Ver. 1. Go 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 happiness as to ‘laugh and be fat,’ to ‘sing care away,’ and to lie carousing and melting in sinful pleasures; yea, though they perish therein, as the Duke of Clarence did in his butt of malmsey. 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 honey. Flies and wasps use to come to honey and sugar, and such sweet things; so doth Beelzebub, the god of flies, to the hearts of epicures and voluptuaries. Behemoth haunteth the fens. (Job 40:21) Here, therefore, this wise man was utterly out, and made an ill transition from the search of wisdom to the pursuit of pleasures; from the school of Socrates, to the herd of Epicurus. For though these hogs may grunt out their “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die,” yet, if death but draw the curtain, and look in upon them, all the mirth is marred, and they put into as great an agony as Belshazzar was at the sight of the handwriting that was against him. A strong sweet wine, originally the product of the neighbourhood of Monemvasia (Napoli di Malvasia) in the Morea; but now obtained from Spain, the Azores, and the islands of Madeira and the Canaries, as well as from Greece.
Ver. 2. I said of mirth, It is mad,] q.d., Thou mad fool, what dost thou? Yet is not mirth amiss, so it be moderate; nor laughter unlawful—as some Anabaptists in Calvin’s time held—so that it be well limited. Carnal mirth, and abuse of lawful things, doth mightily weaken, intenerate, and emasculate the spirit; yea, it draws out the very vigour and vivacity of it, and is therefore to be avoided. Some are so afraid of sadness that they banish all seriousness; they affect mirth as the eel doth mud, or the toad ditches. These are those that dance to the timbrel and harp, but suddenly turn into hell. (Job 21:12,13)
Ver. 3. Yet acquainting my heart with wisdom,] i.e., Resolving to retain my wisdom; but that could not be, “For whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart”; (Hosea 4:11) they dull and disable nature, and so set us in a greater distance from grace; they “fight against the soul,” (1 Peter 2:11) and take away all scent and sense of heavenly comforts: much like that parcel of ground in Sicily, that sendeth such a strong smell of fragrant flowers to all the fields thereabouts, that no hound can hunt there. And here I believe began Solomon’s apostasy, his laying the reins on the neck to pursue sinful pleasures, pleasing himself in a conceit that he could serve God and his lusts too. A Christian hath ever God for his chief end, and never sins with deliberation about this end; he will not forego God upon any terms; only he errs in the way, thinking he may fulfil such a lust, and keep God too. But God and sin cannot cohabit; and God’s graces groaning under our abuses in this kind cry unto him for help, who gives them thereupon, as he did to the wronged Church, (Revelation 12:14) the wings of an eagle: after which, one lust calls upon another, as they once did upon their fellow soldiers, “Now Moab to the spoil,” till the heart be filled with as many corruptions as Solomon had concubines. Arist., De Mirab. Auscul., lib. viii.
Ver. 4. I made me great works.] I took not pleasure in trifles, as Domitian did, in catching and killing flies with his penknife; or as Artaxerxes did, in making hafts for knives; or as Solyman the great Turk did, in making notches of horn for bows; but I built stately houses, planted pleasant vineyards, &c. A godly man may be busied in mean, low things; but he is not satisfied in them as adequate objects: he trades for better commodities, and cannot rest without them. I builded me houses.] Curious and spacious, such as is the Turk’s seraglio or palace, said to be more than two miles in compass. William Rufus built Westminster hall, and when it was done, found much fault with it for being built too little, saying, It was fitter for a chamber than for a hall for a king of England, and took a plot of land for one far more spacious to be added unto it. I planted me vineyards.] That no pleasant thing might be wanting to me. To plant a vineyard is a matter of much cost and care; but it soon quits cost by bearing (1.) Plenty of fruit in clusters and bunches, many grapes together; (2.) By bearing pleasant fruit, no fruit being more delectable to the taste than is the grape, nor more comfortable to the heart than is the wine made of the grape. (Judges 9:13) Solomon had one gallant vineyard at Baalhamon that yielded him great profit. (Song of Solomon 8:1) Daniel’s History.
Ver. 5. I made me gardens.] So called, because guarded and enclosed with a wall, (Song of Solomon 4:12) like as we call garments quasi guardments, in an active acception of the word, because they guard our bodies from the injury of wind and weather. The Hebrew word ןג, Gan, comes likewise from a word that signifieth to protect or guard; and there are those who give this for a reason why the Lord forbade the Jews to keep swine, because they are such enemies to gardens, whereof that country is very full. And orchards.] Heb., Paradises; famous for curious variety and excellence of all sorts of trees and foreign fruits, resembling even the garden of God for amenity and delight. And herein perhaps he gratified Pharaoh’s daughter—the Egyptians took great pleasure in gardens—like as that king of Assyria did his wife horto pensili, with a garden that hung in the air, to his incredible cost. Athenaeus, Diod., lib. ii. cap. 4. Q. Curt., lib. v.