And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.
Ver. 13. And behold joy and gladness.] Or, But behold, see the madness of these cross grained creatures, who, to thwart the Almighty, in laetitiam et luxum prosiliunt, take a clean contrary course to what he had prescribed, as if they had done it on purpose. a
Eating and drinking.] This was all they minded, or were good for, as we say. Gulonum non alia est cura quam cibum ingerere, digerere, egerere, saith Bernard. The belly god is set all on his paunch, as the ass fish hath his heart in his belly; as the spider is little else but belly; as the gulon (a beast so called) eateth that which he preyeth upon - if it be a horse, till all be devoured - ever filling his belly, and then emptying it, and then falling to it again till all be consumed; such a delight hath he in his appetite.
For to morrow we shall die.] So the prophets tell us, but we are wiser than to believe them; so the enemy threateneth us, but we are too well fortified to fear him; so it may happen, for we are all mortal; let us therefore make much of ourselves while we may.
“ Indulge genio, carpamus dulcia: nostrum est
Quod vivis: cinis et manes et fabula fies. ”
- Pers., Sat. v.
St Paul saith that the epicures of his time used the like atheistic expressions. 1 Corinthians 15:32 , see there It is the guise of graceless wretches to jest out God's judgments, and to jeer when they should fear.
a Per omne ασωτιας genus grassabantur. - Scult.