John Trapp on Ecclesiastes 9:15

Verſ. 15. Now there was found in it a poor wiſe man] Such as was Anaximener at Lampſacum, and Archimides at Syracuſe, Vat. Max. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Plut. lib. 14. of whoſe wiſdome Plutarch teſtifieth, that it was above the ordinary poſſibility of a man, it was divine: And of whoſe poverty Silius aſſures us, that hee was Nadus opum, ſed cui coelum terraeque paterent.

By his warlike deviſes and engines hee ſo defended his City againſt Marcelius the Roman General, that the ſouldiers called him Briareus and Centimanus, a Giant invincible, there was no taking of the Town, as Livy relates it. The City of Abel was delivered by a wiſe woman that was in it, 2 Sam. 20. The City of Coccinum in the Iſle of Lemnos, See Judges 9.35 Turk. hiſt. 413. by Marulla a Maiden of that City. Hippo could not bee taken whiles Auguſtine was in it; not Heidelberg, whiles Pareus lived. Eliſha preſerved Samaria from the Syrians; and the Prophet Iſaiah Jeruſalem from the Aſſyrians. They ſhall not ſhoot an arrow there, nor come before it with ſhields, nor caſt a bank againſt it, ſaith the Lord, Iſa. 37.33. Jeremy had preſerved it longer, but that his counſel was ſlighted. Indeed hee was a Phyſician to a dying State, Tunc etenim docta plus valet arte malum.

Yet no man remembred that ſame poor man] Had hee been ſome Demetrius Phalareus, or ſuch like Magnifico, hee ſhould have had an hundred ſtatues ſet up in honour of his good ſervice. Hee ſhould have heard Saviour, Saviour, as Flaminius the Roman General did, or Father, Father, as Huniades after hee had defeated Meſites the Turk. But being poor, hee is ſoon ſet aſide, and neither ſuccoured nor honoured. This is Merces mundi, the worlds wages. The Dutch have a Proverb, that a man ſhould bow to the tree that hath ſheltered him in a ſtorm. But many well-deſerving perſons,Sed reſtituta ſerenitate abeuntes vellicarent. have cauſe to complain as Elias did when hee ſate under the Juniper; or as Themiſtocles did, when hee compared himſelf to a Plane-tree, whereunto his Country-men in a tempeſt would run for refuge; but when once took up, they would not onely leave him, but pull the leaves from him. Are you weary, ſaid hee once to them, of receiving ſo many good turns from one man?