T Fourthly, They are very much alike in their indications; they are both of them most certain diagnosticks of the thing they appertain to; if there are no other signs than they, yet may all men be very well assured of the truth they bespeak: If there be no other tree in all the woods, or orchards, bloffomed beside the almond, yet know assuredly from thence, the spring is come: if there be nothing at all besides that shews it; if no flowers appear on the earth; if the singing of the birds be not come; if the voice of the turtle be not heard in the land; if the fig-tree doth not yet put forth her green figs, nor the vines with their tender grape give a good smell, Cant. ii. 12, 13. yet if the almond-tree be blossomed, know of a truth, that the year is turned, that the sun is coming nearer towards us, and that the sap stirs, though it be not elsehow perceived. The fame certainty of demonstration also doth attend the hoary head; if no other symptom appear, yet if the hair begin to change white, know from thence, that the winter of age hath already begun to shew itself; the evil days are coming on apace, though the fun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars be not darkened : Though the keepers of the house, the strong men, the grinders, and the lookers out of the windows, be not yet enfeebled; though the doors be open in the street, and the voice of the grinding, and the daughters of musick be as high as ever; yet if the almond-tree flourish, if the hair of the head be changed to white, it is an undoubted indication of the weakness attending age; the habit of the body is already changed, the innate heat begins to be suffocated, the radical moisture is consuming, the excrements (which constitute the hair) are inconcocted, and the temperament of old age hath already seized the man, although it be no - other ways to be difcerned. Lastly, They do also exceeding well agree in their prognosticks; they are both of them most certain forerunners and foretellers of what is to follow after them. If the almond-tree be blossomed, it is a most certain sign that fruit will come after, and that it is not far behind: Aaron's rod budded (as you heard) and soon after it brought forth almonds; the flowers are in order to the fruit that must succeed. -Cum se nux plurima fylvis And thus gray hairs, the flowers of old age, H 2 down with forrow to the grave; but they would have come as furely without. These are church-yard flowers, which may serve to them that bear them, instead of paffing-bells, to give them certain notice, whither they are suddenly going. There are some naturalists who are yet bolder, and affirm, that the very thought and imagination of gray hairs, even in the dreams of them, though in a person never so young, do portend the same thing. When they were facrificing in behalf of one of the emperors of Rome, the hairs of a boy's head, who did administer to the priests, were all on a sudden changed to white; which the foothsayers and wife men did presently interpret to the change of the emperor, and that an old man should succeed; which accordingly fell out; for Nero, who was but one and thirty years old, was foon taken away, and Galba, who was seventy-three, reigned in his stead. There is far more certainty in the reality of the thing. It may thus fall out to young men, but it must thus fall out to old: Mors, fenibus, in foribus eft; juvenibus, in infidiis: Young men are taken away, but old men go away, in their own natural course; for candidi are candidati mortis, & per eam, immortalitatis. Thofe that are white are marked out in order unto death, and thereby unto immortality. There might many other particulars be affigned, wherein the almond-tree and the hoary head do exactly agree; but these few may suffice to shew us, that the change of no other part of the body in age, can be hereby figured out unto us so properly as this we have been speaking of. Beside canities is a constant attendant on. age, and is intimated unto us in no other. part of this allegory: How often in scripture are they mentioned both together? I am now old and gray-headed, faith Samuel, 1 Sam. xii. 2. and David prayeth, When I am old and grayheaded, O Lord, forsake me not, Pfal. lxxi. 18. Nay, I may say one thing of this symptom, that is not faid of any of the other; it is a plain and a full description of age, without any addition at all; say a gray-headed man, and you say an old man, without any farther periphrafis. The fword without, and terror within, shall deStroy both the young man, and the virgin; the fuckling also, with the man of gray hairs, Deut. xxxii. 25. The grashopper shall be a burden; Shall grow (or shew) big and burdensome. In the interpretation of this sentence, and that which follows, which doth depend hereon, I must of necessity recede somewhat both from the common translation, and the usual interpretation of the place; wherein, if my opinion, together with its novelty, bring along with H 3 with it any thing of fatisfaction, I prefume it will be never the worse accepted: For in these theoretical notions, the danger is not so great, to deviate from the beaten road, and to be heterodox to the generally received opinion. For the fubject of this proposition, without all controversy it is the locust or grashopper; which differ very little, either in their nature or form, and may very well intend the fame thing: The predicate is far more difficult, and therefore hath given occasion to more variety of translations; that which is most usual is, erit oneri, which our English exactly follows, The grashopper shall be a burden; from whence most interpreters do put this sense upon the place, viz. that the grashopper, or any such small thing, is a great burden to old men ; which although it may be a truth, yet it can in no wise be intended by these words: For then king Solomon would in this clause vary much from the general scope of all these verses, which is (as hath already been said) allegorical, and from the particular mode of expreffing himself in this verse, which is hieroglyphical. Beside, the words in no propriety of grammar can possibly bear such a sense as this; and it hath been a great wonder to me how this construction was first taken up, and how it hath gained so great credit among men: Nor can I yet give myself the least satisfaction herein, unless it be from the ambiguity of the La |