A plain and familiar exposition of the ninth and tenth chapters of the Proverbs…A plaine and familiar exposition of the ninth and tenth chapters of the Prouerbs…

The fear of the Lord, &c. That is true piety and religion, with the exercise also of justice, and righteousness, increaseth the days, That is, as a means it preserveth those that are endued with it, from an untimely death: but the years of the wicked shall be cut off. Their ungodly and sinful course of life is sometimes an instrument to bring them speedily to their end, as by surfeits, and evil diseases, or falling into the hands of the magistrate, or by quarrelling, and such like. Sometimes it provoketh the Lord to stay them in the middest of their race, and not to suffer them to come to that age which by their strength and constitution of body they might have attained unto. And in this sense the Prophet saith in the Psalms, that the wicked ¹shall not live out half their days. This doctrine of this verse hath been handled already in the eleventh verse of the former Chapter.

The feare of the Lord, &c. That is true pietie and religion, with the exercise also of iustice, and righteousnesse, increaseth the dayes, That is, as a meanes it preserueth those that are indued with it, from an vntimely death: but the yeares of the wicked shall bee cut off. Their vngodly and sinfull course of life is sometimes an instrument to bring them speedily to their end, as by surfets, and euill diseases, or falling into the hands of the magistrate, or by quarreling, and such like. Sometimes it prouoketh the Lord to stay them in the middest of their race, and not to suffer them to come to that age which by their strength and constitution of body they might haue attained vnto. And in this sence the Prophet saith in the Psalmes, that the wicked