Secondly, That he is a teacher and approver of worldly maxims. Thirdly, That he is of course an enemy to perfect righteouf nefs in men, through CHRIST JESUS, and, therefore, no friend to CHRIST: And, therefore, that no one ought to be deluded. by the falle doctrine he advances, to beguile the innocent, and deceive, if poffible, even the elect. I. To come at the true sense of the text in question, it will be neceffary to look back, to the preceding verfe, where the wife man, reflecting on the vanities of his youth, puts on for a moment his former character. "All things, have I seen in the days of my vanity: (and among the reft) there is a just man that perifheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongeth his life in his wickedness." Now it is very plain, that he is not here talking of a man, who is righteous over-much, in the Doctor's manner of understanding the words, that is, "faulty, and criminal by excefs." For on one fide he commends him for being a juft man, and full of righteousness, and yet on the other tells us, that his righteousness is the shortening of his life. Whereas, had he looked upon his perifhing in righteoufnefs to be an over-righteousness, he would never have called him a just man. Neither by a wicked man, can he mean a man given up to the utmost excess of wickedness, fince he tells us, that he prolongeth his life in for by) his wickednefs. Who does not know, that the excess of almoft every kind of vice, is of itself a fhortener of life. So that the whole oppofition and contrast lies between a good man, and a bad man. A good man whofe goodness fhortens his life, a bad man whose iniquity lengthens his life, or at leaft is not exceffive enough to fhorten the thread of it. Solomon, abforbed in these reflections, fpeaks here by way of profopopeia, not the fenfe of Solomon, the experienced, the learned, the wife; but of the former Solomon, a vain young fellow, full of felf-love, and the ftrong defires of life. In the quality of fuch a one then, he looks with the fame eye upon the righteous man, who perifhes in his righteoufnefs, as he would on a wicked one, who fhould perish in his wickedness. For it is neither the righteoufness of the one, nor the wickedness of the other, that offends him, but the fuperlative degrees of both; VOL. V. K which which tending equally to fhorten life, he looks upon them as equally oppofite to the self-love he fondles within him. And, therefore, he deems an excefs of debauchery as great an enemy to the lasting enjoyment of the pleasures of life, as an extraordinary righteoufnefs would be. Well then might he say to the latter, in this character, "Be not over-much wicked, neither be thou foolish; why fhouldst thou die before thy time?" And to the former: "Be not righteous over-much, neither make thy felf over-wife: Why shouldst thou deftroy thyfelf?" What wonder then, that a youth of sprightlinefs and fenfe, but led away by felf-love to be fond of the pleasures and enjoyments of life, when attained without hurry, and poffeffed without risk; what wonder, I fay, that fuch a youth should conceive an equal diflike to the fuperlative degrees of virtue and vice, and, therefore, advife fuch of his companions as give into the excess of debauchery, to refrain from it: as it must infallibly tend to clog their understandings, ftupify their fenfes, and entail upon their conftitutions a train of infirmities, which cannot but debilitate their natural vigour, and fhorten their days? Be not over-much wicked, neither be thou foolish: Why shouldst thou die before thy time?" What wonder, that the fame felf-love fhould prompt him to diffuade fuch of his friends or acquaintance, as he wishes to have for companions, and countenancers of his worldly-minded purfuits, from purfuing righteousness and wisdom to a degree that must destroy in them all tafte of earthly pleasures, and may poffibly impair their conftitutions, and forward their end?" Be not righteous over-much, neither make thyself overwise: Why shouldst thou destroy thyself?" This is the fenfe in which Solomon (placing himself in the ftate of vanity of his youth) speaks to the one, and the other: to the righteous, and to the ungodly. This is the true, genuine fenfe of the letter; and every other fenfe put upon it, is falfe and groundless, and wrested rather to pervert than explain the truth of the text. O chriftian fimplicity, whither art thou fled? Why will not the clergy fpeak truth? And why muft this falfe prophet fuffer thy people, O LORD, to believe a lye? they have held the truth in unrighteoufnefs. Raife up, I beseech thee, O LORD, fome true paftors, who may acquaint them them with the nature and neceffity of perfect righteousness, and lead them to that love of chriftian perfection which the angry-minded, pleasure-taking Doctor Trapp, labours to divert them from, by teaching, that "all chriftians must have to do "with fome vanities." Is not the meaning of this text plain to the weakest capacity? I have here given it to you, as I have it from the mouth of the royal preacher himself. I have made ufe of no "philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after CHRIST," to impose a fleshly fenfe upon you, for the fenfe of the word of God. No, I have given you a natural expofition, obvious from the very words themselves. Hence you may fee, my fellow-ftrugglers in righteousness, how grofly our angry adverfary is mistaken in his explanation of this text. LORD open his eyes, and touch his heart; and convert him, and all those erring miề nifters, who have seen vain and foolish things for thy people, and have not discovered their iniquity, to turn away thy captivity. For they have erred through wine, and through ftrong drink are out of the way: The priest and the prophet have erred through ftrong drink, they are fwallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through ftrong drink, they err in vifion, they ftumble in judgment. It is plain from the words of the text, that the royal Preacher was fpeaking in the perfon of a vain worldling, when he faid, "Be not righteous over-much;" whereby he meant to exhort the truly righteous not to be dismayed, terrified, or difturbed from their conftant purfuit of greater and greater perfection of righteousness, until they reft in CHRIST; notwithstanding the derifion, fleshly perfuafion; ill-treatment and perfecution of worldly men: Who, one day, repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit, shall say within themselves, "These were they whom we had sometime in derifion, and a proverb of reproach. We fools, accounted their lives madness; and their end to be without honour. How are they numbered among the children of GoD, and their lot is among the faints !" How blind then is the application (not to fay perverse) which this felf-wife clergyman makes from the text, to fuch as, following the advice of the apoftle, (Coloff. iii. 2.) "fet "their K2 ** their affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Must haftiness in anger get the better of fenfe and truth? Muft the people be mifled because the paftor cannot, or will not fee? Or muft the injunction of CHRIST, "Be perfect, even as your Father, who is in heaven, is perfect," give place to the maxim of the heathen Tully: The greateft reproach to a philofopher, is to confute his doctrine by his practice; if this be the cafe, alas, what a deplorable, unspeakably deplorable condition is that of fome chriftians! Wherefore, thus faith the LORD concerning the prophets who make his people to err, that bite with their teeth and cry peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him: therefore night shall be unto you, that ye fhall not have a vision, and it shall be dark unto you, that ye fhall not divine, and the fun fhall go down over the prophets, and the day hall be dark over them. But I will leave thefe lovers of darkness, and turn to you, O beloved, elect of GOD! I befeech you, by the bowels of CHRIST, fuffer not yourselves to be deceived by their flattering, fin-foothing fpeeches. Be not of that rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the LORD who fay to the feers, fee not; and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, fpeak unto us fmooth things, prophefy deceits." Follow not thofe, who flatter you in the vanities they practife themselves. O may you never be of the number of those, in the perfon of whom Solomon here fays, "Be not righteous over-much :" for their character is the character of the beast. II. The character of the perfons, who are to be fuppofed Speaking here in the text, is in a word the fame with the character of thofe whom Solomon here perfonates: who, as is already fhewn, are a vain fet of men, neither righteous enough to have an habitual defire of improving virtue to its perfection, nor quite fo flagitious as to give into self-destroying vices in a word, they are felf-lovers, the fole end of whose pursuits, whether indifferent, bad, or laudable in themfelves, is felf-enjoyment. Infomuch that they look upon virtue and vice, righteousness and wickedness, with the fame eye, and their fondness or averfion for both is alike, as their different different degrees appear to be the means to enhance and prolong the enjoyment of pleasure, or to leffen and fhorten those pleafures. Thus any virtue, while it is kept within fuch bounds as may render it fubfervient to the pleasurable degrees of vice, will meet with no oppofition from them; on the contrary, they will even commend it. But the moment it becomes a restraint to vice in moderation (if I may be allowed to make use of terms adequate to their fyftem) from that moment it gives offence, and they put in their caveat, "Be not righteous over-much." In like manner, vice, while confined to certain limits, which rather improve than obstruct pleafures, is with them a defirable good; but no fooner does it launch out into any depth, fufficient to drown and diminish the relifh of thofe pleasures, than they declare open war against it; "Be not over-much wicked." And the reason they affign for their oppofition in both cafes, is the fame: "why shouldst thou destroy thyself? Why fhouldft thou die before thy time?" Such is the prudence of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Such the maxims of thefe refined libertines, fo much the more dangerous as they are less obvious; so much the more infinuating, as they are removed from certain extravagancies capable of fhocking every man who has the least fenfe and delicacy. O, LORD, how true is it, that the fons of darkness are wifer in their generation than the sons of light! You are not then, beloved in the LORD, to imagine that your greatest oppofition, in struggling for perfect righteousness, is to come from profligates, from men whose enormous vices create horror even to themselves: no, your most dangerous, most formidable enemies, are the kind of men I have painted to you, who render vice relishable with a mixture of apparent virtue, and cloath wickedness in the apparel of righteousness: "Beware of them, for they come to you in the cloathing of heep, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." This perverse generation will enfnare you into ungodliness, by feeming oppofitions to vice, and allow you to fwallow the feemings of virtue and righteousness like an emetic, only to puke forth the reality of them. They paint black, white, and the white they convert into black. Not content with feeming what they are not, they labour to make you, what |