A plain and familiar exposition of the eleventh and twelfth chapters of the Proverbs…A plaine and familiar exposition of the eleuenth and twelfth chapters of the Prouerbes…

Verse 26. The righteous is more excellent then his neighbour: but the way of the wicked will deceive them.

Verse 26. The righteous is more excellent then his neighbour: but the way of the wicked will deceiue them.

The righteous, that is, every godly man who hath attained to uprightness, though not to perfection of righteousness, is better then his neighbour, is better beloved, and graced of God, and more esteemed of godly wise men, and hath that in him which maketh him more commendable then any other that is unrighteous and sinful; and so his way is answerable to his hope. But the wicked desiring, and seeking, and expecting a more excellency above others, are notwithstanding contemptible, and grow in time to be contemned, and so their way deceiveth them.

THe righteous, that is, euery godly man who hath attained to vprightnes, though not to perfection of righteousnes, is better then his neighbour, is better beloued, and graced of God, and more esteemed of godly wise men, and hath that in him which maketh him more commendable then any other that is vnrighteous and sinfull; and so his way is answerable to his hope. But the wicked desiring, and seeking, and expecting a more excellencie aboue others, are notwithstanding contemptible, and grow in time to be contemned, and so their way deceiueth them.

Doct. Grace maketh good men to be the worthiest personages. As they go before all the unregenerate in virtue, so they go beyond them in honour: and as they exceed them in piety, so they surmount them in excellency. The testimony which the Prophet giveth of them to God himself, by the inspiration of Gods spirit, doth make this manifest. My goods, saith he, extend not to thee, but to the Saints that are in earth, even to the excellent: all my