John Trapp on Job 6:18

Verſe 18. The paths of their way are turned aſide.] i. e. They being (as it were) cut into divers ſmall rivers running here and there, by little and little,Beza. and being reſolved into vapours, at length quite vaniſh away.

They go to nothing and periſh] Metaph[illegible: 1 letter]ra inſignis & Hieroglyphicum, ſaith an Interpreter; this is an excellent metaphor, and a lively picture of the vanity of ſuch as make a great ſhew of piety and charity, which yet floweth not from the ſpring of true faith; and therefore cannot but, after a while, go to nothing and periſh. A failing brook, ſaith another, is a cleare emblem of a falſe heart, both to God and man. Lavat[illegible: 1 letter]r thus explaineth the compariſon: 1. As brookes run with waters then when there is leaſt need of them: ſo falfe friends are moſt officious when their courteſie might beſt be ſpared. 2. As the ice of ſuch brooks is ſo condenſed and hardened, that it beareth men, horſes, and other things of great weight, ſo counterfeit friends promiſe and pretend to be ready to doe their utmoſt to ſuffer any thing for our good and comfort. 3. But as thoſe brookes are dried up in ſummer, and frozen up in winter, ſo that we can ſet no ſight on them: in like ſort theſe are not to be found when we are in diſtreſſe and affliction. 4. As brooks in winter are covered with ſnow and ice: ſo theſe would ſeem to be whiter then ſnow when their a[illegible: 1 letter]fections towards us are colder then ice. 5. Laſtly, as the ice that was hard and firm, upon a thaw breaketh and melteth: ſo falſe friends leave us many times upon very ſmall or no diſlikes; as being conſtant only in their unconſtancy.