Proverbs 5:11

And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

Ver. 11. And thou mourn at the last.] Heb., And thou roar; as being upon the rack of an evil conscience, and in the suburbs of hell, as it were: while "the just Lord" Zep 3:5 makes thee, even here, possess the sins of thy youth, and writes bitter things against thee. The word signifies, To roar as a lion, or as the sea, a or as the devil doth. For the devils believe and tremble, or roar. Jam 2:19 Grecians ascribe the original, φρισσουσι, to the roaring of the sea. b

When thy flesh and thy body.] By the word here rendered body, there are those who understand the radical humour, the natural moisture that maintains life, and is much impaired by this sensual sin. c Avicenna doubted not to say, that the emission of a little seed more than the body could well bear, was a great deal more hurtful than the loss of forty times so much blood. Gouts, palsies, epilepsies, &c., oft follow upon this sin: but the French disease is the natural fruit of it, such as will stick by men when their best friends forsake them. "Jezebel is cast into a bed, and they that commit adultery with her, into great tribulation." Rev 2:20 The Popish libidinous d clergy are smitten with ulcers. Rev 16:11 Their pope, Paul the Fourth, died ex nimio veneris usu, saith the historian, e by wasting his strength in filthy pleasure, as the flame consumeth the candle.

a φριξ est maris agitatio.

b Hom. Iliad. H. vide Eustath.

c Venus ab antiquis λυσιμελης dicta.

d Of persons, their lives, actions, desires: Given to, full of, or characterized by lust or lewdness; lustful, lecherous, lewd.

e Runius De Vit. Pontif.