-- CHAPTER IX: The uses of the preceding doctrine
heart; he poureth it out, for he follows his own heart in all his actions: Prov. 15:2, 'The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright; but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.' Prov. 18:2, 'A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.' He hath no delight in understanding but to discover his heart; that is, to follow his own human inventions. Therefore fools are always self-willed, and so are wicked men also. They follow their lusts in all, and are unable to deny themselves of petty foolish desires; in matters of greatest consequence for the church or place he lives in, he will not deny himself a petty desire and end; that is, a foolish one, and which he himself is ashamed to manifest to others, shall sway him more than a thousand persuasions and reasons. They will rather hazard kingdoms, their estates and families, than not have their will and lusts, as their malice on a man they hate, &c. That foolish king would rather lose his kingdom, life and all, than submit to the king of Babel; because, forsooth, the Jews would mock him; and how many hazard their souls upon the same ground? So Herod values it not to out John Baptist's head off, and what was his reason?
A foolish one; his oath's sake, and for their sakes about him. Fools are also self-willed, for, reason being down, will is up; so 1 Tim. 6:9,
'But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.' They will be rich, and so commit many foolish lusts; run into base ways of saving or getting money ridiculous to all that know them. The lusts of their father they will do: 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.' Did they but follow reason as their guide, their wills might be wrought off; but they follow their lusts, and so are obstinate in their ways.
CHAPTER IX:
The uses of the preceding doctrine That all men should examine themselves, whether the signs of this folly are not in them, and consider the misery and danger of such a condition.—How we are to become wise Use 1. The first use is to all men in the estate of nature, that they would try and examine themselves by all that hath been spoken, whether they do not find in themselves hitherto all want of this true wisdom, and hitherto to have been fools. Let this be the beginning of wisdom in you, and the first fruit of it, to consider your estates, which fools do not; and you that never yet knew yourselves to be unregenerate, but your ways are right in your own eyes, of all fools you are the worst. There is more hope of a fool than of such, as Solomon says, Prov. 26:12, 'Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.'
1. Consider the misery of that condition; for whilst thou art in it, God can take no pleasure in thee; he delights not in thee: 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.' God hath no pleasure in fools, and therefore will not communicate himself nor his secrets, nor give his Son in marriage to them, unless they become wiser; for who that is wise would keep company with a fool, or marry a fool, or tell his mind to a fool?
2. Consider the danger of being in that estate, and of dying a fool.
Know that whilst thou art such thou canst never enter into heaven, and hast no portion in that inheritance there; for fools inherit not, neither by God's laws nor man's; and though you hope to go to heaven as well as the best, yet this conceit of yours puts you but into a fool's paradise, for heaven is a paradise was never made for fools.
Honour is not seemly for a fool, says Solomon: Prov. 26:1, 'As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest: so honour is not seemly for a fool,' much less is heaven, and to be a king, seemly for him. That is not all;
but if thou art a fool, hell and destruction is a-preparing for thee, and thou art fit for nothing else: Prov. 26:3, 'A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.' That is fitter for him than honour; hell than heaven; nay, God will, instead of delighting in thee, rejoice and laugh at thy destruction: Prov. 1:22–26, 'How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold,
I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;' as thou didst make sin a sport, God will make thy torment a sport to him.
Use 2. Of direction how thou art to become wise.
1. Apprehend and acknowledge that thou art a fool, 1 Cor. 3:18; that is the first lesson wisdom teacheth a man, that so he may be wise.
Apprehend thy condition; go not on as a fool, gaping and being careless, and thinking thy ways right when they are not. What says
Agur, a wise man, when converted? Prov. 30:2, 'Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.'
And so Paul, for all his wit and learning, confesseth that he was foolish in all his ways; that all his ways were folly: Titus 3:3, 'For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.'
2. Go to God to give thee wisdom to turn thy heart: if any man lack wisdom, let him go to God for it: James 1:5, 'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.'
3. Go to God in Christ, and for Christ, who is made wisdom to us as well as all other things: 1 Cor. 1:30, 'But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption': therefore, Isa. 9:6, he is called 'the mighty Counsellor.' As we became fools in Adam, so we must recover our wits by Christ, and by being born of him; and it is of all cures the greatest to cure one who is born a fool; therefore go to Christ, for none else can do it.
4. Turn to the wisdom of the just. Luke 1:17, it is said, that John turned men to the wisdom of the just: 'And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.' Do thou turn to the wisdom of the just, i. e. frame thy opinions according to the word, and the opinion of holy men; lean not to thy own wisdom and carnal understanding, thereby to judge of the ways of God, or trust not to the opinions of carnal man; but come in, and submit thy judgment to the wisdom of God, and of good men. He that is a fool begins then to be wise, when he, apprehending himself to be a fool, will listen to what wisdom speaks. Frame, then, thy judgment of the work of grace, and of holiness, and of the worth of grace; and what the way to heaven is, by what God says, and what thou seest wise, and holy men profess and practice. What says God? Isa. 8:19, 20, 'And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.' Do thou go to the law and to the testimony, and lean to the commandment; think upon all occasions, and in all straits, My wisdom is to stick close to it, and if I go astray, it is the greatness of my folly. Those ways carnal reason sees no reason for, yet do thou take God's judgments for them, and bring every thought into the obedience of Christ. Know that the Scriptures are only able to make thee wise unto salvation; take, then, their counsel, as David did: Ps. 119:24, 'Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.' Take God's judgment in what is best for thee; if he will have thee poor, be content: lean not to thy own wisdom, as Solomon says, Prov. 3:5, 'Trust in the Lord with all thine heart: and lean not