struggles of the spiritual life, would be like reasoning with a blind man about colours, or with one deaf about musical harmony.—John Morison.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,” etc. Albeit the Lord’s covenant with the visible church be open, and plain in itself to all men in all the articles thereof, yet it is a mystery to know the inward sweet fellowship which a soul may have with God by virtue of this covenant; and a man fearing God shall know this mystery, when such as are covenanters only in the letter do remain ignorant thereof; for to the fearers of God only is this promise made—that to them the Lord will show his covenant.—David Dickson.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” The gospel, though published to all the world, yet it is entitled a mystery, and a mystery hid, for none know it but the saints, who are taught of God, and are his scholars. John vi. 45. That place shows that there must be a secret teaching by God, and a secret learning. “If they have heard, and been taught of God.” Now God teacheth none but saints, for all that are so taught come unto him: “Every one who hath heard, and learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” Ay, but you will say, Do not many carnal men know the gospel, and discourse of things in it, through strength of learning, etc.? I answer out of the text (Col. i. 26, 27), that though they may know the things which the gospel reveals, yet not the riches and glory of them, that same rich knowledge spoken of in the word, they want, and therefore know them not; as a child and a jeweller looking upon a pearl, both look upon it, and call it by the same name; but the child yet knows it not as a pearl in the worth and riches of it as the Jeweller doth, and therefore cannot be said to know it. Now in Matt. xiii. 45, a Christian only is likened to a merchantman, that finds a pearl of great price, that is, discovered to be so, and sells all he hath for it, for he knows the worth of it. But you will say, Do not carnal men know the worth of the things in the gospel, and can they not discourse of the rich grace of Christ, and of his worth? I answer, yes, as a man who hath gotten an inventory by heart, and the prices also, and so may know it; yet never was he led into the exchequer and treasury, to see all the jewels themselves, the wardrobe of grace, and Christ’s righteousness, to see the glory of them; for these are all “spiritually discerned,” as the apostle says expressly, 1 Cor. ii. 14.—Thomas Goodwin.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” The truth and sincerity of God to his people appears in the openness and plainness of his heart to them. A friend that is close and reserved, deservedly comes under a cloud in the thoughts of his friend; but he who carries, as it were, a window of crystal in his breast, through which his friend may read what thoughts are writ in his very heart, delivers himself from the least suspicion of unfaithfulness. Truly, thus open-hearted is God to his saints: “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” He gives us his key, that will let us into his very heart, and acquaint us what his thoughts are, yea, were, towards us, before a stone was laid in the world’s foundation; and this is no other than his Spirit (1 Cor. ii. 10, 11), “One who knows the deep things of God;” for he was at the council-table in heaven, where all was transacted. This, his Spirit, he employed to put forth and publish in the Scriptures, indited by him, the substance of those counsels of love which had passed between the Trinity of Persons for our salvation; and that nothing may be wanting for our satisfaction, he hath appointed the same Holy Spirit to abide in his saints, that as Christ in heaven presents our desires to him, so he may interpret his mind out of his word to us; which word answers the heart of God, as face answers face in the glass.—William Gurnall.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord.” This “secret” is called a secret three ways. 1. Secret to the eye of sole nature, and thus it is not meant; for so the grace of Christ is a secret only to heathens and such as are blind as they, for common Christians know it—the rind of it. 2. Secret to the eye of taught nature, nor thus is it meant; for so the grace of Christ is a secret only to the ignorant sort of Christians; many carnal gospellers that sit under a good ministry know it and the bark of it. 3. Secret to the eye of enlightened nature, and thus it is meant; for so the grace of Christ is a secret to all unsanctified professors, whether learned or unlearned, namely, the pith of it; for though great doctors and profound clerks, and deep studied divines unconverted, know the doctrine of grace, and the truth of grace; though they can dispute of grace and talk of the glory of grace, yea, and taste a little the good word of grace, yea, and understand it generally, it may be as well as St. Paul and St. Peter, as Judas did, yet the special and the spiritual knowledge thereof, for all their dogmatical illumination, is a secret unto them.—William Fenner.