Proverbs 14:6 A scorner seeks wisdom, and finds it not: but knowledge is easy to him that understands. I. WHO IS REPRESENTED HERE UNDER THE CHARACTER OF SCORNER? Scorners were men who, with much ado, had made a shift to get rid of good principles, and such stiff opinions as they found inconsistent with a loose practice. As they had not any religion themselves, so their way was to despise those who had. The scorner is said to "seek wisdom" and "not to find it" He pretends to know more, to have made freer inquiries after truth, and to have shaken off the prejudices of education more thoroughly than other people. II. IN WHAT SENSE HE CANNOT FIND WISDOM. Four things unfit such a man for impartial inquiries after Divine truth — a very proud, or a very suspicious temper, false wit, or sensuality. The two last generally belong to him; but the two first are essential to him, and inseparable from him. There is no quality that sticks more closely to a scorner than pride, and nothing more evidently obstructs right reasoning. Suspicion makes him doubt everything he hears and distrust every man he converses with. An extremity of suspicion in an inquirer after truth is like a raging jealousy in a husband or a friend; it leads a man to turn all his thoughts towards the ill-natured side, and to put the worst construction upon everything. False wit is a way of exposing things sacred and serious, by passing a bold jest upon them and ridiculing arguments instead of comforting them. The sensual man is, of all men living, the most improper for inquiries after truth and the least at leisure for it. He is never sedate and cool, disinterested and impartial. (Bp. Atterbury.) Parallel Verses KJV: A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.WEB: A scoffer seeks wisdom, and doesn't find it, but knowledge comes easily to a discerning person. |
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