taken away from thee which now thou wilt not bestow upon needy people c. c V. 3. In this Verse he illustrates both the Duty and the reason of it The former by the Clouds which are a fit Emblem of Charity the second by the Trees which can bring forth Fruit no longer than they continue joined to their Root from which being separated they bear no more nor can be fixed to their Root as the Clouds may be filled with Water again So I have interpreted the latter part of this Verse which Grotius understands as if it meant no more than the foregoing Do good to men without distinction like him who when he cuts down a Tree regards not which way it falls I omit other Interpretations and shall only mention Maldonate's Gloss upon this Verse which is ingenious enough He urges us saith he to do good while we live by two Reasons First From the profit of it because we shall receive more than we give like the Clouds which receive from the Earth but a thin Vapour which they return to it in most copious Showres The second From the impossibility of being in a capacity to do good when we are dead for then like a Tree we must continue as we are when Death seizes us and never be restored to our former condition again Corranus alone as far as I can find expounds the latter part thus in his Annotations A Tree in what place soever it is planted there abides and brings forth Fruit and so ought we to help others by all manner of means in whatsoever place or time we live And he takes North and South for all Parts of the World If any think fit to apply this unto the unalterable condition wherein we must remain in the other World like a Tree cut down which if it fall toward the North cannot change its positure and turn to the South they cannot follow a fitter Gloss upon the Words than this of Luther's If the Lord find thee in the South that is fruitful and rich in good works it will be well but if in the North that is barren of good works it will be ill with thee Howsoever thou art found so thou shalt be judged and so thou shalt likewise receive d V. 4. And then follows here an Admonition to take the first opportunity of doing good and not to deferr it because now it may seem unseasonable and we fansie it may do better another time Which the Lord Bacon extends unto all other things as well as Alms. There is no greater or more frequent impediment of action saith be in the Conclusion of the First Chapter of the VIIIth Book of Advancement of Learning than an over-curious observation of decency and of that other Ceremony attending on it which is too scrupulous election of time and opportunity For Solomon saith excellently He that observeth the Wind c. We must make opportunity oftner than find it And thus that great Prince Xerxes otherwise not very prudent speaks very discreetly in Herodotus L.VII. Be not fearful of all things nor consider every thing minutely for if in the considertion of business thou wilt weigh every thing alike thou shalt never be able to do any thing And thus Melancthon understands this place As events are not in our power which he takes to be the meaning of v. 3. so he that will have certain and circumscribed events that is such and such things come to pass before he act will never attempt any thing And so a great Divine of our own expounds it If we will suspend our resolution till we can bethink our selves of something free from all inconveniencies in most of our deliberations we shall never resolve upon any thing at all God having so tempered things that every commodity hath its incommodiousness every conveniency some inconvenience attending it which many times all the wit and industry of man is not able to sever Bishop Sanderson's Sermon upon 1 Corinth X. 23. p. 245. Saint Hierom also elegantly accommodates these Words to negligent Pastors who will not preach but when the people are very desirous to hear and there is a fair Gale breathing to favour their design And gives this Advice to us Do not say this is a fit time that is unprofitable for we are ignorant what is the way and what is the will of the Spirit which dispenseth all things e V. 5. In this Verse he seems to pursue the same Metaphor of the Wind which blows uncertainly and no body knows whence nor from what causes And therefore from our ignorance of that and indeed of all other things which we are here conversant withal of our own Soul for instance which our Translators understand by the Word Ruach Spirit and of our own Body or of that vis formatrix how it goes about its Work to make this Body of ours in the Womb which may possibly be meant by Spirit XXXIII Job 4. CIV Psal 30. Solomon perswades us not to presume to know how God intends to order the course of this World in his over-ruling Providence and therefore to do our Duty and leave events to Him f V. 6. Imitating the Husbandman with which Metaphor he began this Discourse and now concludes it who not knowing which will prosper sows both early Corn and late So Symmachus understands this Verse to be an allusion to those that sow some very forward Seed which perhaps may hit when that which is sown at the ordinary time doth not Or perhaps both may succeed and bring forth Fruit to their great enriching Others take morning and evening only to signifie all times g V. 7. I have continued this Verse with the foregoing and supposed what all Interpreters do in the third and fourth Verses that the comparison is imperfect there being only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hermogenes speaks the Proposition of the Sentence and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which answers unto it left to be made by the Reader Which I have supplied from the sense of the whole foregoing Discourse in this Chapter Others think a new Discourse here begins for the Conclusion of the whole Book and that after all he had said of happiness he advises every one to think of another life and not expect to find it in this Or as some understand him his meaning is Now you have seen wherein happiness doth not and wherein it doth consist therefore do not either imagine there is none at all here in this World or that it is greater than really it is But take a middle course which I have shown you and look upon this life as having pleasure in it but not absolutely perfect yet such as our condition will permit begun here and to be completed in another World h V. 8. The beginning of this Verse I have expounded according to the Hebrew where the Words run thus as St. Hierom himself translates them If a man live many years let him rejoyce in all these things
denote the extreme dissatisfaction he found in all things which made a show of affording him contentment but performed nothing of that which they seemed to promise So the Word Vanity is also used for that which is false lying and deceitful LXII Psal 9. and other places where Idols are called Vanities c V. 3. Here begins the Proof of his Assertion by considering first the mind of man which runs from one thing to another without any end but finds no satisfaction remaining after all its restless thoughts And then the body of man V. 4. which as proud and lofty as it now looks must moulder into Dust and the poorest person perhaps shall tread upon its Grave For it cannot last like the Earth from whence it comes which stands for ever as a publick Theatre whereon men enter and act their Part and then go off and never appear again and when they go as some prettily rather than solidly gloss upon those Words The Earth abideth for ever they can carry none of it along with them but leave it all behind them unto those that come after who pass away also leaving the Earth where they found it d V. 5. The Sun also in a settled course observes its times of rising and setting whereas man when he goes down to the Earth cannot like the Sun come up again So the fifth Verse seems to be most naturally connected with the foregoing and in like manner the sixth and seventh Verses are to be expounded There are many Interpreters indeed who look upon the things mentioned in these three Verses only as Emblems of the instability of all humane Affairs and of the constant revolutions of the same miseries which cannot be hindred by any humane counsels but will return after all the changes whereby we think to mend our selves Upon which sense I have just touched in my Paraphrase but not followed it because it doth not seem to me to be the scope of these Verses In which man is represented by four comparisons with the Earth the Sun the Wind and the Sea to be more subject to Vanity than other things e V. 8. Which having thus illustrated he proceeds here more particularly to consider what he had said in general words V. 3. of mans vain endeavour to satisfie himself in worldly designs and contrivances in which he is tired but comes to no end of his desires How should he when his whole business here is only to do and to enjoy the very same things over and over again as all men have done before us and shall do after us v. 9 10 11. f V. 9. We may fansie indeed that we have found some new thing but this conceit proceeds merely from our ignorance as the Lord Bacon excellently discourses in his first Book of the Advancement of Learning Chap. 8. Learning and Knowledge saith he takes away vain and excessive admiration which is the very root of all weak counsels For we admire things either because they are new or because they are great As for Novelty there is no man that considers things thoroughly but hath this printed in his heart There is nothing new under the Sun nor can any man much admire a Puppet-Play who doth but thrust his head behind the Curtain and seeth the Instruments and Wires whereby they are moved As for Greatness we may say as Alexander who after his great Conquests in Asia receiving Letters of some small Fights or Skirmishes in Greece at the taking of some Bridge or Fort was wont to tell his Friends that it seemed to him that they had sent him News of the Battles of Homer 's Frogs and Mice so certainly if a man consider the Universe and the Fabrick of it to him this Globe of Earth with the men upon it and their busie motions excepting always the Divineness of Souls will not seem much more considerable than an Hillock of Ants whereon some creep up and down with their Corn others with their Eggs others empty all about a very little heap of Dust And as Melancthon well observes the same desires the same counsels the same ends the same causes of War and calamitous events return again according to that of Thucydides While humane nature continues what it is the like mischiefs will happen sometimes less sometimes more direfully g V. 12. Thus having confirmed his main Propositions by such general Arguments as reach to all things in this World he proceeds here to a more particular proof of it from his own proper experience And designing before he declared his own Opinion of the Chief Good and by what means it may be attained to confute the vain fancies of men about it he reduces them as I have shown in the Preface to four Heads And observing that some place it in knowledge and curious inquiries into all manner of things others in pleasure or in both these together others in honour and power others in riches and heaps of wealth he begins with that which is the most plausible And demonstrates from the 13th Verse to the end of this Chapter how little satisfaction is to be found in the mere speculation of things though a man arrive at the highest degree of humane knowledge h V. 13 14. Melancthon restrains these two Verses to political Wisdom in the Government of Kingdoms Which gives men a double affliction first in that the Wisest men often err in their counsels and secondly that events sometimes do not answer to the best counsels that men can follow Examples of the first are innumerable Sometime they err through ambition as Perdiccas after Alexander sometime through a false opinion of Right as Brutus sometime through over-doing busie headedness and inquietude of mind as Pericles sometime through anger as Marius And how many ways good counsels have miscarried it is too long here to remember because it is here further observable that sometime more doubtfulness and uncertainty of mind what course to take is as great a torment to the mind as any other Thus Pompey was first perplexed in his Counsels before he saw the disastrous event of his Error To conclude this All Government is so full of cares perplexities and impediments that it made Demosthenes say If he were to begin the World again he would rather die than be promoted to it And Aeschines that he was as glad when he was rid of his Office as he would have been to be delivered from a mad Dog But this I take to be too straight a sense though it be agreeable enough to what he saith v. 12. of his Kingly Office and therefore I have inlarged it further in my Paraphrase though Greg. Nazianzen also seem to have a respect to it when he thus interprets this place Orat. LIII p. 750. That all things here below are possessed with an uncouth and execrable spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that a man cannot comprehend how absurdly all humane affairs are managed i V. 14. The word we translate vexation is found only in
business that is done upon the earth for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes 16. In this therefore rest satisfied and do not trouble thy self with curious inquiries Why things are administred with such inequality as is beforementioned for I have travelled as much as any Body in that disquisition and with great application of mind have made a most diligent search into the causes and reasons of the whole management of affairs here in this World my mind being one of those that is as eager and greedy of Knowledge as others are of Riches for which they toil all day and take little rest in the night See Annot. o 17. Then I beheld all the work of God that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun because though a man labour to seek it out yet he shall not find it yea further though a wise man think to know it yet he shall not be able to find it 17. But this was all the satisfaction at which I could arrive That the Providence of God without all doubt governs every thing in this World but why He suffers the wicked to prosper and the vertuous to be oppressed by them why he doth somerime speedily cut off a wicked Tyrant and sometimes defer the execution so long that he lives to do a World of mischief and yet goes perhaps to his Grave in peace v. 10. it is impossible to give a full account For there is little or nothing that any man can know of the secrets of his counsels or indeed of any other of his Works which are inscrutable by us though a man take never so much pains to find them out nay though the wisest man in the World make it his constant business he will be still forced to confess his ignorance and the height of his knowledge will be to know that God's ways are past finding out ANNOTATIONS a V. 1. To the advices he had given in the foregoing Chapter he now adds some new ones the first of which is this that the Wisdom which will make us happy in this World must not make us morose and supercilious severe and rigorous but kind and benign gentle and easie And the more we know the more humble we ought to be and by the very cheerfulness and pleasantness of our countenance invite others to us and not by our frowning forbid them or make them afraid to approach us This I take to be the meaning of the first Verse in my Paraphrase upon which I have had respect to several acceptations of the several Words which it will be too long here to give an account of They that will consult Interpreters will find how they vary and therefore I shall only mention the Exposition of Melancthon upon the latter part of the Verse which is not commonly known which following the LXX he thus translates Wisdom is the light of a mans countenance but a pertinacious or impudent obstinate person is worthy of hatred Which he explains in this manner that Wisdom which can judge aright when severity is profitable or when lenity will do best when it is fit to make War when to be quiet brings a man great gladness but a pertinacious person who is stiff and obstinate in his Opinion and will not hearken to those that give him good counsel but follows the motions of his own anger and obeys his passions destroys himself and others As the pertinacious humour for instance of Pericles and Demonsthenes was most pernicious unto all Greece b V. 2. This pertinacious humour shows it self oft-times in opposing the Sovereign Authority whereby men create to themselves and others great troubles in this World And therefore Solomon advises men in the next place desiring them not to dislike the counsel because a King gives it to live in dutiful subjection to their Prince as a singular means of leading a happy life For it is hard to say whether the Prudence and Justice of a Sovereign in ruling well or the humble and peaceable spirit of the people in complying with the established Orders contribute most to the publick Welfare Certain it is that it is much safer and easier as well as more honest to submit and be quiet than to contend and unsettle the peace of Kingdoms though Princes do not govern as they ought Melancthon makes this Verse to contain two Precepts as the LXX also seems to do in this manner Observe the Commandment of the King and the word of the Oath of God A Sentence saith he exceeding worthy of consideration and remembrance in which he commands us to observe the Command of the King but with this restriction that we observe the Law of God and do nothing contrary unto that For he calls the Law the Oath of God because God made the Sanction of it in promises and threatnings with an Oath But this Interpretation wholly neglects one word in the Hebrew viz. al and it draws both dibrath and shebuath Elohim from their ordinary and usual sense to a meaning that is forced and strained For which reason another Exposition is not natural which makes this indeed one Precept but instead of taking the latter part of it for an obligation to observe it turns it into a restriction of it in this manner Keep the Kings Commandment but according to the Oath of God that is as far as Religion and the Faith we owe to the great Lord of all will suffer This is true but not the true sense of the Hebrew word for Oath which some would have relate to the Covenant made with God in Circumcision which is still further off from the business than the Notion which Melancthon had of it Our Translation is the plainest and most literal be obedient to the King and that in regard or because of the matter of the Oath to which God is a Witness and a severe Revenger of the breach of it From which a modern Interpreter doth not much vary whose words it will not be unprofitable to set down in this place which run thus in English Regard the Kings mouth i. e. Do whatsoever comes out of his mouth whatsoever he commandeth and appointeth out of that Authority which he hath by Divine Ordinance and chiefly the intention of the Oath of God so he translates the latter part of the Verse that is the Oath whereby every one citeth God as his Witness and Judge that with a good Conscience he will obey the King because God hath so commanded Thus Joh. Coch. Which Oath is either tacit the very being in the condition of a Subject carrying with it as the late Primate of Armagh speaks by implication a silent Oath of Fidelity and due Obedience or express in the direct Form of an Oath which Princes have for their better security been wont to exact of their Subjects There is an ancient Form still remaining in Vegetius of the Oath wherein the Souldiery bound themselves to the Christian Emperours By
God and by Christ and by the holy Ghost and by the Majesty of the Emperour which next after God was to be loved and honoured L. 2. Cap. 5. Where he adds this remarkable reason for it because to him when he hath remarkable the Name of Augustus faithful Devotion is to be performed and all vigilant service paid as unto a present and corporeal God The violation of which Oath though made to an Heathen Prince how heinously God takes even as a despising of an Oath made to himself and a breach of his own Covenant those terrible threats do sufficiently demonstrate XVII Ezek. 12 13 14 c. especially v. 19.20 Which are denounced against Zedekiah who rebelled against the King of Babylon who had made him swear by God 2 Chron. XXXVI 13. Some of the Pharisees were the first that we read of who would not take this Oath of Allegiance but as Josephus tells us L. XVII Antiq. Cap. 3. boasting themselves to be the most exact Observers of the Law of God and therefore the most in his favour while they were full of inward pride arrogance and fraud dared openly to oppose Kings and presumed by their motions to raise War against them and annoy them refusing saith he to take the Oath when all the Jews had sworn to be faithful to Caesar Of this Sect he adds there were above six thousand who were so far from lessening their crime by this refusal and making what they did against his Authority to be no Rebellion that it heightned it very much and was in it self a piece of Rebellion they having a natural Allegiance unto him by being born his Subjects There are some who from the beginning of this Verse argue this Book not to be Solomon's because he saith of himself I observe the mouth i. e. Commandment of the King So they translate the first words which the LXX translate as we do and so do the Chaldee the Syriack and Arabick Interpreters For though the Hebrew word be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ego I it signifies nothing to this purpose because he doth not say I observe but simply I do thou observe There being a distinctive Note between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I and what follows showing that it is a short Form of Speech to be supplied by some such word as this I say or I command or counsel or rather charge thee And the reason perhaps why the principal Verb was omitted might be as the learned Primate of Ireland Usher conjectures because no word could be found significative enough to express the deepness of the Charge Some may think that I have dilated too much upon this Verse but they may be pleased to consider how useful if not necessary it is at this time when men begin again to plead the lawfulness of resistance Which is so plainly condemned in this Place that the most learned Assertors of the Old Cause were extremely puzzled to make it agree with their Principles in the late times of Rebellion There is one who in his Book called Natures Dowrie Chap. 21. calls in the assistance of a great many Hebrew Doctors to help him to another Translation of the words and yet after all is forced to acknowledge that our English is right enough and is content to admit it with this Proviso that the King manage well the affairs of the Common-wealth As much as to say do what they would have him c V. 3. The first word in this Verse is capable of several senses which I have endeavoured to express in the Paraphrase For it originally signifies such a passion and perturbation particularly that of anger and terror as makes a man precipitant in his motions being translated sometimes by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometimes by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the LXX And the meaning of the Wise man is that in pursuance of the foregoing counsel v. 2. we must take care if we desire to live happily to suppress our passions and not to show the least discontent with the Government especially not hastily and rashly to fling our selves as we speak in a fume out of the Kings presence on any occasion much less receive his Commands with impatience or which is worst of all incur his just displeasure by sullen disobedience For though we may think to escape the effects of it we shall find our selves deceived Princes having long arms as the Phrase is to reach those that offend them though they flee never so far from them This is the sense of v. 3. d V. 4. And it is further enlarged in this Verse where Symmachus translates the first words thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Command of the King is authoritative carries such authority with it that it will be executed For the word Shilton from whence learned men have not unfitly derived the Titles of Sultan and Soldan denotes such a power as over-powers and cannot be resisted like that of Death v. 8. to which all must submit And so it follows in the end of this Verse Who may say unto him What doest thou i. e. first Who hath any authority to call him to an account as much as to say none hath but God alone According to that of an eminent Rabbi quoted by the forenamed Primate in the entrance of his Book about Obedience No Creature may judge the King but the Holy and Blessed God alone To allow the people either collective or representative to have power to do it is to make them Accusers Judges and Executioners also in their own cause and that against their Sovereign Nor secondly Can any man safely attempt it but he shall meet with punishment either here or hereafter Which is no new Doctrine but the same with that of St. Paul as Luther here honestly notes they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation which none shall be able to avoid Therefore it is safest simply to obey Magistrates Which he repeats again upon v. 7. A man cannot do better than simply to obey So Preachers saith he should exhort the tumultuous and seditious For judgment vengeance or punishment is ordained and decreed by God to all the disobedient which none shall escape And thus much the Author of Natures Dowry is forced to acknowledge from the evident light he saw in this place that the scope of the words is that as we tender our own safety we ought not to withstand the Magistrate in his Edicts which are consonant to the Word of God And it is Wisdom saith he out of Elisha Gallico an Hebrew Interpreter in a private man when the Magistrate enjoins what is repugnant to God's Will to remove out of his Dominions rather than contest with him Which some conceive to be imported by the word telec go out or go away in the foregoing Verse e V. 5. From whence he again concludes it is the most prudent course as well as most honest to comply with those that have authority over us in a dutiful obedience or