John Trapp on Ecclesiastes 7:25

Verſ. 25. I applied mine heart] Circuiviego & cor meum (ſo the Original runs) I and my heart turned about, or made a circle to know, &c. He took his heart with him, and reſolved (hard or not hard) to make further ſearch into wiſdoms ſecrets. Difficulty doth but whet on heroick ſpirits: it doth no whit weaken but waken their reſolutions to goe through with the work. When Alexander met with any hard or hazardous peece of ſervice, he would ſay, Jam periculum par animo Alexandri, He ever atchieved what hee enterprized, becauſe he never accounted any thing impoſſible to bee atchieved. David was well pleaſed with the condition of bringing in to Saul the fore-skins of an hundred Philiſtims. If a bowl run down hill, a rub in the way does but quicken it; as if up hill, it ſlugs it. A man of Solomons make, one that hath a free, noble, princely ſpirit, ſpeaks to Wiſdome, as Laelius in Lucan did to Caeſar, Juſſa ſequitam velle mihi, quam poſſe, neceſſe.

And to know the wickedneſſe of folly] The ſinfulneſſe of ſin, Rom. 7.13. Sin is ſo evil that it cannot have a worſe Epithet given it. Mammon of unrighteouſneſſe, Luke 16.11. is the next odious name to the Devil.

Even the fooliſhneſſe of madneſſe] That by one contrary he might the better know the other. Folly may ſerve as a foil to ſet off wiſdome; as Gardiners ſuffer ſome ſtinking ſtuffe to grow near their ſweeteſt flowers.