John Trapp on Ecclesiastes 5:16

Verſ. 16. And this alſo is a ſore evil] Malum dolorificum, ſo it will prove: a ſingular vexation, a ſharp corroſive, when Balaam and his bribes, Laban and his baggs, Nabal and his flocks, Achan and his wedge, Baltaſar and his bouls, Herod and his harlots, Dives and his diſhes, &c. ſhall part aſunder for ever: when they ſhall look from their death-beds, & ſee that terrible ſpectacle, Death, Judgement, Hell, and all to bee paſſed thorow by their poor ſouls: Oh! what a dreadful ſhrick gives the guilty ſoul at death, to ſee it ſelf launching into an ocean of ſcalding lead, and muſt ſwim naked in it for ever! Who therefore (unleſs hee had rather burn with Dives, than reign with Lazarus) will henceforth reach out his hand to bribery, uſury, robbery, deceit, ſacriledge, or any ſuch like wickedneſs or worldlineſs,1 Tim. 6.9 which drown mens ſouls in perdition and deſtruction? If rich men could ſtave off death, or ſtop its mouth with a bagg of gold, it were ſomewhat like. But that cannot bee, as Henry Beauford, that rich and wretched Cardinal found by experience; as the King of Perſia told Conſtantine the Emperour, who had ſhewed him all the glory and bravery of Rome, Fulg. Mira quidem haec, ſaid hee, ſed ut video, ſicut in Perſia, ſic Romae homines moriuntur, i. e. Theſe be brave things, but yet I ſee, that as in Perſia, ſo at Rome alſo, the owners of theſe things muſt needs die. Agreeable whereunto was that ſpeech of Nugas the Scythian Monarch, to whom when Michael Paleologus the Emperour ſent certain rich robes for a preſent,Pachymer. hiſt. lib. 5. hee asked, Nunquid calamitates, morbos, mortem depellere poſſent? whether they could drive away calamities, ſickneſſes, death? for if they could not do ſo, they were not much to bee regarded.

What profit hath hee that hath laboured for the wind?] i. e. For juſt nothing. See Hoſ. 12.1. Jer. 22.22. The Greeks expreſs the ſame by hunting after, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. and husbanding the wind. The Apoſtle ſpeaks of beating the air, 1 Cor. 9. as hee doth, that fights with his own ſhadow, that diſquiets himſelf in vain. The four Monarchies are called the four winds of Heaven, Zech. 6.3, 4. And at the Popes inthronization a wad of ſtraw is ſet on fire before him, and one appointed to ſay, Sic tranſit gloria mundi, The glory of this world is but a blaze or blaſt.