lar authority, through the mutability of the affections of subjects, ver. 15, 16.

1. So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun : and behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter.

"So I returned, and considered," i. e. considered again the verb is put for the adverb, as is usual in Scripture in verbs which signify the repetition of an action; as Gen. xxv. 1. Abraham added and took a wife, or took another wife, or married again; Ps. cvi. 13. they made haste and forgat, i. e. they soon forgat; Hos. ix. 9. they were profound and corrupted themselves, i. e. they deeply corrupted themselves: so Isai. Ixiv. 4; Gen. xxvi. 18; Rom. x. 20; Ps. vi. 10. He had considered before violence and injustice in the seat of judgment, ch. iii. 16. and had demonstrated its vanity; notwithstanding which, a good man should endeavour to rejoice in his labours: but when he reviews his former enquiry, he finds, instead of rejoicing, nothing but the tears of oppressed men, without strength in themselves, and without comfort from others,

which must necessarily render their lives very grievous and irksome to them." All the oppressions:" it importeth either violent or fraudulent detention of men's goods or rights, Jer. xxii. 3; Luke iii. 14. and xix. 8; 1 Thess. iv. 6; Jer. v. 26, 27.-" And behold the tears of such as were oppressed." The greatness of this evil is set forth, first, by the grief of these poor oppressed persons; it drew tears from their eyes, Lament. i. 2. Secondly, by their helplessness," they had no comforter:" it is some relief to one in sorrow to have the pity of others; but it must be a great aggravation of misery to be without a comforter, when his adversaries are so powerful, cruel, and malicious, that others are deterred from pitying him, Job vi. 14, 15. and xix. 21. Thirdly, by their inability to escape from their oppres sors, implied in the following words, whichever way they are read, either as a repetition of the negative in the former clause, with the latter, which is usual, Ps. i. 5; Job xxx. 20, 25. and xxxi. 20:" and no power from the hand of their oppressors;" namely, to escape from them they have no power but to weep, none to help themselves; or, as we read it, "on the side of their oppressors there is power," so much as to keep others from comforting them. So the word hand is sometimes ren

dered by that of side. The repetition of that clause denotes the sadness of their condition, as Job calls once and again for pity, Job xix. 21.

2. Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead, more than the living which are yet alive.

I esteemed the dead more happy. "The dead which are already dead," is emphatical: our mortality makes us, as it were, dead while we live, much more our lusts, Mat. viii. 22 ; Ephes. ii. 1; 1 Tim. v. 6; Rev. iii. 1; Prov. ix. 18. There are dead men that are yet living, and dead men that are already dead. Death is attributed likewise to those that are in a desperate condition, under an invincible calamity, as the Jews in Babylon, Isai. xxvi. 19; Ezek. xxxvii. 11, 12, 13; 1 Cor. xv. 31; 2 Cor. i. 9, 10. Thus oppression, in the scripture account, is a killing, a devouring of poor men, eating them up, gnawing their bones, Hab. i. 13; Ps. x. 8-10; and xiv. 4; Zeph. iii. 3; Ezek. xxii. 27; Mic. iii. 2, 3; Ps. lxxxiii. 3, 4, 5. The force of the expression is this: I esteemed those happier who are already quite dead, than they who may be said to be continually dying and languishing under the cruelties of their oppressors. This may appear to

be spoken after the judgment of the flesh, because grievous miseries make men weary of their life, and to choose rather to die: death is a haven to such a soul after shipwreck, Job iii. 13-16; Jon. iv. 3; 1 Kings xix. 4. And, indeed, life being the principal of all outward blessings, to which all others are subservient, Mat. vi. 25. it is contrary both to reason and religion to undervalue it, on account of the evils which lie heavy upon it; unless it be to escape evils that are worse than death, or to obtain good things which are better than life: in which sense the apostle desired to depart, that he might be with Christ, Phil. i. 23. Solomon, therefore, must be considered as speaking according to the judgment of persons under oppression, whose reason is darkened by the weight of their sorrows; for oppression, in this sense, makes even a wise man mad, ch. vii. 7.-" More than the living who are yet alive." By the living who are yet alive, he seems to mean those poor men who languish and pine away under their oppressions; of whom we can only say as we do of one ready to die, He is yet alive, his breath is not quite gone, and that is all, as Luke x. 30. He does not simply prefer death to life, but the ease and quietness of death to the miseries and sufferings of a dying life, Job iii. 17, 18, 19.

3. Yea, better is he than both they which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

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Yea, better is he than both they," &c. He speaks only according to the judgment of sense, and with relation to the greatness of outward miseries, which he, who is yet unborn, has neither seen in others nor felt in himself, Job iii. 10. and x. 18, 19." Who hath not seen the evil," &c. To see good, is to enjoy it, ch. ii. 4; to see evil, is to experience and suffer it in which sense, the serpent told Eve, that her eyes should be opened to know good by its loss, and evil by its danger, Gen. iii. 5: and this kind of not being, and not having been born, though it cannot rationally or piously be preferred to a sorrowful life under the influence of the fear of God, yet it may rather be desired than a cursed condition, which sinks a man under the wrath of Heaven, Mat. xxvi. 24.

Here, then, we may infer, first, the sad condition of people under the power of oppressors, without even so little abatement of their misery as to be pitied. Secondly, the cruelty of tyrants, which deters others from compassionating the objects of their oppression. Thirdly, the dangerous temptation to which oppression