Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Proverbs
Book: Proverbs
Chapter: 7
Overview:
Invitations to learn
Wisdom.
(1-5) The arts of seducers, with
warnings against them.
(6-27)
1-5 We must lay up
God's
Commandments safely. Not only, Keep
them, and you shall live; but, Keep them as those that cannot
live without them. Those that blame strict and careful walking
as needless and too precise, consider not that the
Law is to be
kept as the
Apple of the
Eye; indeed the
Law in the
Heart is the
Eye of the soul. Let the
Word of God Dwell in us, and
So be
written where it will be always at
Hand to be read. Thus we
shall be kept from the fatal effects of our own passions, and
the snares of
Satan. Let
God's
Word confirm our dread of
Sin,
and resolutions against it.
6-27 Here is an affecting
Example of the danger of youthful
lusts. It is a history or a
Parable of the most instructive
kind. Will any one dare to venture
On temptations that lead to
impurity, after
Solomon has set before his eyes in
So lively and
Plain a manner, the danger of even going near them? Then is he
as the
Man who would
Dance On the edge of a lofty
Rock, when he
has just seen another fall headlong from the same place. The
misery of self-ruined sinners began in disregard to
God's
blessed commands. We ought daily to pray that we may be kept
from running into
Temptation, else we invite the enemies of our
souls to spread snares for us. Ever avoid the neighbourhood of
vice. Beware of sins which are said to be pleasant sins. They
are the more dangerous, because they most easily gain the
Heart,
and close it against
Repentance. Do nothing till thou hast
Well
considered the
End of it. Were a
Man to live as long as
Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights
Sin can offer, one
Hour of the anguish and
Tribulation that must
follow, would far outweigh them.