The truly blessed man, or, The way to be happy here, and forever being…

VERSE 9. Be ye not as the horse and mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

IN these words the Psalmist cautions us to beware how we receive the teachings offered us: or we may look upon them to be the teaching it self, so that having offered it, he now applies it by way of caution; the thing he adviseth to, is the ready way to experimental teaching, the advice given is a dehortation, including the contrary affirmative in it. The sin he cautions against is Contumacy, or Unteachableness under the means; and the duty insinuated is Mansuetude, or a pliableness of spirit, rendering us ready to receive instruction, and correction, with humble submission. He illustrates it by a similitude taken from the Horse and Mule: as the words give a description of the contumacious frame, so they include the most pungent arguments against it.

IN these words the Psalmist cautions us to beware how we receive the teachings offered us: or we may look upon them to be the teaching it self, so that having offered it, he now applies it by way of caution; the thing he adviseth to, is the ready way to experimental teaching, the advice given is a dehortation, including the contrary affirmative in it. The sin he cautions against is Contumacy, or Unteachableness under the means; and the duty insinuated is Mansuetude, or a pliableness of spirit, rendring us ready to receive instruction, and correction, with humble submission. He illustrates it by a similitude taken from the Horse and Mule: as the words give a description of the contumacious frame, so they include the most pungent arguments against it.