John Trapp on Amos 6:13

Verſe 13. Ye which rejoyce in a thing of nought] In the creature, ſaith à Lapide, which is a meer Nothing: in your wealth and ſtrength (called hornes in the next clauſe) which are an uncertainty, an obſcurity, as the Apoſtle deemed them 1 Tim. 6.17. and have no ſolid ſubſiſtence, ſaith Solomon, Prov. 23.5. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. though the fooliſh world call them ſubſtance, and goods: Indeed it is onely opinion that ſets the price upon them, as when gold is raiſed from twenty ſhillings to two and twenty, the gold is the ſame: eſtimation only raiſeth it. It is ſaid of the people of the Eaſt-Indies in the Iſle Zeiilon that having an apes tooth got from them, which was a conſecrated thing by them, they offered an incredible maſſe of treaſure to recover it. Such things of nought, are highly prized and purſued by the worlds [non-Latin text not transcribed] by worthleſſe perſons, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Act. 25.23. ſuch as Anthiocus was in all his ſtate Dan. 11.21. and Agrippa in all his pomp (or as the Greek hath it, in all his phantaſy or vaine ſhew) and as theſe voluptuaries in the text, who had their wine and their muſick, fat calves, and choyceſt oyntments wherein they held themſelves happy verſe. 4.5, 6. but the Prophet telleth them that in rejoycing in theſe low things, they rejoyced in a thing of nought: they fed altogether upon aſhes, a deceived heart had turned them aſide, ſo that they could not deliver themſelves from theſe empty vanities, nor ſay (as wiſe men would have done,) Is there not a lie in my right hand. Eſay 44.20.

Which ſay, Have we not taken to us horns,] yet, no doubt: but ſuch as God by his Carpenters can ſoon cut off, Zech. 1.20, 21, or without them, by his own bare hand, Pſal. 75.11. But what an arrogant brag is here? Have we not taken? and to us? and horns? and by our own ſtrength? Hic Deus nihil fecit, Here God did nothing; they were all the doers: ſo ſmall a winde blowes up bubble, Sic levè ſic parvum eſt, animum quod laudis avarum Subruit, aut reficit.— It is a notable witty expreſſion of Luther; By mens boaſting of what they have done, ſaith He, Hac ego feci, haec ego feci, This and that I have done,Luth. in Pſal. 127. they become nothing elſe but faeces, that is dregs: if themſelves were any thing, they would not thus rejoyce in a thing of nothing: they would not crack in this ſort.