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Pro_12:1 Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof [is] brutish.
Ver. 1. Whoso loveth instruction, loveth knowledge.] Here is showed, that adversity is the best university, saith an interpreter. Schola crucis, schola lucis. {a} Corrections of instruction are the way of life. Men commonly beat and bruise their links, before they light them, to make them burn the brighter. God first humbles whom he means to illuminate; as Gideon took thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he "taught the men of Succoth." {Jdg_8:16} {See Trapp on "Rev_3:19"} Mr Ascham was a good schoolmaster to Queen Elizabeth, but affliction was a better, as one well observeth. That verse was much in her mouth -
“ Non ignara mali miseris suceurrere disco. ” - Virgil.
But he that hateth reproof.] Whether it be by the rebukes of men, or the rod of God, he is brutish: tardus est, he is fallen below the stirrup of reason, he is a beast in man’s shape; nothing is more irrational than irreligion. That sapless fellow Nabal would hear nothing; there was no talking to him, no dealing with him; but as [the] horse and mule that have no understanding. {Psa_32:9} Basil complains of the Western churches, that they were grown so proud, ut quid verum sit neque sciant, neque sustineant discere, {b} that they neither knew what was truth, nor would be taught better. Such are near to ruin, and that without remedy. {Pro_29:1} {See Trapp on "Pro_29:1"}
{a} Vexatio dat intellectum.
{b} Epist. ad Evagr.