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will darken and eclipse the honour of those that preceded them. Assuredly, the honour of no wise or great man, which is separated from religion, will run parallel with his existence; there will be so much shameful matter discovered at the last great day against the wisest of wicked men, that they will then lose all their renown, and will appear as vessels of dishonour to all eternity, 1 Cor. iv. 5; 2 Tim. ii. 20.-" And how dieth the wise man? as the fool." The second fate common to both. This how is a passionate interrogation, denoting grief that it is so, wonder that it is not otherwise, and indignation or disdain, that things so exceedingly different in their worth, as wisdom and folly, should perish alike. Thus there is a quomodo dolentis, of grieving, Lament. i. 1; admirantis, of wondering, Acts ii. 7, 8; indignantis vel objurgantis, of chiding and disdain, John v. 44; Mat. xxiii. 33. But as it may be objected, that this argument may equally disqualify piety from rendering a man happy as wisdom, since the same question may be framed of the one as of the other, how dieth the just man as the unjust; we must remember, that religion follows a man, and abides with him after death, which is the case of no other acquired excellencies, be they ornaments or comforts, Rev. xiv. 13. Death cannot dissolve their spiritual life and union with Christ, which

constituted their happiness here below. Wicked men are dead while they live, 1 Tim. v. 6; and good men live in, and after, death, John xi. 25, 26; Mat. xxii. 32. On this account the Jews called their burying-places, domus viventium, the houses of the living. There is no durable life or honour, therefore, but in the fear of the Lord.

17. Therefore I hated life; because the work wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

This is the effect which this great vanity of the most excellent human endowments produced in the heart of Solomon; it made him weary of living to so little purpose, as that he must die at last, like the basest of mortals. He saw no loveliness or desirableness in life itself (though the chief outward blessing), the whole course of it being full of evil, grievous, excruciating, and disquieting labour, which ultimately runs down, like the waters of Jordan, into the lake of death. The poverty, pains, sickness, and worldly troubles of many have caused them to complain of their lives: but here is one that had health, peace, honour, and abundance of all worldly enjoyments, not in a way of murmur, but deliberately and

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judiciously making the same complaints; his wisdom being so profound, that all the comforts of life were too narrow to satisfy his enquiries.

Here observe, first, that life itself is too mean to afford full content to the immortal soul. It must be something better than life that can effect this, Ps. lxiii. 3. Secondly, that, in the greatest confluence of worldly things, the life of a man may be full of grievous labour, and cause him to become weary of it, not only from anguish of spirit, but from natural wisdom observing its vanity. Thirdly, that human wisdom, without it is corrected by the grace of God, is very apt to undervalue the greatest temporal blessing, as Solomon here undervalues life itself. There is naturally so much distemper in the heart of man, that unless all things answer his desires and expectations, he will be disgusted with his very life, and quarrel with the choicest blessings bestowed upon him. As a little cloud hides the light of the whole sun from the eye, so, amidst a multitude of enjoyments, a little labour or trouble, which necessarily accompanies them, darkens their beauty, and removes their satisfaction, Gen. xxx. 1; Ps. lix. 15; Esth. v. 13. Fourthly, concerning this particular point of being weary of life, or hating it as unlovely and undesirable, we may note, first, that life is the princi

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pal external blessing communicated to us from above, to the preservation and comfort of which all other outward blessings are directed, Mat. vi. 25. Secondly, that though in a way of obedience we are to undervalue it at the command of God, when he requires us to lay it down, Luke xiv. 26; Acts xx. 24; 1 John iii. 16; John xii. 25: and in comparison with a better life, we may groan for a deliverance from it, and to be with Christ, Phil. i. 23: yet it is very criminal, from passion, murmuring, and outward troubles, to disesteem, as Solomon here does, so great a blessing, and become weary of it, Gen. xxvii. 46; Numb. xiv. 2; Job x. 1. and xxxvi. 20; Jonah iv. 3, 8.

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.

"Yea, I hated all my labour," &c.: all those magnificent and excellent works, which with so much labour I had wrought. They were all so incapable of administering any comfort to my heart, that I became totally indifferent to them, and lost all regard for them. If, by ha tred, in this and in the former verse, he meant only an abatement of that love and delight which his heart might immoderately take in

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them, then this was a very commendable fruit of the vanity which he found them to possess: according to the apostle's counsel on the same ground, 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30, 31; 1 John ii. 15: "Love not the world," that seems to be, a worldly and secular life, or temporal being; "nor the things of the world," that is, the provisions and materials which are the fuel of lust in the world: and so hatred sometimes signifies an abatement and moderation of love, Mat. x. 37. compared Luke xiv. 26; John xii. 25; Gen. xxix. 30, 31. But if by hatred is meant a detestation and abhorrence of them, so as to remit all attention to duty about worldly concerns, according to the travail which God has appointed to the sons of men, ch. i. 13; Ephes. v. 28; 2 Thess. iii. 10-13; and because we do not reap that plenary satisfaction from them, which they were never ordained to administer; then this was an inordinate aversion, which did not belong to the works themselves, but to the sinful distemper of his heart. Such was the sullen disposition of Israel in the wilderness, Numb. xi. 6. and xxiv; and of Jonah at Nineveh, Jon. iv. 1: "Because I should leave it," &c. The wise man here subjoins the reasons of his weariness and dislike of all his past labours. First, because he must leave them there was a necessity of parting with

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