Seest thou a man [that is] hasty in his words? [there is] more hope of a fool than of him.
Ver. 20. Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words.] Or, Matters; that weighs not his words before he utters them, but too soon shoots his fool's bolt, let it light where it will, hit or miss, it matters not; that had rather be reckoned temerarious than timorous, and is with child till delivered of an abortive birth; that rashly rusheth on the weightiest businesses, and holds it loss of time to take counsel; this hasty, headlong man, as he never wants woe, so - because he is no less headstrong than headlong, wise in his own conceit, than witless in every man's else - there is more hope of a natural than of him, and sooner he will be wrought upon. Scaliger a tells us the nature of some kind of amber is such, that it will draw to itself all kind of stalks of any herb, except basilisk, a herb called capitalis, because it maketh men heady, filling their brains with black exhalations. Thus those hastings, who, by the fumes of their corrupt wills are grown headstrong, and by it are conceited, Pro 26:12 will not be drawn by that which draws others that are of lower parts and capacities, it being easier to deal with twenty men's reasons than with one man's will. Good therefore is the counsel of St James, "Be swift to hear, slow to speak," &c., and of the preacher, Ecc 5:2 "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God," in prayer, vows, and especially in preaching. It was a wise speech of Aristides, who being required of the emperor to speak to something propounded ex tempore, answered, Propound today, and I will answer tomorrow; for we are not of those that spit or vomit things, but of those that do them carefully and accurately. b Demosthenes in like manner, when it was objected unto him that he came premeditated to plead, answered, that he, if it might be possible, would plead, Non tantum scripta sed etiam sculpta, not things written only, but even engraven. And when Eccius told Melanchthon that it was little for his praise that he was so long ere he answered his adversaries' arguments - he would take three days sometimes to think on it - he replied, Nos non quaerimus gloriam, sed veritatem, We seek not victory but verity.
a Scal., Exercit. 140. Numbers 12:1,16 .
b Oυ γαρ ες μεν των εμουντων αλλα των ακριβουντων