Greenhill:
1) Ver. 23. “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die.” Hebrew is He-Chapets Ae-Chapets is, the radical word signifies to have pleasure in, to affect, delight, to desire and will; therefore some render Do I desire or will the death of a sinner? Others, have I pleasure, or any pleasure? You charge me to punish the children for the fathers sins, and think I take pleasure in the death of sinners, but I neither do the one nor the other; I punish not you for your lathers sins, but for your own: and when I do punish you for your own, I had rather you should repent and live, than be cut off for them.
This seems contradictory to what is written, Prov.i 26, “I will laugh at your calamity, 1 will mock when your fear cometh;” and Ezek. v. 13, “Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted.” If God have no pleasure in the death of sinners, how can these texts be verified? To clear this difficulty, know that it is not absolutely to be taken, that God hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, unless you mean it of the wicked who do repent; but respectively, thus, if they could turn from their wicked ways, and keep his statutes, he should have more pleasure in this, than in their death; but when they do not repent, he hath pleasure in their punishment and death, as it is an act of justice, and work of God, for God hath pleasure in all his works: the destruction and ruin of Babylon is called “his pleasure,” Isa. xlviii. 14, “He will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.”
Some refer this to the antecedent will of God, and say so he hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner, he wills it not, delights not in it; but in regard of his consequent will he doth.
Obs. 1. Repentance is a turning, and a turning from sin. Ver. 30, “Repent, and turn.” Acts iii. 19; xxvi. 20, repenting, and turning to God, are put together. Sin turns men from God ; Jer. xxxii. 33, “They have turned unto me the back, and not the face.” Repentance is a turning of them again unto God; it turns them from their sinful and wicked ways, 2 Chron. vii. 14; Jer. xxvi. 3; from all sin, and sinful wave, not some few; “if the wicked will turn from all his sins;” so ver. 30, “Turn from all your transgressions;” it turns men from their secret sins, Psal. xix. 12; Isa. Iv. 7. If a man turns not from all, he turns from none in truth, because there is the same reason why a man should turn from all, as well as one, viz. the will and command of God. This turning must he with the whole heart, and therefore it is from all sin, Deut. xxx. 10; Joel ii. 12.
Obs. 2. It is not enough to turn from all sin, but we must turn to all good. “If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do,” &c. Negative righteous ness is no righteousness, negative holiness is insufficient holiness, 2 Kings xvii. 13. We must turn from the commands of sin, Satan, and the world, unto the commands of God. We must turn from worldliness unto heavenly-mindedness, from pride unto humility, from censuring to loving. It suffices not that the tree bears no ill fruit, but it must bring forth good fruit, else it is a barren tree, and must down. The question will be hereafter, What good have you done? 1 Tim. v. 10, “If she have diligently followed every good work.” David fulfilled all the wills of Goo, Psal. cxix. 6, he had respect unto all his commandments ; and Christians must observe all things Christ hath commanded, Matt, xxviii. 20.
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