John Trapp on Proverbs 20:27

Verſ. 27. The ſpirit of a man is the candle of the Lord] Some read it, The breath of a man, that is, his life, is the candle of the Lord, and ſenſe it thus Look how men deal by their Lights or Lamps, ſo doth God by our Lives; Some we put out as ſoon as lighted: others we let alone till half waſted, and others again till Wax, and Week, and all be conſumed. So ſome dye younger, ſome older, as God pleaſeth. But the word Neſhamah here uſed, as it holds affinity with the Hebrew Shamajim Heaven, ſo it doth with the Latine word Mens the Mind, or reaſonable Soul, which indeed is that light that is in us, by an excellency, Matth. 6.23. that ſpirit of a man that knows the things of a man, 1 Cor. 2.11. that candle that is in a mans belly or body, as in a Lanthorn, making the leaſt more perſpicuous. This is true by a ſpecialty of that Divine faculty of the Soul, Conſcience, which is frequently called the Spirit of a man, as being planted of God in all and every part of the reaſonable Soul; where ſhe produceth occaſionally ſeveral operations, being the Souls School-maſter. Monitor, and Domeſtical Preacher; Gods ſpye, and Mans over-ſeer; the principal Commander, and chief Controuler of all his doings and deſires.

Conſcia mens ut cuique ſua eſt, ita concipit intraOvid. Pectora pro facto ſpemque metumque ſuo.

Surely it is a moſt Celeſtial gift (ſaith one.) It is ſo of God and in man, Bifeild on 1 Pet. 2. that it is a kind of middle thing betwixt God and man; leſs than God, and yet above man. Huet. of Conf. It may be called our God (ſaith another) in the ſenſe that Moſes was Pharaohs: having power to controul and avenge our diſobediences, with greater Plagues than ever Moſes brought on Aegypt. Auſon. Therefore that was no evil counſel of the Poet.— Imprimis reverere teipſum. And, Turpe quid auſurus, te, ſine teſte, time.