to mourn As in Funerals and publick calamities Chap. 12.5 to daunce i. e. greatly to rejoyce and express joy in the outward behaviour 2 Sam. 6.14 Act. 3.8 5. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather them together Some by this understand the erecting of trophies over conquered enemies as Josh. 8.29 2 Sam. 18.17 18. Zach. 9.16 Others the demolishing or erecting of buildings all ordered by Gods providence Luke 13.4 Judg. 9.53 Lam. 2.2 5 7 8 9. 4.1 Zach. 5.4 Mic. 1.6 2 Reg. 3.25 Mar. 13.1 2. to embrace and to abstain from embracing 1 Cor. 7.5 V. 6. to get Prov. 10.6 to cast away Either out of necessity as Jon. 1.5 Act. 27.18 38. or out of charity Prov. 11.24 Eccles. 11.1 or out of special duty to God Heb. 10.34 Matth. 10.37.38 39. and 19.29 V. 7. To rent As the custome was in mourning Job 1.20 Joel 2 19. to speak to keep silence According to difference of seasons Prov. 26.4 5. 25.11 Amos 5.13 V. 8. A time of war 2 Sam. 11.1 Thus Solomon by an Induction of divers particulars and those very various and each by way of Antithesis with his contrary joyned to him some natural actions some civil some domestical some vitious some vertuous 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 ballancing 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 tranquility and contentment of mind even in contrary conditions because the holy hand of God is in the one as well as in the other Job 1.21 Phil. 4.11 12. V. 9. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth As Chap. 1.3 Matth. 6.27 In vain is it for a man by any anxious toyl to go about to effect any thing according 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 needfull Labour in their Callings but from trusting in or building on their Labours and fretting if such fruits follow not thereupon as they intended and expected but patiently to submit to the holy Will of God unto whom it belongeth to dispose of our persons of our liberties as it pleaseth him Whence observe That carking and caring is indeed a striving with the irresistable providence of God which no labour of ours can alter or bend to our wills Isa. 45.9 Jon. 4.1 8 9. as on the other side glorying of our own strength and wisdome is a robbing him of his honour Deut. 8.17 18. Habak 1.16 Labour is subordinate unto providence but must never strive with it There is no profit to any mâ—n in his Labour without Gods blessing which therefore he must pray for and rejoyce in without fruitless anxiety for the future V. 10. I have seen the travel Chap. 1.13 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 disorder 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 travel to exercise themselves in various and contrary imployments passions events and that he doth though we do not suddenly observe it direct them all unto a beautifull issue all these contraries work together for good Rom. 8.28 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 imployment 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 Gods command and God doth usually dispense his mercies unto us in the use of means and by a blessing on our labours Prov. 10.4 22. Joh. 21.3 6. Act. 27.22 31. And though Labour do not effect what we expected from it but Gods providence should as sometimes it doth act contrary to or diversly from our endeavours 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 effects which would follow thereupon Labour is not only a duty but in this respect 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. 3.17 18 19. V. 11. He hath made every thing beautifull in his time or in the time and proper season thereof This is a further commendation 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 offended 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 Gods providence nor to foresee that frame and feature which he will form them unto at the last yet this is certain that as in the wâ—rk of Creation all things were very good Gen. 1.31 So in the work of Gubernation and Providence 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 Gods whole work is done Isa. 10.12 and they are all put together appear to 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 Printers boxes seem all confused and signifie 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 Davids troubles and Kingdom of Mordecai Esther and Haman of the Jews crucifying of Christ c. Again God hath made every thing beautifull in its time As cold and frost are as orderly as necessary as usefull 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 usefull and needfull for men and in its kind as beautifull as mirth and joy in another season 1 Pet. 1.6 7. Jam. 1.2 3. 5.7 11. Eccles. 7.13 14. Ps. 104.24
4.12 Ezek. 14.5 Isa. 49.2 Ps. 45.5 Rev. 1.16 only his study is in this order first he searcheth and seeketh out wisdome as an antidote against the danger of his second studies to discover the wickedness folly and madness of sensual pleasures And therefore we shall observe that in the particular wickedness which he specifieth in the next verse namely the inticements of a whorish woman he doth often premise the Commendations of wisdome and the study of that as an effectual prevention of that mischief Prov. 2.10 19. 5.1 2 3. 6.6 20 24. Prov. 7.4 5. 9.10 13. V. 26. And I find more bitter than Death the woman whose heart is snares and nets c. He sheweth 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 Repentance 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 cunning devices to deceive and intangle sensual persons are as gins laid to catch silly creatures who are entised with the bait but discern not the danger See Prov. 2.16 6.24 26. 7.5 9.16 17. 22.14 2. By her power her hands wherewith she catcheth holdeth embraceth him are as strong cords to hale simple fools as an oxe to the slaughter Prov. 7.13 21 22. Judg. 16.15 19.2 Here is the great danger of these nets and bands to the souls of men They are more bitter than death More pernitious and bring more heavy miseries with them We read of the bitterness of death 1 Sam. 15.32 and of a worse bitterness the end of a strange woman is bitter as wormwood and her steps take hold on hell Prov. 5.4 5. Death may be sweetned and sanctified made a welcome and desirable thing to a believer 1 Cor. 15.55 Phil. 1.23 Luke 2.29 30. But the bitterness of hell is incurable death may be honourable to dye 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 life and many good works to follow one Rev. 14.13 Phil. 1.21 Ps. 116.16 But to consume and putrifie alive under a Tabes of impure lâ—sts to perish as Tiberius did at Capreae quotidie perire me sentio to shipwrack a mans honour ruine his estate shorten his years consume his flesh put a hell into his conscience to bury his name his substance his soul his carkass in the bosome of an Harlot this is a bitterness beyond that of death Prov. 5.9 10 11. 6.26 33. 9.16 17 18. who so pleaseth God shall escape from her but the sinner shall be taken by her 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 unto a sin which few repent of to take hold of the paths of life again Prov. 2.19 22.14 Amos 7.17 Rom. 1.24 28. Eph. 4.18 19. A man is not preserved from the power of this temptation by his own wisdome or strength but only by the supernatural grace of God V. 27.28 Behold this I have found saith the Preacher c. This which he had spoken of vers 26. or which followeth vers 28. saith the Preacher This added 1. To give credit from his wisdome 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 testifie 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 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 sexe rather than the other for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3.23 and Solomon had known good and wise women as well as men Prov. 18. 22. 19.14 Prov. 12.4 31.10 30. 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 Reg. 11.1 9 Or the sâ—btil 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. 4.11 Judg. 16.17 21. Prov. 7.21 22. 5.6 V. 29. Lo this only 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 men 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 wickedness was not from God nor by creation but from themselves and their willing entertainment of the temptation of the serpent Some more subtilly 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 Because the woman was first in the transgression 1 Tim. 2.14 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 wisdom 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. 1.26 Col. 3.10 But though he were made upright yet he was as a creature mutable so subject to be overcome by temptation and accordingly he did easily admit of the temptation of Satan and sought out many inventions of his own did not content himself with that way to happinesse which God had prescribed but fancied to himself an higher perfection and yielded to follovv those new wayes unto blessedness vvhich Satan and his own deceived heart did
all words that men speak or all things that they do unto thee set not thine heart over-curiously to know them when thou dost know them lay them not to heart be not troubled at them do not set thy self to revenge them let them not disquiet thy mind see them and see them not 1 Sam. 9.20 2 Sam. 13.20 1 Sam. 25.25 1 Sam. 10.27 Prov. 19.11 20.3 It is a great point of wisdome to dissemble injuries to connive at them to take no notice of them to pass them by with meekness and neglect 2 Sam. 16.10 11. This meekness he requireth to be shewed even towards mean and abject persons or towards the poorest servant in a mans family who doth sometimes it may be through our own provocation utter some hard and undutiful speeches against us Joh. 31.13 14. V. 22. for oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thy self likewise hast cursed others The order of the words seems to be inverted for the meaning is thou art conscious to thy self that thou hast oftentimes cursed or spoken evil of others The consideration of our own frequent passions and infirmities should move us patiently to suffer and willingly to pardon the oversights of our brethren Gal. 6.1 Tit. 3.3 Jam. 3.1 2. Matth. 7.1 5. The more sensible any man is of sin in himself the more meek and charitable he will be towards others Pride is the ground of contention and censoriousness Prov. 13.10 V. 23. All this have I proved by wisdome I said I will be wise but it was far from me He professeth the truth of all which he had before taught that wisdome is an excellent protection to a righteous man against his own corruptions and dangers ensuing thereupon and confirmeth it by his own experience and tryal according to that great wisdome which God had given him Yet withal he acknowledgeth how short he came of that perfection in wisdome which he promised himself by the diligent use of means to attain unto Professing the great difficulty he found therein 1. He was endued with the Spirit of God and with his fear which is ever accompanied with spiritual wisdome Ps. 119.99 100. 2. He had a personal and extraordinary promise of wisdome above any other men 1 Reg. 3.12 3. He had used all the means to increase this excellent grace of God in himself 1. He did very highly prize it Prov. 3.13 26. 8.11 12. 2. He had the benefit of a Religious education and his fathers instructions to quicken him in it Prov. 4.4 13. 3. He set his heart wholly upon it that according to the property of wise men he might be yet wiser and get more knowledge Prov. 9.9 10.14 Eccles. 1.13 4. He prayed earnestly unto God for it which is an excellent means to get wisdome Jam. 1.5 Eph. 1.17 Col. 1.9 2 Chron. 1.10 5. He had humility and a due sense of his want of wisdome which also is a fit disposition of heart to be taught of God 1 Cor. 3.18 8.2 Ps. 25.9 Matth. 11.25 1 Reg. 3.7 6. He had all outward furtherances and accommodations towards the getting of it wealth peace power authority to call in all the assistances which might be useful unto him in it Eccles. 2.9 10. 7. He had an extraordinary stock of infused wisdome to begin withal which he greatly improved by long and accurate experience 1 Reg. 4.30 Eccles. 1.16 And yet after all this he professeth That though he said he would be wise Though the purpose of his heart was wholly set upon it yet he found that it was far from him Teaching us thereby 1. The unsearchable deepness and distance of wisdome in its whole wideness from the noblest and most sublime understanding of man Job 28.12 21. 37.15 23. 38. per totum Rom. 11.33 34. 2. That the most perfect Saints are the most sensible of their imperfection as the more delicate the senses are the more sharply are they affected with what offends them Rom. 7.14 24. 12.3 1 Cor. 15.9 10. 13.9 10. 3. That it is the nature of spiritual wisdome to discover spiritual wants and the more the soul knows of God the greater doth it discern and bewail its distance from him as things neerest the Center make more haste unto it Exod. 33.11 18. V. 24. That which is far off and exceeding deep who can find it out Or that which hath been is far off and exceeding deep the word is doubled to note the superlative degree as Prov. 20.14 He sheweth the cause why he was far from wisdome because the works of God whether of Creation Redemption or Providence are very profound abstruse and mysterious greatly distant from the eye and beyond the comprehension of the weak and narrow reason of man Prov. 2.4 Job 11.6 10. Ps. 139.6 V. 25. I applyed mine heart to know and to search and to seek out wisdome c. Or I and my heart turned every way left no means unattempted exactly to discover wisdome c. The using of many words unto one purpose implyes the exquisite and curious search which Solomon made in this inquiry as Deut. 13.14 See Chap. 1.13 17. 2.3 12. Solomon was not so much discouraged by the difficulty as provoked by the excellency of wisdome and made no other use of the profoundness and abstruseness thereof than to multiply his endeavours in searching after it to seek out wisdome and the reason of things The curious art and subtil contrivances of things the same word is used vers 27 29. Chap. 9.10 2 Chron. 26.15 whereby we are taught in the disquisition of knowledge especially that which is spiritual not to content our selves with a superficial shew but to get rooted and grounded principles that we may be able with full assurance to give a reason of the hope which is in us 1 Pet. 3.15 and to have a distinct comprehension of the truth that we may be rooted and fixed on it Eph. 3.16 17 18. 4.14 and give a clear and deliberate Judgement upon it I and my heart That is I did heartily and seriously seek out The copulative Vau doth either import a preposition I with my heart did search as 1 Sam. 14.19 or a more clear explication I that is my heart so the learned conceive that copula many times to signifie as much as That is as Gen. 35.12 1 Chron. 21.12 2 Sam. 17.12 1 Sam. 17.40 28.3 And to know the wickedness of folly even of foolishness and madness Or the foolishness of madness as the Apostles expression is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sinning sin Rom. 7.13 so here the Wise man expresseth the desperate wickedness and folly of corrupt hearts by wickedness of folly and foolishness of madness thereby signifying the vast and deep corruption and deceit which is in the heart of man The knowledge whereof he did search after that he might be the better able to convince and to dissect the consciences of others 1 Cor. 14.24 25. Heb.
Sam. 23.27 28. Job 22.10 Psal. 64.7 V. 13 14 15 16. This wisdome have I seen also under the Sun and it seemed great unto me There was a little City c. These words may be understood either as the Observation of another Vanity namely the disrespect which is shewed unto wisdome when it is over-clouded with poverty by the example or parable of a little City delivered from a great King by a poor despised man or else in Relation to the words next preceding thus Though it be true that sometimes Events fall out contrary to the second causes so that even wise men are disappointed in their works of those ends which regularly should have ensued upon them yet wisdome ought not therefore to be despised no not in the meanest persons for as sometimes God doth deny success to the most proper and probable causes so doth he at other times give great deliverance by unknown and unthought on means The scope is to shew the excellent use of wisdome and how highly it is to be valued though it be as a treasure in an earthen vessel 2 Cor. 4.7 though brought unto us by mean hands as David blessed God for the wise counsel of Abigail 1 Sam. 25.32 33. and Naaman rejected not the advice of a little maid 2 Reg. 5.2 3 4. wisdome in but a woman saved a City from destruction 2 Sam. 20.16 22. It seemed great unto me However the wisdome of the poor man was undervalued by others yet it seemed great unto me so much the greater by how much fewer helps and means he had to attain unto it There was a little City and few men within it Here in a parable he sheweth the excellency of wisdome by the greatness of the danger from which it delivereth set forth by a little City with few men and weak defence assaulted by a great King with a numerous Army and strong bulwarks so that the disadvantage was every way on the City side now there was found in it a poor wise man He found in it Verbs active of the third person are used sometimes passively Isa. 9.6 Hos. 10.2 God many times maketh one wife and holy man a means of delivering a whole people Prov. 11.11 Gen. 50.20 1 Reg. 2.12 1 Sam. 17.8 9 51 52. Deut. 32.30 And he by his wisdome delivered the City As one Archimedes at Syracuse by his Art did more towards the defence of the City then all the rest that were in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet no man remembred that poor man This deliverance was wrought by a poor man whom no man made any account of nor expected any such good from being an obscure unknown person and when he had wrought it no man looked after him to return him thanks for it 2 Cor. 4.7 Then said I wisdome is better then strength As Chap. 7.19 Prov. 21.22 24.3 4 5. Hereby we are taught to consider the goodness of things in comparison one to another and to prefer that which is most excellent 1 Cor. 12.31 7.38 1 Sam. 15.22 V. 17. The words of wise men are heard in quiet more then the cry of him that ruleth among fools Are heard that is ought to be heard As a son honoureth his father Mal. 1.6 that is he ought to honour him are heard in quiet That is either are to be delivered with submission and meekness Prov. 25.15 1 Reg. 12.7 Or Are to be heard with a tractable and calm spirit without pride or contradiction Job 29.21 22. Jam. 1.21 A wise man speaking though without clamour contention or ostentation doth by his weighty and seasonable advice more calm the spirits of his hearers and by his sober and serious counsel more powerfully prevail with them then all the angry and passionate words of such as have more power but no skill to manage it Ille regit dictis animos pectora mulcet V. 18. Wisdome is better then weapons of war but one sinner destroyeth much good Wisdome is not only better then strength but then strength armed and seconded with military provisions the poor mans wisdome did not only deliver the City from the great King and his numerous Army but from his bulwarks and fortifications which he had raised against it but one sinner destroyeth much good By the opposition between a sinner and a wise man It is evident that Solomons Wise man here is also a godly man otherwise God useth to infatuate and defeat the counsels of worldly wisdome 2 Sam. 15.31 Isa. 19.11 14. Isa. 29.14 44.25 1 Cor. 1.19 one sinner Some render it Qui in uno peccat He that in war through folly and inadvertency committeth one Errour may destroy a whole Army for they say In bello non licet bis peccare That one Errour in Absalom in preferring the counsel of Hushai before Achitophels did undo his whole enterprize But it is rather to be understood in opposition to the one poor wise man vers 15. one wicked man like Achan will endanger the Camp Josh. 7.1 5. 1 Cor. 5.6 as one leak in a ship one spark in a barrel of gun-powder will suddenly undo all One fool can throw a jewel into the Sea which a thousand wise men cannot get up again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—rex totus in agris unius Scabie cadit CHAP. X. IN the later end of the former Chapter he shewed the excellent use of godly wisdome in order unto tranquillity both private and publick and the mischief which one fool might do in destroying much good which last clause in that Chapter he proceedeth in the beginning of this to demonstrate by three instances shewing first how folly destroyes a good name which he illustrateth by an excellent similitude vers 1. Secondly how it spoils a mans actions and undertakings which by wisdome might be dexterously managed vers 2. Thirdly How it defaceth a mans whole behaviour and conversation vers 3. Then he proceedeth to shew the excellent use of true wisdome in relation to our behaviour towards Princes and Persons in Authority whereby through prudent Caution meekness and gracious deportment a man may restrain in himself all thoughts speeches or attempts tending unto rebellion and may allay and pacifie the displeasure which had been conceived against him in the mind of the Ruler whereas folly transporting a man into any disloyal resolutions doth but ruine himself and end in fruitless and weary labour Concerning those kind of disloyal Affections He sheweth First The Rise and occasion of them which may be double First Undutifull and Revengefull passions upon any private displeasure of the Ruler against us in our own particular persons vers 4. Secondly Envy or Indignation growing out of Errors in Government when a man observes foolish and unworthy persons to be advanced and those more Honourable and deserving to be depressed and discountenanced vers 5.6 7. Secondly he sheweth the great danger of Disloyalty and that 1. In regard of actions and attempts which usually prove pernitious to their