5<\/strong>. as a handbreadth<\/em> ] Better, a few handbreadths long<\/em>. The shortest measure is enough to reckon life by. The ‘handbreadth’ = four ‘fingers’ (Jer 52:21<\/span> compared with 1Ki 7:26<\/span>) or less than half a ‘span.’<\/p>\n mine age<\/em> &c.] The same word as that rendered ‘world’ in Psa 17:14<\/span>, denoting life in its fleeting, transient aspect. In the sight of the Eternal man’s existence shrinks into nothing. Cp. Isa 40:17<\/span>.<\/p>\n verily<\/em> &c.] The particle ak<\/em>, which is characteristic of this Ps. and of Psalms 62<\/span>, may be used affirmatively to introduce the whole clause ( verily<\/em>, or surely<\/em>, as in Psa 39:6<\/em><\/span> ; Psa 39:11<\/em><\/span><\/em>), or restrictively, to emphasise the words which immediately follow it ( only<\/em>). The order of the words points to the latter sense here. ‘Only altogether a breath’, i.e. nought but mere vanity are all men at their best estate:<\/em> lit. when standing firm:<\/em> however securely they may seem to be established. Cp. Psa 144:4<\/span>; Jas 4:14<\/span>.<\/p>\n Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth – <\/B>literally, Lo, handbreadths hast thou given my days. The word rendered handbreadth means properly the spread hand; the palm; the hand when the four fingers are expanded. The word is then used to denote anything very short or brief. It is one of the smallest natural measures, as distinguished from the foot – that is, the length of the foot; and from the cubit – that is, the length of the arm to the elbow. It is the shortness of life, therefore, that is the subject of painful and complaining reflection here. Who has not been in a state of mind to sympathize with the feelings of the psalmist? Who is there that does not often wonder, when he thinks of what he could and would accomplish on earth if his life extended to one thousand years, and when he thinks of the great interests at stake in reference to another world which God has made dependent on so short a life? Who can at all times so calm down his feelings as to give utterance to no expressions of impatience that life is so soon to terminate? Who is there that reflects on the great interests at stake that has not asked the question why God has not given man more time to prepare for eternity?<\/P> And mine age – <\/B>Or, my life. The word used here – <\/span> cheled<\/I> – means properly duration of life, lifetime; and then, life itself; Job 11:17<\/span>.<\/P> Is as nothing – <\/B>That is, it is so short that it seems to be nothing at all.<\/P> Before thee – <\/B>As over against thee; that is, in comparison with thee. Compare Isa 40:17<\/span>, All nations before him are as nothing; that is, over against him, or in comparison with him. When the two are placed together, the one seems to be as nothing in the presence of the other. So the life of man, when placed by the side of the life of God, seems to be absolutely nothing.<\/P> Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity – <\/B>Margin, settled. The idea is, that every man is constituted vanity. Literally, All vanity every man is constituted. There seems to be nothing but vanity; and this is the result of a divine constitution or arrangement. The idea expressed in our common version, at his best state, however true in itself, is not in the original. The thoughts in the original are:<\/P> (a) that all people are vanity; that is, life is so short, and man accomplishes so little, that it seems to be perfect vanity; and<\/P> (b) that this is the result of the divine constitution under which man was made.<\/P> It was the fact that man has been so made which gave so much trouble to the mind of the psalmist.<\/P> <\/p>\n Psa 39:5<\/span><\/p>\n Behold, Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth: and mine age is as nothing before Thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The brevity and vanity of human life<\/strong><\/p>\n These <\/em>simple words have an energy in them which none but a dying man can fully understand. We may, indeed, have felt something of their meaning, as we have heard them read over the corpse of a beloved friend, but then this feeling has been neither deep nor lasting. The cares or pleasures of the world have again called for and had our whole attention. The psalmists words lead us to consider–<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>They bring to us innumerable mercies as they hurry on.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>And they are allowed to us that in them we may work for eternity.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>We have to account for them hereafter. They are recorded in the Book of God.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>With the period once allotted to the life of man.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>With the duration of many objects around us.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>With the eternity of God.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>With the work we have to do.<\/p>\n How diligent, then, should we be. And how silently our years pass away. There is also another painful thought connected with the silent rapidity of time–the longer we stay in the world, the swifter does its flight appear. A year to a man is not more than a few months to a child. Our days seem to rush on with a more silent and rapid motion the nearer they draw to the goal of death, as though they were eager to bear us away unawares to our destined eternity. The fact is, that time, correctly speaking, is nothing more than a succession of ideas; these ideas are less numerous, and the impressions they make less deep and permanent in old age than they are in youth; and consequently the road of life has fewer marks to remind us of our progress.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>How precarious and how little worth are all our earthly blessings. Death soon carries them away.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>And so of all our schemes and prospects. How forcibly, then, are we reminded of the great duty of consideration, of serious thoughts on our life and responsibility; how great an evil is sin, and how great a necessity is our trust in God. (C. Bradley, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The vanity of man at his best state<\/strong><\/p>\n The vanity of man<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It is vain in the sense of hollowness. It is an empty fiction, an inflated bubble.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> It lacks inner satisfaction.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> It lacks endurance.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It is vain in the sense of worthlessness. On the assumption that there is no immortality, what useful purpose is answered by our existence? I appreciate the literary productions of genius, but the best of them I feel are unworthy of our creation.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It is an existence eternally pursuing a phantom.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It is an existence eternally producing injury. Learn–<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> The infinite worth of the Gospel.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> The infinite folly of the Gospel-rejector. (Homilist.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The brief duration of human life<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The man of the loftiest attainments in virtue is but elevated to a position whence he has a more enlarged discovery than others of the miserableness and defects of his present standing. The attainments of man in virtue and in piety affect him in a manner similar to what is produced by the other acquirements of life–the more that there is gained, the more is there that presents itself to be desired. The Christian, in his best estate, ever feels clogged in his career, and is ever laying aside those weights which retard him in his motion.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>As it is with the attainments of piety, so is it with those of knowledge. The longest life is found too short to compass the knowledge of what God has revealed to us in His Word. To some, the duration of mortal existence has proved too short for the attainment of any substantial good. They were cut off in the midst of resolutions of amendment. For this, life was amply sufficient; but, as Seneca has it, We complain of its shortness, because of the waste of it which is made.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>To the child in the dawn of life, when reason begins to expand, and thought to measure out the prospect of happy days spread before it, through all the stages of its earthly career, the anticipated term of years appear so vast as to fill its imagination with wonder, and rack its powers of comprehension. But, with the progress of years, the allotted term of human life ever appears to shorten.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>But when the psalmist skid, Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth, he must have thought of the Eternal of ages, whom he addressed, with whom a thousand years are as one day, and compared with whose immeasurable duration our existence here may well be likened to an hand-breadth. Our days is a phrase employed in Scripture to denote the term of our existence here, which is measured by the revolution of days, contrasted with our future being, when time shall be no longer. The psalmist thought of the great, the boundless eternity which lay before him; of that never-ending succession of ages through which we should live, increasing in knowledge and in happiness; and turning his eye to the comparatively puny, limited, and circumscribed being which he now enjoyed, yet considering the vast result that hung upon it, he exclaimed, Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth. Such language is appropriate to human life. We have received a place among the things which have foundation. Our immortal souls exist in God, who has imparted to them, in reference to futurity, an attribute to Himself–Eternity. (John Watson.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The vanity of human life and nature<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The psalmist gives us here a very emphatic description of the measure of his days,<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> A handbreadth, or the breadth of four fingers was one of the least geometrical measures among the Jews; which we may fitly call an inch or two of Time. But alas! the thread of life is as slender as it is short; and often breaks before this inch or two is run off.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> The psalmist speaks of it in yet more diminishing terms when he adds, My age is as nothing before Thee.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The psalmist gives us a much more diminishing description of the frailty of our nature than he does of the measure of our days. For, verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> He is so in himself, both in body and mind. His body is but a living lump of earth, making haste to deformity and dust. How feeble, contracted and low, are the very best powers of his mind; how weak his reason, how cramped his understanding!<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> His pursuits and desires are vain.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> His enjoyments are vain–riches, pleasures, honours.<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> His life is vain–transient, short, uncertain.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Men do not steadily attend to the nature, consequence, and final issue of things; but confine their views to present objects and appearances, which are sure to deceive them.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Sense and appetite too often corrupt the judgment. It is a hard thing for men to believe what they would not have to be true. The truth is, their affections are engaged, and they cannot help thinking well of what they love; they do not care to hear those things disparaged which they exceedingly value; nor can they be easily persuaded to think that what they have fondly set their hearts upon is so altogether vain.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>What man is in comparison of what he shall be. Do we not look upon one single moment of time as a mere point, when compared with the many years we have a]ready lived? But one single moment of time bears an infinitely greater proportion to the period of human life than the whole period of human life does to eternity. How concerned, then, should we be by a course of steady piety and virtue to add a value to this nothing, by improving our transient years to the purposes of eternal bliss I Because on this moment of time depends eternity.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>We shall be more sensible of the justness of this description which the psalmist gives us of the vanity of mankind, if we consider in what manner they generally act in comparison of what they should do.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> In what manner they ought to live as reasonable creatures in a state of trial and preparation for an eternal world. Impressed with this thought, would they not be very careful to watch their heart and behaviour, and daily examine their temper and conduct by that rule of righteousness which God hath given them for their direction and guide; lest they should be unawares seduced into sin, to the danger and detriment of their immortal interest?<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Do we find that they really do live in this manner? Is not the general course and conduct of their lives often just the reverse of this? How rarely are they disposed to think of another world! How unattentive to the government of their lives and passions!<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Seeing we know these things, let us beware lest we also be led away with the error of the wicked.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The text, if well considered, must surely be a sovereign cure for envy; unless vanity, folly, and wretchedness be the proper objects of it.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Is man in his best state altogether vanity? what is he, then, in his worst state?<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>Let us learn hence to rectify our sentiments of human life and all its vanities.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> What do We think of them under a grievous fit of pain or sickness? When all of them together cannot purchase for us so much as one moments ease.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> What should we think of them at death? It is then that men always form the truest thoughts of human life.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> Suppose we were to judge of them by the general character of those who possess the most of them; and see the pernicious effects they generally have upon the minds of men; what shall we think of them then?<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>Are these things really vain; it is time, then, that we seek out for some more substantial good. (J. Mason, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Of vanity<\/strong><\/p>\n Take <\/em>man in all the variety of his behaviour and humours, in his best and most settled estate (for so much the original imports); nay, in the best managements of his affairs, in the subtilty and strength of all his designs and projectings; even in the pre-eminence of his reason and pretended excellency of his wisdom; when he designs to look and speak wisest, and put off the face of vanity; when he thinks he is most in the right, and his achievements are most successful; take him with all his advantages, and dress him up above nature, with all the improvements of art and sciences, and he is still the veriest fop in the creation, and the merest antic that appears upon the stage of the world.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The original dignity of man above other creatures is that tie is endowed with a rational soul, a pure immaterial substance that cannot die or be extinguished; by this tie claims kindred with the angels, nay, a certain affinity to God Himself, being created after His image, and cannot but think immortality essential to his very being; but, alas I to invert the words of the apostle, this immortal may put on mortality, and this incorruptible may put on corruption.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>If we venture a strain higher, even to the best effects of reason; to the high-flown pretences of wisdom and learning, we shall make much the same discoveries. The wisdom of men is not only foolishness with God, but really in itself; and knowledge is as truly but science falsely so called.<\/p>\n Verse 5<\/span>. My days<\/B><\/I> as <\/B>a handbreadth<\/B><\/I>] My life is but a span<\/I>; .<\/P> <\/P> And mine age<\/B><\/I> is <\/B>as nothing<\/B><\/I>] keein<\/I>, as if at were<\/I> not before thee<\/I>. All time<\/I> is swallowed up in thy eternity<\/I>.<\/P> <\/P> Verily every man at his best state<\/B><\/I>] col adam nitstab<\/I>, “every man that exists<\/I>, is vanity.” All his projects, plans, schemes, &c., soon come to nothing. His body also moulders with the dust, and shortly passes both from the sight<\/I> and remembrance<\/I> of men.<\/P> <\/p>\n As an handbreadth, <\/B>which is one of the least measures, i.e. very short. These and the following words are either, <\/P> 1. A continuance of his complaint, that although his days were of themselves very short, yet God seemed to grudge him their natural length, and threatened to make them shorter, and to cut him off before his time. Or rather, <\/P> 2. A consolation, and correction of his last words, as if he said, Why am I so greedy to know the end of my life, seeing I do already know this, that my life cannot last very long, and therefore if my troubles be sharp, they will be but short? <\/P> Nothing; <\/B>next to nothing for substance and for continuance. <\/P> Before thee, <\/B>i.e. in thy judgment, and therefore in truth and reality; or, if compared with thee, and with thy everlasting duration: compare Psa 90:4<\/span>; 2Pe 3:8<\/span>. <\/P> Every man, <\/B>prince or peasant, wise or fools, good or bad. <\/P> At his best state; <\/B>Heb. though settled or established<\/I>; when he stands fastest, and likely to continue longest, in regard of his health and strength, and all possible means whereby life may be secured, supported, or prolonged. <\/P> Altogether vanity; <\/B>all that he is or hath is as light, and vain, and unstable as vanity itself; there is nothing but vanity and uncertainty in all his outward enjoyments, in the constitution of his body, yea, in the very temper and endowments of his mind: by which general condition of all mankind he endeavours to quiet and compose his mind to bear the common lot. <\/P> <\/p>\n 5, 6.<\/B> His prayer is answered inhis obtaining an impressive view of the vanity of the life of allmen, and their transient state. Their pomp is a mere image, and theirwealth is gathered they know not for whom.<\/P><\/p>\n Behold, thou hast made my days [as] an handbreadth<\/strong>,…. These words, with the following clause, are the psalmist’s answer to his own inquiries; or rather a correction of his inquiry and impatience, showing how needless it was to ask such questions, and be impatient to die, when it was so clear and certain a case that life was so short; not a yard or ell (forty five inches), but an handbreadth, the breadth of four fingers; or at most a span of time was allowed to man, whose days are few, like the shadow that declineth, and the grass that withers; by which figurative expressions the brevity of human life is described, Ps 102:11<\/span>; and this is the measure made, cut out, and appointed by the Lord himself, who has determined the years, months, and days of man’s life, Job 14:5<\/span>;<\/p>\n and mine age [is] as nothing before thee<\/strong>; in the sight of God, or in comparison of his eternity; not so much as an handbreadth, or to be accounted as an inch, but nothing at, all; yea, less than nothing, and vanity; see Isa 40:17<\/span>; that is, the age or life of man in this world, as the word w used signifies; for otherwise the age or life of man, in the world to come, is of an everlasting duration; but the years of this present life are threescore and ten; ordinarily speaking; an hundred and thirty are by Jacob reckoned but few; and even a thousand years with the Lord are but as one day, Ps 90:4<\/span>;<\/p>\n verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity<\/strong>. As vanity may signify sin, emptiness, folly, falsehood, fickleness, and inconstancy; for man is a very sinful creature, empty of all that is good; foolish as to the knowledge of divine things; he is deceiving and deceived, his heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; and he is unstable in all his ways: he is “all vanity” x, as the words may be rendered; all that he has, or is, or is in him, is vanity; his body, in the health, beauty, and strength of it, is subject to change; and so are his mind, his memory, his judgment and affections, his purposes and promises; and so are his goods and estate, his riches and honours; yea, all the vanity that is in the creatures, that is, in the vegetable and sensitive creatures, yea, that is in the whole, world, is in him; who is a microcosm, a little world himself: and this is true of every man, even in his “best settled” y estate; when he stood the most firm, as the word used signifies; it is true of men of high and low degree, of the wise, knowing, and learned, as well as of the illiterate and ignorant, Ps 62:9<\/span>; even of those that are in the most prosperous circumstances, in the greatest ease and affluence,<\/p>\n Lu 12:16<\/span>; David himself had an experience of it, 2Sa 7:1<\/span>; yea, this is true of Adam in his best estate, in his estate of innocence; for he was even then subject to change, as the event has shown; and being in honour, he abode not long; and, though upright, became sinful, and came short of the glory of God: indeed, the spiritual estate of believers in Christ is so well settled as that it cannot be altered; nor is it subject to any vanity.<\/p>\n Selah<\/strong>. [See comments on Ps 3:2]<\/span>.<\/p>\n w “vitale aevum meum”, Cocceius; “my worldly time”, Ainsworth. x “universa, vel omnis vanitas”, Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus, Michaelis, Musculus, Cocceius; so Ainsworth. y “stans”, Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius; “quamlibet firmus consistere videatur”, Tigurine version, Vatablus; “though settled”, Ainsworth; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.<\/p>\n (5) Handbreadth.<\/strong>Better, some spans long. <\/em>The plural without the article having this indefinite sense.<\/p>\n Mine age.<\/strong>Literally, duration. <\/em>(See Psa. 17:14<\/span>.) The LXX. and Vulg. have substance.<\/p>\n Before thee.<\/strong>Since in Gods sight one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. If nature is below any perception of time, God, at the other extremity of being, is above it. God includes time without being affected by it, and time includes nature, which is unaware of it. He too completely transcends it, his works are too profoundly subject to it, to be otherwise than indifferent to its lapse. But we stand at an intermediate point, and bear affinity with both extremes (J. Martineau, Hours of Thought<\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n Verily every man<\/strong> . . .<\/strong>Better, nothing but breath is every man at his best. <\/em>(Literally, though standing firm.<\/em>) <\/em>Comp.<\/p>\n Reason thus with life 5<\/strong>. <\/strong> Handbreadth <\/strong> Hebrew, hand-breadths, <\/em> to correspond to days. A measurement of four fingers’ breadth, proverbially used for a brief period.<\/p>\n Mine age is as nothing <\/strong> “Age” is put for the whole period of life. <\/p>\n Every man at his best state is vanity <\/strong> Hebrew, certainly altogether vanity is every man standing firm. <\/em> His apparently firm, established state contrasts with vanity. His securest state, made so by health, wealth, power, and friends, is, however, wholly unreliable, it is itself vanity.<\/p>\n Psa 39:5<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>Every man at his best state<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> Every man living. <\/em>Mudge. <\/p>\n Psa 39:5 Behold, thou hast made my days [as] an handbreadth; and mine age [is] as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state [is] altogether vanity. Selah.<\/p>\n Ver. 5. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth<\/strong> ] i.e.<\/em> Four fingers broad (which is one of the least geometrical measures, or a spanlong), as some interpret it. Now, to spend the span of this transitory life after the ways of a man’s own heart is to bereave himself of a room in that city of pearl, and to perish for ever. Or take it for a handbreadth; should a man, having his lands divided into four parts (answerable to those four fingers’ breadth), leave three of them untilled? should he not make the best of that little time that he hath, that he be not taken with his task undone? Themistocles died about a hundred and seven years of age; and when he was to die he was grieved upon this ground: Now I am to die, saith he, when I begin to be wise. But stultus semper incipit vivere,<\/em> saith Seneca; and such complaints are bootless. Oh live quickly, live apace, and learn of the devil at least to be most busy, as knowing that our time is short, Rev 12:12<\/span> . To complain of the miseries of life, and to wish for death, as David here seemeth to do (and as did Job, Job 3:19<\/span> ; Job 6:9<\/span> ; Job 7:15<\/span> ; and Moses, Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>Why he calls the days of life our days. Strictly speaking, they are not so, not one of them, but–<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Their shortness. They are so by comparison.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Their vanity. But here, perhaps, it may be said, What if the period of life is thus transitory? Man is a great and noble being, and has powers that enable him to crowd into this short existence a consequence and dignity suited to his greatness. The words before us however speak no such language. There is another truth declared in them, which pours contempt on all human greatness. They tell us, not only of the shortness of life, but of the vanity, the utter nothingness, of man. This is the testimony they give, Verily, every man, at his best state, is altogether vanity. Therefore–<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Thy subject of the psalmists meditation. Every man in his best state. How glorious was the condition in which man was created. But from that he fell. Still, through Gods mercy in Christ, his condition is one of many blessings. He may have the Divine favour, and he may dwell in the Divine presence here. But the psalmist was thinking of man in the state in which he possesses the greatest share of worldly advantages, and in which other men are wont to call him most happy. Picture such a man–thee citizen, the philosopher, the monarch.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Hear what is said of such an one, the humiliating fact that he is altogether vanity. For death at any moment may come and strike down the sturdiest frame, the possessor of the greatest prosperity. Remember this, and prepare for the eternal life.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The emphatical manner is which it is urged on our attention. Verily, every man at, etc., etc. And we need that the truth should be enforced, manifest and common as it is. (W. Curling, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Mans existence without immortality is vanity.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Mans existence with a godless immortality is vanity.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Life is short, in respect of the great work which it is given us to perform. Man in his best estate here below is still an improvable condition. There is no perfection on this side the grave.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Life is short in a comparative point of view; and it is in reference to the consideration of the subject in this light, that the comparison in our text of life to an hand-breadth is peculiarly appropriate.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The force and emphasis of the text.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Why our common sentiments of human life are so very different from these of the psalmist.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>We shall soon be convinced of the justness of this description if we but duly consider two things.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>Improvement.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Consider man in his civil and secular capacity. The greatest confidence that men usually have in the things of the world arises from a great estate of wealth and treasure. But what is the foundation of this confidence, but a greater portion of the earth we tread on, or some refined part of it, some rubbish taken out of its bowels, burnished and made shining (to please the fool), and stamped with some image and superscription. But observe the vanity; are we children when we play with trifles, and wise men when we please ourselves with these greater toys? Or rather to confirm our vanity, are we not like them, given to change, and throw away one foolery to take up another? The difference can be no more than that the one is the pleasure and divertisement of children, and the other of men; but both the same vanity.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Examine him as to his moral and divine estate, as he is the son and disciple of virtue, and wisdom, and religion; as he is guided by reason, and pretendedly governed by conscience; there, too, he is vanity.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>To fix upon a state and condition of life really the best and the only one not subject to vanity is easy, and in few words to be discovered, in contemplation at least, though experience hath proved the practice to be very rare and difficult. If we should meet and confer together, and discourse this great point one with another in the next world, some little space before our trial comes on at that great tribunal of God, what, I pray, would you call wisdom? What would you call exemption from vanity and folly? Be sure not that by which in the preceding world we got a great estate; for, alas! that is quite gone and lost to us and our posterity, nothing of that nature can escape the general conflagration. No! nor that by which we once got fame and renown, for that is vanished too, and perhaps is really inglorious and base in the esteem of all at that day; for then be sure our judgments will be more discerning, and we shall have other thoughts and apprehensions of things. No I nor that by which we attained to arts and sciences, were statesmen or politicians; for we shall have no manner of use of them, neither in heaven nor in hell. Our knowledge must, then, be of another nature, of much greater perfection, or we cannot be happy; and sinner, too, the more sagacious and discerning they then become, the more <\/em>fitted and qualified (as we may say) will they be for their due punishment; their remorse and torments will be the sorer and more pungent. We shall infallibly then pronounce upon the debate, That we were altogether vain in She other world, and that that was the truest wisdom which exerted itself in all the previsionary means for this great and terrible day of judgment, to secure the grand interest of everlasting life. (John Cooke, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep; a breath thou art.
SHAKESPEARE: Measure for Measure.
<\/em><\/p>\nFuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n