John Trapp on Ecclesiastes 10:6

Verſ. 6. Folly is ſet in great dignity] Sedes prima & vita ima, theſe ſuit not,Salvian. Dignitas in indigno eſt ornamentum in luto. Royalty it ſelf, without righteouſneſs, is but eminent diſhonour. When a fool is ſet in dignity, it is (ſaith one) as when an handful of hay is ſet up to give light; which with ſmoak and ſmell offendeth all that are near. When as the worthy ſit in low place,Ca[illegible: 1 letter]tw. it is as when a goodly candle (that on a table would give a comfortable and comely light) is put under a buſhel.

And the rich in low place] i. e. The wiſe (as appears by the oppoſition) who, in true account, are the onely rich, James 2.5. rich in faith, 1 Tim. 6.18. rich in good works, Luk. 12.21. rich to God-ward, who hath highly honoured and advanced them, though vilipended and under-rated by men: digni etiam qui ditentur, worthy they are alſo to bee ſet in higheſt places, as being drained from the dreggs, and ſifted from the branns of the common ſort of people. Dignity ſhould wait upon deſert, as it did here in England, Sen. Epiſt. 91. in King Edward the Sixths daies, that aureum ſaeculum, in quo honores melioribus dabantur, as Seneca hath it, that golden age, in which honours were beſtowed on thoſe that beſt deſerved them. But in caſe it prove otherwiſe, as it often doth, (the golden Biſhoprick of Carthage fell to the lot of leaden Aurelius, and little Hippo to great Saint Auſtin. Damaſus the ſcholar was advanced to the See of Rome, when Hierome his Maſter ended his daies in his cell at Bethlehem) yet virtue is its own competent incouragement, and will rather chuſe to lye in the duſt, than to riſe by wickedneſs: Cato ſaid, hee had rather men ſhould queſtion why hee had no ſtatue or monument erected in honour of him, than why hee had. The wiſe Hiſtorian obſerved,Tacit. Annal. that the ſtatues of Brutus and Caſſius, eo praefulgebant quod non viſebantur, were the more glorious and illuſtrious, becauſe they were not brought out with other Images in a ſolemn proceſſion at the funeral of Germanicus. Abſtruſum in deſpecto corpore margaritam conſpicatus. God pleaſeth himſelf (ſaith Baſil) in beholding a hidden pearl, in a diſ-reſpected body. A rich ſtone is of no leſs worth, when locked up in a wicker casket, than when it is ſet in a royal diadem.