All the labour of man [is] for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
Ver. 7. All the labour of man is for his mouth.] That is, For food and raiment, as 1Ti 6:8 a little whereof will content nature, which hath therefore given us a little mouth and stomach, a to teach us moderation, as Chrysostom well observeth; to the shame of those beastly belly gods, that glut themselves, and devour the creatures, as if they were of kin to that Pope that was called Os porci, Mouth of a pig, fattening themselves like boars, till they be brawned, and having, as Eliphaz speaketh, collops in their flank. A man would think, by their greedy and great eating, that their throats were whirlpools, and their bellies bottomless; that they were like locusts, which have but one gut, the ass fish, that hath his heart in his belly, b or the dolphin, that hath his mouth in his maw, as Solinus saith.
And yet the appetite is not filled.] And yet what birds soever fly, what fishes soever swim, what beasts soever run about, are all buried in our bellies, saith Seneca. c Heliogabalus was served at one supper with seven thousand fishes and five thousand fowls. He had also six hundred harlots following him in chariots, and yet gave great rewards to him that could invent any new pleasure. His thirst was unquenchable, his appetite like the hill Aetna, ever on fire, after more. Now, as "in water face answereth to face," Pro 27:19 so doth the appetite of a man to man; we are all as irregular, if God suffer us to range.
a Dii boni. quantum hominum unus exercet venter! - Seneca. Deus homini angustum ventrem, &c. - Sergius PP.
b Aristot.
c Quicquid avium volitat, quicquid piscium natat, quicquid ferarum discurrit, nostris sepelitur ventribus