Simon Patrick on the Proverb 1683
1. "A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is His delight." It is not so small a sin as men imagine, to cheat their neighbors (though it be only in a little matter) but extremely hateful and detestable to the great Lord and Governor of the world: as on the other side, exactly just and equal dealing in all our commerce one with another, is highly pleasing to Him.
2. "When pride corneal, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom." Do not entertain an haughty conceit of thyself, nor insult 'gloat] over others; for the folly of this appears, in drawing along with it that contempt and disgrace, which above all things such men would avoid: therefore be humble and modest; the wisdom of which is manifest, from the universal respect which it gains everywhere.
3. "The integrity of upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them." The integrity of those that uprightly observe the rules of Virtue, is their highest prudence, and safest guide, through all manner of difficulties and dangers: but the crafty wiliness of perfidious men, who will be tied unto no laws, is mere folly; and shall be so far From preserving them, that it shall prove their certain destruction.
4. "Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death." Heaps of wealth, amassed by extortion or covetousness, shall as little avail as subtlety and cunning, when God in His righteous displeasure shall punish the world by a common calamity: but justice, accompanied with mercy (as bath been observed already), will befriend him that bath constantly practiced them, and rescue him even when there is no hope of safety.
5. "The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness." Remember this (and be not nauseated at the repetition of it, for it is a weighty truth) that there is no surer guide to direct men in the plain way to safety, or any other good, than a sincere and impartial observance of all God's laws: but that the wicked shall perish by those very impious courses (of lies, breach of promises, perjuries, and oppression) whereby they think to greaten or to secure themselves.
6. "The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness." Remember it I say (for it cannot be too often inculcated) that the virtue of unfeigned and entirely upright men shall be their preservative when they are in danger: but they that are governed wholly by their own depraved desires and interests, shall be entangled and inevitably perish in their own naughty contrivances.
7. "When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth." Do not imagine therefore that they have the advantage of others, who are loose from all laws. They may seem so to have for the present; but beside what I have now said, it must be considered that death (and how suddenly doth that sometime overtake them) utterly destroys all their projects and hopes: whatsoever they expected to accomplish by their riches, or their power, or their friends, it perisheth together with them.
8. "The righteous is delivered mil of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead." Nay, before that it is frequently seen, that a just man is unexpectedly drawn out of those straits and difficulties wherein he was perplexed, and the wicked (who perhaps brought him into them) takes the place which he bath left; falling into those very distresses, from which the just is happily freed.
9. "A hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.” And more than this, a good man hath this advantage by his wisdom, that it sometimes instructs many how to evade those snares, which the profane hypocrite, with counterfeit professions of friendship; lays to destroy his neighbors.
10. "When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting.”
We see also in this how amiable virtue and how hateful! vice is, that the inhabitants of a city generally leap for joy when good men prosper and are advanced unto power: but are so far from pitying the downfall of the wicked, that they shout when they behold them tumbling from the high places to which they were raised.
The Holy Spirit makes us feel the love of the Father,
He brings as into liberty
by showing us not that we are little,
but how great God is.