Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:
Ver. 25. When he had married a wife, deceased] Thus they that will marry shall have trouble, aye, and that in the flesh, wherein they haply promised themselves most comfort and contentment, How many are there that seek a happiness here; and when to enjoy it might seem a happiness indeed, they die, and then all their thoughts perish. Instances we have in Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Tamerlane, who, making great preparations for the conquest of the Turkish Empire, died of an ague in the midst of his great hope and greatest power. The like might be showen of many learned men, that died, when they might have been most useful, as Keckerman, Perkins, Preston, Pemble, young Drusius, &c. All our learning is soon refuted with one black Theta, which, understanding us not, snappeth us unrespectively without distinction, and putteth at once a period to our writing and to our being.