All the philosophy and politics in the world will not restore the corrupt nature of
man to its primitive rectitude – we find the insufficiency of them both in others and
in ourselves. Learning will not alter men’s natural tempers, nor cure them of their
sinful distempers nor will it change the constitution of things in the world – a vale of
tears it is and so it will be when all is done. He never intended this world for our
rest, and therefore never appointed us to take our ease in it. This travail is given to
us to make us weary of the world and desirous of the remaining rest. It is given to
us that we may be kept in action, and may always have something to do for we
were none of us sent into the world to be idle. Every change cuts us out some new
work, which we should be more solicitous about, than the event.
A good man, how calamitous a condition soever he is in in this world, cannot have
cause to wish he had never been born, since he is glorifying the Lord even in the
fires, and will be happy at last, forever happy. Nor ought any to wish so while they
are alive, for while there is life there is hope. A man is never undone till he is in hell.
The calamities of the righteous are preparing them for their future blessedness,
and the wicked, while their days are prolonged, are but ripening for ruin. There is a
judgement to come, which will rectify this seeming irregularity, to the glory of God
and the full satisfaction of all his people, and we must wait with patience till then.
Gracious souls press through crowds of other delights and contentments in pursuit
of Christ, whom they prefer before their chief joy.
The design of the gospel, and the grace of it, is to break the yoke of sin and Satan,
to remove the burden of guilt and corruption, and to free us from the rod of those
oppressors that we might be brought into the glorious liberty of the children of
God.
– Various quotes from Matthew Henry’s Commentary (1710)