Matthew Poole and continuators on Ecclesiastes 3:11

11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time : also he hath set the world in their heart , so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end .

This seems to be added as an Apology for Gods Providence, notwithstanding all the contrary events and confusions which are in the world. He (i. e. God, expressed in the last clause of the verse) hath made (or doth make or do, by his Providence in the government of the world) every thing (which he doth either immediately, or by the ministry of Men, or other Creatures, for God worketh in and with all his Creatures in all their actions, as is agreed by Divines and Philosophers,) beautiful (decently and conveniently, so that, all things considered, it could not have been done better in his time, in the time which he had appointed, or which he saw most proper and fit for it: or, in its time or season, when it was most fit to be done. Many events seem to mens shallow and perverse judgments, at least for a time, to be very irregular and unbecoming, as when wicked men prosper in their impious and unrighteous Enterprizes, and good men are sorely oppressed and afflicted, and that for righteousness sake; but when men shall come throughly to understand God's works, and the whole frame and contexture of them, and to see the end of them, they will then say, that all things were done most wisely and most seasonably; whereof we have eminent instances in Ioseph, and David, and Mordecai, and the Iews of his time.

i. e. In the Hearts of men, as the following words shew, where Man is expressed. The sense is either 1. Although all God's works are beautiful, yet men do not discern the beauty of them, because the World is in their Hearts, their minds are so busied and distracted with the thoughts, and cares, and love, and business of this World, that they have neither leisure, nor Heart seriously to study God's works. But this inordinate love of the present World comes from Man's own corruption, and not from God, and therefore it seems harsh to impute it to God, and improbable that Solomon would have phrased it thus, that God hath set or put the World, i. e. Worldly Lusts in mens Hearts. Or 2. As God's works are beautiful in themselves, so men are capable of discerning the beauty of them, because God, hath set the World in mens Hearts, he hath exposed the World, and all his dispensations in the World, unto the view of mens minds, both because he hath wrought his works so evidently, and publickly that men might easily observe them; and because he hath given men reason whereby they may discover the Wisdom and Beauty of all God's Works, if they diligently apply themselves to the study of them.

So this is another reason why men do not discern the beauty of God's works, because they do not see the whole frame or course of them from the beginning to the end, but onely some small parcels or fragments of them, the eminent works of God being oft begun in one Age, and finished in another. Or yet so that, &c. Or except that (as this Phrase properly signifies, and is elsewhere used) no Man can find out, &c. Thus it is an exception to the next foregoing clause, and the sense is, It is true God hath put the World into mens Hearts, or made them capable of observing all events and dispensations of God in the World, but this is to be understood with a limitation, because there are some more mysterious works of God, which no Man can fully understand, because he cannot search them out through or from the beginning to the end.

Marginal references: Ch. 8. 17.