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Ecc_7:4 The heart of the wise [is] in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools [is] in the house of mirth.
Ver. 4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning.] He gladly makes use of all good means of minding his mortality, and holds it a high point of heavenly wisdom so to do. Hence he frequents funerals, mingles with mourners, hears etiam muta clamare cadavers, makes every tomb a teacher, every monument a monitor, {a} lays him down in his bed as in his grave, looks upon his sheets as his winding sheet. Ut somnus mortis, sic lectus imago sepulchri. If he hears but the clock strike, sees the glass run out, it is as a death’s head to preach memento mori to him; he remembers the days of darkness, as Solomon bids, {Ecc_11:8} acts death aforehand, takes up many sad and serious thoughts of it, and makes it his continual practice so to do, as Job and David did. The wiser Jews digged their graves long before, as that old prophet; {1Ki_13:30} Joseph of Arimathea had his in his garden to season his delights. John, Patriarch of Alexandria (surnamed Eleemosynarius, for his bounty to the poor), having his tomb in building, gave his people charge it should be left unfinished, and that every day one should put him in mind to perfect it, that he might remember his mortality. The Christians in some part of the primitive Church took the sacrament every day, because they looked to die every day. Augustine would not for the gain of a million of worlds be an atheist for half an hour, because he had no certainty of his life for so short a time. His mother, Monica, was heard oft to say, How is it that I am here still? {b} The women of the Isle of Man, saith Speed, {c} whensoever they go out of their doors, gird themselves about with the winding sheet that they purpose to be buried in, to show themselves mindful of their mortality. The philosopher {d} affirms that man is therefore the wisest of creatures, because he alone can number, - Bruta non numerant; this is an essential difference, - but especially in that divine arithmetic of so "numbering his days as to apply his heart to wisdom." {Psa_90:12} This speaks him wise indeed, right in his judgment, right also in his affections. This will render him right in his practice too; as it did Waldus, the merchant of Lyons, who seeing one suddenly fall down dead before him, became a new man, and chief of those old Protestants, the poor men of Lyons, {e} called also Waldenses from this Waldus.
But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.] {See Trapp on "Ecc_7:3"} As the heart of the wicked is light and little worth, so it is their trade to hunt after lying vanities (as the child doth after butterflies), to "rejoice in a thing of nothing"; {Amo_6:13} he wiles away his time, either in "weaving spiders’ webs or hatching cockatrice’ eggs"; {Isa_59:5} froth or filth { áöñïóõíç , Mar_7:22} is their recreation. Sad and serious thoughts they banish, and therefore love not to be alone. They hate to hear of that terrible word death - as Louis XI of France commanded his servants not once to mention it to him, though he lay upon his deathbed. They live and laugh as if they were out of the reach of God’s rod, or as if their lives were riveted upon eternity, They can see death in other men’s brows and visages, not feel it in their own bowels and bosoms. When they behold any laid in their graves, they can shake their heads and say, This is what we must all come to; but after a while all is forgotten, - as water stirred with a stone cast into it hath circle upon circle on the surface for present, but by and by all is smooth as before. As chickens in a storm haste to be under the hen’s wing, but when that is a little over they lie dusting themselves in the sunshine; so it is here. Good thoughts fall upon evil hearts as sparks upon wet tinder; or if they kindle there, fools bring their buckets to quench them, run into merry company to drink, or otherwise drive away those troublesome heart qualms and melancholy dumps, as they call them. This is to excel in madness, &c. {See Trapp on "Pro_10:23"}
{a} Monimenta, quasi mentem momentia.
{b} Quid hic facio. - Aug.
{c} Description of the Isle of Man, abridged.
{d} Arist.
{e} Pauperes de Lugduno.