John Trapp on Ecclesiastes 7:28

Verſ. 28. Which yet my ſoul ſeeketh, but I finde not] There is a place in Wiltſhire called Stonage, for divers great ſtones lying and ſtanding there together: of which ſtones it is ſaid,Camden. that though a man number them one by one never ſo carefully, yet that he cannot finde the true number of them, but that every time he numbers them he findes a different number from that he found before. This may well ſhew (as one well applies it) the erring of mans labour in ſeeking the account of wiſdome and knowledge. For though his diligence be never ſo great in making the reckoning, he will alwayes be out, and not able to find it out.

One man among a thouſand] Hand facile invenies multis è milibus unum. There is a very great ſcarcity of good people. Theſe are as Gideons three hundred, when the wicked, as the Midianites, lye like Graſhoppers for multitude upon the earth, Judg. 7. and as thoſe Syrians, 1 King. 20.27. they fill the country, they darken the air, as the ſwarms did the Land of Aegypt: and there is plenty of ſuch duſt-heaps in every corner.

But a Woman among all thoſe have I not found] i. e. Among all my Wives and Concubines, which made him ready to ſing, Foemina nulla bona eſt. But that there are, and ever have been many gracious Women, ſee (beſides the Scriptures) the Writings of many Learned men, De illuſtribus foeminis: It is eaſie to obſerve (ſaith one) that the New-Teſtament affords more ſtore of good Wives than the Old. And I can ſay as Hierom does, Novi ego multas ad omne opus bonum promptas, I know many Tabithaes full of good works. But in reſpect of the diſcoverie of hearts and natures whether in good or evil, it is harder to find out throughly the perfect diſpoſition of a Woman, than of Men. And that I take to be the meaning of this text.