If the eyes of these pests of society were not altogether shut, they would see that a man's life depends not on the abundance of his wealth. In their own hands it becomes a sword to slay its owner; and can they anticipate comfort in that ill-gotten wealth which has proved fatal to its honest possessor?

We must therefore flee from unrighteousness, and stand at a distance from the way of sin. Every one that would tempt us to evil, is to be looked upon as a factor for Satan.

Sinners are addressed, through the remaining part of this chapter, by Wisdom herself, who speaks to men in solemn and awful language.

Ver. 20, 21. Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets. She crieth in the chief places of concourse, in the opening of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words, saying,

How can wisdom cry? Is not wisdom a quality, and not a person? Wisdom cries to men when God speaks to them, for he is the fountain of wisdom. The words of men may be wise, but when God speaks, Wisdom itself addresses us. He opens his mouth in infinite wisdom, and speaks to us by him who is the Word and Wisdom of God. He who despiseth that wisdom which is from above, despiseth the Father and the Son, and brands with the imputation of folly the emanations of unsearchable wisdom.

Wisdom desires to be heard, and therefore speaks not in secret; she whispers not in the ears of a few favourites, but in the public places of resort, she proclaims to every one that will listen her interesting truths. She crieth without, in every place where a crowd is likely to be collected, in the streets, in the chief place of concourse, in the gates, the place of judgment, and in every part of the city.

No disobedient sinner can make a valid excuse for

his conduct. The voice of wisdom is heard every where. It sounds from the pulpit. From every creature it is heard *. The word is in our very hearts, and conscience echoes the voice to our souls.

us go where we will, fully shut our ears.

Let

we must hear it, unless we wilAnd what does she say?

Ver. 22. How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity, and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge!

'Had I a mountain for a pulpit, and a voice capable of reaching to the ends of the world, (said a venerable father), I would preach on that text, "O ye sons of men, how long will ye love vanity?" Wisdom proclaims the like words to all the world as far as her voice is heard.

If persons ruin themselves by their folly, it will be no excuse to them that they were cheated by the great deceiver. Who will excuse Eve for hearkening to the voice of the serpent, or Adam for hearkening to the voice of his wife, in opposition to the voice of God? The simpleton and the fool are justly condemned, because they love simplicity and hate knowledge. So strongly are they bent upon their foolish courses, that every suggestion of the devil meets with a cheerful compliance. Sin is loved with the whole heart, and those truths which might be the means of salvation, are the objects of extreme aversion.

Many are so mad upon their idols, that they take pleasure in scoffing at holiness, and at the preachers and professors of it; some run to such a pitch in wickedness as to jest with the word of the Most High, though safer far it were to sport with fire and death.

Were the Physician of souls like earthly physicians, he would leave such creatures to pine away in their sins till their obstinacy terminate in eternal death. But

*Job xii. 7, 8.

O how merciful is he! He is in earnest with them when he urges them to admit of his salutary medicines. It is a grief to him that they will not come to him for health. He cries to them,

Ver. 23. Turn ye at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto

you.

The lovers of folly must turn or perish; for Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour from sin and wrath, but he will deliver none to continue in abominations: " Except ye repent, ye shall all perish.”

The lovers of sin, and those that delight in scorning, are graciously called by him to turn,-a plain evidence that there is pardoning and saving mercy for these worst of sinners *. Even scoffers at religion are among the number of those sinners whom the Son of Man called to repentance, when he came to seek and to save the lost.

Such profligates have for the most part an intention to turn from their evil ways at some future but indefinite period; but if they turn not at present, they refuse to hear the voice of wisdom. "Turn ye," says the Wisdom of God," at my reproof." "To day," says the Spirit, "if ye will hear my voice, harden not your

hearts." We harden our hearts when we intend to take our pleasure in sin to-day, though we resolve to hear the voice of God to-morrow.

The reproof of wisdom is a means of alarming us, and of impressing our souls with a sense of the necessity of turning. If we harden our hearts against these reproofs while they are sounding in our ears, the impression is not likely to be deeper or stronger when the bustle and noise of the world have helped us to forget the awful admonition.

Isa. lv. 7.

It is at the reproof of the word of God that we are called to turn. It is brutish for a son to despise the reproof of a parent. It is devilish for a creature to despise the reproof of its Creator. It is a sin which devils could never commit, for a guilty creature to shut his ears against the reproof of a Saviour, who addresses us in earnest and affectionate language, and calls us to turn our feet from the paths of death.

But how can fools turn?-Are they not infatuated by sin ?—are not their affections possessed with the love of it?" Behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you," says the Saviour. By his influences you shall be enabled to understand my words, and to comply with them.-Let not sinners imagine that it will excuse them to say, they had no ability to repent. They were not called to turn by any power of their own, but in the strength of divine grace. They were unwilling, and therefore unable. Their sins were so dear to them, that they disliked the reproofs of Christ, and resisted his Spirit. Our Lord does not make a jest of the lovers of sin, when he calls them to turn. His words do good even to sinners, or the fault is their own *.

Do we then feel the necessity of turning, and yet an unconquerable aversion to it in our hearts? Let us plead for the abundant communications of the enlightening and renewing Spirit. If persons are made heartily willing to submit to his influence, it is a happy presage that he will be granted, or rather a sign that he has already begun to work †.

But there are many so foolishly devoted to sin, that they reject the counsel of God, and instead of welcom ing the good Spirit, resist his motions till they provoke him to depart. The doom of such persons will be very terrible, but very just.

John v.

40. Matt. xxiii. 37.

Jer. xxxi. 18. 19. 20.

Ver. 24-27. 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; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

Do none then, or next to none, regard the admonitions of wisdom? Strange. Are men enemies to themselves? are they in love with destruction? Is it their joy to please the devil, and to cross the benevolent intentions of a Saviour? Was the devil crucified for them? or do they think the burnings of eternity, and the pain of condemnation, more tolerable than the tears of repentance or the self-denial which Jesus pre

scribes ?

John's disciples complained to him, that all men went after Jesus, but John complained that so few believed his report: "No man receiveth his testimony." How wonderful is that grace, which continues to deal with men when it is so ungratefully despised!

The sin of unbelief and impenitence is exceeding great. Various are the forms of expression by which in the passage before us the wickedness of it is intimated, and the offence which it gives to him who comes in the name of the Lord to save us, pointed out. It is a refusal of divinely gracious offers and advices; a disregard of the most earnest importunities of the wisdom of God; a sovereign contempt of all the counsel of that wonderful Counsellor who is given to be the leader and commander of the people; a stubborn opposition of the will to the most needful and salutary reproof. Hear, O ye heavens, and be horribly afraid! Rational creatures rebel against the Father of spirits. Diseased sinners scorn the great Physician, and refuse to accept of that sovereign cure for all their maladies,