Ecclesiastes 5:19-20. Every man also to whom, &c.— And indeed any man, to whom God, &c. (for this very thing is certainly a gift of God) Ecclesiastes 5:20 will not much remember the days of his life. Solomon means to say, that time floweth unobserved by men who enjoy a constant prosperity. Now this, together with the pious reflection, that God is the author of such temporal blessings, is the very sense put by the LXX upon Solomon's words, Because God occupieth or taketh him in, or with the joy of his heart. Desvoeux.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Since in the world all is vanity, the substantial good must be sought, and can only be found in the ways of godliness, in the worship and service of God. But even here we must beware of vanity in our approach to him, lest our very prayer be turned into sin. Solomon directs us, therefore, whither to go, to the house of God; and how to behave in the congregation, so as to profit thereby.
1. We must draw near with reverence and godly fear, jealous over our hearts, that our corrupt affections may be put off, our thoughts solemn and recollected, and our devotions heart-felt and sincere.
2. We must beware that we offer not the sacrifice of fools. The prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. While they think to recommend themselves to God by their pompous and hypocritical devotions, the sacrifices of the lip and knee, not of the heart, they consider not that they do evil; they deceive themselves, and insult the heart-searching God: or, they know not but to do evil; for to do good they have no knowledge. How many self-righteous formalists in the day of judgment will be astonished to see their very prayers and devotions, on which they trusted, rising up to their condemnation!
3. That we may not offer the sacrifice of fools, these necessary cautions are to be attended to.
[1.] We must be ready to hear God's word read and preached, that we may be instructed in the knowledge of his holy will, and directed how to serve him acceptably, and worship him in spirit and in truth. Note; They who place all their dependance on the form of public prayer, and are inattentive to the word of God read, or expect no benefit from the gospel-sermon preached to them, are certainly self-deceivers, and strangers to the power of godliness.
[2.] We must not be rash with our mouth, nor our heart be hasty to utter any thing before God. Serious meditation must precede; the heart be engaged; the presence of God felt; a sense of our wants deep; and our words breathing the language of fervent desire. And the same maybe said of speaking for God, as well as to him: the subject must be well-digested, and not the crude effusion of hasty lips.
[3.] Our words must be few, and fervent, rather than prolix tautology: not that when the heart is full, we are straitened; it is not the length of prayers, but the vain repetition and dry formality of them, which God condemns. And abundant reason there is for these cautions, if we consider God with whom we have to do, and our vanity and vileness before him. His is in heaven, enthroned in glory and light inaccessible; omniscient, and almighty; the object of eternal adoration of saints and angels; and far exalted above all blessing and praise; and we are upon earth, worms and dust before him, yea, sinful dust and ashes, unworthy to open our polluted lips, or lift up our eyes to him. Highly profane and strangely ignorant would it be therefore in us, to be uttering a multitude of words before him, unmeaning, crude, and indigested, like the ravings of a dream which cometh through the multitude of business. In common conversation a fool is known by his talkativeness; but, to approach God with such noise and nonsense, is not only the foolishness of folly, but the height of impiety.
2nd. From the service of prayer, the wise man passes on to vows, wherewith a man shall bind his soul.
1. We must be conscientious in fulfilling our vows. Defer not to pay it; precisely and punctually perform the engagement, and that without delay; for delays are dangerous, where the path of duty is evident. To play the fool with God, is to bring ruin on our souls; for he will not be mocked, and hath no pleasure in fools; abhors such lightness and falsehood. Therefore,
2. We should be cautious of making vows. However frequent under the law, they seem less suited to the gospel dispensation, and tend to ensnare the soul and bring it into bondage. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, by vowing what is evil, and not fit to be observed; or what, through the frailty of our nature, we are not likely to perform: lest too late we should be driven to a foolish and sinful excuse, and say before the angel, It was an error; before the great angel of the covenant, Christ Jesus. Nevertheless, the vows had better be repented of and broke, than kept, when contrary to the glory of God, or the good of our neighbour, or our own evident duty toward ourselves.
3. We must fear God, and that will prevent hasty words, and vain terrors from our dreams. They may be strange, confused, frightful, and often perplex the minds of the superstitious; but in general are no more to be regarded than the multitude of words in the mouth of a fool, which are not fit to be repeated. They who fear God, need fear nothing beside.
4. We may not question the equity of divine Providence, because of the injustice too commonly practised among men. It is a grievous and melancholy scene to behold the poor oppressed, and the form of law cloaking the most arbitrary and unrighteous decrees; but we must not therefore think that God has forsaken the earth. Marvel not at the matter as strange, or at the will of God in permitting it; for he that is higher than the highest, the omnipotent and eternal Judge, regardeth; observes the wickedness of the proud and the oppressor, and will reckon with them shortly, when every cause shall be revised at his bar. And there be higher than they; either superior courts, wherein appeals may be lodged; or the holy angels, the ministering spirits who wait on the heirs of salvation to defend them, and are the executioners of divine vengeance on their enemies; or the eternal Three, before whom the proudest and most exalted of the sons of men are less than nothing and vanity, more easily crushed than a moth under the finger.
3rdly, Great riches, as well as all other things, however in general coveted, will be found a great vanity.
1. The earth affords enough for all, and agriculture is a noble employment, as it may be rendered, the excellency of the earth above all things is this; we can do much better without the merchant, than without the husbandman. The king himself is served by the field, with provisions for himself and his houshold: or, is a servant to the field, delights in husbandry, and counts it no disparagement to his dignity.
2. Tillage is a needful employment; and a decent profession, got by honest industry, desirable; but an inordinate love of money is highly criminal, and attended with much misery.
[1.] The desires are insatiable. He that hath much, would still have more, and is ever craving. The abundance possessed cannot satisfy; something still is wanted. Hunger cannot be fed on gold; much less the soul find rest in this shining vanity.
[2.] Great estates will be attended with great expences: as the wealth increases, so does the family, equipage, and retinue; and the owner has no other satisfaction of his affluence, than the seeing it with his eyes. He can but have food and raiment, and of that he had equally sufficient for himself when he had less. Indeed, to have it in our power to do good is a blessing; but when the heart is covetous, it gives a man only pain to see his substance in any way expended.
[3.] The servant who labours has, in some instances, the advantage. Sweet sleep closes his eyes; no indigestion disturbs his slumbers; no cares keep him waking; weary with toil he reposes, and rises refreshed and vigorous. Thus shall the weary but faithful believer rest, and awake with joy in a resurrection-day. But the master, gorged to satiety, with his stomach loaded, lies down and tosses restless and unquiet on his bed of down; or, filled with carking anxiety, and a world of business, his ruffled mind admits not the soft hand of sleep to close his eye-lids: or perhaps conscious guilt haunts him, and startles him with frightful dreams in broken slumbers.
[4.] Riches are often exceedingly hurtful to their owners: they tempt the robber and murderer; they afford opportunity to gratify every lawless appetite; puff up the mind usually with pride and security; through excess and luxury, bring diseases upon the body; and plunge men into divers foolish and hurtful lusts, which finally drown the soul in perdition and destruction: and a sore evil indeed is this!
[5.] Riches ill got, or ill used, soon perish by evil travail; trading beyond their capital, many have been ruined; by mismanagement, the greatest estate melts as snow before the sun; and God, in his providence, often blows upon the abundance of the wicked, and like a shadow it flees away. So that his son, who was to have inherited after him, finds himself a beggar, and worse off than if he had been born with no expectations, and taught to earn his own bread.
[6.] Riches cannot descend with men into the grave. Naked as they came from the womb, must they be carried to the tomb, and leave all their possessions behind them. In all points as he came, so shall he go; and if this be the case, what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind? for as vain will riches then appear, and as unsatisfactory. A sore evil this to those who had taken up their rest below, and laid to their soul, Take thine east. Note; (1.) Though our bodies must return to the dust, whence they came, it is grievous indeed when the soul returns as it came, un-renewed and unholy: far better never to have been born, than thus to die. (2.) They who labour for their bodies merely will find their fearful disappointment at last; while they who labour for their souls will carry all their riches with them.
[7.] Riches often make a man's days uncomfortable, as well as his death miserable. All his days he eateth in darkness, his carking cares prevent his enjoying his very meals; he grudges the expence, or his soul is utterly destitute of the divine light and love. And he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness; it is bad with him in health, and worse with him in sickness: he receives it not as the rod of fatherly chastisement, but feels the wrath which is in the visitation; quarrels with God's providence, grieves bitterly at the thought of leaving all behind him, and is shocked at the terrible apprehensions of death. Or, as the words may be rendered, he is much angry; a thousand causes of vexation daily arise to him from those around him; and he hath sickness brought on him by his fretfulness and anxiety, and wrath at those about him; discontented and peevish with them, however assiduous to wait upon him; or with God himself for having thus afflicted him; and this but aggravates his misery.
4thly, Solomon, in the view of the vanity of riches, makes the same conclusion that he had done before, chap. Ecclesiastes 3:22 that the best use of them is, the moderate enjoyment of them, without starving ourselves with covetousness, or killing ourselves with labour and care. All our days it is good to rejoice in the fruit of our toils; it is our portion in this life, and cannot be enjoyed hereafter. The possessions themselves are God's gift; and therefore, in gratitude to the giver, to be used cheerfully: and the heart to do so he must give also, or else the possessors can have no comfort in them; and this will tend to make the days of our pilgrimage less tedious; whilst, in answer to our prayers, God is pleased to fill us with food and gladness, make us forget our labour and disappointments; and with thankfulness to him, and cheerfulness of heart, to hold on our faithful course, advancing to our journey's end in peace and comfort, till he at last admits us into his eternal rest.