Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also [is] vanity.
Ver 15. As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth.] It is with men as with counters, though in the account one stand for a penny, another for a pound, yet in the bag there is no difference; so here in the event all our wisdom is soon refuted with one black Theta, which understanding us not, snappeth us unrespectively without distinction, and putteth at once a period to our reading and to our being.
And why was I then more wise?] This is a piece of peevishness, a childish folly we are all prone to - viz., to repent us of our best pains if not presently paid for it; so short spirited are we, that unless we may sow and reap all in a day, unless all things may go with us as well as we could wish, we repent us of our repentance with David, Psa 73:13 hit God in the teeth with our obedience, as those hypocrites in Isaiah 58:2,3, and as that elder brother in the parable, that told his father he had never been worth a kid to him for all his good service. But, what! is God like to break or to die in our debts that we are so hasty with him? This was good Baruch's fault, and he is soundly chidden for it. Jeremiah 45:1,5 ; Jer 36:32 Good men oft find it more easy to bear evil than to wait till the promised good be enjoyed. It was so with those Christian Hebrews, Hebrews 10:34 ; Heb 10:36 whom therefore the apostle there tells they had need of patience, υπομονη, or tarriance, to tarry God's time. It needs not repent the wise of this world, much less the children of light, of any good they have done or gotten, however it prove with them, since some degree of comfort follows every good action, as heat accompanies fire, as beams and influences issue from the sun. And this is so true, that very heathens, upon the discharge of a good conscience, have found comfort and peace answerable.