← Back to the beginning of Ecclesiastes 6
Ver. 4. For he cometh in with vanity, &c.] As nothing, being senseless of good or evil. “And departeth in darkness,” and is buried in hugger mugger. And his “name shall be covered,” &c., that is, there is no more talk of this abortive.
Ver. 5. Moreover he hath not seen the sun.] A second privilege and prerogative of the poor abortive. None are so miserable, we see, but they may be comparatively happy. It is ever best to look at those below us, and then we shall see cause to be better contented. This hath more rest than the other.] The grain that is cropped as soon as it appeareth, or is bruised in pieces when it lies in sprout, is better than the old weed, that is hated while it standeth, and in the end is cut down for the fire.
Ver. 6. Yea, though he live a thousand years.] Which yet never any man did; Methuselah wanted thirty-two of a thousand.—The reason thereof is given by Oecolampadius; ” Quia numerus iste typum habeat perfectionis, ut qui constet e centenario decies revoluto, ” because the number of a thousand types out perfection, as consisting of a hundred ten times told. But there is no perfection here, saith he. Yet hath he seen no good.] For, “all the days of the afflicted are evil,” saith Solomon. (Proverbs 15:15) And man’s days are “few and full of trouble,” saith Job. (Job 14:1) “Few and evil are the days of my pilgrimage,” saith Jacob, (Genesis 47:9) “and I have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers.” For Abraham lived one hundred and seventy-five years, and Isaac one hundred and eighty—near upon forty years longer than Jacob, but to his small comfort, for he was blind all that time; yet nothing so blind as the rich wretch in the text, qui privatus interno lumine, tamen in hac vita diu vult perpeti caecitatem suam, as one speaketh, who being blind as a mole, lies rooting and poring incessantly in the bowels of the earth—as if he would that way dig himself a new and a nearer way to hell—and with his own hands addeth to the load of this miserable life. As he hath done no good, so he hath seen or enjoyed none; but goes to his place (do not all go to one place?)—the place that Adam provided for all his posterity, the house appointed for all living, as Job calls it, (Job 30:23) the congregation house, as one renders it. Heaven the apostle calls the congregation house [πανηγαριν, Hebrews 12:23] of the firstborn, whose names also are there said to be written in heaven: but covetous persons, as they are called “the inhabitants of the earth,” (Revelation 12:12) in opposition to those coelicolae, citizens of heaven, the saints; so their names are “written in the earth,” (Jeremiah 17:13) “because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters,” and “hewed them out cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13) What marvel, then, if they live long, and yet see no good? if they are driven to that doleful complaint that Saul made, “God hath forsaken me, and the Philistines are upon me,” (1 Samuel 28:15) -sickness, death, hell is upon me, I am even now about to make my bed in the dark, and all the comfort I can have from God is that dismal sentence, “This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.” (Isaiah 50:11) Lo, this is the cursed condition of the covetous churl; as he hath lived beside his goods, having jaded his body, broken his brains, and burdened his conscience, so he dies hated of God, and loathed of men; the earth groans under him, heaven is shut against him, hell gapes for him. (1 Corinthians 6:8,9 Philippians 3:18) Thus many a miser spins a fair thread to strangle himself, both temporally and eternally. Oh that they would seriously think of this before the cold grave hold their bodies, and hot hell torment their souls! before death come with a writ of Habeas corpus, Let you have the body, and the devil with a writ of Habeas animam, Let you have the soul, as once to that rich fool. (Luke 12:16-21)
Ver. 7. All the labour of man is for his mouth.] That is, For food and raiment, [as 1 Timothy 6:8] a little whereof will content nature, which hath therefore given us a little mouth and stomach, to teach us moderation, as Chrysostom well observeth; to the shame of those beastly belly gods, that glut themselves, and devour the creatures, as if they were of kin to that Pope that was called Os porci, Mouth of a pig, fattening themselves like boars, till they be brawned, and having, as Eliphaz speaketh, collops in their flank. A man would think, by their greedy and great eating, that their throats were whirlpools, and their bellies bottomless; that they were like locusts, which have but one gut, the ass fish, that hath his heart in his belly, or the dolphin, that hath his mouth in his maw, as Solinus saith. And yet the appetite is not filled.] And yet what birds soever fly, what fishes soever swim, what beasts soever run about, are all buried in our bellies, saith Seneca. Heliogabalus was served at one supper with seven thousand fishes and five thousand fowls. He had also six hundred harlots following him in chariots, and yet gave great rewards to him that could invent any new pleasure. His thirst was unquenchable, his appetite like the hill Aetna, ever on fire, after more. Now, as “in water face answereth to face,” (Proverbs 27:19) so doth the appetite of a man to man; we are all as irregular, if God suffer us to range. Dii boni. quantum hominum unus exercet venter! -Seneca. Deus homini angustum ventrem, &c. -Sergius PP. Aristot. Quicquid avium volitat, quicquid piscium natat, quicquid ferarum discurrit, nostris sepelitur ventribus
Ver. 8. For what hath the wise more than the fool?] Nothing at all in this vanity of human nature, that it needeth still new supply of nourishment to preserve it. When a wise man hath eaten, is he not again hungry? and must not his hunger again be satisfied as well as a fool’s hunger? Indeed, as any man is more wise, he is more temperate: he eats to live, not lives to eat. He needs not much, nor is a slave to his appetite, or to his palate. He can feed upon gruel for a need, with Daniel; upon coleworts, with Elisha; upon a cake on the coals and a cruise of water, with Elijah; upon locusts and wild honey, with the Baptist; upon barley bread, with the disciples; upon a herring or two, as Luther, &c. This a fool can ill frame to. He eats as a beast with the old world—-Τρωγοντες (Matthew 24:38) -and “feeds without fear”; (Jude 12) he “caters for the flesh” (Romans 13:14) and “overchargeth it with surfeiting and drunkenness”; (Luke 21:34) he measureth not his cheer by that which nature requireth, but that which greedy appetite desireth, as if therein consisteth his whole happiness. What hath the poor that knoweth to walk before the living,] viz., The poor wise man that lives by his wits can “serve the time,” in St Paul’s sense (if ever he meant it there, Romans 12:11), and make an honest shift to rub through the world. What hath such a one more than a simpler man in this particular? Doth not his hunger return—his stomach crave new nourishment? Animantis cuiusque vita est fuga, saith the philosopher: Were it not for the repair of nutrition, the natural life would be soon extinguished.
Ver. 9. Better is the sight of the eyes, &c.,] i.e., As some sense it, Better it is to overlook dainty dishes than to overcharge the stomach with them; to fill the eyes than the belly; to gratify that than to pamper this: though that is a vanity too in the issue, and may prove a vexation of spirit—may breed inward inquietation; the best that can come of it is repentance and self-revenge, (2 Corinthians 7:11) as in Epaminondas. Symmachus reads the words thus, Melius est providere, quam ambulare ut libet: Better it is to provide than to walk at random. The Septuagint thus, Melius est videre quod cupias, quam desiderare quod nescias: Better is it to see what thou desirest, than to desire what thou knowest not. The best expositors make it an answer to an objection: for, whereas the rich man might reply, Better see wealth than be always seeking it, better have it than hawk after it: the Preacher answers that misery may be somewhat mitigated by this means but never fully cured or cashiered.
Ver. 10. That which hath been is named already.] Or thus, That which is the name of it, hath been named already, [viz., Ecclesiastes 1:2,3] and it is known that it is Adam, or earthly man. The very notation of his name argues him mortal and miserable; whether he be wise or foolish, rich or poor, that alters not the case:— Homo sum, said one, humanum nihil a me alienum puto: I am a man, and therefore may not think strange of misery, whereunto I am born, as the sparks fly upward; (Job 5:7) he that forgets not that he is a man, will not take it ill that evil befalls him, saith another. When Francis, King of France, being held prisoner by Charles V, Emperor of Germany, saw the Emperor’s motto, Plus ultra, More yet, written on the wall of his chamber, he underwrote these words, Hodie mihi, cras tibi: Today is my turn to suffer, tomorrow thine. The Emperor observed it and wrote underneath that, Fateor me esse hominem: I confess I am a man, and therefore subject to misery. Metellus was by the Romans counted and called Felix, happy; so was Sulla, but he proved true that holy proverb, “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning,” for he died miserably of the lousy disease, that dashed all his former happiness. The Delphian oracle pronounced one Aglaus, a poor contented Arcadian, the only happy man alive. Solon preferred Tellus the Athenian, and Cleobis, and Bitus also, before rich Croesus, telling him further that he might be called rich and mighty but not blessed, till he had made a happy end; and so confuting his fond conceit of an imaginary felicity. The Greeks, when they would call a man thrice miserable, they call him thrice a man. The Hebrews, whereas they name a bee from the order of her working, a grasshopper from devouring, an ant from gnawing, an adamant from strokes bearing, a serpent from curious observing, a horse from neighing, &c, they give man his name Adam, from the dust whereof he was made, and Enoch, sorry-man, sick of a deadly disease, and so no way fit to “contend with God, who is much mightier than he,” to require a reason of his judgments, which are sometimes secret, always just. God hath shut up all persons and things (as it were close prisoners) under vanity, by an irresistible decree. To strive against this stream, and by heaping riches, honours, pleasures, to seek to break prison and to withstand God’s will, is lost labour. Misery need not go to find such out, they run to meet their bane; which yet will—as we say of foul weather—come time enough before it is sent for. Ο μεμνημενος οτι εστον ανθρωπος, &c.— Isoc. Joh. Man., loc. com., p. 175. Dictas potius est quam fuerit felix Sulla. -Solin. c. 7. Valer. Max., lib. vii., cap. 3. Τροσανθρωπος. πας εστιν ανθρωπος συμφορα.— Herodot.
Ver. 11. Seeing there be many things that increase.] Seeing it is in vain to wrestle or wrangle with God, to seek to ward off his blow, to moat up one’s self against his fire. Why should vain man contend with his Maker? Why should he beat himself to froth, as the surges of the sea do against the rock? Why should he, like the untamed heifer unaccustomed to the yoke, gall his neck by wriggling?—make his crosses heavier than God makes them, by crossness and impatience? The very heathen could tell him that, “ Deus crudelius urit, Quos videt invitos succubuisse sibi.” - Tibul. Eleg. 1. God will have the better of those that contend with him: and his own reason will tell him that it is not fit that God should cast down the bucklers first: and that the deeper a man wades, the more he shall be wet.
Ver. 12. For who knoweth what is good for man.] He may think this and that to be good, but is, mostly, mistaken and disappointed. Ambrose hath well observed, that other creatures are led by the instinct of nature to that which is good for them. The lion, when he is sick, cures himself by devouring an ape; the bear, by devouring ants; the wounded deer, by feeding upon dittany, &c.; tu ignoras, O homo, remedia tua, but thou, O man, knowest not what is good for thee. “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good,” saith the prophet; “and what doth the Lord require of thee, but this”—instead of raking riches together—“to do justly, and to love mercy, and”—instead of contending with him—“to humble thyself to walk with thy God.” (Micah 6:8) For who can tell a man what shall be after him?] When the worms shall be scrambling for his body, the devils, haply, for his soul, and his friends for his goods. A false Jesuit published in print, some years after Queen Elizabeth’s death, that she died despairing, and that she wished she might, after her death, hang a while in the air, to see what striving would be for her kingdom. I loved the man, said Ambrose of Theodosius, for this, that when he died, he was more affected with care of the Church’s good, than of his own. A labiate plant, Origanum Dictamnus, called also Dictamnus Creticus or dittany of Crete; formerly famous for its alleged medicinal virtues. Camden’s Elisabeth. Dilexi virum qui cum corpore solveretur magis de Ecclesiarum statu, &c.