Ecclesiastes 7:16

Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?

Ver. 16. Be not righteous over much, neither make, &c.] Virtue consists in a mediocrity. Omne quod est nimium vertitur in vitium. A rigid severity may mar all. a "Let your moderation, το ετιεκες, be known to all men"; Php 4:5 prefer equity before extremity: utmost right may be utmost wrong. He is righteous over much that will remit nothing of his right, but exercise great censures for light offences; this is, as one said, to kill a fly upon a man's forehead with a beetle. Justice, if not mixed with mercy, degenerates into cruelty. Again, he is righteous more than is meet that maketh sins where God hath made none, as those superstitiostdi of old, and the Papists to this day do with their "Touch not, taste not, handle not: which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship," &c. Colossians 2:21 ; Col 2:23 Will worshippers are usually over wise, i.e., overweening, and also too well conceited of their own wisdom and worth. Hence it is that they cannot do, but they must overdo, b till "wearied in the greatness of their way," Isa 57:10 they see and say that it had been best to have held the king's highway, chalked out unto them by the "royal law," Jam 2:8 that "perfect law of liberty." Jam 1:25 Via regis temperata est, nec plus in se habens, nec minus; c the middle way is the way of God, neither having too much, nor yet too little. True it is, saith the heathen orator, d that nemo pius est qui pistatem caret, no man is godly, that is afraid of being so. But then it is no less true, and the same author speaks it, Modum esse religionis, nimium esse superstitiosum non oportere; e that there is a reason in being religious, and that men must see they be not superstitious. Solomon saith, that he that wrings his nose overhard, brings blood out of it. Pliny saith, he that tills his land too much, doth it to his loss. f Apelles said those painters were to blame, qui non sentirent quid esset satis, that could not see when they had done sufficient. g It is reported of the river Nile, that if it either exceed or be defective in its due overflowings of the land of Egypt, it causeth famine. h The planet Jupiter, situated between cold Saturn and hot Mars, Ex utroque temperatus est, et saluteris, saith Pliny, i partakes of both, and is benign and wholesome to the sublunary creatures.

a Est modus in rebus.

b Quisquis plus iusto non sapit, ille sapit. - Mart.

c Hieron. in cap. 57 Isa.

d Song of Solomon 2, de Finib.

e Cic. pro Dom. sua.

f Nihil minus expedit, quam agrum optime colere. - Plin.

g Cic. de Orat. Jul.

h Polyb. c. 45.

i Lib. ii. c. 8.