into the Well Melancthon by Cistern understanding the Stomach the Word signifying saith he a profound Cavity takes the Wheel for the Guts adjoining thereunto which are wrapt about one another in a kind of Circular form and make the Mesentery look like a Wheel Which Grotius seems also to have had in his mind But taking it for granted that a Wheel being an Instrument of Circulation is the Hieroglyphick of something that goes and makes a round in us I think Dr. Smith's conjecture is most probable that hereby is meant the great Artery with all its Branches which is the great instrument of rotation or circulation in the Body of man and so evidently thrusts the Blood forward that we perceive its Pulses forcing the Blood along its Cavity in the Wrists the Temples and other Parts of the Body Without which Instrument to compel it the Blood that naturally tends home to the heart would go no further And then the Cistern from whence this Wheel forces the Liquor and conveys it through all the Parts is the left Ventricle of the Heart to which this great Artery is annexed and from whence it ariseth For a Cistern is a Vessel made on purpose to receive a due proportion of Water and to keep it till the time of use and then conveniently to pass it into Vessels that are prepared to receive it from thence And such is the left Ventricle of the Heart which in its Diastole as they call it receives the Blood that is brought into it from the Lungs and then keeping it there a little doth in its Systole pass due proportions thereof into the great Artery to be dispensed as was said before And for this end there are little Valves or Falling doors placed at the entrance and at the going out of this Cistern which are like Cocks to let in and to let out and by their opening or shutting give convenient passage or stoppage to the Liquor which continually runs that way And so the breaking or shaking in pieces as Forsterus translates the Word of this Wheel is the ceasing of the Pulse so he in another place translates it trodden down i. e. suppressed by the decay of the instruments of Pulsations which can no longer perform that work Which being absolutely necessary for the preservation of life the ceasing of it is death g V. 7. And so the Body made of a mouldering substance being no longer a fit habitation for the Spirit and therefore deserted by it which held the parts of it together shall crumble again into the Earth out of which it originally came according to that Sentence passed upon Adam in the beginning Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return III. Gen. 19. This Body was no better in its first Principles and though now we are very fond of it as if it were some goodly thing yet when the Spirit leaves it it will appear to be indeed but Dust But the Spirit the nobler part of man being of an higher Original shall return to God who sent it into the Body to be disposed of by Him according to the Sentence that he should pass upon it For the Chaldee Paraphrase's Explication of the latter part of this Verse is very apposite It shall return that it may stand in judgment before God For Elohim the Word here for God in the Hebrew Language signifies a Judge As in the place above-mentioned 1 Sam. XXVIII 9. There is a Sentence not much unlike to this I have observed in Plutarch's Consolatory Discourse to Apollonius upon the death of his Son where he alledges amongst a great many other this Saying of Epicharmus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h V. 8. And now having thus demonstrated his first Proposition he elegantly repeats the Exordium or entrance of his Book as is here observed by St. Hierom whose Words are so significant that I cannot but translate them as an excellent Gloss upon this Verse For since all the labour of mortal man of which Solomon hath disputed in this whole Book amounts to this That the Dust returns to its Earth and the Soul returns thither from whence it was taken it is an excess of vanity to labour for this world and to gather nothing for the future where he is to live for ever and to be judged according to his behaviour here This only may be added That here he enters upon the Conclusion of his Discourse and divides it into two Parts as he had done the foregoing Book First He summs up what he had said in the six first Chapters concerning the false ways men take to happiness in this Verse which he backs by several serious Considerations in those that fol ow unto Verse 13. Where secondly he summs up what he hath said from Chap. VII to this place concerning the true way to happiness which lies only in a due regard to God and his Commandments i V. 9. The first Word of this Verse is variously translated and the whole Verse applied by Interpreters either to confirm what was said before concerning the false methods men take to happiness as if he had said I have done when I have told you that you may believe me who am sufficiently able to inform you and not think to meet with better information from other mens Writings or from your own experience or as an introduction to what he intends to say ver 13 14. concerning the right method to be happy Which he prepares the Reader to attend unto and receive into his mind first by asserting his own great Authority in this Verse who the wiser he was the more desirous he was both to teach and to learn And then the weighty Doctrine which he taught v. 10. And the great usefulness of it v. 11. The like to which they would find no where else v. 12. It is not very material which of these ways we take but I have had respect to both in my Paraphrase where I have expressed the sense so fully that I cannot think fit to enlarge any further upon this Verse But only note that Luther and he alone I think expounds the first Words thus not absurdly nor disagreeing with the Hebrew Text There remained nothing to the Preacher but that he was wise c. He understood and taught aright and took a great deal of pains which was a great satisfaction to himself but he saw little or no success of it in others who would not be governed by his Advice c. k V. 10. This Verse runs thus word for word in the Hebrew The Preacher carefully sought to meet with desirable words and the writing of uprightness and the words of truth Where writing may refer both to what he read in others whether Divine or Humane Authors and to what he wrote himself and so I have expounded it in the Paraphrase which he commends from three Heads pleasure or delight usefulness and certainty Some fansie that Solomon wrote a Book called Catub Jascher the Writing of Uprightness or Jascher
was love 4. Which administers the highest joys to those who taste of them and hath entertained or rather feasted me with such delicious hopes that I cannot but glory in this that I am listed under his Banner whose Motto is Love whereby He hath overcome shall I say or over-powered my heart to submit my self wholly unto his wonderful love See Annot. d 5. Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love 5. Under the weight of which who can support himself when it sensibly touches his heart I faint I languish I die when I am deeply affected with that love which overwhelms my spirit and makes me call for a greater Power than my own to enable me to bear the thoughts of his mighty love See Annot. e 6. His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me 6. And whence should I have that power but from Himself who then communicates most of the Grace of his Holy Spirit to us which is the greatest token of his love when he sees our hearts fullest of love to Him See Annot. f Bridegroom 7. I charge you O ye daughters of Jerusalem by the roes and by the hinds of the field that ye stir not up nor awake my love till he please 7. In which He would have us take an uninterrupted pleasure saying I beseech I charge you all you that are her Companions I conjure you by all that is dear to you not to discompose or give the least disturbance to that love but let it enjoy its satisfaction to the height of its desires See Annot. g Spouse 8. ¶ The voice of my beloved behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains skipping upon the hills 8. Which Words of Grace can come from none but Him who is worthy of all our love whom behold I see though He be afar off I see with what delight He comes surmounting all difficulties and discouragements to do the Will of God XL. Psa 7 8. See Annot h 9. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart behold he standeth behind our wall he tooketh forth at the windows shewing himself through the lattise 9. The swift motion of the Roes and wild Goats is but a weak Emblem of his readiness to come down to us And though He do not yet actually show Himself among us I see notwithstanding something of Him and behold Him approaching nearer and nearer to us like one that resolving to be our Guest doth not presently enter but first stands behind the Wall of our House then looks in at the Window and through the Lattises or Grates whereby He is still more fully discovered See Annot. i 10. My beloved spake and said unto me Rise up my love my fair one and come away 10. And I hear his voice who is worthy of all our love calling unto us to meet Him with our most forward desires saying Awake thou who art most dear unto me thou who art most beautiful in my eyes arise and stay no longer but come away from these dark representations of me 11. For lo the winter is past the rain is over and gone 11. For now that dismal time is past wherein ignorance errour and wickedness overflowed the World as Floods do the Earth in the Winter-Season those cloudy and uncomfortable days are over wherein you couldst see and enjoy but little of me See Annot. k 12. The flowers appear on the earth the time of the singing of birds is come and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land 12. All the tokens of a new World appear and invite thee to come and partake of those joys and pleasures which the nearer approaches of the Sun of righteousness produces Who makes all manner of Blessings spring up in such abundance that it causes the heavenly Host to sing for joy and therefore cannot but fill all Mankind with joyful Hymns unto Him See Annot. l 13. The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell Arise my love my fair one and come away 13. And for this especially that their dead hopes are revived and they receive the earnest and beginnings of that future bliss the expectation of which is our greatest comfort in this life and the consummation of it our highest happiness in the next And therefore I say again Awake and stir up thy desires thou who art most dear unto me thou who art most lovely in my eyes arise and go and take possession of those inestimable benefits See Annot. m Bridegroom 14. ¶ O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock in the secret places of the stairs let me see thy countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely 14. And be not afraid of those who seeking to destroy thee force thee to flee like an innocent Dove to hide thy self and seek for safety in Holes of the Earth in Caves and Dens and secret places but from thence look up unto me and call upon me with praises and thanksgivings and I will save and deliver thee for I love thee inseparably who art most amiable in my eyes whose prayers and praises I delight to hear and to behold my own Image that is formed in thee See Annot. n 15. Take us the foxes the little foxes that spoil the vines for our vines have tender grapes 15. And therefore I require all those that act by authority from me and to whom I have committed the care of my Church to use their early diligence also to discover and confute the sophistry of Deceivers who craftily insinuate their false Doctrines into weak and incautious Souls and thereby seduce those who are newly converted or but infirm in the Faith See Annot. o Spouse 16. ¶ My beloved is mine and I am his he feedeth among the lilies 16. Unto which I hear the Church reply I will preserve my fidelity to Him who is my only Beloved as I am his I will have nothing to do with those seducing Spirits but adhere to Him alone whose Dwelling is not among subtile and crafty but with simple and candid Souls See Annot. p 17. Until the day break and the shadows flee away turn my beloved and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether 17. Only let Him be pleased to vouchsafe his gracious presence with me and to enlighten me more and more till we have a full knowledge of Him and of his Will XIII Rom. 11 12. and the light of it scatter all the shadows of the law Let my Beloved also make haste to succour and relieve me in all difficulties and distresses and show the same readiness for my preservation that he did v. 9. for my first salvation See Annot. q ANNOTATIONS a Verse 1. There is so little ground to apply the several Parts of this Song to the several Ages of the Church till the end of all things that I cannot think fit
suitable to what the Psalmist saith V. Psal 1. and Jeremiah XXI 12. XXV 2 3. Thus Theodoret here expounds it It behoveth us to use all sitting diligence in visiting those that have already received the preaching whether they bring forth more than Leaves and especially whether any Beginnings of Charity appear among them For so he expounds if the pomegranates bud forth And this saith he is the greatest expression of love to Him which He makes the meaning of the last Words there will I give thee my loves For what care we bestow upon them He accounts as done to Himself according to his own Words in as much as you have done it to one of the least of these ye have done it unto me The Vines may signifie the lesser sort of people and the Pomegranates the greater n V. 13. The Word Dudaim is found only here and in the XXX Gen. 14. Where we read how Jacob's Wives contended for them as a most precious that is a rare and delicious Fruit. For none can imagine they strove about that now called by us Mandrakes which are of a stinking smell and very offensive or about any ordinary Flower such as Violets or Jasemin by which some-expound this Word which they might have sent out their Maids to gather easily every where Ludolphus therefore in his late Ethiopick History L. I. C. IX n. 23. hath happily conjectured that it signifies the Fruit which the Arabians call Mauz or Muza called by some the Indian Fig which in the Abyssine Country is as big as a Cucumber and of the same form and shape Fifty of which grow upon one and the same Stalk and are of a very sweet taste and smell From which cognation as he calls it of a great many upon the same Stalk he thinks it took the name of dudaim Which some derive from dod either as it signifies love or a breast with which they fansie this Fruit to have had resemblance So the sense of this Verse is that they found more there than they expected or that by her care the most excellent Fruit was produced from people of the best rank who may be understood by this most rare sort of Fruit and that every where so that they needed not to be at the trouble to go far to gather it For at their very Gates there where Megadim all precious Spices mentioned before IV. 13. V. 1. and those both new and old a Phrase for plenty and variety which as a faithful Steward she saith she had laid up for Him with the same care that we do the most precious Treasure So the Word zephanti I have laid up is used XVII Psal 13. CXIX 11. At the gates may also signifie as much as just ready to be gathered or to be brought home Some apply new and old to the knowledge of the Old and New Testament by which Idolatry was vanquished and true Religion planted in the World and they think our Lord Himself alludes to this place in those Words XIII Matth. 52. where he speaks of a wise Scribe that bringing forth out of his Treasures things new and old Others apply new and old unto those Vertues that flow only from Faith Hope and Charity and those that are planted in us by Nature But I think it may most aptly be accommodated to the spiritual Gifts which were newly bestowed upon the Church by the Holy Ghost after our Lord went to Heaven and the temporal Blessings which they enjoyed before which were now all reserved for Him to be employed in his service And so these Words seem to me to have a respect unto the CX Psal 3. where it is said In the day of his power they should be a people of free-will Offerings For when men give up themselves to God sincerely they readily devote all they have to his uses when He hath occasion for it And thus the first Christians at Jerusalem did who brought all their Goods into his Treasury and other Nations afterward made plentiful Oblations as need required thereby fulfilling another Prophecy LXXII Psal 10.15 Unto which Megadim may have respect for such precious things as Silver and Gold as well as the excellent Fruits of Trees are called by this name as may be seen XXXIII Deut. 13 14 15 16. CHAP. VIII ARGUMENT The first four Verses belong to the end of the foregoing Chapter wherein the Spouse continuing her ardent desire to see his Kingdom enlarged He agreees to it And then begins v. 5. the ninth and last part of this Song in which all the persons speak in their turns Her Friends admiring her new advancement and the Spouse declaring the mighty power of love whereby she had attained it and hoped to keep it and was made desirous to propagate it unto those that wanted it v. 6 7 8. Which the Bridegroom favours v. 9. and they all promising greater industry in his service He testifies his acceptance of it and she her longing to see all this accomplished v. 10 11 c. Spouse 1. O That thou wert as my brother that sucked the breasts of my mother when I should find thee without I would kiss thee yea I should not be despised 1. AND now having finished this Blessed Work I hope to enjoy more intimate fellowship with thee I cannot but wish at least to be made so happy as to have thy gracious presence always with me and by familiar acquaintance and conversation to be so united with thee that I may not be ashamed openly to own my love but look upon it as an honour to make a publick profession of my relation to Thee See Annot. a 2. I would lead thee and bring thee into my mothers house who would instruct me I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate 2. Whereby I would carry the knowledge of Thee from place to place till I had introduced Thee into the acquaintance of my nearest Kindred which would enlarge my knowledge and make new Discoveries to me and cause no less joy unto Thee and unto all the World to see them give entertainment to Thee See Annot. b 3. His left hand should be under my head and his right hand should embrace me 3. And thanks be to his Goodness I I feel Him communicating the power of his Spirit to me which is the greatest token of his love and then works most strongly in our hearts when he sees them fullest of love to Him See Annot. c Bridegroom 4. I charge you O daughters of Jerusalem that ye stir not up nor awake my love until he please 4. Who with his wonted care or rather with a more earnest concern than ever repeats his charge to my Companions saying I conjure you to take heed lest you discompose or give the least disturbance to this love but let it enjoy its satisfaction to the heighth of its desires See Annot. d Daughters of Jerusalem 5. Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning upon her
Author of this Book than Solomon Who if he did not write it himself it is certain spake the things contained in it and calls himself the PREACHER because of the great gravity and dignity of the Subject whereof he treats of which he was wont to speak frequently Chap. XII 9. desiring it might be understood and laid to heart by the whole Congregation of Israel as the Word Coheleth seems to import which in the Aethiopick language signifies a Circle or a Company of men gathered together in the form of a Circle as Ludolphus hath lately observed For the scope of this Discourse is concerning the chief Good or happiness of man the great end he should propose to himself all his life long Which is not that he shows which men generally follow but that which is generally neglected For most men mind nothing but just what is before them which they will find at last as he had done by sad experience to be mere vanity utterly unable to quiet their minds Which must therefore seek for satisfaction in something else and after all their busie thoughts designs and labours come to this Conclusion that to fear God and keep his Commandments is the happiness of man who ought therefore to use all the pleasures of this World which is the only Good it can afford us with a constant respect to the future account we must all make to God V. This it appears by the beginning and the end of this Book is the Scope of it Vnto which they that will not attend are wont to pick out here and there a loose Sentence which agrees with their desires and then please themselves with a fancy that they have got Solomon on their side to help to maintain their infidelity Not considering what he asserts directly contrary in other places Where he presses the greatest and most serious reverence to Almighty God IV. 17. V. 1 2 c. VIII 12 13. XII 13. together with a remembrance of the future Judgment III. 17. XI 9. XII 14. Works of mercy and charity also whereby we may do good to others XI 1 2 c. and the contempt of those frivolous pleasures which draw our hearts from God and from good works II. 2. VII 2 c. All which plainly shew that those words which seem to countenance men in their neglect of Religion and open a Gap to licentiousness are only Opinions which he intends to confute according to the method he had propounded to himself in this Book Wherein he first represents the various ends men drive at which in the very entrance of it that men might not mistake his meaning he pronounces to be so vain that he had not words significant enough to express their vanity and then their different Opinions about God and his Providence and their own souls and what thoughts he himself had tossed up and down in his mind which at last came to that resolution I mentioned before wherewith he ends his Book In the close of which to give the greater weight unto what he had said he adds this That these were not only the result of his own thoughts but the judgment of other Wise men with whom he had consulted Let no man therefore deceive himself to use the grave words of Castalio as some I wish I could say a few have done who not minding the end and drift of this Book but having met with some one place in it that seems to favour their beloved lusts lay hold on that Scrap alone and with that endeavour to defend their licentious course of life As if they expected they should find God just such a Judge hereafter as they are of themselves at present VI. To comprise all in a few words The sense of the whole Sermon as we may call it seems to be comprehended in this Syllogism Whatsoever is vain and perishing cannot make men happy But all mens designs here in this World are vain and perishing Therefore They cannot by prosecuting such designs make themselves happy The Proposition is evident in it self and needs no Proof The Assumption therefore he demonstrates in the six first Chapters by an enumeration of Particulars as I shall shew in the Argument before or Annotations upon each Chapter And then proceeds in the rest of the Book to advise men unto the best course to make themselves happy evidently proving all along from this inconstancy and vanity of all things here that he who wishes well to himself ought to raise his mind above them to the Creator of the World and expecting to give an account to Him so to demean himself in the use of all earthly enjoyments that he devoutly acknowledge his Divine Majesty fearing and worshipping Him and doing his Will Such indeed is the dulness of Mankind that hearing all was but vanity they might condemn every thing as evil and hurtful and declaim too bitterly against this World Which was so far from Solomon's intention that having explained the vanity of all our injoyments here and the vanity of humane cares solicitous desires and endeavours he perswades all men to be content with things present to give God thanks for them to use them freely with quiet minds living as pleasantly and taking as much liberty as the remembrance of a future account will allow void of anxious and troublesome thoughts what will become of them hereafter in this life VII But it may not be amiss perhaps to give a larger account of this Sermon and let the Reader see in what method it proceeds For many men imagine it to be a confused Discourse which doth not hang together and therefore have explained this Book only by giving an account of the meaning of each Verse as if it were a distinct Sentence independant on the rest like those in his Proverbs But Antonius Corranus a most excellent person in a small Discourse of his upon this Book written above an hundred years ago hath drawn such a Scheme of it as I believe will satisfie those who consider it that Solomon proceeds after an exact order to deduce what he intended And therefore I will translate the sense of what he saith into English which is to this purpose VIII The design of the Author is to find out and to shew What it is in which the chief good and compleat felicity of man doth consist As appears by this that reflecting upon various things in which men place their happiness at the end of his Discourse upon every one of them he rejects them as utterly insufficient for that purpose but continues his search so far till at last he finds it and declares in the concluding Epiphonema that he had been seeking it through the whole Discourse saying the summ of the matter is this Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of man Now there are two principal Parts of the whole Sermon The first of which contains a recital and confutation of mens false Opinions about their Chiefest Good the other
in a zealous passion much less in a melancholy mood but remember that I have long sat upon a Throne ruling over God's own peculiar people in that City which is the very School of Wisdom where I wanted nothing either for the body or the mind and had both opportunity and ability to make tryal of all things wherein men place their happiness and therefore may be believed when I declare nothing but from my own experience See Annot. g 13. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven this sore travel hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith 13. And being thus instructed with all the helps and assistances that the power of such a King could afford I applied my mind in the first place and set my Wits to work with all imaginable care and diligence to search into the nature of all Creatures here below thinking I should be happy if I could but find out the causes beginnings and progresses of things especially the counsels contrivances and endeavours of Mankind with the events of all their actions But alas I soon found that this was a tedious business in which when I had travelled a great way I met with small satisfaction nay found it to be the torture of the mind unto which God hath condemned mankind as a punishment for their vain curiosity and gross negligence of heavenly Wisdom See Annot. h 14. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit 14. And having now finished these Studies and taken a serious view of all that falls within the compass of humane knowledge I cannot say that they have given me any solid contentment for we can know but little and what we do know of natural things doth us small service it puffs us up indeed like Wind but gives no nourishment it fills us with Notions but of little or no use and therefore vexes us at last and breaks our heart to consider that we have spent so much time and so many thoughts which have even eaten up our Spirits to so little purpose See Annot. i 15. That which is crooked cannot be made straight and that which is wanting cannot be numbred 15. For as there are inexplicable difficulties in all sorts of knowledge of which no man can give an account so with all our study we cannot get skill enough either to prevent misfortunes or to remove out of the way that which crosseth our designs much less to alter the nature of things no not so much as in our own Constitutions nor to redress the disorders in Government the defects in which and in all other things and conditions we are so far from being able to supply that we cannot number them and yet the folly of Mankind represents every thing to their desires as if it were completely good and wanted nothing to make one happy See Annot. k 16. I communed with mine own heart Saying Lo I am come to great estate and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem yea my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge 16. I my self still persisted in my reach after knowledge though I found it so painful and so unsatisfactory thinking within my self that there was this Good at least in it that it had gotten me a very great Name and raised me so high in all mens opinion that I was noted for the wisest person that had ever been in these Parts of the World there being no sort of knowledge wherewith my mind was not stored in great abundance See Annot. l 17. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit 17. And as the nature of all knowledge is to excite a thirst after more this made me apply my mind more earnestly to comprehend not only the greatest but the meanest matters to mark for instance the actions and occupations of mad men and Fools as well as the motions of wiser persons but I perceived that to be pleased merely with fame was to live upon Air and it was an afflicting thought to observe how little the most of the World tho' they thought themselves very wise differed from Lunaticks and distracted Folk See Annot. m 18. For in much wisdom is much grief and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow 18. So that though knowledge be the most excellent of all other Earthly Goods being the Ornament of the mind which is the best part of us yet this also is insufficient for our happiness because after it hath cost a man infinite pains and sometimes exhausted his spirits and made him melancholy and morose nay thrown him into many Diseases to acquire that little Wisdom he can attain which raises also more doubts than it can resolve and meets with troublesome opposition from various Opinions that clash against it it cannot but fill him with indignation to find folly generally applauded more than his wisdom and grieve his very soul to see that it is dangerous for a man to know more than his Neighbours and that he is so far from being able to remedy what is amiss that he is hated if he endeavour it and rewarded with reproaches for his care of the publick good See Annot. n ANNOTATIONS a V. 1. The Wisdom Vertue and Dignity of an Author making his Work more valuable and regarded Solomon or he who composed this Book from what he had heard him deliver or found in his Writings begins with his Quality not merely as a King and as the Son of a Great King and of a great people in a famous City but which was most of all considerable as a publick Instructor having ability and authority to inform all men where they should find that happiness which they ignorantly sought but could not meet withal This he proclaims with a loud voice desiring serious attention to such a weighty Discourse and that they would often recollect as he had done all which may be the import of the word Koheleth * See Preface num IV. how frivolous and trivial all those things are which most men pursue with the greatest earnestness b V. 2. This is the Subject of this Book to show how sensless it is to place our happiness in these frail and inconstant things that we enjoy upon this Earth which he not only pronounces but proves to be mere emptiness So Vanity signifies and what is consequent upon that dissatisfaction trouble and affliction See Psal LXXVIII 33. And this beyond what can be expressed for our Translators take it to be a word of the same import with Tohu which is used in the Hebrew language when they would signifie that of which they speak to be so trivial that it is below less than nothing XL. Isai 17. And yet Solomon is not content with this single word but doubles it to
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
them but with a mixture of Wisdom as he tells us v. 3. Whereby he soon perceived that they who leave the pursuit of Knowledge for the sake of bodily pleasure change for the worse For after he had tried all sorts of things that could give him any pleasure he went back to Wisdom and Knowledge as the better of the two v. 12. And yet after he had considered that again the second time he could not but confess that there were such great imperfections in it that it could not make a man happy as he discourses in the following Verses Of which I shall give a more paticular account in the Annotations 1. I Said in mine heart Go to now I will prove thee with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity 1. BEing thus disappointed therefore in the expectations I had of happipiness from much Wisdom and Knowledge and beholding many men look jollily who had none at all I resolved to leave off those troublesome cares and labours and to follow my pleasures saying to my self Why dost thou vex and torment thy mind to no purpose Let alone these crabbed Studies which hasten Old Age and indulge thy self in all those sweet delights which Youth desires Try what satisfaction mirth and joy can give thee and for that end take no thought for the future but enjoy to the heighth the present Goods of this life Which accordingly I did but believe me though this promised much at first it performed little but left me more void of contentment than it found me See Annot. a 2. I said of laughter It is mad and of mirth What doeth it 2. For the noise the tumult the indecent motions and scurrilous jestings of men that let themselves loose to excessive laughter and extragavant merriment appeared to me like distraction of mind and considering how unprofitable it is I could not but with a passionate disdain put it from me saying of it and of mirth and dancing and all the frolickness of mankind What is there in it that thus bewitcheth them Where lies the pleasure that thus inchants them and puts them so beside themselves that they think neither of God nor of any thing else that is worthy of them but of this alone See Annot. b 3. I sought in mine heart to give my self unto wine yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom and to lay hold on folly till I might see what was that good for the sons of men which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life 3. I deliberated therefore with my self about a middle course of life which should neither be altogether studious nor altogether voluptuous but a mixture of both and in pursuance of this counsel entertained my self freely with all the delights of feasting and banquetting yet so as not to lose my acquaintance with Wisdom but to keep my mind so intent upon it that Folly might not have its full swing but find a check upon it till I might make a sufficient tryal whether herein lay that so-much-desired Good which men should propose to themselves and prosecute all the time of their stay in this World See Annot. c 4. I made me great works I builded me houses I planted me vineyards 4. For which end I raised with exquisite Art the most stately and majestick works that could be contrived for the pleasure of all the senses As first of all I built my self a most magnifient Palace and other goodly Houses which when I had elegantly adorned and sumptuously furnished I proceeded to plant about them in a beautiful order the choicest Vines VIII Cant. 11. which besides the fragrant smell II. Cant. 13. and the lovely sight wherewith they entertained me abroad afforded the most generous Wines for my table at home See Annot. d 5. I made me Gardens and orchards and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits 5. To which I added delicious Gardens full of various Flowers Herbs and Plants for all the Seasons of the Year and then spacious Forests and Parks or rather Paradises of Pleasure wherein besides other delights were lovely Shades and Coverts for all sorts of Beasts nor were Orhards wanting stored with all kinds of Fruit-Trees which either this or other Countries could afford See Annot. e 6. I made me pools of water to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees 6. And that nothing might be want-in to the perfection or preservation of these places I made with great charge and no less Art either Fountains or Cisterns or Pools of Water not only for delight and for Fish but to serve instead of Rain to water the Flowers and Herbs especially the young Nurseries of Trees that they might not die with Drought See Annot. f 7. I got me servants and maidens and had servants born in my house also I had great possessions of great and small cattel above all that were in Jerusalem before me 7. All which requiring the care of a great many persons I purchased Servants both men and women in great abundance of whom I had a multitude of Children born in my house whom I employed in looking after my other possessions which I had in Herds and Flocks of greater and lesser Cattel which were so numerous that I killed every day for my Family ten Oxen crammed in the Stalls and twenty Oxen out of the Pastures with an hundred Sheep besides Harts and Roe-Bucks and Fallow-Deer and fatted Fowl to say nothing of other provision 1 Kin. IV. 22 23. and yet such was the plenty my Stock did not decrease because a new Brood grew up continually in such abundance as the like had never been seen in our Country before my days See Annot. g 8. I gathered me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces I gat me men-singers and women-singers and the delights of the sons of men as musical instruments and that of all sorts 8. By which and divers other means 1 King IV. 21. X. 21 22 23 c. 2 Chron. IX 24. I laid up vast Treasures of Silver and Gold and Jewels and all that was choice and precious in other Kingdoms especially in those Provinces which were subject unto me which were great and many 1 Kin. IV. 24. out of whom I picked also the sweetest voices that could be found both of Men and Women together with the rarest Songs and Hymns composed by the best Masters in the World and all sorts of Instruments of Musick than which nothing is more charming among the Children of men either to lay them asleep when they would go to rest or to recreate their spirits when they are tired with business to banish melancholy when they are oppressed with sorrow and to augment their pleasure when they would be merry being no less fit to wait upon Feasts than they that attend at the Table See Annot. h 9. So I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem also
my wisdom remained with me 9. Thus I was not only great in place and power and riches but by such means as these added splendor also to my greatness and made it more conspicuous and illustrious and which is still more glorious I was not greater in any thing than in Wisdom which was not undermined by all these pleasures but when they were in danger to dethrone my Reason this settled it again in its former State and Authority See Annot. i 10. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them I withheld not my heart from any joy for my heart rejoyced in all my labour and this was my portion of all my labour 10. And on the other side my Wisdom did not lay such restraints upon me but that I took the liberty to please my eyes and all my senses with every thing that fell within the wide compass of their desires It did not deny me any joy to which I had a mind but taught me rather to reap this as the sweet fruit of all my labours there being nothing it showed me that came to my share of all that I had gotten with so much care and diligence but only the free enjoyment of it without which I had as good have been without it See Annot. k 11. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to do and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the Sun 11. But then after I had considered seriously how small a thing this pleasure was how short and how often interrupted and laid in the balance against it all the time I had spent and the pains I had taken in contriving these magnificent Buildings Gardens Paradises and all the rest it seemed to me as nothing and I cannot but leave this Observacion behind me That all this is empty and unsatisfying to the Spirit of man and there is also much vexation and torment in it to see how cross things go many times to our desires how negligent they are who should look after such great works as mine were but especially in this that a man can reap so little benefit and so transient from such vast and long labours v. chap. I. v. 3 14. See Annot. l 12. And I turned my self to behold wisdom and madness and folly for what can the man do that cometh after the king even that which hath been already done 12. Wherefore I began to reflect upon my former thoughts and to turn them back again towards Wisdom as the only Good of man ch I. 13 17. and especially that Wisdom which moderates our pleasures and keeps them from running into madness and folly and who is there that can give a better account of this than I who have had such advantages above any private man to know the History of former times as well as of my own that I am confident they who come after can pass no other judgment upon things than I do now 13. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly as far as light excelleth darkness 13. For I clearly discerned that there is as wide a difference between Wisdom and Folly as there is between the light of the Sun which beautifies the whole World and shows all things distinctly to us and the darkness of the Night which wraps up all in dismal confusion and hides even our dangers from us 14. The wise mans eyes are in his head but the fool walketh in darkness and I my self perceived also that one event happeneth to them all 14. Whence it is that a Wise man having this light in his mind looks before him and round about him which makes him cautious and well aware of dangers into which a blundering Fool whose mind is blinded with the sottish love of pleasure falls rashly and inconsiderately And yet with all his circumspection so imperfect are all things here in which we place our happiness the wisest man is not able to avoid a great many calamities which are common to the whole race of mankind 15. Then said I in my heart As it happeneth to the fool so it happeneth even to me and why was I then more wise Then I said in my heart that this also is vanity 15. Which reflection made me sigh and think with my self if notwithstanding this excellence of Wisdom above Folly the very same Diseases loss of Children and Friends and innumerable Casualties happen unto me even unto me who know so much that there do unto a Fool to what purpose have I taken all this pains and studied so hard to be wiser than he and upon this review of all that Wisdom can and cannot do for us I concluded again the second time that there is a Vanity also in this which makes it uncapable of giving us full satisfaction See Annot. m 16. For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever seeing that which now is in the days to come shall be forgotten and how dieth the wise man as the fool 16. For as both wise and foolish are alike subject unto Death so when they are dead their Names live not long after them but they and all their famous atchievements are forgotten there being few of those things which are now done that will be so much as thought of in the next Generation much less in future Ages when the Memory of them will be utterly lost and cannot be recovered and is not this a lamentable Case that a Wise man hath no more privilege than a Fool either from Death or from its inseparable Companion Oblivion See Annot. n 17. Therefore I hated life because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me for all is vanity and vexation of spirit 17. This put me quite out of love with life because the toil and labour of it is so great and grievous and the pleasure it yields either interrupted and spoiled by many unforeseen accidents or quite taken away by Death which leaves no footsteps of us behind us for nothing is constant or of long continuance nothing solid nothing satisfactory here but all our enjoyments leave us as empty as he is that feeds only upon the Wind nay it torments us to see that we must take great pains too for such vain and fading things chap. I. 14. 18. ¶ Yea I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me 18. And besides all this there are other Reasons which made me despise all those goodly Structures which I had erected and those beautiful works which I had contrived v. 4 5 6 c. because as I cannot keep them long my self so I must leave them to I know not whom to a Stranger perhaps who without any pains of his enjoys the fruit of all my labour 19. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool yet shall he
have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured and wherein I have shewed my self wise under the sun This is also vanity 19. Or if my Son succeed me in the possession of them there is no man can assure me whether he will wisely preserve and improve what I have gotten or foolishly squander all away in short whether he will prove a worthy or an unworthy Inheritor of my labours And yet such as he is he must have an absolute power over all that I leave to dispose of it as he pleaseth and sottishly perhaps to waste in a little time what I with prudent care and diligence have been heaping up all my life long This is a great addition to humane misery and renders even the Study of Wisdom very vain which cannot find a remedy for these evils 20. Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun 20. Which are so great that instead of pursuing my designs for this World I turned my thoughts the quite contrary way and like one perfectly tired I concluded it best to leave off all further cares about any thing here despairing to reap any satisfaction from all my labours particularly to attain any certainty what kind of mun he will be who shall inherit them 21. For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom and in knowledge and in equity yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion This also is vanity and a great evil 21. For what hath happened to others may to me who have observed a man no way defective either in wise contrivance or prudent management or upright dealing but as eminent for honesty as he was for diligence whose Estate fell to the share of an idle person nay of an ignorant silly unjust and ungrateful wretch who prodigally consumed upon his lusts that which cost him no pains not so much as a thought to acquire This likewise it cannot be denied is not only a dissatisfaction but a torment nay a great torment to the mind of man 22. For what hath man of all his labour and of the vexation of his heart wherein he hath laboured under the sun 22. Who may well say To what purpose is all this toil of my Body and these solicitous thoughts and anguish of my mind For all that a man can enjoy himself of the anxious labours wherein he spends his days amounts to little or nothing and what comfort hath he in thinking who shall enjoy the fruit of them hereafter 23. For all his days are sorrows and his travel grief yea his heart taketh not rest in the night This is also vanity 23. And yet such is our folly there is no end of our cares for we see many a man whose life is nothing but a mere drudgery who never is at leisure to enjoy any thing that he hath but still engaged in one troublesome employment or other to get more which he follows so eagerly as if it were his business to disquiet and vex himself and make his life uneasie to him being not content with his daily toils unless he rack his mind also with cares in the night which invites him to take some rest This is so void of all reason that nothing can be imagined more vain and foolish 24. ¶ There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour This also I saw that it was from the hand of God 24. Nor can any man reap the benefit of his labours but by studying first to free his mind from overmuch care and anxious thoughts and then instead of heaping up perpetually for his Heirs by allowing himself a moderate and decent use of all that he hath gotten by his honest labours cheerfully communicating them with his friends and neighbours and lastly in order to these by being truly and devoutly religious acknowledging God to be the Donor of all good things from whose bountiful hand proceeds even this power both to enjoy all a man hath with a quiet peaceable and well-pleased mind in the midst of all the troubles of this life and in conclusion to leave all with the like mind unto those that shall come after him 25. For who can eat or who else can hasten hereunto more than I 25. For the truth of which you may rely upon my experience who when I could have hoarded up as much as any other man chose rather freely to enjoy the fruit of my labours and was as forward to spend as ever I was to get but must acknowledge this to be the singular Grace of God to me who preserved me from that great folly of neglecting my self for the sake of I knew not whom 26. For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy but to the sinner he giveth travel to gather and to heap up that he may give to him that is good before God This also is vanity and vexation of spirit 26. For this is a Blessing which God reserves for him whom he loves whose sincere piety he rewards with Wisdom to judge when and with Knowledge to understand how he should enjoy and take the comfort of all he hath especially with inward joy satisfaction of heart and tranquillity of mind in this favour of God to him whereby the troublesome affairs of this life are tempered and seasoned But he delivers up him that regards not God to the most cruel Tormenters which are his own unsatiable desires and anxious cares with busie labours and incessant pains to encrease his Estate without end and to heap up vast Treasures which God disposes afterward to those who approve themselves to Him in a pious just and charitable life with contented minds Now what a vanity and vexation is this also to a Sinner to get Riches for those to whom he never designed them Nay it is a sad thought to a good man that if his Son be not vertuous the Estate he leaves is not likely to prosper with him See Annot. o ANNOTATIONS a V. 1. Thus Themistocles Lucullus and others as Melancthon observes being wearied in their attendance upon publick affairs by many unprofitable contentions nay by the ingratitude of the people delivered up themselves unto pleasures as better than their ill bestowed pains b V. 2. Laughter The censure he passes upon this makes it necessary to expound it of such dissolute and frantick mirth as I have mentioned in the Paraphrase c V. 3. gave my self The word in the Hebrew as the Margin of our Translation informs the Reader imports something of extension as in other places of Scripture Psal XXXVI 10. because when men indulge themselves very liberally in eating and drinking the Blood boils and rises the Veins swell and the Skin of the whole Body is distended Lay hold on The word signifies not simply to apprehend but to keep
Plants which we cannot fet and sow at all times but must take the proper Season both for that and for gathering the Crop when it is come to maturity or else our pains are ill bestowed and we find to our sorrow that we have laboured in vain 3. A time to kill and a time to heal a time to break down and a time to build up 3. And thus it is in the Diseases of our Body there is a time when they are so infectious that they are incurable or when it is so improper to administer Physick that it doth no good but certainly kills whereas at another time those very remedies prove effectual means to restore our health unto us And so it is in other Structures as well as our own Bodies there is a time when it is more proper to break down a Building than it is to raise it and when Houses are built there are seasons for repairs and sometimes for pulling them down and erecting them anew or else they will not stand See Annot. b 4. A time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance 4. Other alterations also there are in humane life which sometimes naturally move our tears and at another time our laughter any there are times not only for tears but for the bitterest lamentations which the Funerals of our dearest Relations or the publick Calamities require and again there is a time at a Wedding suppose which provokes us so naturally not only to be merry but to leap and dance for joy that it would be as absurd then to bewail our selves as it is to dance about the dead Bodies of our Friends 5. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing 5. And in the Plantations which we make there is a time when it is fit to pick up Stones and throw them out of our Vineyards or Fields of Corn and there is another time when it will be as necessary to gather up the same Stones again to make a Fence about those Vineyards or Fields or to repair the High-ways And as it is in these natural things so it is in those that depend upon our own disposal there are Seasons proper for Husband and Wife to enjoy the ends of Marriage but there are other times when they ought to refrain and deny themselves even these otherways innocent pleasures 6. A time to get and a time to lose a time to keep and a time to cast away 6. In like manner in our traffick and commerce one with another there is a time of gaining much but there are other times when a man must be content to lose by his Commodities sometimes also it is fit for him to lay up and keep what he hath gotten but at another time it will be as fit for him to spend or to give way to those that need it 7. A time to rent and a time to sew a time to keep silence and a time to speak 7. In direful disasters also as when God is blasphemed it becomes us to rend our Garments but after a certain time it will be as becoming to sew up the rent again and as on other occasions the proper times for holding ones peace or for speaking are to be abserved so in great grief it is to no purpose to administer comfort till the passion be a little over and then discourse will be as seasonable as silence was before II. Job 13. IV. 1 2. 8. A time to love and a time to hate a time of war and a time of peace 8. To conclude love it self may turn into hatred so that they who are now well-affected towards us may prove our Enemies or those in whose Company we now delight there may be reason hereafter to avoid And the like turns there are in publick as well as in private Affairs there being just causes sometimes for making War and then such a change in the state of things that it is greater Wisdom to conclude a Peace 9. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth 9. And therefore why do we fansie any thing to be setled fixed and constant here in this World unless it be these opposite Changes Or to what purpose is all our labour and travail for any thing out of the Season proper for it And what great matter is it that we then get since we must expect another Season to part with it See Annot. c 10. I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it 10. For that which I have observed from all this is That God hath made it our business to mark the times and seasons that are fit for the doing all things which hath great trouble and anxiety in it and there is a further trouble that after we have done what we desired we must submit to that time and season which will undo all again 11. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time also he hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end 11. And though we are not wont to be satisfied with this vicissitude of things yet God no doubt hath disposed them thus most wisely and there is such a beautiful order appears in several contrarieties as for example of heat and cold of day and night that we may well conclude there is so in all manner of events though never so opposite which God also hath given us Wisdom to discern in part having endued man with the understanding of the present state of things in the Age wherein he lives yet as that is imperfect it being beyond our skill to know when our industry will succeed and when a change will come so he is not able to find out what respect the present changes have to the times that are gone before and to those that are yet to come hereafter and so cannot give an exact account of the Government of God because he sees not the beginning and the progress and the conclusion of every thing that comes to pass See Annot. d 12. I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoyce and to do good in his life 12. Wherefore long consideration and experience assure me that leaving these fruitless enquiries and vexatious cares about the future the only happiness that is in our power is to make the best we can of our present condition rejoycing that things are so well with us and being solicitous for nothing in this World but to obtain a good hope in God by living piously and vertuously and doing good to others with what we have and this not remisly and by fits but seriously and constantly as long as we live See Annot. e 13. And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labour it is the gift
among those unrighteous Judges c. CHAP. IV. ARGUMENT Having considered the power which many times falls into the hands of unjust and cruel men he now represents the miscrable estate of those that are subject to them as a further Argument of the vanity and vexation unto which Mankind are liable in this troublesome World And having noted some of the principal mischiefs of this sort of which I shall give a distinct account in the Paraphrase and Annotations upon it he concludes the Chapter with some Animadversions upon the condition of the greatest nay and the best of Princes who are not so happy as the World is apt to think them 1. SO I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun and behold the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter and on the side of their oppressours there was power but they had no comforter 1. BUT I have not yet done with the consideration of the miseries which Mankind suffer by the abuse of that power which is necessarily placed in the hands of some persons for the good of others III. 16. For reflecting again upon it I observed the innumerable ways that were practised in this World for the undoing of others both by violence and exactions and by fraud and calumnies as well as by unjust Decrees whereby so many were crushed that nothing was to be seen or heard but the tears and cries the sighs and groans of such as lay in a desolate condition and could find no relief no not so much as of one to comfort them For such was the greatness of their Oppressors who had gotten all power into their hands that as they could not defend themselves against them so no body else durst express their compassion towards them much less plead for them for fear of being served in the same kind themselves See Annot. a 2. Wherefore I praised the dead which are alreadly dead more than the living which are yet alive 2. Which made me think it was better to be among the dead who have made an happy escape from all these calamities than to remain still alive either to suffer under this tyranny or to live in perpetual fear of it or to behold with great grief of heart but without power to help them what many miserable Wretches endure 3. Yea better is he than both they which hath not yet been who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun 3. Or rather for why should I compare the living with those who though they now lie at rest in their Graves have been heretofore very sorely afflicted much more desirable than either of these is it not to have come into the World at all and so to have had no sense of the miseries which the dead have formerly felt and the living now undergo 4. ¶ Again I considered all travel and every right work that for this a man is envied of his neighbour This is also vanity and vexation of spirit 4. For besides what they suffer from mighty Oppressors they give one another a great deal of trouble Pride Ambition Emulation Envy and Hatred reigning so uncontroulably every where among all Orders and Ranks all Trades and Professions that when a man hath taken a great deal of honest pains in some useful work and brought it to perfection instead of gaining credit by it and being honoured for it his Neighbours look awry upon him nay he is maligned disparaged and traduced by those who either cannot or will not imitate but only carp at his ingenious labours So vain it is to endeavour to excel others in Art or industry which procure a man ill will when he looks for thanks and commendations and such an affliction it is to a mans spirit to labour hard for an ungrateful World who are tormented by that which should please them and cannot see any worth in another but they are vexed within themselves See Annot b 5. The fool foldeth his hands together and eateth his own flesh 5. But see now as a farther instance of the Vanity of Mankind what use some make of this who are so absurdly foolish as to be utterly discouraged and to sit down in perfect idleness because there are such oppressions on one hand from those above them v. 1. and such emulations on the other hand from those that are equal with them and under them v. 4. A wise resolution this to do nothing because others do ill not to satisfie ones self because others will be displeased not to satisfie did I say nay he is hunger-bitten and eaten up with cares how to live he hath not a Rag to his Back to cover his nakedness having reduced himself and Family by his laziness to extreme penury 6. Better is an handful with quietness than both the hands full with travel and vexation of spirit 6. And though he want not excuses for his folly yet they are as idle as his sloth For he senselesly applies that common Saying to his purpose One handful with ease is better than two without it Which is very true if rightly understood and may serve to reprove both him and those from whom he learns this folly for as idleness and emptiness alway go together and therefore he in vain expects to have so much as one handful without labour so is a moderate Estate gotten honestly with moderate diligence and enjoyed hand-somely with perfect contentment better than the greatest Treasures gotten by oppression or with infinite toil and enjoyed with anxious thoughts and fretting cares and exposing a man either to the hatred or the envy of others See Annot. d 7. ¶ Then I returned and I saw vanity under the sun 7. Nor is this all the folly into which men fall by the forenamed tyranny and oppression v. 1. but reflecting again upon this Subject I observed another extreme into which they run no less void of reason and of satisfaction than the former 8. There is one alone and there is not a second yea he hath neither child nor brother yet is there no end of all his labour neither is his eye satisfied with riches neither saith he For whom do I labour and bereave my soul of good This is also vanity yea it is a sore travel 8. For as some grow idle so others grow too scraping and penurious it being no rare thing to find a man that lives single and alone without so much as a Companion and hath neither Child nor Brother nor Kinsman to make his Heir and yet he sets no measures either to his labours or to his desires but toils and craves without end and which is still worse as he can scarce find in his heart to allow himself the necessaries much less the pleasures of this life so it never comes into his mind to think who shall be the better for all this when he dies and what a madness it is both to rack his mind with cares and to pinch his Belly and
deny himself the comfort of what he hath for the sake of he knows not whom This also certainly is not only a senseless and unprofitable folly but one of the greatest plagues and torments of humane life See Annot. e 9. ¶ Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labour 9. How much wiser is he who not only enjoys what he hath himself but takes others into his Society to partake of the good things that God hath given him For nothing is more comfortable than good Company as nothing is more dull and melancholy than a solitary life And besides when two or more are adjoined together in common counsel and mutual help and assistance they will not only act more cheerfully but more easily effect their design and take the greater pleasure in the fruits of their labour See Annot. f 10. For if they fall the one will lift up his fellow but woe to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him up 10. Or if they have any ill success or fall into danger it will only make the singular benefit of fellowship the more plainly appear because they will relieve and rescue one the other but lamentable is his condition who hath no Friend no Companion to reach out his charitable hand to him when he falls suppose in o a Pit none to comfort him when he is sick none to testifie his innocence when he is defamed or which is worse to restore him when by his own imprudence or negligence he falls into a sin 11. Again if two lie together then they have heat but how can one be warm alone 11. And therefore in the very beginning of the World God did not think fit to let man be alone but gave him an Help meet for him and as two that lie together in the same Bed cherish one another by their mutual hear but it is hard to be warm alone so do they that are strong undaunted vigorous and cheerful infuse that courage and comfort which Silver and Gold cannot give into those that are of a weak timorous dejected or melancholy spirit 12. And if one prevail against him two shall withstand him and a threefold cord is not quickly broken 12. To conclude we are never more sensible of the benefit of Society than when we are assaulted by a powerful Enemy whom we cannot resist alone but by the help of a Friend may be able to overcome for as a great many Threds twisted together are not quickly broken though a single one be soon snapt asunder so he that is surrounded by his Children Friends and Neighbours will make a better defence and hold out longer against those that invade his right than that wretched man can do v. 8. who by loving money alone hath deprived himself of all such succours 13. ¶ Beter is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be admonished 13. But it is not Society alone will make a man happy without Wisdom and Vertue For who are better attended and guarded than Kings and yet the poorest man that is if he be wise and good is far happier than the wealthiest Prince on Earth who foolishly abuseth his power nay the towardly Child of a poor man is much better than such a King though his greatness be made more venerable by his grey hairs For besides that Wisdom makes the poor Youth contented with his condition though never so mean a Blessing at which Princes hardly arrive it render wholesome admonition also acceptable to him when by his inexperience he falls into an errour but folly makes the other impatient of all advice and counsel and the older he is the more obstinate because as his Kingly Dignity he fansies authrizes him to do what he list so his Age gives him a privilege of knowing better than any body can tell him what to do See Annot. g 14. For out of prison he cometh to reign whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor 14. By which means it comes to pass that he who was born a mere Beggar nay was as poor and abject as the vilest Slave rises by his singular Prudence Counsel and Conduct unto a Throne when he whose Ancestors were Kings and possessed his Dominions by an Hereditary right is deserted by his Subjects and through his folly and wickedness falls into such contempt that he not only loses his Crown but is reduced to the greatest poverty in which he spends a miserable life 15. I considered all the living which walk under the sun with the second child that shall stand up in his stead 15. Or if this happen not yet such is the infelicity of good Princes I have seen a great King left with nothing but the bare Title and the outward State of Royalty the hearts and affections of all the Nobles Gentry and common people from one end of the Kingdom to the other enclining to his Son or to the next Heir that is to succeed him unto whom they do obeysance as if he were already upon the Throne but neglect his old Father who sees himself robbed of those honours in which he placed his happiness and that by his own Son who would have been more dutiful perhaps if he had been a private man See Annot. h 16. There is no end of all the people even of all that have been before them they also that come after shall not rejoyce in him Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit 16. Nor is this a thing that will have an end but a humour so rooted in all Mankind that as in all preceding times before this King and Son were born they have been weary of that which they have long enjoyed so this young Prince who is now followed with such applause must not think that it will last alway but they that come after will take as little delight in him as the present Generation doth in his Father and when he grows old court his Son after the same fashion as they now do him being young From all which it appears that happiness is not to be found in Honour and Dignity no not in the very highest Pitch of it which is the Kingly Power for there also is not only dissatisfaction but many dangers troubles and vexatious cares which very much disturb and perplex their Spirits See Annot. i ANNOTATIONS a V. 1. oppressions There are more evils than one that arise from the ill administration of publick Affairs For they are either external or internal And the external are two either from Superiors or from Equals and Inferiors Those from Superiors he speaks of in this Verse and calls by the general name of oppressions Which comes from a Root in the Hebrew that signifies indifferently to oppress or rather to squeeze others and utterly crush them whether it be by forcible violence or by extortion in traffick or by fraud circumvention and false accusation
with this Meditation which some call sententia intercalaris that the greatest Blessing a man can enjoy in this life is to have an heart to use what God hath given him for his own honest pleasure with due acknowledgments to God and charity to others v. 18 19.20 Where v. 19. there are two words to express abundance of worldly goods as I have paraphrased them The last of them nekasim is larger than the former comprehending all manner of Goods Cattel and all which a man gathers together For it seems by a transposition of Letters to be derived from kanas to collect or gather Chap. II. 8. from which comes the Latin word census the revenues which a man is esteemed to have and accordingly is rated and pays Subsidies CHAP. VI. ARGUMENT The first ten Verses at least of this Chapter are a continuation of the same Argument he handled in the latter part of the foregoing And therefore ought to be connected with it For they set forth the vanity of Riches in the possession of a covetous Wretch who only increases the number of unhappy men in this World being never the better for any thing he enjoys as he shows in the Conclusion of the Chapter 1 THere is an evil which I I have seen under the sun and it is common among men 1. BUT alas this Divine benefit tho' above all others is coveted by very few for I have observed this most wretched miserable humour reigning among Mankind which though it be the greatest mischief is grown so common that it hath overspread the face of the whole Earth See Annot. a 2. A man to whom God hath given riches wealth and honour so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof but a stranger eateth it this is vanity and it is an evil disease 2. When a man is blessed by God with such abundance of Money and Goods and heighth of Honour that he need not unless he will want any thing which his largest desires can wish should administer to his pleasure yet so great is his ingratitude to God and his uncharitableness to men that for these and other sins God denies him the power to enjoy these Gifts of his Bounty to which he is a Slave rather than their Master for he possesses them as if they were not his own but kept by him for some body else and those not his Children nor his Kindred but a mere Stranger perhaps who either in his life-time or after he is dead devours all that he hath saved What can be more senseless than this Nay what sorer Plague can infest Mankind See Annot. b 3. ¶ If a man beget an hundred children and live many years so that the days of his years be many and his soul be not filled with good and also that he have no burial I say that an untimely birth is better than he 3. Unless it be this that one of this sort of men being blessed also with abundance of Children and with an exceeding long life yet thereby is made only so much the more and so much the longer miserable being so solicitous for Posterity that he hath no heart to take the comfort of any thing he possesses at present no nor so much as to take order for his decent Funeral when he is dead but he goes out of the World without any notice that he hath lived in it Of such an one I pronounce That an Abortive which came into the World before its time is not so despicable as he See Annot. c 4. For he cometh in with vanity and departeth in darkness and his name shall be covered with darkness 4. For though in this they are both alike that they come into the World to no purpose and go our of it so obscurely that no body minds their departure and leave no memory behind them that they have been in it See Annot d 5. Moreover he hath not seen the sun nor known any thing this hath more rest than the other 5. Yet in this they differ that an Abortive having never seen the light of the Sun much less been acquainted with any thing in this World had no desire to enjoy that of which it was perfectly ignorant and was as utterly insensible of grief and pain as it was of joy and pleasure Whereas this mans unsatiable desires carrying him after every thing he sees torment his Soul with anxious thoughts care and labour which not only make him pine away with grief for what he cannot get but deprive him of the comfort of what he hath And how much better is it never to live at all than to live only to disquiet a mans self with restless solicitude of mind and toilsome pains of body for that which he can neither keep nor part withal with any contentment 6. ¶ Yea though he live a thousand years twice told yet hath he seen no good do not all go to one place 6. Men are so fond of life indeed that because the one lives long and the other not at all they imagine the former to be incomparably more happy but let us suppose this covetous Wretch to live more than as long again as the oldest man that ever was what is he the better for it when his greedy desires not suffering him to enjoy his Goods multiply his miseries equally to his years Which will expire also at last and then what are his Riches able to do for him can they privilege him from going down into the Grave and rotting there like the Abortive See Annot. e 7. All the labour of man is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not filled 7. And while he lives to what purpose is his restless labour Seeing if he desire only what is necessary it is easily provided and having Food and Rayment a man may be contented and if he extend his desires further they are infinite and therefore can never meet with any satisfaction 8. For what hath the wise more than the fool what hath the poor that knoweth to walk before the living 8. For let a man be otherways never so wise as well as rich yet if he bridle not his desires he is little better than a Fool and he that is poor but hath so much understanding as to know how to behave himself among men suitably to his condition and to be contented therewith is incomparably the wiser and the happier man See Annot. f 9. ¶ Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandring of the desire this is also vanity and vexation of spirit 9. It being much better to enjoy what a man hath at present than to live upon the hopes of that which his ravenous desires continually pursue which sure is a very foolish thing and another great part of the miseries of humane life that men are still craving more when they know not how to use what they have already and neglecting what they possess wish for
sins or other mens calamities is apt to do his Soul good by giving him a right understanding of God and of himself and of all things else See Annot. c 4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth 4. Whence it is that Wise men affect to think of such things when they do not see them as show them how vain all our worldly enjoyments are but Fools seek all occasions to put by such thoughts and to divert themselves with merriment and pleasure See Annot. d 5. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools 5. And he that would be in the number of these wise men must look upon this as one of the first steps towards it to lend an obedient ear unto the reproofs of him who is truly wise and vertuous which though never so sharp and rough are to be infinitely preferred before the smooth praises and commendations of a great many Fools nay ought to sound more gratefully in our ears than the most delicious Musick Songs and Jests of all the merry Companions in the World See Annot. e 6. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of the fool this also is vanity 6. These jolly Fellows indeed make a great noise and show as if they were the only men that enjoy this World but alas their mirth and joy is but for a spurt and then ends in heaviness like the crackling of Thorns which sometimes blaze under a Pot as if they gave a mighty heat but leave the Water in it as cold as they found it All there jollity therefore is mere vanity See Annot. f 7. ¶ Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad and a gift destroyeth the heart 7. And there is the greater need to be well instructed and therefore to hearken to the wise v. 5. because there are other things besides vain pleasures and flatteries to disturb and unsettle our minds if we be not well fortified against them For the better any man is the more he is in danger to suffer from slanderers Revilers and all sorts of injurious persons whose violence sometime is so great that unless a man be provided with more than humane Wisdom and it be deeply rooted in his heart it will not only miserably disquier but even distract him Nor is this his only danger but that Power and Authority which raises him above the former may expose him to another unless he be armed with great integrity for his mind may be corrupted by Gifts and Presents to do injustice unto others which he hates should be done to himself See Annot. g 8. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit 8. And he will be the better able to resist them both who is so wise as to look not merely to the beginning of them but attend to their conclusion For that which seems grievous at the first appearance in the issue proves very advantageous and on the contrary that which promises fair at first hath a deadly farewel with it and therefore it is much better to endure patiently and humbly wait to see the issue than to be provoked by pride and disdain hastily to precipitate events for he that scorns to wait and attend upon the leisurely progressions of things commonly undoes himself and his Affairs by his fierce and violent attempts presently to compass his desires See Annot. h 9. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry for anger resteth in the bosom of fools 9. It is another Point therefore of that Wisdom which must make us happy to repress the motions of anger that we seel in our selves and not suffer them without great deliberation to have any effect for anger is an enemy to counsel and advice and is indeed the property of Fools who out of weakness of mind and shortness of thoughts are familiarly transported with it upon the slightest causes and not easily appeased again as wise men are when they chance to be incensed 10. Say not thou What is the cause that the former days were better than these for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this 10. It is Wisdom also to correct in our selves that complaining humour which is apt to be ever finding fault with the present times and commending the foregoing Ages as far better and happier than the present For perhaps it is not true and thus much is certain that he is foolishly inconsiderate who imagines that then there was no evil and that now there is no good or if it be true that there was more good in those times let us not murmur and repine asking why we are cast into a troublesome Age full of oppression suppose and violence and wrong v. 7. but rather submit to the Providence of God considering that there is no Age so bad as to hinder us which is the principal point of Wisdom from being good and therefore let us do our Duty believing God hath such reason for suffering the times to be as they are that we have no reason to quarrel at them or to call in Question his Wisdom Goodness or Justice See Annot. i 11. ¶ Wisdom is good with an inheritance and by it there is profit to them that see the sun 11. Yet do not think that Wisdom or Vertue consists in despising Riches but only in using them well when we have them and in being contented without them for as we cannot be happy by Riches alone without Wisdom so we cannot be compleatly happy with Wisdom alone without Riches For he hath a vast advantage to do good every way who is Rich as well as wise it giving him an authority even to speak more freely than other men and making what he speaks to be more regarded but of the two Wisdom and Vertue must alway be preferred which can do greater things and bestow nobler benefits upon Mankind than Treasures alone can do See Annot k 12. For wisdom is a defence and money is a defence but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it 12. For as Wisdom for instance contrives many ways whereby a man may innocently defend himself from danger so can Money oft-times purchase his protection and safety but herein is the preheminence of Wisdom that when neither of them can shelter a man nor stave off the calamity that invades him it marvellously supports revives and comforts the Souls of those who are Owners of it under all the evils which it could not help them by honest means to avoid See Annot. l 13. Consider the work of God for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked 13. And in order to it the highest Piece of Wisdom is to live in a serious sense of the Sovereign Power of God and to consider that as he hath settled all things in
Heaven and Earth in an unchangeable course so nothing comes to pass without his Providence with which it is in vain to struggle when he is pleased either to cross us in any of our private designs or to send any publick calamity which by all our Art and Power we can neither avoid nor remedy See Annot m 14. In the day of prosperity be joyful but in the day of adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him 14. No we ought rather to accommodate our selves to the present state of things and when we are in prosperity to enjoy God's Blessings cheerfully with thankful and charitable hearts but so soberly also as not forgetting that affliction may come and when it doth let us take it patiently considering among other things that there may be a change to a better condition again For as both the one and the other come from God so he hath ordered they should have their turns in such due season and balanced one with the other with such exactness that the meanest man hath no reason to complain of him nor the greatest to fansie himself more than a man who cannot invent any means to dispose things otherwise much less better than God hath done See Annot. m 15. All things have I seen in the days of my vanity there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness 15. I know what may be objected to this having all my life long made Observations upon all manner of things in this troublesome World and it seems very hard that a just man's integrity should not be able to preserve him but he is therefore perhaps destroyed because he is better than others when a wicked man escapes nay is countenanced and encouraged or suffered to prolong his days in and perhaps by his wickedness See Annot. n 16. Be not righteous overmuch neither make thy self over-wise why shouldest thou destroy thy self 16. But besides other things which may be replied to this as that good men are sometimes removed from and wicked reserved unto future evils it must be noted also that some pious men are more strict and rigid than they need and not so prudent as they ought to be but unnecessarily expose themselves to danger And therefore it is good advice in order to a safe and quiet passage through this life to be temperate in thy zeal and not to over-do either by extending thy own Duty beyond the Divine Commandment or by correcting the inveterate vices of others and opposing the vulgar Opinions too severely or unseasonably whereby they are only exasperated and enraged but not at all amended for why should a man bring a mischief upon himself without any benefit unto others See Annot. n 17. Be not overmuch wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldest thou die before thy time 17. And on the other side let not impunity tempt any man to presume to grow enormously wicked and so foolish as to embrace and follow the lewdest Opinions for this may awaken the publick Justice against him even for the common safety or the Divine vengeance nay his own excessive wickedness may cut him off before he come to the natural term of his life See Annot. o 18. It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this yea also from this withdraw not thine hand for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all 18. This Advice is so profitable that he who loves himself will not only apprehend it but take fast hold of it and diligently observe it never departing from either part of it but while he wisely manages himself to decline dangers honestly and faithfully perform his Duty for nothing can do a man such service in this as a true fear of offending the Divine Majesty which will preserve him both from rash and heady forwardness and from consulting merely his own private safety and interest See Annot. p 19. Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city 19. And this pious prudence which proceeds from the fear of God will be a stronger Guard and security to him who is indued with it both against all inward fears and all outward dangers than a multitude of valiant Commanders and all their Troops are to defend a City when it is besieged by its Enemies See Annot. p 20. For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not 20. Though this must always be understood when we thus discourse that no man is either so perfectly wise or completely vertuous as never to mistake and commit a fault but sometimes the best of us may slip into a sin notwithstanding all our caution and care and thereby fall into danger See Annot. q 21. Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken lest thou hear thy servant curse thee 21. The consideration of which frailty of Mankind is useful many ways not only to abate our severity in censuring or chastising publick Offenders but to teach us gentleness towards those who do us private injuries and therefore not to regard for instance every word that is spoken against us but rather to dissemble our knowledge of it first because otherwise we shall have no quiet for perhaps we may chance to overhear our own Domesticks speaking slightly of us which we may easily pass by and overlook but cannot take notice of without great disturbance See Annot. r 22. For often-times also thine own heart knoweth that thou thy self likewise hast cursed others 22. And secondly Because if thou examinest thy own life thou wilt find this fault is so incident to humane Nature that thou thy self perhaps hast been guilty of it many a time and done as much by others that are thy Betters as thy Servant doth by thee 23. ¶ All this have I proved by wisdom I said I will be wise but it was far from me 23. For my part I cannot exempt my self from the guilt of great errours for though I have not only studied to be wise and vertuous but made a tryal of the excellence of all these Rules which I have now delivered and resolved also that I would strictly observe them and never in the least swerve from them yet alass I fell far short of these holy purposes See Annot. s 24. That which is far off and exceeding deep who can find it out 24. That which I have done already in time past is far from the Wisdom whereby I intended to have acted and who can tell when he once sinks below himself how much deeper and deeper he shall be plunged in sin till he cannot find his way out again 25. I applied mine heart to know and to search and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things and to know the wickedness of folly even of foolishness and madness 25. Notwithstanding which I did not cease my endeavours but
lay in an high Tower well garrison'd to which none could ascend but by Ladders And the Father of Alexander was slain in the midst of a publick Pomp his Princes and his Guards looking on as Julius Caesar also was in the Senate Ten mighty men every one knows is in Scripture-Phrase as much as many mighty men And so Bochartus interprets that difficult place XI Numb 31. where speaking of the vast quantity of Quails that came into the Camp Moses saith he that gathered least gathered ten homers that is saith the forenamed Writer many heaps for so he thinks homer should be there translated as it is in some other places L. I. de sacris Animal Cap. XV. p. 106. Part. 2. q V. 20. Here he seems to limit what he had said before with this exception that no man can be always so wise and cautious as never to offend Which Melancthon truly calls Politica sententia and refers to lapses in Government like that of Josiah who was a very good Prince but perished by engaging rashly in an unnecessary War And therefore the Character of a Governour as well as of a man must be fetcht from the constant strain and bent of his actions and not from particular facts For he is a good Governour that always intends to do right though he sometimes miscarry as David and the forenamed Josiah and he is an ill Governour who hath no such design but quite contrary though sometime he do well as Cambyses The difference therefore must be taken from their perpetual will and inclination There are those who connect this Verse with the next rather than the foregoing but I have referred it to both and not unfitly I think as may be seen in the Paraphrase upon v. 21. r V. 21. Which the Lord Bacon L. VIII C. 2. Parab 4. refers principally to vain curiosity and thus discourses upon it It is a matter almost beyond belief what disturbance is created by unprofitable curiosity about those things that concern our personal interest That is when we make a too scrupulous inquiry after such Secrets which once disclosed and found out do but cause disquiet of mind and nothing conduce to the advancing of our designs For first there follows vexation and disquiet of mind humane Affairs being so full of treachery and ingratitude that if there could be procured a Magical Glass in which we might behold the hatreds and whatsoever malicious contrivances are any where raised up against us it would be better for us if such a Glass were forthwith throne away and broken in pieces For things of this nature are like the murmurs of the leaves of Trees which in a short time vanish Secondly This curiosity loads the mind too much with suspicions and ungrounded jealousies which is the most capital Enemy to counsels and renders them inconstant and involved Thirdly The same curiosity doth sometime six those evils which otherways of themselves would pass by us and fly away For it is a dangerous thing to irritate the consciences of men who if they think themselves to ly undiscovered are easily changed for the better but if they perceive themselves to be detected drive out one mischief by another And therefore it was deservedly esteemed the highest Wisdom in Pompey the Great that he instantly burnt all Sertorius's Papers unperused by himself or suffered to be seen by others Some take this Verse to speak of those who willingly lend their ears to Informers and Detractors who will bring them what is said abroad whether true or false And therefore saith Solomon since there is no man but who offends sometimes not thou thy self excepted do not hearken unto those who reckon up other mens faults lest thou hear thy own from those that are of thy Family Thus Maldonate s V. 23. Here he seems to resume his Discourse in the beginning of the Book concerning the shortness of humane understanding and the difficulty of finding the truth and the reason of things But no account can be given why he thus starts from his Subject on a sudden without any coherence And therefore I have endeavoured to give another account of this and the following Verse Which I have so interpreted that they may be knit to the foregoing I cannot say that herein I have followed any Guide but my own Judgment which led me to think this to be a continued Discourse But they that dislike my connection must rest satisfied as far as I can see with that of Corranus which hath more colour for it than any other who takes this Verse to be a Preface to what the Wise man had to add concerning the subtil Arts of Women to draw men in if they be not exceeding cautious Their wits being so versatile their cunning so sly and their allurements so many that he professes he found them inexplicable though he had spared no pains to penetrate into them This he makes the sense of ver 23 24 25. t V. 26. And then in this Verse Solomon gives an account of the danger they are in who suffer themselves to be insnared by the Arts of naughty Women who are so numerous that he advises him who would be good to be very cautious how he enters into familiarity with that Sex who have brought sore calamities upon the greatest men such as Samson David and Paris and many other besides Solomon himself The next Verse I have made to relate to that The two words we translate snares and nets to which he compares her heart i. e. her invention devices c. both signifie nets Only the former signifies the Nets of Hunters the latter the Nets or Draggs rather of Fishermen XXVI Ezek. 5. as the LXX distinguish them The former indeed is applied also to Fishes in this Book IX 11. and therefore the truer difference perhaps is that the former signifies finer the latter courser but stronger Nets such as cannot be broken but will certainly destroy as the Root from whence Cherem comes denotes Both these words are in the Plural Number to denote the vast multitudes that they catch and the innumerable ways they have to entangle them and hold them fast u V. 28. Gregory Thaumaturgus interprets this Verse altogether of their Chastity after this manner I have found a chaste man but never a chaste woman And indeed of that he is speaking which makes this sense not unreasonable though I have not so restrained it nor do I think this is to be lookt upon as the true Character of Women in General in all Ages and Countries but of such only as Solomon was acquainted withal and of those in that and the neighbouring Nations especially of Women there excelling in beauty which commonly betrayed them to their ruine and to the ruine of others without an extraordinary Grace to preserve them x V. 29. In the beginning of this Verse Melancthon thinks Solomon speaks not of the first creation of man but of the Rule of mens actions which God proposed to them
a certain season for and a certain manner of doing every thing which if it be not understood and it requires no small pains to be able to discern it or not embraced it is not only impossible to be done but many and great inconveniences insue upon that oversight or neglect See Annot. f 7. For he knoweth not that which shall be for who can tell him when it shall be 7. For no man can be sure that the like opportunity will return again future things being so much in the dark that neither he nor any one else can inform him what shall be hereafter or when that will come which in the course of things may probably be expected See Annot. g 8. There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit neither hath he power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that war neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it 8. But let no Prince though never so great presume hereupon to abuse his Power to Tyranny because he hath no Superiour to controul him but remember these things following First that though he command over mens bodies yet he hath no dominion over their minds and spirits nor can he hinder them from thinking what they please no more than he can the Wind from blowing where it listeth and next that he cannot command them long for Death will come and irresistibly seize on him as well as on the meanest man nay he cannot rule the Chances of War nor promise himself certain Victory in the day of Battel or if he have had a great while good success yet neither his policy nor his power shall be able always to defend him from the vengeance that will be taken of the injustice cruelty and impiety which he exercises in his Government See Annot. h 9. All this have I seen and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt 9. There is no reason therefore to be so much as ambitious of great power for in the view I have taken of all manner of things in this World which I have weighed also and considered duly I have observed that sometime unlimited power breaks it self in pieces and the Dominion to which a man is promoted ends in his own ruine as well as theirs whom he pillages and tyrannically governs See Annot. i 10. And so I saw the wicked buried who 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 10. And among other things I also observed such wicked men carried to their Graves who had been honoured as gods while they lived because they were God's Ministers and sate in the Judgment-Seat in that very place where He himself is present but were no sooner gone but they were forgotten in that very City where they had enjoyed such high Authority so vain is the Pomp wherein Great Men live and wherein they are buried which vanishes together with them and if they were not good in their place is no more remembred See Annot. k 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil 11. But these Observations move not vain men who look no further than their present prosperity For though God hath pronounced a dreadful doom against all wicked men and especially those that abuse their Power unto tyranny over others yet because execution is not presently done upon them but they live in all earthly splendor both they and others also by their example grow more audaciously presumptuous in their wickedness and think of nothing but doing mischief by rapine and all manner of iniquity in the World See Annot. l 12. ¶ Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him 12. Not considering or believing this which I am assured of as an undoubted truth that though such a powerful Sinner commit innumerable spoils upon his poor Subjects and no harm befal him a long time yet as God will make those good men an amends whose reverence to his Majesty makes them chuse rather to suffer than to sin and notwithstanding all their oppressions maintain their integrity and continue in awful obedience unto Him and unto their Governours See Annot. m 13. But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God 13. So he will take a time to punish that impious Tyrant because he despises God and his Providence and fears not his Divine vengeance Nor are we without Examples of such men who have hastned their own ruine and by their violence shortned their Reign and vanished away suddenly like a shadow 14. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth that there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked again there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous I said that this also is vanity 14. Such Examples indeed do not deter them from wickedness because they see Instances on the other side which is an afflicting consideration that vertuous men sometimes fall into such miseries as the wicked rather deserve to suffer and on the contrary those impious men enjoy all the prosperity which one would think belongs only to the righteous This I have acknowledged already is the lamentable condition of things and a great part of the trouble of this World to which I have given the best satisfaction I could III. 17. V. 8. See Annot. n 15. Then I commended mirth because a man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be merry for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life which God giveth him under the sun 15. And must again commend that advice wherewith I concluded one of these Discourses III. 22. that this ought neither to discourage a man in vertuous proceedings nor make him careful and solicitous about events but only move him in the fear of God of which I just now spake v. 11. to be merry whilst he may For there is nothing better than soberly and freely to enjoy the present good things which the bounty of God bestows upon us with thankfulness to Him and charity to others For when a man by his pains and labour hath gotten a great Estate this is all that he can call his God having only lent him what he hath for his present use while he tarries here in this life and then he must resign it unto others and give an account how he hath used it unto Him See Annot. o 16. ¶ When I applied mine heart to know wisdom and to see the
place of the holy i. e. of God the Holy one of Israel whom the Jews now constantly call by the Name of the Holy that most Blessed one St. Hierom understands it of the Temple but then it must be translated not the place of the holy but the holy place which is not agreeable to the Hebrew and expounds the words thus The wicked buried who were esteemed Saints in the Earth and while they lived were thought worthy Princes in the Church and in the Temple of God I have sometimes thought that the words might according to this sense of the holy place be thus word for word rendred out of the Hebrew if the Grammarians will permit Holy here not to be a Substantive I saw the wicked buried and they that is such as attended their Funeral came and even out of the holy place followed That is the very Priests waited on the Herse to do them the greater honour Or thus The Funeral Pomp reached from the very Temple to the Place of Burial l V. 11. From hence he takes occasion to show what is the very root of mens malicious and incurable wickedness And the first thing to which he ascribes it is their thriving a long time in evil courses which makes them hope this prosperity will continue to the end of their days And if they can but live splendidly they care not what becomes of them when they die Now though there be a pithgam a Decree a definitive Sentence as the word signifies passed against them yet nothing being done upon it so soon as we expect it both hardens the heart of those Sinners and mightily discourages better men who hereupon grow angry or flag in their Duty to both which Luther would have what follows referred But it properly belongs to the Evil-doers who upon the suspence of the Judgment passed upon them sin on with great confidence and have nothing else in their thoughts but malicious contrivances Both which may be denoted by this Phrase their heart is filled in them to do evil m V. 12 13. Yet this is not to be understood he here shows without exception but sometimes the Divine Justice proceeds to quick execution Which is a thing noted by Heathens themselves that God cuts Tyrants short and suffers them not to ravage so long as they hope to do And thence they exhort them to moderation according to that of Stesichorus quoted by Aristotle in his Rhetoricks as Melancthon here observes Do not injure any man for the very Grashoppers will chirp it in the Fields That is the Poor who are oppressed send out their Complaints and move God to punish such Tyrants n V. 14. Here he discovers the other root of mens incurable wickedness viz. the examples they see of those who live vertuously and yet live miserably Which proves a great scandal to those who admire worldly things too much and makes them angry at least to behold how all was given heretofore for instance to wicked Priests and now godly ones have scarce bread to put into their mouths They are the words of Luther who observes that Souldiers have better Pay than many of Christ's Ministers who are to lead his People and conduct them unto Heaven o V. 15. Notwithstanding which the Wise man advises him that would live as happily as the state of things here will permit not to grow sullen at this v. 15. much less to doubt of God's good Providence nor to be disturbed though we are not able to give a reason why vertuous men suffer very much when the wicked at the same time escape Which I take to be the meaning of the two last Verses which I have referred to our ignorance of this particular matter as St. Hierom also doth whose words are these He that seeks the causes and reasons of things why this or that is done and why the World is governed by various events why one man is blind and lame and another is born with eyes and sound one is poor and another is rich this man is noble that inglorious he gets nothing by his enquiry but only this to be tormented in his own Questions and to have his Disputations instead of a Rack and yet not find what he sought That word in the Hebrew which we translate because though is found only in this place but from the I. Joshua 7. where it is found in composition the Doctors conclude it signifies for that or because of and so the meaning here is that a man shall not be able by all the labour and pains he can take no though he be a Wise man that is thus laborious to discover the reasons of things and give an account of the difference which he observes in the Divine Dispensations CHAP. IX ARGUMENT This Chapter begins where the foregoing ends the Wise man proceeding still to justifie what he had observed about the most puzling Question in the World Why the good and bad fare all alike without any constant visible distinction His resolution cautions remedies about this matter will appear so plainly in the Paraphrase and Annotations which I shall annex to it that I will give no large account here of this Chapter but only note that the summ of it is this That the confusion of things here below should not move us to discontent much less incline us to irreligion but rather dispose us with thankfulness and sobriety to enjoy freely that portion of good things while we have them which God hath given us Neither slackning our diligence nor trusting to it alone but depending on Gods wise Providence which notwithstanding that seeming confusion governs all events disappointing many times the most likely and applauded means and again succeeding the most unlikely and contemptible Which should move us to commend our selves and concerns unto God and then above all things to value and study true Wisdom and Prudence in the management of all Affairs as far excelling mere power of which we are foolishly ambitious 1. FOR all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them 1. THis is no rash Assertion for I Solomon affirm again VIII 16. I have deeply considered all that belongs to this matter with earnest desire and endeavour to give a clearer account and fuller resolution of it than this which is all I can say that though good men and prudent are under the care of God which must satisfie them in all events by whose special Providence both they and their undertakings and affairs are approved directed governed and defended yet such a Secret there is in it they prove sometimes so unsuccessful that no man can know by any thing that befals them or others how God stands affected towards them but will conclude very falsly if he judge that God loves him who hath all that his heart desires or that he hates him who
Bed-Chamber 2 Kings VI 9. The Chaldee Paraphrase by that which hath Wings understands the heavenly Ministers and so many of the Hebrews about which though they talk many fabulous things yet the meaning may be the Angels shall one way or other bring it to light and give occasion to the discovery For as a great man of our own observes Bish Taylor L. III. Duct Dub. Ch. 3. Rule 3. n. 3. the Government of the other World reaches strangely even unto us and we speak not a word in vain but by the Divine Providence it is disposed to purposes that we understand not And therefore it is not safe to speak evil of Magistrates in our private houses lest the Angel that attends us order it so that it pass into publication But as for the King who is above the rich or mighty call him not accursed in thy heart Which being a thing that can only be perceived by God who is the Searcher of the heart it shows that as Angels take care of the rich the wise the mighty and noble so Kings are the peculiar care of God c. And indeed as the same Bochartus adds it appears from hence that Solomon doth not deterr us from this sin by the mere fear of danger for he lays a restraint not only on our words but on our thoughts which are known only unto God And if we may not in thought detract from him how much less speak a reproachful word of him or move rebellion against him I shall only add two things more and conclude this Chapter with a notable Discourse of Martin Luther first that some of the Hebrews who take the Angels to be here meant thereby understand the Devil as our Saviour by the Fowls of the Heaven understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evil one XIII Matth. 4. But especially Night-birds they say who may seem here to be meant where he speaks of the Bed-Chamber denote the Devil and his Angels Whence that Proverb among the Arabians Speak where there is no Night-Bird that is where no Creature hears Secondly The last words of the Verse are capable of this sense if we distinguish between Bird of the Air and that which hath wings taking the one for Angels and the other for men who minister to Kings as Angels do to God that the Angels will report our blasphemy in Heaven and some or other will be found to reveal it and carry the News of it to the King upon the Earth Gregory Neocaesariensis suggests the former part of this who thus expounds the Words Swift and winged Messengers carry all to the only rich and great King discharging both a spiritual and rational Ministry It will not be unuseful much less unseasonable in such an unruly Age as this to let the Reader understand how deeply the first Reformers of Religion laid this Precept to heart by transcribing some of Luther's Admonitions in his Annotations on this Verse The worse and the more malignant saith he the World is the more studious and laborious Solomon teaches us to be in the doing our Duty Particularly in honouring Magistracy because it is a Divine Ordinance and the better part of the World by which God manages all things under the Sun But the ungodly begin their wickedness chiefly in the contempt of Magistrates when they bear how God blames and reproves them in the holy Scriptures But it belongs to the Divine Office to find fault with Magistrates and to rebuke them And therefore though thou hearest it yet do not imitate it For thou art not God nor the Ordainer no nor the Reformer and Restorer of the Divine Ordinance But as God reproves them so thee also in the holy Scriptures that thou mayst do thy Duty and not meddle with what belongs to them Whereas thou forgetting the Beam in thy own eye beginnest to spy the Mote in another mans correcting thy Superiors by whom thou rather art to be corrected And if thou shouldst sustain their Office wouldst offend more than they do and not do so much good as is performed by them The meaning therefore of Solomon is this I have spoken much of Princes how they undo the World but do thou reverence them notwithstanding that for they are not an humane Ordinance but a Divine Saint Peter indeed calls the King an humane Creature because he is assumed from among men but his authority is Divine And though Princes be bad they are to be honoured because of this Ordinance of God Why then wilt thou speak evil of those who are vexed with so many and such great cares and labours for thy peace if they be good and if they be bad and foolish their own impiety is mischief enough to them and brings them into sufficient danger Bear with them then and compassionate them rather than rail upon them and revile them c. Yes will some answer but we may say what we please of their Ministers Not so saith the Wise man in this place Curse not the rich i. e. men in great Authority under the King For as the same Luther discourses upon the first Verse of this Chapter just as we see Flies fall into a Pot of excellent Ointment and there dying and corrupting spoil it all so when excellent Counsel is given in the Kingdom in the Senate in War behold there comes some mischievous Knave or other and utterly dashes it so that it hath no effect But as we are compelled to endure those poisonous Flies so we must be content to suffer these pestilent Counsellors CHAP. XI ARGUMENT As Obedience to Governours and patience under ill Government are the means he shows in the foregoing Chapters to preserve peace and quietness which are the great blessings of humane life so in peaceable quiet and easie times nothing contributes more to our happy living than the constant exercise of Charity in Works of Mercy which make us beloved both of God and man Upon which therefore the Wise man here insists largely in the six first Verses of this Chapter and then presses men to it by the consideration that there is no pleasure like this while they live and that as they cannot keep what they have long but Death will rob them of all so they must give an account of what they have enjoyed and therefore had best make such an use of it as will stand them in stead at that time This I take to be the summ of this Chapter 1. CAST thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many days 1. NOW having shown how thou oughtest to behave thy self towards those above thee look down a little upon those below thee and believe that nothing is more profitable though the World think otherways as well as obliging than to be kind and charitable unto all men but especially to the poor miserable people though they be not so good perhaps as they ought to be but will ungratefully forget all thy benefits and never think of them more or at
while he hath the briskest taste of them to invent all manner of pleasures for his entertainment denying himself nothing that he desires and gratifying all his senses It is this that he must give a strict account of all his actions unto God who will deal well with him if he have kept himself within his Bounds and enjoyed only lawful pleasures with thankful acknowledgments unto Him but will punish him for all his extravagances and forgetfulness of Him with torments infinitely greater than all his sinful delights And this be it known to thee whosoever thou art that readest this is a certain truth See Annot. i 10. Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from thy flesh for childhood and youth are vanity 10. And therefore by the thoughts of this I advise thee also to suppress and banish that fierceness rage sadness fretting and vexation with all such like perturbations of mind unto which in the heat of thy blood thou art subject when any thing crosses thee suppose when thou art only reproved for thy faults and let no filthy desires which then are strong and would plunge thee in all wickedness stay with thee For if such care as this be not taken to lay restraints upon him there is nothing more senseleslly foolish rash inconstant and forward to ruine it self than Man in his Childish Youth when he is in the dawning as we call it of his days and comes first acquainted with the pleasures of this World See Annot. k ANNOTATIONS a Verse 1. Charity being the Subject of his Discourse in the first six Verses of this Chapter as was observed in the Argument he begins with the proper object of it those who as our Saviour speaks XIV Luke 14. are not likely to recompence us again Thus this first Verse about which there are various conceits I think may be most naturally expounded And it is a very ancient Exposition as appears by the Words of Gregory Thaumaturgus which are these in English It is just to communicate unto others c. for though for the present it may seem to be lost and thrown away as we speak like the bread that is cast upon the water yet in process of time thy love to Mankind will appear not to be unprofitable and without fruit And after the same manner Greg. Nazianzen in after-times Orat. XIX pag. 298. speaking of the liberality of his Father to the Poor saith He proceeded upon this Maxim That it is much better for the sake of those who may be worthy to give to those who are unworthy than for fear of bestowing our Charity upon the unworthy let worthy people want it To which that seems saith he to belong which we read in Solomon Cast thy bread upon the water Which is not thrown away and quite lost in the account of him that justly estimates things but is sent thither where all that we do is laid up and shall in due season meet us again though we think not of it And to strengthen this it is observed by some that water in Scripture signifie great affliction and misery XVIII Psal 17. LXVI 12. And therefore the sense of the Proverb is not of sowing in a fertile Ground by the Rivers or in a Soil well watered from whence men naturally expect a fruitful Crop as some expound it but of sowing i. e. giving alms there from whence we expect no fruit no more than if we threw the Seed in a rapid River in which it is carried away no body knows whither and seems utterly lost And so it may be applied also to ungrateful people as I have touched in the Paraphrase and I shall not trouble the Reader with other Expositions which may be found in most Commentators only naming this of Maldonate which agrees well enough with that which I have followed give to the poor whose miseries are so great that their faces are all wet and besmeared with tears And though there be many of them be not sparing if thou art able to receive them for waters signifie sometime a multitude of people in the Scripture Language But that 's the sense of the next Verse and therefore upon the face of the waters is as much as upon those who will be gone presently like the Waters of a River and never bring any thing back to us to reward us if they do is more than could be expected As for the Word Bread it signifies any benefit whereby the poor may be supported especially all sorts of Food 1 Sam. XIV 24. where it comprehends honey and every thing that was edible more particularly that Food which is made of Corn III. Gen. 19. and from thence signifies Corn it self of which Bread is made XXVIII Isai 28. And so St. Hierom here expounds it agreeable to what I said above of sowing seed in the Water b V. 2. And as in the first Verse he hath respect to the quality of the persons unto whom we are to give so here to the number of them and the quantity of our Alms which is expected perhaps by a great multitude Yet let not that damp it saith he out of a fancy that it will undo us to relieve them all but if we be able let us help them and though more still come when we have extended our Charity according to our utmost ability let us rather go beyond it as the Apostle saith the Macedonian Christians did 2 Cor. VIII 3. than let miserable Creatures perish Thus Greg. Nazianzen seems to understand these Words Seven yea eight Seven is a complete number eight added to it denotes somethings above that which we account perfection His Words are these that his Father gave not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of his superfluity but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of his necessaries according to the prescription of Solomon Give a portion not only to seven but if an eighth came he was not here sparing but much more ready to give than others are to get In short he means give most liberally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Greg. Thaumaturgus here expresses it not sparingly but profusely I omit other Glosses upon the Verse and the Criticism which some make upon the Word portion which they think alludes to what was sent from Feasts unto the poor or those that were absent of which there is no certainty I will only note that here again Solomon contradicts the Vulgar Principle upon which covetous Wretches move and directs the quite contrary They think all is lost that is given away in Charity no such matter saith the Preacher v. 1. the fruit of it will be found hereafter beyond what can be imagined O saith the covetous man again I know not what will be hereafter now I have enough but in the latter end of my life I may want and therefore it is best to save whilst I may No saith the Preacher for that very reason give because thou knowest not what may be hereafter when that may be
subdue all Mankind unto my obedience XLV Psal 4. for I have likened thee whom I love to those victorious Armies of a mighty King which trample all opposition triumphantly under their feet See Annot. i 10. Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels thy neck with chains of gold 10. And then will the very outward face of the Church look most beautiful by those various Orders of spiritual Gifts wherewith I will inrich her which shall make her appear like a lovely Bride when she is decked with all her Jewels and Ornaments that add lustre to her beauty See Annot. k Chorus of Virgins 11. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver 11. Unto which all her Members shall contribute by their unanimous resolution to lead such a life as may adorn their Religion and make the Church shine in such splendor and Glory that She shall not come short of Royal Majesty XLV Psal 13. See Annot. l Spouse 12. ¶ While the king sitteth at his table my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof 12. Whereby she shall become fit for the affections of her great Lord when He sits upon the Throne of his Glory acknowledging his Bounty in all the benefits and Ornaments He hath bestowed upon her IV. Philip. 18. and making manifest the sweet and fragrant odour of his knowledge in every place 2 Cor. II. 14. compared with XLV Psal 8. See Annot. m 13. A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts 13. From which knowledge every pious Soul shall derive the greatest refreshment comfort and strength and therefore love Him above all things and resolve never to let Him slip out of their minds but to preserve the remembrance of Him most carefully night and day in their very hearts as the most precious Cordial in all conditions unto their Spirits See Annot. n 14. My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the Vineyards of Engedi 14. And indeed there is nothing of such price nothing so delicious among us for our bodily pleasure but ought to put us in mind how much more inestimable that knowledge is which Thou O Lord who deservest all our love vouchsafest for the comfort and satisfaction of our Souls See Annot. o Bridegroom 15. Behold thou art fair my love behold thou art fair thou hast doves eyes 15. Such shall be the language of those who are acquainted with his worth which shall increase their mutual affection unto each other and move Him to give his Church more sensible testimonies of his love and repeated assurances how amiable her purity and modesty her innocence and simplicity as well as her decent order and comely Government is in his sight See Annot. p Spouse 16. Behold thou art fair my beloved yea pleasant also our bed is green 16. And what can this love of his produce but new admiration in her of Him and of his love bursting forth into such expressions as these yea rather thou art most amiable and lovely XLV Psal 2. not I whose beauty and goodness is but a weak reflection of thy incomparable perfections which move Thee to communicate thy self in the most delectable Graces unto all those that love Thee who making one Body with Thee may say We feast together most sumptuously and are entertained every day with those delights which grow there only where Thou vouchsafest thy gracious presence See Annot q 17. The beams of our house are cedar and our rafters of firr 17. Who hast promised to dwell with us in the several Churches of thy Saints which are as so many living Temples dedicated to thy service and being protected and defended by Thee shall remain so stable and firm that they shall last for ever See Annot. r ANNOTATIONS a Verse 1. Song of Songs every one knows is an Hebraism for the most excellent Song as Holy of Holies is the most Holy and King of Kings the greatest King And though the most natural meaning seems to be that this is the most excellent of all the Songs that Solomon made which were very many 1 King IV. 32. both in its structure and composure and in regard of the Subject whereof it treats yet since the Chaldee Paraphrase and abundance of Christian Writers think it called the most excellent Song with respect likewise to all the Songs that had been formerly made by any Prophetical person as those XV. Exod. V. Judg. 1 Sam. II. c. because they celebrated only some particular benefits this the immense love of God not only towards that Nation but towards all mankind I have not neglected that in my Paraphrase which is Solomons The Hebrew Words are so contrived that they may either signifie concerning Solomon i. e. Christ or of which Solomon was the Author Which I doubt not is the first and literal meaning because so the LXX expound it and so the same Phrase is understood by all in the Titles of those Psalms which are called Psalms of David But it may be observed further that here are none of his usual Titles added as there are in the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes where he is called Son of David King of Israel and King in Jerusalem Of which if any reason is to be assigned this seems the most probable that those Titles which have respect only to his temporal estate greatness and dignity he wholly forgot when he was rapt in contemplation of that Celestial Prince the Prince of peace in comparison with whom all others are not worth the naming and whose Character was best expressed by the name of Solomon alone He being the great Peace-maker and Reconciler of God and man b V. 2. Let him kiss me Solomon speaks this in the person of the Virgin Daughter of Sion that is the Church Whom he here introduces in the most passionate strain wishing for some token of love which is expressed under the Metaphor of a kiss But there is no mention at all made of the Name condition or beauty of the Person whose love is desired nor any account given of the beginning or progress of this desire but he makes her burst out on a sudden and abruptly into these Words Let him kiss me c. that he might the more artificially describe the nature and force of Divine love Which when it possesses the mind snatches it so from it self that it is wholly in him that it loves It thinks of nothing else seeks nothing wishes nothing speaks of nothing but this alone and imagins that every Body else thinks of the same and knows of whom it speaks It is just such a beginning as that of the LXXXVIIth Psalm where the Psalmist enters upon the description of the loveliness of Mount Sion and Mount Moriah in this manner His foundation is in the holy Mountains kisses of his mouth As a kiss given to another was a token of love and kindness friendship and familiarity in those Countries it being their manner to salute their Guests
whom they invited to their house VII Luke 45. so many kisses were a token of abundant love and excessive affection as appears from what is there said by our Saviour of the Woman who had not ceased to kiss his very feet And therefore the beginning of this Verse may be thus paraphrased Let Him declare his love unto me in the most familiar and most ample manner Of which matter I have noted something elsewhere * Mensa Mystica and therefore shall only add here That in the Mystical Divinity of the Cabbalists these are the Words of Malcuth the Spouse speaking to her Tipheret the Bridegroom beseeching Him to influence her with the gift of the Holy Ghost or with Binah as they speak that is understanding and intelligence which is called by them the mouth of the Sephirot or emanations of light better than wine Wine was the highest Entertainment for those Guests before-mentioned and therefore used by the Hebrews to express the greatest pleasure There was a portion of it also to be poured out on the Altar in their Offerings to God and so may comprehend their Sacrifices which were the principal part of their Religion Unto both which I have had respect in the Paraphrase c V. 3. savour of thy good ointments Ointments also were not wanting at all their Entertainments with which some were wont to anoint their whole Heads or at least their Nostrils which they lookt upon as conducing much to health as well as pleasure According to those famous Words of Alexis the Poet in Athenaeus his Diepnosophists L. II. Cap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which Ointments there were exceeding great variety four he mentions in that place which were in common use but a vast number more in his XVth Book Chap. 11. out of Apollonius Herophilus Who shows in a Book on purpose about it that several Countries afforded Unguents that were most excellent in their kind As the best of Roses was made at Phaselis and some other places the best of Crocus came from Soli in Cilicia that of Spikenard from Tarsus c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Syria anciently though not in his time afforded excellent of all sorts especially of one which he there names Now to this use of Ointments some think Solomon here alludes but I rather think he hath respect to his Fathers Words XLV Psal 8 and intended hereby to signifie the glorious Offices of the Messiah whose very Name signifying anointed carried in it all that could be desired He being anointed by God to be the great Deliverer and Saviour of his people And these first Words of the Verse the LXX seem to me to have most rightly understood whom I have therefore followed who translate them thus The smell of thy Ointments is above all Spices taking to vim which we translate good for the best of ointments therefore do the Virgins love thee The attractive power of sweet Ointments to which Solomon here alludes is notably declared in that which Basil Epist ad Julittam relates of the manner of catching Doves Which was by breeding up one tame and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anointing her Wings with Ointment they let her flee away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and the sweet odour of the Ointment drew abundance of Pigeons after her which She brought to the Coat of her owner See this further explained in the Next Note d. d V. 4. Draw me In the beginning of this Verse I suppose he comprehends all the Nation of the Jews as persons conjunct with him in these Words Draw me And then speaks in the name of all other people We will run after thee For so the Hebrew Writers themselves by Virgins in the foregoing Verse understand those who out of Paganism came into the Church and embraced the true Religion such as Jethro and Rahab who having heard of the Miracles in Egypt and in the Wilderness joined themselves to the people of God And indeed wonderful ardent was the love of those who came from Gentilism unto Christ such as the Woman of Samaria IV. Joh. the Centurion VIII Matth. the Canaanitish Woman XV. Matth. who had such faith as was not found in Israel the king hath brought me c. Here now he seems on a sudden to have had a glance of the Messiah the great King of Israel and in the Spirit of Prophecy to have beheld a glimpse of those things which eye had not seen nor ear heard neither did they enter into the heart of man Which I understand here by the Word chadarau which we translate chambers wherein he alludes to the Chambers of the Temple 1 Chron. XXVIII 11. but especially to the most secret place of it into which no man might enter but the High Priest alone till Christ came and made way for us into the holiest of all which was typified by it the upright love thee The two last Words of this Verse being capable of various Translations I have expressed the sense so largely as to comprehend them all in my paraphrase And shall only add that the whole Verse may be understood after this manner that the first Words draw me are the voice of the Spouse the next we will run after thee the Words of the Chorus of Virgins And then she speaks again the King hath brought me into his Chambers and then they again express their joy at it in the following Words we will be glad and rejoyce c. This came into my mind since I wrote the Paraphrase and seems to be the plainest account of this Verse e V. 5. I am black c. The principal Mystery of the Kingdom of Christ being the calling of the Gentiles into fellowship with Him which is oftner called a Mystery in the New Testament than any one thing whatsoever Solomon seems to speak of that in this Verse having beheld in the rapture wherein he was the Gentiles flocking to Him not without the great displeasure of the Jews Who contemned and would have excluded them as people uncapable of his love unto which the Gentiles are here introduced making their Answer to the Exceptions of the Jews in these Words I am black but comely c. The literal sense of which and of the next Verse I have expressed so fully in the Paraphrase annexing the spiritual sense at the end that I do not think fit to enlarge upon it here But desire the Reader to take notice that the Word Sechora which we translate black denotes such a duskishness as is in the Morning called Sechar in the Hebrew when some little light begins to appear and the darkness to fly away Which aptly represents the condition of the Gentile World when they were upon the point of receiveing the knowledge of Christ Which this wise King Solomon might well foresee would be imparted to them by observing a Type of it in his own Marriage as well as in the Marriages of other Great Men in
to follow such Interpretations But shall pursue the Method I have begun and observe that the Messiah is here introduced as owning the Praises which the Church had bestowed upon Him in the Conclusion of the foregoing Chapter And that in such Phrases as are becoming a Pastoral borrowed from Flowers and Trees under which Shepherds delight to sit and eat the Fruit and from such Creatures as frequent the Fields and Woods c. I am the rose And in this Verse He first compares Himself to a Rose which is still one of the goodliest things to which a great Prince can be likened in those Eastern Countries As appears from a Letter written by the great Mogul in the Persian Tongue to K. James sent by Sir Tho. Roe wherein he thus complements his Majesty of Great Britain As upon a Rose in a Garden so are my eyes fixed upon you God maintain your Estate that your Monarchy may prosper c. But it was chiefly prized by Shepherds and Shepherdesses and accounted by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philostratus speaks the Plant of Love Insomuch saith he that if the great King have his Diadem on his Head the Souldier his Helmet as the greatest Ornament beautiful Youths should have Chaplets of Roses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as near of kin to them both in sweetness and in ruddiness And Achilles Tatius L. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. thus commends this lovely Flower If Jupiter would set a King over the Flowers it would be the Rose that should reign over them being the Ornament of the Earth the splendor of Plants the Eye of Flowers the blushing Beauty of the Field or refulgent brightness c. of Saron i. e. The most excellent Rose For such were the Roses of Saron as may be gathered from hence That the Rose according to Pliny's Observation delights in dry places and will not thrive in fat and unctuous Soils in rich Clays or Grounds well watred but in those that are lean full of rubbish c. Now such was the Soil about Saron as we learn from the Mischneh in the Title Sota Chap. VIII where they that built a Brick House in Saron are said to have been deprived of the benefit of that Law XX. Deut. 5. Upon which Passage R. Solomon glosses that the Earth thereabout about was unfit for making Bricks being so dry and crumbling that the Houses that were built of them had need to be repaired twice in seven years Insomuch that the Jerusalem-Talmud saith The High Priest prayed by name for the Saronites upon the Day of Expiation that their Houses might not be converted into their Graves Lily of the valleys By this Lily we are not to understand such as we call Lilium convallium or May-Lily but some more noble and fragrant Flower being joined here with Roses As it is in several Poetical Fragments quoted by Athenaeus L. XV. C. 8 9. with Violets Marjoram and divers other sweet Flowers Insomuch that he saith the Corinthians called the Lily by the name of Ambrosia and he tells us out of Nicander that it was esteemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the joy and delight of Venus because of its beautiful colour And smell also I suppose for in the XIIth Chapter of the same Book he quotes a Passage out of Theophrastus who treating of sweet Ointments made of Flowers mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that of Lilies as well as that of Roses But notwithstanding all this the Lily being vulgarly celebrated only for its beautiful colour I have taken notice of that alone in the Paraphrase b V. 2. As the Lily c. They that believe in Christ partaking of his Excellencies He here compares the Church to a Lily i.e. to Himself as much excelling all other people who were not Believers for Daughters signifie people in the Hebrew Language as the Lilies do Thornes which grow in desolate places For the Word we translate Thornes is wont to be joined together with those which signifie Nettles and Brambles XXXIV Isai 13. IX Hosea 6. c V. 3. As the Apple-Tree c. To this the Church here replies and expresses her reciprocal affection in such Words as may be applied to signifie his preheminence over all other gods whom they were wont to worship under Trees as we read in XII Deut. 2. 1 Kings XIV 23. LVII Isai 5. and many other places I sat down under c. In the latter Part of this Verse and in those that follow she turns her Speech to her Companions and Attendants relating the satisfaction and joy she took in his love d V. 4. He brought me c. Which is set forth by a Banquet whereby it is well known the Hebrews are wont to represent the joys even of the other World And what greater joy have we here than to think of the stupendous love of God our Saviour towards us which cannot but subdue our hearts to love Him intirely So I have paraphrased the latter part of the Verse his Banner over me was love taking in two senses of which the Words are capable The most obvious is that Love was the Inscription in his Banner the other that He conquers only by Love a Banner displayed supposing an Armed Force marching under it Delherrus in his Electa L. 3. C. 9. hath not unfitly glossed upon the Words thus The Banner of our Lord is his love which he hath publickly declared to us that He might draw us to Himself by which also when we are come to Him He retains us with Him and strengthens us by the same when we fight with our spiritual Enemies And that we may alway look upon it and never quail He carries it over us that is renders his love most familiar to us He that knows not this Banner can be none of his Souldiers and he that deserts it is undone unless he presently return to it So that as the Roman Legions had their several names one of which was called the Pious and another the Faithful another the Thundring another the Victorious c. in like manner the Christian Band may be called Amoris Legio the Legion of Love e V. 5. Stay me with flagons c. This Verse is a description of one falling into a swound by the abundance of her love In which case Cordial Spirits are wont to be called for to revive such persons and keep them from fainting quite away Comfortable smells also are wont to be administred to the Nose which is the meaning of calling here for fragrant Apples Oranges Citrons c. as well as Wine which are all comprehended under the name of tappuach in the Hebrew which is a Word that in its very Original imports an exhalation or odour-breathing from that which is so called By all which the Church is represented to be so marvellously affected with the love of Christ as to be even oppressed under the weight of Divine Benefits and at a perfect loss what to think of them having little or nothing
so happy as to see the Messiah appear though it were but in his infancy which would transport them with joy c. And thus the Chaldee Paraphrast interprets it of the time when the Messiah shall be revealed to the Congregation of Israel But if we consider what follows it will be more reasonable to connect it with what went before and to take it for a most ardent expression of love to the person before-spoken of with a desire to have more intimate familiarity with him such as a Sister hath with a Brother when he is a sucking Child whom if she met in the Street she would not be ashamed to take out of his Nurses Arms into her own and openly kiss and not imagine she should thereby incur any reproach or contempt This seems to be the most literal sense of the Words which may be applied to the open profession of Christianity with the greatest confidence and security nothing being more innocent and harmless than the love and service wherein it engages its Disciples to their Lord and Master Christ Who the more obedient any person is to God's commands holds that man or woman the dearer to Him even as dear as a Brother Sister or Mother XII Matth. 50. Which saith Grotius upon that place is the mystical sense of the Song of Songs See more in my Preface b V. 2. This dear Lord i. e. the knowledge of Him she desires here to carry still further till she had brought Him into the house that is into the Family of her Mother Which may be applied unto the design of God to awaken the Jews to believe on Christ by bringing in the fulness that is a vast number of the Gentiles XI Rom. 25. Which the Apostle saith there v. 15. would be life from the dead Unto which the last Words of this Verse may be accommodated For after she had said she would lead him or bring him down and then bring him into the house of her Mother she adds thou shalt teach or instrust me Which agrees with what the Apostle there writes v. 12. that if the fall of the Jews was the riches of the Gentiles that is enriched them with the Treasures of Divine Wisdom and Knowledge how much more would their fullness inrich them If we referr this Clause as we do to Mother before-named the best sense I can make of it is this By whom I was educated and instructed And then follows her making Him drink of spiced Wine that is making a great Feast for Him IX Prov. 2. where the most excellent Wine made the chiefest part of the Entertainment such Wine as makes those who are asleep to speak VII 9. Which effect the receiving of the Jews again will produce as the Apostle tells us when he saith it shall be life from the dead i. e. a most powerful Argument to enliven the most stupid Souls and move them to believe in Christ. Certain it is that Harekach spiced or Aromatick Wine denotes its fragrancy or delicious odour whereby the best Wines are discerned as much as by their taste and the Word we translate Juice signifies every where Muste or new Wine whereby the Prophets set forth something that works with greater power and efficacy than ordinary IX Zach. 17. And here I doubt not relates to something new and unusual and in the mystical Application may signifie a greater fullness and power of the Spirit than had been in former days working like new Wine in the hearts of those that received the Gospel All this is said to be done to Him because as Theodoret noted before what is done to his Members he takes as done to himself c V. 3. Who is here represented as immediately condescending to her desires and fulfilling her wishes vouchsafing a new supply of the power of the Spirit to support and comfort her in those labours of love for his names sake Which were so great that she is represented here as spent and fainting away So she had been before Chap. II. 6. where see the meaning of these Words d V. 4. This Verse hath also been twice used before with no difference from what we read here but that now the mention of Hinds and Roes is left out and yet he charges them with greater vehemence than ever For the Hebrew Phrase here signifies as much as what do you do why do you stir c. that is by no means take heed how you disturb her See II. 7. III. 5. e V. 5. This seems to be the voice of her Companions or Daughters of Jerusalem mentioned in the Verse before and begins the last part of this Song admiring the new change they saw in her For she was represented before as coming out of the Wilderness III. 6. but not leaning upon her Beloved as she is here Which signifies her advancement unto a state of greater dearness to Him and familiarity with Him The Word mithrappeketh is not found elsewhere and therefore variously translated by Interpreters But most agree that it signifies either closely adhering or leaning relying and recumbring as they speak which L. de Dieu hath shown is the use of the Word in Neighbouring Languages But there are those who think it imports something of pleasure and therefore the Vulgar takes in that sense with the other as I have in the Paraphrase and translate it flowing with the delights For she having been in the Fields and Villages visiting the Vineyards and other places VII 11 12 13. is now introduced as coming back from thence into the Royal City Which being seated on high in comparison with the Plains out of which she came she is said to ascend or come up but that she might not be tired with the Journey is represented as leaning upon the arm of her Beloved or as some will have it lying in his bosom as St. John did in our Saviours and laden with the delicious fruit before-mentioned VII 13. Which excited the admiration of all that knew her when they beheld the Grace of her Lord towards her together with her own Beauty Riches Ornaments and Happiness The latter part of the Verse all the Greek Fathers take to be the voice of the Bridegroom and so do many of the Latines But some of them and all the Hebrew Writers take them to be the Words of the Spouse because thee is of the Masculine Gender Which soever way we take them the sense is very hard to find If we go the first way the most natural sense seems to be that He puts her in mind of the poor and mean condition out of which He had taken her into a state of the greatest friendship with Him that she might not be vainly puft up with the acclamations which were made to her But I have followed the Hebrew Points in my Paraphrase and understood the Words of stirring up his love towards her when they were looking after the Plantations mentioned VII 11 12. Which was excited by the care and pains she took in
owners thereof saving the beholding of them with their eyes 11. But let us suppose that he useth his Riches yet it is but a small portion of them that he can enjoy and as his Estate encreases the greater Family and Retinue if he will live like himself he must maintain who have a larger share than himself in the daily provision that is made by his expences And as for the rest that is not expended which he calls peculiarly his he hath no other benefit from it but only that it feeds and entertains his eyes from which he derives all the true pleasure he hath above them if he keep a good House willingly that he sees many continually supported by his Hospitality but this very thing if he be covetous is his torment that he beholds so many mouths which eat at his Cost and Charges See Annot. k 12. The sleep of a labouring man is sweet whether he eat little or much but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep 12. And as he that tills his Ground or serves him in any other labour hath commonly a better appetite and stronger digestion and therefore more health than himself so he sleeps soundly and is recruited with new vigour against the Morning whether his supper be small or large when his rich Master if he eat sparingly hath his head so full of cares and fears or if he cram himself hath it so filled with unquiet vapors that he cannot sleep a wink or tosses up and down so restlesly that he is not at all refreshed by it but by his crudities prepares matter for many Diseases See Annot. l 13. There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt 13. And besides all this there is another thing which is very calamitous and may rather be called a grievous plague than a mere affliction that these very Treasures which men have heaped up and preserved with a great deal of care from thence expecting their felicity prove in the issue their utter undoing for I my self have seen some of these miserable men murthered by their Servants or by Thieves nay by their own Children that they might be Masters of these Riches which bring them also perhaps at the last into the same or the like destruction See Annot. m 14. But those riches perish by evil travail and be begetteth a son and there is nothing in his hand 14. Or if this happen not these Riches perish to their no small grief and trouble by fire or shipwark or bad Bargains or ill Debtors or those very crafty practices whereby he seeks to encrease his Estate or by some other misfortune or misadventure so that his Son whom he thought to have left possessed of abundance of Wealth hath nothing at all to support a wretched life See Annot. n 15. As he came forth of his mothers womb naked shall he return to go as he came and shall take nothing of his labour which he may carry away in his hand 15. These things indeed do not always happen but this which follows doth that though he die possessed of all that he hath gotten yet he cannot carry one Farthing away with him but in this he and the poorest Wretch are both alike that as he came naked into this World so he must be stript again when he goes out of it and though his labour hath been great and his Estate no less yet it is not in his power to take along with him so much as a Winding-sheet but what others please to bestow upon him 16. And this also is a sore evil that in all points as he came so shall he go and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind 16. This is another grievous affliction and sore torment to Mankind especially to the Wealthy that the things on which they have set their hearts cannot accompany them into the other World for as the richest man that ever was brought nothing hither so he can carry nothing thither but must leave all he hath behind him and then what advantage hath he what pleasure wherein doth he differ from a mere Beggar But in this only that he hath taken a World of pains to no purpose for that which gives no satisfaction and which he can hold no more than he can the Wind. 17. All his days also he eateth in darkness and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness 17. And as at Death he can find no comfort in all his Wealth so he took as little perhaps in his life but dwelt obscurely and denying himself even what he had led such a sad melancholy and sordid life that his Meat and his Drink and the very light it self gave him no pleasure for such a man never thinks himself happy but when some hope of gain shines upon him and therefore at other times he pines and grieves and frets and vexes himself at every thing that makes and expence or crosses his covetous desires and designs insomuch that the sickness of his Soul appears in his pale and careful looks and in his lean and meagre Body which consumes and wasts even by the sorrow and sadness the vexation and displeasure of his mind See Annot. o 18. ¶ Behold that which I have seen it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life which God giveth him for it is his portion 18. Behold therefore the truth of that Observation which I have made more than once II. 24. III. 12 13 22. and now repeat again that it is best for a man and most becoming freely to use and enjoy the Riches he hath gotten by his honest labours both for the constant supply of all the necessities of Nature and for moderate delight and pleasure for the entertainment of his Friends and the relief of his poor Neighbours and this not for a Fit but all the time that God is pleased to continue him in this World for this is all that falls to his share or that can truly be called his part in the good things of this life and the only way to prolong his days and enlarge his portion in them See Annot. p 19. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth and hath given him power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoyce in his labour this is the gift of God 19. And whosoever he be whom God hath blessed not only with plenty and abundance of Worldly Goods but also with such a noble and generous mind that he is not their Slave but truly Master of them being able to enjoy them innocently and to take his full share in them and that with cheerfulness and delight in doing good to others let him be very thankful to Almighty God for so great and happiness and acknowledge it to be a singular
Gift of his Bounty wherewith he rewards his honest labours 20. For he shall not much remember the days of his life because God answereth him in the joy of his heart 20. For he that is thus highly favoured by God will not think life tedious or irksome but forgetting all his past toils and taking no care for the future spend his time most pleasantly because God hath given him his very hearts desire and he hath attained the scope of all his labours in that inward tranquility of mind or rather joy and gladness of heart wherewith God hath compensated all his pains and testified his extraordinary kindness to him ANNOTATIONS a V. 1. To prevent or cure that folly mentioned in the Argument of the Chapter he advises three things about the Worship of God The first of them is in this Verse to look to the disposition of their mind when they go to Gods House And this pious disposition of mind consists also in three things First in frequenting the House of God the place where He is worshipped Secondly in a reverent behaviour there suitable to the great thoughts we have of God and to the humble sense we have of our own meanness expressed by keeping or observing the feet i. e. taking care to put off their Shooes or Sandals as the manner was in those Countries and to go barefoot into the holy places answerable to which now is uncovering the head in our Churches c. as Mr. Mede well discourses in more places than one Book II. p. 441 546. and then lastly in a readiness of the Will to obey all the Divine Precepts as the best of Sacrifices For this is the Sacrifice of wise and good men and all other Sacrifices without this are but the Sacrifices of Fools and wicked people who are able many times to furnish the Altar with more Burnt-offerings than the best of men But they are such Fools as not to consider that this very thing encreases their guilt that they imagine God will be pleased with the Sacrifice of Beasts without the Sacrifice of themselves in intire obedience to his Will So our Translation seems to understand the last Clause of this Verse which may be thus also translated For they make no conscience to do evil It is no part of their Religion to abstain from wickedness but fansying by their Sacrifices they shall atone for that they do not fear to commit it To this purpose Maldonate expounds it more plainly than any that I have read b V. 2. Here he gives the second Advice which is about Prayer and about Vows to God or as St. Hierom seems to take it and to which Melancthon wholly confines it about the Doctrines we deliver concerning God which should be very well considered before we affirm any thing of Him The two first are most proper to the place especially the latter of them both which I have comprehended in the Paraphrase of this Verse c V. 3. The reason for the foregoing Precept of not using many words taken from the consideration of God's Greatness and our meanness v. 2. together with the inforcement of it in this Verse is thus explained by St. Hierom. He requires us that whether we speak or think of God we should not venture beyond our ability but remember our imbecillity and that as far as the Heaven is distant from the Earth so much do our thoughts fall short of the excellence of his Nature And therefore our words ought to be very moderate for as a man that is full of thoughts commonly dreams of those things whereof his head is full so he that attempts to discourse much of the Divinity falls into folly Or rather thus Our words ought therefore to be few because even those things which we think we know we see through a Glass and in aenigmate and we do but dream of that which we fansie we comprehend So that when we have said a great deal and to the purpose as it seems to us the Conclusion of our Disputation is mere folly And so much we may be certain he suggests unto us that in a multitude of words spoken unto God as I rather understand it there must needs be many of them as idle as mens thoughts are in a Dream For the third Verse sounds thus in the Hebrew For a Dream proceeds from or by a multitude of toilsome business and the voice of a Fool from or by the multitude of words That is if a man have a multitude of cares in his mind all the day they will produce strange extravagant or distracted Dreams in the Night and in like manner if a man utter abundance of words without consideration and due weighing what he saith to God many of them must needs be foolish whether they be Vows or whether they be Prayers unto him or whether they be Discourses concerning Him for we may refer it if we please to all And the sense will not much differ if that Preposition which we translate from be translated with in this manner As Dreams come with a multitude of business i. e. bring before the mind in a confused manner what we have been doing or thinking of all day so a Fools voice comes with a multitude of words i. e. he utters a great deal of incoherent confused stuff c. Or thus the voice of a Fool comes in a multitude of words And then the sense will run thus As a multitude of business tires a man and makes him but dream at last about it and therefore he had better leave off before he be unfit to attend it so when a man enlarges himself too far in his Prayers or Discourses of God he doth but babble in a Conclusion and therefore had better be shorter d V. 4. And now follows the third Advice about the performing of Vows that have been made Which is double first not to delay the performance nor put it off from time to time which is the Subject of this Verse lest we be tempted at last not to perform our Vow at all which is the second thing of which he speaks in the next words ver 5. and 6. where he cautions against excuses which men are apt to make for not being as good as their intentions Greg. Thaumaturgus hath expressed both excellently in a few words alluding to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to complete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A promise being made by a Vow let it receive its perfection or completion by performance and that with all speed as soon as it is due For a Vow is an imperfect sort of thing till it be made good it hath only the beginning of a good thing and wants its finishing which if it have not it becomes ugly and odious For God loves not that is hates to be so dealt withall as if He did either not understand or not mind what we say to Him or would put up that affront which the poorest man cannot but resent Who