Answers from church history on today's questions
What Christian writers said, from about AD 190 to 1911.
43 passages · 24 writers · 9 centuries
Writers describe the flatterer as one who praises for his own advantage: South says he seeks his own gain and despises the man he extols, and Chrysostom says men who are mad after money will flatter and make themselves slaves. Allestree says the flatterer betrays a man under the name of a friend and turns toward power like the heliotrope, and Augustine says men lie by flattery for the sake of gluttony. Flatterers gather around the rich and powerful: Clement of Alexandria, Basil, Henry, and Allestree describe those who court the rich and men in high position. On knowing a flatterer, Henry says to suspect a design in one who fawns on you, Jerome says not to credit all that flatterers say, and Spurgeon says to beware of those who say they do not flatter.
14 passages · 10 writers · 200s to 1800s
South, Allestree, Chrysostom, Augustine, and Calvin describe the flatterer as one who seeks his own gain or favour and betrays the man he praises.
c. 248 · Origen, Against Celsus (Contra Celsum) 8.65
Moreover, we are to despise ingratiating ourselves with kings or any other men, not only if their favour is to be won by murders, licentiousness, or deeds of cruelty, but even if it involves impiety towards God, or any servile expressions of flattery and obsequiousness, which things are unworthy of brave and high-principled men, who aim at joining with their other virtues that highest of virtues, patience and fortitude.
c. 392–422 · Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms (Enarrationes in Psalmos) 5.12
“Their throat is an open sepulchre.” It may be referred to signify gluttony, for the sake of which men very often lie by flattery. And admirably has he said, “an open sepulchre:” for this gluttony is ever gaping with open mouth, not as sepulchres, which, on the reception of corpses, are closed up. This also may be understood hereby, that with lying and blind flattery men draw to themselves those whom they entice to sin; and as it were devour them, when they turn them to their own way of living. And when this happens to them, since by sin they die, those by whom they are led along, are rightly called open sepulchres: for themselves too are in a manner lifeless, being destitute of the life of truth; and they take in to themselves dead men, whom having slain by lying words and a vain heart, they turn unto themselves.
c. 400–401 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 6
What can come up to this enmity! And yet, they are mad after money-making, though it be with enemies, though it be with slaves, though it be with persons most hostile to them, that they come in contact, though it be with persons utterly evil, if only they expect that they shall be enabled by their means to make money, they will do everything, will flatter, and be obsequious, and make themselves slaves, and will esteem them more to be revered than all men, to get some advantage out of them: for the hope of money does not allow them to give a thought to any such considerations as these.
1565 · John Calvin, Commentary on Ezekiel, part 2 (chapters 13-20) 14.7
For when any one is venal he is compelled to flatter like a slave. For there is no freedom but in a good and upright conscience. Hence God here separates his servants from impostors who make a trade of their flatteries.
1673 · Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory Chapter IX
But the time will come, that the flatterer will be hated even by him that his fallacious praises pleased. Deceit and lies do please the flattered person but a while; even till he find the bitterness of the effects, and the fruit have told him that it was but a sugared kind of enmity: and therefore he will not long be pleased with the flatterer himself. Flattery ever appeareth at last, to be but perniciosa dulcedo, as Austin calls it. Saith the same Austin, (in Psal. lix.) There are two sorts of persecutors, the opposer (or dispraiser) and the flatterer: but the tongue of the flatterer hurteth more than the hand of the persecutor.
1674 · Richard Allestree, The Government of the Tongue 8.5
Tis a common observation of Flatterers, that they are like the Heliotrope, open only towards the sun, but shut and contract themselves at night, and in cloudy weather. Let the object of their adoration be but eclipsed, they can see none of those excellencies which before dazzled their eyes: and how ever inconstant they may seem to others, they are indeed very constant to themselves, true to their fixed principle, of courting the greatness not the man; in pursuit whereof their old Idol is often made a sacrifice to their new: all malicious discovery is made of their falling friend, to buy an interest in the rising one. Of this there are such crowds of examples in Story, that it would be impertinent to single out any, especially in an age that is fitter to furnish presidents for the future, than to borrow of the past times. But supposing the Parasite not actually guilty of this base revolt, (which yet he seldom fails to be upon occasion) yet is he no less Treacherous even in the height of his Blandishments; and while he most courts a man, he does the most ruinously undermine him. For first he abuses him in his understanding, precludes him from that which wise men have judged the most essential part of Learning, the knowledge of himself, from which tis the main business of the Flatterer to divert him. And to this abuse there is another inevitably consequent: for this ignorance of his faults or follies, necessarily condemns him to the continuing in them, it being impossible for him to think of correcting either the one or the other, who is made believe he has neither.
1674 · Richard Allestree, The Government of the Tongue 8.6
And sure he that betrays a man to all these mischiefs, may well be thought perfidious. But that which infinitely amplifies and enhances the Treachery is, that all this is acted under the notion and disguise of a friend; a relation so venerable, that methinks tis the nearest secular transcript of the treason, which is storied of those who have administered Poison in the Eucharist. The Name of a friend is such an endearment, as nothing human can equal. All other natural or civil ties take their greatest force from this. What signifies an unfriendly Parent, or Brother, or Wife? Tis friendship only that is the cement which really and effectively combines mankind: and therefore we may observe, that God reckoning up other relations, illustrates them by several notes of endearment, but when he comes to that of friendship, tis the friend who is as thine own soul, Deut. 13. 6. nothing below the highest instance was thought expressive enough of that union. What a Legion of Fiends then possesseth man that can break these chains, Matt. 5. 4. nay, that can hammer and forge those very chains into Daggers and Stilettos, and make their friendship an engine of ruin? This is certainly the blackest color wherein we can view a Parasite, his false light makes the shadow the more dismal: as the Ape has a peculiar deformity above other brutes by that awkward and ungraceful resemblance he has to a man, so sure a Flatterer is infinitely the more hateful for being the ugly counterfeit of a Friend.
1674 · Richard Allestree, The Government of the Tongue 8.4
A Second is Servility and Abjectness of humor: and of this there needs no other proof than has been already given; this charge being implicitly involved in the former of Lying, the condescending to that, being a mark of a disingenuous spirit. And accordingly, the nobler Heathens looked on it as the vice of Slaves and vassals, below the liberty of a free man, as well as an honest. But though I need no other evidence to make good the accusation, yet every Sycophant furnishes me with many supernumerary proofs. Look upon such a one, and you shall see his eyes immovably fixed on his Patron’s face, watching each look, each glance, and in every change of his countenance (like a Star-gazer) reading his own destiny, his Ears chained (like galley-slaves at the oar) to his dictate, sucking in the most insipid discourses with as much greediness as if they were the Apothegms of the seven Sages, his Tongue turned only to Panegyrics and acclamations, his feet in winged motion upon every nod or other signification of his pleasure: in a word, his whole body (as if it had not other animal spirits than what it derived from him) varies its postures, its exercises, as he finds agreeable to the humor he is to serve. And can humanity contrive to debase itself more?
1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 5 9
In all that artificial scene that he lays, by adoring and commending this or that great person, he intends not so much to praise as to be what the other is. He would be great, rich, and honourable; and that puts him upon the dissembler’s drudgery to enslave himself to all his humours, to extol his impertinences, and adore his very villainies. It is not for want of wit or apprehension, that the flatterer speaks such paradoxes; for he sees through that great and glorious bauble that he so cringes to; he despises him heartily, while he harangues him magnificently; his thoughts and his words are at a perpetual jar and distance; he thinks satires, while he speaks panegyrics. Nay, and perhaps he hates and abhors his own ill fate too, that should force him to take such a sordid course to advance himself; that should make him fall down before such an image, and worship such an illustrious piece of emptiness. But profit reconciles evil minds to the coarsest and lowest services; and men are willing to bow their bodies, and stoop down to take up a jewel or a piece of gold, though it be from a dunghill. But it is evident, that every flatterer designs only his own advantage, whether there be or be not any real foundation of worth in him whom he pretends to admire; and that, from this one consideration, that the same person, in case he falls from his greatness and power, is presently deserted, and finds all his parasites’ encomiums turned into scoffs and invectives. The man’s virtue, if he had any, remains untouched, and perhaps by his calamity improved. He can be as valiant, as just, and temperate, as he was before: but what is that to the purpose? He cannot reward or prefer; he cannot frown an enemy into ruin, or smile a friend or a dependent into a fair fortune. And if so, the flatterer thinks he should but lose his time and his breath to declaim and be eloquent upon so dry a subject. No; his game lies another way; he bids good night to the setting, and reserves his devotion for the rising sun. Men may be both wise and virtuous; but it is their power that makes them commended for being so.
1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 5 24
This speaks reproof to that slavish sort of sinners who are men-pleasers. Flattery of men always carries with it a distrust or a neglect of God. If to fear men be prohibited by God, then a servile pleasing of them must be equally hateful to him; forasmuch as this arises from fear. It is the most degenerous and pusillanimous temper of mind that can be. It is ignoble, as thou art a man, and irreligious, as thou art a Christian. Canst thou prostitute an immortal soul to the feeding of the ambition or revenge of a sinful man like thyself, by a servile admiration of his person, and a false accusation of others? How will it upbraid thee with thy former flatteries and thy fears, to see the person now so adored by thee one day as naked and obnoxious before God’s tribunal as thyself, and perhaps answering for many of those injuries that he did to thee! It is to debase thyself, and to betray the privilege and dignity of thy soul, to flatter or fear any man.
1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 5 8
Every kind of imitation speaks the person that imitates inferior to him whom he imitates, as the copy is to the original: but then to imitate that which is mean, base, and unworthy, is to do one of the lowest actions in a yet lower instance; it is to climb downwards, to employ art and industry to learn a defect and an imperfection; which is a direct reproach to reason, and a contradiction to the methods of nature. And so much the more intolerable is it, because such persons are seldom seen to imitate the excellencies and the virtues of him whom they flatter; these are looked upon with distance and lazy admiration: but if there be any vice that sullies and takes off from the lustre of his other good qualities, that shall be sure to be culled out, and writ upon their lives and behaviour. Alexander had enough to imitate him in his drunkenness and his passion, who never intended to be like him, either in his chastity, or his justice to his enemies, and his liberality to his friends. And it is reported of Plato, that being crookshouldered, his scholars, who so much admired him, would endeavour to be like him by bolstering out their garments on that side, that so they might appear crooked too. It is probable that many of these found it easier to imitate Plato’s shoulders than his philosophy, and to stuff out their gowns than to furnish their understandings, or improve their minds. I am confident there is none that does not deride and condemn this silly piece of officiousness, as scarce to be reconciled to common sense; yet we may find as bad daily in the behaviour of most parasites, who think they can never honour their great masters, but by exposing themselves. Which practice, though it is most irrational, yet it has this to encourage and continue it, that such grandees are wonderfully pleased to see their vices and defects aped by their followers and retainers; indeed much more than to see their perfections drawn into imitation.
1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Psalms 52.9
From these two words - the Greek word "fig," and the Greek word to "show," or to "discover," we have derived the word "sycophant;" and this word has come down from the Greeks, and through the long tract of ages intervening between its first use in Athens to the present time, always bearing in every age the original idea imbedded in the word, as the old fossil that is now dug up bears the form of the fern, the leaf, the worm, or the shell that was imbedded there perhaps million of ages ago. As such a man would be "likely" to be mean, and fawning, and flattering, so the word has come to describe always a parasite; a mean flatterer; a flatterer of princes and great men; and hence it is, and would be applied as one of the words indicating the sense of mankind in regard to a "tale-bearer," or an "informer."
1872 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol. 1 (Psalms 1-26) 12.3-4
May God grant that our soul may not be gathered with them. It is worthy of observation that flattering lips, and tongues speaking proud things, are classed together: the fitness of this is clear, for they are guilty of the same vice, the first flatters another, and the second flatters himself, in both cases a lie is in their right hands. One generally imagines that flatterers are such mean parasites, so cringing and fawning, that they cannot be proud; but the wise man will tell you that while all pride is truly meanness, there is in the very lowest meanness no small degree of pride. Cæsar’s horse is even more proud of carrying Cæsar, than Cæsar is of riding him. The mat on which the emperor wiped his shoes, boasts vaingloriously, crying out, “I cleaned the imperial boots.” None are so detestably domineering as the little creatures who creep into office by cringing to the great; those are bad times, indeed, in which these obnoxious beings are numerous and powerful. No wonder that the justice of God in cutting off such injurious persons is matter for a Psalm, for both earth and heaven are weary of such provoking offenders, whose presence is a very plague to the people afflicted thereby. Men cannot tame the tongues of such boastful flatterers; but the Lord’s remedy if sharp is sure, and is an unanswerable answer to their swelling words of vanity.
1873 · E. H. Plumptre, Notes on the Bible: Proverbs 27.14
The picture of the ostentatious flatterer going at daybreak to pour out blessings on his patron. For any good that he does, for any thanks he gets, he might as well utter curses.
21 passages · 18 writers · 100s to 1900s
Clement of Alexandria, Basil, Henry, Allestree, and others write on those who flatter the rich, courtiers, and rulers.
c. 190–210 · Clement of Alexandria, Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved? (Quis dives salvetur) 1
Those who bestow laudatory addresses on the rich appear to me to be rightly judged not only flatterers and base, in vehemently pretending that things which are disagreeable give them pleasure, but also godless and treacherous; godless, because neglecting to praise and glorify God, who is alone perfect and good, “of whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and for whom are all things,” they invest with divine honours men wallowing in an execrable and abominable life, and, what is the principal thing, liable on this account to the judgment of God; and treacherous, because, although wealth is of itself sufficient to puff up and corrupt the souls of its possessors, and to turn them from the path by which salvation is to be attained, they stupefy them still more, by inflating the minds of the rich with the pleasures of extravagant praises, and by making them utterly despise all things except wealth, on account of which they are admired; bringing, as the saying is, fire to fire, pouring pride on pride, and adding conceit to wealth, a heavier burden to that which by nature is a weight, from which somewhat ought rather to be removed and taken away as being a dangerous and deadly disease.
c. 357–378 · Basil of Caesarea, Letters 272.1
I cannot be astonished at a man in your position being followed by certain sycophants. High position seems to be in some way naturally attended by miserable hangers-on of this kind. Destitute as they are of any good quality of their own whereby they may be known, they endeavour to recommend themselves by means of other people’s ills. Peradventure, just as mildew is a blight which grows in corn, so flattery stealing upon friendship is a blight of friendship.
c. 388–390 · Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy (De officiis) 3.22.134
Lastly, the friendships of the poor are generally better than those of the rich, and often the rich are without friends, whilst the poor have many. For true friendship cannot exist where there is lying flattery. Many try fawningly to please the rich, but no one cares to make pretence to a poor man.
c. 406–407 · John Chrysostom, That No One Can Harm the Man Who Does Not Injure Himself (Quod nemo laeditur) 9
Why these are just the very reasons why we ought resolutely to turn our backs upon riches, because they introduce certain fierce and dangerous wild beasts into our heart depriving us of the real honour which we might receive from all, and introducing to deluded men another which is the opposite of this, only painted over with its colours, and persuading them to fancy that it is the same, when by nature it is not so, but only seems to be so to the eye. For as the beauty of courtesans, made up as it is of dyes and pigments, is destitute of real beauty, yet makes a foul and ugly face appear fair and beautiful to those who are deluded by it when it is not so in reality: even so also riches force flattery to look like honour. For I beg you not to consider the praises which are openly bestowed through fear and fawning: for these are only tints and pigments; but unfold the conscience of each of those who flatter you in this fashion, and inside it you will see countless accusers declaring against you, and loathing and detesting you more than your bitterest adversaries and foes. And if ever a change of circumstances should occur which would remove and expose this mask which fear has manufactured, just as the sun when it emits a hotter ray than usual discloses the real countenances of those women whom I mentioned, then you will see clearly that all through the former time you were held in the greatest contempt by those who paid court to you, and you fancied you were enjoying honour from those who thoroughly hated you, and in their heart poured infinite abuse upon you, and longed to see you involved in extreme calamities.
1551 · John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah, part 2 (chapters 17-32) 19.11
How say ye to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? He reproves the counsellors of Pharaoh for flattering him, as courtiers are wont to flatter princes; for they utter nothing but what is intended to soothe and gratify the ears of princes, because this is the way by which they succeed and obtain favor. Thus, amidst many flatteries and lies, there is no room for truth.
1559 · John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 4.9.6
Of this we have a notable instance in the council which Ahab convened (1 Kings 22:6, 22). Four hundred prophets were present. But because they had met with no other intention than to flatter the impious king, Satan is sent by the Lord to be a lying spirit in all their mouths.
1650 · Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living 2.6.4
Corn from Sardinia, herds from Calabrian cattle, meadows through which pleasant Liris glides, silks from Tyrus, and golden chalices to drown my health in, are nothing but instruments of vanity or sin; and suppose a disease in the soul of him that longs for them or admires them. And this I have otherwhere represented more largely; to which I here add, that riches have very great dangers to their souls not only to them who covet them, but to all that have them. For if a great personage undertakes an action passionately and upon great interest, let him manage it indiscreetly, let the whole design be unjust, let it be acted with all the malice and impotency in the world, he shall have enough to flatter him, but not enough to reprove him. He had need be a bold man that shall tell his patron he is going to hell; and that prince had need be a good man that shall suffer such a monitor; and though it be a strange kind of civility, and an evil dutifulness in friends and relatives to suffer him to perish without reproof or medicine, rather than to seem unmannerly to a great sinner, yet it is none of their least infelicities that their wealth and greatness shall put them into sin, and yet put them past reproof.
1656–1662 · Blaise Pascal, Pensees (Thoughts) 14.919
The great have wished to be flattered. The Jesuits have wished to be loved by the great. They have all been worthy to be abandoned to the spirit of lying, the one party to deceive, the others to be deceived. They have been avaricious, ambitious, voluptuous. Coacervabunt tibi magistros. Worthy disciples of such masters, they have sought flatterers, and have found them.
1674 · Richard Allestree, The Government of the Tongue 8.8
Flattery, like a spring forced upward ascends, as cares are by the wise man said to descend, Ecclus. 40. 4. from him that weareth a linen frock to him that weareth a crown: all intermedial degrees are but like pipes, which as they suck from below, so transmit it still upwards. There are few so low but find somebody to cajole and Flatter them. Some interest or other may sometimes be to be served even upon the meanest, and those that find themselves thus solicited for benefits, are easily taught by it how to address to their immediate superiors, from whom they expect greater: and as tis thus handed from one rank to another, the art still is more subtilized and refined. (God help poor Princes the while, who commonly meet with the Elixir, and quintessence of this venom.) And thus it passes through all states and conditions: as they are passive on the one side, and are Flattered by some, so they are active on the other, and Flatter others.
1675–1680 · Stephen Charnock, Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God 13
One of the kings of this country did very handsomely shame the flattery of his courtiers, that cried him up as lord of sea and land, by ordering his chair to be set on the sand of the sea shore, when the tide was coming in, and commanding the waters not to touch his feet, which when they did without any regard to his authority, he took occasion thereby to put his flatterers out of countenance, and instruct himself in a lesson of humility. “See,” saith he, “how I rule all things, when so mean a thing as the water will not obey me!”
1680–1681 · Thomas Manton, Works, vol. VI Several Sermons Upon the CXIX. Psalm, Sermon XXX. Remove from me the way of lying; and grant me thy law graciously
Flattery, or desiring of ingratiating themselves with those that are great and mighty in the world, when they have men’s persons in admiration: Ps. xii. 2, ‘With flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak.’ So Hosea vii. 3, ‘They make the king glad with their lies.’ To please their rulers, they soothe them up with flattering applause and fawning upon them.
1710 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Proverbs 19.4
Wealth enables a man to send many presents, make many entertainments, and do many good offices, and so gains him many friends, who pretend to love him, for they flatter him and make their court to him, but really love what he has, or rather love themselves, hoping to get by him.
c. 1714 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Acts 24.1-9
See here, [1.] The unhappiness of great men, and a great unhappiness it is, to have their services magnified beyond measure, and never to be faithfully told of their faults; and hereby they are hardened and encouraged in evil. [2.] The policy of bad men, by flattering princes in what they do amiss to draw them in to do worse. The bishops of Rome got themselves confirmed in their exorbitant church power, and have been assisted in persecuting the servants of Christ, by flattering and caressing usurpers and tyrants, and so making them the tools of their malice, as the high priest, by his compliments, designed to make Felix here.
1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 5 9
Greatness of place or condition. There is no thing that secures a man from flattery more than the confident and free access of ingenuous persons. But confidence and freedom are seldom found but where there is a parity of conditions: reproof being of the nature of those things that seldom ascend and move upwards; but it either passes to an equal, or descends upon an inferior. He that is great and potent casts an awe and a terror round about him, and, as it were, shuts and barricadoes himself in from all approaches, like mount Sinai, where the fire burning, and the voice thundering, would suffer none to come near it; so that such an one is still treated with silence and distance; his faults are whispered behind his back; he is scoffed at in little rooms and merry meetings, and never hears the severe, healing truths that are spoke of him; but lives muffled and blind fold, unacquainted with himself and the judgments of men concerning him. Upon which account, great persons, unless their understandings are very great too, and withal unprejudiced with self-love, so as to be their own monitors, and impartial exactors of themselves, are of all others the most miserable. For though a reproof might open their eyes and correct their behaviour, and though there are not wanting those that are concerned for their good, yet they fright away all these remedies, and live and die strangers to their cure.
1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 2 36
It is art that must judge of art; and he who discovers wisdom in another, must do it by the idea he first had of it in his own brain. Now as the first and chief external safeguard of a prince is in his council, and as it is his discerning faculty which must furnish him with this, so his next safety is in the choice of his friends: and it is the same discerning faculty which must secure him here too. For it is this that must distinguish between friendship and flattery, the most baneful mischief that can be practised by one man upon another; and shadows do not more inseparably follow bodies, than flattery does the persons of great men. Flatterers are the bosom enemies of princes, laying trains for them, not at all less destructive than that which was discovered this day; contriving their ruin acceptably, pleasingly, and according to their own hearts desire. Poison has frequently destroyed kings, but none has been so efficaciously mortal as that drank in by the ear. He who meets his enemy in the field, knows how to encounter him; but he who meets him at his table, in his chamber, or in his closet, finds his enemy got within him before he is aware of him, killing him with smiles and kisses, and acting the assassinate under the masquerade of a counsellor or a confident: the surest, but the basest way of destroying a man.
1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Corinthians 6.8
Satan often attempts to bribe people by praise, and to neutralize the influence of ministers by flattery. It seems hard to go and proclaim to people painful truths who are causing the incense of praise to ascend around us. And it is commonly much easier for a minister of the gospel to commend himself as a minister of God when he is slandered than when he is praised, when his name is cast out as evil than when the breezes of popular favor are wafted upon him. Few people can withstand the influence of flattery, but many people can meet persecution with a proper spirit; few people comparatively can always evince Christian fidelity to others when they live always amidst the influence of "good report," but there are many who can be faithful when they are poor, and despised, and reviled.
1856–1869 · J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke 18.18-27
(1 Cor. 1:26.) It is plain matter of fact, that comparatively few rich men are to be found in the way of life. For one thing, riches incline their possessors to pride, self-will, self-indulgence, and love of the world. For another thing, the rich man is seldom dealt with faithfully about his soul. He is generally flattered and fawned upon. "The rich has many friends." (Prov. 14:20.) Few people have the courage to tell him the whole truth.
1860–1870 · Dionysius the Carthusian, quoted by Edward Bouverie Pusey, Notes on the Bible: Micah 3.7
Dionysius: "All this is spoken against those who, in the Church of Christ, flatter the rich, or speak as menpleasers, out of avarice, ambition, or any like longing for temporal good, to whom that of Isaiah Isa 3:12 fitteth; the leaders of this people (they who profess to lead them aright) mislead them, and they that are led of them are destroyed."
1872 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol. 1 (Psalms 1-26) 10.2-11
Pride meets covetousness, and compliments it as wise, thrifty, and prudent. We say it with sorrow, there are many professors of religion who esteem a rich man, and flatter him, even though they know that he has fattened himself upon the flesh and blood of the poor. The only sinners who are received as respectable are covetous men.
1905 · G. K. Chesterton, Heretics 15
The poor are merely sentimental, and very excusably sentimental, if they praise the gentleman for having a ready hand and ready money. But they are strictly slaves and sycophants if they praise him for having a ready tongue. For that they have far more themselves.
1906 · Hugh Latimer, Sermons prayer.4
Chaplains will not do their duties; they will not draw their swords, but rather flatter; they will use discretion. But what shall follow? Marry, they shall have God’s curse upon their heads for their labour: this shall be all their gains that they shall get by their flatterings. Another scripture saith, Qui potestatem exercent, hi benificia vocantur; “The great and mighty men be called benefactors, well-doers”: but of whom be they called so? Marry, of flatterers, of those which seek not to do the will of God, but the pleasures of men.
8 passages · 6 writers · 300s to 1900s
Henry, Jerome, Spurgeon, and Augustine give signs of a flatterer and warn the hearer to be on guard.
c. 370–419 · Jerome, Letters 125.18
Do not credit all that flatterers say to you, or, I should rather say, do not lend too ready an ear to those who mean to mock you. They will fawn upon you with fulsome praise and do their best to blind your judgment; yet if you suddenly look behind you, you will find that they are making gestures of derision with their hands, either a stork’s neck or the flapping ears of a donkey or a thirsty dog’s protruding tongue.
c. 392–422 · Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms (Enarrationes in Psalmos) 141.8
I am beset with flatterers; they cease not to besiege me; they praise in me what I would not, that praise in me what I hold in little esteem; what I hold dear they blame in me; flatterers, treacherous, deceivers. For instance, “Gaiuseius is a great man, great, learned, wise; but why is he a Christian? For great is his learning, great his reading, great his wisdom.”
1678 · John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, Part I 9
When he was come to the place where they were, he asked them whence they came, and what they did there. They told him that they were poor pilgrims going to Zion, but were led out of their way by a black man clothed in white, who bid us, said they, follow him, for he was going thither too. Then said he with the whip, It is Flatterer, a false apostle, that hath transformed himself into an angel of light. Dan. 11:32; 2 Cor. 11:13,14. So he rent the net, and let the men out. Then said he to them, Follow me, that I may set you in your way again. So he led them back to the way which they had left to follow the Flatterer.
1710 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Proverbs 20.19
If a man fawn upon you, compliment and commend you, suspect him to have some design upon you, and stand upon your guard; he would pick that out of you which will serve him to make a story of to somebody else to your prejudice; therefore meddle not with him that flatters with his lips. Those too dearly love, and too dearly buy, their own praise, that will put confidence in a man and trust him with a secret or business because he flatters them.
1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Matthew 19.30
If a man praises us too much, we should look to our purse or our virtue. We should feel that we are in danger, and the next thing will be a dreadful blow - the heavier for all this flattery. They that use compliments much, expect them from others; are galled and vexed when they are not obtained; and are in danger when they are.
1871 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 17 (1871) 994
Men are sometimes blessed in a very fulsome sense by flattery. There are always those who, like the fox in the fable, hope to gain the cheese by praising the crow. They never saw such plumage, and no voice could be so sweet as yours. The whole of their mind is set, not on you, but on what they are to gain by you. The race of flatterers is never extinct, though the flattered usually flatter themselves it is so. They may conceive that men flatter others, but all is so palpable and transparent when heaped upon themselves, that they accept it with a great deal of self-complacency, as being perhaps a little exaggerated, but after all exceedingly near the truth. We are not very apt to take a large discount off the praises that others offer us; yet, were we wise, we should press to our bosom those who censure us; and we should always keep at arm’s length those who praise us, for those who censure us to our face cannot possibly be making a market of us; but with regard to those who extol us, rising early, and using loud sentences of praise, we may suspect, and we shall very seldom be unjust in the suspicion, that there is some other motive in the praise which they render to us than that which appears on the surface.
1896 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 42 (1896) 2480
A worse fox even than that one, however, is the flatterer. He comes to you smiling and smirking and he begins to express his approval of your religion. And he very likely tells you what a fine fellow you are.
1911 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 57 (1911) 3276
They flatter with their tongue. Always beware of people who flatter you, and especially when they tell you that they do not flatter you and that they know you cannot endure flattery—for you are then being most fulsomely flattered—so be on your guard against the tongue of the flatterer!
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