Proverbs 17

The heart is ever best when it is serious; but this seriousness in religion must be mixed with cheerfulness. Cheerfulness conduces to health (Proverbs 17:22), it honors religion, it proclaims to the world we serve a good master. Cheerfulness is a friend to grace, it puts the hea…

But vain thoughts hinder the comfort of an ordinance, as a black cloud hides the warm comfortable beams of the sun from us. Will God speak peace to us when our minds are wandering, and our thoughts are traveling to the ends of the earth (Proverbs 17:24)? If ever you would hear t…

If this be so, then God justifies wicked men; but God will not do so: it is against the nature of his holiness and Justice. And again, he that justifies the wicked, is abominable to God, Proverbs 17:15. Therefore God will not do so himself.

And it may be the end of this custom was, to increase the solemnity of the feast. But whatever in truth the end was, the fact itself was but a profanation of the time, and an abomination before the Lord: for Solomon says, He that justifies the wicked, and condemns the just, even…

And it is a mercy if we have any friends that are wise, faithful, and experienced. They are born for such a time as this (Proverbs 17:17). But be they what they will, they cannot pity as God, relieve and succor as he.

Hell and destruction are before the Lord, how much more than the hearts of the children of men. He that can read hell, and destruction, and all the secrets of darkness, can also read, as a book opened at noon-day, the midnight-thoughts of all the children of men (Psalm 44:21; Je…

For he died for his enemies, and so loved his neighbor more than himself. Thirdly, God is not only a justifier, but also just in justifying (Romans 3:26), because he justifies none but such as bring to him a true and perfect justice, either in themselves, or in their Mediator (P…

He illustrates this by a similitude, when he says, that their bones should receive new force and vigor, even as dead herbs wax green, after winter. Now he speaks of the bones, which become withered with sorrow, as Solomon says (Proverbs 17:22): as on the contrary, joy is wont to…

Many friends will come and rejoice with you, they will come to a feast with you, they will meet at a house of mirth with you; but they fall off and go back; when they must weep with you, when if they come, they must come to a house of mourning. Solomon (Proverbs 17:17) gives us…

6. It is a notable and singular consolation for folks to have Christ their friend — it is comfortable in life, death, and judgment, in prosperity and adversity. It implies these things in which he is forthcoming to his friends: 1. Constant kindness and faithfulness at all times;…

For those who act in the violence and paroxysms of their anger, do either they know not what, or else what they may have reason to repent of. And therefore Solomon tells us, that the discretion of a man defers his anger (Proverbs 19:11), and the beginning of strife is as when on…

Oh, what a confounding question will that be one day? (Proverbs 17:16) Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he has no heart to it? Observe it, God takes a strict account of our helps, and of our hoard, and expects a due proportion.

2. Is not this emptiness of good a dreadful sign of rejection? Solomon says, He that has a froward heart finds no good: nothing does him good, word, nor rod; but he says, the heart of the prudent gets knowledge (Proverbs 17:20; Proverbs 18:15); may not you sadly fear judicial ha…

But because of the opposition that there is in our corrupt hearts to this, as to other the graces of the Holy Spirit, I shall endeavor more particularly to show the excellency of it, that we may be brought, if possible, to be in love with it, and to submit our souls to the charm…

Reprehension is a kind of middle thing between admonition and correction: it is a sharp admonition, but a mild correction. It is the rather to be used because it may be a means to prevent strokes and blows, especially in ingenuous, and good natured children (for a reproof enters…

This comes either from a scornful, disdainful stomach (for a scorner hears not rebuke) or from a base, servile, stupid, blockish, brutish nature, that is not moved with any smart or pain, like a restive jade that will not stir though he be whipped or beaten never so much. Solomo…

Thirdly, it cannot be genuine upright goodness that has its dependence upon the goodness of others that are about us; that as they say of the vainglorious man, his virtue lies in the beholder's eye, if your meekness and charity be such as lies in the good and mild carriage of ot…

A sermon (No. 899) delivered on Lord's Day morning, November seventh, 1869, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, by C. H. Spurgeon. "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." —Proverbs 17:17. There is one thing about the usefulness of which all me…

Sinner, again I say the door is open; run to the mercy of God in Christ and be safe. Portion of Scripture read before sermon— Proverbs 17.

Psalm 15:3: when an inhabitant of Zion is described, it is said, he that receives not a report, and takes it not up against his neighbor. So (Proverbs 17:14): a wicked doer gives heed to false lips, and a liar gives ear to a wicked tongue. It is not only a point of wickedness to…

Promises, oaths, covenants all broken; and therefore so many jealousies, because so much lying; all trust is lost among us. This lying is always ill, but especially in magistrates, men of public place (Proverbs 17:7): Lying lips become not a prince. So ministers (Romans 9:1): I…

Some dress up themselves in such vain attire and indecent fashions to draw the eyes of others to gaze upon them; this is a great affront to God's worship. Solomon says (Proverbs 17:24): "The fool's eyes are to the ends of the earth." One cause of distraction is the curiosity of…

It is hard to say which is worse, railing, or receiving (Psalm 15:3). A Citizen of Zion is described to be one that takes not up a reproach against his neighbor, and you shall see on the contrary (Proverbs 17:4): "A wicked doer gives heed to false lips: and a liar gives heed to…

A case of conscience may be proposed: How could David be comforted by God's judgments, for it seems a barbarous thing to delight in the destruction of any? It is said (Proverbs 17:5): "He that is glad of calamities shall not be unpunished." Answer 1. It must be remembered that j…

As iron sharpens iron, so does a man the countenance of his friend. When a man is dull, his friend puts an edge upon him, he is a mighty support and stay to us (Proverbs 17:17). A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

As a leathern sack long hung up in a smoking chimney, so was he dried up, and shriveled, and wrinkled, by long continued troubles and adversity. We are told, Proverbs 17:22, that a merry heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. A cheerful heart helps…

It is true, there is a time to speak, as there is to be silent (and happy they that improve it well) but yet it is seldom that a multitude of words are without sin; and therefore he that refrains his lips is wise (Proverbs 10:19). Silence discovers wisdom, and conceals ignorance…

I proceed. 3 To show man's folly, as to non- or ill-improvement of means, when made known in truth and clearness; though the will of God as to worship be revealed, yet sin makes men fools still, either in this that they use not, or in this, that they make an ill use of the revel…

4 Sin is against the quiet of a man's natural conscience, for it wounds the spirit, and makes it intolerable; a wounded spirit who can bear (Proverbs 18:14)? While that is sound and whole, all infirmities are more easily borne, but when that is broken, the supports fail: and thi…

A wise man will not meddle with strife; it is like putting one's finger into a hornets' nest. Or to use Solomon's simile (Proverbs 17:14): the beginning of strife is as when one lets out water. To set out the folly of strife, it is like letting out water in two respects.

Now says God, I shall lose my child if I do not correct him; then God in love smites, that he may save; Aristotle speaks of a bird that lives among thorns, yet sings sweetly; God's children make the best melody in their heart, when God hedges their way with thorns (Hosea 2:14).…

If you endure chastenings, God deals with you as with sons. God had one Son without sin, but no son without stripes: Afflictions are refining (Proverbs 17:3). The fining pot is for silver; and the furnace for gold.

2. Propos. When the Lord tries the man, he tries the heart and the reins (Proverbs 15:11). Hell and the heart both are naked before him (Proverbs 17:3). Theodoret. God acts the noon-day sun meridionaliter in every heart: the man himself is without, and God within (Jeremiah 17:9).

13:18. Proverbs 17:15. To shew or declare one righteous; to appear righteous; to judge any one righteous.

8th Commandment: You shall not steal. He breaks this commandment: who lives in no calling (1 Thessalonians 3:11); who neglects his calling (Jeremiah 48:10); who spends his wealth in riot and provides not for his family (1 Timothy 5:8); who is not content with his estate but seek…

Christ is sent to bind up those that are broken in will or heart: the Hebrew will include both (Proverbs 15:31). He that listens to reproof, gets a heart, possesses his heart — so Vatablus — the meek spirit which in obedience submits to rebukes, possesses his heart, and possesse…

And here it is not to be expected, nor indeed can it be performed by any man, to reckon up the several particularities of all those vain thoughts which run through man's heart; I will insist only on some more general discoveries, to which particulars may be reduced, for a taste…