John Trapp on Proverbs 10:1

CHAP. X. Verſ. 1. The Proverbs.]

PRoperly ſo called. (See Chap. 1.1.) For the nine former Chapters are a kind of common places, or continued diſcourſes, premiſed as a Preface to theſe enſuing wiſe and grave ſentences tending much to the information of the mind, and reformation of the manners, and containing things profitable for all ſorts of people. They are not unfitly compared by a Divine to a bag full of ſweet and fragrant ſpices, which ſhuffled or ſhaken together, or taken ſingle, yeeld a ſweet odour: Or to ſtars in the firmament, each in it ſelf glorious and independent of another, yet all receive their light from the Sun.

A wiſe Son maketh a glad Father] Children are certain cares, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Plut. but uncertain comforts. Every Son ſhould bee an Abner, that is, his Fathers light; and every Daughter an Abigail, her Fathers joy. Eve promiſed her ſelf much in her Cain, and David did the like in his Abſolom. Sed, fallitur augario spes bona ſaepe ſuo, they were both deceived. Samuel ſucceeds Eli in his croſs, as well as his place, though not in his ſin; and had cauſe enough to call his untoward children (as Auguſtus did) tres vomicas, tria carcinomata, ſo many ulcerous ſores, mattery impoſtumes. Vertue is not as Lands, inheritable. All that is traduced with the ſeed, is either evil, or not good. Let Parents labour to mend by education, what they have marred by propagation; And when they have done all, pray God perſwade Japhet, leſt elſe they bee put to wiſh one day, as Auguſtus did,Sueton. c. 6. O that I had never married, or never had children. And let children cheer up their Parents, as Joſeph, Samuel, and Solomon did; and as Epaminondas, who was wont to ſay,Corn. Nepos. Se longe maximum ſuarum laudum fructum capere quod [illegible: 1 letter]arum ſpectatores haberet parentes, that hee joyed in nothing more, than that his Parents were yet alive, to take comfort in his brave atchievements. For otherwiſe, God will take them in hand, as hee did Abimelech, to whom hee rendred the wickedneſs done to his Father, Judg. 9.5. And as hee did Abſolom, whom hee truſſed up in the height of his rebellious practices, with his own immediate hand; Or elſe hee will puniſh them in, and by their poſterity, which ſhall either bee none (Prov. 20.20. compared with 2 Sam. 14.7.) or worſe than none; as hee,Mr. Fullers Holy-ſtate. who when his aggrieved Father complained that never man had ſo undutiful a childe as hee had; yes, ſaid his ſon (with leſs grace than truth) my Grandfather had.

The heavineſs of his mother] The Mother is mentioned (though the Father haply as heavy) firſt, as moſt faulted it her children miſcarry, Prov. 24.15. Next, as moſt ſlighted by them, Prov. 15.20. And laſtly, as moſt impatient of ſuch an affliction. Rebecca was weary of her life by reaſon of the daughters of Heth brought in to her by Eſau, Gen. 27.45. If they lye lusking at home, mothers have the miſery of it; if they do worſe abroad, the worſt is made of it to the mother at home, by fame that loud lyer.