wait to deceive; how craftily he walks, and handles
the word of God deceitfully; and he takes notice of his
moral walk and conversation, and, as our Lord says,
ye shall know them by their fruits, Matt. vii. 16. Or
else the meaning is, and which seems to be the sense
of our version, that he looks well unto, and carefrilly
observes, his own goings; he takes heed to his ways,
that they are right; that he is not in ways of his
devising and choosing, but in God's ways; in the way
of life and salvation by Christ; in the path of faith on
him, and in the way of holiness; that he has chosen
the way of truth, and walks in that; and that every
step he takes in doctrine is according to the word of
truth; and that whatever he does in worship is agreea-
bly to the divine rule; and that every path of duty he
treads in is according to the same, and as he has Christ
for a pattern, and the Spirit for a guide; and that his
walk is as becomes the Gospel, worthy of the vocation
wherein he is .called, and that it is circumspect and
wise; and such a man may be truly said to be a prudent
man: the Targum is," he attends to his good ;" and
so he does.
Ver. 16. A wise man feareth, and departeth from 
evil, &c.3 He fears God, and is careful not to of-
fend him; wherefore he departs from sin, stands at a
distance from it, abstains from all appearance of it;
being influenced by the goodness and grace of God
unto him, he fears the Lord and his goodness, and
therefore avoids all occasions of sinning against him:
his motive is not merely fear of punishment, as Jarchi,
but a sense of goodness; and now, as it is through the
influence of divine fear that men depart from evil; so
to do this shews a good understanding, and that such a
man is a wise man, ch. xvi. 6. Job xxviii. 28. But
the fool rageth, and is confident; he fears neither God
nor men, he sets his mouth against both; he rages in
heart, if not with his mouth, against God and his
law, which forbid the practice of such sins he delights
in; and against all good men, that admonish him of
them, rebuke him for them,or dissuade him from them:
and is confident that no evil shall befall him; he has
no concern about a future state, and is fearless of hell
and damnation, though just upon the precipice of ruin;
yet, as the words may be rendered, he goes on con-
fidently, nothing can stop him; he pushes on, regard-
less of the laws of God or men, of the advices and
counsels of his friends, or of what will be the issue of
his desperate courses in another world.
Ver. 17. He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly,
&c.3 A man that is quick and short, of a hasty spirit,
and presently discovers anger and resentment in his
face; he says and does many foolish things, which he
afterwards is sorry for, and repents, and is ashamed
of; and he is to be pitied and tbrgiven. And a man of
wicked devices is hated; one that hides his anger, covers
his resentment, contrives schemes to revenge himself,
and waitSan opportunity to put them in execution, is
justly hateful to God and men.
Ver. 18. The simple inherit folly, &c.] It is natural
and hereditary to them, they are born like wild asses'
colts; the foolish sayings and proverbs, customs and
practices, of their ancestors, though they have been de-
monstrated to be mere folly, yet these, their posterity,
approve them; they love, like, and retain them as
their patrimony, Job xi. 12. Psal. xiix. 13. Such are
the foolish traditions, customs, principles, and doc-
trines, of the church of Rome, handed down from fa-
ther to son; and because Popery is the religion they
have been bred and brought up in, though so foolish
and absurd, they will not relinquish it. But the pru-
dent are crowned with knowledge; natural, civil, and
spiritual, especially the latter; evangelical knowledge,
the knowledge of Christ, and of God in Christ, and of
Gospel truths; they are honoured with an acquaintance
with them; and they esteem the knowledge of these
above all things else, and reckon all things else but
loss and dung in comparison of them; they are as a
crown unto them, and the knowledge of them is the
way to the crown of life; yea, is itself life eternal,
Phil. iii. 8. John xvii. & Or, they crown themselves
with knowledge{p}; they labour after it, pursue it with
eagerness, follow on to know the Lord, and attain to a
large share of it; surround, encompass, and lay hold
upon it, and gird themselves about with this girdle of
truth. Or, they crown knowledge {q}; do honour to that,
by putting it in practice; by adding to it temperance,
and every virtue, and by bringing others to it; and
are an ornament to it in their lives and conversation;
they adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour.
Ver. 19. 'The evil bow before the good, &c.3 Wicked
men before good men. This, as Jarchi observes, re-
spects future time; even the latter-day glory, or the
spiritual times of the Messlab, when the kingdom
under the whole heaven shall be given to the saints
of the most High: for though there may have been
some few instances of this kind, as Haman bowing
before Mordecai, and the Heathen emperors before
Constantine; and there may be some now, in some
cases where obligation requires; yet this is far from
being general, as it will be in the spiritual reign of
Christ; when the sons of those that afflicted the
church will come bending to her, and they that have
despised her shall bow themselves down at the soles
of her feet; and even great personages too shall bow
down and lick the dust of her feet; the kings of the
earth, who before have been in confederacy with an-
tichrist, and have persecuted the saints, now shall hate
the whore, and honour the true church of Christ: this
will be in the Philadelphian state, which is t. he same
with the spiritual reign of Christ; such who called
themselves Jews, and are not, shall come and worship
before the feet of the church, and own that she and
her members are the favourites of heaven, Dan. vii. 27.
Isa. xlix. 23. and Ix. 14. Rev. iii. 9. And the wicked
at the gates of the righteous; or, come to the gates of
the righteous, as the Syriac version supplies it; they
come and knock there, stand and wait, or lay them-
selves down; become prostrate and humble suppli-
cants for relief-and protection, as beggars do. This
may also respect their attendance at Wisdom's gates,
at the gates of Zion, on public ordinances, for counsel
and instruction, which before they despised, ch.

{p} \^ted wrytky\^ imponent coronam sibi scientiam, Montanus; coro-                                  ~ Coronabunt scientium, Bayuus 5 orsant scientiam: Drusitts.
nant se scientia, Piscator, so Ben Melech.                                                     ,.
{q} Coronabunt scientiam, Baynus; ornant scientiam, Drusius.