A plain and familiar exposition of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of the…A plaine and familiar exposition of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of the…

This indeed is sometimes verified according to the letter and words of the sentence, that servants be made Executors to their masters, and guardians to their masters children: but the drift hereof is to show, that they which are low may be exalted by virtue, and they which are high, may be brought down by vice: that wisdom preferreth divers above them that might have been their betters, and folly depriveth many of those prerogatives which otherwise they should have enjoyed.

This indeed is sometimes verified according to the letter and words of the sentence, that seruants bee made Executors to their masters, and guardians to their masters children: but the drift heereof is to shew, that they which are low may bee exalted by vertue, and they which are high, may be brought downe by vice: that wisdome preferreth diuers aboue them that might haue beene their betters, and folly depriueth many of those prerogatiues which otherwise they should haue enioied.

Doct. Grace bringeth men to promotion, and so doth sinfulness to debasement.

Doct. Grace bringeth men to promotion, and so doth sinfulnesse to debasement.

In the book of Ecclesiastes he extendeth the comparison further than in this place, when he saith, Better is a poor and wise child, than an old and foolish King, which will no more be admonished. ¹For out of the prison he cometh forth to reign, when as he that is borne in his Kingdom is made poor. Presidents on both sides, as well for the advancement of those that be virtuous, as for the dejection of them that fall to vicious courses, we have in one kindred, the inhabitants of one family, and sons also of one father, namely Jacobs. Reuben the eldest of all his children, for the great fault which he committed, was made younger brother, losing his birth-right, his dignity, and double portion, even from his posterity for many hundred years together. And Joseph contrarily, who exceeded all the rest in piety and goodness, did in like manner surmount them in authority and honour. He was raised from a servile condition, to an eminent estate; from the baseness of a prisoner, to the dignity of a Prince: he was made greater than his elder brethren, than his Lord and master, than the Kings principal Peers and Nobles, than any in the Land