John Trapp on Ecclesiastes 2:1

CHAP. II. Verſ. 1. Goe to now, I will prove thee with mirth.

THe merry Greeks of the World think that they have the only life of it, that there is no ſuch happineſſe as to laugh and be fat, to ſing Care away, and to lye carouſing and melting in ſinful pleaſures; yea though they periſh therein, as the Duke of Clarence did in his Butt of Malmeſey. But a little time will confute theſe fools, ſaith Solomon, and let them ſee, that it is better to be preſerved in brine, than to rot in Hony Flyes and Waſpes uſe to come to honey and ſuger, and ſuch ſweet things; ſo doth Beelzebub (the god of flyes) to the hearts of Epicures and voluptuaries. Behemoth haunteth the fennes, Job 40.21. Here therefore this Wiſe-man was utterly out, and made an ill tranſition from the ſearch of wiſdome, to the purſute of pleaſures; from the ſchool of Socrates, to the herd of Epicurus. For though theſe hoggs may grunt out their [Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we ſhall dye;] yet if death but draw the curtain, and look in upon them, all the mirth is marr'd, and they put into as great an agony as Belſhazzar was at the ſight of the hand-writing that was againſt him.