Ecclesiastes 1:15 [That which is] crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
Ver. 15. That which is crooked cannot be made straight.] Most men are so wedded and wedged to their wicked ways, that they cannot be rectified but by an extraordinary touch from the hand of Heaven. Hesiod, speaking of God, saith that he can easily set crooked things straight, and only he. a Holy Melanchthon, being himself newly converted, thought it impossible for his hearers to withstand the evidence of the gospel; but after he had been a preacher a while, he complained, that ‘old Adam was too hard for young Melanchthon'; and yet, besides the singular skill and learning that God had given him - for the which he merited to be called the phoenix of Germany - Ad eum modum in hoc vitae theatro versatum Philippum Melanchthonem apparet, saith a friend and scholar of his - i.e., It well appeareth that Melanchthon was, Solomon-like, on this wise busied upon the theatre of his life, that, seeing and observing all he could, he made profit of everything, and stored his heart, as the bee doth her hive, out of all sorts of flowers, for the common benefit. Howbeit, he met with much crossness and crookedness that wrung mahy tears from him, as it did likewise from St Paul, Php 3:18 not in open enemies only, as Eccius and other Papists, but in professed friends, as Flaccius, Osiander, &c., who not only vexed him grievously while alive, but also fell foul upon him when he was dead, b as Zanchins complaineth. c Of all fowl, we most hate and detest the crows, and of all beasts the jackals, a kind of foxes in Barbary; because the one digs up the graves and devours the flesh, the other picks out the eyes of the dead. But to return to the text: sinful men grow aged and crooked with good opinions of themselves, and can seldom or never be set straight again. The Pharisee sets up his counter for a thousand pound, - "I am not as other men," saith he, "nor as this publican"; he stands upon his comparisons, nay, upon his disparisons, and although he turn aside unto his crooked ways, as Samson did to his Delilah, yet he thinks much to be "led forth with the workers of iniquity," but cries, "peace shall be upon Israel." Psa 125:5 How many are there that, having "laden themselves with thick clay," Hab 2:6 are bowed together, as he in the gospel was, Luk 13:11 and can in nowise lift up themselves! They neither can nor will (O curvae in terras animae, &c.), but are frample and foolish.
The Greek word for crooked, d comes of a Hebrew word that signifies a fool, e and every fool is conceited; he will not part with his bauble for the Tower of London. Try to straighten these crooked pieces, and they will sooner break than bend, venture all, than mend anything. Plato went thrice to Sicily to convert Dionysius, and could not do it. A wiser than Plato complains of a "perverse and crooked generation." Deu 32:5 Acts 2:40 Php 2:15 It is the work of God's Spirit only, by his corrective and directive power, to set all to rights. Luk 3:5 Philosophy can abscondere vitia, non abscindere, - chain up corrupt nature, but not change it.
And that which is wanting cannot be numbered.] Et stultorum infinitus est numerus, so the Vulgate renders it; ‘there is a numberless number of fools,' such as are wanting with a witness; witless, sapless fellows, such as have principium laesum, their brains cracked by the first fall, and are not cured of their spiritual frenzy by being reunited to the second Adam. Of such fools there are not a few; all places are full of them, and so is hell too; the earth is burdened, the air darkened, with the number of them, as the land of Egypt was with the flies that there swarmed. Bias the philosopher could say, that the ‘most were the worst'; f and Cicero, that there was a great nation of bad people, but a few good. g Rari quippe boni, saith Juvenal, There is a great paucity of good people. And those few that are, find not a few wants and weaknesses in themselves, quae tamen non nocent, si non placent, these hurt us not, if they please us not; for God considers whereof we are made, and will cast out condemnation for ever, as one renders that place, Matthew 12:10 : Triste mortalitatis privilegium est, licere aliquando peccare. h Our lives are fuller of sins than the firmament is of stars, or the furnace of sparks. Nimis augusta res est nuspiam errare. i David saw such volumes of infirmities, and so many errata in all that he did, that he cries out, "Who can understand his errors? Oh, cleanse thou me from secret sins." Psa 19:12
a Pειος δετ ιθυνει σκολιον. - Hes.
b Melch. Adam in Vita Mel.
c Melanchthon. mortuus tantum, non ut blasphemus in Deum cruci affigitur. - Zanch. Miscel., Ep. Ded.
d Sκολιος
e פכל
f Oι πλειστοι κακοι εισι
g Deteriorum magna est natio, boni singulares. - Cic. ad Attic.
h Lud. de Dieu. Euphor.
i Amama.