the reason is obvious, because no man hath truly any
whereof to glory. But to return to Ecclesiastes, when he saith, _Vanity
of vanities, all is vanity_, what else can we imagine his meaning to
be, than that our whole life is nothing but one continued interlude of
Folly? This confirms that assertion of Tully, which is delivered in that
noted passage we but just now mentioned, namely, that _All places swarm
with fools_. Farther, what does the son of Sirach mean when he saith in
Ecclesiasticus, that the _Fool is changed as the moon_, while the
_Wise man is fixed as the sun_, than only to hint out the folly of all
mankind; and that the name of wise is due to no other but the all-wise
God? for all interpreters by Moon understand mankind, and by Sun that
fountain of all light, the Almighty. The same sense is implied in that
saying of our Saviour in the gospel, _There is none good but one, that
is God_: for if whoever is not wise must be consequently a fool, and if,
according to the Stoics, every man be wise so far only as he is good,
the meaning of the text must be, all mortals are unavoidably fools; and
there is none wise but one, that is God. Solomon also in the fifteenth
chapter of his proverbs hath this expression, _Folly is joy to him
that is destitute of wisdom_; plainly intimating, that the wise man is
attended with grief and vexation, while the foolish only roll in delight
and pleasure. To the same purpose is that saying of his in the first
chapter of Ecclesiastes, _In much wisdom is much grief; and he that
increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow_. Again, it is confessed by the
same preacher in the seventh chapter of the same book, _That the heart
of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in
the house of mirth_. This author himself had never attained to such a
portion of wisdom, if he had not applied himself to a searching out the
frailties and infirmities of human nature; as, if you believe not me,
may appear from his own words in his first chapter, _I gave my heart to
know wisdom, and to know madness and folly_; where it is worthy to be
observed that as to the order of words, Folly for its advantage is
put in the last place. Thus Ecclesiastes wrote, and thus indeed did an
ecclesiastical method require; namely, that what has the precedence in
dignity should come hindmost in rank and order, according to the tenor
of that evangelical precept, _The last shall be first, and the first
shall be last