John Trapp on Ecclesiastes 4:3

Verſ. 3. Yea better is he than both they] The Heathen could ſay, Optimum non naſci: proximum mori. Life is certainly a bleſſing of God, though never ſo calamitous. Why is living man ſorrowful? ſaith the Prophet:Lam. 3.39 and it is as if he ſhould ſay; Man, if alive, hath ſome cauſe of comfort, amidſt all his miſeries: if he may ſcape though but with the skin of his teeth, and have his life for a prey, he ſhould ſee matter of thankfulneſs, and ſay,Job 19.20 Lam. 3. It is the Lords mercy that I am not conſumed, that I am yet on this ſide hell. But thoſe that have ſet their hearts upon earthly things, if ever they loſe them, they are filled almoſt with unmedicinable ſorrows; ſo as they will praiſe the dead above the living, and wiſh they had never been born. Theſe are they whom Solomon in this ſentence is by ſome thought to perſonate.