Ver. 2. The wise man subjoineth an induction of several particulars, obvious to every man's experience, whereby he demonstrateth the truth of this general proposition. Some of these particulars are things natural, and wholly out of the power of man: others human and voluntary, such as are done and directed by the skill of man; to teach us, that all. the most free and contingent actions are under the law of God's providence, directed and limited thereby, as well as those which are most natural and necessary. (1 Kings xxii. 24. Isai. x. 5 6, 7. Acts iv. 27, 28)

Some again begin with pleasant instances, and end in sad ones. Others begin with sadness, and end with delight. The Lord as he pleaseth ordering the affairs of men so, as that sometimes they have their good days first, and afterwards sorrow: sometimes evil first, and after, deliverance. (Luke xvi. 25. Job xlii. 12. John xxi. 18)

Another thing to be remembered here, is, That the Lord doth doth not, by every one of these particulars, signify what is good or lawful to be done, but only teach us, that not only the good actions of men, but their sins,—not only their serious actions, but those which are most ludicrous and vain, are all of them under the decrees and over-ruling counsels of God, directing of them and their seasons as it pleaseth him. (Matth. x. 29, 30. Gen. xlv. 5, and 1. 20. Judg. xxi. 21, 22, 23)

A time to be born, or to bear and bring forth,] Called the hour of a woman. (John xvi. 21)

And a time to die ;] Called the hour wherein a man must depart. (John xiii. 1) For though the sentence of death hath sometimes been revoked, (Isai. xxxviii. 1, 5) yet the prede terminate time, forefixed in the purpose of God, was not altered.

Ver. 3. A time to kill,] There is a providence of God in the violent deaths of men, directing actions either sinful or fortuitous, as it pleaseth him. (2 Kings x. 30, compared with Hos. i. 4. Exod. xxi. 13, 1 Kings xxii. 34. Hos. vi. 1. 1 Sam. ii. 6. Job xxx. 26)

To beat down, and to build ;] Jer. i. 10, and xviii. 7, and xxxi. 28 Isai. v. 2, 5.

Ver. 4. A time to weep,] viz. From the Lord; for he speaketh all along of the providence of God, in whose hand

all our times both of sorrow and of joy are. (Psalm lxxx. 5. Ruth i. 20, 21)

And a time to laugh,] Psalm cxxvi. 1. 2. Gen. xxi. 6.
To mourn,] As in funerals and public calamities. (chap.

xii. 5)

To dance.] i. e. Greatly to rejoice, and express joy in the outward behaviour. (2 Sam. vi. 14. Acts iii. 8)

Ver. 5. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather them together;] Some by this, understand the erecting of trophies over conquered enemies. (as Josh. viii. 29. 2 Sam. xvii. 18. Zach. ix. 16) Others, the demolishing or erecting of buildings, all ordered by God's providence. (Luke xiii. 4, Judg. ix. 53. Lam. ii. 2, 5, 7, 8, 9. and iv. 1. Zach. v. 4. Mic. i. 6. 2 Kings iii. 25. Mark xiii. 1, 2) ·

To embrace, and to abstain from embracing;] 1 Cor. vii. 5. Ver. 6. To get,] Prov. x. 6.

Eccles. xi. 1)

Matth. x. 37,

To cast away,] Either out of necessity, (as John i. 5. Acts xxvii. 18, 38) or out of charity, (Prov. xi. 24. or out of special duty to God. 38, 39. and xix. 29)

(Heb. x. 34.

Ver. 7. To rent,] As the custom was in mourning. (Job i. 20. Joel ii. 19)

To speak, to keep silence ;] According to difference of seasons. (Prov. xxvi. 4, 5. and xxv. 11. Amos v. 13)

Ver. 8. A time of war.] 2 Sam. xi. 1.

Thus Solomon by an induction of divers particulars, and those very various, and each by way of antithesis with his contrary joined to him, some natural actions, some civil, some domestical, some vicious, some virtuous, some serious and solemn, others light and ludicrous, some wise, some passionate; by all these he assureth us, that there is a holy and wise work of God in predefining, ordering, limiting, tempering, disposing of all these and the like affairs of men, and so qualifying in the life of a man one contrary with another, and balancing prosperity and adversity by each other, that in every condition a good man may find cause of praising God, and of trusting in him, and of exercising this tranquillity and contentment of mind, even in contrary conditions, because the holy hand of God is in the one, as well as in the other. (Job i. 21. Phil. iv. 11, 12)

Ver. 9. What profit hath he that worketh, in that wherein he laboureth?] As chap. i. 3. (Matth. vi. 27) In vain is it for a man by any anxious toil to go about to effect any thing according to his own will, if the counsel and providence of God be against it. When he builds, God may pull down, or put in some accident and casual event which shall divert, or undo all: yet he doth not intend to restrain men from needful labour in their callings; but from trusting in or building on their labours, and fretting if such fruits follow not thereupon as they intended and expected; but patiently to submit to the holy will of God, unto whom it belongeth to dispose of our persons, of our liberties, as it pleaseth him. Whence observe, that carking and caring is indeed a striving with the irresistible providence of God, which no labour of ours can alter, or bend to our wills; (Isai. xlv. 9. John iv. 1, 8, 9) as on the other side, glorying of our own strength and wisdom, is a robbing him of his honour. (Deut. viii. 17, 18. Habak. i. 16) Labour is subordinate unto providence, but must never strive with it. There is no profit to any man in his labour, without God's blessing; which therefore he must pray for, and rejoice in, without fruitless anxiety for the future.

Ver. 10. I have seen the travail] (Chap. i. 13) Men might be apt to think, when they see so many turns and changes in the world, that all things are carried by a blind and rash disorder, casually and uncertainly, as it falls out, without any beauty or order in them. To this he answers, That it is God who hath given unto men this travail to exercise themselves in various and contrary employments, passions, events; and that he doth, though we do not suddenly observe it, direct them all unto a beautiful issue: all these contraries work together for good. (Rom. viii. 28) Again, men might think on the other hand, If man have indeed no profit of all his labour, but when all is done, God alone orders the event, then to what end should he weary himself in so fruitless an employment? To this also there is an auswer in these words; God hath given to man his work, which he is to undertake in obedience to God's command: and God doth usually dispense his mercies unto us in the use of means, and by a blessing on our labours. (Prov. x. 4, 22. John xxi. 3, 6. Acts xxvii. 22, 31) And though labour do not effect what

we expected from it, but God's providence should (as sometimes it doth) act contrary to, or diversely from our endeavours; yet this good there is in honest labour alone, and this end God hath in requiring it of us,--we are exercised therein, and so kept from idleness, and the evil effects which would follow thereupon. Labour is not only a duty, but in this respect beneficial, (even when it miscarrieth as to the principal end aimed at in it) that the heart is thereby kept in that station and order wherein God did originally set it. (Gen. iii. 17, 18, 19)

Ver. 11. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time, or in the time and proper season thereof.] This is a further commendation of the wise providence of God in the government of the world, and all the events which happen in it, to the end that men may with more quietness and contentment acquiesce therein. We might be apt to stumble and be offended at the seeming confusions which are in the world, and the great uncertainty of affairs therein. But howsoever it seem so unto us, who are not able to put together all the pieces of God's providence, not to foresee that frame and feature which he will form them unto at the last, yet this is certain, that as in the work of creation all things were very good, (Gen. i. 31) so in the work of gubernation and providence, all things will at last appear to be very beautiful; and those things which seemed but as confused heaps when they lay asunder, will when God's whole work is done, (Isai. x. 12) and they are all put together, appear to be have been full of order and decorum: as beauty in the body ariseth out of an equal temperament of contraries together, and so, in a curious piece of hanging, various colours wisely mixed, make an elegant piece: and letters, which, in the printer's boxes seem all confused, and signify nothing, yet being set together by an exquisite copy, they afford us a learned and elaborate work; as we see in the history of Joseph and his brethren, of David's troubles and kingdom, of Mordecai, Esther, and Haman, of the Jews crucifying of Christ, &c.

Again, God hath made every thing beautiful in its time.} As cold, and frost, are as orderly, as necessary, as useful in the winter, the season for them, as fruits, and flowers, and other delights are in the summer. Sorrow and affliction is, in the season of it, as useful and needful for men, and in its

kind as beautiful, as mirth and joy in another season. (1 Pet. i. 6, 7. James i. 2, 3. and v. 7, 11. Eccles. vii. 13, 14. Psalm civ. 24)

Also he hath set the world in their heart, &c.] These words are in this place very difficult, and variously both rendered. and understood. Some read them thus, quamdiu seculum est, as long as the world, or worldly things continue, the Lord doth put into the mind of man the work which God doth from the beginning to the end, excepting only that which man cannot find out, or attain unto: and so the sense to be, That God hath in the book of the world, and of his providence in the government of all things therein, so legibly represented to the mind of man his righteous and beautiful ordering of them all, that man may, if he set himself about it, easily discover God's wonderful wisdom therein; (as Acts xiv. 17. Rom. i. 19, 20) only indeed some things are unsearchable to human reason, which he is to admire and adore, waiting till the time of the revelation of God's righteous judgements for the full and distinct understanding of them. (Rom. xi. 33, 34. Job ix. 10, and xi. 7, 8, 9) Others, by putting the world in men's hearts, understand according to one of the usual acceptions of the word, b, a desire implanted in man of eternity and perpetuity, and so the sense to be, That albeit God doth make every thing good and beautiful, yet the heart of man is so set upon immortality, that he cannot provide amongst any of God's works here which have a beginning and an end, or are measured by time, any thing wherein his heart may fully and finally

rest.

But that which seems most agreeable to the scope of the place, and grammar of the words, is this: God hath indeed made every thing beautiful in his time, and thereupon men ought with quiet and cheerful hearts to observe God's providence in all things, and therein to rest, without anxiety or discruciating care: but man cannot find out the work of God, nor observe the beauty thereof so exactly as he should, which is the reason that he doth not so patiently acquiesce therein. Of this defect he giveth two reasons:

1. That they have the world in their hearts, they are so taken up with the thoughts and cares of worldly things, and are so exercised in the sore travail belonging unto them, that