John Trapp on Ecclesiastes 3:2

Verſ. 2. There is a time to be born, and a time to dye] Wee doe not hear the Wiſe-man ſay, There is a time to live. What is more fleeting than time? yet life is not long enough to be worthy the title of time. Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle ſtands in our grave. Orimur, Morimur. Multos oſtendunt terris bona faeta, nec ultra Eſſe ſi[illegible: 1 letter]unt. — Finiſque ab origine pendet. How many have we ſeen carried from the Womb to the Tomb; from the birth to the burial?Ab utero ab urnam. And what a ſhort cut hath the longeſt liver from the grave of the womb, to the womb of the grave? Men chop into the earth before they are aware many times; like as he that walks in a field covered with ſnow, falls ſuddenly into a marle pit.

A time to plant, &c.] In point of good husbandry fit ſeaſons are to be obſerved, or elſe little increaſe can bee expected. God alſo, the great vine-dreſſer, plants and plucks up more Churches or particular perſons at his pleaſure, Eſay 5.1. to the 8. Mat. 15.13. Jeruſalem (that plant of renown) is now of an Eden become a Sodom; and that which Moſes threatned, Deut. 28.49. &c. fulfilled to the utmoſt. Suſa in Perſia ſignifies a Lilly, and was ſo called for the beauty and delectable ſight: Now it is called Valdac, of the poverty of the place. Niniveh that great City, that once had more people within her walls, than are now in ſome one Kingdome, is at this day become a ſepulture of it ſelf, a little Town of ſmall Trade, where the Patriarch of the Neſtorians keeps his [illegible: 1 letter]eat at the devotion of the Turks.Frid. ſecund. Imper.

Roma diu titubans variis erroribus acta Corruet, & mundi deſinet eſſe caput.