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Ecc_7:7 Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.
Ver. 7. Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad,] viz., Till such time as he hath recollected himself, and summoned the sobriety of his senses before his own judgment - till he hath reasoned himself and prayed himself out of his distemper, as David {a} did in Psa_73:16-17 Anger is a short madness, fury a frenzy; and who so apprehensive of an injury as the wise man? and who so wise as not sometimes to be overcarried by his passion to his cost? Oppression may express that from the meekest Moses which he may sorely repent, but knows not how to remedy. Anger displays reason in the wisest sometimes, and especially in case of calumny - for the eye and the good name will bear no jests, as the proverb hath it. A man can better bear a thong on the back than a touch on the eye. You shall find some, saith Erasmus, that if death be threatened, can despise it, but to be belied they cannot brook, nor from revenge contain themselves. How could we digest that calumny (might Erasmus well think then) that he basely casts upon our profession in his epistle to Bilibaldus? Ubicunque regnat Lutherus, ibi literarum est interitus: duo tantum quaerunt, censum, et uxorem: Wheresoever Luther prevails, learning goes down; wealth and wives is all they look after. How ill himself, with all his wisdom, could endure this kind of oppression, appears by his Hyperaspistes, and many other his apologies - for by his playing on both hands, Nec evangelicorum vitavit censuras, nec apud episcopos et monachos gratiam inivit, {b} he was beaten on both sides, which made him little less than mad; and it was but just upon him. David’s grief was that his enemies traduced and abused him without cause. Job and Jeremiah make the same complaint, and were much troubled. Defamations, they knew well, do usually leave a kind of lower estimation many times, even where they are not believed. {c} Hence Paul’s apologies and self-commendation, even to suspicion of madness almost. Hence Basil, in an epistle ad Bosphorum Episcop: Quo putas animum meum dolore affecit fama calumniae illius quam mihi offuderunt quidam, non metuentes Iudicem perditurum omnes loquentes mendacium? Tanto videlicet ut prope totam noctem insomnem duxerim: With what grief dost thou think, saith he, did that calumny oppress my mind, which some (not fearing the Judge that shall destroy all them that speak lies) did cast upon me? Even so much that I slept not almost all the night; so had the apprehended sadness possessed the secrets of mine heart.
And a gift destroyeth the heart,] i.e., Corrupts it, makes it blind, and so destroys it; as the eagle lights upon the hart’s horns, flutters dust in his eyes, and so by blinding him brings him to destruction. {d} See Deu_16:19. {See Trapp on "Deu_16:19"} Let a judge be both wise (for his understanding) and righteous (for his will), a gift will mar all, as it is there: it dazzleth the eyes, and maketh a wise man mad.
{a} [Asaph.]
{b} Amama in Antibarb. Praefat.
{c} Calamniare audacter, aliquid saltem adhaerebit.
{d} Pliny.