There is no less a secret of godliness than there is of any other trade or profession. Many profess an art or a trade, but thrive not by it because they possess not the secret or mystery of it, and many profess godliness but are little the better for it, because they have not the true secret of it. He hath that with whom God is in secret in his heart, and he that is righteous in secret where no man sees him, he is the righteous man with whom the secret of the Lord is.--_Jernim._ They shall be of His cabinet council who choose rather to lie in the dust than to rise by evil arts, by wicked principles.--_Trapp._ Verse 33. Whatever cost be there, there can be no true cheer, for God's curse mars all; this will either rot the timber, and pull it down, or undermine the foundation, and blow it up. Possibly there may be in thy house a loving wife, loving children, many servants, stately rooms, costly furniture, dainty fare, great earthly delights; but, man, the curse of God is there. A spoonful of this, like copperas, will turn all thy wine into ink; thy sea of honey into gall and wormwood. How can thy sweetest dish be savoury, when the curse of God is thy sauce: Or thy finest raiment delight thee when in every suit there is the curse of God like a plague-sore? or how can thy most beautiful building content thee, when this curse of God on thee for thy wickedness turns it into a prison to keep thee, who art in the bond of iniquity, till the hour of death, the time of thine execution?--_Swinnock._ The houses of the wicked are of two kinds, some dwell in their merits, others in their vices. The Pharisees of the world dwell in the lofty houses of their own meritorious holiness. But as St. Bernard saith, What more foolish than to dwell in a house yet hardly begun? The debauched people of the world dwell in the dirty houses of their wicked lives, and cannot be gotten out of them. But the curse of God is upon both. The righteous dwell in God's mercy which covereth them from the anger of His justice. . . . The rich glutton may keep out Lazarus, but he keeps in God's curse.--_Jermin._ Here are the gods--could the philosopher say of his poor habitation, meaning his heathenish household gods--whatever else is wanting to me. How much more may the saint say so of his God.--_Trapp._ Verse 35. They shall be promoted, indeed, but their exaltation shall be like that of Haman, who was exalted when he was hung upon a gallows fifty cubits high.--_Lawson._ This last contrast carries us forward to the coming day when all shall "discern" in the full delight of eternity (Mal. iii. 18). The wise--the heirs of glory--are identified with the lowly (verse 34)--the heirs of grace. Self-knowledge--the principle of lowliness--is the very substance of wisdom. Their inheritance also is one--grace and glory (Psa. lxxxiv. 11). For what higher _glory_ can there be than the _grace_ which hath redeemed a worm of the earth and made him a king and priest unto God?--_Bridges._