All [things] have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just [man] that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked [man] that prolongeth [his life] in his wickedness.
Ver. 15. All things have I seen in the days of my vanity,] i.e., Of my life, which is so very a vanity that no man can perfectly describe it, or directly tell what it is. He came somewhat near the matter that said it was a spot of time between two eternities.
There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness.] The first man that died, died for religion. How early did martyrdom come into the world! How valiant for the truth and violent for the kingdom have God's suffering saints been ever since, preferring affliction before sin, and choosing rather to perish in their righteousness than to part with it! Ignatius triumphed in his voyage to Rome to suffer, to think that his blood should be found among the mighty worthies, and that when the Lord makes inquisition for blood, he will recount from the blood of righteous Abel, not only to the blood of Zaccharias, son of Barachias, but also to the blood of mean Ignatius. "Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake," Mat 5:10 See Trapp on " Mat 5:10 "
And there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life.] This, as the former event likewise, proves a great stumblingblock to many; to see good men perish, bad men flourish and live long in sin, with impunity, credit, and countenance, as Manasseh, that monster of men, who reigned longest of any king of Judah. Jeroboam lived to see three successions in the throne of Judah. Thus the ivy lives when the oak is dead. David George, that odious heretic, lived to a great age, and died in peace and plenty. Ann Stanhope, Duchess of Somerset, wife of the Protector, Edward Seymour, after she had raised such tragedies about precedence with Queen Catherine, and caused the ruin of her husband and his brother the admiral, died A.D. 1587, being ninety-nine years of age. a Length of days is no sure rule of God's favour. As plants last longer than sensitive creatures, and brute creatures outlive the reasonable, b so among the reasonable it is no news, neither should it trouble us, that the wickedly great do inherit these worldly glories longer than the best; it is all they are like to have, let them make them merry with it. Some wicked men live long that they may aggravate their judgment, others die sooner that they may hasten it.
a Camden's Elisabeth, fol. 356.
b Ut victimae ad supplicium saginantur, ut hostiae ad poenam coronantur. - Min. Faelix.