which presently overflows the neighbouring grounds, but cannot easily be reduced into its bounds again. It is best therefore to make peace immediately, before both parties be involved in such troubles, as, like a deluge of water, lay all desolate.

Ver. 15. He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.] It is hard to say which is most detestable to the Lord, he that pleads for a wicked man, and, more than that, acquits him, or he that pleads against the righteous, nay, plainly condemns him. Certain it is, they are both most highly obnoxious to his displeasure, who is the fountain of justice; and as he would have it exactly administered, so he hates -those who endeavour to confound the nature of good and evil among men.

Ver. 16. Wherefore is there a price in the band of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?] What good doth a great estate in the possession of a fool? can he therewith purchase wisdom how to use it? Alas! he wants understanding to desire it, and to procure good instructors, in which his riches (if his mind were good) might be serviceable to him.

Ver. 17. A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.] Time makes proof of a friend, who, if he be sincere, loves not merely for a fit, nor alters with the change of one's condition, but continues stedfast in adversity, as well as in prosperity; nay, in straits and distresses, shews himself more like a brother than a friend. See Arg. [e]. .

Ver. 18. A man void of understanding striketh bands, and becometh surety in the presence of his friend.] He is very inconsiderate, whose kindness makes him forward to pass his word for the payment of another man's debts, (vi. 1. xi. 15.), and especially to enter into bonds in the presence of his neighbour, for whom he engages, which may make him more careless about the payment than he would have been, if, unknown to him, he had been security for

him.

son prove vicious and lewd, it will be such an inexpressible grief to his father, that he will take no comfort at all in any thing he enjoys, ver. 25.

Ver. 22. A merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones.] And consequently, it will shorten his days; for as nothing conduces more to health than a chearful spirit, which serves instead of physic; so nothing destroys it more than sadness and grief, which consumes the vital juices, and dries up the body to skin and bone. See Arg. [g]

Ver. 23. A wicked man taketh the gift out of the bosom, to pervert the ways of judgement.] No man would willingly be known to be so wicked as to be bribed to do injustice; but there are too many that will suffer themselves to be secretly corrupted by presents, to give counsel or judgement contrary to the course of law and equity.

Ver. 24. Wisdom is before him that bath understanding, but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.] As a wise man's understanding appears in his very countenance, and a fool is known by his garish and wondering eyes; so the one hath his wisdom always present and ready at hand to guide and govern him, when the other knows not what to follow, but his thoughts are roving up and down to no purpose, though he ramble to the very ends of the earth.

Ver. 25. A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.] A foolish dissolute son, who regards not the counsel of his parents, wasting their estate, and disgracing their family, is such a vexation to his father, that he provokes his indignation; and such a grief to his mother, that it makes her life bitter and irksome to her. See Arg. [h]

Ver. 26. Also to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity.] There may be specious pretences for it, but it is against all honesty and piety, to punish innocent persons together with delinquents; especially to scourge judges and governors, for doing equal justice upon all offenders.

Ver. 20. He that hath a froward heart, findeth no good; and be that bath a perverse tongue, falleth into mischief.] A man of wicked designs, which he resolves to accomplish by any sort of means, shall find himself deceived in his expectation; and he who employs his tongue to deceit and fraud, pretending fair to men before their face, but slandering them behind their back, shall, by that very means, bring mischief upon himself.

Ver. 21. He that begetteth a fool doth it to his sorrow; and the father of a fool hath no joy.] Great is the care which ought to be taken in the contract of marriage, and in the education of children; for if a

Ver. 28. Even a fool, when be boldeth bis peace, is counted wise; and be that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.] Such a virtue it is to be silent, that he who understands nothing is deemed wise, as long as he holds his peace; and he whose mind hath such power over his mouth, as to keep it shut, that nothing may suddenly and impetuously go out, is wise indeed.

CHAP. XVIII.

THE ARGUMENT.-[a] There is so much difficulty in the two first verses, which hath produced so many various interpretations, 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 shewn there is such reason for it, that I think I am obliged here to take notice of it, and to paraphrase upon it.

By nipbrad, 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 intermeddleth, he translates, is left desolate. And then, in the next verse, taking bebith galloth for wandering up and down, not for discovering or revealing, as we do, the paraphrase will run thus.

Ver. 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 chooses rather to gad up and down, and rove from one inquiry to another, than give his mind to true wisdom 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 quærit cerebrosus, omnibus immiscet se; "A hair-brained man seeks to satisfy his fancy, and intermixeth himself with all things." According to that of Seneca, Vitia sine proposito, languida est et 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 all company and business, out of a true affection to wisdom, 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 only to vapour with a shew of wisdom, which he doth not love."

[b] As for the vulgar translation, it is so remote from the Hebrew, that I shall only 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 quæ versantur in corde ejus. Which is commonly understood of "accommodating one's 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 judgements." "Who pre-suppose that honesty grows out of weakness of wit, and want of experience; or only out of a silly belief given to preachers and schoolmasters, 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 a 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 virtue, 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 do 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 used to do, not what they ought to do."-Advanc. of Learning, b. vii. ch. 2. [c] The next verse may have a connection 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 shrews in the following words, ver. 4.

[d] Then, after a caution to judges (ver. 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, ver. 6. 7. 8. In the last of which the word Mithlabamim 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 examine will be satisfied. [e] Rabbi Levi observes, that in the 10th verse there begins another sort of precept, of a different kind from those that have been hitherto delivered from the beginning of the 10th 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 domestic 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 read 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, (ver. 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, (ver. 12.), in chap. xv. 33. and xvi. 18. And that also (ver. 16.) about gifts, was touched in xvii. 8.

[f] The 13th verse is referred by some to judges who were anciently called cognitores; and in good authors, cognoscere is as much as to do 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 judgement, he come to a resolution, before he hath taken full cognizance of them. [g] Some would connect the 17th 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 before the word first. So that it hath the same meaning with our vulgar saying; "one tale is good, till another be told," though I think there is more in it; and the Lord Bacon hath made this excellent discourse upon it, which I have not neglected in my paraphrase.

"The first information," says he, (Adv. of Learning, book viii. ch. 2. par. 17.), in any cause, if it a little fix itself in the mind of the judge, takes deep root, and wholly seasons and prepossesses it; so as it can hardly be taken out, unless some manifest 'falsehood be found in the matter of the information, or some cunning dealing in exhibiting and laying open the same. For a bare and simple defence, though it be just and more weighty, can hardly compensate the prejudice of the first information, nor is of force in itself to reduce the scales of justice, once swayed, down to an equal balance. Wherefore it is the safest course for a judge, that nothing touching the proofs and merit of the cause be intimated before-hand, until both parties be heard together; and it is best for the defendant, if he perceive the judge to be pre-occupated, to`labour principally in this, (so far as the quality of the cause will admit), to discover some cunning shifts and fraudulent dealing practised by the adverse party, to the abuse of the judge." They that expound this verse, (as the ancients generally do), concerning private judgement, within a man's own soul, follow the LXX, and the vulgar Latin; and commonly make this the meaning: "A good man, before he mind another man's faults, will first narrowly look to his own ;" and call himself to an account, before he inquire after the miscarriages. This is an excellent sense, (if the words would bear it), which some of the Lutherans follow; even Melancthon himself, who thus translates it, Justus initio est accusator sui, postea inquirit in alium; and runs into a long discourse concerning self-love, and men's blindness to their own faults, and quick-sightedness in spying other men's; citing the known sayings of Catullus, Horace, and Persius, to this purpose. But though he take the just man here to be opposed to the hypocrite our Saviour speaks of, who minds the mote in his brother's eye, and neglects the beam in his own, yet

he acknowledges that the Greek word in the LXX belongs to the law, and the civil courts, viz. palonoyia, which is the allegations of the accuser, before the other party be heard; and hath this remark out of Demosthenes: "It is hard to pull out of men's minds the opinion they have first conceived."

Which Verres among the Romans understood so well, that it was his common trick to accuse those whom he had injured; for men are to favour the plaintiff, supposing he cannot have the impudence to complain without a cause.

Nay, there are those in the Roman church that apply the vulgar translation this way, to this sense : "A just man is so prudent (as well as honest) as to relate all that concerns his cause sincerely, without concealing any thing, even accusing himself if he be guilty; whereby he procures greater favour, and prevents what his adversary would have said, who, be sure, would have laid it open to his disgrace, if he had craftily omitted any thing," &c. But I will not trouble the reader with any other of their interpretations, which are devised merely to make good that translation. The truth of ours may be further justified from the next, ver. 18. which belongs to the matter of civil controversies; which, if the judges could not determine, were referred to God's decision by lots.

[h] But I have said enough, if not too much of this, and therefore shall only observe a few reflections which Melancthon makes upon the 22d verse. "Where he notes first, how acceptable the state of marriage is to Almighty God, as well as unto us. And, next, what care he takes of pious persons in that state, for so he understands those words, as they run in the vulgar Latin, Hauriet voluptatem à Deo. As if he would say, There are great dangers in human life, and many common miseries; but God will be the keeper of such married persons as, in happy concord and agreement, invoke his protection. Such were Zacharias and Elizabeth, and other pious persons, whom God wonderfully preserved, when the armies of wicked men ravaged all Judea. When Lamyrus slew 30,000 Jews, and caused the captives to eat the carcasses of their brethren, then he protected Zachariah and Elizabeth, and the blessed Virgin and her parents, as he saved the three children in the fiery furnace. By which examples we may conceive what it is to "draw pleasure from the Lord."

Those words also shew, what comfort and delight there is in an agreeable marriage; and therefore we ought to flee fornication, and keep in mind those severe threatenings: Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge," &c. and the punishment God inAlicted upon the inhabitants of Canaan for their confused lusts. Nec est dubium, magnam partem: calamitatum, &c. Nor is there any doubt that a great part of the calamities among all mankind, are the punishments of filthy lusts. Let us, therefore, be more ardent in begging chastity of God; for the more he is displeased with impurity, the more care

fully we ought to preserve chastity; and let us observe that rule, To shun sins, is to shun the occasions of sins.

Ver. 1. THROUGH desire a man, having separated bimself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.] He that affects singularity, inquires into all manner of things, according as his vain-glorious humour leads him; which makes him also bend himself, with all the wit he hath, to overthrow the solid reasons of wiser men. See Arg. [a]

Ver. 2. A fool bath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.] For a fool will never take any pleasure in true understanding; but all the design of his studies is, to make a vain ostentation of wisdom unto others; this is his chiefest pleasure, to hear himself discourse, that is, discover the folly that is in his heart. See Arg. [b]

Ver. 3. When the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt, and with ignominy reproach.] Into whatsoever company or society (suppose into the schools of wisdom) a profane person comes, he brings along with him contempt of God and religion, and good men; and (as one wickedness grows out of another) that contempt improves into affronts, and reproachful language of them. See Arg. [c]

Ver. 4. The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as a flowing brook.] A man of great understanding is never exhausted, nor wants matter of useful instruction; his mind being like a fountain, out of which wise thonghts spring perpetually, and flow in abundance, with a torrent of eloquence, for the common good and benefit.

Ver. 5. It is not good to accept the person of the wicked to overthrow the righteous in judgement.] Apologies may be made for it; but it can never be made consistent with honesty and goodness, to have respect to the person, nor to the cause, which is brought before one in judgement; for by that means the wicked is favoured, because he is rich, or because he is a friend, &c. and the just man loses his right, and is oppressed, because he is poor, or none of the judge's acquaintance.

Ver. 6. A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.] If a fool find others scolding or contending, he will thrust himself into the quarrel; but is so unskilful, that instead of making them friends, he increases the difference, till from words they come to blows, in which he escapes not without some share of them to himself.

- Ver. 7. A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.] For in all other cases, a fool uses his tongue so imprudently, that he ruins himself by his own discourse; and if he go about to defend what he saith, he is but the more entangled, to the certain hazard of his life.

Ver. 8. The words of a tale-bearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.] A whisperer of false stories makes a great shew of harmlessness, if not of love and kindness, when he back bites others, nay, seems perhaps to do it very

unwillingly, with great-grief of heart, and not without excuses for the persons from whom he detracts; but his words give them the most deadly wound, and sink deep into the mind of those that hear them. See Arg. [d]

Ver. 9. He also that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster.] There is so little difference between a slothful man and a prodigal, that they may be called brethren; for he that looks not after his business, must needs come to poverty, as well as he that is a spendthrift.

Ver. 10. The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.] The almighty power and goodness of the great Lord of the world, is the securest defence in all manner of dangers; unto which a virtuous man may have the confidence chearfully to resort, and hope to find protection, nay, to be there as safe as if he was in an impregnable fortress. See Arg. [e]

Ver. 11. The rich man's wealth is his strong city; and as an high wall in his own conceit.] The worldlyminded man indeed thinks otherwise, and places his security in heaps of wealth, which he fancies hath a power to do any thing, and is able to defend him (like a high bulwark, which none can scale) from all assaults; but, alas! this is only his own vain opinion, he is safe merely in imagination.

Ver. 12. Before destruction the heart of man is haugh ty; and before honour is humility.] When a man's spirit grows lofty by prosperity, forgetting God, and despising his brethren, it is a certain fore-runner of his utter destruction; as, on the other side, humility, meekness, and patience, in a low condition, is the best preparation for honour and prefer

ment.

Ver. 13. He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.] He that is so forward as to answer to a business before he hath heard the state of it, (that is, before he understand it), thinks perhaps to shew the quickness of his appre hension; but, by his impertinent discourse, declares his egregious folly, and makes himself ridiculous, See Arg. [f]

Ver. 14. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? There is a vast difference between outward and inward evils, for a manly spirit will support us under bodily sicknesses and outward afflictions; but if the mind itself have lost its courage, and become abject, cast down and oppressed with grief and sadness, it is not in the power of man to raise and lift it up.

Ver. 15. The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.] He (therefore) that hath so much understanding, as to consider what is good for himself, will take the greatest care to possess his mind with the true knowledge of God, and of his duty to him, and be so wise as to listen to those that can give him right information, for it is this alone that can preserve the mind from being dejected and broken.

Ver. 16. A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.] There is no man so

mean but he may make his way whithersoever he desires, by gifts and presents; which will produce his enlargement, if he be in prison, and, more than that, bring him into favour with great men, nay, purhase him the honour to wait upon princes.

Ver. 17. He that is first in his own cause, seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him] A man may seem to have a good cause, who hath got the start of his neighbour, till he come also to examine his information, and open the whole matter before the judge; nay, more than this, he hath a great advantage who first possesses the judge's niind with the justice of his cause; for it will not be easy for his adversary to find out his tricks, and to confute him, without a diligent search and curious inquiry into what he hath alledged. See Arg. [g]

Ver. 18. The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty.] But in some cases it is very hard to make an end of suits, where the reasons are strong on both sides, or the parties contending both very powerful to maintain their pretensions; and then the casting of lots is an equal way to determine. the controversy, and put each of them in quiet possession of that which falls to his share.

Ver. 19. A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.] But there are no contentions so sharp and obstinate as those among brethren; who grow so refractory when they have transgressed against each other, that it is easier to take a strong city, or to break the bars of a castle, than it is to compose their differences, and remove all the obstructions that lie in the way to their hearty reconciliation.

- Ver. 20. A man's beily shall be satisfied with the fruit of bis mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall be be filled.] The tongue is so hard to govern, and so much depends upon it, that (it cannot be too oft repeated, xii. 44. xii. 2.) we ought to take as great care about the words we speak, as we do about the fruit of our trees, or the increase of the earth, which we are to eat; for according as they are wholesome and good, or unsavoury and bad, so will the pleasure or the pain be wherewith we shall be filled.

Ver. 21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. The good or the harm that the tongue can do, both to a man's self, and unto others, is more than can be expressed; for many have cut their own throats by incautious words, when others have remained safe by silence, or brought themselves off from danger by prudent answers; in like manner, by false accusations it destroys other men, or saves them by testifying the truth; and this may be laid down for a general rule, that they who love to talk much shall suffer by it.

Ver. 22. Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.] He who hath married a wife that is truly a help meet for him, hath met with a most excellent blessing, and ought thankfully to acknowledge the singular favour of God in guiding his mind to make so happy a choice. See Arg. [h].

*

Ver. 23. The poor useth intreaties, but the rich answereth roughly.] Boldness doth not become a beggar, bur modest intreaties and doleful supplications, which is the proper language of the poor and miserable; and if they meet with a stern or harsh answer from the rich, it is no wonder; and they must still humbly deprecate their displeasure. - Ver. 24. A man that bath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.] A friendly person is prone to do all neighbourly offices, which is the very end of friend, ship, and the way to preserve it; and sach a friend is sometimes found, who loves so heartily, that he sticks closer to his friend in any strait, and assists him more faithfully than a brother.

CHAP. XIX.

THE ARGUMENT-[a] This chapter begins with a --comparison between the rich and the poor, whom, in another regard, he had compared together in the last verse but one of the foregoing chapter. The sense is plain enough, and it is, μία η παροιμιῶν σοφῶς ἔχέσα, "one of those proverbs which contains much wis dom in it," as Greg. Nazianzen speaks, (Orat. xxvi. p. 458. 459), who applies it unto "Christians of mean understanding and simple speech, that understand not xiyar spopas, neither the instances of Pyrrho, nor the syllogisms of Chrysippus, nor the depraved cunning of Aristotle's arts, nor the witchery of Plato's eloquence, which, like the E, gyptian plagues, had infested the church. There is no need, says he, of any of these; but a poor man that walks in his simplicity, im Adya.sj swap, as he paraphraseth it, (poor in discourse, and reasoning, and knowledge), and relies upon plain simple words, is much better (and will in this way be saved, as in a small cog-boat) than a fool, (for he is no better), that knows how to wind and turn every way in his discourse, and most unlearnedly trusts to his demonstrations," &c. But this must be acknowledged not to be the literal sense of the words, but only an accommodation of them to his purpose, which was to represent "how commendable simplicity is in religion and inquiries of faith," as well as in all things else. Not that a man should content himself to be ignorant, but only that he should not be too curious and subtle in his disquisitions.

[h] For Solomon, in the next verse, observes two great springs of all our miscarriages, want of understanding, and want of deliberation. To make too much haste in a business, is the way not to speed, (according to the known proverb); and to run blindly upon any thing, is no less prejudicial to us in our undertakings. That is the meaning of the first word, which we translate also; both he that effects things without knowledge, and he that pursues what he understands without deliberation, run into many mistakes, and commit many sins. So some render the word nephes (soul) the desire of the