zio Chap. 18. en E.x:ptjîtion upen the Éiook, sf Fir[' For thofè fccret counfels, pu pofes, and defìgnes which tie 'ayes for himfel e, thefe ire to a man as his toots. A mans eftate and affaires are fetled and faitned by counfel, as a tree is by the roots ; the root alto which maintaines and feeds his of hires and deflgnes is counfel. So force interpret this place, his root fhall be dried sip ; That is, his counfels, his under, ground plots and pro ¡ts which he laid deep, and low, quite out of fight, as the root of a tree is , thefe God will dry up, he í1-;a11 fee them come to nothing. Secondly, By the roots in this. Allegory we may underftand more generally any thing by which this wicked man thought himfe'.fe ftrong, or lecure. For that is the ufe of a root. A root to a tree is as the foundation is to a houle, the firength of it. His root is whatfoever may flrengthen, and holdhim fait, what- foever maykeepe him inhis 'tare, and greatnefs. Thus not onely his contrivances, and counfels, but his riches, and relations, his correfpondencies, and allies, whatfoever we may put the notion of ftrength upon, all that is his root, by that he is upheld, and by that moyfture is Pent forth into all his branches But there (hall ters to his root, they fhaligrub, and flock himup, they Thal that from him in which his ftrength lay, and fromwhich 41.1s enlivenirg moyfture came. And above his branchesJfafl be cut off The word that we tranflate branch, liignifies, a crop or a har. veil ; the fruit of a tree is the crop of it. You fee compleat mifery in this Allegory, root andbranch, is"all that a tree lath ; and to be cut offroote and branch, is to be utterly cut off. If the route be dryed up though the branches be not cut off, yet the tree withers and dyei. .Or ifthe roo: be not dryed up, yet if all the branches be-tut off, theres no beauty in it, nor can it bring forth any fruit ; A tree beares not at the flock, but at the branches;'tis but a ilunap if the branches be cut o% But take it, as here, in both , and then the judgement is uni- verfall what hath a tree left, when it hill loft, both root and branches. ( Ma/..., a.) Behold the day comraetlo that fhall burne as an Oven,andall the proud and all that doe wickedly fallbegutble, theday comes that /hall burne themup,raith the Lordof Hogs.it ¡hall ¡'cafe them neither root nor branch ; Than is it (hall totally con fume
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