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Ecc_6:6 Yea, though he live a thousand years twice [told], yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
Ver. 6. Yea, though he live a thousand years.] Which yet never any man did; Methuselah wanted thirty-two of a thousand. - The reason thereof is given by Oecolampadius; " Quia numerus iste typum habeat perfectionis, ut qui constet e centenario decies revoluto," because the number of a thousand types out perfection, as consisting of a hundred ten times told. But there is no perfection here, saith he.
Yet hath he seen no good.] For, "all the days of the afflicted are evil," saith Solomon. {Pro_15:15} And man’s days are "few and full of trouble," saith Job. {Job_14:1} "Few and evil are the days of my pilgrimage," saith Jacob, {Gen_47:9} "and I have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers." For Abraham lived one hundred and seventy-five years, and Isaac one hundred and eighty - near upon forty years longer than Jacob, but to his small comfort, for he was blind all that time; yet nothing so blind as the rich wretch in the text, qui privatus interno lumine, tamen in hac vita diu vult perpeti caecitatem suam, as one speaketh, who being blind as a mole, lies rooting and poring incessantly in the bowels of the earth - as if he would that way dig himself a new and a nearer way to hell - and with his own hands addeth to the load of this miserable life. As he hath done no good, so he hath seen or enjoyed none; but goes to his place (do not all go to one place?) - the place that Adam provided for all his posterity, the house appointed for all living, as Job calls it, {Job_30:23} the congregation house, as one renders it. Heaven the apostle calls the congregation house { ðáíçãáñéí , Heb_12:23} of the firstborn, whose names also are there said to be written in heaven: but covetous persons, as they are called "the inhabitants of the earth," {Rev_12:12} in opposition to those coelicolae, citizens of heaven, the saints; so their names are "written in the earth," {Jer_17:13} "because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters," and "hewed them out cisterns that can hold no water." {Jer_2:13} What marvel, then, if they live long, and yet see no good? if they are driven to that doleful complaint that Saul made, "God hath forsaken me, and the Philistines are upon me," {1Sa_28:15} - sickness, death, hell is upon me, I am even now about to make my bed in the dark, and all the comfort I can have from God is that dismal sentence, "This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow." {Isa_50:11} Lo, this is the cursed condition of the covetous churl; as he hath lived beside his goods, having jaded his body, broken his brains, and burdened his conscience, so he dies hated of God, and loathed of men; the earth groans under him, heaven is shut against him, hell gapes for him. {1Co_6:8-9 Php_3:18} Thus many a miser spins a fair thread to strangle himself, both temporally and eternally. Oh that they would seriously think of this before the cold grave hold their bodies, and hot hell torment their souls! before death come with a writ of Habeas corpus, Let you have the body, and the devil with a writ of Habeas animam, Let you have the soul, as once to that rich fool. {Luk_12:16-21}