that point anew; still they mingle dross. God will have this truth
tried seven times in the fire, til he hath brought it forth as pure
as pure may be. And I say it is because that truth is thus precious.
Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 6. The Scripture is the sun; the church is the clock.
The sun we know to be sure, and regularly constant in his motions;
the clock, as it may fall out, may go too fast or too slow. As then,
we should condemn him of folly that should profess to trust the clock
rather than the sun, so we cannot but justly tax the credulity of
those who would rather trust to the church than to the Scripture.
Bishop Hall.
Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure words." Men
may inspect detached portions of the Book, and please themselves with
some things, which at first view, have the semblance of conniving at
what is wrong. But let them read it, let them read the whole of it;
let them carry along in their minds the character of the persons to
which the different portions of it were addressed; the age of the
world, and the circumstances under which the different parts of it
were written, and the particular objects which even those portions of
it have in view, which to an infidel mind appear the most
exceptionable; and they may be rationally convinced that, instead of
originating in the bosom of an impostor, it owes its origin to men
who wrote "as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Let them scrutinise
it with as much severity as they please; only let their scrutiny be
well informed, wisely directed, and with a fair and ingenuous mind,
and we have no fears for the issue. There are portions of it on which
ignorance and folly have put constructions that are forced and
unnatural, and which impure minds have viewed in shadows reflected
from their own impurity. Montesquieu said of Voltaire, Lorsque
Voltaire lit un livre, il le fait, puis il ècrit contre ce qu'il a
fait: "When Voltaire reads a book, he makes it what he pleases,
and then writes against what he has made." It is no difficult matter
to besmear and blot its pages and then impute the foul stains that
men of corrupt minds have cast upon it, to its stainless Author. But
if we honestly look at it as it is, we shall find that like its
Author, it is without blemish and without spot. Gardiner Spring,
D.D.
Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver
tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." The
expression may import two things: first, the infallible certainty of
the word; and, secondly, the exact purity. First, the infallible
certainty of the word, as gold endureth in the fire when the dross is
consumed. Vain conceits comfort us not in a time of trouble: but the
word of God, the more it is tried, the more you will find the
excellency of it—the promise is tried, as well as we are tried, in
deep afflictions; but when it is so, it will be found to be most
pure. "The word of the Lord is tried; he is a buckler to all those
who trust in him" (Proverbs 30:5); as pure gold suffers no loss by
the fire, so the promises suffer no loss when they are tried, but
stand to us in our greatest troubles. Secondly, it notes the exact
perfection of the word: there is no dross in silver and gold that
hath been often refined; so there is no defect in the word of God.
Thomas Manton.
Verse 6. Fry thus translates this verse:—
The words of Jehovah are pure words—
Silver refined in the crucible—
Gold, seven times washed from the earth.
(Heb.) though sometimes applied to express the purity of silver, is
more strictly an epithet of gold, from the peculiar method made use
of in separating it from the soil by repeated washings and
decantations. John Fry, in loc.
Verse 6. "Seven times." I cannot but admit that there
may be a mystic meaning in the expression "seven times," in allusion
to the seven periods of the church, or to that perfection, implied in
the figure seven, to which it is to be brought at the revelation of
Jesus Christ. This will be more readily allowed by those who admit of
the prophetic interpretation of the seven epistles of the Book of
Revelation. W. Wilson, D. D., in loc.
Verse 8. "When the vilest men are exalted:" Hebrew,
vilities, outidanoi the abstract for the concrete,
quisquiliae , outidanoi. Oft, empty vessels swim aloft, rotten
posts are gilt with adulterate gold, the worst weeds spring up
bravest. Chaff will get to the top of the fan, when good corn, as it
lieth at the bottom of the heap, so it falls low at the feet of the
fanner. The reason why wicked men "walk" on every side, are so
brisk, so busy (and who but they?) is given to be this, because
losels and rioters were exalted. See Proverbs 28:12, 18 and 29:2. As
rheums and catarrhs fall from the head to the lungs, and cause a
consumption of the whole body, so it is in the body politic. As a
fish putrefies first in the head and then in all the parts, so here.
Some render the text thus, "When they (that is, the wicked)
are exalted," it is a "shame for the sons of men," that
other men who better deserve preferment, are not only slighted, but
vilely handled by such worthless ambitionists, who yet the higher
they climb, as apes, the more they discover their deformities."
John Trapp.
Verse 8. Good thus translates this verse:—
Should the wicked advance on every side;
Should the dregs of the earth be uppermost?
The original is given literally. (Heb.) means "foeces, foeculences,
dregs. (Heb.) is here an adverb, and imports uppermost , rather
than exalted . J. Mason Good, in loc.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. "Help, Lord."
I. The Prayer itself, short, suggestive,
seasonable, rightly directed, vehement.
II. Occasions for its use.
III. Modes of its answer.
IV. Reasons for expecting gracious
reply.
Verse 1. First two clauses . Text for funeral of an
eminent believer.
Verse 1. Whole verse .
I. The fact bewailed —describe
godly and faithful, and show how they fail.
II. The feeling excited. Mourning
the loss, fears for church, personal need of such companions, appeal
to God.
III. The forebodings aroused.
Failure of the cause, judgments impending, etc.
IV. The faith remaining: "Help,
Lord."
Verse 1. Intimate connection between yielding honour to God
and honesty to man, since they decline together.
Verse 2. ( first clause ). A discourse upon the
prevalence and perniciousness of vain talk.
Verse 2. The whole verse . Connection between flattery
and treachery.
Verse 2. "A double heart." Right and wrong kinds of
hearts, and the disease of duplicity.
Verse 3. God's hatred of those twin sins of the lips—Flattery
and Pride (which is self flattery). Why he hates them. How he shows
his hatred. In whom he hates them most. How to be cleansed from
them.
Verses 3, 4.
I. The revolt of the tongue . Its
claim of power, self-possession, and liberty. Contrast this and the
believer's confession, "we are not our own."
II. The method of its rebellion —
"flattery, and speaking proud things."
III. The end of its treason —"cut
off."
Verse 5. The Lord aroused—How! Why! What to do! When!
Verse 5. Last clause . Peculiar danger of believers from
those who despise them and their special safety. Good practical
topic.
Verse 6. The purity, trial, and permanency of the words of the
Lord.
Seven crucibles in which believers try the word. A little thought
will suggest these.
Verse 7. Preservation from one's generation in this life and
for ever. A very suggestive theme.
Verse 8. Sin in high places specially infectious. Call
to the rich and prominent to remember their responsibility.
Thankfulness for honourable rulers. Discrimination to be used in
choice of our representatives, or civic magistrates.
WORK UPON THE TWELFTH PSALM
In "A Godly Meditation upon XX select Psalms . . . . . . . .
By Sir ANTHONY COPE, Knight, 1547," a thin black letter 4to., is an
Exposition, or rather Meditation, on this Psalm. Reprinted 1848.