£ibrarjpoft:het:heological^emmarjo PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY V// VV" PRESENTED BY Robert & Alexander Stuart 1878 "6X v.i Digitized by tine Internet Arcliive in 2014 Iittps://arcliive.org/details/wlioleworksofrigli04reyn WHOLE WORKS OF THE RIGHT REV. EDWARD REYNOLDS, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH ; WITH HIS FUNERAL SERMON, BY B. RIVELEY, ONE OF HIS lordship's CHAPLAINS. TO WHICH IS rKEI'lXED A MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, By ALEXANDER CHALMERS, F.S.A. IN SIX V O li U JI E S. VOL. IV. " Oportet Ecclesiasticum, quando suadet aliquid quod agendum est, non so- lum docere ut instruat, et delectare ut teneat, verum etiam flectere ut \'incat." Aug. de Doctrina Christiana, lib. 4. cap. 13. LONDON: PRINTED FOR B. HOLDSWORTH, 18, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. 1826. LONDON : fRINTED BY S. AND K. BENTLEY, DORSET-STREET. CONTENTS OF THE FOURTH VOLUME. Page MEDITATIONS ON THE FALL AND RISING OF ST. PETER . . . i ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES . . . . SERMONS ON MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. SERMON I. (page 261.) The Shields of the Eauth. Psalm xlvii. y : " The shields of the Earth belong unto God : he is greatly exalted. Shields imply princes and rulers, 262. Rulers belong to God in their office, 263; and in their persons, by a special propriety, 265; by unction, 265; by immediate represen- tation, 266 ; by his special care, 266 ; by influence over their persons and wills, 266; and bv religion, 267. Rulers should learn their duty from their dignity, 267. Princes (and not the Pope) have ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 268. The people are bound 10 honour their Rulers, 270. Judges and magistrates are shields, in regard to the honoui', 272, and the various duties of their office, 274 — 280. SERMON II. (page 284.) The Peace and Edification of the Church. Romans xiv. 19 : Follow after the things which make for peace, and things where' xvith one may edify another. Christian liberty stated, for the information of false or weak brethren, 285. iv CONTENTS. In differences among brethren, our behaviour should be bound by TWO limits : I. By preserving things that make for peace, 286. We are at liberty to oppose the obstinate, 287. VVe must not sacrifice fundamental doctrines, 288; as in case of heresy, idolatry, and spiritual tyranny, 289. Motives to peace: love of brethren, 292; jealousy of enemies, 293; honour of religion, 295. Peace may be preserved, by being humble in opinion of our knowledge, 295 ; by moderating our zeal, 297, in stretching truth too far, 298, and in falsely accusing our opponents, 298 ; by keeping ourselves in our station, 298 ; by brotherly kindness, 299; by avoiding curious questions, 300. Differences may be composed, by joint obedience to common truths, 302; by condescending to the weak, 303 ; by docility, 304; by a single-hearted love of truth, 303 ; by mutual love, 304 ; by not respecting persons, 304 ; by being wise unto sobriety, 303 ; by holding the form of sound words, 306, and the custom of the churches, 306. II. The Peace, which we pursue, must tend to edification, 309; must have faith, hope, and love for its foundation, 312; order and con- nexion, for its superstruction, 313; the discipline of kings and ministers, for its roof and protection ; and must be promoted by the virtues of the. people, 315. SERMON III. (page 318.) Self-Denial. Matth. xvi, 24. If any man ■will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. I. Self-denial should be exercised, absolutely and simply, in a man's de- nying his sinful self, with regard to the whole body of corruption, 323 ; and to more besetting sins, 324. II. Self-denial should be exercised in denying a man's natural self, 324, not in superstitious and morose devotions, but when things are temptations and snares, 325, or when they must be dedicated unto God, 326. III. Self-denial should be exercised in denying our very virtues and graces, 327- As the people of Christ, let us exercise self-denial in avoiding self-love, 328; self-seeking, 328; self-depending, 329. Rules, by which the people of Christ may practise self-denial, 331. Tliey may be quick- ened to this duty by considering that it enables them to bear afflic- tion, 333, and to follow Christ in full obedience, 333. As the ministers of Christ, let them pray for and practise self-denial, by considering that self-seeking is dangerous to states and churches, 33.5 ; unfits them for great services, 335 ; and exposes them to many temptations, 337- The subject applied to the Assembly of Divines, 338 — 348. CONTENTS. V SERMON IV. (page 349.) Animalis Homo. 1 Cor. ii. 14. General scope of the Apostle's argument in the three first chapters of this Epistle, 352. What is meant by y- •i/vxf<-o^ avSrpwiros, 353. 1 rd. ToC Ylyeufiaro's rov 0eou, 355. J ov Sex^'Toi, 355. ^ fioipia^ 356. I oi SrlvaTai yvaivai, 35C. ^ z^vfufiUTtKUS avaKpiverai, 35?. Six inferences, resulting from ihe interpretation of the preceding words. How far the natural man may understand divine things, 359—362. What divine things are unintelligible to the natural man, 363. Grace of Christ, and the Holy Spirit are necessary for the comprehension of supernatural things; proved from scripture, 368; from the dis- proportion between heavenly objects and human intellect, 369. Knowledge of divine things impeded by the difficulty of the subject, 370; by the wisdom of the flesh, 370 ; and by the passions of a sinful heart, 370. Our ignorance of siiirilual things should teach us not to be proud of human learning, 372 ; to lament our obstinacy against divine grace, 373 ; and to despise the ridicule, with which gospel-mysteries are assailed, 373. Heavenly doctrines may be discerned from the illusions of evil spirits and impostors, by their own heavenly light, 374; by continual prayer, 374; and by living a holy life, 375. SERMON V. (page 378.) .Toy in the Lord. Phil. iv. 4. Rejoice in the Lord alway ; and again I say, Rejoice. C/irist is the joy of Ids people. He is a good, present, 380 and 383; precious, 381 and 384; full, 381 and 385; pure, 331 and 386; rare, 382 and 386; various, 382 and 387 ; prevalent and sovereign, 382 and 387 ; perpetual, 383 and 388 ; our own and peculiar, 383 and 388. Christ is a ground of joy from his royal office, as described by Zechariah : he is a king, 388 ; he cometli, 389 ; he is just, 389; liath salvation, 39O; mild and courteous, 390; active in doing good, 391 ; warlike against foes, 39I. Folly of those who seek joy from empty creatures, 382. Danger of those who are offended at the person of Christ, 393; his cross, 394; his free grace, 395; at the sublimity, simplicity, and se- verity of hi) doctrine, 396. Not to rejoice in Christ implies undervaluing of him, 397; love of sin, 397; slight apprehensions of future wrath, 397 ; contumacy in sin, 398; unsavouriness of soul, 398. vi CONTENTS. Let us rejoice in the person of Christ, 399; h's mediation, 399; our knowledge of him, 399 j means of communion with him, 400; in his work, graces, lisiht nf his counlenance, hope of his glory, fellowship of liis suffering'^, 401. Let us rejoice in Christ greatly, 401 ; alwav, with reverence, 402 ; witii improvement of this joy unto thankfulness, 402; unto more cheer- ful service. 403 ; unto consolation against evils, 403 ; unto provo- cation of others to the same jov. 404. Sorrow for sin is no obstacle to this joy, 404. SERMON VL (page 408.) True Gain. Matth, xvi. 26. Fur ukat is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole uor/rl, and lo^e his own soul! or what shall a man give in exchange for his soull Christ vindicates the severity of the Cross from the scandal of death, 409; of its stripping us of enjoyments, 410; of ignominy and shame, 410. 1. A Christian may look after true gain, 412; and therefore God dissuades from sin, 413, as being un])rofiiable, and assigns uiimy advantages to holiness, 41 5. We must not expect profit as the end, 4l6, or reason, 4l6, of our obe- dience ; nor as the fruit of any merit in our services, 41(5; but as the reward of obedience, 41"; as a manifestation of God's bounty, 417; and as matter of encouragemetit under difficulties, 417. LI. Worldly love is inconsistent with true gain, as being insatiable, 418 ; disproportiona!)le to the iieart of man, 419 ; injurious to God, 420; injurious to ourselves, from being unnatural, 420, and unnecessary, 421, and disquieting, 42 1. IIL The saving of the soul is the only true gain, as may be proved from the nature and value of the soul, 423. Uses which may be made of the preceding doctiine, relative to the nature of the human soul, 424 — 5. Parallel between a Christian and a wise merchant, 427. SERMON VIL (page 4.34.) Thk Peace of Jerusalem. Psalm cxxxii. 6 — 9. Prai/ for the peace of Jerusalem, Sfc. Occasion, and parts, of tins Psalm, 435. Exhortation to the duty of praying for the peace of the Church. This peace, for which we pray, must not be sinful, but heavenly, as with God, 440; internal, as among the members of the Church, 441 ; external, as with all men, 442. Arguments to enforce the duty of praying for the peace of the Church : condition of the church, 443; celebrity of God's worship, 443; CONTEyTS. vii benefits of this peace to ourselves, 443, and to our brethren, 443, and to the house of God, 444. Root and ground of this duty is Love; which is a fundanieiital passion, 444; is a cause of obedience, 445; hath great interest in God, 445 ; alleviates the labour of duty, and commends every service to God, 446. The Peace of the Church may often be promoted by the coercive power of Rulers and Magistrates, exercised towards hereticks, profligate persons, &c. 448 — 457- SERMON VIII. (page 459.) Death's Advantage. Phil. i. 21. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. General scope of the passage, 439. The text contains three propositions. I. To live is Christ. Christ is life in every way of causality, 460 ; as the matter of our life, 46l ; the form of a believer's spiritual life, 462 ; ihe end and scope of our whole life, 462. Senses, in which Christ is our life, 463. II. To die is gain, 465. Death liberates us from toil, 468 ; from tyranny of sin, 469 ; from temptations of Satun, and from cares and sor- rows, 469. Death brings us home to our true cjuiitry, 470 ; estates us in life, makes us perfect in our spiritual part, and keeps our relicks tor the resurrection, 471. Death, though a gain, must not be desired out of fretfulness, nor accele- rated by any compendious way, 4/3. III. Christ is gain, both in life and death. Funeral eulogy on Mr. Peter Whaley, 474. MEDITATIONS ON THE FALL AND RISING OF ST. PETER. VOL. IV. R AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. COURTEOUS READER, As I cannot expect thy thanks, so I need not fear thy censure for the publication of these Meditations. For by the forwardness of the bookseller to promote thine (I hope) as well as his own profit, they passed the press altogether without my knowledge ; and before I received the least in- timation of any such design, they were by him presented to me entirely printed, desiring my attestation of their legiti- macy. To prevent therefore thy doubt and suspicion touch- ing their true author, I do, from good and manifold evi- dences, assure thee, they are the genuine, though early off- spring of that reverend person, whose name is prefixed to them. In his lordship's lifetime, I have often heard him mention, not only in general this Tractate, as one of his "First Theological Essays;" but likewise in particular, his presenting thereof to a pious and charitable* gentle- woman, who, by an holy emulation of her namesake Joanna in the Evangelist, did minister unto Christ of her sub- stance, by liberal gifts to his preachers and poor. From this copy, fairly written with the author\s own hand, and prefaced with a short paper of verses to that his friend, were they printed by the stationer. And since the de- cease of my father, and his only brother, f (both within the compass of two months,) two copies of the same came into my possession ; amongst each of their papers, one: both the fruit as of the heart and head, so of the hand too of the author, exactly agreeing together, as I found upon perusal of them ; and (as far as my memory * Mrs. Nixon of Oxon. t Mr. .U,hi\ RtyiRiIds, Rector of Blaby. a 2 4 TO THIi KEADEIl. can assist me, absent from my study in comparing them) fully according with this third, now made public. The first lisping salutes of young children, and the last gasping farewells of dying friends, of all words, are wont to make most deep and lasting impressions upon us. That these short Meditations, some of the first ju- venile breathings in divinity of that devout soul now with God, may obtain like effect, is the prayer of Thy faithful servant, Edwauu Reynolds. London, March \:Hh, 1G76-7. TO THE READER. This reverend author, of great renown for piety and learning, needs no letters of commendation : for as it was said of righteous Abel, that " he being dead, yet speak- eth," {Heb. xi. 6) so this profound and pious divine yet lives, and speaks in his excellent works ; wherein he hath studied (as the apostle gave in charge to Timothy) " to ap- prove himself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth," (2 Tim. ii. 15). Yet because many eminent writers, not only after they were dead, but even whilst they were alive, have been much abused and injured by surreptitious, or supposititious, at least by imperfect, copies of their works ; therefore, I thought myself obliged (as being an ancient and intimate acquaintance of the worthy author) to give this testimony to the truth, viz. that these ensuing " Meditations con- cerning St. Petefs Fall and Rising," are the genuine is- sue of the head-labours, and heart-labours of the author, whose name they bear, and whose stile they resemble as face in water ansv/ers face; Sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic ora ferebat. Neither do they only resemble his style (vvhich is much of an TO THK KEADKK. 5 evidence to be his), but they are printed according to his own original manuscript. These " Meditations" were penned and sent (as a new-year's gift ) to one of his an- cient friends in Oxford, much about that time, when he wrote those two learned treatises, one, of " The Passions and Faculties of the Soul of Man the other, of " Medi- tations of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper." When he was Fellow of Merton College, Oxon, his pregnant sifts and graces shined forth even in his younger years. How well he hath improved his time not only in his elder years, but in his younger also, his learned la- bours declare, published for the great benefit of the church of God. This consideration deserves such a special re- mark of honour to be fixed upon him, as to perpetuate his blessed memory to posterity, and to remain for the living as a signal pattern worthy of imitation. It is observable, that in his preaching and writing (as the wise man chargeth ) " Whatsoever his hands found to do, he did it with all his might," {Eccles. ix. 10.) He was such a preacher as the same wise man mentions, " The preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written, was upright, even words of truth," {Eccles. xii. 10.)* David said to Araunah, when he would have given him freely oxen for burnt-sacrifice, " I will surely buy it of thee at a price ; neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord my God which doth cost me nothing," (2 Sam. xxiv. 24.) It is abundantly evident, that this eminent preacher and writer bestowed much pains and studies in whatever he preached or printed. His works smell of the lamp, and indefatigable industry. I shall add no more concerning the author, because I cannot say enough of his deserts : and the sayings are vulgar, " Nemo vituperat Herculem : — Ex pede Herculem." The subject of these Meditations is " Peter's Fall and Rising." One thing is added in St. Mark, which is not mentioned in the other three Evangelists : for it is said, " And when he thought thereon, he wept." If we peruse the original word, we shall find that he cast something over his head, as mourners and delinquents used to do • Verba desiJerii, Verba rectitudiiiis, Verba veritatis. 6 ■['() J HE HKADtK. when they were ashanietl to be seen ; and so Theophylact * interprets the place. Peter denied shamefully, and there- fore he wept bitterly. Great sins will cost even God's dearest children great and bitter sorrows. We might add more instances of David, Mary Magdalen, Paul, &c. But this instance of Peter is a sufficient evidence. It is a saying of Justin Martyr, that "it is best of all not to sin: and next, to amend upon the punishment." — But who, of any imderstanding, would therefore break his head, because he hopes to have a good medicine to cure it ? The uses which we ought to make of this instance of Peter, are mentioned by St. Paul ; " Thou standest by faith : be not high-minded, but fear," {Rom. x. 20.) "Where- fore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall," (1 Cor. X. 12.) What St. Austinf said of David, may be well applied particularly unto ourselves; "Let such (saith he) who have not fallen, hear, and take heed of falling: such as have fallen, let them hear and rise again. Here is not propounded an example of falling, but an example of rising again after falling." This treatise, though short, is pithy and solid, and con- tains the quintessence of good invention, and sound judge- ment; which are the two parts of logic. It may be com- pared to an Iliad in a nutshell ; or to a map, describing, in a little compass of paper, a large country, which is con- tained in a few significant words ; and the motto may be PonJere, non numero. The same renow^ned author hath preached many excellent and elaborate sermons upon that mysterious prophecy of Zechariab. And likewise he hath preached many profound sermons upon several cases of conscience : both which he hath unfolded with great dexterity of judgement ; many whereof I myself (with others far better able to judge) have heard him preach, about twenty and six years since, in Ox- ford, both to admiration and satisfaction. * Mark xiv. 72. (irtSa\g-J would be prevailed withal to print those elaborate ser- mons, which, questionless, will much conduce to public good of the church of God. In the mean time, let us be thankful unto God who hath given such gifts and graces unto men ; and let us make the best improvement of them, whilst we have them ; and let us (according to our Saviour's example ) " work the works of him that sent us, while it is day : the night cometh, when no man can work," ( John ix. 4.) I shall not detain thee, reader, any longer in a preliminary discourse from reading these choice Meditations. Thy pro- fiting by them is as well desired for thee, as for him, who desires thy prayers, and remains thy servant for Christ's sake. H. W. Marcli 20th, 1676-7. TO MY GOOD FRIEND Mrs. NIXON. The season is of joy ; the gift, of tears : This seems a discord unto common ears. But he that makes the fiercest wolf to sleep, And feed in friendship, with the weakest sheep, Unites remotest passions, and can bring Waters of comfort from grief's bitter spring : The joUiest Baltaser on earth may borrow True joy of him, who seems o'erwhelm'd in sorrow. Begin the year, and pass it in these tears ; They'll yield you joy against your greatest fears. And kindly entertain your poor friend's thrift : A renew'd Peter, for a new-year's-gift. Your true friend, E. R. MEDITATIONS ON THE FALL AND RISING OF PETER. Meditation I. Pride and presumption have been ever, as well in the godly as in the wicked, the forerunners of a fall. The first man, Adam, — the first apostle, Peter, — both fell by these. Had Adam given less ear to the proud persuasion of a weak sex ; and Peter, to the presumptions of a weak confidence ; the one had not plunged his posterity into a depth of wretch- edness ; nor both, themselves into a depth of sorrow. High conceits and resolutions, built on shallow ground, can pro- mise nothing but ruin on the head of him that raised them. Meditation II. What can we expect from Peter but a triple denial of his Master's person amongst his enemies, who dares even to his own face make a double denial of his truth ? He that will adventure to deny the truth of Chrisfs word, will quickly upon temptation deny the profession of his truth. " You all (saith Christ) shall be offended because of me, this night." — " Nay, Lord," answers Peter, " though all, yet never I." — "Yes, Peter, thou more than any: for this very night thou shalt thrice deny me." — " O no. Lord, I know mine own strength; I am so confident of my love unto thee, that nei- ther life nor death can separate me from it. I have a sword in my hand, and I have a sword in my mouth ; my blade and ray profession shall both follow thee unto death." — Peter hath not yet learned not to contradict his Master, though once he got nothing but a ' Satan' for it. It is not one either 10 M E 1) IT A T IONS O X rebuke or disgrace, can root up the untowardness of a cor- rupt disposition. Weak man ! seest thou not how thou hast already begun to deny thy Lord ? and even then hast en- tered upon a revolt, when thou seemest most fortified and constant in thy resolution ? That man denies him, who de- nies his word, he being no longer Christ than he is true. Why then shouldest thou either distrust thy Master's word, which told thee, that " all should be offended ?" or else have any such confident presumption of thine own strength, or uncharitable conceit of thy fellow's weakness, as to believe his prediction touching their falling ; and yet think he was deceived in thee, who art peremptory and confident of thine own standing.' That God which, out of true weakness, hath ordained strength, doth here, out of presumed strength, foretel weakness ; and as he can make the mouths of babes and sucklings to confess him, so can he suffer the mouth of an apostle, a Peter, to deny him; shewing in both the de- pendance as well of strong as of weak on his goodness : the strongest apostle being not able, without his sustaining grace, to confess him ; and with it, the weakest infant in the street being enabled to cry ' Hosanna' unto him. Meditation III. I cannot be so uncharitable as not to believe, that it was Peter's faith and love which made unto Christ this promise of perseverance in his profession : such fruit and sweetness had he found in those words of eternal life, such power in that Son of the living God, that he could not but think it blessedness to follow and enjoy his society even unto death, who was able to sweeten and sanctify death itself. But be- hold, in the same soul, nay in the same action, a mixture, I had almost said a predominancy, of faith and flesh ! The desire and the purpose conae from faith, the confidence and resolution came from flesh. Self-dependance, pride, or any other carnal affection which is more deeply rooted in the particular nature of any man, do often intermix themselves in his most holy actions. It was faith that made Peter go down upon the water, but it was flesh that made him begin to sink : faith made him zealous in Christ's cause, but flesh drew his sword at Malchus's ear:, laith made him follow Christ, but flesh made him follow afar THI. FA LI, or I'KTEU. 11 off: faith made him accompany Christ to the garden, but flesh made him sleep, when he should have sorrowed : faith made him promise perseverance, but flesh made him peremp- tory in that promise : in a word, faith made him resolute to confess, but flesh to contradict his Master. Vows and pro- mises unconditionally addressed, cannot but prove dange- rous to the strongest faith. God must first give us perseve- rance, before we can promise it ; it is not in our power, though it be our duty to perform it. Though Peter may, in the virtue of Christ's promise, be sure not to fall into hell, he cannot, in the virtue of his own promise, be sure not to fall into temptation : though he can be secure that faith shall have the last victory ; yet he cannot, that it shall have every victory : though it cannot die and be finally dried up, yet it may ebb and languish ; and though even now it can look undauntedly on the nails of a cross, yet presently it may be affrighted at the voice of a maid. He only that hath given faith unto us, can give life and action unto our faith. Christ is both the quickener and the object of our faith, by whose power it worketh, and on whose merits it relieth. When he therefore is pleased to remove and withdraw himself, faith must needs be there unoperative, where both its object and its mover is absent. As we cannot see the sun but by the light of the sun, so neither can we believe in Christ but by the grace of Christ. Who can wonder that the outward parts of the body should be benumbed and stupid, when the spirits and animal virtues which should enliven them, have retired themselves.'' Lord ! let me never barely promise, but let me withal pray unto thee ; and let ever my purpose to die for thee, be seconded with a supplication that I may not deny thee; whenever I have an arm of confidence to lift up in defence of thy truth, let me have a knee of humility to bow down before thy throne: Lord, give me what I may promise ; and I will promise what thou requirest. Meditation IV. Were not the other disciples taught from the same holy mouth? did they not with the same holy faith receive what they had been taught '? Why then should Peter give credit to the word of Christ so far as concerned their weakness, and yet distrust it in the presumption of his own strength ? 12 MEnri'ATIONS ON What though he be the chief in following his Master, may he not as well be the chief in falling from him ? I never knew a priority of order privileged with a precedence of grace. Yet such is the nature of greatness, that it conceits itself secure from danger, and apprehends spiritual immunity in temporal honour. How erroneous is the frailty of man's nature ! How ready to trust upon an arm of flesh, confidence, free-will, and supremacy, even against divine predictions of danger, and thinks itself sufficiently armed with that, than which there is no greater cause of its weakness and ruin ! Meditation V. One would have thought that Peter, upon the noise of a denial, should have begun to tremble, and not to boast; to arm, and not to presume ; to suspect his strength, and not promise it: but that a double warning should find a double presumption, would make a man confident to expect an in- vincible resolution ; and believe that even naked and empty nature, being so deeply engaged, would have, if not cou- rage, yet shame enough to persist in such a purpose, which, being broken, could not but infer the discredit not only of a weak, but of an inconstant spirit ; more faithless in the ex- ecution of a promise, more impotent in its contempt of death, than could well stand with the honesty or courage of a Peter. But it is the justice of God to give over nature to faintings and falls, when it relies upon itself ; and to make him fear the least assault, who hath not armed himself with that which should defend him against the greatest. One tear or sigh, though emblems of weakness, could more have pre- vailed to strengthen Peter's faith, than so many fruitless boasts, the gildings and flourishings of a rotten confidence. A little pebble-stone will overturn and sink down a Goliath, when all the armour of Saul will rather cumber than profit in such a conflict. Meditation VI. Great promises require great cares ; and he who hath deeply engaged himself in any service, must needs be either very vigilant, or very faithless. How is it then that, after so many promises, I find Peter sleeping even then, when his Master is sweating ? and that that garden should be the bed THE FALL OF PETER. 13 of so secure a rest, which was the theatre of so exquisite and unimitable an anguish ? Can he follow Christ a whole night to his judgement, that cannot watch one hour for his com- fort ? can he command his life to be laid down for Christ's truth, that cannot command his eyes to be the witnesses of his sorrow ? so long as we are out of the view of danger, we can make large promises of our strength to bear it ; but when once it draws near, and creeps upon us, we begin to look with another colour both on it and ourselves, and become either desperately fearful, or supinely stupid. Like unto- ward and forgetful children, which never fear the rod till they feel it. Meditation VII. I cannot wonder that Peter should fall off, being tempted, who is already, though unquestioned, so far behind ; that he should tremble at the terror of death, who cannot endure the trouble of a watch. He must learn more to deny him- self, before he can take up his cross. The nights of a re- solved martyr must be spent in the studies of patience, not in security and ease ; he must first be a persecutor of him- self, and exercise a holy cruelty on his own flesh, by cruci- fying the lusts thereof, before he can be able to overcome the wit, and most exquisite inventions of his tormentors, in a holy and undaunted patience. The soul must be first raised unto heaven, before the body can be willing to go down into the earth. Had Peter watched and accompanied his Master, he might have received further encouragement in his resolution to die for him, and learned from the extre- mity of his anguish, if not to hate life, which could make a man subject to such expressless sorrow ; yet at least willingly to embrace the present opportunity of glorifying God by a constant death ; even for this respect, that thereby he might be freed from the capacity and danger of those afflictions, which he should there have seen flesh and blood liable unto. Of how many precious occasions of good, does the too great love of our flesh and ease deprive us ! Every man would love God more, if he could be more out of love with himself. Meditation VHI. 1 cannot expect other, but that he should follow Christ afar oft', who goes sleepily after him ; nor can I hope for 14 MEDIFATIONS ON' courage fVoin liis longuc, wliose feet begin so soon to play the cowards. It is not likely that he will come near Christ in Grolgotha, that follows him afar off in the judgement-hall : if he be unwilling to seem his, he will be quickly ready to deny him. Behold the beginnings of Peter's backsliding in his very following of Christ ! To follow him indeed is a work of faith ; but to follow afar off", is nothing else but by little and little to go back from hira. See how the preparations unto Peter's fall second each other. After sleeping, he fol- lows afar oft ; and from that, he comes to sitting still ; and that not in private to pray or repent, but in public to warm himself at that fire, where his conscience, though not seared, was yet made more hard. He which prefers the heat of a fire, compassed in with the blasphemies of wicked men (the nearest pattern that can be of hell) to the sweet society of his Saviour, with the discommodity of a cold air, and an en- suing judgement, cannot be far from denying of him. That man whom the enjoying of any tem])oral benefit, or the op- portunity of any sensual and worldly delight, can induce to forsake the company of Christ, (who is ever present in his ordinances,) is at the next door (if occasion were given) to apostasy and backsliding. Meditatiox IX. The Devil hath a kind of method and colour of modesty in his temptations. He knew that it would not sort with the holi- ness of Peter, to shoot at the first a fiery dart towards him, and tempt him, in the very beginning of his onset, unto a per- jured and blasphemous denial of his Master. Peter would have, at the first, trembled at so fearful a sugcrestion. And there- fore, like a cvinning captain, he so ranks and musters up his forces, as that the first temptation shall, like weaker soldiers, make way for the latter, which are the old experienced and sturdy fighters : the former serve only to weaken Peter ; the latter, to overthrow him. At the first, the Devil tempts us to small sins, to remit something of our wonted vigor, to indulge a little unto our corrupt desires, to unbend our thoughts, and to slacken our pace in prosecution of good courses, that by cooling ourselves we may be able to hold out the better ; but when he hath drawn us thus far, he hath gotten the advan- tage of us ; and having a door open, lets in his more ugly THE l ALJ. OK ThTER. 15 nnd horrid temptations. Sin iiath its several ages and growths; first, it is but conceived and shaped in the womb of concupiscence ; then it is nourished and given suck by the embraces and dehghts of the will, as of a nurse ; then lastly, it grows into a strong man, and doth of itself run up and down our little world, invade all the faculties of soul and body, which are at last made the instruments of Satan to act and fulfil it. Satan, at the first, leads us downward towards hell, as it were, by steps and stairs, which though they go lower and lower, yet we seem still to have firm footing, and to be able to go back at pleasure : but at last we find, as the way more and more slippery, so the enemy ready at hand to push us down into a dungeon of unrecoverable misery, did not God's mercy pluck us as a brand out of the fire. Petet first sleeps only ; that seemed the exigence of his nature : then he followed afar off; that happily was pretended to be only the drowsiness of his sleeping : then he sits down at the fire, and that was but the coldness of the air : but then comes denying, swearing, cursing ; and had not Christ in time looked back upon him, the next step and regress would have reached unto the jaws of hell. But it was the great wisdom and mercy of Christ to honour the estate of his ignominy and reproach, his death and judgement, with two of his greatest miracles, the assuming of a repentant thief, and the re-assuming of a revolted disciple. MEDITAriON X. It is no wonder if Peter be tempted to forsake his Master, when he is far off from him. How can he choose but stum- ble and fall, who hidetli himself from the Sun of Righteous- ness, who is absent from the light of the world, who wanders out of the way of life, who is beyond tlie voice of that word of truth which only succoureth, directeth, leadeth, instructeth in holiness and security ? He which testifieth his faith by following, and yet lays open his flesh and weakness by fol- lowing afar off, shall be sure to meet with such an enemy as hates our faith, and therefore takes advantage by our weak- ness to oppose it. Our faith provokes him to enmity; for he is adversary to none so much as those that are out of his power: and our weakness invites him to an assault; for he trembles and flics from opposition. Had Peter abode in 16 M l-.DITATJ ONS OX the company of his Lord, Satan would not have dared to tempt him unto a triple denial in the presence of such a power, whence he had formerly received such a triple overthrow, having been himself broken with those stones, and hurled down from that pinnacle and mountain, in which he thought to have battered and broken in pieces the sal- vation of the world by the overthrow of its Saviour. Or if perhaps he would have been so impudent, or so venturous, as to thrust into the presence of his Maker, and before him to issue forth his temptations ; yet this advantage should Peter have had, that he should have been directed with more light, and assisted with greater strengrth to resist so impudent an assault ; his faith haply should have been con- firmed, though his adversary's malice had not been abated. And we know the Devil never overcomes any, that is not first overcome of himself. What danger is there in fight- ing, where there is no danger of falling? or what difference is there between an unopposed security, and an assaulted strength, save that this is more glorious, the other no whit the more safe ? He is not far from Satan's temptations, who, belonging to Christ, is yet far off from his presence and assistance. Xone nearer the fury of a stiong and bloody malice, than a weak and straggling enemy. Meditation XI. I never read of more danaerous falls in the Saints, than were Adam's, Lot's, Sampson's, David's, Solomon's and Peter's ; and behold in all these, either the first enticers, or the first occasioners, are women. A weak creature may be a strong tempter; nothing too impotent or useless for the Devil's service. We know it is the pride of Satan to imitate God ; as God magnifies his power in bringing strength out of weakness, so doth the Devil labour to gain the glory of a strong enemy, by the ruinating of a great Saint with the temptation of a weak sex. Nor is he herein more apish than cunning : for the end of the Devil's con- flicts is the despair of his enemy. He gets Judas to betray his Master, that he may after get him to hang himself. And he hath the same end in Peter's denial, which he had in Judas's treason. Now what is there that can more draw a man to despair, than an apprehension of greatness in his TH1-. FALL OF PF.TKK. 17 sin? and what fall greater, than to be foiled by a question by a maid? What could more aggravate Peter's sin, than that the voice of a maid should be stronger to overcome him, than the faith in a Jesus to sustain him? The Devil tempts us, that he may draw us unto sin ; but he tempts us by weak instruments, that he may draw us unto despair. Meditation XII. Woman was the first sinner ; and behold in the two greatest falls, and most immediate denials of God, Adam's, and Peter's, woman is made the first tempter. So much as any one is the Devil's slave to serve him, so much is he his instrument to assist sin. A sinner will be presently a tempter. Meditation XIII. Peter hath no sooner denied his Master, but he goes out farther from him. See what a concord there is between our members in sinning ! how the action of the foot bears wit- ness to the apostasy of the tongue ! But why should Peter get him out for fear of an attachment, and farther exa- mination, having already by his denial cleared himself, and (for aught he sees) satisfied his adversary ? Surely there is no security to be expected from the denial of our Lord. He who thinks to gain ease by sinning, misseth of his end, and shall be more afraid after he hath cleared himself by apostasy, than he was before. It is not the way to avoid the storms of danger, by making shipwreck of a good conscience; and to free ourselves from the hands of men, by running upon the wrath of God. He who hides himself in the hedge of wickedness from danger, shall meet with a serpent instead of safety ; and shall be so much the more suspicious of other men's fury and persecution, by how much the more he is sensible that he hath deserved it. Peter sate boldly amongst them, while he was in danger; he hath no sooner made his apology, but he is gone straight. The same that befell Peter here in denying his dependence on his Saviour, did once befall Adam in denying the truth of his Maker; the next news which you hear of them, is their flight, their fear. Sin is ever deceitfid, and pays nothing VOL. IV. (T 18 MEDITATIONS ON less than what it. promiseth. The first thing that ever painted itself, was sin. Meditation XIV. Is the nature of woman more inquisitive, or more ma- lignant, that amongst so many other servants, a woman should begin the second accusation? The Devil will double a weak temptation, if it have proved prosperous ; and looks rather to the issue, than to the instruments of his assaults. The first maid tempted Peter by questioning him ; this se- cond, by accusing him to the other servants : from which latter we raay infer, that those who are aptest to tempt, are aptest to accuse. These two are the Devil's grand instru- ments to work the ruin of mankind. He first tempts a man to sin, and then he accuseth him to God. And therefore he hath both names in an equal propriety, a tempter, and an accuser ; and these on all sides. He first tempted man to forsake his Maker, and accused his Maker of deceiving man ; next he tempts God to judgement upon man, by accusing man of wickedness towards God : and lastly, after he hath tempted any man unto sin, he begins to accuse him to his brethren without, and his own conscience within. Ever when thou feelest an assault, begin to fear an accusation ; and learn to prevent the Devil's malice, by resisting his temptation. Meditation XV. We may here see the method of Satan. His first temp- tation is by one only maid ; his second, by many servants that stood by. The more weak and naked he finds us, with the greater force he makes upon us ; using his first assault to try, but his second to wound us : as in the battery or breaking open of a city, one man may serve for a spy to watch the gates, to take notice of the defences, and to make relation of the weaknesses or force of either ; but when they are by his report found unable for resistance, there then fol- lows the irruption of a whole army, bringing nothing but the threats of blood and slaughter: so is it with Satan towards our souls ; after he hath sent one smaller tempta- tion as a spy to observe our fortifications, and, upon the suc- cess and report of it, finds how weak we are to withstand his T)1K FALL OF PKTKU. 19 forces, he tlieii rushes in upon us with a multitude ol his armed and more able servants ; who certainly would take possession of us, and hold us in peace as their own, did not a stronger than he come upon him, and overcome him, and divide the spoils. Meditation XVI. The form and manner of Peter's second denial, is (not without special reason, as I conceive) diversely related. In one Evangelist the words are, ' I know not the man in an- other, * I am not of them.' One would think these were two denials. May not a man know him, unless he follow him? No. Behold a mystery of faith in the fall of Peter. No man knows Christ, unless he be one of them that follow him, and to whom he hath united himself. If it had been true, ' I am not one of them,' it had been true also, ' I know not the man.' All knowledge consists in mixture and union, whereby the understanding receiveth into it the image and similitude of the thing which it knows ; which made the philosopher say, That the soul, in understanding a thing, is made the very thing which it understands ; namely, in that sense as we call the image of the face in a glass, the face itself ; or the impression in wax, the seal itself. Now then there is no union between Christ and us, no dwelling of him in us, no ingrafture, or incorporation of us into him, without that faith whereby we follow him, which makes us to be so nearly one with him, that ( in the judgement of the learned) the name of Christ is sometimes in the holy Scriptures taken for the Church of Christ. And therefore to those that believe, to them only he hath given to know. Christ is not truly apprehended either by the fancy or the understanding. He is at once known and possessed. It is an experimental, and not a speculative knowledge that conceives him: he under- stands him, that feels him. We see him in his grace and truth, in his word and promises, not in any carnal or gross presence. Pilate knew him >n that manner, and Judas, as well as Peter. A true believer can see and know him better in heaven at the right hand of his Father, by a sacramental, than a papist can on the altar, in the Jewish and Pilate- hands of a mass-priest, by a transubstantiated bread. Let their faith have the assistance of teeth and jaws; ours, c 2 20 MEDITATIONS ON though toothless, eats him with less injury, an J with more nourishment. Meditation XVII. The increase of the enemy's temptation, accumulates unto the apostle''s sin. \\ hen Peter is pressed a second time, and with more strong opposition, he conceives a naked and empty denial, to be an implicit confession ; and therefore that he mav make them more credulous, he makes himself more impious ; and to gain faith with men, he not only denies, but forswears his faith with God, making Christ himself the witness and patron not only of a lie, but also of a revolt. With how deep a die of sin, with how many degrees of corruption, will the hab4t of faith consist ! That failed not Peter, though the exercise thereof were awhile smothered and suspended. Christ's prayer was stronger to preserve it, than his denial to root it out. That very action, which if it had proceeded from a heart qua- lified with other dispositions of stubbornness, malice, and duration, would have been the irremediable sin against the Holy Ghost ; was in Peter, proceeding from fear and weak- ness, the sin of a believing and faithful heart. How may the godly in this one example both learn to despair of their own strength, which cannot without Christ's assistance up- hold them from so deep a fall ; and not to despair of his mercy, which can keep faith in a corner of that very heart, which lies drenched and weltering in its own blood ; and can raise up unto martyrdom a man that had so deeply plunged himself into apostasy ! He that suffered Judas to be the horrid subject of his judgement, raised Peter from a sin (1 verily think ) in itself as great, to be the preacher and witness of his mercy. Meditation XVIII. How leprous and spreading is sin ! how weak and impo- tent is nature ! how unsatisfiable and importunate is the devil and his instruments ! A double temptation is not enough on Satan's part, after a double denial ; nor is a double de- nial on Peter's part enough confirmed by a single perjury. The Devil goes farther in tempting, the poor disciple goes farther in denying : the truth whereof, that he may the more THE FALL OF PETliR. 21 easily enforce it, he ctjufiims, according" to the law, by two, but those wicked, witnesses ; and to a second oath is there joined an execration. An execration strong and deep enough to make Peter no liar, though an apostate ; I mean, to verify the truth of his denial, and to make him indeed none of those who alone knew their Saviour. For it was (if the word re- tain here the same force which it doth in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans) a curse greater than any curse, even an ana- thema, a wish of eternal separation from the presence of God. It is no wonder if he dare deny Christ in earth, and in dishonour, who can adventure to wish an eternal absence from him in heaven in his glory. 1 never remember any ana- thema that proceeded not from love and fear; that of Moses and Paul from love of the safety, and fear of the destruction of their brethren ; that of Peter, from a love of himself, and a fear of death. How strong and violent are passions, whe- ther holy or natural, when once tiuly apprehensive of their object ! How secure and negligent can they make Peter of his eternal estate, to avoid perhaps but the displeasure of a mortal man! It is the misery and error of corrupt nature, to shelter itself against danger under sin, and to think itself sufficiently safe, when it is violently wicked. Meditation XIX. He hath not only deserved a curse, but provoked it, that hath prayed for it ; who could but expect the execution after the petition ? But behold the mercy of a provoked God ! Though Peter have asked a stone, a corner-stone to fall upon him, and grind him to powder, yet he giveth him in- stead thereof, the bread of eternal life, the wine of repentant tears: though he crave a serpent, a fiery serpent to sting him for ever unto death, yet he, like a compassionate Saviour, gives him the voice of a cock, the sight of a brazen serpent to recover his wounds. Peter hath provided a whole load of sins for Christ to carry to his approaching cross ; and Christ hath thrown on him such a burden of mercies, as shall sink him deeper in the waters of repentance and admiratioii, than he was before in danger. 22 5lliDII ATlONS ON Meditation XX. One would think, that such a great recovery should be effected by the hand of some glorious ministry, by the voice of an angel or a prophet. But see a miracle in weakness ! A cock is made, as it were, a John Baptist, to forerun the look of Christ, and to preach repentance. That God which can in power work without means, does in wisdom make use of the basest, and can open the mouth of a beast for the conversion of a man. How careful ought we to be in the use of means, when God seldom worketh without them ! How humble in the use of prayer, when the means work not without God! The ordinary courses of nature, the most ac- cidental occurrences in the world, are sanctified unto the good of the elect, and are the instruments of God for their salvation. Meditation XXI. But why should our Saviour, in this great work, chuse the service of a cock for the ministry of repentance ? There is ever some mystery in Christ's instruments. If he will give sight to a blind man by impotent and unlikely means, they shall be a mixture of something out of his own mouth, with something out of the earth, to shew that the virtue of Christ's mouth in the earthy and clayey vessels of mortal men, is of force to open the eyes of the ignorant and impenitent. Christ in this crow of the cock hath given Peter as well an example to follow, as an occasion to repent; as well taught him in the execution of his apostleship, as converted him from the estate of a backslider. A true minister that loves Christ and his sheep, must have the wings of a cock to rouse up first himself from security ; and then being con- verted, powerfully to awaken and strengthen others : and the watchfulness of a cock, to be ever ready to discover and forewarn danger; and the voice of a cock, to cry aloud, and tell Israel of their sins, and terrify the roaring lion that seeks to devour them : and lastly, the hours of a cock, to preach in season, and out of season, the glad tidings of salvation. THE RISING OF PETER. 23 Meditation XXII. Who would think that a weak cock should be able to do more with Peter, than prophets and apostles with other men ? That the noise of a cock's" crow should be heard so deep as the confines of hell ? Surely no man, if these weak means were not quickened and seconded with the look of Christ. He first turns and looks back in mercy upon Peter, before Peter can return in sorrow and repentance unto him. " By him live, and move, and have their being," as well Christians as creatures. The very faithful themselves would lie still in that depth of sin whereinto they have been plunged, if that power which in wisdom sufiers them to fall in, should not in grace and pity raise them up. Peter can- not remember the word of his Master, till Christ remember the misery of his disciple. Meditation XXIII. See here the greatness of Christ's grace! One would think that he should have been wholly taken up with the dishonour of his present condition, with the sense of his Father's desertion, with the foresight of his approaching suf- ferings. And yet behold, when he is wholly possessed of weakness, he is yet at leisure for a work of power. The righteous justice of his God, and the unjust cruelty of his enemies, were not able to drive him from the remembrance or exercise of his mercy. He that came to suffer all these things for man, does in the midst of his sufferings remember man, honouring the scorns and buffets of his judgment, with the conversion of a fallen apostle ; and the nails and igno- minies of his cross, with the conversion of a reviling thief. Meditation XXIV. And now methinks I see in the face of Christ, a throng and a conflict of affections. One while I see an angry and upbraiding face against Peter's revolt; another while a pitiful face, commiserating his frailty ; then a merciful face, con- verting him ; and next a gracious and favourable face, invit- ing him. If it were a face of auger, see then the nature of faith in Peter and all the godly, which through the clouds of his displeasure can discover the comfortable light and beams of a Saviour, as well as through his veil of flesh and •24 MlilDl J ATIOiVS ON dishonour, discern the power and majesty ot God j like tiie woman in the Gospel, whose faith could interpret the very odious name of ' dog," uttered from the mouth of Christ, to be a trial of her, and not h rejection ; rather a hiding than a denying of mercy. If it were a face of grace and invitation, see the nature of sin, which is to make a man afraid even of an appeased God ; and of repentance, which when the soul is invited to the rivers of joy which make glad God's city, can be at leisure to drink of those bitter tears, which make heavy the hearts of sinners. If it were a pitiful and commiserating face, see how it works alike qualities in Peter, who then only can begin to lament himself, when he is first lamented by his Saviour. Lord ! never let thy saving face be turned back from me, but be thou always pleased to look upon me, whether in tender displeasure, or in a pitiful mercy ; that so I may be driven by sorrow out of myself, and by faith unto thee. Meditation XXV. The first beginning of Peter's repentance, is a remem- brance of the words of Christ, an applicative and feeling recordation of them. How powerful is temptation to banish out of man's mind all conceit of God's truth, or his own danger ! He that is too mindful of his safety, will be too un- mindful of his faith. A sanctified memory, whether in re- taining of Divine Truth, or in presenting our own sins, is an excellent preparative to repentance ; and like a steady wind, doth collect and draw together those clouds, whence shall after issue forth those happy tears. Meditation XXVI. But what was it that Peter remembered ? It is not said, Peter now considered how he stood naked and open to the flames of Hell, or how he had exposed himself to the scourges of an inward tormentor, to the scorchings of a bosom-hell, his conscience, or to the fearful judgement and revenge of him whom he had injured by denying; and therefore he went out and wept : it was fear that made him fall, it made him not repent: but it was only the merciful prediction of Christ which he remembered ; what slight esteem he had made of that gracious caution which should have armed him against temptations : and this made him go THE RISING OF PETER. 25 out and weep. The abuse of God's mercy, the grieving of God's Spirit, the undervaluing of God's truth, more wounds the soul of a repentant sinner, than all the gripes of con- science, or flames of Hell. Meditation XXVII. But what makes thee (O blessed convert) thus to start and turn '^upon the look of thy Lord, and the remembrance of thy sin, as if the repentance for the denial of thy tongue, had made thy foot again to deny thy Master? Whither run- nest thou, Peter, from such a fountain of mercy ? Hast thou either mistaken the look of thy Saviour, which was to draw and reunite thee unto him, not to drive or banish thee from him? or hath thy sorrow drowned thy faith, and made thee forget that glorious profession which thou once didst make out of a happy knowledge of experience and belief that Christ had the words of eternal life ? and whither then goest thou Hast thou forgotten that he had balm to cure thy grief, and blood to blot out thy sin ? that he could at once both comfort and restore thee, and render unto thee thy former joy and grace? Why didst thou not run into his em- braces, and in token of thy repentance and belief, in thy body lay hold upon him, and wash him with thy tears against his burial But behold the mystery of Peter's re- covered faith ! see how he acknowledgeth his Saviour when he turneth from him ; and is reinvested with the honour of a disciple, though he seem still rather to forsake, than to fol- low his Lord. His repentance doth in action confirm, what his faith once did in words confess, that Christ was the Son of the living God. Behold in the departure of Peter, an article of thy faith, even the Divinity of thy Saviour. Had not Christ been as well without, where Peter wept, as within the hall where the Jews blasphemed, Peter had again denied, and not returned unto his Lord : and that which is now a mystery, would have been a revolt. It is nothing but faith that from without could still through the walls look in- to the house, and there through the infirmity of a buflleted and contemned body, descry the glory of a merciful and re- conciled God. It is nothing but faith that can from earth look into the highest Heaven ; and when it is absLut from Christ, not only groan after him, but grus[) and lay hold 26 MEDITATIONS ON upon him. The ubiquity of Christ gives unto that believer who hath interest in him, a kind of ubiquity also : and as he is in earth by his power, though in Heaven by his presence ; so a believer, though in his body on the earth, yet is in Heaven by his faith. It is the nature of faith to give, as subsistence and being unto things yet to come, so a kind of presence also unto things most remote and distant ; and can even converse, and lay hold on Christ, though he be in Heaven. Meditatiok XXVUI. But what, Peter ! though thou canst find thy Saviour with- out the hall, is there no comfort to be taken in his sensible presence? doth the possession of faith make vain and fruit- less the fruition of sight ? Is it not some joy to see him, because it is so much blessedness to believe in him Was there health in his garment, and is there no pleasui'e in his presence ? Was the womb blessed that held him, and is there not some blessedness in the eyes that see, and the hands that embrace him ? Was it from temptation, which had before foiled thee, that thou didst fly as a burnt child from the fire ? Was the voice of a virgin able to drive thee from the Son of a Virgin ; or the challenge of a servant, from the presence of a Lord ? Was not that look able to confirm thee, which was able to convert thee ? Or couldst thou fear to fall from the rock, thy Saviour, because thou hadst be- fore fallen from the sand, thy presumption f Or was it out of a loathing of that place of blasphemy where thy Master and thy God did suffer the base reproaches of wicked men ? could the air of that place be infectious, where was so pre- cious, so innocent, so saving a breath to sweeten it ? Was the blasphemy of a Jew more pestilent to pollute, than the grace of thy Jesus to sanctify the high-priesfs hall ? The presence of Christ could make that place a heaven to Peter, which the blasphemies of a Jew had made his hell. It was neither the vileness of the place, nor the question of a ser- vant, which could have done thee any violence. They might tempt, they could not wound thee. A mountain stands un- moved though the winds be impetuous, when a smaller breath not only shakes but breaks down a reed. If thy Lord have given thee strength, thy adversary cannot give THE RISING OF PETEH. 27 thee a fall : if he beckon on thee to turn, thou art by his finger sufficiently armed against a torment, a devil, much more against a temptation, a maid. But such is the reco- very of faith, as of health, it proceeds by degrees, from weakness unto strength, from fear unto confidence, and dares not trust in Christ without some trembling. Peter is assured of his Master's love, and yet he is ashamed of his own sin. Shame is ever sin's companion. He durst not to look that Master in the face, whom so lately he had denied: he could with the publican knock his breast, he could not look up to heaven, to the face of his Master ; he could pray unto Christ, he could not accompany him. And as the modesty of nature makes a man able to deliver more of his mind in absence than in presence : so the shame of sin makes Peter more confident without, than within the hall. Meditation XXIX. We find not that Peter after this saw Christ till his re- surrection: and then none so particularly invited unto his sight, none so forward and hasty to have recourse unto the garden. Was it grief at his Master's misery, or at his own sin (with the lamentation of both which, he could best in private glut himself ) ? or was it fear of the majesty in his Master''s face, or of weakness in his own breast, which drove him out of the hall to weep? Surely perhaps all. He de- parted from the face of his Lord, from the company of his tempters, provoked thereunto by the shame of his fall, by the experience of his frailty : he departed from the com- mitting of more sin, from the sight of more misery, because he knew not whether he should find more mercy, or be able to bear more sorrow. But when once Christ, through the power of his resurrection, had clothed himself with glory, and Peter by the angel's message was unclothed of fear, none more hasty to enjoy the benefit of his real presence. He ran, and went down into the sepulchre, not hoping to see there a weak and captive body, but (as he did) a conquered and deceived grave ; only the relicks of weakness, and the witnesses of power. What haste, think we, made he to rise up unto his Saviour's kingdom, that was so ready to go down into his grave.? When Nature is raised up from iier Fuins and decays, when flic conscience is cleansed (ruin the 28 MEDITATION'S ON guilt of sin, or burden of sorrow, wlieu a lapsed saiiit hath regained his measure of grace and tranquillity, he is so much the more speedy in heavenly pursuits, by how much his for- mer fall had been a disadvantage to his progress: and those sharp sins which, being acted, did wound him, do now, being remembered, only spur him forward in his way. The very sins of the godly, contrary to the barrenness of their own nature (which bringeth forth nothing but death), are by the mercy and wisdom of God, made fruitful and of use un- to them. The Devil, in wounding them, wounds himself; and though his fiery darts may perhaps at first find entrance ; yet when they come to the bottom of a faithful heart, they meet there with a rock of salvation, from whence they are driven back into the face of him that threw them. When the Devil batters any one virtue in a saint, he does in the issue nothing else but pluck out the stones of his own build- ing. Though he breaks David's bones, though he sift and winnow Peter's faith ; yet both, when they are restored, will be like a broken bone, stronger ; and like wheat sifted, finer ; and will also by instructing and confirming of others, draw more men from him, than he before had done graces from them. Meditation XXX. Peter had expected great security in the denial of his Saviour ; and behold the issue and upshot of all, ' he wept bitterly.' Now are his eyes turned, as it were, into a valley of Megiddo, his head into a fountain of water, and his soul is even drenched in whole floods of sorrow. Sin is not only deceitful in depriving us of those hoped immunities which we seek for in it, but fruitful likewise in an ample increase of evil. It not only depriveth us of comfort, but lieapeth unto our misery. Like a great thick cloud, which not only interposeth between the Sun of Righteousness and us, hiding the light of his countenance from us, but withal also showers down on our deceived souls whole storms of woe and shame. There is ever a weeping follows sin. Either such a despe- rate weeping as hath that dreadful concomitant added unto it, gnashing of teeth, or such a repentant weeping as is sea- led up from the mouth of Christ himself with a blessing until lilt day of redemption. And blessed indeed are the THE RISING OF PF.TEK. 29 tears of a converted revolter; and happy is this very misery of a mourning offender : — for as water boiling and running over, puts out that fire which first raised it up ; so the tears of true repentance serve to extinguish those flames and ter- rors of conscience, and to blot out those burning sins (the issues of Satan's fiery temptations) which first caused them, by the means of Christ's grace, to run over. Lord ! give us in the first place thy sustaining grace, which may preserve us from the danger of great and scandalous offences : but if thy wisdom find it otherwise requisite, to punish our pre- sumptions with a temporary desertion, and by withdrawing thy power to let us be foiled with the assault of carnal temptations; yet never deny us that restoring grace, which may re-establish us in thy favour. Give us, if not the grace of standing, yet the grace of weeping ; that though we can- not be^innocent, we may be repentant. ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES. ECCLESIASTES, OR THE PREACHER. THE ARGUMENT. The author of this book, both by the style, and by the title of it, appeareth to have been Solomon ; since no other son of David was king in Jerusalem, but he. He seemeth to have written it in his old age, when he took a more seri- ous view of his past life ; the honours, pleasures, wealth, wisdom, he had so abundantly enjoyed ; the errors and mis- carriages, which he had fallen into ; the large experience, and many observations he had made, of things natural, moral, domestical, civil, sensual, divine; the curious and critical inquiry he had made after true happiness, and what contribution all things under the sun could afford thereunto. Concerning which, he doth, 1. In the general, discover the utter vanity and insufficiency of all things, here below, to make a man blessed, in regard of their mutable nature, of their weakness and disproportion to the soul of man : of the weariness which is contracted by the studying of them : and the impossibility of ever drawing from them more than hath been formerly extracted ; and consequently the fruit- less attempt of any, that should ever after go about to re- ceive satisfaction from them. 2. He demonstrateth this general proposition touching the most vain vanity of all things under the sun, by an induction of those particulars, from which, above all others, men usually expect the great- est contentment. Those are, 1. Wisdom and knowledge both natural and moral ; for inquiry whereinto no man was^ ever furnished with greater abilities and stronger inclinations in himself; or with more fitting provisions and assistants from without, than Solomon was, in regard of the greatness of his dignity and estate : and yet, after all, he concludeth, that wisdom and knowledge do but increase grief and sor- VOL. IV. D 34 ANXOTAIIONS ON [the row; SO far are ihey fioni bringing such blessedness to the soul, as may fully satisfy the desires thereof. 2. Pleasures and delights, which he had as much advantage by his great- ness to enjoy, and by his wisdom to examine, as ever any other man should have : and yet all the content he expected from them, did end in hatred of them, and despair of ever mending his condition by them. 3. Honour, greatness, and power in the world ; concerning which, he sheweth that it is so far from making men happy, as that, without the fear of God to correct and temper it, it is the occasion of much wickedness to those that have it, and of much misery to those that suffer under it ; it usually breaking forth into op- pression and violence, whereby men in power carry them- selves like beasts towards their brethren, and shall them- selves die like beasts, undesired, and unlamented. It being likewise matter of much discouragement to men that are op- pressed by it, making them weary of their lives, careless of their labours, resolved rather upon quiet idleness, than upon envied employments; and to get what they can privately to themselves, than having been publicly useful, to be repaid with no other rewards than wrona; and danger: bv which means, society and community of services amongst men, so greatly beneficial to public interest, are obstructed and dis- solved. 4. An outward form of religion and of divine wor- ship, into which foolish men, by carnal confidence, and su- perficial performances, do also put divers vanities, and make even God's service unuseful to their happiness. 5. Riches and great possessions, which are so far from satisfying the heart of man, as that they occasion more cares, less sleep, less quiet, are snares and occasions of much hurt to the owners of them, who, living, possess them with sorrow ; and dying, part with them with wrath and indignation : having little benefit by them in their life, as having not power to enjoy them : nor in their death any comfort from them, as leaving them to they know not whom ; being not at all ex- empted by them, either from misery or mortality. And having thus discovered the vanity of the principal things, from whence the heart of man might have expected satisfaction : he doth thereupon prescribe many excellent means for healing and abating of that vanity, and for pro- curing tranquillity unto the mind, and peace and comfort to ARGUMENT.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 35 the life of a man. Such are, contentation of heart in the sweet and free enjoyment of all outward blessings, with thanksgiving, and in the fear of God : — Quiet and humble acquiescency under the holy and powerful providence of God, in all the events which befall us in the world: — Sin- cerity of heart in his worship, and prudent piety in our vows, prayers, and addresses unto him : — Patience of spirit under all the oppressions, we meet with in the world : — A com- posed preparedness of mind to undergo sorrows and afflic- tions: — Prudent and pious moderation of spirit in our be- haviour towards all men, that so we may preserve our names from calumny, and our persons from danger : — Meekness, charity, patience towards such as offend, considering common frailty, and our own weakness: — Sobriety of mind, content- ing ourselves with a measure of wisdom and knowledge, and not busying ourselves with things too high for us : — Practical prudence, which may render us beautiful in the eyes of others: — Loyalty and obedience towards magistrates, that our lives may not be made uncomfortable by their displea- sure: — Wisdom to discern of time and judgement: — Pre- paredness of heart against inevitable evils : — Submission to the holy and invincible providence of God, admiring his works, adoring his judgements : — Joyful fruition of com- forts : — Conscionable and industrious walking in our par- ticular callings : — Wisdom how to carry ourselves amidst the many casualties which meet us in the world, so as that we may, by our loyalty towards our superiors, decline the dan- ger of displeasure from them ; and by our charity to in- feriors, lay up a good foundation for ourselves, against the time to come : — Lastly, Moderation in the use of comforts here; and preparation by the fear of God, and keeping of his commandments, for death and judgement hereafter. That by these means, as our life is sweet, so our death may be welcome. That the piety of our youth may help us to bear the infirmities of our age, and to lift up our heads in the day of redemption. 1) 2 36 ANNOTAllONS ON [chap. I. CHAPTER I. In this chapter we have, 1. The inscription of the whole book, ver. 1. wherein the author thereof is described by his natural relation, the son of David ; his civil relation, king in Jerusalem ; and his church relation, a preacher ; or a peni- tent soul, returning into the bosom of the church, from whence, by many gross miscarriages, he had secluded him- self. 2. A general proposition, setting forth the utter insuf- ficiency of all things under the sun to make a man blessed; and the extreme vanity which is in them, in relation unto such an end, (however otherwise useful and beneficial they may be, within their own sphere, when sanctified, to sweeten and comfort the life of a man, who hath placed his happi- ness in God :) insomuch, that all the labour which is taken to extract happiness from the creature, will be wholly fruit- less, and without any profit at all, ver. 2, 3. 3. The proof of this general proposition ; 1. By man's mortality, whereby he is quickly removed from the fruition of them : whereas that which makes a man happy, ought for ever to abide with him, ver. 4. 2. By the instability of all other creatures, they come and presently they go, and are never in a fixed condition : if coming, they make happy ; then departing, they leave mise- rable again. By which instability of the creatures, being themselves continually unsatisfied, is implied, 1. Their weak- ness to minister satisfaction to so noble a creature as man, ver. 5, 6, 7. 2. The restless and fruitless labour which is taken in seeking satisfaction from things which only affect the senses, since the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing, ver. 8. 3. By the continual vicissitudes and returns of the same things, which having failed once, yea often before, are never likely to afford further supplies, than already they have done (which indeed are none) towards the happiness of a man. And therefore except they can minister some new matter of satisfaction to the soul, which was never found in them be- fore, and which indeed they will never do ; impossible it is, but the same disappointment which others have met with, CHAP. I.] THE ROOK OF KCCLESI ASTES. 37 must likewise befall those, who shall from the same things seek for that, which the wisest of men heretofore were never able to extract from them, ver. 9, 10, 11. 4. By Solomon's own experience, who by the dignity of his place, by the inclination of his heart, by the greatness of his wisdom and learning, and by the abundance of his wealth, was able to go as far as any other man could in this inquiry after true happiness ; and when he had set himself to make a most critical and accurate search into all things here below, doth conclude of them all in general, and of the most excellent of them all in particular, namely, of wisdom and knowledge, that they are not only Vanity, and so unable to satisfy the soul, but are further Vexation of spirit, as cau- sing much grief and sorrow to that heart which is immode- rately conversant about them. Ver. 1. The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jertisaiem.] These words are the inscription of this book, setting down the author thereof by his parentage, dignity," and design in this writing. The author is prefixed, as owning and avowing the doctrine therein contained : his dignity is added, to set on the drift and scope of the book the better. A king. Such a king, the son of David, so piously educated (1 Reg. ii. 2, 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. Prov. xxxi. 1); so so- lemnly by God selected and separated to that honour (2 Sam. vii. 12 — 15. 2 Chron. i. 1.); so admirably endowed with inward wisdom, whereby he was fitted, as in special for the work of government (I Reg. iii. 12,^8); so likewise for all natural and moral inquiries (1 Reg. x. 3. 1 Reg. iv. 29 — 34) ; so rightly furnished with all outward means to further such an inquiry (2 Chron. ix. 22); so fixed and wholly taken up with it, sometimes viciously taking his fill of outward pleasures (1 Reg. xi. 1); sometimes critically, purposely set- ting himself to extract the quintessence of all sublunary per- fections (Eccles. i. 17); and lastly, being instructed by God, an inspired person, and called out to publish this as a preacher of so necessary a truth to God's people ; in all these respects, there is much authority added to what the wise man delivers in this book ; and he doth hereby excite the attention of the people thereunto, as unto the words of a pe- nitent convert, and of a wise, holy, and potent prince. The words of the preacher.] Some read it as a proper 38 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. I. name, the words of Koheleth son of David, and so would have it to be one of the names of Solomon, as Jedidiah (2 Sam. xii. 25) ; Lemuel {Prov. xxxi. 1). It is usually out of the Greek rendered Ecclesiastes, or the preacher : as if Solo- mon had publicly delivered it to the congregation ; as we find sometimes kings and extraordinary persons have spoken to the people in their church assemblies (1 Reg. viii. 1. 12). But it seemeth chiefly to signify Solomon's repentance, and re-uniting himself to the congregation of God's people, from whence by his idolatries and other apostasies he had de- parted : and so the sense is, " The words of the soul, or person congregated or gathered unto the church, or con- gregation of saints, ( Psalm Ixxxix. 6), viz. of the son of Da- vid, king in Jerusalem." Some were not to be admitted into the congregation at all {Deut. xxiii. 3. Nehem. xiii. 1); and others, by idolatry and apostasy, did shut out themselves from the assemblies of the saints, by joining themselves to other gods. Now here Solomon doth, by solemn and serious repentance, return into the bosom of that congregration, from which, by his idolatry, he had departed, and turned his heart from the Lord God of Israel : (1 Kings xi. 9) and doth therein, and thereunto declare the vanity of all other ways, save only the fear and worship of the Lord, unto true hap- piness. And herein he imitateth his father David, whose name is haply here for that cause mentioned, that as David being converted did publish his repentance unto the church, in that solemn penitential psalm (Psalm li) ; so his son, having fallen from his integrity, did take the same course to give glory to God in the great congregation (Psalm xl. 10), and to make known his repentance to all the church, that thereby he might glorify God, and strengthen his brethren. Whence he frequently in this book giveth himself this title, as of a penitent convert (Chap. i. 12. and vii. 29. and xii. 8, 9, 10). The word is a participle or ad- jective of the feminine gender, yet joined here to a verb masculine, as elsewhere to a verb feminine (Chap. vii. 27) ; there, because of the grammatical congruity ; here, with re- lation to the person thereby signified. They use to supply the sense with the word nephesh, soul, which is mentioned presently after it, (Chap. vii. 27, 28): and so that word is elsewhere supplied (2 Sam. xiii. 29). So where it is said. CHAP. I.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 39 {Gen. xlix. 6), " My glory, be not thou united unto their as- sembly the noun is masculine, the verb feminine, to signify that, by glory, the same was to be understood in that clause, which was expressed by the feminine noun, the soul, in the former clause : and so glory seems elsewhere to signify the soul of a man {Psalm xxx. 12). If it be inquired what may be the cause why Solomon doth not prefix his proper name to this book, as to the other two of the Proverbs and Canti- cles ; though it be not necessary to be curious in questions of this nature, yet this may be inoffensively conjectured; 1. That he seems hereby to intimate, that by his former sins he had, as it were, forfeited his name of peace ; and so we find that, by reason of those his sins, God stirred up ad- versaries against him (1 Kings y\. 14,23). 2. To note his sincerity, who now chose to be known rather by the name of a penitent convert, than of a peaceable prince : as if he who had troubled Israel by his sins, did no longer deserve his name of peace ; as the prodigal said to his father, " I am no more worthy to be called thy son." So in Scripture, men have taken new names suitable to a new condition {Gen. Hi. 28. Ruth i. 20. Mar. iii. 16, 17. Nehem. ix. 7). The other additions likewise to his name of penitence may seem to be looked on by him as aggravations of his sins. 1. That he was the son of David, a godly father, who had given him such holy education, who had provided him materials to build God's house, and greatly encouraged him to advance the worship of the Lord, who had been an example to him to take heed of falling into gross sins, that the son of such a father should fall so foully. 2. That he was a king on his father's throne ; and that not by right of inheritance, but by special designation from the Lord, who had singled him out above his brethren, and had appeared unto him twice, and gave him wisdom and princely endowments for so great a place, that he should defile the throne whereunto he had been so graciously advanced, and from thence give to all the people so sad an example of sensuality and apostasy. 3. That he was a king in Jerusalem, a holy city, where was God's throne as well as the thrones of the house of David ; that he should defile the Lord's land, and his dwelling place ; these were considerations worthy for such a penitent to have his eyes on, for his greater humiliation thereby teaching us 40 AN!^OTATIONS ON [chap. I. 1. That the sins of the child are greatly aggravated by the godliness of the parent {Jer. xxii. 15, 16, 17.) 2. That the sins of the child are greatly aggravated by the falls and mis- carriages of the parent, {Dau. v. 18, 23). 3. That sins are greatly aggravated by the dignities and privileges of those that commit them (2 Sum. xii. 7, 8, 9. Dent, xxxii. 12, 19. Amos ii. 9, ,3. iii. 2). 4. That the greater the person is that sinneth, whereby the scandal to the church is likewise the greater, the more solemn ought his repentance to be. {Numb. xii. 14, 15, 16. 2 C7«ro//. xxxiii. 12, 13, 13, 16, 18, 19.) 6. That the power of grace is exceeding great, which can subdue the hearts of the greatest men unto the heaviest yoke of public and solemn repentance (2 Cor. x. 4, 5, 6). And further, from the description of the person, and his writing of this book, we may observe, 1. That eniinency of wisdom, without the continued a.ssistance of grace, cannot keep a man from gross and foul lapses. Never a wiser man than Solomon ; and never any saint fell into more foolish lusts. God is pleased sometimes to suffer men to fall into such sins, the contrary graces whereunto they had most eminently been adorned withal. As David, a most spiritual man, into fleshly lust ; Lot, whose righteous soul had been vexed at the filthy conversation of the Sodomites, into snother sort of unnatural impurity by incest of his daughters; Job, into impatience; Moses, the meekest man alive, into great passion of mind {Numb. XX. 10); Peter, the boldest disciple, into base fear and cowardice of spirit in denying his Master. 2. That height of honour, and abundance of wealth, are sore snares and temptations, even to the wisest and most excellent men, {Mark X. 23, 25. 1 7'm. vi. 9. Isai. xxx'ix. I, 2). 3. That repentance sets a man most against that evil by which he had most dishonoured God, and been foiled under tempta- tion. Abundance of knowledge and treasures drew Solo- mon's heart too far from the Lord ; and being converted, he sets himself most to discern the emptiness and vanity of theu). So Zaccheus, {Luke xix. 8), and Mary Magdalen. {Luke vii. 37, 38) 4. That the Lord raaketh the falls of his servants very beneficial unto his church: — David's fall was an occasion of his penning some excellent psalms ; and Solo- mon's, of writing this excellent book, setting forth the vanity of those worldly things, whereby even wise men are many CHAP. I.] THE HOOK OF KCC L KSI A STh S, 41 times drawn away from God. 5. That the saints, after some great offence given by their falls to the church, make it their business, upon their repentance, to do some more notable and eminent service to the church : as Peter who had been most fearful in denying Christ, was after most forward in preaching him, and most bold in the profession of him, (Jets i. 15, and ii. 14, and iii. 12, and iv. 8, and v. 29.) Ver. 2. Vaiiift/ of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of va-' nities, all is vatiiti/.'] The scope of the wise man is, to di- rect us in the right way to true happiness. And this he doth, first, negatively, assuring us that it is not to be found in any thing under the sun. Secondly, affirmatively, that it is to be found only in God and his service. For the former, this is the last issue and result of all that curious inquiry, which Solomon made into the utmost excellencies of crea- tures here below. He was furnished above all other men with all variety of requisites for such a work ; set himself critically about it, to dissect, as it were, and take a thorough view of the creature ; and having so done, this is the upshot, that all is nothing but very vanity. And this he doth in a vehement and pathetical manner, that it may be the more observed. He doth not say, * All is vain ;' but in the ab- stract, (which is much more emphatical,) ' All is vanity :' not vanity only, but ' vanity of vanities,' that is, extreme va- nity : the genitive case of the noun, according to the use of that tongue, supplying an adjective of the superlative degree. {Gen. ix. 25. Cant. i. 1. Hos. x. 1-5. 1 Tim. vi. 15) And this proposition he doubleth and repeateth again ; thereby intimating, 1. The unquestionable certainty of it. (fien. xl. 32. Isai. viii. 9) 2. The great consequence of it, as being a truth necessary to be inculcated, that it might make the deeper impression on the heart. (Ezek. xxi. 27. Psalm Ixii. II. J?ef. xviii. 2) 3. The natural unaptness which is in us to give credit to it, or to take notice of it, except it be thus inculcated upon us. (Jer. xxii. 29) 4. The earnest af- fection of the wise man in pressing this necessary truth, with which he himself in his repentance was so deeply affected. Repetitions argue vehemency of affections, and earnest con- tending for the things so repeated. (Ezek. xvi. 6. Luke xxiii. 21. Gal. i. 8, 9. Psalm xciii. 3.) And because it might be thought to be true only of some 42 A NNO l'ATIOXS ON [chap. I. things, and that some other things which Solomon had not looked so narrowly into, might haply have more excellency in them, therefore he addeth, to prevent this objection, that ' All is vanity.' All, not simply, but with limitation to the subject matter of which he treateth in this book ; every thing severally, all things jointly. Not any one thing alone, not all things collectively and together are able to satisfy the soul, and to make it happy. It is true, the works of God are all good and excellent, sought out of all those that have pleasure in them. But good in their kind and order; of ex- cellent use to set forth the glory, power, wisdom, and good- ness of God, and of necessary service for the use of man. (1 T/w. iv. 4, 5) Yet withal vain in other respects ; 1. Com- paratively vain, when put in the balance with God, and heavenly things. {Job xv. 15. Isai. xl. 15, 16, 17) 2. Vain by that super-induced vanity, whereunto they are subjected by the sin of man. ( Rom. viii. 20) 3. Vain in order unto happiness ; the full possession, the most vigorous fruition of them, cannot bring real satisfaction to the soul of man ; man himself, the noblest of them all, and that at his best estate, being " altogether vanity." (Psalm xxx\x. 5, 6, 11. Ixii, 9. and cxliv. 3) 4. They are vain. 1. In regard of their un- profitableness unto such an use. (Jer. xvi. 19) 2. In re- gard of their falseness and deceitfulness to those who lean upon them. (Job 15, 20. Psalm xxxi. 7, and Ixii. 10. Joh}i ii. 8) 3. In regard of their instability and impermanency, as being under the bondage of corruption. (Rom. viii. 20. 1 Cor. vii. 30, 31. Psalm xxxix. 11. 2 Cor. iv. 18) And, in all these respects, useless unto happiness; for that which makes a man happy, must bear a thorough proportion to all the wants, desires, and capacities of the soul, and must withal be of an equal duration and continuance therewith ; neither of which is to be found in any worldly thing. Saith the preacher.} Both by inspiration, as a penman of the Holy Ghost: and by experience, as one who had learned it dearly, and to his cost. He sets his name as in the in- scription to the whole book, so here, a second time to this, which is the sum of the whole book, confidently owning the truth thereof ; as sometimes the apostle addeth his name emphatically, to set on what he affirmeth or desireth. (2 Cor. X. 1. Gal. V. 2. Philem. ver. 9, 19- So 1 Pet. v. 1. 1 John CHAP. I.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 43 i. 1, 3) They who speak to the church, should do it ex- perimentally, and from demonstration of the truth to their own hearts, that they may be confidently able to own, and to avow what they say. Ver. 3. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun/] Or, What remaineth and abideth with a man of all his labour? What is added to him, or what more hath" he by it ? Of all his labour] The word imports toilsome and trou- blesome labour, and so rendered by the Septuagint, fi^ox^os, and by Aquila, ..xo7rof. Under the sun.] This may relate to either passage of the verse ; either, ' what remaineth to a man under the sun :' that is, ' nothing under the sun will tarry or abide with him.' Or, ' of all the labour which he hath laboured under the sun or, ' in relation to worldly matters here below.' There is a conversation and a labour in order to things above the sun, which will remain with a man, and profit him : (Phil. iii. 20. Col. iii. 1, 2. John vi. 27) but labour in earthly things will not do so. We are said to labour under the sun, because earthly labour is done by the light of the sun, {Psalm civ. 22, 23. John ix. 4) and because by that light we are more comforted in the fruition of them ; (as Eccles. xi. 7) and because the benefit we expect from our labours, is wrought instrumentally by the warmth and influence of the sun. {Deut. xxxiii. J4) Here then the Wise man proveth his general proposition. Whatsoever is unprofitable and perishing, is very vanity : all things under the sun, about which the anxious and toilsome labour of man is conversant, are unprofitable and perishing; for nothing of them will re- main unto him, or abide with him. Therefore they are all vain. And this he propoundeth by way of interrogation, which makes the negative more unquestionable, as appealing to the conscience of every man, and challenging any man to disprove it. The Scripture usually denies more emphatically by way of interrogation, (as Gen. xxx. 2. 2 Sam. vii. 5. compared with 1 Chron. xvii. 4. Matth. xvi. 26. .Zech. i. 5.) And he further insisteth on this point as certain and neces- sary, Chap. ii. 11. and iii. 9, and v. 15. The sum is this; 1. Whatever fruit we have from worldly things, we get it with very hard and toilsome labour, either of the mind or 44 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. r. body. (Gen. iii. 17, 19. Job v. 7) 2. However that labour be useful and subservient to our temporal condition, yet it is wholly unprofitable in order unto happiness. 3. The foun- dation of this unprofitableness, is; 1. It doth not cause a man to excel ; it adds nothing of real worth unto him at all. {James ii. 1, 6. Eccles. ix. 14, 16. Psalm xlix. 12, 13, 20) 2. It doth not abide with him ; all the comfort it brings, is dying comfort ; it stops at the grave, and goes no further. Now nothing is profitable to a man which he cannot trans- port beyond the grave ; which he doth not carry with him into another world. {Job i. 21, and xxi. 21. Psalm xlix. 14, 17. John vi. 27. 1 Tim. vi. 7) Those works are beneficial which follow a man ; (Rev. xiv. 13) therefore we must lay out our labour upon a life that abides and abounds, {John x. 10. Isai. Iv. 2) and not labour in the fire, and for every vanity. {Hub. ii. 13. Luke xii. 6. Matlh. xxiv. 38, 39.) Ver. 4. One generation goeth, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth for ever."] By generation is meant the time wherein a body of men do live and continue together : so we read of this or that generation, (LwAexxi. 32. Heh. iii. 10) the second, third, tenth generation or ages of men yet to come, {Dent, xxiii. 2, 3, 8). A man's own generation, or ages of men yet to come ; {Deut. xxiii. 2, 3, 8). A man's own generation, or the age wherein he liveth. {Acts xii. 36) There is a constant succession of men to one another, a fixed time, as the days of an hireling. {Job vii. 1, 10, and xiv. 14) The inward principles of change and mortality are always working; and life is like a shepherd's tent, which doth not continue in one place or stay, (fsai. Ixviii. 12). But the earth abideth or standeth for ever.] Continueth much longer than the men that are upon it: forever, noteth often a long time, so long as the present course and order of nature is to continue, {Psalm cxix. 90); so long as such or such an administration lasteth, {Gen. ix. 12. 1 Sam. ii. 30. xiii. 13) ; otherwise we know the earth is to be changed, and in some sense at the least to pass away, as now the inhabit- ants thereof do. {Matth. xxiv. 35. P.wlm cii. 25, 27) There seems to be a double sense in the words, both consonant to the present argument. 1. That man cannot be happy by any thing which is here below, in regard of his transitory condition, fathers going, and children succeeding. A man's CHAP. I.] THE BOUK Of LCCL ESI A S I' ES. 45 labour haply may enrich him, or bring him to honour, but it cannot lengthen out his days beyond one generation, and then he and all his acquirements must part; and in this re- spect, the earth on which he treads, is in a condition better than himself, for it abideth to the end. 2. Man, seeking hap- piness from the earth and earthly things, must needs be dis- appointed of his expectation ; because he passeth away, and the earth stays behind him. If he could carry the earth along with him, he might haply promise himself his wonted contentments; but the earth abides where it was, when he goeth from it, and can enjoy it no more. {Job vii. 10. Psalm xlix. 17) Here then we may observe. First, A determinate time prefixed to the life, states, honours, offices of men ; at uttermost they are but for one generation, wherein every man hath his service to do, his warfare to accomplish, his race to run. {Job vii. 1, and xiv. 5. 1 Cor. ix. 24. P/iil. iii. 14. 2 Tim. iv. 7. Acts xiii. 36) Secondly, The providence of God in continuing the several succeeding ages of men, that he may still have a seed to serve him, that one generation may declare his works to another. That the admirable contex- ture of the works of Providence, carried along by pieces, through various successions of men, may, at last, most glo- riously set forth his wisdom, justice and goodness. (Psalm xxii. 30, 31, and cii. 18. Isai. xxxviii. 19. Eccles. viii. 17) Thirdly, A man's labour under the sun, is for himself and his posterity : but his labour about heavenly things will abide with, and benefit, himself for ever. Fourtlily, So long- as the generations of men continue, so long doth the Lord, by his decree, continue the earth for their sUpportance and salvation ; because he hath given it to the children of men (Dent, xxxii. 8) ; and when the generations of men are end- ed, it shall then appear, that the whole creation was subject to vanity, and to the bondage of corruption. (Rom. viii. 20. 2 Pet. iii. 5, 7.) Ver. 5. The sun also ariselh, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose.] Or, ' panteth towards the place.' A metaphor from one who runs earnestly to some mark, or presseth forward with strong desire to something it would attain. (Psalm cxix. 131. Job vii. 2) A like expres- sion, Psalm xix. 6, 7, and civ. 19 ; whereby is signified an unwearied, yet constant and regular, motion, founded in a 46 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. I. covenant or ordinance of heaven, {^Jer. xxxi. 35, 36, and xxxiii. 20. Job xxxviii. 33) from which, without a special and extraordinary restraint from God ( as Josh. x. 12. Isai. xxxviii. 8. Job ix. 7) it never varieth. Having thus affirmed of all things under the sun that they are vain, he here beginneth with the sun itself, which doth, as it were, weary itself out of breath with continual motion. 1. If it did bring happiness to a man in its rising, it would remove it again in its setting. 2. Though the earth abideth for ever, and the sun moveth regularly over it with its warmth, and the winds blow on it to refresh the fruits thereof, (Cant. iv. 16) and the waters pass through it to make it fruitful ; ( Gen. ii. 10, 11) yet all this can benefit a man only in his own generation, but cannot convey any durable happiness unto him. 3. The earth abides always alike ; the sun moves, the winds blow, the rivers run, after one constant manner in one age as in another. If they have never yet made any happy, they never will ; because they do minister but the same comforts again. 4. Mortality and mutability here is as natural to man, as standing to the earth, the motions of the sun, the circuits of the winds, the flowing of the rivers: so that it is as impossible for him to be happy by creatures on earth, as it is to alter the covenant of day or night ; or to stop the regular and invariable courses of the heavens. 5. The sun runs his course, observes his times of rising and setting ; and though he set, he riseth in equal glory again : but when man goes, he returns hither no more. (Job xiv. 7, 12) 6. Observe the constant and steady obedi- ence of other creatures to that law of working, which was primitively implanted in them; they act, as it were, knowingly (Psalm civ. 19), willingly, (Rom. viii. 20) vigorously with joy and strength; (Psalm xix. 5) and thereby shame those who have indeed a principle of light and reason, but act not in conformity unto them. Ver. 6. The wind goeth towards the south, and turneth about unto the north, <3)C.] As the sun, so the winds have their courses, whereby is noted the uncertainty of outward things- If they please in their coming, they must disquiet in their departing ; whereas the matter of happiness must be ever present and permanent. Here we may also note the wise providence of God in the circuits of the winds and other CHAP. I.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 47 sublunary creatures, which he bringeth out of his treasure, and directeth as it pleaseth him for the uses of men ; one while, making them helpful to one part of the earth ; and another while, to another, {Psalm cxxxv. ?. Job xxxvii. 7, and xxxviii. 22. Jer. x. 13. Dtut. xxviii. 12. Psalm Ixxviii. 26. Gen. viii. 1. Exod. viii. 1, and xiv. 21). He seemeth likewise to have respect to those winds, which, in some parts of the world, have a very regular and uniform motion, in some months of the year, blowing constantly out of one quarter, and in others, out of another. The words [going, circuiting, whirling about, returning] are used to show the restless and unquiet nature of these things, their busy and speedy motion, as if they were ever out of their place; all which show how full of vanity they are, and represent the disquiet agitations of the mind of man, till it fix upon him that is immutable. Ver. 7. All rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full: unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.'] Though rivers hastily run into the sea, as into their cistern ; yet the sea is not filled, so as to swell above the earth, or overflow the bounds within which God hath de- creed it to stay. {Job xxxviii. 8, 11. Psalm civ. 8, 9. Jer. XV. 22) The reason whereof is, because there is a perpetual and proportionable return ; as fast as, by some channels, waters go from their fountains to the sea, by others they re- turn from the sea into the earth again. Thus, which way ever we cast our eyes, we every where meet with evidences of inconstancy and mutability here below, as testimonies of that vanity which all things under the sun are subject unto. 1. By the continual motions of these creatures, he seemeth to describe the restlessness of the mind of man, in inquiring after good. 2. The dissatisfaction which it every where raeeteth withal, finding no reason to rest or stay there, whi- ther it had formerly hasted with greatest speed. As all ri- vers cannot fill the sea, so all creatures cannot fill the heart of man. It moves every way, forward and backward, to the south and to the north, from one content unto another for full satisfaction, but can find none. {Psalm xxxix. 6, and Ixxiv. 11, 19. Prov.xix. 21. Luke x. 41.) Ver. 8. All things are full of labour, man cannot utter it : the ei/e is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hear- 48 ANNOTAItONS OX [chap. r. i)ig-^ All things, to wit, all these and the like things. This is a close of the former argument. Having showed the un- quiet motion of the sun, winds, rivers, he here concludeth his induction of particulars, with a general assertion, That as it was in them, so it is in all things else ; no man is able, with words, to run over all particulars; but as it is in some, so is it in the rest which cannot be numbered. They are said to be full of labour or weariness ; because they weary out man in his studies and endeavours about them. (Gen. iii. 17, 19. Psahn cxxvii. 2) Here is also another argument proving the main proposition, whatever things bring toilsome labour and weariness with them, cannot make a man happy, but are altogether vain as to such a purpose : but all things under the sun do bring unto him that is conversant about them, toilsome labour and weariness ; therefore they cannot make men happy. This toil and weariness doth not only appear in grievous and unpleasing labour, whereunto men are against their wills compelled ; (Job v. 7. Lam. v. 5. Jer. XX. 18) nor only in those labours which the Lord is pleased to blast and frustrate of an expected end, when men labour, as it were, in the fire, and reap no fruit of all their pains; (Habak- ii. 13. Hag. i. 6. Levit. xxri. 20. Isai. xvii. 11, and Iv. 2. Ecc/cs. v. 16. Luke v. 5) but it is also true of those labours which a man sets about with greatest delight and willingness; they also have weariness and satiety attending on them ; the very honeycomb bringing a loathing with it. (Prov. xxvii. 7) And this general he proveth by a double instance. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing; and accordingly, it is in all other numberless par- ticulars. A man may cloy and tire out these faculties, be- fore he can at all satisfy them. He seemeth to instance in these rather than others, 1. Because the exercise of them is easiest, and least labour is spent in the using of them: there is not much force or stress put forth in seeing an amiable and beautiful object, or in hearing some excellent music. 2. Because they are the most curious and inquisitive senses. 3. Because their delights are sweetest : as being senses which are nearest cognation unto reason, and are principal instru- ments and handmaids to the soul in her noblest operations. Now if the most spiritual, unwearied, rational senses cannot be satisfied, but that they are pricked with further desires of CHAP. I.] THE ROOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 49 new objects to delight them, { Ads xvii. 21 ) or satiated and glutted with the excess of what did delight them before ; how much more is this true in those other faculties, where there is more labour in pursuing their objects, and more loathing in fruition of them.' {Prov. xxvii. 20) And this is such labour and weariness as no man can utter it: no man can express how many ways any one faculty may be wearied out, nor recount all those objects, which, when they minister some delight, do yet leave no satisfaction behind them. As the happiness which we expect in God, cannot be uttered ; (1 Cor. ii. 9. 2 Cor. xii. 4) so the labour raid weariness which the mind contracteth by excessive search into the creatures, cannot be uttered neither. Vers. 9, 10, 11. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be ; and that which is done, is that which shall be done : and there is no new thing tinder the sun, ^c] The substance of these verses is this ; ' If no man hath ever hitherto been able to find out happiness in the creature, let no man think now or hereafter to do it; since there is no new thing out of which it may be extracted.' All natural causes and effects continue, as they were at the beginning ; {Gen. viii. 22. Jer. xxxi. 35, 36) and all human and voluntary actions, coun- sels and studies, having the same principles of reason to produce them, and the same objects to draw them out, are in substance the same now as heretofore. And though some discoveries of new things have been made, as the mariner's card, the art of printing, gunpowder, &c. of which learned men have written ; yet from defective and insufficient prin- ciples of happiness, such as all natural things are, no thing, though new, can be sufficient unto such an end ; since the par- ticulars cannot afford that, which the general hath not com- prised within it. As face answereth to face in water, so the courses of natural causes and effects, and the hearts' desires, counsels of the men in one age, do answer unto those of another. xxiv. 38, 39. P?ou. xxvii. 19) Ver. 10. Is there a)iij new thing whereof it maif be said. See thisi it is new ?] This is a challenge to any man to procure any new thing if he can, with a peremptory repeating of the former assertion, and denying the success of any such attempt. He speaketh of such new things as may far surpass the things which had been discovered before, as to be able to satisfy the VOL. IV. K 50 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. I. heart, and make it truly blessed. And this he confidently denieth ; that any thing can further be extracted out of the womb of nature in order unto human happiness, more than had been already discovered. Men may haply flatter them- selves in their inventions, as if they had invented new things which were not before, and such as may afford more matter of content and satisfaction than other men in former ages have found : but he shews that this is but a mistake, for it hath been already of old time, which was before us. The dis- coveries of former ages have been as pregnant towards satis- faction of the heart, as any of after ages can be. Ver. 1 1 . Ther-e is no remembrance of former things ; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.'] If new things be found out, as many old things are forgotten; so that still the stock of nature is as defective towards happiness in our age, as in another. Shortness of hfe, and narrowness of experience, causeth us to forget the things which have been before us; which were they all in oup distinct view, no one thing would occur with- out its pattern and parallel, at least something as excellent as it in former ages : and as things past are forgotten by us, so things present will be forgotten by those that shall come after us. Here then we see, 1. The aptness which is in man, to nau- seate and grow weary of the things which he is used unto, though they be otherwise never so excellent. (Num. xi. 6) 2. The wantonness of our hearts in having an itching desire after new things, and such as former ages were unacquainted with, (^c^s xvii. 21) 3. That it is ignorance and inexpe- rience which maketh things appear new, which indeed are old. 4. That the vanity which our forefathers have found in things here below, is an infallible argument that we shall find the same ; and shall certainly miscarry, if we think to get more satisfaction out of the creatures, than others have got- ten before us. (Job viii. 8, 9, and xv. 18) 5. That new things are not to be looked for under the sun, or in the course of natural causes and effects : but, in a spiritual and heavenly conversation, all things are new, durable, excellent. In the study of God's Word and ways, there are ever new and won- derful things to be discovered. {Psal. cxix. 18. 2 Cor. v. 17. CHAP. I.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES, 51 2 Pet. iii. 13. Rev. xxi. 5) God's mercies and judgements are wonderful ; and he doth many times strange things, which neither we nor our fathers have known. {T>eut. iv. 32 — 36'. 1 Cor. ii. 9) Vers. 12, 13. I the Preacher teas King over Israel in Jeru- salem. And I gave mine heart to seek and search out hy wis- dom, concerning all things that are done under heaven : This sore travel hath God given to the sons of men, to be exercised therewith.'\ Having shewed the vanity of things under the sun in general, he now proceedeth unto some special and principal things, wherein men might be apt to place felicity. And he begins with the knowledge of things natural and human : shewing, that if any man could in that respect make himself happy, he himself had more means to do it than any other man. And the better to gain belief to what he should deliver, he gives it them upon the word and experience of a convert, a king, an inspired king, a most wise and active king, a King in Jerusalem, the seat of God ; pro- voked unto this inquiry by the strong inclination of his own heart, by the special call and direction of God, by the eye and help of that habitual wisdom which, by prayer, he had obtained of God in a more eminent manner than any other man; and by his zeal towards the people of God, and to- wards his house at Jerusalem. " I being such a person, so completely furnished with all internal and external advan- tages, do testify the truth which I have delivered upon mine own most exact and accurate trial, that all is vanity.''^ I the preacher'] Or "the convert, who am returned by re- pentance unto the communion of saints, from whence by my sins I had formerly wandered, am able now, by sad expe- rience, to seal the truth which I have so dearly bought, touching the vanity of all outward things." So this book was the fruit of Solomon's conversion and returning to the bosom of the Church. was King over Israel] This book therefore was written when he was on his throne, furnished with wisdom from God to manage his royal office, and with abundance of wealth to pro- secute this inquiry after true happiness. (1 Kings iii. 7, 13) over Israel] God's peculiar people, a wise and understand- ing people, {Deut. iv. 6, 7) for whose good Solomon had E 2 52 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. r. sought his wisdom, and out of the care of whose welfare in soul and estate, he had made this solicitous search. in Jerusalem) This being expressed thus twice, in this, and in the first verse, hath some emphasis in it. In Jerusalem was the House of the Lord, and the testimony of Israel. {Psal. cxxii. 1, 2, 3) Here God was in a special manner present, and might most comfortably be sought. (Psal. cxxxii. 13, 14) There were continual attendances of the priests, officers, and wise men about the Temple. (1 Chron. xxv. 26) There were the thrones of justice, and public conventions of state. {Psal. cxxii. 5) There were the masters of the assemblies, or a college and senate of the most learned men of the nation : {Eccles. xii. 11. 2 Kings xxi. 14) so that there he met with all the furtherances which a learned and wise man could desire in the prosecution of such a design. And I gave my heart.^^ " I did cheerfully and purposely set myself about it, and made it my business and delight." (2 Chron. xi. 16. iChron. xxii. 19. 2 Cor. viii. 5) to seek and search out^ Sea?'ching is more than seeki?ig, and de- notes an orderly and accurate exploration, such as merchants use, who, with great diligence, procure rarest commodities out of several countries. (Ecc/. vii. 25. Ezek. xx. 6) bi/ zoisdom^ An excellent instrument in such an inquiry. all things done under the Sun"] All natural causes and effects, all human counsels and events : this phrase is much used by Solomon in this book, whereby is limited the subject matter about which he inquires. this sore travel] Or, a^iicting labour; as chap. ii. 23. and iv. 8. hath given to the sons of maii] It is his ordinance, he hath called them to search his works and ways. to be exercised'] Or, afflicted and distracted therein; there fore not at all to be made blessed thereby. From hence we may observe : First, That the best way of teaching is out of our own experience, and exact disquisition. (Psa/. Ixvi. 16, 17. Gal. \.\6) 2. That sound repentance doth notably fit a man to know and search out the will of God, and to discover and teach the vanity of all other things. (2 /"m. ii. 25. Jam. x. 21. Luke xxii. 32. Psul li. 12. 13) CHAP. I.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 53 3. That men, in liighest authority, are, by their studies as well as their power, to seek the welfare of those over whoui they are set, and to endeavour with all their hearts to fit themselves with wisdom and abilities for discharge of thei'" ofiBce. (1 Kings iii. 7, 8,9. Luke u. &'2. Acts vi. 4. 1 Ihw iv. 13, 14, 15) 4. That the piety, age, dignity, authority, experience of a person, though it add nothing to the truth itself, yet hath a great power to persuade and prepare the hearts of hearers to the entertainment of it. (Philem. vers. 9. 2 Cor. x. 7, 8. and xi. 5, 6, 22, 23. and xii, 1, 2, 3,4,5, 11. 1 Cor. ix. 1, 2, and XV. 8, 9, 10) 5. That largeness of gifts and helps from God, should quicken us unto a more cheerful and vigorous study of our duties. {Matth. xv. 16, 17) 6. That largeness of heart in knowledge of things natural, moral, human, divine, are royal endowments, and things fit for a king to set his heart upon. {Prov. xxxi. 4) The greater our place, power, wealth is, the more noble and serious should our thoughts and employments be. 7. The more men abound with worldly things, the looser should they keep their hearts from them, and the more should they study the vanity of them ; lest otherwise they steal away their hearts from God. {Psal. Ixii. 10) 8. The dignity, wisdom, piety of a people being duly con- sidered, dolh whet and add vigour to the studies and cares of those who are set over them for their good. (2 Kings iii. 8, 5. Mar. vi. 5, 6) 9. We should improve the benefit of places and persons amongst whom we converse, to fit ourselves thereby for the service of the Church. It is not only a comfort, but a fur- therance unto wise and learned men, to live in places where wisdom and learning is professed. {Acts i. 4) 10. It is a great comfort when men have helps and encou- ragements answerable to their employments ; and having such, when they have hearts to use them. (Prov. xvii. 16) 11. Here are the right principles of successful diligence in our places; 1. A willing heart, when a man goes about his work with all his strength. {Eccles. ix. 10) 2. Attendance on th tcall of God, and for that reason submitting unto tra- 54 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. r. vel and pains. (Jctsxxv]. 19. Ga/. i. 15) 3. Stirring up the gifts which God hath given us as furtherances unto duty. (2 Tim. i. 6) 4. Exquisite inspection into the businesses about which we are employed, that we may not, through our own negligence, come behind in any gift. (1 Cor. xii. 31. and xiv. 12 ) 12. It is the will of God, that even our honourable and our necessary employments should be accompanied with sore travel, that we maybe kept humble in ourselves, weaned from the creature, and made the more thankful for any assistance the Lord giveth us in our labours, and for any blessing upon them. (Job v. 7. Gen. iii. 19) 13. The study of the creatures is of excellent use to lead us to the knowledge of the Creator. (Rom. i. 19. Psal. cxi. 2) Ver. 14. / have seen all the works that are dofie under the Sun, and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit.'] The former words shewed the exactness of Solomon's search into natural and human things. That it was the labour of an aged convert, (for Solomon was drawn away from God in his old age, 1 Kings xi. 4) of a wise king, furnished with all helps for such an inquiry: That it was an accurate and deep search, not loose or superficial : that it was undertaken with great impulsion of heart, and with a special call of God : and now after all this, he concludes, 1. That he had seen] That is, diligently heeded, and fully understood, as to the issue of this inquiry, all the works done under the Sun. (Erod. iii. 3. Eccles. ii. 13, 14) all the things] That is, the several kinds of them. (1 Kings iv. 33) He had gotten as large and as intuitive a knowledge as human curiosity or industry, with all manner of further- ances, could attain unto. Which appears not to be an arro- gant boast, but a true account of the fruit of his studies, the Holy Ghost testifying the same thing of him. (1 Kings iv. 29—34. and x. 23) 2. That he found all to be vanity and vexation of spirit.] Not only vain and ineffectual to confer happiness, but, which is worse, apt to bring much affliction and trouble upon the heart of him who is too earnestly conversant about them. From several original roots, there are by interpreters given CHAP. I.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI A STES. 55 several explications of this word, Evil, or jlffiiction of spirit. Breach, contrition, torment of spirit ; feeding upon, or consum- ing of the spirit, or vanity and Jeeding upon wind, as fruitless labour is expressed, Hos. xii. 1. 1 Cor. ix. 26. Thus he applies his general conclusion particularly unto all kind of knowledge, natural and moral. There is sore travel in the getting; danger of forgetting it again; discovery thereby of more ignorance than a man observed in himself before ; insufficiency and impossibility of perfecting the understand- ing, and satiating the desires thereof. Such and many other considerations make knowledge itself, as to the procuring of true happiness, altogether vain. Ver. 15, That zohich is crooked cannot be made straight.^ This is the reason of the vanity of knowledge, because it cannot rectify any thing in us which is amiss, nor supply any thing which we want to make us happy. {Eccles. vii. 13) The wisest and wealthiest king, with all his power and know- ledge, was not able to remedy all the evils which he saw, or to supply all the defects which he could discover. The words may be understood two ways; 1. In relation to knowledge itself, to shew the vanity and vexation thereof : For, 1. Much of it is exceeding tortuous, intricate, and abstruse, there are many knots and difficulties. {Dan. v. 12) So it cannot be clearly and plainly demonstrated, but in the inquiries thereinto the mind will be left dark and unsatisfied ; there are Zu) Also my wisdom remained with me.] This he addeth, 1. As a rare and unusual thing, That pleasures should not at all smother and suppress wisdom ; 2. As an argument towards the main conclusion. That, in the midst of all these delights, he did intend the business for the which he used them, namely, by wisdom to observe, what real good and satisfac- tion they did bring to the heart of man. Ver. 10. And whatsoever tnine eyes desired, ^c] It might be objected. That his wisdom haply and his fear of God, re- strained both his eye and his heart from so full a fruition of these delights, as were requisite to extract all the comfort of VOL. IV. F 66 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. ir. them; so Job restrained his eye, {Job xxxi. 1) and Solomon adviseth a glutton to restrain his appetite. (Prow, xxiii. 2 Numb. XV. 39) To this he answereth, " That whatsoever his eyes desired, (as the eye is one of the principal seats of desire or lusting), (1 John ii. 16. Josh. vii. 21) he did not reserve any thing of it from them, which withheld his heart from any joy: neither did any accidental hindrance inter- cede, as war, or sickness, or sorrow, or any notable affliction ; which might debar him from a liberal and cheerful use of all this his greatness." The eye is here taken synecdochically for all the senses ; for in this ample preparation there was provision for them all. Much labour and care he had taken to 'make those provisions for the flesh (as the apostle's phrase in another sense is, Rom. xiii. 14) and there was no other fruit of all that labour, but having gotten them, to en- joy them. My heart rejoiced.^ IMiat is, " I myself did intimately re- joice and please myself in the fruit of my labours." This was my portion of all my labour.~\ " This was all the fruit, benefit, and, as it were, inheritance, which my labours in this kind did purchase for me." A metaphor from the manner of dividing inheritances, (Numb, xviii. 20) or spoils. (1 Sam. XXX. 24) Ver. 11. Then I looked on all, ^c] "After all this, I turned and looked back, or took an impartial survey of all my works, which with such painful labours and trouble I had wrought: and found, that the fruit was not answerable to the toil which was sustained for the reaping of it: but that this also was vanity, a perishing, withering, and dying com- fort, a feeding upon wind, and that it left no abiding benefit behind it," Chap. i. 3. Ver. 12. And I turned myself, <^c.] Here Solomon doth once more seriously apply himself, as he did before, Ciiap. i. 17, to take a view of wisdom and folly. Because it might haply be objected. That, at the first consideration of them, he might let many things slip, which were of weight and mo- ment in his present inquiry. Because, second thoughts, and solemn review of former studies, may haply beget some re- tractation, and discover some error: the later day being usually the disciple of the former; and we use to say, that CHAP. II.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 67 the second thoughts are the wisest : therefore when the Scripture will put a thing beyond question, it says it over again. {Gal. viii. 9) / turned mi/self'\ This notes reconsideration and special heedfulness, to inquire anew into a business, and likewise a weariness of those pleasures which had disappointed him. {John XX. 14) to behold wisdom, arid madness, and folli/:'] To compare the one with the other, that I might the better understand them, as contraries serve to set forth one the other. There is no- thing more usual in Solomon's Proverbs than this kind of antithesis, to put contraries together for mutual illustration. for zehat can the man do that coineth after the King ?] Here man and ki?ig ; the to/g seems to be opposed ; " What further progress can any more private man make in this disquisition, than I who am such a king?" This is a prolepsis or answer to a tacit objection ; for it might be said. That it was a high and bold attempt for one man out of his particular experience to pass so confident a sentence of vanity, and vexation, upon all wisdom and greater works. To this he answereth, That no man after him, could do more in this inquiry than he had done, who was so eminent in wisdom, in power, and in indus- try, that was, as it were, fitted and stirred up by God unto this business; and therefore if any man after him should set about the same work, he should do no other thing than that which the king had done before him This appears to be no arro- gant boast in Solomon; because the Scripture testifieth the same of him. 1 Kings u\. 12. " The man who will not be- lieve it upon my report, but will make trial of it himself ; if he will go with the same wisdom and integrity about it as I have done, shall find the same vanity in the bottom of every creature, as I have found." So here are two reasons why Solomon challengeth belief in this point. 1. The advan- tages which he, so great a king, had above any other man, to draw forth all the flower and quintessence of the creature. 2. The double diligence which he used in it, in not only view- ing thoroughly once, but reviewing again the things upon which he passed such a judgement. What the man'] The words intimate a kind of indisrnation, disdain, undervaluing of any one who should attempt sucli m inquiry after him, as P saf. \iu. 4. " Quid dignum tanto f 2 G8 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. II, tulit hie promissor hvAtuV lohat is the man who cometh after the king, whom they have made king before ! so some read the words : but the most genuine and coherent sense is that which our translation expresseth ; he that comes after, can do no- thing but what they have done : i. e. what is done already before them. The active voice indefinite used for the passive, (as Isa. ix. 6. Jer. xii. 6. Geu. xvi. 14. 1 Sam. xxiii. 22) I would observe hence, 1. That the double and multiplied experience of wise, great, and good men, doth gain much cre- dit and strength to the doctrines so confirmed. (1 John i. 3. Heb. chap. xi. and xii. 1 Jam. v. 10, 11) 2. That the more prejudice is in the heart of men against a truth, the more care must be used to vindicate the same from all shew of exception. (Tit. i. 11. and ii. 8. Acts vi. 10. and xviii 28) 3. For a man to speak the truth of himself touching the gifts of God bestowed on him, and to mention his own expe- riences, only aiming therein at the glory and truth of God, and edification of the Church, is no arrogance, or violation of modesty, but an improving of God's gifts to the ends for which he gave them, chap. i. 16. Ver. 13. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, (Sfc.} That there is an excellency in wisdom more than in folly, &c. This Solomon confesseth, that indeed there is a great difference between wisdom and pleasures, that being many ways more excellent than those ; and therefore though the study of wisdom be not without pain and sorrow, (chap, i. 18) yet it is not therefore to be rejected. Wisdom leaves behind it some permanent good, as the word here imports ; whereas pleasures do perish in their use, and nothing stays behind them but the sting and sorrow. The sorrow of wis- dom is in the getting ; but the sorrow of pleasures is after the using and enjoying of them. It is true, wisdom and know- ledge are vain, in order to a higher and nobler end than they bear proportion unto, viz. to make man truly happy; yet they are of excellent use, and singular ornaments to the soul which hath them So the Apostle, though he tell us that " charity is more excellent than gifts," the one serving for edification only of others, but the other for sanctification of a man's self; yet acknowledgeth that they are all operations of God's spirit, and bestowed on men for very profitable CHAP. II.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 69 uses, and accordingly to be earnestly desired. (1 Cor. xii. 4, 7, 31 . and xiv. 1, 39) We are so to esteem gifts, as that we prefer salvation and happiness before them. {Luke x. 20) As far as light excelleth darkness] Wisdom to the mind being as light to the body; and therefore the Rabbins called their wise men, the light of the world; as our Saviour his Apostles. Matth. v. 14. Light is many ways comfortable, it shews things in their distinct forms and shapes; it dis- covers any thing hurtful, that it may be avoided ; or bene- ficial, that it may be embraced ; whereas darkness confound- eth all things, and exposeth a man to many dangers. Light is pleasant in itself, Eccles. xi. 7 ; and it is metaphorically used to express the most excellent things, as joy; {PsaL xcvii. 11. Esther viii. 16) liberty, and deliverance. {Isa. ix. 1) Glory; (1 Tim. vi. 16) Prosperity ; (Mic. vii. 9) Li/fe itself; (Job iii. 16, 20) and usually, wisdom and knowledge, whereunto it is here compared. {Dati.\. 14) And it is very useful and necessary for direction in our works and labours, (John xi. 9, 10) But darkness, on the other side, is very uncomfortable : it is used to express the most calamitous and disconsolate condition: (Job xxx. 26. Eccles. v. 17. Isa. viii. 22. Amos v. 18, 20. Isa. 1. 10. Eccles. xi. 8) very unuseful, as putting a stop to all labour; (Exod. x. 23. Josh. iv. 9) very dangerous, as causing a man to stumble at every stone, to fall into every pit, to wander out of his way, &c. (Josh. xi. 12. and xii. 35) And folly and ignorance in the mind, is usually expressed by the name of darkness. (Eph. iv. 18. and v. 8. Rom. i. 21) In the creation, darkness was the first evil which God removed, and light the first good creature that he made. (Gen. i. 2, 3) Light excelleth dark- ness, as the beautiful and orderly frame of nature doth the first confused chaos. Ver. 14. The wise man's eyes are in his head i] The reason of the former comparison, a wise man is in the light, but a fool in darkness. In his head, as in a watch-tower, i'rom whence he seeth his way before him afar off, taketh notice of things to come, as well as things present ; is circumspect, and heedful, judicious, and wary in his undertakings. Therefore they that are called wise men in one place, (Deut. xvi. 19) are called men that have their eyes open, in another place. (Exod. xxiii. 8) They do, in the beginning of a business. 70 ANNOTATIONS ON [CHA P. II, look forward to the end of it; they forecast events, foresee consequences ; their eyes try their ways, (as PsaL xi. 4) So ' looking straight forward,' denoteth ' pondering and weighing a man's actions.' (Prov. iv. 25,26) Hence it is that Moses said to his father-in-law, who was a very wise man. Thou shalt be to us instead of eyes, to guide and counsel us ; Numb. X. ol : where the LXX. render it wpcrouTi)?, " thou shalt be an elder, a counsellor, a guide amongst us." So Job saith of himself, that " he was eyes to the blind," Job srxix. 15; a counsellor, and guide unto them. Thus the excellency of wisdom is described by the eye, as being the principal part of the body, and most beneficial to the whole; (1 Cor. xii. 16, 17, 21. Mat. ix. 22) and what the eye is to the body, that is light to the mind. (Eph. i. 18) But the fool walketh in darkness:'} Hereby we understand what is meant by having the eyes in the head, namely, to have them useful for guiding and ordering our ways, so as that we may not err, wander, stumble, fall, mistake, miscarry in our affairs. The antithesis should have run thus: " But the fool's eyes are in his heels," or, " he hath no eyes to see ;" — but the use of Scripture is to put in the place of the antithesis, that which shall in sense amount thereunto ; as Prov. xii. 27, the one part of the verse is parabolical or pro- verbial, but the antithesis is plain and familiar. (So Prov. xiv. 3. and xv. 19) The fool is rash, heady, inconsiderate, cannot discern events, nor foresee dangers ; knows not which way to choose, or to refuse ; his eyes are any where, rather than in his head ; (Prov. xvii. 24) is carried headlong in his business, easily snared and taken ; (Prov. iv. 18, 19. 2 Pet. i. 19. Matth. xiii. 15, 16) By darkness heve, we may under- stand blindness ; {Jets xiii. 11) and then walking in darkness is a discovery of folly; when a man wants eyes, and yet will be wandering and venturing abroad ; when he knows not w hither he goes, nor what dangers are in his way. Thus far he hath shewed the excellency of wisdom above folly : now he sheweth wherein, notwithstanding they do so far agree, as that vanity belongs unto them both. And I perceived] The meaning is, " Notwithstanding this excellency of the one above the other, yet 1 perceived that one event happeneth to them all.'''' They are equally subject to the same unhappy events : the wisest man that is, cannot, by CHAP. II.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESl ASTES. 71 his own counsel, exempt himself from the same common ca- lamities which other men fall into. As two ways which •eem to part, the one turning to the right hand, and the other to the left, and yet both at last bring to the same town. (Chap. ix. 2, and iii. 19) Ver. 15. Then said I in mine heart,] (i.e.) "Therefore," or " hereupon I said in mine heart, if it happen to me, even to me, as to the fool ; to what end have I taken so much pains to be more wise and learned than he? being by all my wis^ dom not a whit protected from those evils, which he hath, by his folly, exposed himself unto." That this also is vaniti/.] Some make this to be a judge- ment on that hasty and angry inference, Wh^ was 1 then more wise? and so the meaning to be; "This was my in- firmity and vanity, to undervalue wisdom, and measure it by the casual events which befall it. (as Psalm Ixxiii. 13 — 15 and Ixxvii. 10) But the meaning is, " That in this respect wisdom is no more able to make a man happy, or to bring perfect tranquillity to the soul, than foily is: albeit, in other respects, there be a singular excellency in it above the other." Here then observe, 1. That the most excellent endow- ments of mind that are, cannot perfectly satisfy the heart of man. 2. That yet there is a special beauty and goodness in such gifts, to draw the light of the heart unto them, as being to the mind, as the eye to the head, the guide and the beauty of it; or as light to the eye, a most congenial and suitable good unto it. 3. That events and successes depend not upon the coun- sels of men, nor upon the gifts of God bestowed on them; but his providence hath the casting voice, and doth over- rule and order them all as pleaseth him. (Eccles. ix. 11. Psalm cxxvii. 1, 2) Many times those who have least wisdom or goodness, have greatest success; {Jobxx\.7 — 13. Psalm Ixxiii. 3—12. Jer. xii. 1, 2. Hab. i. 13. Mai. iii. 15) and many times the wisest and most circumspect men, are most frustrated in those courses, which were contrived with great- est skill find cunning. (2 Sam. xvii. 14. Job v. 12, 13, 14. Isai. xix. 11—14. 1 Cor. i. 20) 4. That notwithstanding the providence and counsel of 72 ANNOIATIONS ON [chap. II. God liath the preeaiinency in the events of things, yet that hinderetli not the excellency of wisdom above folly; neither are we thereby at ail encouraged to find fault with ourselves i'qr any labour in the use of means ; only we must so use them, as not to defy them, nor to trust in them, but wholly to depend upon God for his blessing on our counsels, to submit to his wise and holy purposes, when they are disap- pointed ; to admire his goodness when, at any times, he turneth our imprudence or improvidence unto good, and maketh the event not answerable to our follies, but to his love. 5. That we cannot judge of the wisdom or folly, the good- ness or badness of men by outward events, because these happen alike to all, Chap. viii. 14, and ix. 11. Ver. 16. There is no remembrance, Sfc.^ What he observed in the general before, he now maketh good in two particu- lars, viz. oblivion, and death, which are both alike common to wise men and to fools. Wise men may seem to secure at least their names, though they cannot their bodies, from mor- tality, — by such magnificent works as Solomon here wrought, and by such noble contemplations as he was conversant in : but he assures us here the contrary, and elsewhere, that piety only keepeth the name from rotting with the body. {Prov. X. 7. Psalm cxii. 6. xlix II, 12. Jer. xvii. 13) Time will eat out all the monuments of wisdom : or though they continue, yet the renown of a wise man doth him no good at all ; he is not after death sensible of it, or comforted with it. So (Chap. i. 11) new wise men that arise in after ages, will darken and eclipse the honour of those that went before them : and so will it be done to them in the ages that follow. To be sure, no mere wise or great man's honour, separated from piety, will hold pace with his being. At the last day, there will so much shameful matter be disco- vered against the wisest of wicked men, as they shall then lose all their renown, and shall appear to be vessels of dishonour and shame for evermore. (1 Cor. iv. 6. 2 Tim. And how dieth the wise man ? as the fool.'] The second fate, common to both. This how, is a passionate interroga- tion, noting grief that it is so ; wonder that it is no otlier- li. 20) CHAP. II.] THE BOOK OK ECCLESI ASTES. 73 wise ; and indignation or disdain that things so exceeding different in their worth, should both of them perish alike. Thus there is a 'Quomodo dolentis,' of grieving; (Lam. i. 1) ' admirantis,' of wondering ; (Jds ii. 7, 8) ' indignantis' or 'objurgantis,' of chiding and disdain; (John v. 44. Matth. xxiii. 33) and because it may be objected, That this argu- ment may as well disable piety from making a man happy, as wisdom, since the same question maybe framed of them as well as of these. How dieth the just man ? as the unjust ; we must remember that piety follows a man, and so abides with him after death, which no other acquired excellencies do, either as ornaments or as comforts. {Rev. xiv. 13) Death doth not cut off their spiritual life and union with Christ, which was that which made them happy here. Wicked men are dead, being alive; (1 Tim. v. 6) and good men live in death. {John xi. 2.5, 26. Matth. xxii. 32) Therefore the Jews called their burying places ' domus viventiuin,' ' the houses of the living.' Therefore there is no durable life or honour, but in the fear of the Lord. Ver. 17. Therefore I hated life, S^c] This is the effect which this great vanity of the most excellent human endow- ment wrought in the heart of Solomon, made him weary of living to so little purpose, as to die at last like the basest of men. He saw no loveliness or desirableness in life itself, (though the chiefest outward blessing) all the course thereof being full of evil, grievous, cruciating, dis(|uieting labour; all which at last runs down like the waters of Jordan, into the same lake of death, with the other refuse of men. Many men's poverty, pains, sickness, worldly troubles, have caused them to complain of their life: but here is one who had health, peace, honouj-, abundance of all the contents which the world could afford, — not murmuringly, but, as it were, ju- diciously and critically, making the same complaints. The greatness of his wisdom being such, as that all the comforts of life were too narrow to satisfy the inquiries of it, he saw little valuable or desirable in it. Here observe, 1. That life itself is too mean a thing to bring full content to the soul of man. It must be something better than life which must do it. {Psalm Ixiii. 3) 2, That, ill the greatest confluence of worldly things, the 74 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. II. life of a man may be full of grievous labour ; and he weary of it, not only out of anguish of spirit, but of natural wis- dom observing the vanity thereof. 3. That the wisdom of man, without making use of the grace of God, is very apt to undervalue the greatest outward blessing which human nature is capable of ; as Solomon here doth life. There is naturally so much distemper in the heart of man, that except all things answer his own desires and expectations, he will fall out with his very life, and pick quarrels with the choicest blessings that God here alFords him. As a little cloud hides the lioht of the whole sun from the eye; so, amidst a multitude of enjoyments, a little la- bour or trouble which comes along with them, doth darken the beauty, and remove the content of them all. {Geii. XXX. 1. Psalm lix. 15. Esth. v. 13) 4. Concerning this point, of being weary of life, or hating it as an unlovely and undesirable thing, we may note, 1. That life is the choicest and principal outward blessing which God here affords us ; and that unto the comfort and preservation thereof all other outward blessings are directed. {Matth, vi. 25) 2. That though, in a way of obedience, we are to un- dervalue it at the command of God, when he calls on us to lay it down, {Luke xiv. 26. Acts xx. 24. 1 John iii. 16, and xii. 25) and in comparison of a better life we may groan for a deliverance from it, and to be with Christ; {Phil. i. 23) yet it is a great fault out of passion, murmuring, outward troubles, nay out of largeness of heart, as here Solomon doth, to disesteem and wax weary of so great a blessing. {Gen. xxvii. 46. Numb. xiv. 2. Job x. 1. and xxxvi. 20. Jon. iv. 3, 8) Ver. 18. Yea, I hated all mi/ labour, h, he must have not only the fruition of my labours, but the dominion over them. (Psalm xxix. 6) And this is a great vanity, to know a man's self how to get great things, and to know how to preserve, and to enjoy them ; but not to know what will become of them at the last. A wise man (it may be) will alter all ; a fool will scatter and dissipate all : and so all the father"'s wisdom may quickly come to nought by the son's folly. (Psalm xxxix. 7) Wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself ivise.\ "Which by my labour and by my wisdom I have gotten." He understandeth human wisdom in managing worldly affairs to the best improvement. (Isai.x. 13. Ezek. xxxviii. 4, 5) These are the two great principles of human actions. Wisdom, to direct; Labour, to execute: wisdom, by counsel, guideth labour; and labour, through experience, increaseth wisdom. That wisdom is fruitless, which doth not produce labour ; and that labour is useless, which is not managed by wisdom. Some conceive, that Solomon here did foresee, at least, that Rehoboam by his folly might scat- ter many of those great works, and lose much of that ample power and wealth which his father by his wisdom had gotten. (1 Kings xii. 13, 15) Ver. 20. Therefore I went about to cause mi/ heart to despair of all the labour, (Sfc] / ivent about, or, 7 circled. The meaning is, " Having turned hither and thither to take a view of all human actions, and every where discovering notable vanity in them all ; I found myself, after I was wearied in this round, brought at last to utter despair and despondency of spirit, being without hope of ever finding out that, in any of my labours, for which I had undertaken them. When I found, after all my labour, this sad uncertainty attending on them, that it was out of my power to dispose them for the future so, but that they might fall into the hands of a fool that would demolish and dissipate them all ; who by his folly, would extinguish the monuments of my wisdom ; and by his luxury, the fruits of my labour; — then I bestirred myself to make my heart despair, to call it wholly off from all my labours." The word importeth a desisting from a purpose CHAP. II.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTLb. 77 01" work undertaken, a changing ot a man's counsel, finding the attempt to be fruitless or unfeasible. {Jsai. Ivii. 10. Jer. ii. 25, and xviii. 12) There is a rational despair, when a man, having erroneously sought for some good from that which is wholly unable to afford it, doth thereupon give over so fruit- less an inquiry, Fand betake himself to that which is more effectual. (Isai. Iv. 2) And there is a passionate despair proceeding from that frowardness of heart, v\ hich such a dis- appointment is apt to produce in carnal minds ; when, be- cause a man cannot enjoy that good from a thing which he expected, he will therefore wholly fall out with it, though it be otherwise good in its degree, and doth bring such comfort- able fruit as God appointed it for. This is a sinful despair: for the Lord hath made many promises unto the labour which we take about outward things; {Prov. xii. 24, and xiii. 11, and xxxi. 31. Psalm cxxviii. 1, 2) and hath a word of bless- ing ever proportionable to those ends and uses, for which he hath appointed them. (Deut. xxviii. 2 — 8 Matth. \v. 4) If Solomon mean here the former despair ; then it was an ef- fect of his wisdom, dictating unto him not to place his hopes upon vain things, which would delude and abuse him, but to take off his heart from the inordinate love of empty things. If the latter ; then it was a corrupt and froward aversion from things good in their degree, because the providence of God might haply dispose otherwise of them than he desired. Duty and labour about outward things, belongs unto us ; but the disposition of them into what hands he pleaseth, be- longeth unto God. In the mean time, it is a good argu- ment to draw off the heart from anxious and inordinate toil about worldly things: and rather to employ our tiioughts about the education of our children, lest much wealth in the hands of a foolish son, prove an argument of our folly : whereas a little estate, with principles of wisdom and piety instilled into him that must enjoy it, will be a greater blessing unto him, and an evidence of more wis- dom in ourselves. Ver. 21. For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, (^•c] i. e. Who, 1. By his habitual skill and faculty of contrivance. 2. By his experimental and improved know, ledge; and 3. By his just, honest, and righteous dealing; concurring all 4. With diligent labour, (unto which kind of / 78 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. U. principles so altempeietl, the blessing of God is usually an- nexed,) doth get a fair and full estate : and when he hath all done, must leave it to another who never took, thought about it, nor stirred hand or foot towards the gathering of it. This is a third reason of the wise man's weariness of his life and labours, namely, That he should be a very drudge for another man, and should use all his skill and pains, and suf- fer so much anxiety and disquiet only to purchase rest and idleness for his successor. And this is a great and sore evil, that the labour should be one man's, and the fruit thereof another's, and is often threatened as a punishment. {Job V. 5. Hos. vii. 9, and viii. 7. Deut. xxviii. 30, 31, 32, 33. Psalm xxxix. 6. Prov. xiii. 22) Shall lie give it for his portion ?] O r, shall he give his portion 1 That which, in all reason, after so much labour, should have been the portion of him who laboured for it, he is compelled by death to give or leave it to another man, and so to make it that other man's portion. Ver. 22. For what hath man of all his labour 1 ^c.^ "What is there unto man of all his labour.''" {ISiehem. vi. 6) viz. " What profit, comfort, advantage, can a man have of such labour wherein all the pain is his, and all the fruit and benefit another man's?" (Chap i. 3. and iii. 9. Psalm xxxix. 6) Vexation of his heart. '\ Hereby are noted those discruci- ating, disquieting, careful thoughts, whereby he doth pro- ject and contrive within himself all ways of gain, and how to increase and preserve a great estate. {Psalm xlix. 11. Ilab. ii. 5, 6. 1 lim. vi. 9, 10) This may refer to all the three reasons before given; 1. What hath man left to him- self of all his labour and vexation when he is dead and gone ? all the world is then gone to him. {Job i. 21. 1 Tim. vi. 7. Psalm xYix,. 17) 2. What good hath he by all that pains, which was taken for another man ; who, if he were wise, would be able to take the pains for himself ; and if foolish, will be likely to make all another man's pains fruitless, which he took to provide for him? (Joi xxvii. 16, 17) 3. What hath he of all his labour more than the other man who sate still, and lived quietly, and saw him toil and drudge to get him an estate who laboured not for it ? nothing at all more as to contentment and fruition ; much more, as to weariness and vexation. CHAP. II.] THE BOOK OF KCCLESI ASTES. 79 Ver. 23. For all his daj/s are sorrows, and his travel grief, <3)C.] These words are very emphatical, to set forth the pain and trouble of such a man who toils for others : and the Wise rcan closeth this disquisition as he did the first: (Chap. ". 18) only this is expressed with greater emphasis, as being the greater evil of the two ; as ver. 21, 1. The words are many, to shew the greatness of the trouble. 2. The word translated sorrows, signifieth a very painful and cruciating grief, the grief of some sore wound ; {Geii. xx.xiv. 25. Jer. \\. 8) and used in the case of Israel's sorrow in their bondage in Egypt, {Exod. iii. 7) and in Babylon; {Lam. i. 12) and to express the sorrows of Christ. (Isai. liii. 3, 4. see Job xxxiii. 19. Prov. xiv. 13) 3. The abstract is used for the concrete ; it is not said, " all his days are sorrowful, but very sorrote itself;"" which addeth much force to the sense, (as Gen. iii. 6. Psalm v. 9, and xxxix. 5. Hag. ii. 8. Gen. xii. 2. Cant. V. 16) 4. The word is in the plural number, "all his days are sorrows,"" (i. e.) full of sorrow, great sorrow, and variety of sorrow, (as Isai. Ixiii. 6. 2 Pet. iii. 11) So it is said, that the Sodomites were smitten with blindness. (Gen. xix. 11. 2 Cor. i. 3. Eccles. v. 6) Aiid his travel (or " anxious and careful labour") grief Or, "indignation :"' his wearisome employments, full of dis- quietness, and of continual solicitude, meeting withal with many miscarriages and disappointments, do stir up much grief and displeasure of heart. Hereby is noted the exceeding great trouble of heart, which ariselh out of an inordinate conversing about worldly things, and apprehension of parting with them. For the less measure there is in the labour of gettino- them, the more trouble there is in the thoughts of parting with them. If the life of the best men be full of evil and labour; {Gen. xlvii. 9. Psalm xc. 10. Job xiv. 1, and v. 7) if our mother brings us forth in sorrow, and unto sorrow ; much more un- quiet must be the life of those who labour in the fire, and for very vanity. {Habb. ii. 13) Yea, his heart taketh no rest in the night] Tiie night was appointed by God for man to rest in, as the day to labour; {Psalm civ. 23, and cxxvii. 2. Job iv. 13) but such a man depriveth himself of that blessing, which God by the very season offers him. (Job vii. 3, 4, 13, 14. Eccles. v. 12, l:i. 80 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. II. Prov. iii. 24) Or, if such a man's body, through labour and weariness, do sleep, yet his heart is still taken up with un- quiet thoughts and cares : for the heart may be awake, when the body sleeps. {Cant. v. 2) Ver. 24. There is jiothmg better for a man, than to eat, Sfc] In this verse, and so to the end of the chapter, is contained that which is the whole sum and suljject of this book, which is to shew, wherem the only good which a man can attain unto in his labour about worldly things, doth consist, and the happiness of this present life ; which is, to get the heart seasoned with the fear of God, and to be good in his sight, or approved of him; and then in the assurance and joy of his favour, to make use of all outward good things with quiet contentment, with freedom, cheerfulness, and delight, which is a special blessing which the Lord gives unto his own servants. The apostle puts all this into two words, godliness and contentment. (1 Titn. vi. 6) The words admit of a several reading, though all run to the same issue. There is nothing better for a man, than so our version. The word (than) according to the reading is to be supplied, it not being in the original. And so inter- preters agree, that such a word as nisi, or tantum, may be un- derstood, as it is necessarily to be supplied elsewhere ; as Isai. i. 6, where, in the original, the words run in this man- ner. There is no soundness in it, wounds and bruises, Sfc. where the word but, or onli/, is necessarily to be supplied; " no soundness, (but) wounds or bruises." So here, " There is not good for a man that he eat the word but is to be supplied ; " There is not, or it is not good for a man but that he eat :" it is expressed, Chap. iii. 12. Others read the words with an interrogation, Is it not good for a man that he eat, &c. ? (i. e.) " It is good." Others read thus. This good is not in a man, {i. e.) in the power of a man, that he eat and drink, &'e. Ashe cannot help it, but he must in time leave his outward things, which with so much labour he hath gotten, and that to such as, it may be, will not dispose of them to his desire ; so even while he doth actually possess them himself, it is not in his power to use them, much less to enjoy with delight and plea- sure, without the special gift of God. — All amounts to the same issue ; which is this : " Since there is in all the studies, labours, affairs of men so much vanity and vexation, as hath CHAP. II.] Tlir. BOOK OF ECC LESI ASTES. 81 been here discovered, by the ablest and wisest inquirer into the creature ; it remains, if we would effectually free our- selves from this vanity and vexation, that, giving over those anxious and disquieting labours, we betake ourselves to a free, cheerful, and comfortable use of those good things which God hath blessed us withal : and that so we may do, to commend ouiselves by sincerity of heart unto God, from whose hand and gift alone this mercy proceedeth, and not from the power or will of man. Make li/s sok/ see, or enjoy good'\ i. e. " Make himself to enjoy the good which outward blessings do afford." The like phrase, mak'uig to see good, is used, Psalm iv. 6, and 1. 23 sspra, ver. 1. In his labour.'] 1. In the fruit of labour, not of idleness. 2. Of his own labour, of that which is righteously his own, not gotten from others by violence or injustice. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.] Or the special gift of God. (as ver. 26. Chap. iii. 13, and v, 19. 1 Chroii. xxix. 16) It may seem but an easy thing when man hath, with much toil and trouble, gotten provisions about him, to eat the fruit of his own labours; yet he hath no power to do it, without God's blessing. Here we may observe: 1. That the utmost good of all worldly labours reaches no further, as to real benefit, than the supply of body. (Eccles. vi. 7. 1 Tim. vi. 7, 8) 2. That it is not in the power of man, after all his hard labour for these things, either to use them, or with cheerful- ness and joy to delight at all in them, without the special hand and gift of God ; to say nothing of sickness, or other distempers within, and of robbers without, which may take away the ta.ste of any sweetness in them, and consequently the desire of tliem; (2 Sam. xix. 35. Jo^* xxxiii. 19, 20) so that the floor and the wine-press shall not feed us. (Hos. ix. 2, and ii. 9) There is such a sordid and base cruelty in the mind of a man towards himself, as to defraud and grudge himself the fruit of his own labour ; (Eccles. vi. 2, 4, 8) much less can a man with cheerfulness, contentment, and sweet tranquillity, make use of these blessings without the special favour of God unto him therein. (Prov. x. 22. Psalm cxxviii. 1,2. Nchem. viii. 10, 12. 1 Chroti. xxix. 22. Acts xiv 17. Deut. viii. 1-2—18. Phil. iv. 11, 12, 13) vol,. IV. G 82 ANNOTATIONS ON [CIIAP. II, 3. That the happiness of this life standeth in a free, cheer- ful, and contented enjoyment of the good blessings of God, together with the sense and comfort of his fatherly love. (1 Tim. vi. 4) 4. That all the sweetness of outward blessings standeth in this, that they are reached out unto us, from the hand, and sanctified by the blessing and grace, of a merciful Father. {Psalm xxxvii. 16. Prov. xv. 16. 1 Tim. iv. 5, and vi. 17) It is the love of God, which puts sweetness into all outward mercies. 5. Honest labour, whereby a man's bread is his own, is the proper object of our comfortable fruition. Then only we can rejoice in our eating and drinking, and other outward delights, when in them we taste the sweet of our righteous labours. {Prov. xvi. 8. Eph. v. 28. 2 Thes. iii. 12) Ver. 25. For who can eat, or who else can hasten thereunto, more than J?] He proveth what he had said, that it is the gift of God ; because he so wise, so wealthy a prince, who had so great variety to hold up his delight, could of himself find nothing in all his great estate, but matter of vexation. What power can others have to enjoy them, when he could not? Or else it may refer to the former part of the fore- going verse ; " There is nothing for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy good in his labour :" this he proveth by his own experience. As by his own experience, he hath all along proved the vanity and vexation of the creatures in other respects ; so here, by his own experience, he proveth, that the only tranquillity is, having made sure of the favour of God, to eat and drink with cheerfulness. He doth not mean sensual epicure-like surfeiting on the creatures, but a quiet and free contented use of them ; " Who is fit to eat of my estate, and to make haste so to do," i. e. readily and cheerfully to do it, than I myself who laboured it? and I unto whom God hath given such plenty, and such readiness of heart to use it, can by my own taste of God's goodness give to others a judgement and assurance hereof. So verse 10, 12. Who else can hasten thereunto more than /?] This noteth a special promptitude and cheerfulness of heart, which Solo- mon did put forth in the fruition of the good things he had gathered, as Job xx. 2. Others read it, " Who hath taken CHAP. II-] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 83 more care thereunto, to abound in delights and contents than I ?" Others, " Who hath quicker senses to discern the comforts of them than I?" But the first sense seemeth more genuine; for as in the former verse, he spake, 1. Of eating and drink- ing, or of the free using of God's blessings. 2. Of making the heart to enjoy them : so here he telleth us that his practice was suitable : Who can eat ? that relates to the former ; and who can hasten more than I? that relates to the latter. Ver. 26. For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy, tSfc] Having commended this free and comfortable use of God's blessings with godli- ness and -contentment, by the author of it, — it is the gift of Godp — he here further commends it by the subject of it, unto whom God doth afford so excellent a gift: many gifts of God are common to good and bad men; (Matth. v. 45. 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 3) but this is a peculiar blessing which he be- stows on his beloved; {Psalm cxxvii. 2) the subject of it is a good man. The character of that good man, he is good in his sight, good in the judgement of God, who trieth the heart. (Ge7i. xvii. 1. 1 Cor. x. 18. Rom. xii. 1, 2. 1 Tim. ii. 3. Heb. xiii. 21) The gift of God to this man. 1. Wis- dom to get; 2. Knowledge to use; 3. Joy to use cheerfully and comfortably all outward blessings, and this is illustrated by an antithesis. But to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather arid to Iveap wp.] i. e. " He giveth them up," or " leaveth them to their own greedy desires, to gather and heap together with much anxiety and tormenting solicitude." {Hab. W.Q. Luke xW. IS. Psahn xxxix. 6) That he may give to him that is good before God.] That is, " That God may dispose of it by his own over-ruling provi- dence, besides and against the purpose of the gatherer, to whom he pleaseth, or to those that fear him, making wicked men but the drudges and purveyors for others." (Isai. x. 7, Prov. xiii. 22, and xxviii. 8. Job xxvii. 10, 17. Esth. viii. ], 2. Isai. Ixv. 13, 14) A wicked man built the ark, but Noah enjoyed it ; according to the Greek proverb. One man makes the garment, but another wears it. This aho is vanity.] viz. For a wicked man to labour for others whom he loves not, nor ever intended his labour for. Here we see, 1. Goodness consists in approving a man's G 2 84 ANNOTATIONS ON [cHAP. 111 = self to God. 2. That sweet aud perfect contentment is pe- culiar unto good men. 3. That wisdom or skill to get riches, is the gift of God. {Dent. viii. 18) 4. That knowledge to use them, being gotten, is likewise God's gift, as ver. 24. 5. That good men only are the proper subject of true joy. {Gal. V. 22) 6. That amongst other curses, God doth, many times, punish wicked men with giving them up to the insa- tiable desires of their covetous hearts, to weary themselves in gathering wealth to no purpose of their own, but of {Eccks. iv. 8) 7. God's providences, that many times disposeth the labours of wicked men for the use and good of the godly. CHAPTER III. In this chapter, the Wise man proceedeth in discovering the vanity of worldly things, and of all men's toil and labour about them, in regard of the total uncertainty of future events, as having their whole dependence on the predeter- minate purpose of God, and not at all on the anxious care and thoughts of man. And that therefore, since man is not able to alter the series and contexture of events, foreordained by God, he ought, with contentment of heart, to enjoy his condition, and to fear the Lord, and depend on his provi- dence, which is not possible for iiim, by all his own solicitude, to prevent or escape. And tlierefore, though he may cheer- fully enjoy present blessings, yet he must not have his heart glued to them, nor build his chiefest hope on them, in regard they are so variable, and subject to unavoidable changes and uncertainties. So that the doctrine of the ten first verses of this chapter seems to be: 1. An argument enforcing the for- mer counsel of the wise man. (Chap. ii. 24) That since there is a set and prefixed season for all, even the most con- tingent events, and that it is out of the power of man by all his thoughts, counsels, and cares, to break through the limits of God's providence in the guidance of them; therefore our wisest way is to yield ouiselves unto God, to depend on his counsel and provision, to rest contented in that which he gives, and not to disquiet ourselves with the cares, fears, hopes of such things, as are wholly without the order of our wisdom or power. 2. A caveat in the use of outward com- CHAP. III.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESIyVSTES. 85 forts, still to remember that they are changeable, subject to time and providence to wear them out, and deprive us of them: and therefore not to be offended, if we have not al- ways our desires, nor enjoy them so long, and in so constant a tenor of success, as we could wish ourselves. 3. A fur- ther observation of vanity in outward things, in the various actions of other men, as he had before discovered in his own labours, Ver. 1. To ever t/ thing there is a season.^ A predeterminate and an appointed time: so it is used Esth. ix. 31. Ezra x. 14. Nehem. xiii. 31. To even/ purpose.] To voluntary and contingent things, which seem most in a man's own power; yet these are over- ruled, for their beginning, duration, and ending, by the pro- vidence of God. To every purposed business : where note; 1. That all events in the world, both natural and contingent, voluntary or fortuitous, are all of them limited and bounded for their beginning, duration, and ending, by the providence of God. {Psafm xxxi. 15. Job x'lv. 14. Acts xvu.26) So we read of a time for wrath. (^Psalm xxxvii. 13. Eze/c. vii. 7. Hos. v. 7. Isai. xl) A time of love. (Ezek. xvi. 8. 2 Cor. vi. 2) A time to work in. (John ii. 4) A time to suffer in. (John vii. 30, and viii. 20, and xiii. l,and xvii. 1) It is great wisdom for men to observe the providences of God in this point, that they may accordingly behave themselves towards him. (1 Chroii. xii. 32. ljnke xix. 42. Eccles. ix. 12. Je7\ viii. 7) 2. That whatever are the thoughts or cares of men, yet the purposes of God must stand; no man can, by his anxious fears or contrivances, mend or alter his condition. Means we must use in obedience unto God, and expectation of his promised blessing; but events and successes we must wholly leave to him. (Isai. xlvi. 10. Prov. xix. 21. Psulm xxxiii. 10, 11. Matlh.\\. 27. Jer.x.23) 3. That all things under the sun are subject to continual changes ; there are various revolutions and vicissitudes of events, now one thing, and anon the contrary, to the intent that men should neither be wanton in prosperity, nor desperate in adversity, but should always fear before the Lord, and seek for a king- dom which cannot be shaken. (1 Cor. vii. 29—31 Prov. xxvii. 1. James iv. 13, 14. Dan. ii. 21) 86 ANNOTATIONS ON [CIIAP. III. Ver. 2. The wise man subjoineth an induction of several particulars, obvious to every man's experience, whereby he demonstrateth the truth of this general proposition. Some of these particulars are things natural, and wholly out of the power of man : others human and voluntary, such as are done and directed by the skill of man ; to teach us, that all the most free and contingent actions are under the law of God's providence, directed and limited thereby, as well as those which are most natural and necessary. (1 Kings xxii. 24. Isai. X. 5 6, 7. Jets iv. 27, 28) Some again begin with pleasant instances, and end in sad ones. Others begin with sadness, and end with delight. The Lord as he pleaseth ordering the affairs of men so, as that sometimes they have their good days first, and after- wards sorrow : sometimes evil first, and after, deliverance. (Luke xvi. 25. Job xlii. 12. John xxi. 18) Another thing to be remembered here, is, That the Lord doth doth not, by every one of these particulars, signify what is good or lawful to be done, but only teach us, that not only the good actions of men, but their sins, — not only their serious actions, but those which are most ludicrous and vain, are all of them under the decrees and over-ruling counsels of God, direct- ing of them and their seasons as it pleaseth him. {Matth. X. 29, 30. Gen. xlv. 5, and 1. 20. Judg. xxi. 21, 22, 23) A time to be born, or to bear and bring forth,'] Called the hour of a woman. (John xvi. 21) And a time to die ;] Called the hour wherein a man must depart. {John xiii. 1) For though the sentence of death hath sometimes been revoked, {Isai. xxxviii. 1, 6) yet the prede terminate time, forefixed in the purpose of God, was not altered. Ver. 3. A time to kill,'] There is a providence of God in the violent deaths of men, directing actions either sinful or fortuitous, as it pleaseth him. (2 Kings x. 30. compared with Hos. i. 4. Exod. xxi. 13, 1 Kings xxii. 34. Hos. vi. 1. 1 Sam. ii. 6. Job XXX. 26) To beat down, and to build ;] Jer. i. 10, and xviii. 7, and xxxi. 28 Isai. v. 2, 5. Ver. 4. A time to lueep,] viz. t^rom the Lord ; for he speaketh all along of the providence of God, in whose hand CHAP. III.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTiiS. 87 all our times both of sorrow and of joy are. {Psuini Ixxx. 5. Ruth i. 20, 21) And a time to laugh,] Psalm cxxvi. 1. 2. Gen. xxi. 6. To mourn,] As in funerals and public calamities, (chap, xii. &) To dance.] i. e. Greatly to rejoice, and express joy in the outward behaviour, (2 Sam. vi. 14. Acts iii. 8) Ver. 6. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather them together;] Some by this, understand the erecting of tro- phies over conquered enemies, (as Josh. viii. 29. 2 Sam. xvii. 18. Zach. ix. 16) Others, the demolishing or erecting of buildings, all ordered by God's providence. {Luke xiii. 4, Judg. ix. 5S. Lam. ii. 2, 5, 7, 8, 9. and iv. 1. Zach. v. 4. IMic. i. 6. 2 Kings iii. 25. Mark xiii. 1, 2) To embrace, and to abstain from embracing;] 1 Cor. vii. 5. Ver. 6. 'Jh get,] Prov. x. 6. To cast away,] Either out of necessity, (as John i. 5. Acts xxvii. 18, 38) or out of charity, {Prov. xi. 24?. Eccles. xi. 1) or out of special duty to God. {Heb. x. 34. Aliatth. x. 37, 38, 39. and xix. 29) Ver. 7. To rent,] As the custom was in mourning. {Job i. 20. Joe/ ii. 19) To speak, to keep silence ;] According to difference of sea- sons. {Prov. xxvi. 4, 5. and xxv. 1 1. Amos v. 13) Ver. 8. A time of war.] 2 Sam. xi. 1. Thus Solomon by an induction of divers particulars, and those very various, and each by way of antithesis with his contrary joined to him, some natural actions, some civil, some domestical, some vicious, some virtuous, some serious and solemn, others light and ludicrous, some wise, some passionate; by all these he assureth us, that there is a holy and wise work of God in predefining, ordering, limiting, tempering, disposing of all these and the like affairs of men, and so qualifying in the life of a man one contrary with another, and balancing prosperity and adversity by each other, that in every condition a good man may find cause of praising God, and of trusting in him, and of exercising this tranquillity and contentment of mind, even in contrary con- ditions, because the holy hand of God is in the one, as well as in the other. {Job i. 21. Phil. iv. 11, 12) 88 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. Ill, Ver. 9. Whal profit hath he that workelh, hi that zvhenin he labou7'eth?] As chap. i. 3. {Matth. vi. 27) In vain is it for a man by any anxious toil to go about to effect any thing ac- cording to his own will, if the counsel and providence of God be against it. When he builds, God may pull down, or put in some accident and casual event which shall divert, or undo all : yet he doth not intend to restrain men from need- ful labour in tlieir callings ; but from trusting in or building on their labours, and fretting if such fruits follow not there- upon as they intended and expected ; but patiently to sub- mit to the holy will of God, unto whom it belungeth to dis- pose of our persons, of our liberties, as it pleaseth hira. Whence observe, that caiking and caring is indeed a striving with the irresistible providence of God, which no labour of ours can alter, or bend to our wills; {Jsai. xlv. 9. John iv. 1, S, 9) as on the other side, glorying of our own strength and wisdom, is a robbing him of his honour. {Deut. viii. 17, 18. JIabak i. 16) Labour is subordinate unto providence, but must never strive with it. There is no profit to any man in his labour, without God's blessing; which therefore he must pray for, and rejoice in, without fruitless anxiety for the future. Ver. 10. I have seen the travail] (Chap. i. 13) Men might be apt to think, when they see so many turns and changes in the world, that all things are carried by a blind and rash dis- order, casually and uncertainly, as it falls out, without any beauty or order in them. To this he answers, That it is God who hath given unto men this travail to exercise themselves in various and contrary employments, passions, events; and that he doth, though we do not suddenly observe it> direct them all unto a beautiful issue : all these contraries work to- gether for good. {Rom. viii. 28) Again, men might think on the other hand. If man have indeed no profit of all his labour, but when all is done, God alone orders the event, then to what end should he weary himself in so fruitless an employ- ment To this also there is an answer in these words; God hath given to man his work, which he is to undertake in obedience to God's command : and God doth usually dis- pense his mercies unto us in the use of means, and by a blessing on our labours. {Prov. x. 4, 22. Jo/m xxi. 3, 6. jJcts xxvii. 22, 31) And though labour do not effect what CHAP. III.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTJLS. 89 we expected from it, but God's providence should (as some- times it doth) act contrary to, or diversely from our endea- vours ; yet this good there is in honest labour alone, and this end God hath in requiring it of us, — we are exercised therein, and so kept from idleness, and the evil eflTects which would follow thereupon. Labour is not only a duly, but in this re- spect beneficial, (even when it miscarrieth as to the principal end aimed at in it) that the heart is thereby kept in that station and order wherein God did originally set it. {Gen. iii. 17, 18, 19) Ver. il. He hath made evert/ thing beautiful in his time, o?' in the time and proper season thereof.^ This is a further com- mendation of the wise providence of God in the government of the world, and all the events which happen in it, to the end that men may with more quietness and contentment acquiesce therein. We might be apt to stumble and be of- fended at the seeming confusions which are in the world, and the great uncertainty of affairs therein. But howsoever it seem so unto us, who are not able to put together all the pieces of God's providence, not to foresee that frame and fea- ture which he will form them unto at the last, yet this is cer- tain, that as in the work of creation all things were very good, {Gen. i. 31) so in the work of gubernation and pro- vidence, all things will at last appear to be very beautiful ; and those things which seemed but as confused heaps when they lay asunder, will when God's whole work is done, {Isai, X. 12) and they are all put together, appear to be have been full of order and decorum : as beauty in the body ariseth out of an equal temperament of contraries together, and so, in a curious piece of hanging, various colours wisely mixed, make an elegant piece: and letters, which, in the printer's boxes seem all confused, and signify nothing, yet being set together by an exquisite copy, they afford us a learned and elaborate work ; as we see in the history of Joseph and his brethren, of David's troubles and kingdom, of Mordecai, Esther, and Haman, of the Jews crucifying of Christ, &c. Again, God hath made every thing beautiful in its time.} As cold, and frost, are as orderly, as necessary, as useful in the winter, the season for them, as fruits, and flowers, and other delights are in the summer. Sorrow and affliction is, in the season of it, as useful and needful for men, and in its 90 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. III. kind as beautiful, as mirth and joy in another season. (1 Pet. i. 6, 7. James i. 2, 3. and v. 7, 11. Eccles. vii. 13, 14. Ptatm civ. 24) Also he hath set the world in their heart, These words are in this place very difficult, and variously both rendered and understood. Some read them thus, quamdiu seculum est, as long as the world, or worldly things continue, the Lord doth put into the mind of man the work which God doth from the beginning to the end, excepting only that which man cannot find out, or attain unto : and so the sense to be. That God hath in the book of the world, and of his provi- dence in the government of all things therein, so legibly re- presented to the mind of man his righteous and beautiful ordering of them all, that man may, if he set himself about it, easily discover God's wonderful wisdom therein ; (as Acts xiv. 17. Rom. i. 19, 20) only indeed some things are un- searchable to human reason, which he is to admire and adore, waiting till the time of the revelation of God's righteous judgements for the full and distinct understanding of them. (Rom. xi. 33, 34. Job ix. 10, and xi. 7, 8, 9) Others, by putting the world in men's hearts, understand ac- cording to one of the usual acceptions of the word, czjVij?, a desire implanted in man of eternity and perpetuity, and so the sense to be. That albeit God doth make everything good and beautiful, yet the heart of man is so set upon immor- tality, that he cannot provide amongst any of God's works here which have a beginning and an end, or are measured by time, any thing wherein his heart may fully and finally rest. But that which seems most agreeable to the scope of the place, and grammar of the words, is this : God hath indeed made every thing beautiful in his time, and thereupon men ought with quiet and cheerful hearts to observe God's provi- dence in all things, and therein to rest, without anxiety or discruciating care: but man cannot find out the work of God, nor observe the beauty thereof so exactly as he should, which is the reason that he doth not so patiently acquiesce therein. Of this defect he giveth two reasons : 1. That they have the world in their hearts, they are so taken up with the thoughts and cares of worldly things, and are so exercised in the sore travail belonging unto them, that CHAP. III.] THE nOOK OF ECCLESI ASTKS. 91 they do not naturally look up to the wise and holy disposi- tion of God, so as to rest therein. This duty is the remedy of such cares, {Matth. vi. 26, 30, 32) and such cares as are the hindrance of this duty. 2. They cannot find out the work which God doth from the beginning to the endS\ Man, being of short continuance, doth not many times live to observe a full point in the works of God. Their beginning may be in one age, and their end in another. That part which I see in my days, may appear to me full of disorder and confusion, as heaps of stone and lime, and other provisions towards a goodly building : where- as if I did live to see the end of God in such works, it would appear, that in their time, or maturity, they would be full of beauty ; that fruit which is most sweet and delicate in its sea- son, is sour and unpleasant while it is yet green. It is the end of God's work which sets forth its beauty. Works of providence, as works of creation, may begin in a chaos, and seem without form and void, {Gen. i. 2) but they end in ad- mirable order and beauty. (Chap. viii. 17. Psalm xxxvii. 37, 38. James v. 11. Hah. ii. 3) So here is the doctrine of the excellent beauty which is in God's providence. The rea- son why man is not thereby persuaded unto contentment and patience in all estates, namely, his natural impotency to ob- serve the same. The grounds of that impotency, 1. His worldly-mindedness. 2. His short continuance : yet he ought by faith, and by the evidence of God's dealings in other ages, to rectify this defect, and upon that ground to build his cheerful enjoyment of blessings while God bestows them upon him. So it follows, Ver. 12. I know that there is no good in them : hut for, iSjc.] I know by my trial and experience, that there is no good in or for them, i. e. for men ; but only with contentment of heart to rejoice in God's blessings, and to do good in his life, i. e. to live in the fear of God ; (as Chap. ii. 24, 25) or to do good unto themselves in a liberal enjoyment of their life and labours, (as Psalm xlix. 11) or to do good to others in the time of their joy. (as 'Neh. viii. 10, 12) Ver. 13. And also that every man should eat, id God requireth that which is past.^ That which time thrusteth forward, and so maketh to be past, God restores and brings it back again. And this is also an excellent ar- gument of contentment in our estate, be it what it will : 1. Because God dealeth not in a strange and unusual manner with us, otherwise than with others before us : that which now is our case, hath been the case of other good men, and will be the case of others when we are gone, 1 Cor. x. 13 : a human temptation there, is that which God doth usually exer- cise men withal, as elsewhere the rod of a man. (2 Sam. vii. 14) 2. Because God tenipereth our lives, and doth not keep us always in one and the same estate. In trouble he bringeth back and restoreth comfort to those that wait on him, (Psalm cxxvi. 1, 4) as to Job. (Chap xlii. 12) In abundance, he can shake our mountain which we thought immovable, and bring back our sorrows again ; {Psalm xxx. 6, 7) so that in both re- spects we ought to carry an awful, reverend, and humble heart towards God in all conditions, quietly referring our- selves in every estate unto his fatherly disposal, who best knoweth what is good for us. Ver. 16. And moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgement, <^e.] I saw another vanity under the sun. Having formerly showed the vanity of knowledge, and of pleasures, and of human labours, in regard of the internal anxiety and travail of mind that doth accompany them, and of the exter- nal changes they are subject unto, and manifold miscarriages and disappointments which are incident unto them, together with the remedy hereof, a free and cheerful enjoyment of God's blessings with piety towards him for the present; and a comfortable dependence on his holy providence, with godly fear for the future : upon a visible objection which might be made against the providence of God, (which he had so much commended) with which temptation many good men have been shaken, to wit, the prosperous impiety and op- pressions of wicked men, and the sad condition of tlie inno- cent and oppressed, (Job xxi. 3 — 13. Psalm vii. 2 — 5. Jer. xii. 1. Habak. i. 13, 14) he proceedeth to vindicate the doc- trine of providence, and to show the vanity of men in honour 94 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. III. and great place without the fear of God : for all the vanities in this book are still to be understood in that sense, the fear of God l)eing the remedy of it, and that which maketh all other outward good things sweet and comfortable to us. The greatest honour without a holy use of it, is so far from making a man happy, that it is an occasion of much wicked- ness amongst men, one man proving a devil and wolf unto another, and making no other use of power, than lions or bears do, to mischief others by. This wickedness is aggra- vated, in that it was committed under the pretence of God's ordinance ; magistracy and courts of justice were erected by God's appointment to be sanctuaries and places of refuge for wronged innocency to repair unto for succour and relief : now then, for those who were ordained to comfort and help poor and oppressed persons, to be themselves, through bribery, partiality, and injustice, the greatest oppressors, and that with so high a hand, as to make the very tribunals of judgement, to be slaughter-houses, and shops of cruelty. This was a great vanity amongst men, and a great tempta- tion whereby a poor man's comfortably waiting on the provi- dence of God is in danger to be shaken. We here note, 1. That power without piety is very apt to degenerate into cruelty and oppression. It is an un- wieldly and a wilful thing, that wants much balance of hu- mility and self-denial to temper and allay it. (Isa. i. 21, 22, 23. and x. 13, 14. Jer. xxii. 14. 17. Mic. iii. 9, 10, 11. Habak. i. 13, 14. Ezek. xxii. 25) 2. That it is the height of impiety, to fetch power and advantage from any ordinance of God, to commit it. {Isai. v. 20, Jer. xiv. 14, 15. 1 Kitigs xxii. 11, 12, 24. John xix. 10. Isa. xxxvi. 10. Mai. ii. 8) 3. That wickedness is many times grossly aggravated by the circumstance of place where it is committed. {Hos. vi. 8. Ezek. viii. 6, 9, 17. Isa. xxvii. 10. Mai. i. 7. Matth. xxi. 12. 13) and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.'] This is the same thing repeated, as the use of that tongue, and of the Scripture is ; whereby may be signified. How usual a thing it was in places of judgement, here and there, one as well as another, to find this corruption. (Jer. v. 5. Isa. v. 7) CHAP. III.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI A STES . 95 Ver. 17. I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, S^c,] This is the censure Solomon passeth upon this vanity, that though power do oppress, and the poor be oppressed, yet this ought not to discourage good men from contented waiting on the providence of God, nor to encourage or embolden wicked men in their ways of tyranny or oppression, because the Lord will in due time review all again, and pass a righteous judgement upon the one and the other. I said in mine heart,'] I comforted my heart against this vanity by the consideration of the righteous judgement of God. God will judge the righteous] By a sentence of absolution, and thezeickedJ] By a sentence of condemnation. for there is a time there.] i. e. With God, in the judge- ment to come. The antecedent is to be understood in the relative, as Num, vii. 89. * Him,' for ' God Esther ix. 25. She, for Esther: Psalm cxiv. 2. His sanctuary, for God's sanctuary : Joh'i. 21. Naked shall I return thither ; namely, to the earth. Here we see, 1. That faith can look on the pride and power of wicked men as a very vain thing, even when they are in the height of their greatness. (Joi. v. 3. Psal. xcii. 7. and xxxix. 5, Ii7. and x. 20. and xxxv. 36. Habak. ii. 7. Luke xii. 20) 2. That it is matter of comfort to men oppressed, that the Lord will judge their cause over again, and right them against their oppressors. Therefore they ought patiently to wait on him, and to expect what issue he will give them out of their troubles. (Eccles. v. 8. James v. 7. Psal. vii. 6, 7,8, 9, 11. and ix. 4, 9) 2. There is a prefixed time beygnd which God will no longer sufler innocency to be oppressed, nor tyranny to pre- vail; and we are patiently to wait for God's time, who will certainly come, when wicked men have filled up their mea- sure. (Acts xvii. 31. James v. 7, 8. Job xxi. 30. Psalm xxxvii. 13. Habak. ii. 3. Zach. v. 5 — 7) Ver. 18. I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men.] The order, condition, manner of men, or concern- ing men themselves, (as Psal. ex. 4. Eccles. viii. 2) or con- cerning the degrees of men, superiors and inferiors. 90 ANNOTATIONS OX [chap. III. That God might manifest them.] I saw that man, being in power, did not, could not rightly consider his own frail con- dition, and there-fore (hat God must manifest them, in his righteous judgement, or by his word unto themselves, and make them know their own natural vileness, and that they are, as to outward respects, but as the beasts that perish, Psa/m xlix. 20 as Psaim Ixxxii. 6, 7 : " Ye are Gods by office, but ye shall die like men so here, men by reason, by power, by dignity. But ye shall die like beasts. Others thus. That they might clear, or purge God when he judgeth them, and shall make them see that tliey lived like beasts. (Psalm li. 4) Others, that God indeed hath chosen and advanced them to dignity ; but by what is seen, and doth outwardly appear of them, they are, by their cruelty and injustice, no better than beasts ; as Mic. iii. 3. Zeph. iii. 3. That they themselves are beasts.] Heb. A beast. Or, that these are as a beast to those, or as a beast to one another; the singular number is put collectively: They act the part of all kind of hurtful beasts one towards another : so Christ called Herod a fox, {Luke xiii. 32) and the hypocritical Jews, vipers. (Luke iii. 7) See Psal. xxii. 12, 16. and x. and Ivii. 4. 2Tim. iv. 17. Psal. Ixxx. 13. Ezek. xxii. 27. Jer. V. 6. Psal. Ixviii. 30. Amos iv. 1. Mat. vii. 6. 2 Pet. ii. 22. Ezek. ii. 6. Some render these words oiNn 'n mm by Secun- dum ratiouem humanam; and thence infer, that Solomon speaketh here according to the judgement of carnal and cor- rupt reason, and under a prosopopoeia, doth deliver the judgement of Atheists and Epicures, touching the mortality of the soul, and the total parity of condition between men and beasts in regard of mortality, who thence allow them- selves in all kinds of violence, oppression, and luxury : and v so they understand all that follows to the end of this Chap- ter, to be spoken as in the person of an epicure and atheist: the same events happen to man and beast, their end the same, their original and matter the same, their senses, breath, no- tions the same, their soul alike earthly : for who knows that man's goes upwards more than a beast's f and therefore it is equal, that they should live sensually, without fear or care for the future, as beasts do. But the necessity of such a sense doth not appear, since CHAV. 111.] THE DOOK OF KCCLESl ASTES. 97 the Wise man's purpose here seemeth to be no other but to humble the highest of men,— as in the former words, by con- sideration of God's judgement over them; so in these to the 21st verse, by the consideration of their own mortal and earthly condition ; wherein as to many particulars they agree with the brute beasts : for he speaks not here of man's im- mortal or heavenly condition ; but throughout this book the scope is to shew the vanity of earthly things, and of human actions in order unto things under the sun ; which vanity is by no means to be remedied, but only by the fear of God. The vanity of all the honours and labours of this life, he here discovereth by the equal condition in mere outward respects between men and beasts. Ver. 19. For that which bejalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts, even one thing befalleth them.'] For as for the event of the sons of men, and for the event of beasts, one event is to them both. {Psalm xlix. 10) As the one dieth, so dieth the other.'] Or, as is the death of the other. (Chap. ii. 15, 16) Thei/ have all one breath.] They draw in and out the same air, by the same kind of vital organs ; man's breath is in his nostrils, as the breath of beasts. {Isai. ii. 22. Job xxvii. 3, 4. Gen. ii. 7. He speaks not of the soul of man, but of animal and vital breath, which is common to both. {Ezek. xxxvii. 5, 10) So we read of the common provisions which God makes in regard of this life, for beasts, birds, fishes, and men, and the common fate which attends them all. Psalm civ. 11, 12, 14, 15, 21, 23, 27—30. So that a man hath no preeminence above a beast.] In out- ward respects, without piety to raise him above a mere corpo- ral and sensual use of them: nay, in many outward things, beasts have the preeminence, some more strength, others more agility; some more exquisite senses, others longer life ; most more healthy, more hardy, able to work more, able to bear and endure more, than man. For all is vanity.] All equally vain and mortal. Ver. 20. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all re- turn to dust again.] As they agree in one vital principle, so arethey subject to one law of mortality; their original, in re- gard of bodily constitution, the same; and by dissolution their condition in regard of bodies the same. {Geh. iii. 19. VOL. IV. H 98 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. III. Job xxxiv. 15. Psalm xxii. 16) We must still remember, that he speaketh of man's mere natural condition, as he is under the sun. Otherwise, in regard of man's future con- dition, his body is again to be raised, and brought to judge- ment. Ver. 21. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast ivhich goeth downward to the earth ?] It is true indeed there is a future happiness belonging unto men who have immortal souls, which beasts have no rioht unto, nor are capable of ; the soul of the one goes upward, (Chap. xii. 7. Luke xviii. 22. Acts vii. 59) whereas the souls of beasts pet ish. But no man can by sense discern the as- cent of the one, or the descent of the other ; and Solomon speaks not of man's future celestial happiness in this book, but of the vanity of all outward things, without true piety, to satisfy the heart of man while he is under the sun. As for the other celestial happiness,, it cannot be discerned by a na- tural disquisition, but is revealed in the word unto a few. (1 Cor. ii. 9—11) Ver. 22. Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better y than that a man should rejoice in his own works.'] He repeats his former conclusion, (chap. ii. 23, and iii. 13) from these vanities, since there is so little difference in outward things between a man and a beast : therefore to remedy this vanity, he is, in the fear of God, while he iiveth, to enjoy with cheer- fulness and contentment his own labours, for that only which he so doth enjoy, is his own portion; and not to trouble himself with thoughts or cares for the future; since, being gone, he hath no more share in them, nor knowledge of them. For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?] If he hoard them up for others, and use them not himself, what good will he have of them when he is gone ? Who can fore- tel him what use shall be made of them, what good shall be done with them therefore let him take comfort of them himself before he die. (Chap. v. 18) CHAP. IV.] THE BOOK OF KCCLESI ASTF.S. 99 CHAPTER IV, Having shewed the vanity of oppression, and injustice in those who are in place of power and judgement, who carry themselves like beasts to their brethren, and must them- selves die like beasts, undesired, unlamented ; he sheweth further in this chapter divers other vanities, which are con- sequents upon oppression and misgovernment; both in per- sons oppressed, whose life is a weariness to them ; (verse 1, 2, 3) and in other men, who thereby are subject to be envied for their industry and prosperity, (verse 4) and thereupon some foolishly give over all employments, (verse 5, 6) Others scrape together what they can get, and live privately alone, out of the eye of the world, and from being observed ; (verse 8) and thereupon he returneth to show the vanity even of the greatest power, when it thus oppresseth the people, (verse 13, 14) yea, the most regular power, through the mu- tability of the affections of the people, (ver. 15, 16) Ver. 1. So 1 returned, and considered all the oppressions, 'Returned and considered,' i.e. considered again ; the verb is put for the adverb, as is usual in scripture, in verbs which signify repeating, or iterating of an action ; as Gen. XXV. 1) 'Abraham added and took a wife,' i. e. took another wife, or married again : {Psalm cvi. 13) ' they made haste and forgat,' i.e. they soon forgat : {Hos. ix. 9) ' they were profound and corrupted themselves,' i. e. they deeply corrupted them- selves, (so Isai. Ixiv. 4. Gen. xxvi. 18. Rom. x. 20. Psalm vi. 10) He had before considered violence and injustice in the seat of judgement, (chap. iii. 16) and had shewed the va- nity of that ; and yet notwithstanding that a good man should endeavour to rejoice in his labours. But when he looks on it again, he finds, instead of rejoicing, nothing but the tears of oppressed men, without strength in themselves, without comfort from others, which must needs render their lives very grievous and irksome to them. All the oppressions.] It iraporteth either violent or fraudu- lent detaining of men's goods or rights from them. {Jer. xxii. 3. Luke in. 14, and xix. 8. 1 Thess. iv. 6. Jerem. v. 26, 37) « 2 100 AXXOTATIOXS OX [chap. IV. And behold the tears of such as were oppressed.^ The great- ness of this evil is set forth, 1. By the grief of such poor oppressed persons, it squeezed forth tears out of their eyes. {Lam, i. 2) 2. By their helplessness, they had no com- forter: It is some ease of a man in sorrow, to see others pity him, and a great aggravation of misery to be without a com- forter, when a man's adversaries are so powerful, so ma- licious and cruel, that others are afraid, so much as to pity him. (Job vi. 14, 15, and xix. 21) 3. By their impotency to escape from the hand of their oppressors. So much is im- plied in the next words, which way ever we read them, whe- ther so, as to repeat the negative of the former clause with the latter, which is usual, {Psalm i. 6. Job xxx. 20, 25, and xxxi. 20) thus, ' And no power from the hand of their oppres- sors,' namely, to escape from them. They have no power but to weep, none to help themselves ; — or else, as we read it, On the side of their oppressors there is power, so much as to keep others from comforting them. So the word hand is sometimes rendered by the word side. {Psalm cxl. 6. Prov. viii. 3) The doubling of that clause notes the sadness of their condition, as Job calls once and again for pity. {Job xix. 21) Ver. 2. ^\herefore I praised the dead which are already dead, ^c] I esteemed the dead more happy. ' The dead which are already dead this is emphatical ; our mortality makes us, as it were, dead while we live; much more our lusts. {Matth. viii. 22. Eph. ii. 1. 1 Tim. v. 6. Rev. iii. 1. Prov. ix. 18) There are dead men that are yet living, and dead men that are already dead. ^len are said to be dead likewise that aie in any desperate condition, under any in- vincible calamity, as Jews in Babylon, (/so/.xxvi. 19. Ezek. xxxvii. 11, 12, 13. 1 Cor. xv.31. 2 Cor. i. 9, 10) Oppression is, in the scripture account, a killing, a devouring* of poor men, eating them up, gnawing their bones. {Hab. i. 13. Psalm X. 8—10, and xiv. 4. Zeph. iii. 3. Ezek. xxii. 27. Mic. iii. 2, 3. Psalm viii. 3, 4, 5) The emphasis then of the place is this, ' I esteemed those more happy who are already quite dead, than those who do thus continually die, and languish away under the cruelties of their oppressors.' This may seem to be spoken after the judgement of the flesh, because grievous miseries and oppressions make men weary of their CHAP. IV.] THE BOOK OF KCCLKSl ASTES. 101 life, and choose rather to die. Death is a haven to such a soul after shipwreck. [Job iii. 13 — 16. Jon. iv. 3. Kings xix. 4) And indeed life being the greatest of mere out- ward blessings, and that whereunto all the rest are ordered, (Matth.v\. 25) it can hardly be either rationally or piously undervalued, because of the evils which crush and lie heavy on it; or the contrary thereunto desired, save only in order to the escaping evils which are worse than death, and to ob- taining of good things which are better than life. In which sense the apostle desired to depart, that he might be with Christ. {Phil, i, 23) Therefore he here speaketh according to the judgement of men under oppression, and who lie groaning and sighing amidst many miseries, whose reason is darkened by the weight of their sorrows ; for oppression, in this sense, makes even a wise man mad. (Cliap. vii. 7) More than the living who are i/et alive ] By the ' living who are yet alive,' he seems to mean those poor men who lan- guish and pine away under their oppressions, of whom we can say only, as we do of a man ready to die. He is yet alive, his breath is not quite gone, he doth live, and that is all. (as Luke x. 30) He doth not simply prefer death before life ; but the ease and quietness of death, before the miseries and sufferings of a dying life. (Job iii. 17, 18, 19) Ver. 3. Yea, better is he than both they, S^c.l He speaketh only according to the judgement of sense, and with re- lation to the greatness of outward miseries, which he, who is yet unburn, hath not seen in others, or felt in himself. (Job iii. 10, and x. 18, 19) Seen the evil.] To see good is to enjoj/ it. (Chap. ii. 24) To see evil is to have experience of it, and to suffer it ; in which sense the serpent told Eve, that 'her eyes should be opened to know good by the loss, and evil by the danger of it. (Ge«. iii. 5) And this kind of not being, or not having been born, though it cannot reasonably or piously be pre- ferred before a sorrowful life, which will consist with the fear of God; yet it may, before a cursed condition, which sinks a man under the wrath of God. {Matth. xxvi. 24) Here then we may observe, 1. The sad condition of men under the power of oppressors, when they have not so much abatement of their misery as to be pitied. 2. The cruelty of powerful oppressors, which deters others from compassion- 102 A X N OT ATI O X S O \ [chap. IV. ating those whom they oppress. 3. The dangerous tempta- tion which oppression exposeth men unto, even to be weary of life, as we see in the case of Job, Jonah, Elijah, and others. 4. The inconvenience in cases of difficulty, which relate any way to conscience, to consult with carnal reason, which will easily lead us into extremes. Ver. 4. Again I considered all travail and exery right tiorA-.] Hereheproceedethto another vanity, arising out of the former, of oppression and niisgovernment, under which men usually are discouraged from all ingenious and useful undertakings, fi'om all noble enterprises of any sort, by reason of the envy and danger which, partly through the jealousies of superiors, partly through the malignancy and evil eye of equals or in- feriors, they are by their emineucy and industry exposed unto. By ' every right work,' we are to understand not so much works done in integrit)'^ towards God, as the ingenious and accurate works of human issue, done by the wisdom and practic cunning of artificers in any kind ; such as the wis- dom of Bezaleel, {Exod. xxxi. 3, 4) and Hiram. (1 Kings vii. 14) That for this a man is envied of his neighbour. '\ That the more he deserves for his industry, and ingeniousness of in- vention, the more he is exposed to envy and danger; envy being like those moths and cankers which usually feed on the richest garments, as we see in many examples. {Gen. iv. 5. Numb. xi. 27 — 29. 1 Sam. xviii. 7, 8. Gen. xxvi. 12 — 14, and xxxvii. 8. I Sam. xvii. 28. Dan. vi. 3, 4, &c.) And this is a great vanity and disappointment, when that from whence a man might have expected credit and thanks from the world, shall procure him hatred and danger ; and must needs thereupon be a great disquieting of heart, and discouragement against so fruitless endeavours. {Prov. xxxvii. 4. Psalm Ixxiii. 12, 13) Ver. 5. The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.'] This is one fruit of this danger and envy, taken up by foolish and slothful men ; they refuse to take pains, and rather choose to be poor than to be envied. Here is the character of an idle person, 1. He is a fool, to make so ab- surd an inference, that for fear of envy and trouble, will not only neglect duty, but undo himself 2. He foldeth his hands, puts himself into a posture of idleness, composeth CHAP. IV,] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 103 himself to do nothing. Labour requireth the stretching forth of the hands. (Prov. xxxi. 19) Laziness wraps them up in one another. (Prov. vi. 9, 10, and xxvi. 14, and xix. 24) 3. He eateth his own flesh, bringeth himself to ex- treme poverty, contracteth weakness in his body, enfeebleth his mind, wasteth his stock, consumeth his family, bringeth the curse of beggary upon himself and his. For as the dili- gent hand maketh rich, (Prov. xiii. 11) so the slack hand maketh poor. {Prov. x. 4) He thinks it a part of wisdom to spare his pains and sit quiet ; and because he cannot at- tain so much dexterity and skill as another man, therefore enviously to sit down and gnaw his own flesh, either with hunger or indignation. (Prov. xxvi. 16) Whereas indeed he is a fool, i. e. 1. A wicked man, in neglecting the duty of labour, which he oweth to himself, to his family, to his ge- neration, and whereunto by the ordinance of God he is ap- pointed. {Gen.m. 19. Tit. iii. 14. 1 Thess.Vn. 10, 11) 2. An absurd man, to reason himself into contempt and beggary, and to be cruel to himself, because he is fretted at other men. (Prov. xi. 17. Psalm xxvu.2) For as he had before touched the vanity which ariseth from others, so here that which ariseth from a man's own self. Ver. 6. Better is a handf ul with quietness, than both the hands full with trouble and vexation of spirit.] This may be here taken, either as Solomon's own words, and then to im- port a seasonable remedy against the evils here spoken of, viz. envy, idleness, and covetousness, namely, sweet con- tentment with a competent estate, rather than vexation with a greater: (Prov. xv. 16, 17, and xvii. 1. Psalm xxxvii. 16. Luke xii. 15) or rather as the words of the sluggard, and then they are his apology for his laziness : if he strive to excel in his profession, he shall many ways disquiet him- self, he cannot do it without much travail ; nor after all that travail be free from much envy and danger. And therefore he rather chooseth a smaller portion, with more ease and con- tentment. In which there is a great deal of false arguing. 1. It is false, when he calleth his slothful and tttle way of living, rest or quietness ; for true tranquillity of mind is the consequent of a fruitful conversation ; (Psalm cxix. 165) and bodily rest is a fruit of honest labour. (Psalm cxxvii. 2. Eccles. v. 12) 2. It is false, when he calleth industry in 104 ANNOTATIONS ON [CHAl'. IV. a man's course of life, vexation of spirit ; whereas honest labour taketh off the heart from many vain thoughts and desires, which would more sorely vex it. 3. It is a great profaneness to palliate his own sin, under the name of rest and quietness of spirit, and under the protection of God's own truth to find a hiding place for his brutishness and sensuality ; as Saul pretended sacrifice to excuse rebellion. (1 Sam. XV. 1,5. 2 Sam. xv. 7, 8. Prov. vii. 14, 15. Hos. xii. 8. 1 Kings xxi. 9) 4. It is alike profaneness to give ear to the wisdom of the flesh, against the duties of our call- ing, and to argue from inconveniences which we fear, to discourage ourselves from those labours which God hath promised to bless. God saith, to encourage us unto duty. That his light shall shine on our ways, he will comfort and bless us in them, and his angel shall keep us in our ways ; (Psalm xc'i. 11) but the sluggard saith to discourage him- self, ' There is a lion in the way {Prov. xxii. 13) as if lions were more terrible to affright, than angels to protect. 5. It is a vain conceit, to think contentment is tied unto a small estate, and vexation to a greater ; whereas true content knows as well how to abound, as how to want ; {Phil. iv. 11, 12) and discontent will make men as anxious, as froward, as impatient under a small estate, as craving, hoarding, coveting under a greater. {Prov. xxx. 9. Psalm lix. 16) The words of this verse are proverbial, the former part, by the word * handful,' expressing a little estate; (as Ps«/ra Ixxii. 16. Ezek. xiii. 19) the other, by 'hands full,' a greater and more plentiful, gotten with all the strength and labour of the whole man. {Mic. vii. 3) Ver. 7. Vanity under the sun.'] Another vanity, and quite contrary to the former ; as fools, when they avoid one ex- treme, fall into the other. Ver. 8. There is one alone, <5)c.] One, i. e. one by himself ; as Gen. xix. 9, and not a second; that is, either no com- panion, or member in his family to provide for, or no heir to succeed him in his estate ; none for whom he can say, It is this man foWwhom I labour, (see verse 15.) Neither child nor brother.] His labour is not founded in any natural love of those for whom he is bound to provide, (1 Tim. V. 8. Gen. xlvii. 12. Prov. x\\\. 17) but merely on the inordinate love of riches themselves. CHAP. IV.] TlIK BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 105 This covetous wretch is here described, 1. By his solitari- ness ; he lives all alone, he cannot endure two mouths in a house. 2. By his excessive labour ; there is no end of all his la- bour : he toils infinitely, and without measure. {Isai. ii. 7. Job xxii, 5) Some by labour, understand wealth gotten by labour. He hath a vast estate, and yet is as greedy as if he had nothing. 3. By his insatiable desires, neither is his eye satisfied with riches.} He hath enough for his back, his belly, his calling, the decency of his state and condition, but he hath not enough for his eye. Though he can but see it, and have no use of it, yet he is displeased that he sees no more. The eye is the instrument of coveting. (1 Joh. ii. 16. Josh. vii. 21. chap. i. 8, and ii. 10) A covetous man, though he have as much as his eye can see, yet he would have more still. (Isai. V. 8. Hab. ii. 5. Prov. xxx. 15. Job xl. 23, 24) 4. By his folly and inconsiderateness ; he doth not weigh with himself the absurdity of his so living; he still goes out of himself in labour after riches, but never comes to himself, to reason and argue the case, or to call himself to an account of his doings. (Jer. viii. 6. Luke xv. 17. Psalm iv. 5) 5. By his inhumanity and self-cruelty, denying those com- forts to himself, which God hath given him, using himself worse than God would have the ox used in the law, (Deut. XXV. 4) treading out the corn, and yet muzzling himself. (Chap. vi. 2) 6. By the groundlessness of this cruelty, he hath none, while he lives, for whom he doth it; and when he dies, he leaves no heir, kinsman, second to enjoy it ; but undergoes all his toil, and bereaves himself of all comfort, for he knows not whom. (Psa/m xxxix. 6) The censure of all which is, that it is vanity, and a very sore and grievous affliction. Ver. 9- Two are better than one.] 'Good more than one :' so the comparative useth to be expressed, (as chap. vii. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. Prov. viii. 11. Hag. ii. 10) Upon occasion of the soli- tary life of this raiser, he sheweth the benefit of society, and mutual helpfulness which thereby one man alFordeth unto another. Therefore God made woman for a companion and a helper unto man, (Gen. ii. 18) and Christ sent forth his disciples by two and two, (Mark vi. 7. Luke x. 1) n^Ot only 106 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. IV. that they might be joyful witnesses of the truth which they were to deliver, as Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Zorobba- bel, in reference unto whom we read of two witnesses. {Rev. xi. 3, 4) And in that respect the apostle usually joineth one or two more to himself in the inscription of his epistles, not only as joint witnesses of the truth of the doctrine there- in delivered ;(1 Cor. i. 1. 2 Cor. i. 1. Phi/, i. 1. Co/oss. i. 1. 1 Thess. i. 1) but withal, that they might vtith more ease and success carry on the ministry, wherein they were em- ployed, and help mutually to strengthen, to encourage, to comfort one the other. Because they have a good reward for their labour.^ Or, a benefit mutually from each other in their labour, by counsel, by comfort, by assistance and co-operation, by supply of any want or infirmity which may befall each other. (1 Sam. xxiii. 16, 17. 2 Cor. viii. 18, 19, 22. ^c^s xiii. 2, 5. Prov. xxvii. 17. Acts xix. 29. Phil. iv. 3) They do both promote the common good, they do the more easily compass it, they do the more sweetly enjoy it. This mutual benefit is further opened in some particulars of mutual danger, mutual rest, and mutual defence. Ver. 10. If they fall.] That is, ' If one or either of them fall ;' the plural is used distributively or partitively to either of the singulars : as, ' the wicked men they fly,' {Prov. xxviii. 1) i, e. every man. * She shall be saved, if they abide,' (1 Tim. ii. 15) i. e. if any of them abide. Falling, here, may be un- derstood in all senses, for corporal falls, into a pit, from a horse or the like. Metaphorically, if they fall into diseases, disfifraces, dangers. Spiritually, into sins or errors. In any adversities, the society of friends is useful to pity, to restore, to support, to convince, to comfort. Whereas such a solitary worldling as he spake of before, is forsaken of all, and hath none to stand to him. This is sometimes the lot of the godly in trouble, but then God stands by them. (Psa/w xxii. II. 2 Tim. iv. 16, 17) But ivoe to him that is alone.] ' Woe to him,' is, in the original, one word made of two ; as is observed out of Kimchi. It is here an interjection of grieving, with a de- nouncing of some evil which is coming towards a man : it is once more used in this book, (chap. x. IG) and hardly at all elsewhere in that sense. ' Woe to him that is alo^^ ' or, to CHAP. IV.] mi". BOOK OF KCCI.ESl A ST ES. 107 him tliat one, when he falleth, and there is not a second ta lift him up. Ver. 11. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat, ^c] This also may be understood not only literally, (as 1 Kings i. 1, 2) but metaphorically for all kind of mutual assistance and encouragement in any work which is to be done. {Heb. X. 24. Luke xxiv. 32) Ver, 12. And if one prevail against him.'^ i.e. Some stranger or third person assault, and be too hard for him, that is, for one of the two, then two or three shall stand against that one, and shall be easily able to resist him. (See 2 Sam. x. 11. Jer. xli. 13, 14. Fsahn cxxvii. 5) This is another benefit of society and friendship, aid and protection against assaults, whether outward, or spiritual in temptations from Satan. In all those, and so proportionably in all other cases, in war, in peace, in danger, in business, day and night, in the mul- titude of counsellors there is safety; {Prov. xi. 14, and xiv. 22) provided that this society be undertaken in the fear of God, and in good and lawful things ; otherwise, combinations in wickedness are cursed. {Psalm Ixiv. 5, 6, 7. Ixxxiii. 3 — 9. Nahum i. 10, 12. Prov. xi. 21) Two shall withstand him-l Or, ' stand before him with con- fidence and courage to help one another.' Standing is a military posture. {Ephes. vi. 11, 13, 14. Psalm xciv. 16. Esther viii. 11) Standing before one, as an enemy to destroy him. (Rev. xii. 4) Hence that expression of looking one another in the face, 2 Chron. xxv. 17. A threefold cord, or a triple twisted thread, is not easili/i broken.'] A proverb setting forth the strength and benefit of cpncord and society. Ver. 13. Better is a poor and wise child, &)C.] From thi» verse to the end of the chapter, Solomon proceedeth to set forth the vanity of the highest and most eminent condition amongst men, namely, of kingly dignity ; which he sheweth both in fooHsh and wilful princes, who refuse to be coun- selled, and in all other, be they never so circumspect. To manifest the former, he taketh first one of the most con- temptible persons one could think on, and compares him with one of the most honourable, a child to an aged man, a poor child to a potent king. Childhood is alone very con- temptible, and exposed to neglect and scorn ; looked on as 108 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. IV. rash, heady, unstayed, without judgement or experience. {fsai. iii. 4, 5. 1 Kings iii. 7. 1 Cur. xiv. 20. Epk. iv. 14. 2 Chron. xiii. 7) Hereunto poverty being added, will make such a one more neglected: {Eccles. ix. 15. James i'l. 3, 6. Prov. xiv. 20. 1 Tim. v. 12) on the other side, old age alone is venerable, though but in an ordinary person. (Lev. xix. 32, Isai. iii. 2, 3) Gray hairs alone are a crown, and beauty, {Prov. xvi. 31) how much more honourable, when they are joined with a crown ! yet this poor child being wise, is pre- ferred before that aged king being foolish and intractable ; as Prov. xix. 1. The wisdom of such a child here, is his knowledge of God in his word, whereby a young man is in- structed how to order his ways, as that of Timothy. (2 Tim. iii. 15. Psalm cxix. 99, 100) The foolishness of such a prince is, he knoweth not to be admonished, he cannot coun- sel himself, and he will not be counselled by others. So, 'not to know,' doth import a foolish obstinacy and impotency in the mind, a neglect of what is offered unto a man to con- sider of: (Isai. Ivi. 11, and vii. 16) contrary to that which is called knowing, or considering in the heart. (Deut. viii. 5. Prov. xxix. 7) Here we see, 1. That wisdom makes the meanest person honourable, maketh the face shine. (Chap. viii. 1) 2. That the fear of God teacheth children wisdom. (2 Tim. iii. 15. 1 Sam. xvi. 18, and xviii. 5. Psalm cxix. 98, 100. Dan. i. 20) 3. That intractableness of heart against counsel, is an evi- dence of folly. Solomon, though the wisest of princes, yet had a council about him of aged and the most able raen, whose counsel Rehoboam rejecting, shewed his weakness. (2 Chron. x. 6, and xiii. 17) 4. That old age and power, without a corrective of wis- dom, are very likely to render men wilful, and opinionative. (Job xxxii. 9) Ver. 14. For out of prison he cometh to reign.'] Out of the house of men bound, (Judges xvi. 21. Gen. xl. 3, 7. Isai. xiv. 17) from the midst of bonds and fetters. He comelh.'j Namely, the poor and the wise child : for these words are a confirmation of those before, from the event which happeneth to both, the wisdom of the child advanceth him from a prison to a throne, from chains to a crown. The obstinacy CHAP. IV.] THE BOOK OF F.CCLESI A ST FS. 109 and folly of the otlier huirieth him from power to poverty ; from honour to contempt. Out of prison he cometh to reign, i. e. from the lowest and most obscure condition. {Job V. 11. Psalm cxiii. 7, 8. Gen. xli. 14, 39—44. 2 Sam. vii. 8. Dan. ii. 25, 48, and iii. 26, 30, and vi. .3) Whereas also he that is born in his kingdom, becometh poor.'] Or, Whereas he in his kingdom is born poor, i. e. is made poor. So passing from one condition to another, is a kind of birth : but the other sense is more emphatical, He who from his childhood was a king, and in actual possession of his throne, becometh poor. {Psalm cxlix. 8. Job xii. 19, 20, 21. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11, and xxxvi. 3, 4, 6. 2 Kings xxv. 6, 7. Dan. iv. 30—33) Ver. 15. / considered all the living, which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall stand up in his stead.'] These two verses set forth another vanity attending upon kingly power, not for the fault of the person, but through the inconstant and fickle disposition of the people, who ever have, and ever will be given to changes, worship the rising sun, and grow weary of him who is likely soonest to leave them. yJll the living.] That is. All the present generation of men living under a present prince or government. He speaks of the generality of men, and therefore expresseth them under a general notion of living men. (Job xxx. 23. Dan. iv. 17.) And withal, to intimate a ground in them of what he here considered, when the father is going away, and the son ready to succeed, they think that they must live and be preserved by the living, and not by the dead, and accordingly worship him under whom they expect protection and preservation of life; for, for that end was government instituted. (1 Tim. ii. 2.) Which walk under the sun.] Elsewhere, Which see the sun, chap. vii. '11 : another expression intimating this to be the popular humour of the generality of men, or the vulgar peo- ple, who go up and down the streets ; as the vulgar are dis- tinguished from the greater and nobler sort: (Jer. v. 1, 4, 5) or walking may be joined with the following words, viz. With the second child.] ' I observe that the generality of people walk with the second child, join themselves unto him, and flatter and crouch to him, forsaking in their affections no ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. IV. and behaviours the father, because he is about to forsake them.'' Which shall stand up in his stead.'\ Namely, in the father's or predecessor's stead. By standing up, he meaneth rising to the throne. {Dan. xi. 2) They look on the predecessor as falling, sinking, lying down, stooping towards the grave, and therefore apply themselves to his heir. Whereby he noteth as the unhappiness of princes, who, if they live long, live to see their glory die before themselves ; so the fickle- ness of the generality of the people, who do not honour rulers for their office sake, as they ought to do ; and especi- ally should reverence it the more, by how much the more ex- perience they have had of happiness under it; {Rom. xiii. 1 — 5. 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14, 15) but honour them merely out of interest and self-respect, not considering so much present duty, as future advantage. There is naturally in the minds of the people a weariness of being long under one prince, a querulousness and repining at every thing v^hich pincheth them ; and thereupon a desire to change him for the next, not so much out of choice or assurance that he will be better, but out of natural levity and inconstancy ; as sick men change beds, chambers, couches, but carry their disease with them; they love changes for the very change sake. (1 Sam. viii. 5, 18, 19, 20, and xii. 12, 13. 2 Sam. xv. 12. 1 Kings ii. 15. 2 Sam. xx. 2. Prov. xiv. 21) Ver. 16. There is no end of all the people, <$i c-.] By ' all the people,' he meaneth the giddy and inconstant multitude, whose levity and discontent with their present estate, is the cause that they thus desire continual changes, and reject to- day whom yesterday they adored. There is no end of all the people, or to all the people. There are infinite numbers of people in every age and generation who stand thus af- fected : it is not a contingent or unusual thing, but very com- mon. It is not a vanity which princes have experience of only sometimes, as in some few persons ; but it is the gene- ral disease of the vulgar, to stand thus variously affected to- wards their princes in all ages. So this phrase, * There is no end,' is used to express a great or infinite number. {Isai. ii. 7. supra, ver. 8. Job xxii. 5. Nahum. iii. 3) Again, ' There is no end to all the people.'] The people never put an end or a stop to this vanity, but it passeth on, from one generation to an- CHAP. IV.] THE LOOK O I' ECCLESI ASTES. Ill other. They which went before, did so, so do these now, and so will they do which follow. 3. By ' no end,' may be meant no satisfaction to desires, no thorough and fixed acquiescency of heart in the people towards their princes ; they will still entertain expectations of new men, and new events to satisfy their desires. So the word ' end,' is used for that wherein the heart may acquiesce, and look no further for something else. {Frov. xxiii. 18) They do not terminate and fix their affections in one man, be he never so wise or worthy ; but grow weary of him, and join themselves unto his successor. Even of all those that have been before them.] Namely, be- fore the father and the son, or successor which was second unto him. The word before may signify either in the pre- sence of them, i. e. who have been officers under them, or done service, and borne allegiance to them ; (2 Sam. xvi. 19. 1 Kings X. 8) or else an antecedence in time unto them. They who were before them, did thus languish in their af- fections to the father, and apply themselves unto the son. Thei/ also that]come after, shall not rejoice in him.] i. e. In the son, unto whom now they seem so zealously, and with so much loyalty to join themselves. 'Not rejoice.] That is, they will be weary of him, troubled with him, wish themselves freed from him. The verb nega- tive, by a jae/coo-jj, seems to import the affirmative contrary unto it, as is usual in Scripture. {Exod. xx. 7. Prov. xvii. 21. Zach. viii. 17. Rom. iv. 19) This then is hereditary to all people, there is no end of it, they can never be settled or contented with the present estate ; as they before did dislike the father in expectation of the son, so they after will cast off the son in expectation of the grandchild ; and so it will be in all generations. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.] This must needs be matter of indignation and grief to princes, to see so much falseness and inconstancy in their people, to see their honour grow old and decrepit with their bodies. 112 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. V. CHAPTER V. The Wise man, having spoken of the vanity which attendeth on the veryliighest condition of men here below, seems here to make a kind of digression, and to go yet higher unto the consideration of that which principally concerns man in this life, to wit, the worship of God, This is the supreme remedy of all the other vanities, and may seem here to be subjoined (as also it is in the end of the book) to that purpose, to shew, that though neither knowledge, nor pleasures, nor honours, nor crowns, can make men happy; though it be beyond the sphere and activity of any creature to administer complete tranquillity to the heart of a man; yet even in this life a man may be happy by worshipping of God, and communion with him; as if he should have said, ' We have gone through the world, and sought high there for satisfaction, as ever any man could arrive, even to crowns and thrones, and yet have missed of it. It remains therefore that we go higher yet, before we can be truly happy ; and that is, from the world to the sanctuary, from the thrones of princes to the thrones of grace, from the creature to God, in whose service alone there is complete felicity."' But besides this I take it, the scope of the Wise man is, by way of prolepsis or answer to a tacit objection, to dis- cover yet a higher and a stranger vanity than any he had spoken of before, namely, vanity in the worship of God, not as it is in itself, but as it is performed by vain and foolish men. They might say, • We do easily agree with you in all that you have said ; we know we must look above the crea- tures, if ever we intend to arrive at true happiness: there- fore what pains soever we take about things under the sun, yet we seek for our happiness no where but in God, and in his service.' Solomon now, acknowledging the truth of this in the thesis. That the worship of God is the true felicity of man in this life, doth withal assure these men, that they may put vanity in the very worship of God, and render that, by their foolish and carnal performance, wholly unprofitable to any such end ; yea there may be therein divers vanities. CHAP, v.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI A5TES. 113 (verse 7), for discovery and avoiding whereof, he prescribeth a solemn caveat to those who, being convinced of vanity in the creatures, do go to God in his worship to mend them- selves. This is, 1. General, relating to all parts of God's worship: which is, in our approaches unto God, to look to our affec- tions, and to prepare our hearts to meet with him, not resting in outward sacrifices, which are but the oblations of fools, who think they do well, when in truth they do the contrary, (verse 1) 2. Particular, in some species of worship : 1. In hearing, which (he saith) must be done with readiness, with a docile and tractable spirit, yielding up itself to the whole counsel of God. (verse 1) 2. In prayer and speaking unto God ; where is first con- demned a double vanity, rashness of tongue, hastiness of heart, both enforced by consideration of God's greatness, and of our own vileness. (verse 2) Secondly, is prescribed fewness of words, without vain and unnecessary babbling, and that because of God's majesty, and the folly of so doing, (verse 3) 3. In vows, which, being once made, are to be performed, and that cheerfully, without grudging or delay ; which doc- trine he doth, 1. prove, 2. vindicate from shiftings and ex- cuses. He proveth it, 1. By the folly of the contrary course; it argues a levity of spirit to dally, and to be off and on with God, who as he is constant himself in ail his promises, so he expecteth constancy from us in all ours. 2. By God's dis- like of such folly and falseness, (verse 4) Next he vindicateth it from a double excuse which men are apt to make : 1. • It was free for me to vow ; the thing was in mine own power; therefore it is not so heinous a thing though I do fail, because I was not bound to what I vowed, till I had vowed it.' This he answereth, that it had been better to have kept this liberty still, and not to have vowed, than, after vows, to resume liberty when it is too late, (verse 5.) 2. ' But I was mistaken, there was an error in my vow.' To this he gives a double answer, and sets it on with weighty considerations: first. Look well before thou vow, that thou do not bring a bond of sin upon thyself: suffer not thy VOL. IV. I 114 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. V. mouth to cause thee to sin. Secondly, take heed of pretending error and- oversight, out of unwillingness to do what thou hast promised : sai/ not that it teas an error. For consider, 1. thou art in the presence of the angel. 2. Thou provokest God's anger. 3. The damage which by that anger thou wilt suffer : he will destroi/ the zcork of thy hands, disappoint thee in that benefit, the preservation whereof thou didst aim at in excusing thy vow. 4. The folly of such vain excuses. There is a vanity in all parts of w orship when undertaken by fools or wicked men: the fool's sacrifice, verse 1. the fool's voice, (verse 3.) the fool's vow, (verse 4.) divers vanities in all this, (verse 7) Now having shewed the vanities in the carnal performance of divine worship, he doth (as he had done formerly in the other vanities which he spake of before) prescribe a remedy of this also, viz. The inward principle of all right and spi- ritual worship, which is to fear God. (verse 7) And because it might be objected, that piety itself is not likely to secure a man's tranquillity and peace, inasmuch as we find poor and righteous men every where, all a province over, oppressed and persecuted by great men in high place. He removeth this objection, 1. By showing the compassion of God and his justice ; he sees and regards it. 2. The great- ness and power of God ; that he is higher than any of those that oppress his servants, (ver. 8) Now he proceedeth to another vanity, which is in riches and outward possessions. They are of two sorts ; 1. Substantial and real wealth, in the profits and fruits of the earth, corn, cattle, &c. 2. Instrumental, in that which is, by men's agreement, made a measure to other wealth, viz. silver and gold. Con- cerning both which he sheweth, 1. The excellency of the former, in regard of real and general profit, before the lat- ter, (verse 9) 2. The vanity both of the one and the other, when 1. inordinately loved. 2. Immoderately increased. This vanity is shewed, 1. Absolutely, in that the inordi- nate love of them is unsatisfiable, (ver. 10) and that troubles and cares are proportionably increased in the increase of them. (ver. 11) 2. Comparatively, and that 1. in respect of any real benefit CHAP, v.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 115 and good in the fruition of them. The owner hath no more true profit by them, (further than that he looks on them as his own) than any of his friends and servants, who are fed and clothed by them as well as he : only his cares are in- creased. 2. In respect of consequent rest and quietness ; the servant's heart is less troubled, his body more refreshed than the owner's, (ver. 12) 3. In regard of the evil effects of riches: 1. The damage and hurt, which sometimes a man lays up with them against himself, (ver. 13) 2. The uncertainty of their abode with a man; having hurt the owners, they perish themselves, (ver. 14) 3. The certainty of parting with them ; they must die, they cannot carry one handful away with them. (ver. 15, 16) 4. The sordid and uncomfortable use of them^ (ver. 17) 6. Impatience and fretfuiness in parting with them, or in getting of them. (ver. 17) Lastly, he gives the remedy of this vanity and vexation, in the right use of riches, viz. In a free and cheerful enjoy- ment of them : which is here commended, 1. By its goodness to the owners. 2. By its comeliness and coramendableness towards others. 3. By its equity: It is the fruit of a man's own labour, and provided for his own life. 4. The end of it, and his right to it ; it is his portion, all that he is ever like to get by it. (ver. 18) 5. The author of it; it is a special gift of God, 1. To give riches. 2. To give an heart to enjoy them. (ver. 19) 6. Freedom hereby from the trouble of all his labours, when himself tastes the fruit of them, and hath experience of God's special blessing, in answering the desires of his heart, and causing him comfortably to enjoy them. (ver. 20) Ver. 1. Keep thy foot, when thou goest to the house of God .'] He had gone up and down the world, from learning to plea- sures, from pleasures to honours, from honours to thrones, to find out happiness, and had met with nothing but vanity. Now he sends us to a fitter place to find it, the house of God, whether his temple, or other synagogues, where God is pre- sent to those that serve him ; here they shall find remedies- against the vanity of other things, and that which will stay I 2 116 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. V. and fix their hearts. {Psalm Ixxiii. 16, 17. Psalm iv. 6, 7) Only we must take heed of putting vanity into God's wor- ship, lest we be there disappointed of our aims, as well as elsewhere. This caveat he gives us in those words, ' Keep thy foot,' or, ' each foot.' The letters are plural; the points di- rect to read it in the singular number. So foot, for feet, Psalm cxix. 105. This analogy of numbers is very usual, the singular for the plural ; as Psalm xiv. 1. The fool hath said, &c. They, i. e. fools are corrupt. — In that day, a man shall cast away his idols which they have made, Isaiah il 20. Keep thy footJ] ' Seriously advise how thou art to behave thyself in God's presence ; look to thy heart and affections; let thy heart be fixed, thy affections composed, thy thoughts ordered; call all that is within thee together to serve him.' (Psalm Ivii. 7, and ciii. 1) A metaphor from men that walk in dangerous ways, who take heed to their steps lest they stumble and fall : or rather an allusion to the speech of God to Moses, Exod. iii. 5. So Exod. xix. 21. Josh, v, 15. As Mephibosheth dressed his feet when he went to David. (2 Sam. xix. 24) So they used washings and purifyings, before they came into God's presence. (Exod. xix. 14, 15. Num, viii. 7. Psalm xxvi. 6. Heb. x. 22. Lev. xix. 30, and xvi. 2, 3. Gen. xxviii. 16, 17. Exod. xl. 32) j^nd be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools.'\ Or, * draw near to hear, rather than with or as fools, to offer a sacrifice, who think to be accepted for their outward work.' The infinitive used for the imperative, (as Exod. xx. 8. Mutth, V. 39. Luke xxii. 42) or we may read it in the infinitive, thus, ' for to draw near to hear, i. e. to bring before God an obedient heart, is better than when fools do give a sacrifice : or, than to give a sacrifice of fools.' He doth not forbid or con- demn sacrifices, but he preferreth obedience, and sheweth the vanity and folly of those, who are very forward in the out- ward acts of religion, without the love and service of the heart (1 Sam. xv. 22. Hos. vi. 6. Isai. i. 11 — 18. Amos v. 21, 22, 23, 24. Psalm 1. 17, and li. 16, 17. Isai. Ixvi. 2, 3. Prov. XV. 8, 21, 27) Be more ready.'] The word is, ' draw near,' to hear. It is a word very frequently used in Scripture, to express our ad- dressing ourselves unto the solemn service and worship of CHAP, v.] THE ROOK OF ECCLESI ASTES, 117 God, {Lev. i. 9. 1 Sam. xiv. 36. 2 Kings xvi. 12. Psalm Ixxiii. 28. Isai. Iviii. 2. Ezek. xliv. 15, 16. Matth. xv. 8) whereunto there is a frequent allusion in the New Testa- ment. {Ephes. ii. 18. Heh. iv. 16, and vii. 25, and x. 1, 22, xi. 6) It importeth a serious composing of our hearts, in an humble, reverend, and holy manner, to appear before God, and to have a comfortable access unto the throne of grace. {Uv.x. 3. Heb. xii. 28, 29) To hear.] Whereas there are two parts of worship, sacri- fice and obedience, be thou most careful of this, which is the spiritual and inward part of service, rather than of that which fools, hypocrites, wicked men, can offer as well as thou. Be ready to receive instruction, and to accept of what God says. (Psalmlxxxv. 8. Job xxxiv. 32. 1 Sam. iii. 10. Jlcts ix. 6, and x. 33. James i. 19) Be ready to obey and give up thy will to every one of God's holy command- ments. (Psalm cxix. 128) Than to offer the sacrifice of fiools.'\ Than as fools, i. e. wicked men, do, to offer up sacrifice, and neglect obedience. {Mic. VI. 6, 7, 8) For they consider not, know not, that they do evil.] Some would have the word, but, to be supplied : ' they know not but to do evil : they can only do evil, even when they worship God as Isai. i. 6. see chap. ii. 24. Others thus, ' Non attend- ant ad facere malum, or, ad factionem mali :' which is to the sense of our version. They are here called ' fools,' and that is further expressed, by want of knowledge. They 'know not,' and that doth further appear by doing of evil. {Isai. i. 3, 4. Jer. viii. 9) The most natural sense is, as we render it, They know not that they do evil: when they do evil, they con- sider it not, they understand it not. The like phrase, 1 John 11. 6, 9. 6 Xeycov fAsvsjv, o Ksym Iv tm faiJj slva». * He that saith to abide,' i.e. that he abideth. ' He that saith to be in the light,' i. e. that he is in the light. So here, ' they know not to do evil,' i. e. that they are doing of evil. And hereby is meant by an auxesis, * they think they do very good service.' So when the Lord is said not to command a thing, the meaning is, that he doth forbid it. {Lev. x. 1) 'He will not hold them guiltless 'that take his name in vain,' i. e. he will hold them very guilty. {Exod. xx. 7) ' He will withhold no good thing from them that walk upright,' i. e. he will largely supply them. 118 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. V. {Psa/m\xxx'iv. 12) ' He will not break a bruised reed,' i. e. he will bind them up and strengthen them. {Isai. xlii. 3) ' Abraham was not weak in faith,' i. e. he was strong. (Rom. iv. 19) Men may think they do God good service, when they do greatly oftend him. (Isai. Ixv, 5. Prov. xiv. 12. Isai. Iviii. 2, 3. Hos. viii. 2, 3. John xvi. 2. Acts xxvi. 9) These things are here observable : 1. That in God's worship we do, in a special manner, draw nigh unto him. 2. That when we do so, we ought to prepare and compose our hearts and affections by faith and humility to appear before God. 3. That a prepared heart brings purposes of obedience, and to hear God in all that he shall say unto it. 4. That mere outward service, without the heart prepared obediently to serve the Lord, is but a sacrifice of fools, a mere formal and ceremonial worship. 5. That hypocrites may think they please God, when in- deed they provoke him, and know not that they do evil. (John iv. 22) Ver. 2. Be not rash zmth thy mouth.'\ Having spoken in ge- neral of the due preparation of the heart unto God's service, he now giveth direction in the particulars of prayer and vows. Be not rash.'] ' Go not about God's worship as men that in a fright or terror being amazed, fly hastily they know not whither. Do not precipitate thy words, nor speak any thing hastily, unadvisedly, according to the dictate of carnal and hasty desires before God, or in his house and presence.' — We know not what to ask as we ought, {Rom. viii. 26) and are very apt to put our own greedy and sudden passions into prayers, complaints, deprecations ; to think God deals not well with us if we be not answered according to our wills, and in our own time. {Psalm xxxi. 22, and cxvi. 11. Jobx. 2, 3, 18. Jer. XV. 18. John iv. 2, 3. Matth. xx. 20, 21. Psalm Ixxvii. 7, 10) And let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God.] Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speak- eth. {Matth. xii. 34) Therefore the remedy of rashness in our words, is to compose our thoughts and affections aright; to let our heart guide our tongue; not to bring raw, tumultu- ary, indigested thoughts into God's presence, but to get into CHAP, v.] THE BOOK OF ECCL liSI A STKS . 119 collected heart; to pray with understandinoj, with spirit, with judgement, and according to God's will ; as David found his heart to pray to God, (2 Sam. vii. 27) and called together his scattered affections, that he might fix them upon God. {Psalm ciii. 1. Dan. ix. 2, 3. Rom.\'n\. 26, 27. 1 Cor. xiv. 15. 1 John V. 14) We may likewise understand the caveat, as directed against that carnal pride and contradiction of spirit, whereby the heart is apt to rise against God and his Word, when we hear of more spiritual service required by God, than our foolish sacrifices do amount unto, or our carnal hearts are able to perform. {James i. 19, 20. Rom. x. 21. Acts xiii. 45, and xxviii. 19) Before the Xorrf.] That is, In his house or sanctuary. Therefore they who sin here, are said to provoke the Lord to his very face, and to do evil before his eyes. {Isai. Ixv. 3, and Ixvi. 3, 4) For God is in heaven, and thou on the earth.'] These are two arguments to enforce this caveat upon us ; the one drawn from God''s greatness, the other from our vilenesa. Mean persons behave themselves with all honour and reve- rence, when they supplicate unto men of honour and emi- nence. Much more should men do so unto God. So Christ teacheth us in prayer to come unto God, as with confidence and comfort, because he is a father ; so with reverence and fear, because he is a father in heaven. {Matth. vi. 9) His being in heaven denotes, 1. his dominion over us as lord and master. {Eph. vi. 9) 2. His glory and majesty above us, (1 Kings viii. 27) that we might learn to fear before him. {Mai. i. 6. Deut. xxviii. 58. Heb. xii. 18, 29) 3. His holiness and purity. {Deut. xxvi. 15. Isai. Ivii. 15. and Ixiii. 15) Hereby to raise us unto heavenly-mindedness in our approaches unto him. (Co/, iii. 1, 2. Ijum. iii. 40, 41) 4. His power to answer us, and to do for us according to our desires. (2 Chron. xx. 6, 7. Psalm cxv 3. Matth. v. 45, and vii. 11) 5. His omniscience : he looketh down on us, and seeth how we behave ourselves in his presence. {Matth. vi. 32. Psalm xi. 4, and xxxiii. 13, 14) 6. His justice and displeasure against evil doers. {Psalm 120 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. V. xiv. 3. 3. Rom. i, IS) In all which respects, we ought to take heed of all hasty, rash, aud unadvised frames of heart in God's presence. Man's 'being on earth,'' signifieth his base- ness and vile condition, his great distance from God, and, by reason of corruption, his great dissimilitude unto him. He is of the earth, earthly. (1 Cor. xv. 47. Psalm x. 18) This consideration of our natural and sinful vileness, should ^eatly humble us in our approaches unto God, {Job iv, 19, 25, and iv. 5, 6, and xl. 4. Gen. xviii. 17. Isai. vi. 5) Therefore let thy words be few.'] First, Use not rash and vain babbling, and empty, heartless repetitions, as the heathen; (Matth, vi. 7) but weigh and choose out words to speak unto him, (Job ix. 14. Eccles. xii. 10) He speaketh not against all length in prayer ; for Christ prayed whole nights : nor against all repetition, when it proceedeth from zeal, love, and holy fervency ; as that of Daniel ; (chap. ix. 16, 18, 19) but of that which is a clamorous and vain ingeminating of the same thing, without faith or wisdom. (1 Kmgs xviii. 26) Secondly, Let thy words be few, i. e, let not thy vows be more than thou mayest comfortably perform. Ver. 3, For a dream cometh through the multitude of busi- ness, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.] i. e. *As multitude of business produceth dreams, so multitude of words discovereth folly.' When two sentences are connected together by a copula, there is frequently imported a simili- tude between them. {Prov. xvii. 3, and xxv. 23, 26, 26, 27, and xxvi. 3, 7, 9, 11, 14, 17, 20, 21. Isai. liii. 7) Another argument moving unto the former duty, because, As certainly as much business produceth dreams, so much speech dis- covereth folly within. (Pror. x. 19. Eccles. x. 11 — 14. James iii. 2) Ver. 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it.] He giveth direction in the other particular, wherein men use to address themselves unto God, viz. vows : and as he did, in the former, forbid rash hastiness, so he doth, in this, warn to take heed of grudging delays. A vow is a solemn promise, or promissory oath made unto God, wherein a man doth veluntarily bind himself unto something, which was in his own power to bind himself unto. He doth not direct us here to make such a vow ; but having made it, to take heed of breaking faith and promise with God, who never fails in CHAP, v.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 121 any promise of his unto us, (Josh. xxi. 45) nor delayeth to perform it in its time. {Exod.xii. 41, 51. Heb. ii. 3. 2 Pet. iii, 9) This then is the first rule concerning vows, that law- ful vows must be speedily and cheerfully performed. {Psalm Ixvi, 13, 14, and Ixxvi. 11. Numb.xxx.2. Deu^. xiii. 21. Isai. xix. 21. Matth. v. 3:?) God would not have an altera- tion in a vow, though it were for the better. (Lev. xxvii. 10) Thus Hannah made haste to perform her vow, in dedicating her child unto God, as soon as he was weaned. (I Sam. i. 1 1, 2-^, 28) God calls on Jacob, and minds him of his vow made before, and expected that he should go to Bethel, and pay it as he had promised. {Gen. xxxv. 1. compared with Gen, xxviii. 20, 22) For he hath no pleasure iyi fools.'] ' He is greatly displeased with those who go about, one while, to flatter him in making a vow, and afterwards to mock him in refusing or delaying to perform it.' {Prov. xx. 26) This is one reason, drawn from the folly in offending God ; whereunto there is another ad- joined. Ver. 5. Better it is that thou shouldest not vozo, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.] It was arbitrary, and in our own power to make the vow ; for vows were to be of things in a man's power. (Numb. xxx. 3 — lo. Deut. xxiii. 32. j4cts v. 4) But it is not in our power, whether, being made, we will pay it or no ; for we bring a bond upon our souls, and the vows of God will be upon us. {Psalm Ivi. 12) Ver. 6. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy Jlesh to sin.] These words contain the second rule concerning vows, which is to teach us to avoid all rash vows which are unadvisedly made, and that is done two ways : 1. When we vow things sinful, when our mouth causeth us to sin. 2. When in lawful things we vow, and presently repent, seeking after shifts and evasions to elude the obligation, and to excuse ourselves. ' Suffer not thy mouth, by making a hasty vow, to cause thy Jlesh.'] That is, thy tongue, or thy- self, to sin. Flesh is taken, by a synecdoche, for i\i&\whole man. {Gen. vi. 12. Isai. xl. 5. Rom. iii. 20) It may seem here to be used for the * whole man,' to intimate, that rash vows are usually grounded upon fleshly, rather than spiritual reasons. A man did not go about them with [his soul and 122 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. V. spirit, upon solemn and serious grounds, but to gratify him- self in some carnal interest or other, or to carry on some sin- ful end. {Acts xxiii. 12, 13. Mai. i. 14. 2 Sam. xv. 8, 9. Prov. vii. 14) A like expression, Eccles. xi. 10. 'Neither say thou before the a7igel.'\ By the ' anger some do imderstand the ' priest, or messenger of the Lord' towards the people; so they are called, Job xxxiii. 23. Mai. ii. 7. Rev. i. 20. For in the case of an oath, wherein there was error or ignorance, the person was to bring a sacrifice, and the priest was to make an atonement for him. {Lev. v. 4, 5, 6) And then the meaning is, * Do not when thou hast vowed, repent and grudge, and go to the priest, acknowledging an error or ignorance, that so thou mayest save charges, and lick thyself whole, by offering a sacrifice to excuse a vow.'— Others understand the 'angels of heaven,' who are sent forth for the good of the elect, and who observe our behaviour in God's worship ; as that in the apostle useth to be understood, 1 Cor. xi. 10. {Matth. xviii. 10. Luke xii. 8. 1 Tim. v. 21) the Greek reads it, ■urpo ■mpoixwttov too ^eoD, ' Before God it may haply be meant of the temple or house of God, where they did pay their vows, {Psalm Ixvi. 13) wherein there were cherubims drawn, in token of the presence of the angels, and their protection to the church. (1 Kiyigs vi. 29, 32) Others understand it of Christ, who is the searcher of hearts, and will not be mocked, cannot be deceived ; who is the Angel of the covenant, and who is in the midst of his people, his candlesticks, when they come to worship, {Exod. xxiii. 20, 21) called the presence of God. {Exod. xxxiii. 14. Mai. iii. 1. Isai. Ixiii. 9. Josh. xii. 41) It seemeth to me to have some allusion to the history of Balaam, who when the angel stood in the way against him, made such an excuse as this, — It was an error, I knew not that thou stood against me; if it displease thee, I will go back. {Numb. xxii. 34) That it loas an error."] That is, ' either do not vow so rashly and unadvisedly, as to be at last brought to a necessity of confessing a sinful error; but advise beforehand that thou mayest not err.' Such a rash vow was that of Jephthah, {Judges xi. 30, 31, 35) and that other of Saul. (1 Sam. xiv. 24, 29, 30, 40) Or else, ' Do not excuse thyself for breaking thy vow, by saying, thou didst it imprudently, and wort mis- taken in it; it was an ignorance which thou art willing, by CHAP, v.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 123 some sacrifice, or other way of devotion to expiate as sacri- fices were to be offered for the ignorances of the people. (Lev. ii. 27. Numb. xv. 24, 25. Heb. ix. 7) ' Do not cover a wilful prevarication with a specious pretence, nor after vows make inquiry.' (Prov. xx. 25) Wherefore should God he angry at thy voice.^ The word signifies foaming anger : Why should he through anger foam against thee ? An interrogation of dehorting. As, Why will ye die, i. e. Be careful that ye may not die. This is one reason, God will be angry. Another, Thou shalt feel his anger, he will destroy the work of thy hand; he will not bless those endeavours, for the accomplishing whereof thou didst make that vow ; thou destroyest the vow, he will destroy thy work. (Deut. xxviii. 15, &c.) The third follows. Ver. 7. For in the multitude of dreams, and many words, there are many vanities : but fear thou God.'\ Or, In multitude of dreams, there are also vanities : and so in many words. Or, As in multitude of dreams, so also of words there are divers vanities. Some take Tia not for a noun, but for the infinitive mood of the verb ; and render it thus, ' Quia sicut in multiplicare,'' or, * quando raultiplicantur somnia, etiam va- nitates multiplicantur ; sic se habent verba multa : As when dreams are multiplied, vanities also are multiplied, so is it in many words.' — In all, the sense is the same. Mercer, a most learned interpreter, makes the connexion and sense to be thus, ' I have given thee these cautions to be tender of thy behaviour in the presence of God, that thou mayest not, by dreams, fancies, vanities, or multitude of difficult businesses, be brought to utter any thing rashly before God; but amidst all dangers or dreams, or vanities, or difficulties, to fear God, and not to suffer thyself to be withdrawn from him by any temptations.' But the words seem to prescribe the same re- medy against rash vows, as before against other hasty ad- dresses unto God. (ver. 3) There is a TeoXua-uvhrov in the conjunction copulative, as elsewhere. (Gen. xliii. 8, and XXV. 34) The plural *et vanitates,' is as much, as 'plurima va- nitas,' great vanity, or many vanities ; as Prov. i. 20. Wis- doms, i. e. principal or excellent wisdom : {Isai. Ixiv. 6) Our righteousness, i. e. most righteous action : (Gen. xix. 11) Blindnesses, i. e. thick and through blindness : (Psalm xlv. 15) With gladnesses, i. e. with great gladness : (2 Pet. iii. 11) 124 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. V, What manner of persons ought we to be in holy conver- sations and godlinesses, i. e. In all manner of holy conver- sation and godliness : (Cant. v. 16) His palate is sweet- nesses, and he is altogether, or every whit of him is, desires, i. e. Most sweet, and most desirable : {Dan. ix. 23) A man of desires, i. e. Greatly desired or beloved: (Isai. liii. 3) A man of sorrows, i. e. Full of sorrows. But fear thou God."] This is the remedy of all vanities in worship, to serve God rather with inward reverence and fear, than with rash, hasty, many, formal, empty expressions. The fear of God is the foundation of all holy duties, (chap, xii. 13. Isai. xxix. 13. Deut. xxviii. 58. Mai. i. 6. Heb. xii. ^8, 29) Ver. 8. If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent, (Sfc] The connexion of these words with the former, stands thus: 'The fear of God doth many times expose men unto in- jury and violence, and that every where, all a province and country over ; and that not only from ordinary persons, but from great men, and that without remedy ; because, if haply they have recourse unto judgement and justice for ease, even they find wresting, perverting, distorting of justice: so that a man's tran(|uillity in this life may seem to be but little mended by piety and fear of God, whereby he is in dan- ger of being reduced to poverty and distress.' This is a stum- bling-block, which may cause men to be offended at the ways of God, {Matth. xi. 6, 6, and xiii. 21. Gal. v. 11) and good men have stumbled at it. (Psa//w Ixxiii. 12, 13) Against this temptation, he here subjoins a seasonable antidote: — they should not be much amazed at it, but rather comfort them- selves, that there lieth an appeal to a higher court, where they shall certainly be righted, and their innocence vindi- cated. ' If thou seest the oppression of the poor ; and that such oppression as that thou hast no remedy against it, but it is powerful enough to wry and pervert judgement : and yet further, no escape from it, but it meets with thee all the na- tion or province over ; — if you see a poor man that fears God, not only suffer under the meanness of his condition, but un- der fraud, calumny, rapine, violence, wherever he goes (as Ezek. xviii. 12, 18. Job xx. 19. Mic. 'in. 2. Job xxiv. 2—12, and xix. 7, 8. Psalm Ixxiv. 20. Jer. vi. 6, 7, and xx. 8. Ezek. viii. 17) CHAP, v.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 125 Marvel not at the matter.^ Be not ' amazed' or ' astonished' at it : so much the word imports, {Isai. xiii. 8. Joh. xxvi. 11) Think it not a strange thing. (1 Pet. iv. 12) Do not think hardly of God, nor distrust his providence, or grow weary of his service. What wonder at all is it to see power crush po- verty, or wickedness suppress piety ? {Psalm xxxvii. 8, 9) At the matter.] Or, at the will, or purpose, to wit, of God, in suffering, and ordering this thing : for these things happen not without his appointment and providence. {Hab. i. 12. Isai. X. 5. P&ahn xvii. 13) For he that is higher than the highest, regardeth ; and there be higher thanthey.'] Higher, viz. 'God, who is higher:' the re- lative without the antecedent, which is very usual : or, ' the high from above ; the high regardeth it.' It seemeth to be a vehement and emphatical anadiplosis : the same word is used for ' from above,' Gen. xxvii. 30, and xlix. 25. This kind of elegant and emphatical repetition is frequent in the scripture {Psalm xxii. 1. Jer. vii. 4, and xxii. 29. Ezek. xxi. 27. 2 Sam. xviii. 33. 1 Kings xviii. 39. Judges v. 30. Psalm xcviii. 4, 5, 6, and cxxiv. 1. 2. Has. ii. 2. Dan. x. 19) And according to this sense, God is said in a way of judgement, to look down from heaven upon the violence of great men, and to speak from thence in his wrath unto them. {Psalm ii. 4, 5, and xi. 4, 5, 6. Exod.ii. 23, 24. 1 Sam. ix. 16. Psalm xciii. 4.) Or, 'he that is higher than the high,' God, who is the high above all the earth, the high and mighty one, above the po- tentates of the world, who are called high ones. {Isai. xxiv. 21, and ii. 11, 12. 2 Sam. xxiii. 1) He that is king of kings, and lord of lords, higher than the kings of the earth. {Psalm Ixxxix. 27) Regardeth.] ' Ohserveth the violence of proud men to avenge it.' Or ' keepeth the poor, who are oppressed by them.' {Isai. iii. 14. Prov. xxii. 22, 23. Psalm x. 12—18, and xi. 5, and Ixviii. 5, and Ixxii. 14) And there be higher than they.] Namely, The holy angels, who are sent forth for the good of the church, {tieb. i. 14) who pitch their tents about believers, and are guardians over them, {Psalm xxxiv. 7, and xci. 11) who behold the face of God as ministers ready to execute his commands in behalf of them, {Matth. xviii. 10) whose service God is pleased to 126 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. V. use in the punishment of tyrants, and subversion of states. {Isai. xxxvii. 36. Acts xii. 23) Ver. 9. Moreover, the profit of the earth is for a//.] Here he returneth to consider the vanity of all kind of riches ; amongst which, though some are to be preferred before others, as namely corn and cattle, which are the profits of the earth; yet both the one and the other are unable to make the possessors of them happy. Yet withal, the words may seem to have some relation to what went before, namely. That God in his providence hath so ordered things in the civil body, that the head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee: the king himself wanteth the help, and cannot subsist without the labour, of poor men ; and that may be a check unto oppression and violence. The profit of the earth is for all.] Or, ' above all other pro- fit.' He commendeth husbandry, consisting in tillage and grazing, above all other ways of gain, as extending to the necessary supply of all men whatsoever ; for bread is the staff of life, (Isai. iii. 1. Gen. xli. 55. Prov. xxiv. 27. and xxvii. 23, 24, and xxxi. 16) Adam even in innocence was to have dressed the earth. (Gen. ii. 15) There is an excellence or profit of the earth, in, or above all. The substantive is put for an adjective of the superlative degree, (as Gen. xii. 2. Psalm xxi. 7, and Ixxxviii. 9. Cant. v. 16) The king himself is served by the field.] Or, ' the king him- self is for the field :' or ' the king is served for the field's sake, that under him men may quietly labour and eat the fruits of the earth :' or ' the king himself dresseth his field, is as it were a servant to his field to order and husband it.' It lies on him to take care of husbandry, that he and his people may be nourished. The most simple meaning is to shew, that from the meanest to the greatest, the fruits of the earth are ne- cessary for every man's support. Therefore Joseph reser- ved the fifth of the fruiis of the earth for Pharaoh : {Gen. xlvii. 24) and it is recorded for the commendation of king Uzziah, that he was a lover of husbandry. (2 Chroit. xxvi. 10) Ver. 10. He that loveth .silver, shall not be satisfied with silver ; nor he that loveth abundance, with increase.] This may be un- derstood either absolutely by itself, to set forth the unsati- able greediness of covetous wretches, whose desires are like the grave, and never say. It is enough. {Habak. ii. 5. 6, 8, 9. CHAP, v.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 127 Isai. V. 8) Or comparatively, with relation to what was said before, there is a profit and real benefit which the earth bringeth unto those that labour about it; but money, though a man increase it never so much, and though it appear ever so lovely unto him, yet it cannot of itself satisfy any desire of nature. If a man be hungry, it cannot feed him ; if naked, it cannot clothe him : if cold, it cannot warm him ; if sick, it cannot recover him. As it is an instrument of traffic, which answereth unto all things, {Eccles. x. 19) so it may be a defence to a man, (chap. vii. 12) and may provide other things for him. But if God should withhold the fruits of the earth, and forbid that to bring them forth, abundance of wealth would be as useless as so many stones : a man hath no good of money, nor of other trades, further than they purchase or manage for us the fruits of the earth. The latter clause some thus render it, ' He that loveth it, shall not have any increase by or in the abundance there- of.' Increase here, is a word which signifieth increase of the earth, such fruits as may be eaten : and money is not ' fructus edulis,' though it come out of the earth. But the prefix 3 set before the word ' abundance,' being sometimes a note of the accusative case, and expressing the object of an action, we may well record it as it is in our version; " He that loveth abundance ;" as Gen. xxxiv. 1. and xxxvii. 2. Prov. ix. 5. Multitude, or abundance, here, is taken in the same kind, for gathered wealth, as Psalm xxxvii. 16. Ver. 11. When goods increase, ihei/ are increased that eat them.] He shewed the vanity of the love of money ; here he shows the vanity of husbandry and great possessions ; or else goeth on upon occasion of the last words. He that loveth abundance, shall not be satisfied with increase : because as his wealth increaseth, his charge, and family, and friends, and retinue will increase likewise The possessor can have no more real good nor satisfaction from his great estate, than his servants have: many hands must be set on work, and con- sequently many bellies filled, many backs clothed ; and they all have their real share as fully as he himself, in tlie things which he possesseth. No man had greater experience of this than Solomon, of whose numerous family and large ex- penses we read, 1 Kings iv. 22, 26. So we read of the great family of Abraham. (Gen. xiv. 14) 128 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. V. And what good, or what profit is there to the owners thereof.'] Chap. i. 8, and ii. 14, and iii. 9. Saving the beholding of them with their eyes ?] ' He hath no advantage above others, save that he sees them eat that, the property whereof is his;' and this is some good; for it is a more blessed thing to give, than to receive. {Acts xx. 35) Or, ' he can only please himself with looking on his land or mo- nies as his own, whereas the real benefit which they yield, doth accrue unto others as well as to himself. And if his eye have any advantage above his servants in this respect, theirs have an advantage above his in another; for they are refreshed with sweet sleep, which his are usually deprived of.' Ver. 12. The sleep of a labouring man.'] Or ' of a servant,' or ' of him that tilleth the ground,' or ' is conversant about any painful trade and work.' (Gen. iv. 2. 2 Sam. ix. 10. Prov. xii. 11. Isai. xix. 9) Is iweet.] Whether he eat little or much : if he eat little, his labour causeth sweet sleep : if much, his healthiness and strength causing good concoction, doth not suffer his sleep to be disquieted with crude and offensive vapours. Besides, labour taking up the mind, doth free it from those careful thoughts and covetings, which are usually the hinderers of sweet sleep. But the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep."] This may be understood either of abundance of wealth, with the many cares, businesses, fears, troubles, which are con- sequent thereon; {Gen. xli. 29. Prov. iii. 10. Luke xii. 16, 17) or of fulness of diet, gluttony and excess of delicious fare, which causeth distempers, and so hindereth sleep. This seemeth rather to be intended, (because he mentioned eating before) and so to be directed against rich gluttons, who spend their time in riot, feasting and excess, and so overcharge na- ture with intemperance, beyond its strength, (Lu/ce xvi. 19. and xxi. 34) which causeth indigestion and malignant va- pours, whereby sleep is removed or disquieted. (Eccles. viii. 16. Prov. iv. 16, 17) And this a great vexation; for sweet sleep is a blessing of God to man. (Psalm cxxvii. 2. Prov. iii. 24) Ver. 13. There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun.] ' An evil that causeth sickness, a very grievous and bitter evil.* Or, ' an evil falling on men.' (chap. vi. 2) CHAP, v.] IHE UOOK OF KCC LESI ASTES. 129 Ric/ies kept for the otvners thereof to their hurt.~\ Prov. i. 19. Either being unto tliem occasions of sin, and fuel of lust, cau.sing pride, vanity, oppression, violence, gaming, gluttony, idleness, excess; {Hab. ii.9, 10. Luke xii. 1.5 — 21. 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10. Luke xvi. 19. Deut. v'i. 11, 12, and viii. 10, i 1, 12. Prov. XXX. 9. Jameft ii. 6, 7, and v. 3 — 6) or else exposing them unto envy and danger, to rapine and violence. {Prov. xiii. 8. 2 Kings xxv. 6,7, 9, 12) Ver. 14. But those riches perish by evil travaiL] Or, ' with much affliction either by their own improvidence, impru- dence, luxury, &c. or by the fraud, circumvention, and vio- lence of others, or by casualties and miscarriages in trading : or by some secret blast and curse from God ; (Prov. xxiii. 5) and that after much travail and toil to get them, after much solicitude and anxious care to keep them, after much provi- dence and tenderness towards his children to lay up for them. He begetteth a sou, and there is nothing in his hand.] Or, ' in his power and possession.' (Dan.u. 38. John iii. 35. 1 Kings XX. 6". 1 Chrou. xxix. 12) JJis hand, i. e. either the father's, to leave unto the son ; or tqe son's, to inherit it after his father. Ver. 15. j4s he came forth of his mother's zeomb, naked shall he return to go as he came.] Though he could secure all his wealth from perishing, yet he himself must leave them, and go out of the world as naked as he came into it. And that which hath no power to free us from death, to comfort us in death, to go with us into another world after death, is no foundation of happiness or solid tranquillity. (Job i. 21. Psalm xWx. 17. 1 Tim. vi. 7. Lukexu. 20,21) To go.} i. e. 'to die.' (chap. vi. 4. .Job xvi. 22. Psalm xxxix. 13. Phil. i. 23) 'Return,' viz. to the womb of the common mother, the earth. {Job i. 21. Eccles. xii. 7) And shall take nothing of his labour.] That is, ' of his estate gotten by hard labour,' (chap. ii. 19. Prov. v. 10. Deut. xxviii. 33) which he may carry away, or cause to go along with him, in his hand. He cannot carry so much as one handful of all that he hath, with him. Ver. 16. And this also is a sore evil.] As before, ver. 13. That though his riches haply are not kept for his hurt ; nor do not perish in his time ; yet they will not at all keep him VOL. IV. K 130 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. V. from death, nor profit him in it. Riches will not profit in the day of wrath. That in all points as he came, so shall he go.'] His death and his birth are over against one another in an exact propor- tion. And what profit hath he, that hath laboured for the zmndl^ For that which will not stay, which cannot be held fast, which is emptiness and very vanity. So words of wind, are empty and vain words. {Job xvi. 3) A man walking in wind, that is, a lying prophet. (Mr. ii. 11) So to reap a whirl- wind, {Hos. viii. 7) to fill the belly with the east wind, {Job XV. 2) to inherit wind, {Prov. xi. 29) to bring forth wind, {hai. xxvi. 18) to feed upon wind, {Hos. xii. 1) to speak into the air, (1 Cor. xiv. 9) to beat the air, (\ Cor. ix. 16) are ex- pressions of very vain and fruitless enterprises. Here money is compared to wind : the one hath wings to fly away with, Prov. xxiii. 5) so hath the other: (Psa/m civ. 3) the one cannot be held, {Prov. xxx. 4) neither can the other. (1 Cor. vii. 31) Ver. 17. All his days also he eateth in darkness, and hath much S07T0W and zoruth with his sickness.'] Or, according to the words in their order, t;hus, ' Also all his days he eateth in darkness, and much sorrow, and his sickness, and wrath.' A further vanity of riches in the hands of a covetous world- ling ; he denies himself a full, free, and comfortable enjoy- ment of outward things.'he cannot unbend himself from his carking cares even when he goes to eat ; but as he gets, so he useth and enjoyeth his wealth in darkness, i. e. (for the words following are exegetical) in sorrow, and wrath, even unto very sickness. All his days he eateth in darkness.] It may be understood either literally, that ' he doth so lengthen out his labour, and grudge to spare himself any times even of necessary refresh- ment, as that he deferreth eating till it be dark, and till he can work no longer.' Or rather metaphorically, ' he eateth without any pleasure, and with much trouble and anxiety of mind ;' so much ' darkness' commonly importeth. {Isai. xlix. 9, 10, and 1. 10. Mic. vii. 8) And hath much sorrow.] Or, ' indignation.' The word in come copies (as the learned observe) is read with the points of a noun ; in others, of a verb, and so they render it, * mul~ CHAP, v.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESl ASTES. 131 turn irnscitur, or indigitatur, he is very angry, or he sorroweth much, and hath sickness, and wrath.' The meaning (as I conceive) is, ' he eateth in darkness, basely, and wretchedly, as a slave to his riches ; he storms, grieves, frets, is even sick with anger and vexation, at the expenses he is put unto in keeping but a mean and a sordid table.' The Greek by a very easy mistake in the letters which are much alike, read it thus, ' All his days he is in darkness, xa» h uivSsi, and in mourning, and in sorrow, and in sickness, and in wrath.' ' His sickness,' for, ' he hath sickness/ The affix is used for the separate and absolute pronoun, (as Psalm cxv. 7. Ezek. xxix. 3.) Our reading, ' He hath sorrow and wrath with his sickness,' (where the conjunction copulative is rendered by the preposition with as sometimes elsewhere, (1 Sam. xiv. 18) seemeth to intimate such a sense as this, ' All his days, or while he lives, he eats in sorrow ; and when he falls sick, and is in danger of death, he hath much wrath and indignation in his sickness, for fear of parting from his wealth, which he so dearly loveth, and hath so hardly laboured for. Ver. 18. Behold, that which 1 have seen, it is good and eomely, <^c.] Here is subjoined a remedy of this vanity, setting forth the right use of riches, to take away all this sinful anxiety which is conversant about them; which is. In the fear of God comfortably to enjoy his good blessings, without afflicting ourselves for the future, but casting our cares upon him, who careth for us. That which 1 have seen, is this.] He speak eth out of ex- perience, and upon exact study and inquiry after the truth, (as 1 John i. 1, 3. i. 14. chap. i. 13, and ii. 24, and iii. 22.) It is good and comely.'] Good, ' comfortable to a man himself.' Comely, 'decent, honourable, and of good report towards others.' Or, ' there is a good which is also comely.' Or, ' it is good, yea, it is comely.' Or, ' behold I have seen that which is good, that which is comely.' The like manner of expression, 1 Sam. xv. 20. Psalm x. 6. Teaching us in our conversation. 1. To look unto that which is good in it- self, and then to that which is decent towards the world. {Phil. iv. 8) That a man eat and drink, and enjoi/ good of all his labour.] Or, 'in all his labours, to sweeten his labours with a com- fortable fruition of the fruit of them.' Of all his labours ; K 2 182 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. V. SO thfi proposition d is used, to signify as much as Ex or De. ( Eaocl. xii. 43) A// the dai/x of his life vhich God giveth him.] When God gives hfc, we should not deny the comforts of it to our- selves. Foril is his portion.] ' All the good he can ever have from them :' a metaphor from division of heritances ; or from dis- tribution of meat at a feast. It is that which God hath allotted him of all his labour. But withal, he must remem- ber, that God allows him but a part; God himself, and the poor, and his family, country, friends, challenge part likewise in those goods, wherewith God hath blessed him. (Prov. iii. 8. 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14. xvi. 2. Gat. vi. 6, 10. 2 Cor. xii. 14. 1 Tim. v. 8. Isai. xxiii. 18) Ver. 19. Every man also to whom God hath given, 8fc.'\ Here is only a further insisting on the same argument; as chap. ii. 24, and iii. 13, and vi. 2. He shews, 1. That God gives us our wealth. {Dent. viii. 18) 2. That he gives us do- minion over our wealth, that we may not be captivated unto it ; every man is a slave to his estate further than God sets them free. 3. Wherein this power stands; 1. In using it, to eat thereof; 2. In using it proportionably to his condition ; or as divines speak, secundum decentiam status, to take his portion : 3. To use it with fruition and cheerfulness, to re- joice in it. (1 Tim. vi. 17) 4. Not to let his joy swallow up his duty, nor his delight his labour ; but to sweeten his la- bour with joy, and to moderate his joy with labour. {Eph. iv. 28) 5. To use, and to enjoy his own, the fruit of his own labour, not to be burdensome or injurious unto others. (2 Thess. iii. 12) Ver. 20. For he shall not mnch remember the days of his life.] Some make the sense to be thus, ' Although he give not much, or although it be not much which God hath given,' (which sense the distinguishing accent doth somewhat fa- vour) ' yet he shall remember, that all his life long, God sweeteneth that little unto him with the joy of his heart' : and a little with joy, and cheerfulness, and God's blessing, is bet- ter than much riches of the ungodly. {Psalm xxxvii. 16. Prov. xvii. 1. Luke w\. 15. I*rov. xv. 17. Dan. i. 15) But our translation preferreth another sense, which seems most consonant to the drift of the place ; ' He that in this manner CHAP. VI.] THE BOOK OF IX C L !• S I A S I' ES. 13:3 doth cheerfully enjoy the blessings which God gives him, shall not, with much sorrow or weariness, remember the troubles of his life : neither shall his labour be very irk- some or grievous unto him, because the Lord doth answer him, or doth, proportionably unto his labours, return com- fort to him in the joy of his heart, in the joyful and contented fruition of them.' Because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.'\ ' An- swereth all his labour with joy ; giveth him such joy of heart, as is a full compensation for all his labour. As money is said to answer unto all things, in a proportionable value to them all ; { Eccles. x. 19) so shall his joy bear a full value to all the labour which was taken for it.' — Other expositions there are, but this is most genuine and natural. CHAPTER VI. In this chapter is continued a further description of the common vanity of riches in the hands of a covetous per- son. He is here set forth. First, By the good things which he hath; 1. Riches in abundance, riches and wealth. 2. Honour, and both to the uttermost of his desires, ver. 2. 3. Many children. 4. Ma- ny years, a great old age, ver. H, 6. Secondly, By his misery, which makes all that vain unto him. 1. God gives him not power to enjoy it. 2. A stranger eateth it. 3. His soul is not filled with good. 4. He hath no burial, ver. 2, 3. Thirdly, the censure of all this: 1. Absolutely, 2. Com- paratively. Absolutely ; it is first, an evil ; secondly, a com mon evil; thirdly, a vanity; fourthly, a disease, ver. 1,2. Comparatively, an untimely birth, or abortive is better. For, I. He is born dead, and so free from sense of miseries, which the other discruciated himself withal. 2. He departs in darkness, without the loss of light and comfort, which the other denies unto himself 3. His name is covered in dark- ness ; the other's name is odious, ver. 4. 4. He hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing ; the other hath indeed seen the sun, but hath seen no good, nor known any thing but sorrow and vexation ; and, at last, goes to the same place, ver. 5, 6. This vanity he further opens : — 134 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. VI. First, By the narrow use of riches, and all the labour con- versant about them. It terminates in the body ; it cannot satiate the mind nor appetite ; that is, if evil and covetous, insatiable ; if wise and prudent, above satisfaction by these things, ver. 7- That they cannot satisfy the mind, appears, be- cause then wise men might find out some more good in them than fools : but the wisest can have no more out of them, than for their mouths ; and so have fools, and the poorest men that know how to live, as well as the richest, ver. 8. Secondly, By the vanity of wandering and endless desires. The wise, the foolish, the rich, the poor have things present and necessary; so long as they live, they have enough to that Hse : and this is a real fruit, much better, than to let the heart wander and weary itself in endless desires, ver. 9. Thirdly, By the impossibility of mending a man's con- dition by these things, or of raising him above the state of mortality and infirmity. A man will be but a man, how rich soever he be ; and all his wealth will not guard him against the evils incident to humanity, ver. 10. He will be still never the better by such things, as do but increase vanity, ver. 11. Fourthly, By the ignorance of man to make the best use of things, and to resolve himself, whether a great or a mo- derate estate be better for him ; especially considering the shortness of his life, and the ignorance of what will become of his estate or family, after he is gone, ver. 12. Thus we may connex the two last verses with the argument of those before : or rather we may take them for a general conclusion of all the precedent vanities; Since so many things there are which increase vanity, what is man the better for them ? ver. 11. For first, amongst them all, he can hardly know what is good for himself. 2. If he do, he can enjoy that good but a little while : his very life (the best outward bless- ing he hath) is vain, and but a shadow. 3. When his life is over, he shall be never the better for any thing which comes after him. 4. Neither can be please himself with the fore- sight of what shall be after him, because he cannot tell it to himself, neither can any man else declare it to him. Ver. 1. There is an evil which I have seen under the s««.] He shews the misery of a discontented covetous disposition; CHAP. VI.] THK HOOK OF ECCLESl A ST ES. 135 and that it is a special gift of God to bestow upon a man the sweet enjoyment of outward blessings; which when he hath, he is apt enough to deny unto himself. And it is common amongst men.} Or " much and great." Covetousness is both a great sin, and yet a very usual and frequent sin, that it is to be met with in all parts of the ha- bitable world, wherever the sun riseth and setteth. The com- monness of sin doth not at all extenuate the greatness of it, but rather aggravate the same. (Psalmx\\. 2, 3. Jer. v. 1, 5) Ver. 2. A man to whom God hath given, ^c] There is a man who hath all things that heart can desire, not only riehes, but substance of all sorts, lands, moveables, with ho- nour and great place. (2 Chron. i. 11, 12) So that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he de- sireth.] ' He is not defective, or destitute of any thing which his soul can wish for; his substance extends to all just arid large desires ; it cannot be exhausted or worn out.' (Deut. viii. 9. Isai. li. 14. 1 Kings xvii. 16) He speaketh not of the boundless desires of covetoas men, which are ne- ver satisfied ; but of the just desires which a man of dignity and honour could have, in order to the decency of his estate, and to the quality of his place. He cannot rationally wish for any thing towards the satisfaction of his just desires, which his estate will not plentifully afford him. (Psalm lxxiii.7. Luke xii. 17, 18. Jobxxi.l — 13. Psalm wi'i. 14) All this a covetous wretch is said to have from God ; not in a way of blessing, as if God did prosper and approve of his sordid or sinful ways of gain ; but in a way only of provi- dence, his sun shining on the just and unjust. {Matt. v. 45) Yet God give th him not power to eat thereof] Chap. v. 18, 19.. To ' eat' of them, importeth ' a moderate and prudent use of them,' for necessity and delight, taking a man's own portion. This is a special curse and judgement of God, when a man hath not a heart to enjoy the blessings which God bestoweth on him; as the contrary is a blessing from God. (chap. v. 19) But a stranger eateth them.} ' One that is in no relation of nearness, blood, friendship to him:' or * an enemy, whospoil- eth and plundereth him of them.' This is noted as a great affliction. {Hos. vii. 9. Deut. xxviii. 33. Isai. i. 7. Lam. V. 2. Jer. V. 17) Here the learned observe a difference be- 136 ANNOTATIONS ON [CilAP. VI. tween a man's own use of his goods, and his stranger's : for he himself doth but eat of them ; but a stranger eateth them. The former noteth care, moderation, providence : the latter, cruelty and devouring, without pity, without mea- sure. This is a vanity, atid an evil diseuse.'\ Not only a fruitless thing, but a very grievous trouble, when a man, by sordid thoughts, baseness of spirit, unquiet and incessant cares, greedy desires, distrustful jealousies, anxious fears, throng- ing employments, keeps himself from taking any delight in his abundance, and pierceth himself through with divers sor- rows. (1 Tim. vi. 10) Ver. 3. If a man beget a hundred chi/di en.'] He spake be- fore of one who had none to succeed him in his estate but a stranger: here he shows the misery of a covetous person to be as great, though he have many children and live many years. Tliese be greater blessings in themselves ; {Psalm cxxvii. 3, 4, 5; therefore children were called 'the glory' of their parents. {Hos. ix. 11. Job v. 25, 26. Psalm xxi. 5, and cxxviii. 6) But covetousness takes away the comfort of them. A hundred children.] " Very many a certain number for an uncertain, (as 1 Cur. xiv. 19. Prov. xvii. 10. 1 Sam. xviii. 7) Many years, so that the days of his years be many.] He seemeth, speaking of long life, to correct himself, and call it rather many days, than many years: so Gen. xlvii. 9. ylnd his soul be not filed with good.] Or, satisfied with good ; either in regard of his own insatiable desires, or of some curse of God, mixing bitterness therewith, (as chap. V. 10. Job ix. 2o) By his soul, is meant to errj^u/xijTixov, his ' appetite and desires.' (as Gen. xxxiv. 8. 1 Sam. xx. 4. Psalm ciii. 6) Others understand this of the vanity of children and old age without riches ; when a man is so poor, that he hath nothing to satisfy nature while he lives, and can- not leave enough to bury him when he is dead. — Which sense is touched at in the contents of the chapter, in our English Bibles. And also that he have no burial.] Either through cruelty of murderers and spoilers, ur through neglect of heirs and successors, who deny him an honuuiable interment. It is a CHAP. VI.] THE BOOK OF KCCLKSl AS 1 ES. part of human misery to be without burial. {Deut. xxviii.26. 1 Kings xiv. 11, 13. 2 Kings ix. 37. hai. xiv. 20. Jer. viii. 2, and xvi. 4, and xxii. 19. 2 Chron. xxi. 19) / say, that ail untimely birth is better than he.^ In regard of outward respects, never to have felt good or evil, not to be born at all, or to be born and die at once, than to live long in misery, and then die without love or honour from any. — Hereby is noted the base condition of such a person, who is worse than an untimely birth, which hath not had the ordi- nary comfort of the meanest living creatures, to see the sun. {Job iii. 10, 11, 12, 16. Psalm Iviii. 8) Ver. 4. For he cometh in with vaniti/.] i. e. " He is born, {Job\.2\. Josh. i. 9) to no purpose." That which never comes to perfection, but melteth and vanisheth away as soon as it is born, is born in vain. And departeth in darkness ] Or, " into darkness," or, " ob- scurely without any notice." A periphrasis of ' death.' {Eccles. xi. 8) His name shall be covered with darkness.] i. e. " Shall ut- terly be forgotten ; there shall never be any mention of him." Ver. 5. JIath not seen the s//??.] Job iii. 16. Hath not felt any worldly delight ; and therefore is not affected with the loss of it. Nor known.] Hath had no use, either of sense or reason, and so cannot compare the evil of loss with the good of fruition. 2'his hath more rest than the other.] For he rests imme- diately from the womb; whereas a covetous man lives a toil- some and unquiet life, and then parts with all, unwillingly, into the condition of the abortive. V. 6. Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told.] Whereas it might be objected, ' that the one hath lived a long life, and that alone is a blessing ; and therefore in that res- pect, he is to be preferred before an untimely birth;' he answer- eth, that ' long life, without seeing good, doth but lengthen out misery.' It is not the life, hut the good, which makes a solid difference : (Psalm xxxiv. 12) else the evil of the day. \Matth. vi. 34) makes day and life itself undesirable. (Job iii. 20—23, and vii. 1, 2) Do not all go to one place.] As well he that lives longest, as lie that never saw the sun . and though one never saw the 138 ANNOTATIONS ON [CHAP., VI. sun, yet if the other never saw good, but only wearies him- self with sorrows and vanity, and goes to the same dust; what difference is there between them? V. 7. All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.^ For his mouth ; for his bodily suste- nance, and the services of life. Here is, first, a metonymy of the subject, the 'mouth'for the 'nourishment which is put into it :' and then a synecdoche, of the part for the whole ; food being, though the principal, yet but one part of man's neces- sary provision ; all which the apostle compriseth in food and raiment, 1 Tim 6. 8. All the real fruit which any man can reap of all his worldly labours, is to have his daily bread, the bread of his allowance, or food convenient for him; (Prov. 30. 8.) things simply necessary for life, and things secondarily necessary for the decency of his condition, and proportion of his quality and degree in the world. Yet the appetite is not Jilled.'\ (i. e.) 'Either the covetous de- sires of a worldling remain still insatiable ; he is not con- tented with his own portion, he cannot contain his heart within the limits of reason or religion ; but though he have abundantly sufficient for all his wants, yet he toileth still as if he had nothing (chap. iv. 8) or else, ' the soul is not filled -.^ riches may benefit the body, and feed, and clothe, and com- fort that ; but to the nobler part of man they can afford no satisfaction, they do not bear any proportion at all. They cannot hold the soul; {Luke xii. 19, 20.) they cannot help the soul in a day of trouble; {Prov. xi. 4. Zeph. i. 18.) they cannot follow it into another world ; {Psalm xlix. 17.) they have no suitableness, either in excellency or duration, unto it. Ver. 8. For what hath the wise more than the fool, , 1 1. Job xxxiv. 23) Ver. 11. Seeing there be mailt/ things which increase vanity, what is man the better"!] This is commonly understood as a further argument against insatiable desires of wealth ; be- cause where there are many of them, their increase doth but increase vanity, that is the usual concomitant of great abun- dance; more cares, more distractions, more fears, more trou- bles and employments come along with them ; and yet man is not a whit better than he was before ; he was fed, and clothed then, and he is no more now. Can he carry any of them with him ? can he find out any more excellence in them? will there any real advantage remain unto him more than his own portion, and comfortable accommodations by them ? — But I rather conceive these words to be a solemn conclusion of all the former discoveries of vanity in the creatures, and repetition of what he gave summarily before, 142 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. VI. chap. i. 3. It was there laid down as the proposition which he undertook to demonstrate ; and having demonstrate it, it is here in the close of the whole discourse resumed again, and the whole drawn together in one brief recapitulation : — " seeing there are thus many things, wisdom, folly, pleasures, honours, crowns, riches, that increase vanity ; what is man the better in regard of solid happiness and contentment for any, or for all of them ? Ver. 12. For who knoweth what is good for man in this life ?] Amongst such variety of things under the sun which the heart of man is apt to be drawn unto, neither he himself nor any other is able certainly to inform him, which of all those is best for him to enjoy and reap comfort from : — whether it be better for him to be rich or poor, in a high or low con- dition, in a private retirement, or in public service. Some men's greatness hath undone them, or otlier men's meanness hath secured them. (2 Kings xxv. 9, 12) Some men had not been so wicked, if they had not been so learned : others had not been so vicious, if great wealth had not excited and been fuel to feed their lusts. Achitophel might have lived longer with less wisdom, and Nabal with less wealth. No man can tell whether that which he snatcheth at, as the silly fish, with most greediness, and greatest expectation of contentment from it, may not be tempered with poison, or have a hook under it, and so be the occasion of his greater misery. {Rom. i. 22. 2 Pet. ii. 18, 19. Rom. vi. 21. Prov. i. 13, 18, 19) All the days of his vain life, which he speiideth as a shadow.'^ If he do by chance, rather than by election, happen upon that way and course which was best for him, yet his very life, the best of all outward blessings, is itself but a very vanity and shadow. It is but a very little while before he must part with it, and all those comforts which rendered it peaceable and cheerful to him. A very elegant description of the shortness of man's life ; — " All the number of the days of the life of his vanity, which he spendeth as a shadow :" 1. He calleth them dai/», not years. 2. Days that may be numbered, which likewise intiraateth fewness of them, (as Job xvi. 22. Isai. x. 19. Psalm cv. 12. Numb. ix. 20) 3. A life of vanity ; a very vain life: — the substantive for the ad- jective, (as Psalm xxxi. 3, and Ixviii. 31. and cxl. 12. Rom. vii. 24. Ephes. iv. 24. Phil. iii. 21) 4. A life spent like a CHAP. VII.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 143 shadow, that hath little of substance while it lasts, and doth presently vanish away. {Psalm xxxix. 6, and cxUv. 4. Job xiv. 2. James iv. 14. Job viii. 9) For who cari tell a man what shall be after him under the su«?] As a man can have little satisfaction by outward good things here in his own sight and lifetime, so can he promise himself as little in name or family, when he is gone; because he can by no means foresee or foreknow future and contingent events, (chap. ii. 18, 19) CHAPTER VII. The Wise man having set forth many vanities of this life, and the great disappointment which men meet with, who seek for happiness and satisfaction from them, and there- upon the vexation which natui'ally ariseth from such a dis- appointment ; — and having interwoven some general remedies against these vanities, namely, the fear and worship of God, and the cheerful enjoyment of outward blessings ; — he here proceedeth to many other particular means of healing the vanities of this life, and procuring tranquillity and peace to the mind of man in the midst of them. Such are, I. A good name, ver. 1. 2. A composed preparedness of mind to entertain death, the chiefest outward evil, and conse- quently to bear any other sorrow, ver. 2, 3, 6. 3. Modera- tion and patience of spirit to bear with present evils, and to digest injuries, expecting the end and issue which God will give, ver. 7 — 10. 4. Wisdom to defend a man's self against the vanity of riches, ver. xi. 12. 5. Acquiescency in the government of all things by the wise providence of God, ver. 13, 15. 6. Conlentation of heart in all estates, as well adversity as prosperity, considering God's wise and just tempering of them together for our good, ver. 14. 7. Pru- dent and pious moderation of our behaviour, so as that we may not, by rash zeal or inordinate walking, expose our- selves to danger and trouble, ver. 16, 17. 8. Resolution and constancy in the fear of God, ver. 18. 9. Wisdom of meek- ness, charity, and patience towards such as offend, consider- ing the general frailty of human nature, and the experience and sense of our own weakness, ver. 19 — 22. 10. Content- 14-1 ANNOTATIONS ON [CHAP. VII. raent, with such a measure of wisdom as is in this life attain- able, and not to busy and disquiet our thoughts with things which are above us, ver. 23, 24. Now as before in the handling of human vanities, he did occasionally intermix some remedies thereof ; so here, in handling the remedies of it, and the means to obtain tranquillity of mind, he doth here and there intermix some other vanities, which are great occasions of vexation and unquietness to the heart of man : one principal one, whereof he had had very sad experience, he doth here subjoin, namely, the bitterness of an ensnaring woman, ver. 25 — 29. Ver. ]. A good name is better than precious ointment.^ Or, " A name is good before good ointment." ' A name,' for, ' a good name ;' as, ' a wife,' for * a good wife.' (Prov. xviii. 22) By a good name, understand that which hath its foundation in an innocent, unblameable, and profitable life, when a man hath reverence in the conscience of others; (2 Cor. iv. 2) for "the name of the wicked will rot." {Prov. x. 7) So to be ' a man of name,' is meant an eminent person, re- nowned in his generation ; (Gen. vi. 4. 1 Chron. v. 24) and ' names of men,' {Rev. xi. 3, and iii. 4) may seem to note special persons of honour and renown. Better than sweet ointment.'] So the name of Christ, which signifieth his gracious doctrine, {Acts \x. 15) is compared un- to sweet ointment, {Cant. \. 3) called the " sweet savour of Christ," 2 Cor. ii. 14, 15. Precious aroraatical ointments were things greatly in use and esteem amongst the Israelites, and a special part of their treasures : appointed by God to anoint the holy vessels of the tabernacle; {Exod. xxx. 22 — 33) used in the consecration of persons to offices of ho- nour and eminency ; {Exod. xxviii. 41. 1 Sam. xvi. 13. P.salni Ixxxix. 20) called therefore ' the oil of gladness ;' {Heh. i. 9. Isai. Ixi. 3) used likewise in feasts, gTeat entertainments, and expressions of joy ; {Amos vi. 6. Esther ii. 12. Psalm xxiii. 5. Luke vii. 4G) reckoned amongst the special ble.«sings of God, and treasures of that people. {Psalm xcii. 10. Job xxix. 6. Dent, xxxiii. 24. Prov. xxi. 20. Isai. xxxix. 2) Whence some would have it here taken synecdochically to signify all kind of riches, before which Solomon doth here prefer a good name, (as also Prov. xxii. 1) And the dai/ of death, than the day of one''s birth.] Some CHAP. VII.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 145 understand here a note of similitude to join the two clauses together, " As a good name is better than sweet ointment, so is the day of death than the day of birth." Others re- peat the former clause in the latter ; — " Unto such a man who hath a good name, better is the day of death than of birth." And the clauses seem to have cognation with one another : for the day of birth is a time of festivity and re- joicing, and accordingly used to be celebrated. {Gen. xl. 20. Mark vi. 21, 22) In which kind of solemnities, they used to anoint themselves with sweet ointments; as, on the other side, in days of sorrow, they abstained from them. (2 Sam. xiv. 2. Dan. x. 23) On the other side, the day of death re- moves a man wholly out of this world, and leaves nothing of him behind, but only his name and memory, which the Lord threateneth wicked men to blot out, and cause it to rot. (Deut. xxix. 30, and xxxii. 26. Prov. x. 7. Job xviii. 17) But the name of good men remains behind them, as the sweet savour of a precious perfume, when the substance of the perfume itself is consumed with the fire : or as spices when they are broken and dissolved, leave an excellent scent behind them. And so the meaning is, " That although the day of birth be a day of feasting and joy, and the day of death a day of sor- row and mourning ; yet, unto a good man, this is much bet- ter than the other; and the memorial which he leaves behind him, is much sweeter than that of spices or perfumes." If we take the latter clause alone, without connexion to the former, then they relate unto the many vanities and vexa- tions which the life of ni&n is exposed unto : in which con- sideration, " That day which delivers a man from them, is better than that day which lets him into the possession of them :" for man is born unto much trouble and sorrow ; {Job. V. 7, and xiv. 1) but a godly man's death puts a period to all his sins, to all his sorrows. {Rom. vii. 24. Rev. xiv. 13. 2 Cor. 5, 6, 7, 8. Phil. i. 23) Ver. 2. It is better to go to the house of mourning, &jc.'] As to a good man, the day of his death is better than the day of his birth, because it puts an end unto all those sorrows and vanities which he was born unto ; so for those that remain alive, it is better to go to a funeral, the house of mourning, than to a feast, or a birth-day solemnity, the house of jollity and rejoicing. VOL. IV. L 146 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. VII. For that is the end of all men.'] Or, " in the which is the end of all men." In which house of sorrow, a man is minded of the common end of all men. A man seeth his own end in the end of another man, and is admonished of his frailty and mortality ; for it is the way of the whole earth. {Josh, xxiii. 14. Heb. ix. 27) And the living will lay it to heart.'] Or, " will put it up, and fasten it to his heart ; will be seriously and sadly affect- ed with it, and have deep impressions thereby made upon his spirit," of the greatness and power of God, wh9 draweth away our breath, and we perish ; (Psalmc'iv. 29) and of his own vanity and baseness, even in his best estate. {Psalm xxxix. 5) 'Putting in the heart,' notethdiligentattendance onathing, . 165 the knowledge, whereof he did search alter, that he might be the better able to convince and to dissect the consciences of others. (1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25. Heh. iv. 12. Ezek. xiv. 6. Isai. .xlix. 2. Psalm xlv. 5. Hev. i. 16) Only his study is in this order : — first, he searcheth and seeketh out wisdona, as an antidote aoainst the danger of his second studies, to 'discover the wickedness, folly, and madness of sensual plea- sures. And therefore we shall observe, that in the particular wickedness which he specifieth in the next verse, namely, the enticements of a whorish woman, he doth often premise the commendations of wisdom, and the study of that, as an effectual prevention of that mischief. {Prov. ii. 10 — 19, and V. 1, 2, 3, and vi. 6, 20—24. Prov. vii. 4, 5, and ix. 10—13) Ver. 26. And I Jiml mure bitter t/tun death the looman ivhose heart is snares and nets, <^"c.] He showelh the discovery which he had made by his study to find out the wickedness of folly, and foolishness of madness, by instancing in one particular vanity of the wiles and subtilties of harlots ; which it was necessary for him to add to the former catalogue of vanities, that he might give to the church then, and leave a record for all posterity, to take notice of his special repent- ance for those gross miscarriages, which by that means he had been drawn into. And here he gives, 1. The character of an whorish woman, described, 1. By her subtilty. Her heart is 'snares and nets:' her cunnino- devices to deceive and entangle sensual persons, are as gins laid to catch silly creatures, who are enticed with the bait, but discern not the danger. (See Prov. ii. 16, and vi. 24, 26, and vii. 5, and ix. 16, 17, and xxii. 14) 2. By her power; her hands, where- with she catcheth, holdeth, embraceth him, are as ' strong cords' to haul simple fools as an ox to the slaughter. (Prov. vii. 13, 21, 22. Judges xvi. 15—19) 2. Here is the great danger of these nets and bands, to the souls of men. Thei/ are more bitter than death.'] More pernicious, and bring more heavy miseries with them. — We read of the bitter- ness of death, 1 Sam. xv. 32; and of a worse bitterness; — the end of a strange woman " is bitter as wormwood, and her steps take hold on hell." {Prov. v. 4, 5) Death may be sweetened and sanctified, made a welcome and desirable thiflg to a believer; (1 Cor. xv. 55. Phil. i. 23. LukeW. 29, 30) but the bitterness of liell is incurable : death may be 166 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. VII. honourable, to die in a good cause, in a good old age, to go to the grave in peace, lamented, desired, with the sweet savour of an holy lite, and many good works to follow one ; (Rev. xiv. 13. Phil. i. 21. Psalm cxvi. 16) but to consume and putrefy alive, under a ' tabes' of impure lusts, to perish, as Tiberius did at Caprese, " quotidie perire me sentio to shipwreck a man's honour, ruin his estate, shorten his years, consume his flesh, put a hell into his conscience, to bury his name, his substance, his soul, his carcase, in the bosom of a harlot ; — this is a bitterness beyond that of death. (Prov. v.9, 10, 11, and vi. 26, 33, and ix. 16, 17, 18) Whoso pleaseth God, shall escape foom her, but the sinner shall he taken hij herl\ Here is intimated the great wrath of God against this sin. It is a sin which he useth to give over reprobates, and those whom he in special manner hateth, un- to ; a sin which few repent of, to take hold of the paths of life again. (Prov. ii. 19, and xxii. 14. ylmos vii. 17. Rom. i. 24 — 28. Eph. iv. 18, 19) A man is not preserved from the power of this temptation by his own wisdom or strength, but only by the supernatural grace of God. Ver. 27, 28. Behold, this 1 have found, (saith the preacher,) ^c] This, which he had spoken of, ver. 26, or which foUow- eth, ver. 28. Saith the preacher.'] This is added, 1. To give credit from his wisdom and experience to what he here affirms ; especially having made so distinct and accurate an inquiry, weighing and comparing one by one, to find out the account, and to come to a determinate and clear judgement in the case, and to make a certain conclusion. 2. To testify to the church his repentance. " This have I found," saith the soul, which, by sound repentance, is returned unto the congregation of saints, which was before ensnared in the nets and bands of seducing women; and that upon serious and sad recollected thoughts, which he hath not yet given over, but doth insist upon the same penitent inquiry still. One man amongst a thousand have I found, but a woman amongst all those have I not found.'] The meaning is not to condemn one sex rather than the other ; " for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" {Rom. iii. 23) and So- lomon had known good and wise women, as well as men. (Pror. xviii. 22, and xi.\. 14, and xii. 4, and xxxi. 10—30) CHAP. VII.] THE BOOK OF tCCL LS I A ST tS. 167 But he speaketh here of his observation, according to his former sensual conversation with wanton women, which seems to be the reason of the number here mentioned : for Solomon had a thousand wives and concubines, all strange women of the neighbour wicked nations, which turned away his heart from the Lord unto idols. Amongst all these thousand, Solomon had not found one good one. (1 Kings xi. 1 — 9) Or, ' the subtle counsels of one man, amongst many, may more easily be discerned, than of any harlot; because their flatteries and dalliances do steal away the heart, and put out the eyes and judgement, and infatuate a man so, that he can look no further than the present delights, wherewith they do bewitch him.' (Hos. iv. \\. Judges xvi. 17 — 21. Prov. vii. 21, 22, and v. 6) Ver. 29. Lo, this oidy have I found, that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.] This only : He could not discover all the streams of wickedness and folly amongst them : but the original and fountain of them all he doth discover, namely, the corruption of the heart of man by the fall. This he found, that their wicked- ness was not from God, nor by creation ; but from them- selves, and their willing entertainment of the temptation of the serpent. Some more subtly expound these words, as a confirmation of the former : — " God made Adam right, and so he continued so long as he was alone : but when the woman was given unto him, she tempted him, and then they sought out many inventions." The woman was first in the trans- gression :" (1 Tim. ii. 14) but here he speaketh of both sexes together under the name of man; and sheweth, that they were made without any of this sinful and subtle wis- dom, after the image of God, endowed with divine wisdom to discern the way unto true happiness, and with perfect ability to pursue the same. (Gen. i. 26. Col. iii. 10) But though he were made upright, yet he was, as a creature, mu- table; and so subject to be overcome by temptation, and ac- cordingly he did easily admit of the temptation of Satan, and sought out many inventions of his own, did not con- tent himself with that way to happiness which God had pre- scribed ; but fancied to himself a higher perfection, and yielded to follow those new ways unto blessedness, which Satan and his own deceived heart did suggest unto him ; 168 ANNOTA I lONhi ON [chap. Vlll. and so fell from his primitive honour, ajicl became like the beasts that perish, and contracted a bottomless and unsearch- able depth of sinful deceit, which none but God can thoroughly search and discover. {Jer. xvii. 9. Isai. Ivii. 10. Jer. ii. 23, 24, and xxxii. 22) By many inventions, he mean- eth all those vain, though crooked counsels, and carnal shifts wherewith men do pacify, palliate, excuse, defend all their sinful courses. {Psalm cx\\. 133. Rom. i. 21. 2 Cor. x. Gen. vi. [}) Ludovicus de Dieu translateth the words thus, " Ipsi autem quajsierunt cogitationes magnatuin, they sought out the inventions of mighty men," or of the angels, who were not contented with their own station, but forsook it ; {Jud. V. 6) and so relateth to the temptation of the ser- pent, — "Ye shall be like unto Gods, you shall be advanced into a nobler and more honourable condition than now you are in." {Gen. iii. 5) These thoughts, being suggested by Satan, they ambitiously entertained, and so fell from their primitive perfection. CHAPTER VIII. The Wise man proceedeth in this chapter to give further precepts touching tranquillity of life. And they are, 1. Prac- tical prudence with the fear of God, which stamp a kind of majesty and lustre on the face of a man, and make him to be had in reverence of others, ver. 1. 2. Obedience to ma- gistrates, without hastily attempting, or obstinately persist- ing in, any rebellious design ; it being in their power, as they please, to avenge themselves upon us. ver. 2, 3, 4, 5. 3. Pre- paredness of heart to bear inevitable evils, by a prudent ob- servation of times, and judging of what is, in a concurrence of such and such circumstances, fitted to be done ; and where things are dark and undiscernible, to dispose our hearts quietly to yield to the providence of God. ver. 6, 7, 8. 4. Because it is a very great temptation unto disquietness and impatience of spirit, when a man liveth under wicked rulers, against whose cruelty all a man's wisdom and meek- ness can hardly be security enough: he therefore, 1. Ob- serveth the providence of God in this particular, ver. 9, 10. 2. The reason of that insolence and excess of evil in the CHAP. VIII.] THE BOOK Ol' KtX J, i:S 1 A ST LS. 169 lives of such men, ver. 11. 3. The grounds of comfort unto good men in this temptation, and of terrors and restraint upon evil men, notwithstanding their present power and prosperity, ver. 12, 13. Laying down a general proposition concerning God's providence in the affairs of this life, whereunto good men should submit, ver. 14. 5. A cheerful enjoyment of outward and present blessings, without anxious solicitude for the future, ver. 15. 6. A patient resting in the provi- dence of God, admiring his works, and adoring the un- searchableness of his counsels; whose judgements, though they may be secret, yet they cannot be unrighteous, ver. 16. 17. Ver. 1. Who is as the tcise man ? and who knoweth the intei - pretation of a thi)ig?'\ He had set his heart to seek out wis- dom and folly, chap. vii. 25. And having there handled the latter of these two, as the use of the Scripture many times is, when two members or branches of a subject are proposed, to handle the latter first, and then to resume the former. " Be- hold how good and pleasant it is, for brethren to dwell to- gether in unity (Psahn cxxxiii. 1) pleasant as the pre- cious ointment of Aaron, ver. 2. good and profitable, as the dew of Hermon, ver. 3. (Isai. lvi.3, 4, 6) he doth here return to the former member, shewing the excellence of wis- dom, whereunto no other is to be compared. The prefix Caph may be understood, either as a note of similitude, " Who is as the wise man ?" i.e.' None is to be compared to him and so it may be understood as spoken of himself ; "Who hath attained a greater measure of wisdom than I have? who yet, with my utmost studies, have not been able to find out the perfection of it." Chap. vii. 23, 24. Or it maybe taken ' pro nota veritatis,' and so the sense to be, that "no man can attain unto perfect wisdom.'"' (as ver. 16,17) And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing?] Here are two sorts of wise men noted unto us, 1. He that is wise in himself: 2. He that is able to teach others wisdom. Or, " who is able truly to judge of all affairs, and rightly to dis- cern what in every case is to be done, or left undone?" {Dan. ii. 4, 5, 7, and iv. 3, 16) A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine.'] This seemeth to allude to the brightness of Moses's face, (^Exod. xxxiv. 29, 170 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. VHI. 30, 34. the like whereunto we read of Stephen, (jids vi. 15) Hereby is noted, 1. That wisdom doth beautify a man with tranquillity of mind, and cheerfulness of countenance ; " spem fronte serenat." {Psalm iv. 6, 6. Prov. xv. 13, and xvi. 2-^. Psalm xxxiv. 5) 2. That it maketh his light of holiness to shine out unto others. (Matth. v. 16. John v. 3.5. Phil. ii. lo) 3. That it rendereth him reverend, venerable, amiable in the eyes of others, and doth conciliate special honour and favour unto him, in the hearts of those that converse with him. (Job. xxix. 7 — 16) 4. That it enlighteneth his eyes, that he may more clearly understand what he is to do, and to leave un- done ; the light of the Lord shineth on his ways. (Psalm xxv. 9. Job. xxii. 28. Psalm xxxi. 8. 1 John ii. 20. A?id the boldness, or, strength of his face shall be changed, or, doubled.^ By the ' strength of the face,' we may understand fierceness, impudence, sourness, austerity, (as Dan. viii. 23 Deut. xxviii. 60. Prov. vii. 13, and xxi. 29. Isa. iii. 9. Psal. X. 4). Jer. iv. 3) Wisdom changeth all this into mildness, meekness, and sereneness of countenance : as Moses was the wisest and holiest, so he was the meekest man. {Numb. xii. 13. Piov. xi. 2) 2. By ' strength of face,' we mayunderstand 'confidence and courage For "the righte- ous is bold as a lion." (Prov. xxviii. 1 ) Guilt and shame cast down the countenance ; (Ge«. iv. 6, 6.) righteousness and wis- dom embolden it. (1 Sam. i. 18. Job xi. 15. Luke xxi. 28) And in this sense, some read the text thus, (which the ori- ginal word well bears) " The strength of his countenance, his confidence and courage, shall be doubled," (Chap. ix. 19. Isa. xl.31. Prov. iv. 18.) Ver. 2. / counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.'\ I to keep, There is in the original an ellipsis, and something necessarily to be supplied: (as is usual in other places, Psal. cxx. 7. Uos. xiv, 8. 2 Cor. ix. 6. Matth. xxv. 9. 2 Thess. ii. 3. 1 Tim. iv. 3. Gen. xxv. 22. Matth. xxi. 30) " I, if thou wilt admit of my coun- sel or persuasion, thus advise thee." — It is but elliptically, to intimate a special emphasis, and to give authority to the pre- cept. (Gal. V. 2) To keep the king's command.] " To observe the mouth of the king." The angels are said * to see,' or ' observe the face of God,' in token of obedience and readiness to execute CHAP. Vlll.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI AST£S. 171 bis commands. (Match, xviii. 10. Esth. i. 14. 1 Kings x. 8) The mouth is often used for the command, which proceedeth from it. {Erod. xxxviii. 21. Numb. iv. 27. Josh. i. 18) Our obedience must not be according to our own fancies or con- jectures, but according unto the prescript of the law ; for the ]aw is the mouth of the magistrate. This is one special part of prudence, in order unto tranquillity of life, to be faith- ful and obedient towards magistrates, and not to make our- selves wiser than the law. And that in regard of the oath of God.} These words are both an enforcement and a limitation of the duty prescribed. 1. An enforcement: It is necessary to yield obedience unto magistrates, not only out of fear towards them, because of their sword ; but out of conscience towards God, and be- cause of his vows that are upon us. (Rom. xiii. 5) And so it seems to relate unto some covenant and oath of fidelity, which was taken by them towards their princes. We read of the covenant between the king and the people made before the Lord, 1 Chron. xi. 3 : and a promise or league made in the presence of God, was likely to be by the intervention of an oath, as the covenant between Abimelech and Abraham, Gen. xxi. 23, 24. (See Gen. xxvi. 28, 29, and xxxi. 44, 53) And this may seem to be intimated in that phrase of * Giving the hand under Solomon \ which we render, " By submit- ting themselves unto him," 1 Chron. xxix. 24. A like cere- mony whereunto Abraham's servant used, when he sware faithfulness unto him. Gen. xxiv. 2, 3, and xlvii. 29. So " giving the hand," was a ceremonial confirmation of some sworn covenant or promise. Ezra x. 19. Ezek. xvii. 18. Xfip^i T dWrjKMv KctSeTrjV xu) i:kttwjf*e'p'? woXEjaou. " There is no mission or dimission in that war," which sense our interpre- ters seem to follow, in their version ; " There is no discharge in that war," no man can have a vacation or an exauctoration from that warfare : there is no protection or deliverance from the hand of death. Neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to zV.] Unquiet wickedness, sinful shifts, which men in danger are apt to betake themselves unto : though a man turn himself every way, and move every stone, yet he shall not be able to deliver himself. Saul and Pilate would fain shift off the guilt of their sins upon the people; (I Sam.xv. 21. Matt. xxvii. 24) and Caiaphas' pretended necessity for his perse- cuting of Christ ; (John xi. 50) but this did not deliver their souls. By wickedness, here may be understood, in relation to the argument of the text, ' rebellion, sedition, disobedi- ence against Magistrates.' (as 1 Sam. xxiv. 13) The words are a fislxa-i;, wickedness shall not deliver^ that is, It shall destroy those that use it." {Rom. i. 16. Psal. li. 17. Prov. xvii. 21. Prov. xi. 4) Ver. 9. Allthis have 1 seen, and applied mine heart unto every work that is done under the sun : There is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.'} With his wonted transition he passeth on to the observing of another vanity, which was to be found amonst men, " I applied or gave mine heart unto every work;" (as Chap. vii. 25) teaching us with special attention to observe the ways of God's provi- dence in the world. {Psal. cxi. 2. 1 Pet. i. 10, 11) When he was thus considering of the right means of livingcomfortably, CHAP. VIII.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 177 by yielding due obedience unto government ; he found that some princes were so tyrannical and intolerable, that it was very hard for men to live quietly under them ; they go on without control, and miserably afflict the poor people, (Prov, xxviii. 15, 16) for whose good and comfort they were appointed. {Rom. xiii.4) God thus pleasing, in his justice, many times, to punish the sins of a nation, by giving them up into the hands, and under the will of unrighteous governors. (Zach. xi. 6. Hos. xiii. 11. Job xxxiv. 30. Isa. x. 6, and xiv. 20, and xix. 4) But he sheweth the vanity of such tyranni- cal courses. They tend at last to the hurt of those that use them. The rod which beateth the children, is usually at last thrown into the fire. As their power hath put into their hands a greater liberty of sinning, so hath it heaped up for them a greater measure of wrath. (Isa. x. 12. Dan. xi. 36 —40. ha. xiv. 4-23. 1 Kings xv. 29, 30.) Ver, 10. ylnd so I saw the wicked buried, tcho had come and gone from the place of the Holy : and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done : This is also vanity. These words are obscure ; some understanding the former part of ' wicked rulers,' and the latter part of ' good rulers :' others, the whole, only of ' wicked ones.' The sum of the former sense is this : " When I considered the rule of tyrants over others, I observed that when they were dead and buried, they did, as it were, come and return again in their children or wicked successois, who reigned like them." (Job \ iii. 18, 19) Or, " when they had been deprived and deposed, and so, as it were, buried, 1 saw them return to domination again : — but other good men, who had walked with God in his holy place, are driven out of sight, made to run into corners, and, as it were buried, in forgetfulness, (Prov. xxviii. 12, 28. Psal. xii. 8) even in that city, where they had done right." This he looked on as a great vanity, that the memory of good men should perish ; and wicked men should be had in honour. But the other sense which applieth all to wicked rulers, seemeth to be more genuine, and is followed by our transla- tion : — " I saw wicked rulers continue all their life long in the place of the Holy one, to be had in great honour ; and after they had gone in and out before the people in the place of justice and government, (which is the throne of God) I saw them magnificently buried in very great pomp and solemnity ; VOL. IV. N 178 ANNOTATIONS ON I CHAP. VIII . (Luke XVI. '22) yet being dead, notwithstanding all those flat- teries and foriualities in their funeral, their name and me- mories did quickly perish and die with their bodies; inso- much, that in that very city where they had lived in so ^eat power, and been buried in so much state, thev were presently forgotten; neither the nobleness of their families, nor the flatteries of their creatures, nor the magnificent monuments erected for them, were able to preserve their names from rot- tenness." (Psal. xxxvii. 9. 10, 35, 36. Prov. x. 7) By the place of the ' Holi/,'' or of the ' Holi/ one;" (as Hab. iii. 3) understanding the ' tribunals' of judgement, whereon they sit as his ncegerents. (Deut. i. 17. Psal. Ixxxii. 1. Eiod. xxii. 28. 1 Chroii. xxix. 23. 2 Ckron. sis. 6) By ' coming and going' seems to be intimated the administration of the public office of government, elsewhere expressed in the like manner, by ' going in and out' before the people. (Xumh. xxvii. 17. Deut. xxxi. 2. 1 Kitigs iii. 7) A?}d they were forgotten. '\ The Septuajint render it, " and iheu trere praised ;" upon an easy mistake of one letter for another in the original word. Where they had so done.] Others, '* where thev had done riffht," in the first of the two former senses ; »; ilxxix crpa^aw- Tt:, as Svmmachus : — Or, " where whatsoever they did, was accounted right ;" — and so it is appliable to the latter sense. This is also vajutt/.] All the power and pomp of wicked men in their life, and funerals, is but mere vanity ; since, when they are gone, their names and memorials perish with them. Ver. 1 1 . Because sentence against an evil zcork is not executed speedili/. therefore the heart of the sons of men is fidly set in them to do evil.] Here is intimated the reason, why wicked rulers go on, without remorse or control, in their tyranny and oppression all their life long ; namely, because the judge- ments of God. threatened against them, are not presently put in execution. The prosperity of wicked men doth exceed- insrlv strengrthen and harden them in their wickedness. This proceedeth from infidelity, and a root of atheism in their hearts : they cannot see afar off: or if they do, yet because evil seems far from them, therefore they go on securely, abusing the goodness and lon^-suffering of God unto pre- sumption, which should have led them unto repentance. {^Rom. ii. 4) CHAP. Vril.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 179 First, we here see, that there is sentence pronounced against every wicked work. {Isa. iii. 10, 11) Secondly, That the Lord is slow in putting that sentence into execution, being willing that men should repent. (2 Pet. iii. 9) 3. That the sentence being pronounced, though it come slowly, yet it will come surely against ungodly men. It is every day nearer and nearer ; and the longer it stays, the more heavy it will be. It comes with feet of wool, but it will strike with hands of lead. (Gen. vi. 3) 4. That wicked men abuse God's patience unto presump- tion ; and because they see all well with them, do despise his threatenings to their own destruction. (Isa. v. 19. Jer. v. 12, and xvii, 15. 2 Pet. iii. 4. Ezek. xii. 22. Psa^. Iv. 19) 5. That impunity maketh wickedness more excessive and outrageous ; and the heart of man is the more filled and em- boldened in wickedness, by how much the more experience it hath of God's slowness to wrath. (Matth. xxiv. 48, 49. Prov. vii. 18, 19, 20. 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4) Therefore the heart of the sons of men is full in them, or is fully set in them to do evil."] " Is bold in them," so Aquila : " therefore the sons of men do evil, a(po§M xapS/a, with a fearless and presumptuous heart so Symmachus : The phrase noteth an height of confidence and resolvedness on sinful courses, called in the scripture, 'madness, excess, greediness, rushing, breaking forth, superfluity,' &c. (Esfh. vii. 5. Acts v. 3. Gen, vi. 12, 13. Ltike vi. 11. JerA. 38. 1 Pet. iv. 4. Ephes. iv. 19. Jer. vi. 7, and viii. 6. Hos. iv. 2. James i. 21) Ver. 12, 13. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged: yet surely I know, <^c.] Here he answereth the temptation whereby good men are apt to be otFended at the prosperity of wicked men, (Psal. Ixxiii. 2, 3. Jer. xii. 1) and wicked men to be hardened in their sins thereby : " Though a sinner do continue to do evil, and escape punishment an hundred times, never so often;" — (as Chap. vi. 3) Jnd his days be prolonged.] Or, *' his punishment de- layed;" or "God do put off his anger, and not straightway execute it upon him, (Chap. vii. 15. Lai. xlviii. 9. Deut.iv. 40. Exod. XX. 12) yet surely I know, and do confidently affirm, that it shall be well with them that fear God." {Isai. N 2 180 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. VIII, iii. 10, II) The order of the consequence is inverted ; and the remuneration of good men is first mentioned, before the punishment of evil men, to strengthen their faith, and to comfort them against the oppressions and injuries of their potent adversaries; because usually the rage of tyrants doth vent itself against those that fear God. Which fear before him-l This is the character of a good man ; — they fear God sincerely ; they tremble at his presence; they labour to conmiend their hearts and consciences to him in well doing. {Isai. viii. 13) When wicked men prosper and rage, they fret not, they fear not their cruelty ; but still they hold fast their integrity, and go on steadily in obedience and patient waitini;- on God. But it shall uot be well with the wicked, neither shall he pro- long his (lat/s, which are as a sh(idow.'\ " It shall not be well :" This is a fj^iwa-is, less being said than is intended; for the meaning is, " It shall be very ill with him." (as Exod. xx. 7. Psalm xxxiv. 5. -Rom. i. 16. P^alm Ixxxiv. 12. Isai. xlii. 3. Rom. iv. 19. Revel, xii. 11) Neither shall he prolong his days.'] Long life is oftentimes promised as a blessing, {Prov. xxviii. 16. Exod. xx. 12. Psalm xci. 16. Pivv. iii. 2) and the contrary threatened as a curse. {Psalm Iv. 23) " And though they seem to live long, their longest life is but as a shadow, which suddenly is gone ; (Psalm cxliv. 4) wrath doth at last certainly overtake them." Whereas in scripture sometimes ' prolonging of one's days,' relates to a life after deatli, and a victory over it. {Isai. liii. 10) Ver. 14. There is a vanitif which is done upon the enrth.] He doth not pass this censure upon the wise and righteous pro- vidence of God, who ordereth all the seeming confusions and disorders which are in the world, and who is pleased, after a seeming inequality, to dispense good or evil unto men, con- trary to what our reason doth judge most equal and righteous ; {Job ix. 22, and xxi. 7, 8) but first he speaketh according to the jud^jement of flosh and blood, which is apt lo judge hardly of so strange a distribution. {Psalm Ixxiii. 13, 14; 2. He doth it. to show the vanity of all outward things, which do variously happen unto men under the sun ; which, beiuLT distributed without «ny great difference, sometimes evil things to oood men, and good things to evil men, do lead CHAP. VIII.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI AS TES. 181 us necessarily to think but meanly of them, and to look after a further judgement, wherein rewards and punishments shall be in a more notable manner dispensed. (Chap. vii. 15. 1 Cor. XV. 19) And even in this distribution, there is much goodness shewed to one man in his sufferings, whereby his graces are exercised ; and much wrath and justice to others in their prosperity, whereby they are many times hardened and ensnared. {Psalm Ixix. 22. Hos. xiii. 6) Ver. 15. Thett I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry^ (Sfc] Some make this to be a sensual and carnal de- duction, drawn from the former observation ; — that, since by a man's most circumspect walking he can no more free him- self from evils, than if he lived more loosely ; — and since evil men do many times go away with the rewards of good men, and good men suffer sucli things as they had not de- served ; since a man gets nothing by his holiness, nor loseth any thing by his wickedness ; — it is therefore the best way to take our pleasures, to eat and to drink and be merry ; and to take no further care than how we may, for the present, gratify our licentious desires. (1 Cor. xv. 32. Isai. xxii. 12, 13. Amos v\. ^—Q. Psalm Ixxiii. 11, 12) But I rather un- derstand the words in the sense formerly expressed, chap. ii. 24, and iii. 12, 13, 22, and v. 18. "Since it is impossible for a man to free himself from those common vanities and temptations which are under the sun ; therefore there is no greater wisdom, no better remedy of our present vexations, than to compose our hearts in a holy calmness and security, nor over-curiously or querulously to inquire into the dark providences of God in the world; but, with a holy sub- mission, to commit ourselves to the Lord ; and in his fear, and with cheerfulness and thanksgiving, to enjoy the present blessings which his bounty hath bestowed upon us, without any unquietness of spirit at the disorders we see, or any anxious and solicitous thoughts touching any thing which, for the future, we may fear." {Phil. iv. 11, 12, 13. 2 Thess. iii. 12) For that shall abide with him of his labour, the days of his life, which God giveth him under the swi.] This is the only fruit which a man can reap in this life from all his labour : greater benefit he can never expect from any thing under the 182 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. VIII. sun, than to have food and raiment, with cheerfulness of heart in the use of them. Ver, 16, 17. When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to seethe business that is done upon the earth.'] He here con- cludeth with a reason, why a man ought not anxiously to perplex or disquiet his thoughts about the works of God's providence, in the government of the world ; why good men are afflicted, and ill men advanced; — because when a wise man hath applied his mind, made it his business, broken his sleep in this inquiry, yet he shall come short of what he promised himself; and must at last acquiesce in the sovereignty and dominion of God, whose works are unsearchable, and whose judgements past finding out. Therefore we must suppress all rash censures of those things, the reasons whereof we are not able to attain unto ; and with calmness and tranquillity of spirit, labour to enjoy present comforts, rather than to busy ourselves with curious and fruitless inquiries. 2'o see the business that is done on the earth.] That is, " to discover and get a clear, distinct, and satisfying account of all the works of God's providence in the world ; to compre- hend the reasons of the administration and government there- of; to have a rational view of the compages and whole frame of human affairs ; to reconcile all the seeming ab- surdities and incongruities which appear in them; to look exactly into the temperament and composition of so many infinite and contrary events, unto the making up of one most exquisite and beautiful work." For there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his ei/es.] As chap. ii. 23. This he speaketh of his incessant study, in denying himself necessary refreshments, out of the intent- ness of his mind in this inquiry; as strong and fixed thoughts will keep away sleep from our eyes. {Psalm cxxvii. 2. Ecc/es. v. 12) A man cannot Jind out the rcork that is done U7ider the sun.] " Cannot perfectly understand," or " search into the counsel of God in the government of human affairs, his secret judgements, his admirable contrivances, his various wisdom." (Jo6 xi. 7, 8, 9 Psalm xxxvi. 6, and xcii. 5) A man can nei- ther, by labour, nor by wisdom, (the two great engines and in- struments of discovery) attain unto it. He doth not hereby dis- courage us from searching into the works of God, which else- CHAP. IX.J THE BOOK OF ECCLLS I A S T ES. 183 where we are directed to observe ; {Psal. cxi. 2, and civ. 24, and cv. 5, and cvi. 13. Isai. v. 12) but only teacheth us after all, to adore the depths of his wisdom ; to rest satisfied that whatever he doth, how contrary soever it appear unto human reason, is righteously, holy, and wisely done. Secret and wonderful his works maybe, but they are never unjust: and therefore when we cannot understand them, we must admire and adore them. {Job. xix. 2 — 14, and xl. 2, 3. Rom. xi. 33 —96) CHAPTER IX. In the end of the former chapter, the Wise man observed the secret and hidden course of God's providence ; and in this, proceedeth in the same argument, taking notice of a confused administration of the world in common events, which do equally befall both the good and the bad ; even as death at the last happenethto them all alike, verse 1, 2, 3. Where- upon he resumeth his former remedy against this vexation, — to wit, That we should comfortably enjoy life, and the good things thereof, while we have time to do it, and not defer it till it be too late ; because when death comes, it deprives us of all the comforts and delights, which this present life doth afford unto us. Upon which occasion he praiseth life before death, because therein we have the liberty of enjoying all good things under the sun, the sense of all which death doth bereave us of. (verse 4, 6, 6) And therefore since the days of our life are but vanity, we ought, with much cheerfulness and intention of mind, to enjoy all the sweet contentments which life doth afford us ; yet so, as not to leave the duties of our calling undone, this being all the portion which we can have in this life, of all our labours, (verse 7, 8, 9, 10) After which he falleth into the contemplation of another wonderful providence of God, whereby events seem to befall men, ra- ther by chance, than by reason and counsel, and contrary to those previous dispositions, by which we are led to expect far different effects from those which do come to pass, (verse 11) The reason whereof in part he subjoins, namely, that invin- cible ignorance, which is in all men, of the proper seasons wherein actions are to be dpne ; or else disability to foresee 184 ANNOTATIOXS ON [chap. IX. and prevent the evils, which are coming towards them, and do suddenly surprise them, (verse 12) Lastly, lest he should seem to dictate unto us a supine neglect of all good means towards our desired ends, in regard that things seem to be governed rather by chance than by counsel, he sheweth the excellent use of godly wisdom to deliver us out of such dan- gers, by an example of one poor but wise man ; who, being in a little city meanly manned and defended, did, by his wis- dom, deliver it from the power and military assaults of a mighty king, who came against it. Yet shewing withal a very great vanity amongst men, in neglecting so wise a man because of his poverty, (verse 13, 14, 15, 16) Whence he concludeth, by shewing the excellence of wisdom, that silent wisdom is better than clamorous and bustling power, and than all instruments of war. And withal, that as one wise man may avert much danger, so one wicked man may destroy much good, verse 17, 28. Ver. 1. All this I considered in mine heart .'\ " I ^ave all this to my heart: I laid it up in mine heart."' — It noteth spe- cial study and attention thereunto. {Luke ii. 51, andxxi. 14) Even to declare all this] " To prove, examine, perfectly to understand, and clearly to manifest all this.'" — The word signifies to ' purify and purge ;' because when a thing is soiled and defaced, it is the more difficultly known. (2 Cor. iii. 16, 17, 18) That the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God.] That the persons and works of the best and most prudent men are not in their own power or disposal ; but are guided by a Divine providence, and by a secret, invi- sible, and unpreventable direction from above, by him who worketh all things, by the counsel of his own will." To be in the hand of God, noteth, 1. Subjection to his power. {John iii. 35. Matth. xxviii. 18. John v. 22) 2. Direction and guidance by his providence, {Acts iv. 28. Jer. x. 23. Prov xvi. 9, and xx. 24. Exod. xxxiv. 24, 3) ruling by his powerful, though sometimes secret and invisible, government. So the ' hand of the king,' notes the command or order given by the king, I Chron. xxv. 3. 4. Custody and protection from evil by his care. {Esther ii. 3. Jsai. Ixii, 3. John x. 28, 29) Our works are transient things ; and as they come from us, seem to vanish away, and to be no more ; they are quickly CHAP. IX.] THE BOOK OF ECCL It-Sl A STES. 185 out of our hands : but they are always in God's hands, and written in his book ; he reserveth them unto the time of re- tribution, and keepeth an exact record and register of them: so that no one of them shall be unrewarded. {Heb. vi. 10) Our persons, our times, our employments are in the hand of God ; men cannot do to us, or dispose of us as they will ; {John xix. 10, II) neither can we dispose of ourselves as we please : But he who is wisest, and knows what is best for us, and what uses we are fittest for, doth, as it pleaseth him, or- der both our persons, our times, our places, our callings, our work, our wages, as may be most for the glory of his name ; whose we are, and whom it is our happiness to serve, in whatsoever station he shall be pleased to place us. (2 Sam. XV. 25, 26) No man knoweth either love or hatred hy all that is before them.] The words admit of such a reading as this ; " The righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God Also " love and hatred," to wit " are in the hand of God." He loveth whom he will ; he hateth whom he will. (Rom. ix. 11, 12, 13, 15, 16) No man knoweth any thing that is before him : no man can discover the counsel or the love and hatred of God by any outward things which he looketh on, the same things equally happening to the good and to the bad, Chap. viii. 14. (Matth. v, 45) Or, " No man can know whether the things which he loveth, or the things which he hateth, shall befall him, though he guide his works with never so much rectitude and prudence; events depending on the providence of God, and not on the counsel of man." (Rom. ix. 16. Jer. ix. 23, 24. Isai. xlv. 9. James iv. 13, 14, 15) Ver. 2. All things come alike unto all: and there is one event &c.] Some would have these words, and so forward to verse 13, to be * the perverse judgment of the flesh, and the voice of Atheists and Epicures upon the doctrine of providence before observed :' but we must remember, that Solomon speakelh only of outward things, and the different adminis- tration of them ; and of the remedies of vanity and vexation, in regard of our condition here under the sun ; restraining and limiting all the confused events of worldly things by the holy hand and wise providence of God ; and all the precepts which might otherwise seem to savour of sensuality and 186 ANNOTATIONS ON [chap. IX. epicurism by the fear of God, and honest labour in our vo- cations. Which things being premised, all that is here set down, doth well consist with the will of God, and the scope of Solomon in this book, which is to set down such rules, ' de tranquillitate animi,' as may make a man comfortably to digest the vanities of this life, and sweetly to pass over the time of his pilgrimage here. All things come alike to all.] " Omnia sicut omnibus ;" so Symmachus, oTravra o/xoia to7j wao-/, " All alike unto all."" This is the reason why we cannot judge of love or hatred by outward things : for albeit good things are promised unto good men, and evil things threatened unto evil men ; yet God doth so proceed in the execution of these promises and threatenings, as that faith only can discover the difterence ; all things, outwardly and to the eye of sense, appearing alike to all. As if the Lord had subjected all things to tli^ do- mination of fortune, rather than of justice; and that the events of the world were all rather casual and contingent, than either predetermined by the counsel, or governed by the providence of God. One event to the righteous and to the kicked, Sic] Moses dies in the wilderness, as well as those that murmured. Josiah in the wars as well as Ahab. Is Abraham rich ? so is Nabal. Is Solomon wise so is Ahithophel. Is Joseph honoured by Pharoah ? so is Doeg by Saul. And usually, as to outward things, the advantage is on the side of the worst men. {Psalm Ixxiii. 12. 13. Mai. iii. 15) To the righteous and the wicked.] In regard of their spi- ritual slate and condition towards God. Not that any man is perfectly righteous in this life ; (chap. vii. 20) but in- choately by the first fruits of the spirit ; comparatively in opposition to the wicked ; evangelically, by sincere disposi- tions of heart, and by the ordinary prevalence and dominion of grace. 3b the clean and unclean.] Between whom great difference was to be made. (Ezek. xxii. 26) To him that sacrijiceth, and him that sacrijiceth not.] " That carefully observeth, or profanely neglecteth the worship of God ;" as we see in the examples of Jeroboam and Jehu. As is the good, so is the sinner.] The doubling of the pre- fix Caph, noteth an equal comparison, and absolute similitude CHAP. IX.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES. 187 between the things compared. (Gen. xviii. 26, and xliv. 18. Isai. xxiv. 2. 1 Kings xxii. 4) And he that sweareth.'] Namely " falsely or rashly, with- out truth, or judgement, or righteousness." As he thatfeareth an oath.\ The character of a godly man, who doth so reverence the great name of God, {Deut. xxviii. 58) that, by the fear thereof, he is kept from swearing rashly by it; and when he is called to swear, doth it with an awful regard towards that glorious and fearful name. Ver. 3. This is an evil amongst all things that are done, ^c] When I consider the course of providence, I found this to be one of the most grievous things which happeneth under the sun, — that all things, the same equal events, both in life and death, do happen not only to the just and unjust, but even to the maddest and most desperate of sinners, who, all their life long, do give up themselves unto all excess of wicked- ness." This is an evil among all things.l It is not evil in regard of God, who doth all in a most wise and holy manner; but evil, that is, ' grievous and troublesome,' unto man to behold ; a great temptation unto him to consider, that just and wise men should be exposed to the self-same miseries, with fools and ungodly. An evil amongst all things.'] Or, " above all other evils." So some render it, " hoc pessimum, this is the worst of evils." As the superlative is often expressed by an adjective, governing an ablative case with the preposition Caph : ex- amples whereof the learned give in 1 Sam. xvii. 12. Prov. XXX. 30. Cant. i. 8. Luke 'i. 28. Jer. xlix. 15. Yea also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, ^c] Yea also : that upon occasion hereof, when men see that it is all one, whether men be good or bad, as to any outward differ- ence in things here below ; they judge it vain to serve the Lord; they despise all threats; they undervalue all pro- mises ; they let loose the reins, and run headlong unto all kind of wickedness and madness, all sort of furious, head- strong and desperate excess, with boldness and presumption. (See chap. viii. 11) And after that they go to the dead.] " After a life spent in madness and sensuality, then they die." Or, " Their latter end is to go to the dead :" rsXtuTMia eJf vixpous ; so Symraachus. 188 A \ NOTA riOVS OX [chap. IX. Others, af ter thai, i. e. " Following their own heart, runninsr after their own lusts, they do at last fall into the pit. The end of all their madness is death."" {Roiti. vi. '21) Ver. 4. For lo him that is joined to all the living, there is hope] In the written text it is, who shall be chosen ? but the Maso- rites direct the reading to be, instead of chosen, joined, by a trans; ortation of the original letters. This correction some learned men have conceived unnecessary ; some rendering it thus, " For what or which shall be chosen Thereby mean- ing, how difficult it is to resolve, which state or condition to choose, that of the living or of the dead ; yet quickly passing a judgement on the side of the living, in regard of the hope a man may have, while he lives, of bettering his condition. Others, annexing these words unto the last of the former verse, thus, " After all men's madness, their end is to die : who shall be chosen out, or exempted from that common con- dition ? since therefore all men, without any choice or ex- emption, must die, most miserable is the condition of those mad men, whose hearts are full of wickedness, even till death overtake them . for while men live, there is some ojound of hope; but the mightiest of sinners, when once dead, are past hope, and in a worse condition than the meanest men who are yet alive." — Others, retaining the mari.inal reading, render it thus, by an interrogation, " For who will be joined, to wit, with the dead f Who w ill choose a dead man for his com- panion, since that is, of all, the most hopeless condition But this is a forced sense ; herein therefore interpreters do most agree ; "As for him that is joined to, or is a companion of the living, he hath hope. While life remains, what evils ever befal a man, he is in hope to breakthrough, and to mend his condition . some good things, however, he doth yet en- joy: but, as to the good things of this world, after death there is no hope." Symmachus, whom the vulgar foUowetb, rendereth it thus ; ti'j yap tig «£» ttxTsksa-ei ; " Who shall al- ways continue alive ? Unto such a man there would be -hope." Paginus and ISIontanus keep the reading in the text, and render it thus, " Wiiosever is chosen unto, or amongst the living, unto him there is hope." — The Septua- gint renders it ditlerently from all, ori rig %cx.onansi vpos vivruc rovg t^nou ; " Who is there that commuuicuteth with, or to- wards all the livins:" Tliey seem to follow, not the written CHAP. IX.] THE BOOK OF ECCLESI ASTES. 189 text, but the reading; and so by ' communicating,' mean 'joining in fellowship with the living,' "Who is there that shall have the society and communion of all ihe living ? Surely none — according to the sense of Symmachus, and Jerome. Marin us Brixianus oftereth two other senses ; 1. By reading the word actively with a different punctuation, thus, "Whosoever chooseth any thing, while he is yet alive, he hath hope to compass and to effect his desire." 2. By keeping (o the written text, in the passive sense, thus, — " Whosoever shall be chosen unto any life, or condition of life, he may therein have hope ;" — which maketh a clear and a good sense. The adjective, which we render, Living, being usually taken for the substantive or abstract, to wit, for /if e. (as Gen. ii. 7. Psalm xxi. 4. Prov. xviii. 21. Psalm Ixiii. 3) I take it, the expression we find Isai. iv. 3, may give light unto this place; "Every one that is written among the living * To be chosen among the living', here, seems to be the same, with ' being written amongst the living', there. It is an al- lusion unto cities, wherein there is a Matricnla or Record kept of such as were free-men : whereunto the Scripture seemeth to allude ; Psa//ra Ixxxvii. 6. Ezek. xiii. 9. Heh. xu. 23. Jer. xvii. 13. Luke x. 20. Psalm iv. 3. For as the elect are said to be written in the book of life, (Dan. xii. 1. Psalm Ixix. 28. Rev. xvii. 8. and xxi. 27. and xxii. 19) so the living- may be said to be elected unto life : as all such enrolments in the records of a city, do follow upon a preceding choice of the persons so enrolled. For a living dog is better than a dead Hon.] A prover- bial speech, whereby is meant, that the ' basest and most con- temptible person while he lives, is in a better and more hope- ful condition than the most honourable, when he is laid in the dust.' The Scripture useth the metaphor of a doo-, to denote the vilest and most abject persons ; (2 Kings viii. 13. Matth. XV. 16. Rev. xxii. 15. Phil. iii. 2) as, on the other side, a lion is the most noble of beasts ; {Prov. xxx. 30) yet a dead lion is exposed to the scorn of the weakest and most fearful creatures, according to the Greek epigram : xai uiro) vexpou