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Pro_15:32 He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.
Ver. 32. He that refuseth instruction, despiseth his own soul.] Is a sinner against his own soul, as Korah and his complices were, and sets as light by it as if it were not worth looking after. Oh! is it nothing to lose an immortal soul, to purchase an ever-living death? Wilt thou destroy that for which Christ died? {1Co_8:11} What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? There is no great matter in the earth but man, nothing great in man but his soul, said Faverinus. "Whose image and superscription is it" but God’s? "Give," therefore, "unto God the things that are God’s," by delivering it up to his discipline.
But he that heareth reproof, getteth understanding.] Heb., Possesseth his heart. This is like that sentence of our blessed Saviour, "In your patience possess ye your souls." {Luk_21:19} They have need of patience that must hear reproof; for man is a cross creature, and likes not to be controlled or contraried. "But suffer," saith that great apostle, "the words of exhortation"; suffer them in God’s name, sharp though they be, and set on with some more than ordinary earnestness. Better it is that the vine should bleed than die. Sinite virgam corripientem, ne sentitatis malleum conterentem. Certes, "when the Lord shall have done to you according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning you, and hath brought you to his kingdom, this shall be no grief unto you or offence of heart," as he said in a like case, {1Sa_25:30-31} that you have hearkened to instruction, and been bettered by reproof.