xii. 16:-" Go to now," an adverbial form of exhorting and quickening his heart to such a course—“ I will prove thee with mirth," or by mirth, as by the instrument of enquiring after happiness, Judg. vi. 39; 1 Kings x. 1. I will make trial another way, whether pleasures will content thee, Ps. xxvi. 2. The word being derivable from another root, admits of a different sense, but to the same purpose: I will pour out myself in delights, or I will abound in delights. Pleasures melt and pour out the soul: hence Reuben is said to be

Gen. xlix. 4; Ezek. xvi. 15.

unstable as water, Lusts have a greeEphes. iv. 19: I

diness and excess in them, will wholly give myself to mirth, my heart shall flow forth into delights, I will fully gratify my senses, and indulge my fancy in all pleasing objects: "therefore enjoy pleasure," or "see good." To see, is to enjoy, Isai. liii. 11; Ps. xxxiv. 8; iv. 6. Live plentifully, indulge thyself in all delights; restrain not thyself from any desire of thine eyes.

2. I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?

"I said of laughter:" by laughter he means any excess of joy and mirth, when the heart is so full that it cannot contain its delight, but

it breaks forth in the face, voice, and outward behaviour, Gen. xxi. 6; Ps. cxxvi. 2; Luke vi. 21. Or," I said to laughter, Thou art mad," by a prosopopœia. Excess of joy transports the mind, and by displacing reason, argues much levity, vanity, and uncomposedness of judgment. True joy is settled and serious, keeping the heart always in a stayed and fixed condition: but the joy which bursts into laughter is like the crackling of thorns, Eccles. vii. 6. and has sorrow at the end of it; as a madman, the merrier he is, the more miserable, Prov. xiv. 13; James iv. 9.-" And of mirth, What doeth it?" what good or profit does it produce? Job xxxv. 6, 7; Mat. xx. 32. The interrogation holds out a challenge to all the masters of mirth, to produce any satisfactory fruit which it affords. Thus we see by the example of Solomon, first, that the heart cannot fix long on any one enquiry in which it meets with dissatisfaction, but quickly hastens to another, as a bee flies from flower to flower, or as a sick man removes from one bed, couch, or chamber to another for ease, but in vain, Isai. Ivii. 10; Jer. xi. 23, 36. Secondly, that in such kind of changes, the heart usually proceeds from better to worse, as the wise man here passes from wisdom to pleasures. Thirdly, that the nature of sensual mirth tends towards

excess, and so to indecency and madness: he does not, however, here condemn moderate, but excessive pleasure, when a man gives up his heart to it, and makes it the business of his life.

3. I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine (yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom), and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven, all the days of their life.

"I sought in mine heart." Upon serious deliberation, and further examination of that good which may be attained in this life, finding that neither wisdom nor pleasures alone could conduct me to it, I purposed to temper them together; and since I found that wisdom and knowledge were accompanied with grief and sorrow, I intended to mitigate those griefs with bodily delights: being careful, at the same time, that my wisdom might restrain those delights from running to excess, and from unfitting me for the duties which I owed to God or men.-" To give myself unto wine:" to draw forth myself unto wine. As abstinence shrinks and contracts the body, and keeps it

under, 1 Cor. ix. 27; Dan. i. 10; so feasting and mirth draw it forth, Ps. lxxiii. 7. That leanness or wasting of body which I had contracted by hard studies, I now purposed, by greater delicacy of living, to draw forth again into freshness, fulness, and beauty or to draw with wine; to spend more time than formerly in feasting, banqueting, and delights. So drawing sometimes signifies continuance and prolongation of a business, Ps. lxxxv. 5; Isai. xiii. 22; Ezek. xii. 28; Luke xvi. 19."Unto wine:" that is, by a synecdoche, unto all kinds of delicacies in eating and drinking, in banqueting and feasting: as bread signifies all necessaries, Amos vii. 12; so wine all delicacies, Prov. ix. 2; Cant. viii. 2. and ii. 4. "Yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom:" or leading my heart by wisdom; resolving to maintain such a temper as to partake of pleasures wisely, but not licentiously; to keep myself from being captivated or swallowed up by these carnal delights, not using them sensually, with a brutishness, but critically and rationally, that I might ascertain what real content they afford to the heart of an intelligent being: so that whilst I gave myself to wine, I endeavoured still to apply my heart to wisdom." And to lay hold on folly." By folly, he means those pleasures, the enjoyment

of which he found eventually to be nothing but folly: thus, to lay hold on them, is fully to possess them, and to embrace and apprehend them with all our strength, Isai. Ivi. 4; 1 Tim. vi. 19; Phil. iii. 12, 13. It may also intimate, that he prevented folly from mixing with his pleasures, or taking possession of his heart with them, as a man restrains an enemy from hunting him, Judg. xii. 6. and xvi. 21.-" Till I might see what was that good for the sons of men." This was the end of his enquiry: it was not to drown himself in sensuality, but to discover what kind of course would render this present mortal life more comfortable; he did it not vitiously, but only as an experiment. Solomon found in himself emptiness and indigence; he felt strong desires after some good which might supply those wants, and he had active principles of reason, to enquire what was that good which nature so much wanted, and so greatly coveted: and this reason and habitual wisdom he employed to the utmost, to discover that good under heaven, which might perfectly satisfy the wants and desires of the rational soul.-"Under heaven:" as before, under the sun. He was not ignorant that in the heavens there was a supreme and infinite good, which glorified souls shall enjoy to endless satisfaction; but he here speaks of