John Trapp on Ecclesiastes 6:1

CHAP. VI. Verſ. 1. There is an evil that I have ſeen under the Sun.

THis wretched life is ſo peſtered with evils, that the Preacher could hardly caſt his eye beſide one or other of them. A diligent obſerver hee was of humane miſeries, that hee might hang looſe to life, and the better preſs upon others the vanity of doting upon it. One would wonder (ſurely) that our life here being ſo grievouſly afflicted, ſhould yet bee ſo inordinately affected; and that even by thoſe that are in deaths often, that have born Gods yoak from their youth, that have ſuffered troubles without, and terrours within, and who, if they had hope in this life onely,1 Cor. 15. were (by their own confeſſion) of all men the moſt unhappy. And yet ſo it is, God is forced to ſmoke us out of our clayie cottages, and to make life unto us to bee nothing better than a lingering death, that wee may grow weary of it, and breathe after a better,Aeterna vita vera vita. Aug. where are riches without ruſt, pleaſure with out pain, youth without decay, joy without ſorrow; Ubi nihil ſit quod nolis, & totum ſit quod velis, where is all that heart can wiſh, &c. The skilful Chirurgeon mortifieth with ſtraight binding the member that muſt bee cut off: So doth God fit us for our cutting off,Bern. by binding us with the cords of afflictions. Hee crieth not when God bindeth him, Job 36.13. ſaith Elihu of hypocrites; a Generation of men, than the which nothing is more ſtupid and inſenſible; till at length,Hypocritis nihil ſtupidius Pareus Iſa. 28. God making forcible entry upon them, doth violently break that curſed Covenant that they have made with Death and Hell, daſh the very breath out of their bodies with one plague upon another, turn them out of their earthly Tabernacles, with a firma ejectione, and ſend them packing to their place in Hell, from which they would not bee ſtopped, by all thoſe croſſes, that, for that purpoſe, hee caſt in their way.

And it is common amongſt men] Proper to men, (for beaſts are not ſubject to this evil diſeaſe) and common to all ſorts of men. One evil may well bee common among many, when many evils are ſo commonly upon one. It fell out to bee a part of Mithridates miſery, that hee had made himſelf unpoiſonable. And Cato ſo left this miſerable life,Cic. in Tuſc. quaſt. ut cauſam moriendi nactum ſe eſſe gauderet, that hee was glad of an occaſion to go out of the world.