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.
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"; Hos 4:11 they dull and disable nature, and so set us in a greater distance from grace; they "fight against the soul," 1Pe 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. a 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, Rev 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.
a Arist., De Mirab. Auscul., lib. viii.