is a perfect work, a well-finished, well-ordained, and unchangeable work. If thou findest thyself in adversity after prosperity, remember it is through thine own fault, because thou art an unstable and changeable creature, and because thou canst not make straight again that which thou thyself didst make crooked, it is therefore thy folly, thy sins, thy many inventions, that thou shouldst complain of, and not of the arrangements of God, which are all good and perfect. "In the day of prosperity be joyful," seeing thou hast found out the way of life and of real happiness, "but in the day of adversity" murmur not against God's providence, as if He had brought these sufferings upon thee, but "consider that God hath arranged the one (misery) over against the other" (happiness)-remember that God hath set before thee the blessing and the curse, the way of life and the way of death, the good and the evil, and told thee again and again, and invited thee and advised thee to choose the good, the blessing, and the life. (Deut. xi. 26—32; xxx. 15—20). When, therefore, thou didst choose the good thou wast happy and joyful, but when thou hast neglected thy choice, when thy steps slipped from the way of life and happiness, thou didst find misery and suffering. So the Lord told thee beforehand, and so He unchangeably arranged the one over against the other, and left thee to thy free will and choice, "to the end that man should find nothing after him" (or against him), viz., that man should neither be able to alter anything of the Lord's arrangements, nor find any reason to complain against them. "Let, therefore, God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest be overcome when thou art judged." (Rom. iii. 4.) Such seems, in our humble opinion, to be the meaning and substance of these two verses, and we would only add that the phrase in verse 13, "Consider the work of God," must be taken together with the phrase in verse 14, which reads "Consider that God hath set the one over against the other," and which have only been separated to introduce the explanatory phrases. 15. All this have I seen in the days of my vanity : There is a just man that perisheth in his righteous ness, And there is a wicked man that liveth long in his 16. Be thou not righteous over-much, Neither make thyself over-wise; For why should'st thou destroy thyself? 17. Be not over-much wicked, nor be thou foolish : For why shouldst thou die before thy time? 18. It is good that thou shouldst take hold of the one, And then shall thine hand not withdraw from the other : For he that feareth God shall escape both (evils). In verses 10-14 of this chapter, Solomon shewed us how that even a wise and good man may check his prosperous and peaceful career, and bring sufferings upon himself in his advanced age, by falling off from the principles and sentiments of wisdom which he practised in his younger years. In such a case Solomon advised the victim of his own folly not to accuse Providence or wisdom, as if they were the reason of the reversion of his fortune, but to enter into himself, and to seek and to find the cause of the change of his fortune in the change of his former practice and life; also that God in His revealed law of wisdom had set these alternatives before man, viz., godliness and obedience with prosperity and peace, disobedience and folly with suf ferings, ruin, and death as the necessary consequences. But in the passage before us a new scene of vicissitudes, sufferings, and ultimate ruin is introduced to our consideration, not as emanating from the complete backsliding of a once wise and good man, but as issuing from an over-running of the mark set before us in the law of God, from excess and extravagance produced by fanaticism, and which is not less ruinous, even with respect to this life, than complete backsliding and sheer wickedness. Solomon observed during the days of his vanity, during his short life on earth, which was perplexed because of the vanities of this world, and during his study of the lot and concerns of fallen humanity, that not only a man may ruin himself by backsliding from the way of life, and by falling into the practice of wickedness and sin, but also that there may happen that "a just man perish in his righteousness." How is this possible? will naturally be the question suggested by that statement. The Apostle Paul tells us regarding blinded Israel that though they "followed after the law of righteousness" they have not attained it, "because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the work of the law." (Rom. ix. 31, 32.) Again, "For I bear them record, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." (Rom. x. 2, 3.) Here we have already an awful example of men who are strong believers in God, and zealous pursuers after righteousness, but who nevertheless never attain the righteousness of God, and perish-eternally perish !-in their own righteousness, which availeth them neither in time nor in eternity. The case which Solomon introduces in the above passage differs somewhat in form from that just quoted, while the deplorable consequences are the same in a spiritual point of view, though far worse in a temporal point of view. The just man whom Solomon saw perishing in his righteousness, is an individual who began his religious career in conformity to the law of righteousness (by faith which produces charity, and has the promise of God's righteousness), but who fell into error of self-deceit and self-esteem, and began to endeavour to outdo the law of God, to be more righteous in works and ceremonies than the revealed will of God requires him to be. Thus falling into extravagances, and subjecting himself to fanatical austerities, and privations of his own invention, he puts a rapid end to his embittered and miserable life, which act, far from being a merit, is an outrageous crime. That Solomon means here fanatical extravagance, we may learn from verse 16, where he warns others not to be righteous overmuch. This expression shows that he means excess, and a righteousness invented by fanaticism, a pharisaical righteousness, which consists in fastings and lustrations, austerities and violations to the body, while it usually neglects the righteousness of God, and forgets that the Lord requires mercy and not the sacrifices of fools-faith in His free grace, and not in the rags of human works. To that body and soul-killing fanatic, Solomon opposes a wicked man, who, though living in sin, and feeding on the toil of the poor, runs to no extravagances in his lawless life, uses the mammon of unrighteousness in moderation, and who, though he neglects his soul, and exposes it to the severe judgment of an holy and righteous God, still preserves his body from being injured by the excess of sin. Though in the world to come their lot and place will be the same, the deluded fanatic loses in this world to no purpose what the other gains. Scott in his Commentary is very explicit on this passage, and I cannot help quoting the following lines, "A man may be too tenacious of insignificant forms or human inventions; he may pretend to kinds and degrees of righteousness, which the Scriptures do not require, laying much stress on celibacy, fastings, and other austerities: his boldness and zeal may verge towards rashness and rage; his conscientiousness may degenerate into superstition and scrupulousness; his benevolence into indiscretion and indiscriminate profusion; and his candour and good nature into folly; and in affecting to be acquainted with the whole of divine truth, he may become presumptuously curious, and intrude into unrevealed things. Thus many run into extremes, and expose themselves to needless persecution or to anger of God." (Here we would add, to a needless life of suffering and misery and privations; hence to an untimely death; hence to the wrath of God.) "That the affectation or ostentation of extraordinary righteousness, or an overdoing in outward observances, while more essential matters were proportionally neglected, was intended, and not humble purity and zeal, seems evident from the caution to the reader not to make himself over· wise, that is, 'Be not wise in thine own conceit ;' or do not intrude into secret things which belong to God. Here affectation or excess in some particulars must be meant, and so doubtless in the other clause." (Scott's Com. on Ecclesiastes.) the Such, then, is the character painted by Solomon in verse 15. It is a man who began to be just in pursuing the way of righteousness, as required by the law of God, but who, through human specula |