How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Ver. 22. How long, ye simple ones.] The fatuelli that are easily persuaded into a fool's paradise. These are the best sort of bad men; the apostle calls them Aκακοι. Rom 16:18 Optimi putantur Pontifices (saith Papirius Massonius, a Popish writer) a si vel leniter mali sint; vel minus boni quam coeteri mortales esse solent. Those are thought to be very good popes that are not stark naught, or that have any good at all in them. These simplicians are much better than scorners that delight in their scorning, but far beyond those fools that hate knowledge. See a like gradation in Psalms 1:1, See Trapp on " Psa 1:1 " Peccata non sunt paria; Nemo repente fit turpissimus. All sins are not alike sinful, and wicked men grow worse and worse.
a In Vita Pauli, iii.