John Trapp on Ecclesiastes 5:8

Verſ. 8. If thou ſeeſt the oppreſſion of the poor] And ſo mayſt bee drawn to doubt of Divine providence, and to with-draw thine awful regard to the Divine Majeſty, to forgoe godlineſſe, and to turn flat Atheiſt, as Diagoras and Averroes did.

Horat. Marvel not at the matter] Nil admirari prope res eſt una Numici. A wiſe man wonders at nothing: he knows there is good cauſe why God ſhould ſuffer it ſo to be, and gives him his glory. Opera Dei ſunt in mediis contrariis, ſaith Luther, Luther. in Geneſ. Nazian. Cypr. Gods works are effected uſually by contraries. And this hee doth [non-Latin text not transcribed], that he may be the more marvelled at, ſaith Nazianzen. Hence he commonly goes a way by himſelf, drawing light out of darkneſs, good out of evil,Exod. 15.11 heaven out of hell: that his people may feelingly ſay, Who is like unto thee, O Lord, glorious in holineſſe, fearful in praiſes, doing Wonders? Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeeth in the earth, Pſal. 58.11.

For he that is higher than the higheſt regardeth] And wherein they deal proudly,Pſal. 76.12 he is above them, Exod. 18.11. and over-tops them, Pſal. 2.4. ſets a day for them, and ſees that their day is coming. Pſal. 37.16. The moſt High cuts off the ſpirit of Princes (hee ſlips them off, as one ſhould ſlip off a flower between his fingers, or he cuts them off, as Grape-gatherers doe the cluſters off the Vines, ſuch a Metaphor there is in the Original) He is terrible to all the Kings of the earth, thoſe dread Soveraigns, thoſe Hammers of the earth, and Scourges of the world (as Attilas ſtiled himſelf) ſuch as Sennacherib, Mundi flagellum. whom God ſo ſubdued and maſtered, that the Aegyptians in memory of it, ſet up his ſtatue in the Temple of Vulcan with this inſcription,Heredot. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Let all that behold me, 2 Chro. 19.6 learn to fear God. It was therefore excellent counſel that Jehoſhaphat gave his Judges: Take heed what you doe, for yee judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgement. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord our God bee upon you, take heed and doe it. Look upon him that over-looks all your doings, ſaith he; and then learn to ſit upon the Tribunal, in as great, though not in ſo ſlaviſh a fear of doing wrong, as Olanes in the Hiſtory did upon the flayed skin of his Father Siſannus, nayled by Cambyſes on the Judgement-Seat: or as a Ruſſian Judge that fears the boyling Caldron, or open battocking: or the Turkiſh Senate, when they think the great Turk to ſtand behind the Arras at the dangerous door. In fine, let the Grandees and Potentates of the Earth know, and acknowledge with Conſtantine, Valentinian, and Theodoſius, three great Emperours (as Socrates reports it of them) that they are but Chriſti Vaſalli, Chriſts Vaſſals: and that as he is Excelſus ſuper Excelſos, High above all, even the higheſt, ſo hee hath other high ones at hand, viz. the Holy Angels; who can reſiſt the King of Perſia, as Michael the Prince did, Dan. 10.13. Fright the Syrians with a pannick terrour, 2 King. 7.6. ſmite the Aſſyrians with an utter deſtruction, Iſa. 37.36. deliver Peter from the hand of Herod, and from the expectation of the Jewes, Exod. 12. Acts 12.11. make a wonderful difference in the ſlaughter of the firſt-born of Aegypt. Tyrants ſhall be ſure, ſooner, or later, to meet with their match. Look what a hand the Ephori had over the King of Sparta, the Tribunes had over the Roman Conſuls, and the Prince Palſgrave of Rhine ought, by the ancient orders, to have over the Emperour of Germany, (Palatino haec dignitatis praerogativa eſt, ut ipſum Caeſarem judicare & damnare poſſit, Parci Hiſt. proſ. med. 771. quoties ſcilicet lis ei ab aliquo Ordinum imperii movetur, the Palſgrave hath power to judge and paſs ſentence upon the Emperour himſelf, when any of the States of Germany do ſue him at the Law) the ſame and more hath God and his Angels over the mightieſt Magnificoes in the world, Lebanon ſhall fall by a mighty one, i. e. by an Angel, as ſome interpret it, Iſa. 10.34.