perfect peace and there was no disturbance in his affairs For the Book of Canticles say they was wrote in his youth the Proverbs when he was of riper years the Ecclesiastes when he was old and repented of the sins he had been drawn into by the snares of Women who had made this Admirable person as great an example of folly as he had been before of wisedom whence that common saying of theirs men compose Songs when they are young Parables when they are grown to be perfect men and Discourses of the vanity of things when they are old XI But the time of his writing these Books is not so material as the design which is excellently expressed by S. Basil in a discourse of his upon the Beginning of this Book Tom. I. Hom. XII The Book of Proverbs saith he is an Instruction of manners and a Correction of the passions and an intire direction of the whole life containing abundance of precepts about well-doing The Ecclesiastes touches upon the Nature of things and evidently shews the vanity of every thing in this world that so we may not think it worth our pains to be so solicitous as we are about things that swiftly pass away from us nor waste the thoughts and cares of our mind about empty and vanishing enjoyments The Song of Songs shews the manner of perfecting Souls For it contains the happy concord of the Bridegroom and the Spouse that is the familiarity of the Soul with God the WORD XII I conclude this Preface as that Great man doth that discourse He is wise not onely who hath arrived at a compleat habit of Wisedom but who hath made some progress towards it nay who doth as yet but love it or desire it and listen to it Such as these by the reading of this Book shall be made wiser for they shall be instructed in much Divine and in no less Humane learning it expelling Vice divers ways and with as great variety introducing all manner of Vertues It bridles the injurious tongue corrects the wanton eye and ties the unjust hands in chains It persecutes sloth chastises all absurd desires teaches Prudence raises mens Courage and represents Temperance and Chastity after such a fashion that one cannot but have them in veneration Let a man but consent to one thing which this Book desires to make these Precepts familiar to his mind saying unto wisedom as you find the words VII 4. thou art my sister and calling understanding his kinswoman and he will not fail to be happy For this is the sum of all in a few words Love her and she shall preserve thee ERRATA PAge 116. line 4. add a 159. 27. r. inculcated 172. 2. kindly affected 198. 26. he who hath 247. 13. The best way to 275. 2. all company 293. 29. d. his 297. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 372. 3. considered with 400. 10. deliver them c. 442. pen. house of correction 444. 22. Margema 464. 20. look like a reproach 476. penult d. he before cannot 477. 28. for natural r. mutual A PARAPHRASE ON THE PROVERBS CHAP. I. ARGUMENT The Title of this Book is joyned to it as a part of the work and contained in the six first verses Where the Authour uses several words to express the matter he intends to treat of viz. Wisedom Instruction Understanding Knowledge c. the difference of which I have expressed as well as I could in the Paraphrase and shall not here criticise upon them But observe rather that the learning they teach is the most necessary of all other and therefore so contrived as he tells us that the most Ignorant as well as the most Wise may receive great benefit by it In order to which the first principle of it must be carefully observed which is this a that a due sense of God is a most necessary qualification to profit by these Instructions which will signify nothing to Epicures and such like profane persons This is the very first word of the Book v. 7. teaching us that our first care must be to possess our minds with a lively sense that there is a God and that the highest Wisedom in the World is to study to please Him and to know what will please Him and to be fearfull to offend Him by any neglect of Him or by doing any thing contrary to his Will Which fear of offending God is commonly founded in a dread of his punishments which perhaps gives the first rise to this fear however Nazianzen well observes Orat. XXXIX p. 628. that we must not if we would be wise first begin in Contemplation and so end in Fear for an unbridled Contemplation is very dangerous but being thoroughly seasoned and purged and as one may say attenuated and humbled by Fear so to be carried aloft in Contemplation This is the first step to Wisedom and the second is b next to God to bear a great reverence to Parents both natural and spiritual to God's Ministers that is and to all Teachers and Instructors to whom if Children be not bred to give a great regard they seldom prove vertuous v. 8. Where it is very observable how much Humane Laws differ from Divine the former generally onely providing that due regard be given by Children to their Fathers but taking no notice of Mothers as may be seen in the Persian Laws mentioned by Aristotle the Roman described in the Digests and Constitutions and several passages of the Greek Philosophers which we find in Epictetus and Simplicius who as Grotius notes upon the Fifth Commandment consult onely the honour of the Father but God in his Law takes care to preserve a just reverence both to Father and Mother equally as the persons whose ministry He uses to bring us into the World And accordingly not only Solomon in this place and many other but the Son of Sirach also who was bred under that Divine Institution presses the duty oweing to both very largely in the first sixteen verses of the III. of Ecclesiasticus Now one of the first things Parents should take care of is to teach their Children c to avoid evil Company as it follows here v. 10. and then to represent Vice in its true colours as Solomon here doth one sort of wickedness v. 11 12 c. the root of which he shews is love of money which therefore should be lookt upon as most odious and indeed the root of all evil v. 18 19. Their stupid blindness also is to be represented who will take no warning but though destruction be plainly before their eyes in the way wherein they are yet will go on to complete their ruin v. 17. And they are to be admonished also to hearken to the voice of Wisedom presently wheresoever they meet with it which is every where v. 20 c. Which is pressed here v. 24 c. from this consideration that there will be a time when they shall stand in need of God's help but not find it if they have
slighted his importunities to obedience For He is not onely good but just also and not so easy as to be moved merely by Prayers and Intreaties and that when we are in distress which have more of self-love in them than love to Him Whose wise Providence requites men in their kind and destroys them by that which they most desire In short in this Chapter he introduces Wisedom speaking to his Son or to her Children in general inviting them to love her and by no means to tread in the way of Sinners but to keep close to her directions threatning destruction to those who contemned this Counsel There seem to be three Proverbial Sayings in it One v. 17. which may be four or five ways interpreted two of which I have comprised in the Paraphrase being the most common and natural Another v. 31. like to that in Terence Tute hoc intrivisti omne hoc vorandum est tibi And the other in the next v. 32. Where those words the prosperity of Fools shall destroy them teach us that it is a great part of Wisedom to be able to bear a great fortune as we call it Of which among the Jews Jason was an example in after times who was undone by his Successes 2 Maccab. v. 6 7 c. 1. THE proverbs of Solomon the son of David king of Israel 1. THIS Book contains some notable and very usefull Sayings of that wise Prince King Solomon the Son of that devout Prince King David by whose special appointment he succeeded him in the government of God's peculiar People Israel for which according to David's Prayer LXXII Psalm and his own 1 Kings III. 9. God indued him with an extraordinary degree of understanding 2. To know wisedom and instruction to perceive the words of understanding 2. The scope of them is to make a Man know what it is to be truly wise and instruct him how to avoid those errors which Men are apt to fall into or to correct them if he hath been misled and run into them and to make him understand when good advice is given him nay to be able to give it unto others 3. To receive the instruction of wisedom justice and judgment and equity 3. For they will furnish him with the most excellent notions and make him capable to understand things of highest concernment both how to be just and good in all private transactions and in publick trusts and offices to judge and act according to right and equity and every other way to be upright and exactly vertuous 4. To give subtilty to the simple to the young man knowledg and discretion 4. The most unskilfull and incautious persons may here learn to be circumspect and wary and they who are childish and inconsiderate get so much knowledge as to behave themselves with prudence and discretion 5. A wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels 5. As for him that is wise already he will not lose his labour in reading this Book which will make him still wiser And indeed it is principally designed for the improvement of him that is so wise as to be willing to learn more who shall both gain a clearer knowledge of what he understands and also make such additions that he shall be fit to be a counsellor to Kings and govern the affairs of State in the greatest Kingdoms 6. To understand a proverb and the interpretation the words of the wise and their dark sayings 6. He shall comprehend the most usefull Maxims and be able to express them also with the greatest elegance the weightiest sayings of wise men shall be easy to him and their abstrusest notions shall not be hidden from him 7. ¶ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisedom and instruction 7. ¶ In the first place then let all both simple and wise look upon an awfull sense of God a devout affection to Him and fear to offend Him as the chiefest point and the very foundation of all Wisedom Without which men are but Fools and having no regard to their Creator will despise the wisest Instructions that I can give them See Arg. a 8. My son hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother 8. And next to God let me advise thee my Son or whoever thou art that comest to learn of me in this Book to reverence thy Parents And not onely to hearken unto thy Father when he teaches thee to fear God or tells thee that thou dost amiss but to let thy Mother's commands be a Law to thee especially when she bids thee observe the Directions of thy Tutors and publick Instructors unto whom she commits thee from which be sure never to depart See Arg. b 9. For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and chains about thy neck 9. But value their counsels more than the fairest ornaments thy Parents can put upon thy head or the most precious chains wherewith they can adorn thy neck for they shall add a far greater grace unto thee and make thee more acceptable both with God and with all worthy men 10. ¶ My son if sinners entice thee consent thou not 10. ¶ There will be those who will make it their business to seduce thee from their obedience but remember my Son that none can love thee so well as they and therefore if leud persons who have no respect to God or to their pious Parents and Instructors perswade thee to bear them company by no means yield to their greatest importunities but flee their society See Arg. c 11. If they say Come with us let us lay wait for bloud let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause 11. They may represent perhaps what advantage it will be to thee to joyn with them in the breach of the very next Commandment to that of honouring thy Father and thy Mother saying come along with us to our lurking places where no body can see us and from thence set upon a wealthy Traveller who is to go that way and take away his life what though he be innocent we shall the more easily dispatch him when he suspects no danger and hath given us no provocation 12. Let us swallow them up alive as the grave and whole as those who go down into the pit 12. And though he should have many Servants or Companions with him to defend him let not that affright thee for we are enow of us to kill them all with ease and in a moment or to strangle them and bury them alive so that none shall escape to tell any tales nor shall they make any noise nay it shall not be known what is become of them 13. We shall find all precious substance we shall fill our houses with spoil 13. The booty shall be great for we are sure to find vast treasures and all manner of precious things enough to inrich us all and furnish our
calamity of a Son both because the affection of a Mother is more soft and tender and perchance is conscious to her self that by too much indulgence she hath tainted and corrupted his tender years She is more at home also it may be added and therefore having her Son's folly more in her eye hath a greater share in the grief that it causes But this is not to be too much pressed I think for both of them have such a share either in the joy or in the sorrow that it is as hard to distinguish between them constantly as it is to make a difference between the joy and grief for the well or ill doing of a Son and the well or ill doing of a Daughter which may be and oft times are equal And therefore I have but just touched upon this in my Paraphrase of the first verse Concerning which I shall note this further that whether these Instructions were written with a peculiar respect to the education of Solomon's own Son or indifferently for all it was most judiciously done to begin with such as this first part chiefly consists of there being so great a necessity as the forenamed Writer observes in his VIIth Book Chap. 3. that men drink deeply all pious and moral knowledge before they taste of politick that they who are bred up in the Courts of Princes and in affairs of State from tender years rarely attain to inward and sincere probity of manners For not being seasoned with Religion and the Doctrine of manners and offices of life their judgments are corrupted and made to think that there are no true and solid moral differences of things but all things are to be measured by utility and success And in this false opinion they are the more immovably settled if to ill education there be added the fewel of bad Books which all those will reject with disdain who shall be so happy as to make this Book their early study In which there follow here immediately and very properly some Instructions about getting riches and about the keeping and using them aright v. 2 3 c. that a curse may not be intailed upon them and descend with them unto our children And then v. 7. a memorable observation is annexed b which Plato as Eusebius observes translated into his VIIth Book of Laws concerning the fame of good and bad men after they are dead About which the same great man before named the Lord Bacon hath this Note in the same VIIIth Book Parab 8. That the Name of good men after Envy is extinguisht which cropt the blossome of their Fame while they were alive presently shoots up and flourisheth and their Praises daily increase in strength and vigour But for wicked men though their fame through the partial favour of Friends and of men of their own faction may last for a little time a detestation of their name springs up not long after and at last those vanishing praises end in infamy and like bodies that putrifie expire in a filthy and noisome odour And thus the LXX in this place instead of the memory of the just is blessed or is with blessing or benediction have these words the memory of the just is with encomiums or praises which is the true explication of the phrase And accordingly the Church commemorates the Saints of God recounting their worthy deeds and praising Him for them Of which see Mr. Mede Discourse XXII The rest of the Chapter consists of mixt observations concerning the difference between wise men and fools idle persons and diligent ill-natured people and those who are candid and kind v. 12. and especially between the vices and vertues of the tongue and their rewards and punishments v. 13 14 c. And one remarkable observation is inserted v. 22. which belongs to c that head of diligence and laboriousness upon which he remembers us no man is so to depend as to imagin to obtain what he would have by that alone but to look up to God as the donour of all good things and giving success to our industry Which was a thing little thought of by heathens who were too prone to imagin all things requisite unto happiness to be placed in themselves But the Scriptures every where inculcate this that it is God who gives wisedom to the wise and victory to the valiant and riches to the diligent and good success to the prudent and potent c. d Vnto which add that observation also v. 24. which may be further improved than is expressed in the Paraphrase to this sense that wicked men many times draw upon themselves that which they feared by those very means whereby they study to avoid them An Example of which as Bochartus observes in his Phaleg L. I. c. 16. Part. 1. we have in those that built the Tower of Babel who for fear of dispersion designed to build a City and a Tower saying Go to let us build c. lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth XI Gen. 4. But God so ordered it that this very attempt was the occasion of their dispersion and brought what they feared sooner upon them atque ipsum mali remedium illis cessit in periculum the very remedy of the evil they would have avoided leading them directly into it R. Levi hath an observation that the precepts of Wisedom from the beginning of this Chapter to the 10th verse of the XVIIIth are in a manner all concerning the danger of several sorts of vice and wickedness and afterward they are all concerning other subjects Which how true it is I shall there consider 1. THE proverbs of Solomon A wise son maketh a glad father but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother 1. LET the Father's care in educating his Children especially his Son the Heir of his Family be equal to the joy he will have in their well doing and let the Mother beware that her indulgence do not spoil them for she will have the greatest share in the heaviness which their untowardness will give them See Arg. a 2. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing but righteousness delivereth from death 2. This is more necessary than the care of heaping up riches for them which many times tempt men to fraud and oppression for though great treasures be gotten by such means they will be so far from availing the owners in time of distress that they will rather expose them to be a prey when justice and mercy with a little wealth will procure safety and deliverance from the greatest dangers 3. The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish but he casteth away the substance of the wicked 3. The reason is the Lord hath Treasures in store for the just especially for the mercifull man and will send him such supplies in his straits that he shall not starve but rather have enough But He will drive the wicked out of their ill-gotten possessions whereby they think to secure themselves
none can tell or what terrible vengeance they will take both upon those that move rebellion and those that associate with them See Arg. i 23. These things also belong to the wise It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment 23. These things also that follow belong to the wise and vertuous conduct of thy life It is a very evil thing if thou art a Judge to consider the quality of the person either his greatness or his relation or the friendship thou hast with him c. and not the merits of the cause that is brought before thee 24. He that saith unto the wicked Thou art righteous him shall the people curse nations shall abhor him 24. And whoever he be that contrary to the plain evidence which is given in against the wicked shall pronounce him innocent and make a bad cause to be good the whole Country shall curse him and wish the Divine vengeance may overtake him nay other Nations who hear of his unjust proceedings shall have him in great detestation 25. But to them that rebuke him shall be delight and a good blessing shall come upon them 25. But they that give a check to vice and wickedness by punishing evil doers according to their deserts shall not onely have inward satisfaction in their own mind but increase of joy by hearing others speak well of them nay God himself the fountain of all good shall plentifully bestow his blessings upon them 26. Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer 26. It is not onely justice but kindness to pass a righteous Sentence without fear or favour and upon all occasions to speak appositely and consonant to truth and as such persons give others a singular pleasure so they shall be beloved most dearly and honoured by all 27. Prepare thy work without and make it fit for thy self in the field and afterwards build thine house 27. Doe every thing in order and first mind those things which are most necessary contenting thy self with a little hutt in the field till thou hast gotten an estate by a carefull improvement of thy pasturage and of thy tillage and then it will be timely enough to build thee an house and to bring a wife into it 28. Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause and deceive not with thy lips 28. Do not testifie any thing against thy neighbour rashly much less when thou hast no ground at all for thy accusation nor seduce any body into a false opinion of him by crafty insinuation much less suborn them secretly by promises of rewards to say that which is not true of him when outwardly thou carriest thy self fair to him and pretendest to be his Friend 29. Say not I will do so to him as he hath done to me I will render to the man according to his work 29. Suppose he hath been injurious in that kind to thee heretofore and thou hast now an opportunity to be revenged let not that tempt thee to resolve with thy self to doe to him as he hath done to thee taking upon thee that which God hath declared belongs to Himself alone XXXII Deut. 35. to recompence unto him according to his deservings 30. I went by the field of the slothfull and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding 30. And to that which I have just now said v. 27. concerning diligence I will add this observation which I my self made as I took a view of the state of my Subjects among whom I found one so lazy and void of consideration that though he had good land in the field and a fruitfull vineyard 31. And lo it was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone-wall thereof was broken down 31. Yet such was his wretched sloth instead of corn I was surprised with the sight of thorns and thistles which had overrun his whole field nor was there any thing but nettles to be seen in his vineyard or if there had been any fruit in either it would have been lost for want of a fence which was faln down and laid all open to the beasts of prey 32. Then I saw and considered it well I looked upon it and received instruction 32. Which rufull spectacle so deeply affected my heart and brought so many thoughts into my mind that I learnt by beholding those miserable effects of idleness to cure that vice in my self and to correct it in others 33. Yet a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep 33. And I cannot doe it better than in those words before used VI. 10 11. If thou wilt not rouse up thy self O sluggard but rolling thy self on thy bed ridiculously desire thy pains may be spared and that thou mayst still be suffered without any disturbance to enjoy a little more sleep and to lay aside all care of thy business when thou hast loytered too long already 34. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth and thy want as an armed man 34. Then poverty shall come swiftly though in silent and unobserved paces upon thee and before thou art aware leave thee as naked as if thou wert stript by a high-way man nay the most extreme want and beggary shall unavoidably seise on thee like an armed man against whom thou canst make no resistance The End of the Second Part of the Book of PROVERBS THE THIRD PART Of the BOOK of PROVERBS CHAP. XXV ARGUMENT a Here begins the THIRD PART of the Book of Proverbs which are a Collection made by some belonging to Hezekiah and acknowledged here in the entrance of the Book as well as the former to be Solomon's Who spake a great many Proverbs we reade 1 King IV. 32. which no doubt were preserved by his Successours in a Book if he did not set them down there himself Out of which Volume some good men had selected such as they thought most usefull for the people and besides those in the foregoing Chapters which had been compiled either in his own days or soon after these also which follow were thought good to be added in the days of Hezekiah Who restoring the service of God in the Temple to its purity and splendour 2 Chron. XXIX 3 c. XXX 1 c. XXXI 2 3 c. took care in all likelyhood for the better instruction of the people in piety to revive the Schools of the Prophets also and to press them as he had done the Priests to doe their duty faithfully in teaching the Laws of God and informing the people in all things that might be profitable for them Out of which Schools some were chosen it is probable to attend the King himself who are called his men or servants who out of their great zeal to promote usefull learning culled out more Proverbs from among that great heap of three thousand which would have been too great a bulk to have been all published and perhaps all of them not
concerning manners or good government and such especially as they saw would doe good to the Prince as well as to the people of which nature are those that are put into this Collection many of which belong to the right administration of the publick affairs I am not able to produce express authority for all this but I think it may be fairly conjectured from those words 2 Chron. XXXI ult where we reade of the pains Hezekiah took about the Law and about the Commandments as well as about the service of the house of God But who the persons were that he employed in transcribing these Proverbs out of the ancient Records is more obscure Some of the Hebrews say Shebna the Scribe and his Officers or Clerks that were under the principal Secretary Others add Eliakim and Joah who are joyned together with him in 2 King XVIII 26 37. Others fancy them to have been Esaiah a person of great quality near of kin to the King and very familiar with him together with Hoseah and Micah who all lived in the days of Hezekiah and might possibly undertake this excellent Work In which they insert some things which are to be found in the foregoing parts of this Book in words but little different as v. 24. of this Chapter and Ch. XXVI 13 15 22. and other places of which I cannot stay here to give an account b They begin the Book with a Sentence which the Lord Bacon applies to all the learning and wisedom of Solomon In which saith he Solomon challenges nothing to himself but onely the honour of the inquisition and invention of Truth which it is the glory of God to conceal and the glory of a King to find out As if the Divine Majesty took delight to hide his works to the end to have them found out and as if Kings could not attain a greater honour or pleasure or recreation either than to employ themselves in that business considering the great command they have of wits and means whereby the investigation of all things may be effected Thus he L. VI. of the Advanc of Learn Ch. 6. Which is a very ingenious gloss if we refer both parts of the Sentence to one and the same matter tacitely admonishing Hezekiah and in him all succeeding Kings not to spend their time in any thing so much as in searching after truth and indeavouring to understand not onely the secrets of Government but of the Laws of God and of all his Works that they may not be imposed upon by false colours and deceitfull glosses which cunning wits are apt to put upon causes that are brought before them nay upon the Book of God it self But if the words be well examined they will be found to speak rather of different matters which God conceals and into which Kings penetrate By which some understand one thing and some another but taking the word Elohim to relate to God's Government of the World that which I have said in the Paraphrase seems to me nearest to the business And Jansenius his exposition is not forced who discourses to this purpose It is part of God's glory that he need search into nothing because He perfectly knows all things and yet need not declare that He takes notice of every thing because he can doe it when he pleases but rather seem to dissemble his knowledge in which he wonderfully declares his patience and long suffering towards us But Kings on Earth must not herein imitate Him for it is their honour to search diligently and enquire into the state of their Kingdom and to correct presently what they find amiss lest it be out of their power when it is strengthened by long custom and numerous offenders But especially in difficult and intricate businesses covered with darkness and obscurity perplexed with many windings and turnings and with crafty and subtil conveyances there to spy light and by wisedom and diligence to rip up a foul matter and searching the cause to the bottom to make a discovery of all is a thing most worthy of a King and tends highly to his honour In short as it makes for the glory of God that he need enquire into nothing but when he knows all things yet conceals that knowledge so on the contrary side it makes for the glory of Kings that when they are forced to confess that they are ignorant as well as other men of many things they make such diligent enquiry that they discover and detect those things which others have intangled and would have buried in darkness To some such purpose all Interpreters expound these words save one who refers both part of the Sentence to Kings understanding by Elohim Gods Judges and Princes in this sense wise Kings preserve the reverence which is due to their persons and place by concealing carefully their own intentions and counsels and by finding out the designs of other men Thus Maldonate which I mention because it is a great truth though not the sense of the words but rather the meaning of the following verse v. 2. c Which concerns Kings also as some of those that come after likewise do which would incline one to think this Part of the Book of Proverbs was particularly collected for the use of Hezekiah and hath received this gloss from the same great man I named before the Lord Bacon who gives this as one of the chief reasons why the hearts of Kings are inscrutable because they being at the very top of humane desires have not for the most part any particular ends proposed to themselves none at least to which they vehemently and constantly aspire by the site and distance of which ends we may be directed to take the measure and scale of the rest of their actions whereas there is no private person who is not altogether like a Traveller that goes intently aiming at some certain terms of his journey where he may stay and rest from whence one may probably conjecture what he will doe or not doe For if any thing conduce to the end at which he aims it is likely he will doe it but if it cross his design he will not Therefore he passes this judicious observation upon the whole that Princes are best interpreted by their natures and private persons by their ends Adv. of Learn B. VIII Ch. 2. But from hence also he observes in his first Book that it is best not to be too inquisitive to penetrate into the hearts of Kings since we are so ignorant of the things we see with our eyes every day which the custom of the Levant aims at that makes it an heinous offence to gaze and fix their eyes upon Princes which is barbarous in the outward ceremony but good in the moral For it becomes not Subjects to pry too far into their Princes counsels But it may as well check the ambition as the curiosity of private persons because they can hardly be sure of that favour which they may imagin their Prince hath for them
THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON PARAPHRASED With the ARGUMENTS OF Each CHAPTER Which supply the place of a COMMENTARY By SYMON PATRICK D.D. Dean of PETERBURGH and Chaplain in Ordinary to his MAJESTY LONDON Printed by M. Flesher for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred MAJESTY MDCLXXXIII TO HER GRACE The Dutchess of MONMOUTH MADAM THere were anciently so many Noble Women as well as Men who even then made the study of the Scripture their delight when Christian piety began to decay that a great part of S. Hierom's pains was bestowed in opening the meaning of them to Blesilla Marcella Melania Paula and her Daughter Eustochium with several other eminent Roman Ladies whose Songs as he writes to Asella were nothing but Psalms whose discourse was the Gospel whose pleasure was continence and whose life was fasting and abstinence More particularly he addressed his services of this kind to the last of those Ladies Eustochium to whom he gives an Epithet importing her prodigious industry with the most fervent desire in the study of heavenly knowledge and therefore inscribed to her the most elaborate of all his Commentaries upon the Prophet Isaiah as he did afterward those upon Ezekiel which were sent her by parts in XVIII Books before every one of which there is a solemn Preface to her By whose example and to heighten that esteem and love of Divine Wisedom wherewith in an age of folly and vanity God hath already inspired your excellent mind I have presumed to dedicate to your GRACE this small Work of mine wherein with no small labour I have expounded the most usefull Book of the PROVERBS Which commends it self to your Grace's acceptance both by the excellence of the matter containing as the words are VIII 6. XXII 20. most noble and princely things choice Maxims built upon the oldest Observations and that will stand firm and be found true as long as the world endures and from the dignity and splendour of the Authour whose illustrious name and pedigree is set down on purpose as S. Basil thinks in the entrance of the Book to give the greater Authority to his words It is SOLOMON to whom the Lord himself said 1 Kings III. 12. Behold I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart so that there was none like thee before thee neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee And again it is recorded of him there IV. 29 that God gave Solomon wisedom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart even as the Sand that is on the Sea shore For as the Sand of the Sea incompasses all the Coasts of this World wherein we inhabit so did his Mind comprehend all things as well Humane as Divine This is that Admirable person to the study of whose rare Wisedom I invite your Grace which that it may be had in greater Veneration the name also of his Mighty Ancestour saith the same S. Basil is added in the title unto his own to put us in mind that he was the Wise Son of a Wise Father and Prophet who from his infancy had instructed him in the holy Writings and made him fit to succeed him in his Throne That likewise contributes not a little to the weight of these Instructions that the Authour of them was a KING and a King in the holy City of God whose Authority he had which being a name of regular and legal power as the same Father still observes it is manifest that the Precepts delivered by such a person and one who was truly worthy of that high title of a King are of the greatest worth and moment because they have respect to nothing but merely the common benefit and publick good and cannot be suspected to have been framed and composed with any aim at private interest For that is the difference saith he between a Tyrant and a King that the former hath regard onely to himself in all that he doeth and designs but the other consults the profit and welfare of those whom he governs So that in short this is the Work of him who was truly invested with that threefold glory which the Ancients ascribe to Trismegistus the power of a King the illumination of a Priest and the learning of a Philosopher But the excellence of this Book will be best understood by the serious perusal of it which will discover it to be a Magazine of all sorts of Wisedom so full of golden Sentences as King James gives its character in his Instructions to his Son and moral Precepts in all things that concern our conversation in this world as among all the prophane Philosophers and Poets there is not to be found so rich a Store-house of Natural Wisedom agreeing with the Will and Divine Wisedom of God And therefore it is most worthy the constant study of all persons who would accomplish themselves with the most usefull knowledge but of none more than of those that are Great whom Solomon instructs how to be Greater and to make their Greatness also lasting and durable and especially of such whose Understandings are Great and Capacious able to penetrate into the depths even of the Civil Precepts and Advertisements contained in this Book springing as our great Advancer of Learning speaks out of the most profound secrets of Wisedom and flowing over into a large field of variety In which I am confident your Grace will delight to walk whose exquisite Judgment cannot but find the highest entertainment in weighing the Wisedom as well as the Truth and Usefulness of these Parables and whose Vertue and Prudence disposes the hours of your life with such order as not to let you want time both to ponder them your self and to instill them also into the Mind of your Children Whose future happiness depends upon their being early seasoned with such Principles as these which will be the most effectual Preservatives against the infectious air wherein we breathe and a Treasure of such inestimable price as will keep their Minds from being corrupted by all the briberies of Fortune as we call it or from being dejected at any cross turn of it which in this world must be sometimes expected For such is the inconstancy of all humane things such is the frailty even of our own bodies as your Grace hath been lately taught by a tedious Sickness from which I most heartily congratulate your Grace's happy recovery that we love not our selves if we seek not after a better Good which is firm and permanent a good that can withstand corruption and defend it self against the force of time and all the accidents of this World In the prosecution of which supreme Good I commend your Grace to the blessing of the Almighty who always favours the least desires of being good and therefore will never desert your sincere indeavours of it which are not unknown to Him while you prefer the Closet to the Theatre and look more to the inside of Vertue than to its outward appearances But I forget my self and
are And thus it is used in the most ancient Book of Holy Scripture for an eloquent speech much exceeding those that had been made before in the beginning of the XXVII and XXIX of Job And so the Doctours of the Church explain it A Proverb saith S. Basil is a profitable Saying delivered with a moderate concealment of the sense c. or a pithy Sentence in a few words expressing much sense This is the first signification of the word though in after-times every Saying that was never so little out of the way of vulgar speech began by the Hebrews to be called Mashall as may be seen in XX. Ezek. 49. And whether it was figurative or simple and plain if it did contain any profitable Instruction it was called by the same Name as we learn from the Sentences in this Book VI. Which consists of a Preface and of the Book it self The Preface is in the nine first Chapters seven of which seem to be an Admonition what is to be done and what to be avoided to make a man capable of Wisedom which in the eighth and ninth Chapters sets forth her own praises Then begins as you find in the front of the tenth Chapter the Proverbs of Solomon which consist of three Parts or Books The first Part from the beginning of the Xth Chapter to the 17th verse of the XXII where a new form of speech any body may discern begins as I have there noted and continues to the XXVth Chapter which may be called the second Part. And then from the XXVth to the XXXth which is the last Part follow such Sentences as were collected afterwards out of his Writings or the Writings of those who had recorded them by some persons whom Hezekiah employed to search the ancient Records For we are told in 1 King IV. that he spake in all three thousand Proverbs which Josephus seems to think were so many Books that perished in the Captivity but S. Hierom takes for so many Sentences contained in this Book that is some of them for there are in all but 800 verses And some of them are not Solomon's for in the end of the Book are added certain Sayings of Agur to his Scholars and the Instructions of a pious Mother to her Son Lemuel of all which I have given an account in their proper places VII And therefore must intreat all those that would profit by this Book to reade the Argument of each Chapter before they proceed to the Paraphrase or at least to consult the References which I have made to such passages in it as will help to make the sense clearer or to explain difficult places which sometimes are capable of more senses than one and therefore if I have not represented them all in the Paraphrase I doe it in the Argument designing all along this alone to give the fullest and properest explication of every phrase upon which as I have not dilated so I have expressed the meaning in the plainest words I could find For as Saint Hierom speaks concerning his own Commentaries upon Ezekiel in the Preface to the Vth Book my business was not to study the Art of Rhetorick nor of exact composition and gracefull language but to use a carefull diligence to hit the sense resting content with this praise alone if the Wise-man's words be understood by my means And indeed it ought to be the design of every good man in such Works as these that the Holy Books as he speaks in another place may be made more intelligible and acceptable by his endeavours and not that his own Writings may be commended by occasion of those Books VIII And in his time nothing was commended he saith but onely that which men fancied to be Eloquence In this the Latins were then altogether delighted but nauseated the understanding of the Holy Scriptures Which provoked God in his just judgments to deliver them into the hands of those rough Nations who in his days broke in like a floud upon them and turned their vain affectation of neatness and elegance of speech into rudeness and Barbarism which ought to be a caution unto us not to give up our selves to the admiration onely of the language and of the wit of the Stage lest our minds thereby be so depraved that we have no relish of the most serious no not of the sacred Writings but reject them as insipid things with which disease if any be infected they might by God's Grace be cured if they would be pleased to apply their mind with due attention to the study of this one Holy Book which wants nothing to entertain the minds of all men though of the widest capacity with the greatest variety of pleasure if they have not perfectly lost their taste of that which will doe them good and make them truly happy IX It is recorded by Suetonius of Caesar Augustus that in his reading all sort of Greek as well as Latin Authours he chiefly observed and transscribed such wholsome precepts or examples as might serve him either for publick or private use which upon occasion he produced for the Instruction of his own domesticks or of the Commanders of his Armies or the Governours of Provinces or the Magistrates in his several Cities according as he thought every one had need of Admonition whom if any man have the heart to imitate Solomon hath saved him the labour which that great Person underwent He need not turn over many Volumes to search for all manner of wise instructions but be furnished here and that at an easie rate out of the vast treasure of Learning he hath left us in this small Book with the best Advices that can be given either to Princes Counsellours Judges and other publick Ministers or to all sorts of Subjects in their several relations and in every condition to make them both pious and politick to direct them in the choice of their Consorts in the education of their Children in the management of domestick affairs and in their transactions with other men in contracting or conducting their Friendships in giving or taking good counsel and reproof in making or preserving peace in judging of men and of the event of their designs and in short for it would be a new Book to mention every thing particularly to instruct every one in all sorts of vertue especially in the Government of the Tongue wherein men offend and whereby they suffer so much that there is no part of prudence more necessary than that and therefore none more insisted on in this Book X. Which contains the Wisedom of that excellent Prince who could readily resolve all Questions and doubts penetrate into the nature of all things and had his own Family and Kingdom in such admirable order that it astonished her who came from the ends of the earth to discourse with him And it was composed if we may rely upon the judgment of the Jewish Writers in his best and most judicious years when his Kingdom also was in
mine ear to them that instructed me 13. I wanted no good Instructions my Parents Tutours Friends and God's Ministers who informed me of the danger and taught me how to escape it but alas I was so sottish as not to obey them so contumacious that I did not so much as consider what they said unto me 14. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly 14. But gave up my self to follow my lusts which in a short time ingaged me in almost all kind of wickedness from which the reverence of no persons could restrain me but openly in the face of the most publick and solemn Assemblies of God's people even before the Magistrates and Judges XXV Numb 7. XXXV 12. I boldly committed them See Arg. b 15. ¶ Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well 15. ¶ Such are the fruitless moans of a man that hath quite exhausted himself in those leud courses which shew how much better it is to follow the advice which I now give thee Marry and in a Wife of thine own enjoy the pleasures thou desirest and be content with them alone innocent chast and pure pleasures as much different from the other as the clear waters of a wholsome fountain are from those of a dirty lake or puddle 16. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the streets 16. Of whom thou mayst have a lawfull Issue which thou needest not be ashamed to own but openly produce and send them abroad like streams from a Spring to serve the publick good nay a numerous progeny may be derived from your happy society and match into divers other honest families 17. Let them be onely thine own and not strangers with thee 17. Children that acknowledge no other Father because they spring from one whom thou enjoyest like a fountain in thy own ground to thy self alone being taught by thy confining thy self to her never to admit any stranger to thy bed but to keep it solely unto thee 18. Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth 18. Happy shalt thou every way be in such a Wife whom I advice thee to take in thy youth and avoiding those filthy cruel Harlots v. 9. to solace thy self in her innocent and delightfull company whereby thou wilt long preserve thy youth which they speedily deflowr v. 10. 19. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe let her breasts satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravisht always with her love 19. Love her and cherish her with a most tender affection and let her always seem amiable in thy eyes if thou wouldst recreate and disport thy self as some are wont to do with young fawns and other beautifull creatures of like kind let it be with her as the sweetest companion in whose embraces take such satisfaction as to forget all other and to be excessively transported with her as long as you live See Arg. a 20. And why wilt thou my son be ravisht with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger 20. Consider My Son v. 1. what I say and deny if thou canst that it is an unaccountable folly to seek that in a vile Harlot to whom thou oughtest to be as great a stranger as to her Religion which thou mayst more fully more pleasantly securely and constantly as well as more innocently enjoy in a pious Wife of thine own Nation 21. For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD and he pondereth all his goings 21. And which is most considerable enjoy with the approbation and favour of the Lord from whom no man can hide his most private actions but He plainly sees and weighs all he doth wheresoever he be and will exactly proportion rewards and punishments according as he behaves himself 22. ¶ His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins 22. ¶ If he be a wicked Fornicator or Adulterer for instance let him not think to escape because he is so cunning that no body observes him or so powerfull that none can call him to account for his own manifold iniquities shall arrest and apprehend him and he shall need no other chains to bind and hold him fast to answer for them to God 23. He shall dye without instruction and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray 23. Whose sentence upon such a person is this that he shall inevitably perish v. 5. because he refused to follow these Instructions and not onely miss of his aime of being happy but like men that wander from the right way precipitate himself into unexpected ruin v. 9 10 11. because he was such an egregious fool as to take no warning by all that could be said to him but still to commit innumerable sins v. 13 14. though he was told the many inconveniencies nay mischiefs they would bring upon him CHAP. VI. ARGUMENT For the securing of the peace and happiness of a married life which the Wise Man had commended in the foregoing Chapter he here adds two cautions one against suretiship the other against sloth which make great discontents in a Family by bringing it to poverty He illustrates both by elegant similitudes especially the latter by the example of the Ant Who borrows of none and yet is not in danger to starve laying up in store by a notable industry sufficient provision in due season against a time of need Which the great Lord a Bacon ingeniously applies in the beginning of his Sixth Book of the Advancement of Learning to the improvement of Arts and Sciences by every ones bringing his grain And in this business he defines the slothfull to be whose onely care it is to live upon the main stock but not to improve it by sowing the ground of Sciences over again and reaping a new harvest This is the sum of the eleven first verses And upon this occasion he annexes the description of a deceitfull knave v. 12 c. who cares not by what wicked arts he lives when he is reduced to poverty Whose character he gives from his mouth his eyes feet singers heart and tongue And after a septenary of vices v. 16 c. which he represents as most odious to God he returns to his former Argument to give cautions against uncleanness especially Adultery verse 20 24 c. which as it is many times the effect of Idleness so he shews is the way to bring one to poverty nay to indanger ones life or to bring inevitably upon him some other mischief not onely infamy but the hatred and revenge of that person who is wronged by the Adulterer who hereby puts himself into a worse condition than that of a Thief b They that would see the terrible effects of this jealousy fully and lively described let them reade Saint Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chap. 52. Where he observes among other things that
rest and refreshment Which it is impossible to find any way but in b vertuous courses as the fifteenth verse suggests to us the sense of which according to the plain import of the Hebrew words I have expressed in the Paraphrase But as the last part of it sounds in our language it will not be incongruous to take the meaning of the whole thus If a man have understanding enough to be thoroughly good he will find things favourable to his honest desires but they that take evil courses meet with great difficulties and are forced to go backward and forward and wind and turn every way to bring about their ends or save themselves perhaps from ruin c There are several other notable sentences in this Chapter upon which if I should enlarge it would be to write a Book The onely two which Melancthon singled out for the observation of his Scholars are the one of them in v. 10. concerning pride Vpon which he remembers them of the Greek Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A mountain cannot mix with a mountain i. e. two high men will never agree together and of another excellent saying among the Latins Crede mihi sapere est non multum sapere Believe me to be wise is not to be over wise For they whose minds are infected with a vain opinion of themselves either cannot see the truth if it be against their thoughts or if they do they will not acknowledge it for fear they should yield and confess themselves overcome d The other is v. 23. the latter part of which he renders differently from all that I have read there is much food in the furrows of the poor alii sine modo cumulant and others heap up without any measure that is to no purpose when a little will suffice Which is a wise saying but not agreeable to the Hebrew Text. I shall onely add that as the Chapter begins with an Admonition to hearken to reproof especially from Parents which is repeated again in the middle v. 13 18. so it concludes e in the last verse but one with an advice to Parents not to spare the rod if reproof will not do which is but necessary in very young Children because there is no other means perhaps to make them understand the difference between good and evil decent and unseemly but onely to make them smart for the one and to give them some sensible pleasure for the other Some Children that is are so disposed that they must be thus treated and it seems a wonderfull piece of wisedom in the old Lacedaemonians as Plutarch relates in his Laconical Institutes that out of an universe love and care for each others good made it lawfull for any man to correct the Child of another person if he saw him doe amiss And if the Child complained of it to his Father it was lookt upon as a fault in the Father if he did not correct him again for making that complaint Such was their confidence in each other that every man being as much concerned for another man's Children as for his own would never doe them any injury nor unreasonably check them without cause For this is the Character Plutarch gives of them that they did not as in other Cities look every man onely after his own children servants and cattel but every man lookt upon what was his neighbour's as his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there might be as much as was possible a communion among them and they might take care of what belonged to others as if they were their own proper goods 1. A Wise son heareth his fathers instruction but a scorner heareth not rebuke A Good Child will reverendly receive and obey both the instruction and the reprehension of his Father but there is no hope of him that laughs and scoffs when he is admonished or chidden for his faults 2. A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth but the soul of the transgressours shall eat violence 2. He that speaks well of others or gives them faithfull counsel shall reap the benefit thereof himself and so shall they that perfidiously calumniate or deceive them suffer themselves that injury which they desired to doe their neighbours 3. He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction 3. It is worth a man's pains to watch over his tongue for he that carefully observes every word he speaks preserves himself from much trouble and danger but he that blurts out every thing that comes into his head not minding what he saith is in the ready way to ruin 4. The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat 4. There is nothing gotten by sloth neither riches nor learning which he in vain desires that will not labour for them but the diligent and industrious shall never want satisfaction but enjoy perhaps a great deal more than he desired 5. A righteous man hateth lying but a wicked man is lothsom and cometh to shame 5. A good man not onely avoids but hates all manner of falshood both in word and deed but the wicked delights to abuse others with such abominable lies and frauds as make him no less loathsome than a stinking carkass and so contemptible that he dare not shew his face for shame 6. Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way but wickedness overthroweth the sinner 6. The justice of all honest and upright designs will be a sufficient security to them but all wicked contrivances are overthrown by their own iniquity 7. There is that maketh himself rich yet hath nothing there is that maketh himself poor yet hath great riches 7. You will be deceived if you judge of men by the outward appearance for there are those who have the vanity to make a great show in the world when they are not worth a farthing and others who are so cunning as to dissemble their vast estates under the garb of poverty 8. The ransom of a mans life are his riches but the poor heareth not rebuke 8. Rich men are not always so happy as they are imagined for their wealth sometimes onely serves to make them accused of high crimes and then to bring them off with a huge sum of money which they pay to save their lives but no body is apt to find fault with the poor or to bring any charge against them See Arg. a 9. The light of the righteous rejoyceth but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out 9. The happiness of the just is great and illustrious like the light of the sun and increases still to their endless joy but the happiness of the wicked is weak and dim like the light of a candle and will at last be utterly extinguished 10. Onely by pride cometh contention but with the well-advised is wisedom 10. They that have an high conceit of themselves and will yield to none declare their folly
that I scarce know which to follow Some take that word which we translate separateth himself in a good sense others in a bad I have chosen the latter because it seems most agreeable to the rest of the words But the Chaldee Interpreter gives a quite different sense both of that word and of some other in these verses and de Dieu hath shown there is such reason for it that I think I am obliged here to take notice of it and to Paraphrase upon it By niphrad which we render separateth himself he understands a man divided uncertain in his own mind who can stick to nothing but wanders about in his own thoughts And the last word in the first verse jith galla which we translate intermedleth he translates is left desolate And then in the next verse taking behith galloth for wandring up and down not for discovering or revealing as we do the Paraphrase will run thus V. 1. An unconstant man desires many things and seeks satisfaction but whatsoever he seeks he never meets with it but is defeated and disappointed in all his designs 2. And this is a certain character of a fool that he never fixes in any thing but chuses rather to gad up and down and rove from one inquiry to another than give his mind to true wisedom and prudence in which he hath no pleasure The Lord Bacon aims at this I suppose when he briefly expresses the sense of Solomon thus Pro desiderio quaerit cerebrosus omnibus immiscet se A hare-brain'd man seeks to satisfie his fancy and intermixeth himself with all things According to that of Seneca Vita sine proposito languida est vaga A life that proposeth no end to pursue is faint sickly and vagrant If we take the word niphrad in a good sense then the Paraphrase must run thus 1. He that lives retired and sequesters himself from ill company and business out of a true affection to wisedom endeavours to have a sound knowledge and understanding of things 2. But a vain man addicts himself to his Studies for no other end but onely to vapour with a shew of wisedom which he doth not love b As for the vulgar Translation it is so remote from the Hebrew that I shall onely observe an handsome application which the Lord Bacon hath made of the second verse to a quite different purpose from all Interpreters that I am acquainted with The words there run thus Non recipit stultus verba prudentum nisi ea dixeris quae versantur in corde ejus Which is commonly understood of accommodating ones self to the humour of a fool who otherwise will not regard what is said to him but that great Man applies to the way of dealing with men of corrupt minds and depraved judgments Who pre-suppose that honesty grows out of weakness of wit and want of experience or onely out of a silly belief given to Preachers and School-masters to Books and Popular opinions And therefore unless you can make them plainly perceive that you know what is in their very heart when you exhort and admonish them and are as well acquainted with their depraved principles and crooked rules and have as fully discovered and deeply sounded them as themselves they will despise all manner of vertue and the most excellent counsels according to that admirable Oracle of Solomon A fool will not receive the words of the wise unless thou speakest the very things that are in his heart i. e. an honest man can doe no good upon the wicked unless he know all the coverts and depths of wickedness In which Matchiavel himself hath done some service by discovering plainly what men use to doe not what they ought to doe Advanc of Learning B. VII Chap. 2. c The next verse may have a connexion with these two and intend to describe the worst of wicked men who seek for glory by being so bold as to scorn Religion and all the Teachers of it Such men are the greatest of Solomon's fools by whom an excellent person whom the Hebrews call Ish in opposition to Adam should not be discouraged from pouring out good instructions as he shows in the following words verse 4. d Then after a caution to Judges v. 5. to search into the merits of a cause and not merely to look to the quality of the person that appears before them he observes in several verses the mischief done by the tongue v. 6 7 8. In the last of which the word Mithlahamim being of uncertain signification because it is but once more used and in this Book to the same purpose I have taken in two or three of the senses of which it is capable as he that pleases to examin will be satisfied e Rabbi Levi observes that in the tenth verse there begins another sort of precepts of a different kind from those that have been hitherto delivered from the beginning of the Tenth Chapter to this place All which have been in a manner concerning the danger of such vices as sloth hatred anger deceit brawling strife impiety and other parts of that folly against which he hath given many General cautions But now he proceeds as that Jewish Doctor thinks to an Argument of another nature directing men in the management of affairs of State or in domestick business c. Which is true in part but not an exact Observation For there are precepts of the former kind interspersed in the following Chapters as any one may see that will reade them and so there are several political maxims and others belonging to different matters in the Chapters foregoing Even that observation which here immediately follows v. 11. concerning a rich man's confidence in his Wealth rather than in the Divine Providence and protection was delivered in part before X. 13. And the very next concerning pride and humility v. 12. in Chapt. XV. 33. and XVI 18. And that also v. 16. about gifts was touched in XVII 8. f The thirteenth verse is referred by some to Judges who were anciently called Cognitores And in good Authours cognoscere is as much as to doe the office of a Judge who ought to take the greatest care to know the truth before he give a sentence For if it be a shame to a private person in ordinary discourse to answer a matter before he heareth it much more will it be to a Magistrate if in matters of justice and judgment he come to a resolution before he hath taken full cognizance of them g Some would connect the seventeenth verse with the foregoing but I have taken it separately And there being several ways of interpreting it either politically with relation to causes brought before a Judge or spiritually with relation to what is transacted in a man 's own Soul I have followed our Translation which seems to me nearest to the Hebrew In which a just man is not the person of whom Solomon speaks but the mark of the Nominative Case as Grammarians call it is set
love and kindness 23. The fear of the LORD tendeth to life and he that hath it shall abide satisfied he shall not be visited with evil 23. Nothing makes a man lead so happy a life as a religious care to please the Lord in all things which is attended with abundance of blessings but especially with inward satisfaction of mind which makes a man sleep quietly and securely without fear of any evil that can invade him See Arg. g 24. A slothfull man hideth his hand in his bosom and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again 24. All things seem so difficult to a lazy wretch who indulges himself in sloth and loves his ease that he would not willingly pull his hands from under his armes no not to put his meat into his mouth See Arg. h 25. Smite a scorner and the simple will beware and reprove one that hath understanding and he will understand knowledge 25. Punish a derider of Religion severely and though it doe him no good yet those incautious persons whom he hath deluded will be awakened by it to greater circumspection but it is sufficient onely to chide a well-disposed person for his faults of which he himself will receive the benefit and learn to amend them See Arg. i 26. He that wasteth his father and chaseth away his mother is a son that causeth shame and bringeth reproach 26. A Son that leads a debauched life too often wastes all his Father's estate and either turns his Mother out of doors or makes her weary of the house which is so disgracefull that it makes them ashamed to shew their heads and will bring him to greater confusion at the last 27. Cease my son to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge 27. My Son beware of their discourse who under the shew of greater learning seduce thee from the plain doctrines of Vertue or if thou hast been unhappily engaged in such company quit it presently and stick to those that honestly instruct thee for remember this to leave off hearing the instruction of good men is the first step towards a departure from all Religion 28. An ungodly witness scorneth judgment and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity 28. A wicked witness who hath perfectly discharged all sense of good and evil mocks if you tell him of Law and Justice or of the judgment of God upon perjured persons for there is no iniquity so great but there are men as leudly impious who will not so much as boggle at it but swallow it down as glibly as drunkards do their liquour See Arg. k 29. Judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the back of fools 29. But they shall not mock always for terrible punishments shall certainly be inflicted upon those that scoff at Conscience and Religion nor shall other wicked men escape who are such fools as to flight these good instructions but feel at last to their smart the dolefull effects of their sin in indelible marks of the divine displeasure CHAP. XX. ARGUMENT a The first precept in this Chapter is against Drunkenness as an enemy to Wisedom even in common things much more in those of everlasting consequence For that it commonly expells out of mens minds all reverence both to God and to others inclining them to take the license to say or doe any thing without restraint or discretion and what unruly passions it excites when the brain is disturbed with it is known to all and need not be here recited The word Homeh which Solomon here uses and which we render raging or outragious includes them all signifying that discomposed unquiet and restless state of mind which expresses it self in some wild motion or other according as men are naturally inclined But nothing worse can be said of it than this that it makes men either stupid sots or profane scoffers at Religion and all sobriety b Next to this he advises every man to take heed how he suffers himself to be drunk with anger For nothing else but an intoxication therewith can make a man so distracted as to fly in the face of Majesty For so that word hithabber properly signifies not to provoke the King though most Interpreters even Bochartus himself so render it but to be angry at him which is a kind of madness For thereby he is provoked to such fury as is in young Lions who are the fiercest of all others I have therefore expressed both senses of the word c In the next verse I take ish to signifie a more than ordinary man one of the highest rank and that in Wisedom For it is opposed to a fool and therefore so I have expounded it d As I have also understood it in v. 5. where Solomon observes that there are no men so cunning but there are others as subtil to find them out Concerning which Art of finding out men the Great Lord Bacon hath given many notable rules in his second Chapter of the VIII Book of the Advancement of Learning for though the knowledge it self falls not under precepts because it is of Individuals yet instructions for the deducing of it may be given And he observes six ways whereby the knowledge of men may be drawn out and disclosed By their faces and countenances by words by deeds by their nature by their ends and by the relations of others What he says upon these heads the Reader may there find I shall onely mention this single observation of his That the weakest and simplest sort of men are best interpreted by their Natures according to which they commonly act but the wisest and most reserved are best expounded by their ends and aims e The next verse is very variously expounded but our Translation seems to come nearest to the sense of the Hebrew words Which may admit also of this construction which approaches nearer than any other beside that which we follow It is the common inclination of mankind when they are in need or danger to call for relief or help from him whom they have obliged but there are very few that in such a condition will approve themselves to be faithfull friends f The eleventh verse also may be expounded quite contrary ways Because the word ithnakker signifies both to make ones self known and to make ones self a stranger unto others All the ancient Interpreters follow as ours doth the first sense which seems most genuine for Nature commonly betrays its inclinations in children so plainly and they are so strong and violent that they cannot dissemble them Yet that which is the other is no absurd sense which some give of these words Even children are so cunning as to hide their inclinations and therefore it is not easie to guess in their childhood what they will prove when they come to man's estate But this is not so common as the other g The next verse some good Interpreters expound wholly concerning the happiness a people is in when the Subjects are
there being such depths in their inclinations and affections as they cannot sound But in the next verses Princes are admonished that there is no policy like true Vertue to support their Thrones and that in order to it they should not keep so much as one ill man about them who oft-times corrupts the whole Court and disturbs the whole Kingdom d And in the next verse he admonishes Subjects not to be vainly ambitious nor bold and forward to thrust themselves into Offices or into a rank that doth not belong to them but to be modest especially in the Prince's presence and according to our Saviour's rule to be invited to honour rather than greedily seek it And withall he secretly commends to Kings the care of keeping up their state and dignity not suffering every body to intrude into their presence but giving a check to proud bold and sawcy persons Then follow private instructions not to be too forward to go to Law and when we do to manage Suits fairly without aspersing those with whom we contend and without breaking the Laws of Friendship which require us not to discover the secrets wherewith another hath intrusted us ver 9 10. e In the eleventh verse I have followed Maimonides his interpretation of the word Maskijoth in his Preface to his More Nevochim And it being doubtfull whether by apples of gold he mean apples that look like gold or apples made of gold I have expressed both f But I must not give a particular account of every verse and therefore I shall onely add that I have taken the meaning of the 16. and 17. verses to be that moderation is good in all things especially in those that please us As honey doth which was so plentifull in those Countries as it is in many other that it was ordinarily found in the woods and holes of rocks c. as may be seen in Bochart L. IV. C. 12. P. 11. De Sac. Animal g In the 20th verse I have followed Melancthon in what he observes out of Pliny concerning nitre whose nature is not now well known that it is exasperated by vinegar or lime But in the latter end of the verse I have kept to our Translation which by leb ra understands an heart ill affected by grief or sorrow which he takes literally for an evil or wicked heart And makes this the meaning which some others have followed that pertinacious sinners are made more furious by admonitions In all ancient Translations there follows after this verse this Sentence As a moth in a garment or a worm in wood so is heaviness in the heart of man But S. Hierom in the latter end of his Commentaries upon Esaiah tells us that it was sub obelo in Origen's Works where he noted all superfluous additions with that mark h I must not omit neither that the 23d verse will admit of a quite contrary sense to that in our Translation and is by some rendred thus As the north wind begetteth rain for so it doth in some Climates so a backbiting tongue raiseth up anger and indignation which appear in the countenance both of him that believes the calumny and of him that is calumniated when be knows how he is abused i There is no great difficulty in v. 26. But Interpreters are divided about this whether he speak of a just man's falling into sin or into some calamity Melancthon understands the latter and makes this the sense that even wise mens minds are extremely troubled when they see the wicked prevail against the vertuous of which he gives a great many examples But I have taken in both and have referred it also to all manner of sufferings and not restrained it to publick injustice as the Lord Bacon doth who hath this excellent observation upon the place Book VIII Ch. 2. Parab 25. This Parable teaches us that States and Republicks must above all things beware of an unjust and infamous Sentence in any cause of great importance especially where the innocent is not absolved but he that is not guilty condemned For injuries ravaging among private persons do indeed trouble and pollute the streams of Justice yet onely as in the smaller rivulets but such unjust judgments as I mentioned from which examples are derived infect and distain the very fountain of Justice For when the Courts of Justice side with Injustice the state of things is turned as into a publick Robbery Homo homini fit lupus and one Man preys upon another k With this verse de Dieu connects the next v. 27. and gives the easiest account that I find any where of the Hebrew Text onely translating that particle but which we translate so as it is often taken in the Scripture And his sense is this Though the just may be trampled under foot for a while by the wicked yet their glory shall not perish but remain so fresh and sweet that it shall be a glorious thing to enquire into their glorious actions So he would have the verse translated thus to eat much honey indeed is not good but to search out their glory viz. of just men is glory And if we take the verse by it self then the sense may be this as the Belgick Interpreters translate it of whom he if I mistake not was one to eat much honey is not good but to search into excellent things is a great commendation and we cannot therein easily offend by excess which is quite contrary to the Vulgar Latin whose sense and meaning though not the words may be defended even without repeating the word not as we do in our Translation in this manner As honey though pleasant to the taste oppresses the stomach if it be immoderately used so upon a curious search into things sublime and glorious though they be most sweet and desirable to our understanding we shall find our selves overwhelmed with a greater glory than we can bear And so the latter part of the verse should word for word be thus translated The search of their glory viz. of things as sweet as honey but transcending our knowledge is glory viz. too bright for our weak minds l The last verse which in the Hebrew belongs to all men whose passions are unruly is by the Vulgar restrained to him that cannot command his tongue which is part of the sense For as men may go out of a City without Walls when they will so every thing is blurted out by him even the greatest secrets and by too much liberty he disobliges others and undoes himself 1. THese are also proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out 1. BEsides the foregoing lessons sententiously delivered by Solomon these also were collected out of his Works by some of the Servants of that good King Hezekiah who setting himself with all his heart to reform the people of Judah among other things wherein God blessed his endeavours 2 Chr. XXXI 21. caused these Proverbs to be transcribed out of the ancient records for
him a liar whom he cannot endure because he disables him from doing any farther mischief unto others which is the design of all his glosing and flattering words which prove at last the ruine of himself See Arg. l CHAP. XXVII ARGUMENT a This Chapter begins with a most usefull Admonition of the inconstancy and uncertainty of all things here below like to which there are a great many in other Authours which several Writers have collected but I shall not trouble the Readers withall particularly Melancthon who observes that the Wise man here teaches us modesty and prohibites these two great vices confidence in our selves or any thing we have and rash undertaking unnecessary things out of a foolish hope they will succeed according to our desires Wise and good men should onely meddle within the bounds of their calling and depend also on God for his blessing but not attempt things without just cause presuming they can carry them as they please Thus Pericles says he made an unnecessary War for a slight reason which many then judged ought to have been neglected and Alcibiades in like manner passed over into Sicily and Hannibal made War upon the Romans and Pompey would needs try his fortune as they called it in War when he might have kept peace upon honest conditions All these were destructive to their Countries and the Proverb was verified in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vain men devise vain things according as their desires lead them b And there is nothing more foolish than the vanity of praising themselves which follows in the next verse v. 2. and is noted by all Authours who have many sharp sayings about it which I also pass over But shall take notice because it is still more usefull what the same good man Melancthon observes upon the third verse that fools and unskilfull people are more apt to be angry than others because they consider not the infirmity of mankind and that there are many errours of others which ought to be born withall and cured after a gentle manner whence that true saying Imperito nunquam quicquam injustius est But as Goodness is most eminent in God who himself bears with many evils in us and commands us to forgive and it shall be forgiven us so wise men bend their minds to goodness and lenity remembring the common infirmities of all men their own as well as others Nor can there be a more lively picture of the implacable spirit of a fool than that which our Saviour himself hath drawn in the Gospel of a cruel Servant who when he had been forgiven sixty tonne of Gold by his Master would not forgive his fellow servant an hundred pence Matth. XVIII This Sentence of Solomon therefore saith he admonishes us to avoid the company of fools qui neque cognoscere neque ignoscere norunt as well as to be so wise our selves as to moderate our passions and to be mindfull of humane weakness For nihil magnum quod non est placidum as Seneca speaks like unto which he adds other sayings out of Homer and Pliny c In the next verse but one some think the Wise man speaks of such Friends as are too tender and delicate and for fear of offending others have not the courage to tell them of their errours whom the great Lord Bacon follows and thinks Solomon prefers an open Enemy before such a Friend which I do not take to be the meaning but shall here set down his excellent observation upon these words Adv. of Learn Book VIII Ch. 2. Parab 29. The Parable saith he reprehends the soft nature of such Friends as will not use the privilege which Friendship gives them in admonishing their Friends with freedom and confidence as well of their errours as of their dangers For what shall I doe says such a tender-hearted Friend or which way shall I turn my self I love him as dearly as any man can do another and if any misfortune should befall him I could willingly pawn my own person for his redemption But I know his disposition if I deal freely with him I shall offend him at least make him sad and yet doe him no good And I shall sooner estrange him from my Friendship than reclaim him from those courses upon which his mind is resolved Such a Friend as this Solomon here reprehends as weak and worthless and says that a man may reap more profit from a manifest Enemy than from such an effeminate Friend For he may perhaps hear that by way of reproach from an Enemy which through too much indulgence was but faintly whispered by a Friend d And one great reason why men are loth to tell others of their faults is because they are wont to take it heinously If men were more willing to receive reproof others would more faithfully give it of which the Wise man therefore admonishes us v. 6. where the word Nataroth is so difficult that it admits various interpretations some of which I have expressed in the Paraphrase And made v. 7. a caution against the immoderate enjoyment of pleasures which commend themselves to us by their rarer use As the next v. 8. is a caution against unsettledness of mind and discontent with our present condition which not onely spoils all our pleasures but often carries men restlessly to their ruine where Melancthon suggests this usefull Meditation that there is no condition of life no function without its cares troubles and dangers which makes men soon weary of it according to the ancient saying Optat ephippia bos piger optat arare caballus But the Wise man would have us understand that nothing is more dangerous than this and therefore to take care lest tired and broken with disgusts we lightly desert that kind of life to which we are rightly called All the ancient wisedom hath observed that such desultory humours never thrive about which they have many Proverbs with which I shall not fill these Papers e After this follow some advices about Friendship and other things which have been noted before in the foregoing parts of this Book And then he seems v. 14. to lay open the guise of Flatterers who hope to curry favour with their Benefactours by extolling their bounty with extravagant praises So I have expounded that verse not merely of those that praise others but praise them for their kindness to themselves as the word Barak properly imports The intention of which is onely to get still more from them which is commonly the end of all those that praise others immoderately for their rare qualities and perfections hoping thereby to make them extraordinary kind to them above all other men Thus the Lord Bacon hath observed about this matter whose gloss upon these words is this in the forenamed place Parable 33. Moderate and seasonable praises uttered upon occasion conduce both to mens fame and fortune but immoderate streperous and unseasonably poured out profit nothing nay rather according to the sense of this Parable they
of God they remain in a prosperous and happy condition See Arg. k 19. A servant will not be corrected by words for though he understand he will not answer 19. A Slave and he that is of a servile nature is not to be amended by reason and perswasions no nor by reproofs or threats for though he hear and understand too what you say yet he will not obey till he be forced unto it by blows See Arg. l 20. Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words there is more hope of a fool than of him 20. Observe it when you will you shall commonly find that he who is forward to speak to a business before his betters or before he understand it or hath considered it is so conceited of himself that a man wholly ignorant may sooner be rightly informed than he who is so well perswaded of his own sufficiency 21. He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length 21. It is so hard for a man of base condition to bear a sudden preferment handsomely that it is dangerous to express too much kindness to a Servant at the very first by feeding him delicately clothing him finely or indulging him too much ease liberty and familiarity for this is the way to make him sawcy if not contumacious nay to domineer and take upon him as if he were a Son and perhaps indeavour to disinherit the Heir of the Family See Arg. m 22. An angry man stirreth up strife and a furious man aboundeth in transgression 22. A man prone to anger is very troublesome and unpeaceable being apt to quarrel about trifles and as he offends very often so if he let it proceed to rage and fury he falls into abundance of sins both in word and deed against God and against his neighbour 23. A mans pride shall bring him low but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit 23. Proud and contumelious behaviour instead of procuring men respect throws them into the contempt and hatred of all and at last into destruction but he whose meek and lowly mind makes him kind and obliging shall be highly esteemed and the esteem he hath shall be his support when others fall to ruin 24. Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul he heareth cursing and bewrayeth it not 24. He that partakes with a thief by harbouring him when he is pursued or by receiving stoln goods c. hath the same guilt upon him with the thief himself and as he hath put his own life in danger to save the thiefs so this will engage him to run his soul into greater danger to save his life for being adjured to discover what he knows he will go near to forswear himself for fear of being hanged 25. The fear of man bringeth a snare but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe 25. As all inordinate fear bereaves a man of counsel and power to help himself so he that stands in too great fear of what men can doe unto him will be insnared in many sins and perils also to avoid their displeasure but he that confides in the Lord hath his wits always about him and being raised above such low considerations preserves his integrity and that by God's good providence over him will preserve him in safety 26. Many seek the rulers favour but every mans judgment cometh from the LORD 26. There are multitudes of men who are ambitious to be known to their Prince and obtain his favour for honour and preferment but few remember that there is a greater Lord than he the Sovereign of all the world whose grace and favour should be principally sought for He determins and orders what every man's portion shall be and will both judge of mens deserts better than any earthly King can do and deal with them according as they behave themselves in that condition wherein they are 27. An unjust man is an abomination to the just and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked 27. There is such a perfect antipathy between vertue and vice that all truly good men extremely abominate him that doth mischief in the world though he be never so great and powerfull as on the contrary the evil doer hath every man that behaves himself uprightly though never so usefull in utter abhorrence and detestation The END of the THIRD PART CHAP. XXX ARGUMENT a This Chapter contains a new Collection of pithy Sayings which some fancy to be Solomon's and therefore translate the two first words thus the words of the Collector or gatherer But why Solomon should call himself by this name and also instead of the Son of David style himself the Son of Jake seems to me unaccountable And therefore it is most reasonable to follow our Translation unto which the wisest of those that adhere to the Vulgar are forced to consent as most literal and to look upon this Chapter as a Fragment of some wise Sentences delivered by one whose name was Agur and his Fathers name Jake unless we will conceive that this Son of Jake whosoever he was had gotten the name of Collector because though he was a very wise man yet he composed nothing himself but onely gathered out of other wise mens works such instructions as he thought most profitable and comprised in a few words a great deal of sense b Which conjecture if it be admitted nothing can better explain his disclaiming the title of a Wise man v. 2. which he would not assume to himself because he was onely a Collector from other Authours and did not pretend to have discovered or invented any thing himself But take it how we will some of his Observations are here annexed to the Proverbs of Solomon after the manner of other Writings of this nature In which as Melancthon notes the greater part of a Book belonging to one Authour some notable speeches of others have been inserted as some of the Sibyllin Verses they say were into the Poem of Phocyllides c And these words of Agur are called Massa which we translate Prophecy either to denote the weightiness of the Sentences or that they were culled and selected out of some work of his then remaining in their records as fit in the judgment of the men of Hezekiah who perhaps extracted them to accompany the Proverbs of Solomon And they seem to me to be Answers to several Questions propounded to him by his Scholars Ithiel who was the principal and Ucal who came to him as if he had been an Oracle to be resolved in some hard doubts asking him in the first place just as they did Apollo of old as Aben Ezra conjectures Who was the wisest man To which he replies v. 2. He that is sensible of his own ignorance much like the saying of Socrates this onely I know that I know nothing and of Pythagoras who also refused the name of Wise which made much for the reputation of his
in those times great persons very inquisitive after knowledge as there had been in the times foregoing in those Eastern Countries and in Egypt which was famous for wise men 1 King IV. 30. where we reade of the wisedom of the Children of the East i. e. Arabia where Job a considerable Prince and the rest of his Friends lived in former ages and the wisedom of Egypt Of which Country some have thought those famous men to have been who are mentioned in the next words v. 31. where this demonstration is given that Solomon's wisedom excelled all the wisedom of those Countries for he was wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman and Chalcol and Darda c. upon which words Gasper Sanchez notes that the Seder Olam says these were Egyptian wise men But it is not good to take things upon trust for I find upon examination of the place which is Chap. XX. of the greater Book of that name that it saith no such thing but onely this that the Sons of Zara Zimri Ethan Heman Chalcol and Dara mentioned 1 Chron. II. 6. were Prophets who prophecied in Egypt But however this be that very Book acknowledges in the next Chapter that there were Prophets in other Countries before the Law of Moses was given though after the delivery of it the holy Spirit they fancy forsook all the world but them immediately upon the speaking of those words XXXIII Exod. 16. XXXIV 6. For which assertion as there is not the least shadow of reason so supposing it were true it must notwithstanding be confessed that there remained still among other Nations many excellent and wise persons both men and women who had such communication also with the Jews that many of them were proselyted to their Religion which might have countenanced their Authours if they had said and it seems to me a better fancy than any they have that Lemuel's Mother was a Jewish Lady married to some Prince of another Country by whom she had this Son and took care of his Institution in the Divine wisedom of her people And by the use of the word bar three times for a Son in the beginning of this Instruction which is no where used in this Book before nor in the whole Bible more than once II. Psal 12. one would guess this Lemuel to have been some great person in Chaldaea For in the next verse also v. 4. we meet with the word Melachin Kings according to the termination in the Language of that Country b But this is all uncertain and therefore I proceed no further in it but onely note that whosoever was the Mother of Lemuel she was mightily solicitous to have him doe well as appears by verse the second Which some think to be a passionate expression when she saw him begin to incline to evil courses as if she had said What dost thou mean my Son c. But it is more likely that it proceeded from a tender concern for his well-doing as soon as ever he grew up whilst he was yet innocent and untainted And that he might so continue she gives him three or rather four of the most proper Advices that could be thought of for a Prince c First to subdue that lust which she knew to be very violent in youth especially in young Kings who have more provocations and are apt to take more license than other men but bring thereby such mischiefs upon themselves and their Kingdoms as are not to be repaired but often end in their destruction v. 3. d In order to this she admonishes him in the second place to avoid drunkenness and to preserve himself perfectly sober whereby he would be fit also for counsel and be able likewise to give a right judgment when Causes were brought before him v. 4. which some extend so far as to think she would not have him drink any wine at all or other strong liquors of which there were several made of honey or dates and divers other things which go under the common name of Schechar But it is more reasonable to look upon it as a caution against excess which is dangerous in all men but especially in those that are to govern others as well as themselves For then they blurt out the greatest secrets as the Vulgar translate the latter part of the verse or grow furious and outragious as the LXX translate the same passage but both of them without any ground that I can see in the Hebrew Text. e In which follows v. 5. the true reason of this prohibition and then an account v. 6. of their condition to whom a larger quantity than ordinary of wine or strong drink is fit to be allowed Not to Kings who have innumerable ways to relieve their cares and to divert themselves when any thing troubles them but to poor miserable people that are ready to faint under their heavy burthens and oppressions For whom this is a present relief and the onely one sometime they are capable of when they are in a very melancholy condition And they that are of such a temper or are otherways made exceeding sad can better bear a great deal of wine without any disorder than the sanguine and they who are gay and merry There are those that by men ready to perish have understood such as were condemned to dye and going to execution Vnto whom it was the custom to give a draught of wine to support their spirits and in the degenerate ages of the Jewish Commonwealth they put something into it to intoxicate the poor wretches so that they might be insensible of pain And some imagin this custom took its original from this place in the Proverbs though it be not the true sense of the words For the latter part of this verse and that which follows v. 7. gives the best explication of the first and they shew he speaks of those that were miserably poor And so the best Hebrew Expositours interpret those words XXVI Deut. 4. my Father was a Syrian ready to perish that is extreme poor and in want of all things f And thus having enlarged this second Advice a little she passes to the third which is v. 8. to take such care that Justice be exactly administred without which no Kingdom can subsist as himself to undertake the defence of those who were in danger to lose a good cause for want of an Advocate to plead it for them or to open the true state of it c. Especially she commends to him the patronage of Strangers Orphans and poor indigent people The first of which in the Hebrew are called children of change or that are passed by That is persons who have changed their country or that are in danger to suffer grievous alterations in their condition if right be not done them or who are deserted by all and have none to stand by them Several other ways there are to explain the phrase but to the same purpose g But the great care of Parents being to see their
Son well married she concludes with the description of such a wife as she would have him seek which takes up the rest of the Chapter from v. 10. to the end And it is in the form of a Poem as S. Hierom takes it consisting of a sort of Iambick verses each of which begins with a new Letter of the Alphabet in order the tenth with Aleph the eleventh with Beth and so to the bottom Which was an elegant sort of composure among the Ancients and a great help to memory also as we see in several Psalms and other parts of Scripture Now whether she composed these verses her self or got her sense expressed by some eminent Poet cannot be known nor is it material But I do not think fit to follow the conjecture of Huetius in his late Demonstr Evang. who imagins the words of Lemuel's Mother to end with the ninth verse and here to begin a distinct composition of some other person suppose Solomon For though this following Poem be disjoyned from the foregoing words in the LXX and differs herein from the rest that in the beginning of every verse the order of the Hebrew Alphabet is observed yet there being no words in the head of it as there is Chap. XXX and the beginning of this Chapter to denote it to belong to another Authour I take it to be of the same piece with the first nine verses That is to be a Copy of Verses delivered to Lemuel by his Mother in commendation of an excellent woman which perhaps she did not make her self though there be no proof of that and both Deborah and Hannah we find were Poets but notwithstanding being recommended to him by her would she thought have the same authority with him as if she had been the Authour And it is very observable that the general character of such a woman as she would have him marry is escheth chajil a vertuous woman we translate it Which word chajil signifies both strength or rather valour and courage and riches and vertue And in the description of fitting persons for the Magistracy Jethro in general saith they should be anschee chajil XVIII Exod. 21. which we translate able men and then follows more particularly wherein their ability should consist such as fear God men of truth hating covetousness I take therefore escheth chajil to include in it a great fear of God mentioned afterward v. 30. which is so powerfull as to endue one with the courage to doe well when piety is contemned nay laught at and abused and have not therefore omitted this among other words to express the force of this phrase h And then follow after this abundance of other good qualities which are included in this such as chastity and such a care of her husbands estate that be might have a perfect confidence in her management love to him without moroseness diligence in all houshold affairs frugality gentleness in the government of her family a prudent care in the education of her children and in setting all the family to some employment or other and increasing also her husbands estate and yet giving liberally to the poor affability and courtesie to all c. which excellent indowments if her Son found in a wife she knew it would be a certain means to preserve him from following other women v. 3. when he took perfect delight in her company and from drunkenness also v. 4. which few fall into who intirely love their wives and study to please them in all things for they generally abhor this loathsome vice In order to this she would have him marry such an one as he could perfectly confide in and never in the least suspect of any levity or unfaithfulness or carelesness when he was abroad v. 11. and would never be cross to him but always loving and kind and pleasing when he was at home v. 12. i An excellent houswife also prone to take any pains her self that she might give a good example to others particularly in the Linen and Woollen Manufacture in which the greatest women it appears by ancient Authours constantly employed themselves heretofore with such diligence as is highly praised in their Books v. 13. where to express her propension to this work he ascribes a willingness and forwardness to her hands just as XXI Prov. 25. he makes the hands of the sluggard to be averse to labour k Which turns to a great account she shews both in foreign commodities v. 14. and in the purchase of land v. 16. which the good houswife her self views and walks about with great expedition v. 17. tucking up her garments as we speak that she may be fit for motion every where and not minding fine clothes more than her business nor for fear of spoiling them neglecting that but preferring strength in her arms acquired by labour before the ornaments wherewith they are wont to be adorned l The profit of which she finds is so great that it makes her love labour better than sleep and when there is haste of work to continue it all night so v. 18. may be expounded After which follows v. 19. another instance of her humble greatness Then her charity to the poor v. 20. her care of her own family v. 21. where the last word having different senses I have expressed them all in the Paraphrase m And then is wisely mentioned v. 22. her magnificence in the hanging of her house and of her bed and in her own apparel which was the more allowable when the poor were not neglected and the decking her self and house did not make her forget their necessities The particular words there I have not room to explain Nor those which follow v. 24. after she had mentioned the honour her husband would get by such a wife v. 23. for I think it is needfull rather to give a brief account of v. 25. n Which seems not unfitly translated by Castalio to this sense that she being thus amply provided and fortified as it were against all accidents need not fear any want in future times But considering what follows v. 26 27. I have chosen onely to touch on that sense and to take strength and honour for the excellent qualities belonging to her which I have called her principal ornaments because the Hebrews are wont to express that which adorns any person and is most proper to them by the name of clothing as CXXXII Psal 9. thy Priests shall be clothed with righteousness o The rest I must wholly omit and onely observe that the fear of the LORD in the conclusion v. 30. is the foundation of all these vertues which will either not be found where there is no devout sense of God or not be constant and equal but vary as several passions govern and rule their spirits especially when it is in such a high degree that a woman values her self for the fear of the Lord more than any thing else So the LXX translate it A prudent woman is commended but she