John Trapp on Joel 2:9

Verſe 9 They ſhall [illegible: 1 letter]un to and fro] As ſouldiers do when they have taken a town by aſſault, and have leave to plunder. En victoriam & hoſtilem inſultationem, ſaith Mercer here. See the lively portraicture of Victory and Triumph.

they ſhall ru[illegible: 1 letter] upon the [illegible: 1 word] ] After they have ſcaled it (as afore) they ſhall walk or run upon it as Conquerors, without feare of an enemy: Alexander the great would do ſo.

they ſhall climb up upon the houſes] No longer now the owners caſtles: for they ſhall be ferrited out of their retiring roomes, or forced to do as Sardanapalus the Aſſyrian Monarch did; who, ſtraighted by the enemy, ſacrificed himſelf with his wealth and wenches to Vulcan in a wood-pile, (as One phraſeth it) in his royall pallace.

they ſhall enter in at the windowes, as a theef] whoſe property is 1. to climb up ſome other way, and not to enter in by the dore Ioh. 10.1. death alſo getteth in by the windowes and that way entreth into palaces Ier. 9.21. ſo doth Satan (that theef of the truth, as Baſil calleth him) wind himſelf into the ſoul by the eyes, thoſe windowes of wickedneſſe and loop-holes of luſt. 2. to rifle and ranſack, and leave little enough behind him. What clean-work theſe inſets made, ſee before chap. 1.4. and take notice what great matters God Almighty can do by the moſt contemptible creatures. Quid ciniphe vilius, ſaith Philo the Jew, what can be baſer then a louſe? and yet all the ſtrength of Egypt was brought down by that deſpicable vermine? Pliny in his eight book and twenty fourth chapter tel's us out of Mr. Varro, that a great town in Spain was undermined and overturned by conyes;Clara exitii documenta ſunt ex contemnendis animalibus. Plin. Munſter. Coſmogr. An. Dom. 969. another in Theſſaly by Moles: a third in France undone by Froggs: a fourth in Africa by Locuſts: a fift in Italy by Serpents &c. Who hath not heard of Hatto, that mercileſſe Archbiſhop of Ments devoured by Mice, though he had motted up himſelf againſt their invaſion in an Iland? God cannot poſſibly want a weapon wherewith to beat his Rebels.