Chap.B. Eln Expofition upon the Booknf J O B. Verf.l 2., 75 wife, when we behold the grafs and flowers of the field, the Rag, the rufh in the water, we may not only put the quettiòn, What is man ? but we may refolve the queftion, what the man is : when we look upon the meaneft creatures, we may fee pieces of our (elves, theyare as we are in many confiderations, and we as they what is man ? Man is as grafs. What is a wicked man, an hypo- crite? He is a rufh, He is like the chaffwhich the wind drives away. What is a godlyman ? He is like a treeplanted by the rivers ofwater that bringeth forth his fruit in his feafon. The Spirit of God from things fènfible and vifìble, raifeth us up to things fpiritual and in- viGble. 'The Ancients were very frequent in this kind ofRudy, perufing Prætnifn Bet; the bookof nature, and taking helps to better the underttanding nituram magi-. by every objet of the eye. It is well obfervcd by one of them,'flram,fu ThatGod ent us thebookofNature, before heTent the Boo' o Seri- tr prophsr pture. The mind of God was written upon the thins which he ùrcredaspro - had made, before he made Tables or Books to write his mind in. phatix d>Jt'cipu- The fathers had many revelations from the beginning, but they 1ertia"' had not Scripture from the beginning. Some conceive that Ifaac Familiare going out into the fields to meditate, meditated upon the text of Syr (Pmaxi - the creature, and ufed to raife his heart by thofe íteps of earth to ,nè Paleßini5 heavenly contemplations. It is Paid ofSolomon, ( I King4.32,33.) a arm fafe That hefpake three thoufand Proverbs, andhisfóngs were a thoasf ind jun- andfive, and that he fpake of trees, from the Cedar tree that is in Le- gere,utquodper banon,even unto the hyfop thatfpringeth out ofthe wall; which * Jo- fnplex prxce- fephus expounds thus, Solomon applyed his three thoufandparables plum tenerin" orfimilitudes unto thofe treesor plants about which he difcourfed p®teß, perhtnti- drawin fume divine moral from every plant, whofè nature as tue.Hiestenea, g y , tur, Hier, ín :: Phylofopher he had defcribeth r 9 lilt. . More diftintly,for the fpiritualizing of this fimilitude, confider *Cui(ibetfpe- wherein a wicked In-an or an hypocrite, is like unto a rufh;the rufh riot ptanvarnm may be ofgood value to us, being thus im p roved. foam adhibuit j Firft, the rufh is a very fpungy, boven,hollow fubftance, it is Jofeph, inioc, not folid or clofe- grain'd : An hypocrite hath no folidity, we call him a hollow-hearted man. Secondly, Hypocrites are well compared to a rufh or a flag, be- caufe in windy weather they fit which way foever the wind fits. They take no harm by a florin, becaufe they yield to eery turn : let the wind blow which way it will, the rufh breaks mi.: eer bo- dy nor branch, Let things turn which way they wil, hypocrites L a can
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