-- CHAPTER VIII: Their folly is also evident from the event and issue of all their actions
content to sell their souls, and all to enjoy this world. Whereas he who made over all he had to buy the truths of salvation, that inestimable pearl, is called a wise merchant-man: Mat. 13:45, 46,
'Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant-man seeking goodly pearls: who when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.' But a fool (saith
Solomon) hath a price in his hand, and no heart to it: Prov. 17:16, 'Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?' He hath a good bargain offered him, and as it were pinned to his back, and yet passeth it by. Fools are easily cheated, and so is a man who hath no grace, by the devil. If he hath heard a sermon, and comes home with his heart full-fraught with rich pearls and treasure, and full of the precious motions of God's
Spirit, the devil comes and puts worldly cares in his head, and steals the world away, and so cheats him: Mark 4:15, 19, 'And these are they by the way-side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard,
Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts: and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.'
CHAPTER VIII:
Their folly is also evident from the event and issue of all their actions The folly of wicked men is not only manifest in their false judgment and inconsiderate choice of things, but it is clearly apparent in the event and issue of all their actions, which proves them to be fools in the end: Jer. 17:11, 'As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.'
1. He who doth all things in vain, and so that he will certainly lose all his labour, is a fool. It is for this reason the apostle gives the Galatians that title, because they went about to invalidate and frustrate all their labour in receiving and understanding the truths of the gospel, and all their pains in suffering for the sake of them: Gal.
3:1–4, 'O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath seen evidently set forth crucified among you? this only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain?' And thus do all unregenerate men, not profane ones only, who take pleasure in sin, and bring forth fruit whereof they have reason to be ashamed,—Rom. 6:21, 'What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death;'—but the best of them, who profess religion, and do many duties and suffer much for Christ, and have lamps, and seem to watch for the coming of our Lord, yet they lose the end of all their labour, and all proves vain for want of doing a little more or going on a little further. They fall away at last, wanting grace in the heart, and therefore those virgins who had not oil in their lamps, Mat. 25, are called foolish, because though they waited the bridegroom's coming, yet they had not grace nor principles in their hearts. So to those, too, who tell Christ that they did many things in his name, yet all is in vain, because they did it not to him. In vain are all your new moons and observances, says God to those in Isa. 1:13, 14, 'Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.' And themselves complain that they were diligent in their religious performances, fasted, &c., to no purpose:
Isa. 58:3, 'Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?
Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labours.' What was it rendered all their duties unavailing? Why, they
retained their old sins, which spoiled all. Such a fool was Herod, who, upon John Baptist's preaching, did many things gladly, but lost all for an Herodias. Such a fool was Jehu, who, though he had a zeal, yet spoiled all his work for want of doing a little more. Such a fool was Joash, who walked in all God's ways many years, and yet made shipwreck in the haven; and a small matter it was which turned him from following the ways of God, in which he had made so good a beginning; he was moved only by the flatteries, bowings, and cringing of his wicked courtiers to him: 2 Chron. 24:17, 18, 'Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah and made obeisance to the king: then the king hearkened unto them. And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass. 'Such fools are they too who ran in a race, and yet, for want of dieting themselves or horses, or taking a little more pains, lose it; but the apostle Paul is so wise as to take care to do his business effectually: 1 Cor. 9:24–27, 'Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain.
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things: now, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly: so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.' He also who begins to build, and is not able to finish, is called a foolish builder, for all his work and charge is but in vain. Thus those who set out fair in a profession of religion, and do many things, but go not on to perfection, of all fools they are the worst. For others, though in the issue they are wretched, mistaken fools, yet whilst they live here they enjoy the pleasures of sin, and are beloved of the world. But these forbear the most sins, and endure much at men's hands, and are hated for their profession of religion, which yet doth them no good, but proves vain in the end.
They are like those who have bestowed much cost in a sickness, and yet die at last for want of expending a little more, which would save their lives; or they resemble those, who, after having been at great charges and trouble to commence and carry on a suit at law, yet
starve their cause and lose it, because they will not be at the expense of a little more money in it.
2. He is a fool in the event, whose supposed happiness proves his misery. Thus is it with the wicked; and God, who delights to confound the pride and glory of men, makes them wise and happy the backward way, as men say of gains: Isa. 44:25, 'That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish.' God makes all their boasted knowledge foolishness; and when they use all wits and counsels to make themselves happy, misery and sorrow is the effect.
God makes their own counsels and ways to be their ruin: Prov. 5:22, 'His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.' Prov. 1:32, 'For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.' Those courses whereby they thought in their great wisdom to advance themselves are turned against them. Thus, when Jeroboam thought to secure his usurped kingdom, by setting up golden calves at Bethel, they proved his ruin: 1 Kings 12:26–30, 'And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.' Thus Ahaz, when he thought that he did right in sacrificing to the gods of Syria, acted to his destruction, as well as of all Israel: 2 Chron. 28:23, 'For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will
I sacrifice to them, that they may help me: but they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.' Men by lying and unjust dealing bring themselves into greater straits, and do but steal a card whereby to
lose the whole game. They by their own subtle wicked tricks oftentimes so besiege themselves that they cannot escape: Hos. 7:2,
'And they consider not in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about, they are before my face.' you who plot against God's ministers shall be taken in your own nets, and God will confound you, as he did all your forefathers, and your great-grandsire Satan, in all their plots. He thought by crucifying Christ to have been quiet, and that very thing proved his undoing. Thus, whilst you dig to undermine the godly, the earth falls on your own heads. The Egyptians thought themselves wise in following the Israelites through the Red Sea, for they were on foot and themselves had chariots, and so they thought that God must destroy the Israelites also if he brought the sea in. But wherein they dealt proudly and presumptuously, God was above them.
3. He who is led with vain promises is a fool that feeds himself with what is not. Now, even in matters of the world, wicked men are apt to do so. They hearken to everything but God's word, and believe anything which will pretend to shew and direct them unto a happiness here: Ps. 49:11–13, 'Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
Nevertheless, man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.' And yet thus in other things, too, they believe their own vain hearts in all that they tell them: Prov. 14:15, 'The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.' They will believe every word which makes for them, nay they will promise themselves safety, though they go on in those sins which lead apparently to ruin: Deut. 29:19, 20, 'And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that, man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.' They
will speak peace to themselves when kingdoms are a-destroying: Jer.
6:14, 'They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.' They promise themselves riches and honours, and that they will go to such a city and get wealth, when combustions are in the world, and God is bringing judgments on the earth. They promise themselves the continuance of their pleasures: Isa. 56:12, 'Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.' And for all this they will trust their own word; and then they will take any slight evidence for heaven, and believe that every good word, and any work of civility and moral good deed, give them a sufficient title to the place.
We are next to consider what effects this folly produceth in the hearts of unregenerate men, which indeed are innumerable.
1. They are ashamed of nothing. Though you expose the unreasonableness of their doings, and shew how senseless they are in all their actions, yet they care not; though you make it appear that in the whole conduct of their lives they are void of true wisdom, though you expose them dressed up in their fools' coats, yet they hare not the wit to discern it. They boast of that with which they are deservedly reproached, and make their shame their glory. Thus men will triumph in their sins, and glory in having been drunk themselves, or in having made others be. They will boast of their deceiving and going beyond others. They will glory in their oaths as a genteel accomplishment, and swear, and say they will swear. Thus they declare their sins as Sodom: Isa. 3:9, 'The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.' And what is their shame they publish as their glory, so far are they from being ashamed of those things which should cover them with blushes: Jer. 6:15, 'Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that
fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord.'
2. They are self-willed. Reason being down in them, wilfulness and obstinacy ariseth in its room. They are resolved in their lewd courses, and will be wicked only because they will: John 8:44, 'Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth [in] him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.' Prov. 2:13–15, 'Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked. Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths.'
3. They are inconstant in all their actions, and, as fools, are driven sometimes this way, sometimes the other, as every wind turns, or a various humour prevails: Eccles. 5:4, 'When thou vowest a vow unto
God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.' What in a good mood they purposed, in another humour they resolve against, and will not do it; and as it is folly to do thus, God hath no pleasure in such fools. When they have taken up purposes, they afterwards meet with some reason or other, of which they never thought, to make them alter them. They in one moment purpose to repent, to turn to God, and lead another course of life, which the next moment they forget, or mind it not. Thus as fools, semper incipiunt vivere, are always beginning to live well, but never do it, but are unstable in their ways: James 1:8, 'A doubleminded man is unstable in all his ways.'
4. Unteachableness is another property of fools. They are always unteachable; therefore it is said, Prov. 5:23, 'He shall die without instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.' Not that instruction is not given him, he dies not without it in that sense, but because he will never take it; and it is the greatness of his folly makes him do so.
It is one degree of wisdom to take good counsel, though it be a farther degree to be able to give it; therefore, Prov. 12:15, 'He that hearkeneth to counsel is wise. But a wicked man will not hearken to counsel;' not to what God says, and the word says, nor what the rod of affliction says. He knows not the meaning of blows neither (as fools and beasts do not), and therefore he is incorrigible: Prov. 17:10,
'A reproof entereth more into a wise man, than an hundred stripes into a fool.' He also is as little sensible of mercies: Deut. 32:6, 'Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people, and unwise? Is not he thy
Father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee, and established thee?' Nothing will reclaim a fool; bray him in a mortar, his folly will not depart from him.
5. Confidence in his own way is the mark of a fool. He thinks not only God's way folly, 1 Cor. 2:14, as seeing no reason of people's desiring spiritual sermons, and the sincere milk of the word, nor of all the spiritual practices godly men live in, but accounts their lives madness. But they are also confident in their own way, thinking it good: Prov. 14:16, 'A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil; but the fool rageth and is confident.' A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil; that is, seeing what will be the issue of such courses, being told of it he forbears, as David did, when Abigail met him; but a fool rageth and is confident; that is, is distempered in his passion, and resolute in what he will do, and goes on; for it is said at the twelfth verse, 'There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.' Persecuting Paul is therefore said to be mad against the church, i. e. confident as mad men are; and madness is but the excess of folly.
6. Fools still follow their own minds as their guides in all they do; for wisdom being wanting, which should be the guide, they must needs follow the next principle in them, which is their lusts and desires; and look what they have a mind to do, that they will do, and will please themselves in all, and are unable to deny themselves, for they want reason to put into the balance something that might overrule their passion. Therefore, all the delight of a fool is to discover his