s raise the storm of thy
indignation, and that, like a whirlwind, hath blown the withering leaves
off the tree, hath driven us out of our own land, and scattered us among
strangers. Sin and uncleanness and the filthiness of our righteousness
prepared us for the storm, made us light matter that could resist no
judgment, made us matter combustible, and then iniquities, and sin rising
up to iniquities, coming to such a degree, hath accomplished the judgment,
put fire among us, made us as the birk in Yule even.(310)

_First_, It is familiar in the Scripture that people in a prosperous
condition are compared unto a green tree flourishing, Psal. xxxvii. 35.
The wicked's prospering is like a green bay tree spreading himself in
power, spreading out his arms, as it were, over more lands to conquer
them, over more people, to subject them. And this is often the temptation
of the godly, and so doth the Lord himself witness of this people, Jer.
xi. 16, "I have called thy name a green olive tree, fair and of goodly
fruit." This was once their name, though it be now changed. Now they are
called a fading withering tree without both leaves and fruit. Now their
place doth not so much as know them, they are removed as in a moment,
Psal. xxxvii. 36. And this comparison giveth us to understand something
of the nature of human glory and pomp. The fairest and most beautiful
excellency in the world, the prosperity of nations and people, is but like
the glory of a tree in the spring or summer. Yea, the Scripture useth to
undervalue it more than so and the voice commandeth to cry, (Isa. xl. 6,
7, 8,) "All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the
field: the one withereth, and the other fadeth, because the Spirit of the
Lord bloweth upon it." A tree hath some stability in it, but the flower of
the field is but of a month or a week's standing, nay, of one day's
standing, for in the morning the grass is green, and the sun scorcheth it
ere night, so that one sun's course shall see it both growing green and
fading. So is the goodliness, the very perfection, the quintessence, so to
speak, and the abstract of creatures' perfections. Outward accommodation
in a world is as fading a thing as the flower is, as smoke is, it is so
vanishing that it bides but a puff of his breath to blow it to nothing.
Job hath a strange expression, "Thou lookest upon me, and I am not," Job
vii. 8. The Lord needeth no more but stare on the most durable cre