-- CHAPTER II: That the infinite number of his sins
wretched I, have not been thus good, nor had the grace in my own heart, nor mercy from God, but have been caught and taken like one of the light fools and sinners in Israel. And thus sighs and waileth he.
Yet, withal, there is a second secret motion and out-breathing a contrary way (as of man's heart and pulse there is), namely, a magnifying or celebrating with joy the rich and free goodness of God towards himself, which I take to be the spirit that runs in the vein of these words, 'He that is good in the sight or face of God, shall escape her.' I find many interpreters to give the scope of that phrase, good in his sight,* to denote not scantily one that is good or virtuous in that particular or chastity, or good at large, but such an one whom God loves, favours, and who is the object of God's free and sovereign grace, out of which grace alone, God is moved within himself to deliver such an one, though formerly he had been addicted unto that kind of sinning from such entanglements and snares. The end why I allege this interpretation is, that Solomon hereby doth set forth his own case in this, as well as his sinful case in the foregoing; and so that Solomon should have an eye to God's gracious dealings with himself, whilst he uttered this, 'He that is good in the face or favour of God' tacitly signifying, that now at last, that love and grace, which at first had taken hold of him, as the Jedidiah, the beloved of the Lord, had now revived and flourished again towards him, had broke forth and manifested itself in an eminent degree of favour upon him, in giving him a serious, sound, and effectual repentance, in the power and efficacy of which he was enabled utterly or clean to escape
(as the apostle's word is, 2 Peter 2) from out of these fetters; and thereupon with joy, like an enthralled prisoner newly delivered, points to his gyves and chains, in the words foregoing, as if he had said, Now there my fetters lie, and here am I escaped through the infinite goodness of God. Thus much that conviction and sense of his own sins, and the dealings of God with him are intended by him in ver. 26.
CHAPTER II:
That the infinite number of his sins That the infinite number of his sins is here the issue or product of his seeking to find out the account (which was the fourth head propounded).—Some difficulties previously solved for the clearing that this is the scope.—The elegancy of his expressing that this account was numberless, by saying, Behold, this I find, &c., but I find not The exposition of the foregoing verses hitherto hath been but preparatory to this, the subject in hand, which is specially contained in these words.
Wherein he sets down a second and further conviction, of which in the division I spake, which extends and comprehends the sins of his whole life. And this is that which is the grand account, and so styled by him the account, and ushered in with the greatest solemnity:
'Behold, this have I found, says the preacher.'
In the former, ver. 26, he insisted more especially upon the heinousness of guilt (which he found most bitter) in one particular way of sinning. But in this he proceeds on to the general account of the total; and, as a convicted person, acknowledgeth a judgment of the whole debt, which he confesseth to be 'infinite, and past finding out.'
That which we have gained by so enlarged an exposition of the former verse hath been this, that they were his own sins which he aimed to give the account of in all these verses, and that he speaks thereof as a penitent, which we shall carry along with us as his main scope into these 27th and 28th verses, which now follows as a new text to be expounded; and yet, further, that they concern his own sins and the sins of his whole life, as a penitent, will more abundantly appear in the opening of them in the next succeeding chapter, as also in the fourth.
That which is my task in this chapter is to conflict with and break through some difficulties in the outward shell of these words, which the inward pith or sense given, as the kernel, is enclosed in. And unto any ordinary reader's first view and essay the outward expressions and manner thereof have a sensible hardness and crust in them.
The difficulties are such as these, what the this I have found, points at and refers to, and whether that it centres and determines in I find not. And that there the full period is set to the whole sentence, and ends. Also the circumlocution, or his fetching a compass about to express himself, 'counting one by one to find,' &c., and that he should close with so strange a riddle, 'But I find not,' when yet he had said,
'This I found.' These, and the phraseology and the contrivance of his speech about them, I must first overcome and settle.
I choose to manage the assoiling of these, as also the whole exposition that follows, by way of queries, and then answers thereto
(which I call assertions), orderly succeeding each the other, and so placed and disposed as the answer to the first query begets a second query, and then the answer unto that occasioned a third query, and so on, till they have brought forth the full meaning of the whole, and everything therein. And this course I shall hold both in this and the following chapters.
Our first and fundamental query must be concerning the this; a small word, 'This have I found,' that meets us at the first. What that should refer unto?
The reason of this query is, because it is plain that of the account itself, he says, He found it not.
The this, then, is not the account itself, and yet must be some great matter concerning that account, for it is prefaced with a behold, 'this have I found.'
Ans. The Dutch annotators have bluntly given this brief resolve of it, I find nothing else but this, that as yet I find nothing, so making the
this have I found absolutely to determine and centre in I find not; and so his meaning to be this, that whereas he declared that he had applied himself to seek the account, ver. 25, he now makes this return of that his grand inquest, as the verdict of the jury of his pains and study impanelled and laid out thereon, to be a non inventus, a bill not found, as jurors use to speak. Thus making but I find [not] to be the very object or terminus, and the very this, which he says he found, and with that the whole sentence to end.
But I had this demur at their paraphrasing the sense thus, that the language would not bear it without an harshness. For if indeed he had said 'This I have found, that I find not,' the language had been smooth and even, as for such a meaning; but this but coming in between seems to have an exception against the bringing of these two sayings together, as to that sense. For to say, I have found, but I find not; and to intend and mean I find that I find not, is incongruous and hobbling in the way of speaking.
But then that which now follows plained or smoothed the but or rub, in the way again unto the sense given. That is true, if these two sayings mentioned had immediately followed one the other, there would have been that seeming harshness mentioned; but we see there are many intermediate words do come between them, both after the first this have I found, which begins the whole sentence, and afore but I find not, which ends it. Those intermediate words are these, 'counting one by one to find out the account, which yet my soul seeketh,' and then follows, 'but I find not' (the sense of those words being this, I have used my utmost diligence to find it, and do still seek after it). Now then, after all this, to close all with but I find not, is most congruous; for by this the interposition of but, is occasioned by and relateth to those endeavours used as not arriving at what he aimed to find, and likewise serves to increase the wonder of his behold, &c., and yet withal still yokes well enough these two sayings and the first and the last together. I say, take them, and all this between, together (and take in all we must, for they all concur to make the sentence complete), and then the language is round
enough, and all runs in a fair and direct channel into this our interpretation given; behold, this (upon trial) I have found, namely, this, that I have set myself by counting to find out the account, but, notwithstanding, I find it not.
But besides, there are many versions render it and I find not, which translation is yet more yielding and pliant to this our sense.
And thus we may see, this I have found, though placed at the beginning remotely from the close, yet gently to roll down through all those intermediate winding passages, and taking them along with itself, to fix itself at last in I find not, as its terminus, and there rests.
And so the whole of all, ultimately terminating in I find not, is that very this which Solomon intendeth here, and says he found.
And thus this clause, in the sense now given, doth absolutely stand entire and clear apart from both the foregoing and the following words, as those which do make up a whole complete sentence within themselves, that we need not take in the next succeeding words, 'One man have I found,' &c. (as some would), to perfect them into an entire sentence. And we shall find (when it comes to be opened), even that succeeding sentence, 'One man among a thousand have I found,' &c., to stand out likewise, in the sense thereof, from this here, and to subsist on its own feet, as being another distinct maxim of and within itself.
And in the meanwhile, till we come to the opening thereof, there is this in the general that may aforehand serve as sufficient evidence, that these (my text) make one period or full sentence, and those succeeding words another; even the order and conduct which Solomon observeth throughout the whole paragraph, which is this, that whereas in the first place he had shewn he had set his heart to search and seek the account, ver. 25, then in the rest that follows to the end of the chapter, he gives forth four maxims as the several issues and products he had experimented of that his search. And to the end that his reader might be able to discern them in their
distinction one from another, he takes up this form of speech, 'I find,' or 'I have found,' which he hath four times up, prefixing or affixing it anew to every one of those special maxims. Thus he begins his first particular return of account, 'I find more bitter than death, the woman,' &c., that's the first; and then begins this new and second one with, 'this have I found,' ver. 27, which endeth with a 'but I find not,' with which he perfecteth the second. He then, in like equipage of speech, gives out a third in the end of ver. 28, 'One man have I found, but one woman I have not found.' Then a fourth, which is the conclusion of the whole 29th verse, 'This only have I found,' &c., that is, this only to my full satisfaction, 'That God made man upright, but they,' &c. So as a this have I found, still parts every period as a mark of division; and by repeating it thus four several times, 'I find,' or 'I have found,' he severs the materials of each of these sentences one from another, as we use to do by so many principal posts or studs, so many divisions or sets in a row or rail. And therefore we may conclude that these two sentences before us in vers. 27, 28, the one, my text, the other, 'One man have I found,' &c., having two new I founds set them, that therefore they speak of differing matters, as well as those other two clauses in vers. 26, 29, are generally acknowledged to do, these having the like posts or marks of separation set between them that those other two have.
The attentive observation of these things, though but generals, concerning this passage (my text) now at the entrance, is a matter of great moment unto the true and right understanding of this text, and so of the rest of the whole paragraph. And look what scope or aspect interpreters do put upon the 'this have I found,' and what that should refer to; that accordingly is made by them the hinge upon which their particular interpretations of all the rest that follows do turn, this way or that in their variety. And accordingly, that the this should refer and centre in I find that I cannot find it (which is the scope of it by me proposed), is, in like manner, the very hinge of that interpretation which I am now pursuing.
A second query is, what should be Solomon's intent and plainer meaning to express himself thus in so strange a riddle, 'Behold, I find, I find not.'
The answer in plainer words is, to shew that he found the matter of this account to be infinite and past finding out. And indeed the best commentators, though they carry the this either to the wickedness of women, ver. 26, or both men and women, in the succeeding words, which I do not, yet they fall, in common, in with this general paraphrase or sense I now give, that Solomon's meaning was to express, that he found it was infinite. And indeed the phrase itself, 'I find not' (especially as it is here coherenced), doth, by comparing other scriptures, import no less; holding some lesser analogy in its drift and sense with that expression of the apostle (as it is translated) concerning the ways of God, 'How unsearchable, &c., and his ways past finding out,' Rom. 11:33. In like manner here, Solomon of his sinful ways (though bearing a far less degree of proportion for infiniteness), that they are past finding out. Or it corresponds with another like phrase used by the same apostle, 'passing knowledge;' yea, and if we view these words in their coherence, you may discern that Solomon comes near in terms to both, and all of these of the apostle; for in saying, 'I applied my heart,' 1, to 'search,' and also sought; 2, to 'know;' and 3, to 'find this account' (all which you have in terminis, compare but vers. 25 and 27 together), and then for him to conclude, 'But I find it not,' is all one as to say, that upon search into it, I found it to be, 1, unsearchable; and 2, passing my knowledge; and 3, past finding out; and so to be an account infinitely beyond all account I can give of it.
And supposing (by what hath been said out of ver. 26, and shall be further proved in the next chapter) that it is the account of his own sins he speaks this of, then it is the same thing in effect which David his father had uttered afore him, though in other words, 'Who can understand his errors?' or Jeremiah after him, 'The heart, &c., who can know it?' And in substance and sense, the very same which David useth of God's infinite thoughts of love and mercy in pardoning such
an infinite multitude of sins; 'Many are thy thoughts, O God, to usward, they cannot be reckoned up in order to thee; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.' It is the effect of what Solomon intends here of his sins, as shall be further shewn.
1. This infinity, or surpassing his finding out, he further amplifies and exaggerates by setting out, 1, His pains and diligence used to find it, 'I applied my heart to search,' 'to know,' 'to seek out;' three words so multiplied and put together, import utmost diligence, this in ver.
25. 2. Exactness in casting the accounts of it, 'Counting one by one to find the account,' so in ver. 27 (even as arithmeticians do to bring their accounts to a balance). 3. The continuation of his labours therein, 'Which my soul yet seeks,' that is, continues to do it. 4. By the vehemency his soul had in the prosecution, which my very 'soul seeks;' and notwithstanding all this, 'I find not.' All these streams empty themselves into, and settle in this gulf, I find not, neither bank nor bottom.
Unto which may be added the abilities of wisdom and understanding that Solomon was endowed withal; so as one should think he had counters enough, wherewith he (if ever any) might have been able to have numbered them, having 'an understanding as large as the sands upon the sea-shore.' But his sins infinitely exceeded the sands in number (of which after), and passed both his, and all human understanding, and so his skill fell short; he found, as Asaph says, it was 'too hard for him.'
And therefore his arithmetic failing him, he betakes himself to his rhetoric. For what could be greater and higher, than for the most renowned wise man that ever was, or will be in the world, and now anew made wiser by the light of a serious and thorough repentance, properly directing and disposing him to the knowledge of sin, to make first so loud a proclamation, 'Behold, this I have found;' and then exaggerating the matter (as hath been opened) by his pains in searching to find, &c., and all to shew that he valued the attainment