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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
E C C L E S I A S T E S
CHAP. V.
Solomon, in this chapter, discourses,
I. Concerning the worship of God, prescribing that as a remedy against
all those vanities which he had already observed to be in wisdom,
learning, pleasure, honour, power, and business. That we may not be
deceived by those things, nor have our spirits vexed with the
disappointments we meet with in them, let us make conscience of our
duty to God and keep up our communion with him; but, withal, he gives a
necessary caution against the vanities which are to often found in
religious exercises, which deprive them of their excellency and render
them unable to help against other vanities. If our religion be a vain
religion, how great is that vanity! Let us therefore take heed of
vanity,
1. In hearing the word, and offering sacrifice,
2. In prayer,
3. In making vows,
4. In pretending to divine dreams,
Now,
(1.) For a remedy against those vanities, he prescribes the fear of God,
(2.) To prevent the offence that might arise from the present
sufferings of good people, he directs us to look up to God,
II. Concerning the wealth of this world and the vanity and vexation
that attend it. The fruits of the earth indeed are necessary to the
support of life
(ver. 9),
but as for silver, and gold, and riches,
1. They are unsatisfying,
2. They are unprofitable,
3. They are disquieting,
4. They often prove hurtful and destroying,
5. They are perishing,
6. They must be left behind when we die,
7. If we have not a heart to make use of them, they occasion a great
deal of uneasiness,
And therefore he recommends to us the comfortable use of that which God
has given us, with an eye to him that is the giver, as the best way
both to answer the end of our having it and to obviate the mischiefs
that commonly attend great estates,
So that if we can but learn out of this chapter how to manage the
business of religion, and the business of this world (which two take up
most of our time), so that both may turn to a good account, and neither
our sabbath days nor our week-days may be lost, we shall have reason to
say, We have learned two good lessons.
| A Caution to Worshippers. | |
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1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be
more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they
consider not that they do evil.
2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty
to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou
upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a
fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.
Solomon’s design, in driving us off from the world, by showing us its
vanity, is to drive us to God and to our duty, that we may not walk in
the way of the world, but by religious rules, nor depend upon the
wealth of the world, but on religious advantages; and therefore,
I. He here sends us to the house of God, to the place of public
worship, to the temple, which he himself had built at a vast expense.
When he reflected with regret on all his other works
(ch. ii. 4),
he did not repent of that, but reflected on it with pleasure, yet
mentions it not, lest he should seem to reflect on it with pride; but
he here sends those to it that would know more of the vanity of the
world and would find that happiness which is in vain sought for in the
creature. David, when he was perplexed, went into the sanctuary of
God,
Ps. lxxiii. 17.
Let our disappointments in the creature turn our eyes to the Creator;
let us have recourse to the word of God’s grace and consult that, to
the throne of his grace and solicit that. In the word and prayer there
is a balm for every wound.
II. He charges us to behave ourselves well there, that we may not miss
of our end in coming thither. Religious exercises are not vain things,
but, if we mismanage them, they become vain to us. And therefore,
1. We must address ourselves to them with all possible seriousness and
care: “Keep thy foot, not keep it back from the house of God (as
nor go slowly thither, as one unwilling to draw nigh to God, but
look well to thy goings, ponder the path of thy feet, lest thou
take a false step. Address thyself to the worship of God with a solemn
pause, and take time to compose thyself for it, not going about it with
precipitation, which is called hasting with the feet,
Prov. xix. 2.
Keep thy thoughts from roving and wandering from the work; keep thy
affections from running out towards wrong objects, for in the business
of God’s house there is work enough for the whole man, and all too
little to be employed.” Some think it alludes to the charge given to
Moses and Joshua to put off their shoes
in token of subjection and reverence. Keep thy feet clean,
2. We must take heed that the sacrifice we bring be not the
sacrifice of fools (of wicked men), for they are fools and their
sacrifice is an abomination to the Lord,
Prov. xv. 8),
that we bring not the torn, and the lame, and the sick for
sacrifice, for we are plainly told that it will not be accepted,
and therefore it is folly to bring it,–that we rest not in the sign
and ceremony, and the outside of the performance, without regarding the
sense and meaning of it, for that is the sacrifice of fools.
Bodily exercise, if that be all, is a jest; none but fools will think
thus to please him who is a Spirit and requires the heart, and they
will see their folly when they find what a great deal of pains they
have taken to no purpose for want of sincerity. They are fools,
for they consider not that they do evil; they think they are
doing God and themselves good service when really they are putting a
great affront upon God and a great cheat upon their own souls by their
hypocritical devotions. Men may be doing evil even when they profess to
be doing good, and even when they do not know it, when they do not
consider it. They know not but to do evil, so some read it.
Wicked minds cannot choose but sin, even in the acts of devotion. Or,
They consider not that they do evil; they act at a venture,
right or wrong, pleasing to God or not, it is all one to them.
3. That we may not bring the sacrifice of fools, we must come to
God’s house with hearts disposed to know and do our duty. We must be
ready to hear, that is,
(1.) We must diligently attend to the word of God read and
preached. “Be swift to hear the exposition which the priests
give of the sacrifices, declaring the intent and meaning of them, and
do not think it enough to gaze upon what they do, for it must be a
reasonable service, otherwise it is the sacrifice of fools.”
(2.) We must resolve to comply with the will of God as it is made known
to us. Hearing is often put for obeying, and that is it
that is better than sacrifice,
1 Sam. xv. 22; Isa. i. 15, 16.
We come in a right frame to holy duties when we come with this upon our
heart, Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears. Let the word of the Lord
come (said a good man), and if I had 600 necks I would bow them
all to the authority of it.
4. We must be very cautious and considerate in all our approaches and
addresses to God
(v. 2):
Be not rash with thy mouth, in making prayers, or protestations,
or promises; let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before
God. Note,
(1.) When we are in the house of God, in solemn assemblies for
religious worship, we are in a special manner before God and in his
presence, there where he has promised to meet his people, where his eye
is upon us and ours ought to be unto him.
(2.) We have something to say, something to utter before God, when we
draw nigh to him in holy duties; he is one with whom we have
to do, with whom we have business of vast importance. If we come
without an errand, we shall go away without any advantage.
(3.) What we utter before God must come from the heart,
and therefore we must not be rash with our mouth, never let our
tongue outrun our thoughts in our devotions; the words of our
mouth, must always be the product of the meditation of our
hearts. Thoughts are words to God, and words are but wind if they
be not copied from the thoughts. Lip-labour, though ever so well
laboured, if that be all, is but lost labour in religion,
(4.) It is not enough that what we say comes from the heart, but it
must come from a composed heart, and not from a sudden heat or passion.
As the mouth must not be rash, so the heart must not be hasty; we must
not only think, but think twice, before we speak, when we are to speak
either from God in preaching or to God in prayer, and not utter any
thing indecent and undigested,
5. We must be sparing of our words in the presence of God, that is, we
must be reverent and deliberate, not talk to God as boldly and
carelessly as we do to one another, not speak what comes uppermost, not
repeat things over and over, as we do to one another, that what we say
may be understood and remembered and may make impression; no, when we
speak to God we must consider,
(1.) That between him and us there is an infinite distance: God is
in heaven, where he reigns in glory over us and all the children of
men, where he is attended with an innumerable company of holy angels
and is far exalted above all our blessing and praise. We are on
earth, the footstool of his throne; we are mean and vile, unlike
God, and utterly unworthy to receive any favour from him or to have any
communion with him. Therefore we must be very grave, humble, and
serious, and be reverent in speaking to him, as we are when we speak to
a great man that is much our superior; and, in token of this, let
our words be few, that they may be well chosen,
Job ix. 14.
This does not condemn all long prayers; were they not good, the
Pharisees would not have used them for a pretence; Christ prayed all
night; and we are directed to continue in prayer. But it
condemns careless heartless praying, vain repetitions
(Matt. vi. 7),
repeating Pater-nosters by tale. Let us speak to God, and of
him, in his own words, words which the scripture teaches; and let our
words, words of our own invention, be few, lest, not speaking by rule,
we speak amiss.
(2.) That the multiplying of words in our devotions will make them
the sacrifices of fools,
v. 3.
As confused dreams, frightful and perplexed, and such as disturb the
sleep, are an evidence of a hurry of business which fills our head, so
many words and hasty ones, used in prayer, are an evidence of folly
reigning in the heart, ignorance of and unacquaintedness with both God
and ourselves, low thoughts of God, and careless thoughts of our own
souls. Even in common conversation a fool is known by the multitude
of words; those that know least talk most
(ch. x. 11),
particularly in devotion; there, no doubt, a prating fool shall
fall
shall fall short of acceptance. Those are fools indeed who think they
shall be heard, in prayer, for their much speaking.
| The Obligation of a Vow. | |
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4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he
hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou
shouldest vow and not pay.
6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say
thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should
God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are
also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent
perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at
the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth;
and there be higher than they.
Four things we are exhorted to in these verses:–
I. To be conscientious in paying our vows.
1. A vow is a bond upon the soul
(Num. xxx. 2),
by which we solemnly oblige ourselves, not only, in general, to do that
which we are already bound to do, but, in some particular instances, to
do that to do which we were not under any antecedent obligation,
whether it respects honouring God or serving the interests of his
kingdom among men. When, under the sense of some affliction
(Ps. lxvi. 14),
or in the pursuit of some mercy
(1 Sam. i. 11),
thou hast vowed such a vow as this unto God, know that thou
hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord and thou canst not go back;
therefore,
(1.) Pay it; perform what thou hast promised; bring to God what thou
hast dedicated and devoted to him: Pay that which thou hast
vowed; pay it in full and keep not back any part of the
price; pay it in kind, do not alter it or change it, so the
law was,
Have we vowed to give our own selves unto the Lord? Let us then
be as good as our word, act in his service, to his glory, and not
sacrilegiously alienate ourselves.
(2.) Defer not to pay it. If it be in the power of thy hands to
pay it to-day, leave it not till to-morrow; do not beg a day,
nor put it off to a more convenient season. By delay the sense of the
obligation slackens and cools, and is in danger of wearing off; we
thereby discover a loathness and backwardness to perform our vow; and
qui non est hodie cras minus aptus erit–he who is not inclined
to-day will be averse to-morrow. The longer it is put off the more
difficult it will be to bring ourselves to it; death may not only
prevent the payment, but fetch thee to judgment, under the guilt of a
broken vow,
2. Two reasons are here given why we should speedily and cheerfully pay
our vows:–
(1.) Because otherwise we affront God; we play the fool with him, as if
we designed to put a trick upon him; and God has no pleasure in
fools. More is implied than is expressed; the meaning is, He
greatly abhors such fools and such foolish dealings. Has he need of
fools? No; Be not deceived, God is not mocked, but will
surely and severely reckon with those that thus play fast and loose
with him.
(2.) Because otherwise we wrong ourselves, we lose the benefit of the
making of the vow, nay, we incur the penalty for the breach of
it; so that it would have been better a great deal not to have
vowed, more safe and more to our advantage, than to vow and not
to pay. Not to have vowed would have been but an omission,
but to vow and not pay incurs the guilt of treachery and
perjury; it is lying to God,
Acts v. 4.
II. To be cautious in making our vows. This is necessary in order to
our being conscientious in performing them,
v. 6.
1. We must take heed that we never vow anything that is sinful, or that
may be an occasion of sin, for such a vow is ill-made and must be
broken. Suffer not thy mouth, by such a vow, to cause thy
flesh to sin, as Herod’s rash promise caused him to cut off the
head of John the Baptist.
2. We must not vow that which, through the frailty of the flesh, we
have reason to fear we shall not be able to perform, as those that vow
a single life and yet know not how to keep their vow. Hereby,
(1.) They shame themselves; for they are forced to say before the
angel, It was an error, that either they did not mean or did not
consider what they said; and, take it which way you will, it is bad
enough. “When thou hast made a vow, do not seek to evade it, nor
find excuses to get clear of the obligation of it; say not before
the priest, who is called the angel or messenger of the Lord of
hosts, that, upon second thoughts, thou hast changed thy mind, and
desirest to be absolved from the obligation of thy vow; but stick to
it, and do not seek a hole to creep out at.” Some by the angel
understand the guardian angel which they suppose to attend every man
and to inspect what he does. Others understand it of Christ, the
Angel of the covenant, who is present with his people in their
assemblies, who searches the heart, and cannot be imposed upon;
provoke him not, for God’s name is in him, and he is represented
as strict and jealous,
(2.) They expose themselves to the wrath of God, for he is angry at
the voice of those that thus lie unto him with their mouth and
flatter him with their tongue, and is displeased at their
dissimulation, and destroys the works of their hands, that is,
blasts their enterprises, and defeats those purposes which, when they
made these vows, they were seeking to God for the success of. If we
treacherously cancel the words of our mouths, and revoke our vows, God
will justly overthrow our projects, and walk contrary, and at all
adventures, with those that thus walk contrary, and at all adventures
with him. It is a snare to a man, after vows, to make
enquiry.
III. To keep up the fear of God,
v. 7.
Many, of old, pretended to know the mind of God by dreams, and
were so full of them that they almost made God’s people forget his name
by their dreams
and many now perplex themselves with their frightful or odd dreams, or
with other people’s dreams, as if they foreboded this or the other
disaster. Those that heed dreams shall have a multitude of them to fill
their heads with; but in them all there are divers vanities, as
there are in many words, and the more if we regard them. “They are but
like the idle impertinent chat of children and fools, and therefore
never heed them; forget them; instead of repeating them lay no stress
upon them, draw no disquieting conclusions from them, but fear thou
God; have an eye to his sovereign dominion, set him before thee,
keep thyself in his love, and be afraid of offending him, and then thou
wilt not disturb thyself with foolish dreams.” The way not to be
dismayed at the signs of heaven, nor afraid of the idols of the
heathen, is to fear God as King of nations,
Jer. x. 2, 5, 7.
IV. With that to keep down the fear of man,
v. 8.
“Set God before thee, and then, if thou seest the oppression of the
poor, thou wilt not marvel at the matter, nor find fault
with divine Providence, nor think the worse of the institution of
magistracy, when thou seest the ends of it thus perverted, nor of
religion, when thou seest it will not secure men from suffering wrong.”
Observe here,
1. A melancholy sight on earth, and such as cannot but trouble every
good man that has a sense of justice and a concern for mankind, to see
the oppression of the poor because they are poor and cannot
defend themselves, and the violent perverting of judgment and
justice in a province, oppression under colour of law and backed
with power. The kingdom in general may have a good government, and yet
it may so happen that a particular province may be committed to a bad
man, by whose mal-administration justice may be perverted; so hard it
is for the wisest of kings, in giving preferments, to be sure of their
men; they can but redress the grievance when it appears.
2. A comfortable sight in heaven. When things look thus dismal we may
satisfy ourselves with this,
(1.) That, though oppressors be high, God is above them,
and in that very thing wherein they deal proudly,
Exod. xviii. 11.
God is higher than the highest of creatures, than the highest of
princes, than the king that is higher than Agag
(Num. xxiv. 7),
than the highest angels, the thrones and dominions of the upper
world. God is the Most High over all the earth, and his glory
is above the heavens; before him princes are worms, the brightest
but glow-worms.
(2.) That, though oppressors be secure, God has his eye upon them,
takes notice of, and will reckon for, all their violent perverting of
judgment; he regards, not only sees it but observes it, and
keeps it on record, to be called over again; his eyes are upon their
ways. See
(3.) That there is a world of angels, for there are higher than
they, who are employed by the divine justice for protecting the
injured and punishing the injurious. Sennacherib valued himself highly
upon his potent army, but one angel proved too hard for him and all his
forces. Some, by those that are higher than they understand the
great council of the nation, the presidents to whom the princes of
the provinces are accountable
(Dan. vi. 2),
the senate that receive complaints against the proconsuls, the courts
above to which appeals are made from the inferior courts, which are
necessary to the good government of a kingdom. Let it be a check to
oppressors that perhaps their superiors on earth may call them to an
account; however, God the Supreme in heaven will.
| The Vanity of Riches. | |
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9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king
himself is served by the field.
10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver;
nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also
vanity.
11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and
what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding
of them with their eyes?
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.
13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun,
namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
14 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a
son, and there is nothing in his hand.
15 As he came forth of his mother’s 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.
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?
17 All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much
sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
Solomon had shown the vanity of pleasure, gaiety, and fine works, of
honour, power, and royal dignity; and there is many a covetous
worldling that will agree with him, and speak as slightly as he does of
these things; but money, he thinks, is a substantial thing, and if he
can but have enough of that he is happy. This is the mistake which
Solomon attacks, and attempts to rectify, in these verses; he shows
that there is as much vanity in great riches, and the lust of the
eye about them, as there is in the lusts of the flesh and
the pride of life, and a man can make himself no more happy by
hoarding an estate than by spending it.
I. He grants that the products of the earth, for the support and
comfort of human life, are valuable things
(v. 9):
The profit of the earth is for all. Man’s body, being made of
the earth, thence has its maintenance
and that it has so, and that a barren land is not made his
dwelling (as he has deserved for being rebellious,
is an instance of God’s great bounty to him. There is profit to be
got out of the earth, and it is for all; all need it; it is
appointed for all; there is enough for all. It is not only for all
men, but for all the inferior creatures; the same ground brings
grass for the cattle that brings herbs for the service of
men. Israel had bread from heaven, angels’ food, but (which
is a humbling consideration) the earth is our storehouse and the beasts
are fellow-commoners with us. The king himself is served of the
field, and would be ill served, would be quite starved, without its
products. This puts a great honour upon the husbandman’s calling, that
it is the most necessary of all to the support of man’s life. The many
have the benefit of it; the mighty cannot live without it; it is for
all; it is for the king himself. Those that have an
abundance of the fruits of the earth must remember they are for
all, and therefore must look upon themselves but as stewards of
their abundance, out of which they must give to those that need. Dainty
meats and soft clothing are only for some, but the fruit of
the earth is for all. And even those that suck the abundance of
the seas
cannot be without the fruit of the earth, while those that have a
competency of the fruit of the earth may despise the
abundance of the seas.
II. He maintains that the riches that are more than these, that are for
hoarding, not for use, are vain things, and will not make a man
easy or happy. That which our Saviour has said
(Luke xii. 15),
that a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things which
he possesses, is what Solomon here undertakes to prove by various
arguments.
1. The more men have the more they would have,
A man may have but a little silver and be satisfied with it, may know
when he has enough and covet no more. Godliness, with contentment,
is great gain. I have enough, says Jacob; I have all, and
abound, says St. Paul: but,
(1.) He that loves silver, and sets his heart upon it, will
never think he has enough, but enlarges his desire as hell
(Hab. ii. 5),
lays house to house and field to field
(Isa. v. 8),
and, like the daughters of the horse-leech, still cries, Give,
give. Natural desires are at rest when that which is desired is
obtained, but corrupt desires are insatiable. Nature is content with
little, grace with less, but lust with nothing.
(2.) He that has silver in abundance, and has it increasing ever so
fast upon him, yet does not find that it yields any solid satisfaction
to his soul. There are bodily desires which silver itself will not
satisfy; if a man be hungry, ingots of silver will do no more to
satisfy his hunger than clods of clay. Much less will worldly abundance
satisfy spiritual desires; he that has ever so much silver covets more,
not only of that, but of something else, something of another nature.
Those that make themselves drudges to the world are spending their
labour for that which satisfies not
(Isa. lv. 2),
which fills the belly, but will never fill the soul,
2. The more men have the more occasion they have for it, and the more
they have to do with it, so that it is as broad as it is long: When
goods increase, they are increased that eat them,
v. 11.
The more meat the more mouths. Does the estate thrive? And does
not the family at the same time grow more numerous and the children
grow up to need more? The more men have the better house they must
keep, the more servants they must employ, the more guests they must
entertain, the more they must give to the poor, and the more they will
have hanging on them, for where the carcase is the eagles will
be. What we have more than food and raiment we have for
others; and then what good is there to the owners
themselves, but the pleasure of beholding it with their eyes?
And a poor pleasure it is. An empty speculation is all the difference
between the owners and the sharers; the owner sees that as his own
which those about him enjoy as much of the real benefit of as he; only
he has the satisfaction of doing good to others, which indeed is a
satisfaction to one who believes what Christ said, that it is more
blessed to give than to receive; but to a covetous man, who thinks
all lost that goes beside himself, it is a constant vexation to see
others eat of his increase.
3. The more men have the more care they have about it, which perplexes
them and disturbs their repose,
Refreshing sleep is as much the support and comfort of this life as
food is. Now,
(1.) Those commonly sleep best that work hard and have but what they
work for: The sleep of the labouring man is sweet, not only
because he has tired himself with his labour, which makes his sleep the
more welcome to him and makes him sleep soundly, but because he has
little to fill his head with care about and so break his sleep. His
sleep is sweet, though he eat but little and have but little to eat,
for his weariness rocks him asleep; and, though he eat much, yet he can
sleep well, for his labour gets him a good digestion. The sleep of the
diligent Christian, and his long sleep, is sweet; for, having spent
himself and his time in the service of God, he can cheerfully return to
God and repose in him as his rest.
(2.) Those that have every thing else often fail to secure a good
night’s sleep. Either their eyes are held waking or their sleeps are
unquiet and do not refresh them; and it is their abundance that breaks
their sleep and disturbs it, both the abundance of their care (as the
rich man’s who, when his ground brought forth plentifully, thought
within himself, What shall I do?
Luke xii. 17)
and the abundance of what they eat and drink which overcharges the
heart, makes them sick, and so hinders their repose. Ahasuerus, after a
banquet of wine, could not sleep; and perhaps consciousness of guilt,
both in getting and using what they have, breaks their sleep as much as
any thing. But God gives his beloved sleep.
4. The more men have the more danger they are in both of doing mischief
and of having mischief done them
(v. 13):
There is an evil, a sore evil, which Solomon himself had seen
under the sun, in this lower world, this theatre of sin and
woe–riches left for the owners thereof (who have been
industrious to hoard them and keep them safely) to their hurt;
they would have been better without them.
(1.) Their riches do them hurt, make them proud, secure, and in
love with the world, draw away their hearts from God and duty, and make
it very difficult for them to enter into the kingdom of heaven, nay,
help to shut them out of it.
(2.) They do hurt with their riches, which not only put them
into a capacity of gratifying their own lusts and living luxuriously,
but give them an opportunity of oppressing others and dealing hardly
with them.
(3.) Often they sustain hurt by their riches. They would not be
envied, would not be robbed, if they were not rich. It is the fat beast
that is led first to the slaughter. A very rich man (as one observes)
has sometimes been excepted out of a general pardon, both as to life
and estate, merely on account of his vast and overgrown estate; so
riches often take away the life of the owners thereof,
Prov. i. 19.
5. The more men have the more they have to lose, and perhaps they may
lose it all,
Those riches that have been laid up with a great deal of pains, and
kept with a great deal of care, perish by evil travail, by the
very pains and care which they take to secure and increase them. Many a
one has ruined his estate by being over-solicitous to advance it and
make it more, and has lost all by catching at all. Riches are perishing
things, and all our care about them cannot make them otherwise; they
make themselves wings and fly away. He that thought he should
have made his son a gentleman leaves him a beggar; he begets a
son, and brings him up in the prospect of an estate, but, when he
dies, leaves it under a charge of debt as much as it is worth, so that
there is nothing in his hand. This is a common case; estates
that made a great show do not prove what they seemed, but cheat the
heir.
6. How much soever men have when they die, they must leave it all
behind them
(v. 15, 16):
As he came forth of his mother’s womb naked, so shall he return;
only as his friends, when he came naked into the world, in pity to him,
helped him with swaddling-clothes, so, when he goes out, they help him
with grave-clothes, and that is all. See
This is urged as a reason why we should be content with such things as
we have,
In respect of the body we must go as we came; the dust shall return to
the earth as it was. But sad is our case if the soul return as it
came, for we were born in sin, and if we die in sin, unsanctified, we
had better never have been born; and that seems to be the case of the
worldling here spoken of, for he is said to return in all points as
he came, as sinful, as miserable, and much more so. This is a
sore evil; he thinks it so whose heart is glued to the world,
that he shall take nothing of his labour which he may carry away in
his hand; his riches will not go with him into another world nor
stand him in any stead there. If we labour in religion, the grace and
comfort we get by that labour we may carry away in our hearts, and
shall be the better for it to eternity; that is meat that endures. But
if we labour only for the world, to fill our hands with that, we cannot
take that away with us; we are born with our hands griping, but we die
with them extended, letting go what we held fast. So that, upon the
whole matter, he may well ask, What profit has he that has laboured
for the wind? Note, Those that labour for the world labour for the
wind, for that which has more sound than substance, which is uncertain,
and always shifting its point, unsatisfying, and often hurtful, which
we cannot hold fast, and which, if we take up with it as our portion,
will no more feed us than the wind,
Hos. xii. 1.
Men will see that they have laboured for the wind when at death
they find the profit of their labour is all gone, gone like the wind,
they know not whither.
7. Those that have much, if they set their hearts upon it, have not
only uncomfortable deaths, but uncomfortable lives too,
This covetous worldling, that is so bent upon raising an estate, all
his days eats in darkness and much sorrow, and it is his sickness and
wrath; he has not only no pleasure of his estate, nor any enjoyment
of it himself, for he eats the bread of sorrow
but a great deal of vexation to see others eat of it. His necessary
expenses make him sick, make him fret, and he seems as if he were angry
that himself and those about him cannot live without meat. As we read
the last clause, it intimates how ill this covetous worldling can bear
the common and unavoidable calamities of human life. When he is in
health he eats in darkness, always dull with care and fear about
what he has; but, if he be sick, he has much sorrow and wrath with
his sickness; he is vexed that his sickness takes him off from his
business and hinders him in his pursuits of the world, vexed that all
his wealth will not give him any ease or relief, but especially
terrified with the apprehensions of death (which his diseases are the
harbingers of), of leaving this world and the things of it behind him,
which he has set his affections upon, and removing to a world he has
made no preparation for. He has not any sorrow after a godly
sort, does not sorrow to repentance, but he has sorrow
and wrath, is angry at the providence of God, angry at his
sickness, angry at all about him, fretful and peevish, which doubles
his affliction, which a good man lessens and lightens by patience and
joy in his sickness.
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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.
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 rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.
20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because
God answereth him in the joy of his heart.
Solomon, from the vanity of riches hoarded up, here infers that the
best course we can take is to use well what we have, to serve God with
it, to do good with it, and take the comfort of it to ourselves and our
families; this he had pressed before,
Observe,
1. What it is that is here recommended to us, not to indulge the
appetites of the flesh, or to take up with present pleasures or profits
for our portion, but soberly and moderately to make use of what
Providence has allotted for our comfortable passage through this world.
We must not starve ourselves through covetousness, because we cannot
afford ourselves food convenient, nor through eagerness in our worldly
pursuits, nor through excessive care and grief, but eat and
drink what is fit for us to keep our bodies in good plight for the
serving of our souls in God’s service. We must not kill ourselves with
labour, and then leave others to enjoy the good of it,
but take the comfort of that which our hands have laboured for, and
that not now and then, but all the days of our life which God gives
us. Life is God’s gift, and he has appointed us the number of
the days of our life
(Job xiv. 5);
let us therefore spend those days in serving the Lord our God with
joyfulness and gladness of heart. We must not do the business of
our calling as a drudgery, and make ourselves slaves to it, but we must
rejoice in our labour, not grasp at more business than we can go
through without perplexity and disquiet, but take a pleasure in the
calling wherein God has put us, and go on in the business of it with
cheerfulness. This it to rejoice in our labour, whatever it is,
as Zebulun in his going out and Issachar in his tents.
2. What is urged to recommend it to us.
(1.) That it is good and comely to do this. It is well, and it
looks well. Those that cheerfully use what God has given them thereby
honour the giver, answer the intention of the gift, act rationally and
generously, do good in the world, and make what they have turn to the
best account, and this is both their credit and their comfort; it is
good and comely; there is duty and decency in it.
(2.) That it is all the good we can have out of the things of this
world: It is our portion, and in doing thus we take our portion,
and make the best of bad. This is our part of our worldly possession.
God must have his part, the poor theirs, and our families theirs, but
this is ours; it is all that falls to our lot out of them.
(3.) That a heart to do thus is such a gift of God’s grace as crowns
all the gifts of his providence. If God has given a man riches and
wealth, he completes the favour, and makes that a blessing indeed,
if withal he gives him power to eat thereof, wisdom and grace to
take the good of it and to do good with it. If this is God’s
gift, we must covet it earnestly as the best
gift relating to our enjoyments in this world.
(4.) That this is the way to make our own lives easy and to relieve
ourselves against the many toils and troubles which our lives on earth
are incident to
(v. 20):
He shall not much remember the days of his life, the days of his
sorrow and sore travail, his working days, his weeping days. He shall
either forget them or remember them as waters that pass away; he shall
not much lay to heart his crosses, nor long retain the bitter relish of
them, because God answers him in the joy of his heart, balances
all the grievances of his labour with the joy of it and recompenses him
for it by giving him to eat the labour of his hands. If he does
not answer all his desires and expectations, in the letter of them, yet
he answers them with that which is more than equivalent, in the joy
of his heart. A cheerful spirit is a great blessing; it makes the
yoke of our employments easy and the burden of our afflictions
light.
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