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PARAPHRASE

ON THE

BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES.

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THE

PREFACE.

TH

HIS book not carrying in the front of it the express name of Solomon, it hath emboldened some to take the liberty of entitling other authors to it. Hezekiah, for instance, whom the Talmudists make to speak those words in the entrance of it, "The words of the preacher," &c.; or Isaiah, as R. Moses Kimchi, with some other Jews, fancy; or, to name no more, Zorobabel, whom Grotius (in his notes upon chap. xii. 11.) conjectures to have appointed certain men to make this collection. For so he would have the word coheleth translated a collector, or heaper up of opinions, rather than a preacher.

II. But there are so many passages in the book which agree to none but Solomon, that it is a wonder so great a man as Grotius should be led away from the common opinion, by such slight reasons as I shall presently mention. For instance, there never was any body that could truly speak those words which we read ver. 16. of the first chapter, but only Solomon. For neither Hezekiah, nor Isaiah, nor Zorobabel, kept such great state as he did, much less excelled him in wisdom; and who but he could boast of such things as are mentioned, chap. ii. 4.-9. to represent the splendour wherein he lived, above all that had been before him in Jerusalem? Or, on the contrary, who had such reason as he to make that sad complaint (chap. vii. 26. &c.) of the mischief he had received by women? and, to omit the rest, those words in the last chapter, ver. 9. 10. can belong to none but him, who set in order many proverbs, as appears in the foregoing book.

III. Which things are so convincing, that Grotius is forced to acknowledge that Zorobabel caused this book to be composed in the name of King Solomon, (for he was no king himself, but a governor under the king of Persia), repenting of his former vain and sinful life. Which very acknowledgement carries in it a plain solution of the principal argument, whereby he was led to this odd opinion; which is, that he finds some words in this book, that are no where to be met withal, but in Daniel and Ezra, and the Chaldee interpreters. Which makes it probable, he thinks, that it was written after their captivity in Babylon. But supposing Solomon to write here as a penitent, after he had frequented the company of many outlandish women, (of whom we read, 1 Kings, xi. 1. 2.), it need not seem strange to us that he had learned the use of many of their words. And so, notwithstanding this objection, he may still be thought to have been the author of this book himself, which the Hebrews generally conceive to have been written by him, towards the end of his reign, after he had tried all manner of pleasures, even to an excess. Besides, in other books of scripture there are words, for the signification of which we are fain to have resort unto other languages, and particularly the Arabic, because they are not to be found elsewhere in the scripture, and yet, for all that, might be pure Hebrew, according to the language which was then spoken, when such books were written.

IV. But it is not fit to stay any longer in the confutation of such a weak reason as this, which hath no force in it (though it be the best he hath) to make us think of any other author of this book than Solomon. Who, if he did not write it himself, it is certain, spake the things

contained in it; and calls himself the Preacher, because of the great gravity and dignity of the subject whereof he treats, of which he was wont to speak frequently, (chap. xii. 9.), desiring it might be understood and laid to heart, by the whole congregation of Israel, as the word coheleth seems to import, which, in the Ethiopic language, signifies a circle, or a company of men gathered together in the form of a circle, as Ludolphus hath lately observed. For the scope of this discourse is concerning the chief good or happiness of man; the great end he should propose to himself all his life long. Which is not that, he shews, which men generally follow; but that which is generally neglected. For most men mind nothing but just what is before them; which they will find at last, as he had done by sad experience, to be mere vanity, utterly unable to quiet their minds. Which must, therefore, seek for satisfaction in something else; and, after all their busy thoughts, designs, and labours, come to this conclusion, that to fear God, and keep his commandments, is the happiness of man; who ought, therefore, to use all the pleasures of this world (which is the only good it can afford us) with a constant respect to the future account we must all make to God.

V. This, it appears by the beginning and end of this book, is the scope of it. Unto which they that will not attend are wont to pick out here and there a loose sentence, which agrees with their desires; and then please themselves with a fancy that they have got Solomon on their side, to help to maintain their infidelity; not considering what he asserts directly contrary, in other places, where he presses the greatest and most serious reverence to Almighty God, iv. 17. v. 1. 2. &c. viii. 12. 13. xii. 13. together with a remembrance of the future judgement, iii. 17. xi. 9. xii. 14; works of mercy and charity also, whereby we may do good to others, xi. 1. 2. &c. and the contempt of those frivolous pleasures, which draw our hearts from God and from good works, ii. 2. vii. 2. &c. All which plainly shew, that those words which seem to countenance men in the neglect of religion, and open a gap to licentiousness, are only opinions which he intends to confute, according to the method he had propounded to himself in this book. Wherein he first represents the various ends men drive at, which in the very entrance of it (that men might not mistake his meaning) he pronounces to be so vain, that he had no words significant enough to express their vanity; and then, their different opinions about God and his providence, and their own souls; and what thoughts he himself had tossed up and down in his mind, which at last came to that resolution I mentioned before, wherewith he ends his book. In the close of which, to give the greater weight unto what he had said, he adds this: That these were not only the result of his own thoughts, but the judgement of other wise men, with whom he had consulted.

Let no man, therefore, deceive himself, (to use the grave words of Castalio), as some, I wish I could say a few, have done; who not minding the end and drift of this book, but having met with some one place in it that seems to favour their beloved lusts, lay hold on that scrap alone, and with that endeavour to defend their licentious course of life: As if they expected they should find God just such a Judge hereafter, as they are of themselves at present.

VI. To comprise all in a few words-The sense of the whole sermon, as we may call it, seems to be comprehended in this syllogism.

"Whatsoever is vain and perishing cannot make men happy;

"But all men's designs here in this world are vain and perishing:

"Therefore they cannot, by prosecuting such designs, make themselves happy."

The proposition is evident in itself, and needs no proof. The assumption, therefore, he demonstrates in the six first chapters, by an enumeration of particulars, as I shall shew in the argument before, or annotations upon each chapter; and then proceeds, in the rest of the book, to advise men unto the best course to make themselves happy evidently proving all along, from this inconstancy and vanity of all things here, that he who wishes well to himself ought to raise his mind above them, to the Creator of the world; and, expecting to give an account to him, so to demean

himself in the use of all carthly enjoyments, that he devoutly acknowledge his Divine Majesty, fearing and worshipping him, and doing his will.

Such, indeed, is the dulness of mankind, that, hearing all was but vanity, they might condemn every thing as evil and hurtful, and declaim too bitterly against this world. Which was so far from Solomon's intention, that having explained the vanity of all our enjoyments here, and the vanity of human cares, solicitous desires and endeavours, he persuades all men to be content with things present, to give God thanks for them, to use them freely with quiet minds; living as pleasantly, and taking as much liberty, as the remembrance of a future account will allow, void of anxious and troublesome thoughts, what will become of them hereafter in this life.

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VII. But it may not be amiss, perhaps, to give a larger account of this Sermon, and let the reader see in what method it proceeds. For many men imagine it to be a confused discourse, which doth not hang together; and therefore have explained this book, only by giving an account of the meaning of each verse, as if it were a distinct sentence, independent of the rest; like those in his Proverbs. But Antonius Coranus, a most excellent person, in a small discourse of his upon this book, written above an hundred years ago, hath drawn such a scheme of it, as, I believe, will satisfy those who consider it, that Solomon proceeds after an exact order to deduce what he intended. And therefore I will translate the sense of what he saith into English; which is to this purpose.

VIII. The design of the author is to find out and to shew, what it is in which the chief good and complete felicity of man doth consist. As appears by this, That reflecting upon various things in which men place their happiness, at the end of this discourse upon every one of them, he rejects them as utterly insufficient for that purpose, but continues his search so far till at last he finds it; and declares in the concluding Epiphonema, that he had been seeking it, through the whole discourse, saying, the sum of the matter is this, "Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man."

Now, there are two principal parts of the whole Sermon. The first of which contains a recital, and confutation, of men's false opinions about their chiefest good; the other teaches in what our genuine, true, and solid felicity lies, both in this life and in the next. In both he shews very diligently, what is the end to which a man should direct all his counsels, studies, and endeavours: what he ought to follow, as most desirable above all things, and what to avoid, as the extremest of evils.

Of the first of these he treats in his six chapters; of the other in as many more than follow. Which is both a perspicuous and exact method. For being to treat of felicity, it was fitting he should divide it into false, and true, and then define aright what that true felicity is. For we must first shun that which is evil, and then pursue that which is good; according to the frequent admonitions we meet withal in the holy prophets.

The first Part.

IX. Now, the first part of his Sermon relies upon a proposition, which nobody denies, viz. That vain, frail, and troublesome things, cannot make any man happy; and such, saith he, in the very first words of the book, are all things here," Vanity of vanities," i. e. extremely vain.

Which assumption it may seem hard to prove, if we consider what account blind mortals make of their own inventions, counsels, studies, and labours, by which they think to attain felicity. But to Solomon nothing was more easy, who having made a full and long experiment of all enjoyments here, most evidently demonstrates this by an enumeration of parts, and that in an apt, perspicuous, and compendious order. For he neither confounds the parts, too curiously pursues them, nor mentions all the false opinions of men about the chiefest good, (which would have been too tedious, if, like Varro, he had told us of two hundred eighty-five, and yet that he could not reckon all); but reducing the most probable opinions unto four principal heads, he confutes them by various arguments, drawn chiefly from adjuncts and effects.

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