Ecclesiastes 1

2. We shall corporeally behold the glorified body of Jesus Christ: And if it be a pleasant thing to behold the sun (Ecclesiastes 11:7), then how blessed a sight will it be to behold the Sun of Righteousness; to see Christ clothed in our human nature, sitting in glory above the a…

3. Labour. Ecclesiastes 1:8: all things are full of labour. Some labour in the mine, others among the muses: God has made a law — in the sweat of your brows you shall eat bread: but death gives a believer a Quietus est; it takes him off from his day-labour (Revelation 14:13).

2. God is an unmixed good: no condition in this life but has its mixture; for every drop of honey, there is a drop of gall. Solomon, who gave himself to find out this Philosopher's Stone — to search out for a happiness here below, he found vanity and vexation (Ecclesiastes 1:2).…

There is still something wanting, and a man would have more: the heart is always hydropical, it thirsts and is not satisfied. Solomon put all the creatures into an alembic, and when he came to extract the spirits and quintessence, there was nothing but froth, all was vanity (Ecc…

Ask that your joy may be full. Worldly joys can no more fill the heart than a drop can fill a cistern; they may please the palate or fancy (Plato calls them pictures of joy), but not satisfy the soul (Ecclesiastes 1:8). The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hear…

God enacted a law in Paradise, In the sweat of your brows you shall eat bread (Genesis 3:9). There is the labor of the hand in manufacture, and the labor of the mind in study (Ecclesiastes 1:8). All things are full of labor. But in the kingdom of heaven we shall be freed from ou…

6. If God gives us all, let God's giving excite us to thanksgiving; he is the founder and donor of all our blessings, let him have all our acknowledgments. All the rivers come from the sea, and there they return again (Ecclesiastes 1:7). All our gifts come from God, and to him m…

Sometimes it means as long as the world shall stand, or to the end of the generations of men. So it is said, Ecclesiastes 1:4. "One generation passes away and another comes; but the earth abides forever." Sometimes thereby is meant to all eternity.

THE Waters of the Sea in themselves, are brackish and unpleasant, yet being exhaled by the Sun, and condensed into Clouds, they fall down into pleasant Showers; or if drained through the Earth, their property is thereby altered; and that which was so salt in the Sea, becomes exc…

The Heathens [•]scribe this power to their god Aeolus; but we know this is the Royalty and sole Prerogative of the true God, who made Heaven and Earth; it is He that makes the storm a clam, Psal, 107. 29. And it is He that shifts and changes them from Point to Point as He please…

Third, this wisdom which should tend to universal quietness has almost constantly given universal disquietness to those in whom it has been most eminent. In much wisdom is much grief, Ecclesiastes 1:18. The great men of the world carry away the reputation of wisdom; really it is…

Those that will try experiments, smart for it in the issue. Solomon came home by weeping-cross (Ecclesiastes 1:14): I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit. He has proved it to our hands: He had a large heart, and a…

The same is true of any other transporting object. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity (Ecclesiastes 1:2), and (Job 15:31): Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity; for vanity shall be his recompense. (Romans 8:20): The creature is made subject to vanity.

4. The stability in the midst of changes. Ecclesiastes 1:4: One generation passes away, and another comes, but the earth abides forever. When man passes away, the earth stays behind him, as a habitation for other comers, and abides where it was, when the inhabitants go to and fr…

2 The creatures witness against disingenuity and ingratitude, against non-acknowledgment of being beholden to God; indeed the dullest among the creatures witness against this (Isaiah 1:3). God upbraids the ingratitude and rebellion of Israel, with the gratitude and services that…

It is a sore travel which the sons of men have under the sun; indeed, what has man of all his labor, and the vexation of his heart wherein he has labored? For all his days are sorrows, and his travel grief (Ecclesiastes 1:13; 2:22-23) — whether he increase wisdom and knowledge,…

3. Consider, that though you have much, and use it much, yet it will never satisfy, and therefore must needs vex: no satisfaction, no profit. A man's aim is satisfaction (Luke 12:19), but the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing (Ecclesiastes 1:8). Now if t…

Sin infects all that belongs to man: when man was created, God furnished his house for him, gave him the world and fullness thereof, and it was good; but, alas, how is it changed! (As I spoke before) for sin has made all that belongs to man very vanity, that is, empty and unprof…

The whole creature (or creation) groans under vanity, either cannot do what it would or else misses of that good and end it intended, breeds nothing but vanity, brings forth nothing but vexation. It crooks all things so as that none can straighten them, makes so many wants that…

Psalm 17:15: I shall be satisfied when I awake with your likeness. Solomon says the eye is not satisfied with seeing (Ecclesiastes 1:8), but there the eye will be satisfied with seeing. God and nothing but God can satisfy.

What is it to cry the temple of the Lord? what is it to lay knowledge up and not lay it out? In this sense, he who increases knowledge increases sorrow (Ecclesiastes 1:18); his knowledge will but serve to condemn him. If knowledge separated from practice would make men happy, th…

2. There must be a deadness to learning, to books, and book-vanity (Ecclesiastes 12:12): There is no end of making many books, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Ecclesiastes 1:17: And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this…

How does the Soul sparkle as the Sun in its glory? This knowledge is comfortable; we may say of the Knowledge of Nature, as Solomon, Ecclesiastes 1:18. He that increases knowledge, increases sorrow.

It is kept all the year long. It bears the name of Vanity Fair, because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity (Psalm 62:9); and also because all that is there sold, or that comes there, is vanity; as is the saying of the wise, “All that comes is vanity” (Ecclesiastes…

2. To be still with God is the most satisfying life, nothing else will do it. All the Rivers run into the Sea, yet the Sea is not full, Ecclesiastes 1.7. Let all the golden streams of worldly delights run into the heart of man, yet the heart is not full: strain out the quintesse…

Ecclesiastes 1:2. Vanity of Vanities, says the Preacher, Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity. The Preacher here mentioned, is no less a Person than Solomon: and this whole Book is no other than his recantation Sermon.

Ecclesiastes 1:14. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. To have a self-sufficiency in being and operation, and to be unsubordinate to any further end above himself, as it is utterly repugnant to the condition of…