He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.
Ver. 14. He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice.] Qui leonum laudibus murem obruit, that extols a man above measure, - as the false prophets did Ahab, and the people Herod, - that praiseth him to his face; which, when a court parasite did to Sigismund the emperor, he gave him a sound box on the ear. a A preacher in Constantine's time, ausus est imperatorem in os beatum dicere, saith Eusebius, presumed to call the emperor a saint to his face; but he went away with a check. b When Aristobulus the historian presented to Alexander the great book that he had written of his glorious acts, wherein he had flatteringly made him greater than he was, Alexander, after he had read the book, threw it into the river Hydaspes, and said to the author, ‘It were a good deed to throw thee after it.'
Rising early in the morning.] As afraid to be prevented by another, or that he shall not have time enough all day after to do it in.
a In vita Alphons.
b Euseb., De Vit. Const., lib. iv. c. 4.