John Trapp on Proverbs 12:8

Verſ 8. A man ſhall be commended according to his wiſdome] And all wiſdome conſiſts in this, Ut Deum quis cognoſcat & colat, ſaith Lactantius, That a man rightly know and worſhip God. This did not Apollonius, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Plut. whom yet Philoſtratus commendeth, that he was non doctus, ſed natus ſapiens, not inſtructed, but born wiſe. (See the contrary, Job 11.12) Nor Archimides, who yet had the name and note (ſaith Plutarch) of a Divine, and not Human wiſdome. Nor Ariſtotle, whom yet Averroes admires as the very Rule and Copy that Nature invented, wherein to ſet forth the utmoſt of Human perfection: And further ſaith, that his doctrin was the chiefeſt truth, and his underſtanding the utmoſt extent of human wiſdome. Theſe were wiſe, I confeſſe, in their generations, and ſo accounted: But by whom? Not by Saint Paul; he had another opinion of them. See Rom. 1.22, 23. 1 Cor. 2.6. Not by our Saviour, Matth. 11.25. Not by any that are rightly inſtructed to the Kingdom of Heaven, and have their ſenſes exerciſed to diſcern good and evil. The Italians arrogate to themſelves the monopoly of Wiſdome, in that Proverb of theirs, Italus ſapit ante factum, Hiſpanus in facto, Germanus poſt factum. Italians, ſay they, both ſeem and are wiſe: whereas Spaniards ſeem wiſe, and are fools; French-men ſeem fools, and are wiſe; Portugals neither are wiſe, nor ſo much as ſeem ſo. Thus the Jeſuites (thoſe great Clerks, Politicians, and Wiſards of the world) doe vaunt that the Church is the ſoul of the World, the Clergie of the Church, and they of the Clergie. But what ſaith that great Apoſtle that knew more than twenty of them? He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord: for not hee that commendeth himſelf is approved, (no nor hee whom the world cries up for a wiſe man) but he whom the Lord commendeth, 2 Cor. 10.18.

But he that is of a perverſe heart] As all are that are not heavenly-wiſe, and that ſhew not out of a good converſation their works with meekneſs of wiſdome, Jam. 3.13, 17. But ſo did none of thoſe Heathen Sages,Rom. 1.26 whom God for their unthankfulneſſe, gave up unto vile affections, and vitious converſation; and ſo ſet a Noveri[illegible: 1 letter]t Univerſi, as it were, upon them, Know all men, that theſe men know nothing aright, and as they ought to know;Rom. 1.22 profeſſing themſelves to be wiſe, they proclaime themſelves fools.