"righteousness delivers from death." _OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._ The proverb means the treasures of an unsaved man. . . . The highest opulence of the dead sinner is of no possible profit: but the righteousness of the saved sinner, even without any opulence at all, is a fortune; for, like the "charm of the lamp," it makes for him everlasting blessedness.--_Miller._ A man may seem to _profit_ by them, and to come up wonderfully for a time. But what was the profit of Naboth's vineyard to Ahab, when in his ivory palace he was withering under the curse of God? (1 Kings xxi. 4-24 with xxii. 39). What was the profit of the thirty pieces of silver to Judas? Instead of _delivering from death,_ their intolerable sting plunged him into death eternal (Matt. xxvii. 5).--_Bridges._ Righteousness delivereth from death, to wit, in the time of vengeance; for uprightness is that mark of election and life which the Lord, spying in any when He plagueth the wicked for their transgressions, spareth them, and preserveth them from destruction. Thus, although the righteousness of the just person deserveth nothing at God's hands, neither is any cause of man's preservation or salvation, yet it serveth as a sovereign treacle to preserve the evil-doer from that deadly plague, which is sent from the Lord to destroy the disobedient, and as a letter of passport to safe-conduct the faithful person in perilous times, and to protect him from all dangers.--_Muffet._ Observe--+I. The excellency of these comforts in themselves.+ They are _treasures_--that is, heaps of outward good things. The word includeth a _multitude,_ for one or two will not make a treasure; and a _multitude of precious things,_ for a heap of sand, or coals, or dust, is not a treasure: but of silver or gold, or some excellent earthly things. It is here in the plural, treasures, noting the greatest confluence of worldly comforts. +II. The impiety of the owners.+ They are treasures of wickedness. The purchaser got them by sinful practices. They were brought into his house slyly at some back door. He was both the receiver and the thief. Treasures of wickedness, because gotten by wicked ways, and employed to wicked ends. There is an English proverb which too many Englishmen have made good, "That which is got over the devil's back is usually spent under the devil's belly." When sin is the parent that begets riches it many times hath this recompense, that they are wholly at its service and command. +III. The vanity of those treasures:+ they profit nothing. They are unable to cheer the mind, to cure the diseases of the body, much less to heal the wounds of the soul, or to bribe the flames of hell. Alas! they are so far from profiting, that they are infinitely prejudicial. Such powder-masters are blown up with their own ware. These loads sink the bearer into the unquenchable lake. Aristotle tells us of the sea-mew, or sea-eagle, that she will often seize on