Ver. 1. Through desire a man having separated himself, &c.] Here the reading that is in margin, methinks, is the better: “He that separates himself”—either from his friend, as the old interpreter makes the sense, or from anything else that he hath formerly followed—“seeketh according to his desire”—seeketh to satisfy his own heart’s lust, and to compass what he coveteth—“and intermeddleth with every business”—stirs very busily in everything that is done, and leaves no stone unrolled, no course unattempted, whereby he may effect his design, and come off with his credit. The practice hereof we may observe in the Pharisees, those old Separatists, who slandered all that our Saviour did; and in their pertinacious malice, never left till they had slain him for a deceiver of the people. So the Donatists separated, and affirmed that there were no true churches but theirs. They were also divided among themselves, in minutula frustula, into small sucking congregations, as Augustine saith, whose arguments not being able to confute, they reproached him for his former life, when he was a Manichee. In like sort dealt the Anabaptists with Luther, whom they held more pestiferous than the pope. Muncer wrote a book against him, dedicating it to the illustrious Prince Christ, and rails at him, as one that wanted the spirit of revelation, and savoured only the things of the flesh. Our Separatists, the better sort of them, have said, that the differences are so small between themselves and us, that they can for a need come to our churches, partake in the sacraments, and hold communion with us as the churches of Christ. But if so, how then dare they separate, and intermeddle with every business, that they may have some spacious pretence for it? Turks wonder at English for cutting or picking their clothes, counting them little better than mad to make holes in whole cloth, which time of itself would tear too soon. Men may do pro libitu -as some render “through desire” in this text—as they will with their own; but woe he to those that cut and rend the seamless coat of Christ with causeless separations. Scultet. Annal., ii. 38. Apologet. Narrat., p. 6.
Ver. 2. A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.] Or, In discovering his own heart— i.e., in following his own humour, against all that can be said to the contrary. He is wilful, and so stands as a stake in the midst of a stream; lets all pass by him, but he stands where he was. It is easier to deal with twenty men’s reasons, than with one man’s will. He hath made his conclusion, you may as soon remove a rock as him. Quicquid vult valde vult, quicquid vult sanctum est. His will is his rule, and when a man hath said and done his utmost to convince him by force of reason, he shall find him like a mill horse, just there in the evening where he began his morning circuit. Some think that Solomon here taxeth, not so much the wilfulness, as the vain gloriousness and ostentation of fond fools, who seem to delight in wisdom; but it is only for a name, and that they may, by setting their good parts a-sunning, gain the applause and admiration of the world, for men singularly qualified. But why should any affect the vain praises of men, and not rest content with the euge of a good conscience? The blessed Virgin was troubled, when truly praised of an angel. Moses had more glory by his veil than by his face. Christ, beside the veil of his humanity, says, “See you tell no man,” &c.
Ver. 3. When the wicked cometh, then cometh contempt.] It comes into the world with him, so the Hebrew doctors expound it. He is born a contemner of God, of his people, and of his ordinances, being “vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,” (Colossians 2:18) and having a base esteem of others, in comparison of himself. Thus “vain man would be wise,” yea, the only wise, “though man be born like a wild ass’s colt,” (Job 11:12) and so he could not but confess, would he but consult a while with himself. But he doth with himself as some people do by dogs and monkeys, which they know to be paltry carrion beasts, and yet they set great store by them, and make precious account of them, merely for their mind’s sake. And with ignominy, reproach.] These two he shall be sure of, according to that of 1 Samuel 2:30:—“They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed”; and Proverbs 3:34, “Surely God scorneth the scorners”; [See Trapp on “Pr 3:34”] he pays them in their own coin, overshoots them in their own bow, makes them to meet with such as will mete them out their own measure, and for their contempt repay them with ignominy, “reproach.”
Ver. 4. The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters.] Fitly are the words of the wise resembled to waters, saith one, inasmuch as they both wash the minds of the hearers, that the foulness of sin remain not therein, and water them in such sort that they faint not, nor wither by a drought and burning desire of heavenly doctrine. Now these words of the wise are of two sorts—some are as deep waters, and cannot easily be fathomed, as Samson’s riddles and Solomon’s apothegms, so very much admired by the Queen of Sheba, 2 Chronicles 9:1-9; some again are plain, and flow so easily, as a flowing brook, that the simplest may understand them. The same may be affirmed of the holy Scriptures——those “words of the wise and their dark sayings.” (Proverbs 1:6) The Scriptures, saith one, are both text and gloss; one place opens another; one place hath that plainly, that another delivers darkly. The Rabbis have one saying, That there is a mountain of sense hangs upon every apex of the word of God; and another they have, Nulla est obiectio in lege quae non habet solutionem in latere -i.e., There is not any doubt in the law but may be resolved by some other text. Parallel scriptures cast a mutual light one upon another; and is there not a thin veil laid over the word, which is more rarefied by reading, and at last wholly worn away? A friend, says Chrysostom, that is acquainted with his friend, will get out the meaning of a letter or phrase which another could not that is a stranger; so it is in the Scripture.