There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just [men], unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked [men], to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also [is] vanity.
Ver. 14. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth.] Symmachus reads it thus: Est difficile cognitu quod sit super terram, There is that done upon the earth that is hard to be understood. It hath gravelled great divines - as David, Jeremiah, Habakkuk Psa 73:3-9 Jer 12:1-2 Hab 2:4-5 Lam 3:33 - to see good men suffer, bad men prosper. But it is but upon the earth that this befalls: here God must meet with his people, or nowhere, and it is non nisi coactus, as that emperor said of himself, that he doth anything to their grief:
“ Ille dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox. ”
An unruly patient makes a cruel physician. a And as for the wicked, it is but "upon earth" that they live in pleasure, and lie melting in sensual and sinful delights, "nourishing their hearts as in a day of slaughter." Jam 5:5 Once they shall hear with horror, "Son, remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." Luk 16:25 The meditation of eternity would much mitigate this vanity. What is that to the infinite? said the old Lord Brook to a friend of his, discoursing of an incident matter very considerable, but was taken off with this quick interrogation of that wise and noble person. b
a Crudelem medicum intemperans aeger facit. - Mimus.
b Dr Hall's Remedy of Profaneness, p. 114.