Note 123 — Chapter I · OF CONCORD.
Reading edition
In the vulgar translation of the Bible, this mode of expression frequently occurs, thus, “I am thy exceeding great reward.” “I will make thee exceeding fruitful.”
Wallis’s admission of this phraseology proves it to have been good English when he wrote, or that, in his opinion at least, it was unobjectionable. His translation of vir summe sapiens, is “a man exceeding wise.” This, and similar modes of expression, appear to have been in his time very common, thus,
“ Although he was exceeding wealthy.”—Peers.
“He was moreover extraordinary courteous.”—Ibid.
“The Athenians were extreme apprehensive of his growing power.”—Tully.
And in our version of the Bible we find a few such expressions as the following: “The house I am to build, shall be wonderful great.”
Addison likewise often uses the phrase “exceeding great;” and Swift, less pardonably, writes “extreme unwilling,” “extreme good.”