The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own
ways,
&c.] One that is a backslider at heart, whose heart departeth
from the Lord; in whom there is an evil heart of unbelief in
departing from the living God; and indeed apostasy begins at the
heart, and shows itself in the life and conversation: there may
be a backsliding when the heart does not wickedly depart from
God; but is through the infirmity of the flesh and the force of
temptation; from which backslidings the Lord's people are
recovered, and which are healed by his grace; but here such an
one is meant who willingly and heartily backslides; and such
shall have the reward of their hands and actions given them, or
the full and due punishment of their sins; they shall have their
bellyful of their own wicked ways and works, the just recompense
of reward for them; and a good man [shall be satisfied]
from himself;
shall eat the fruit of his own doings, shall be blessed in his
deeds, and have peace and satisfaction therein; though not
salvation by them, or for them: he shall be satisfied with the
grace of God bestowed on him and wrought in him; and, from a
feeling experience of the grace of God within him, shall be
satisfied that he has in heaven a better and an enduring
substance; or he shall be satisfied "from above himself"
F13, from the grace that is in Christ,
out of the fulness which is in him; and shall be filled with all
the fulness of God he is capable of; and especially in the other
world, when he shall awake in his likeness. The Targum is,
``a good man shall be satisfied with his fear;''and so the Syriac version, with the fear of his soul; it may be rendered, as by the Vulgate Latin version, "a good man shall be above him" F14; that is, above the backslider; shall be better tilled, and be more happy than he.