Better [is] little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.
Ver. 16. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord.] This is one special consideration that keeps up the good heart in continual comfort. Contented godliness is great riches; Misera est magni custodia census. a Great treasures bring great troubles. It is not the great cage that makes the bird sing. It is not the great estate that brings alway the inward joy, the cordial contentment. The little lark with a wing sees further than the ox with a bigger eye but without a wing. Birds use not to sing when they are on the ground, but when got into the air, or upon the top of trees. If saints be sad, it is because they are too busy here below, and, Martha-like, troubled about many things, with neglect of that one thing necessary. They that will be rich pierce themselves through with many sorrows. If the bramble bear rule, fire will rise out of it that will consume the cedars; the lean kine will soon eat up the fat, and it shall not be seen by them. It is hard to handle these thorns hard and not to prick one's fingers. Riches, though well got, are but as manna, those that gathered less had no want, and those that gathered more, it was but a trouble and annoyance to them.
a Juvenal.