John Trapp on Jonah 4:7

Verſe 7. But God prepared a worm] All occurrences are to be aſcribed not to Nature, Fate, or Fortune, but to God: who as he is Great in great things, ſo is he not little in the leaſt. Maximus in magnis, nec parvus in minimis. He prepared firſt the gourd, and then the worm, and then the wind. He was the great doer in all. He ſo attempereth all, that his people ſhall have their times and their turns of joy and ſorrow. Theſe two are tyed together, ſaid the Heathen, with chaines of Adamant: hence alſo Ageronia's altar in the temple of Volupia. Flut. See the circle God uſually goes in with his, Pſal. 30.5, 6, 7. &c. to teach them that all outward comforts are but as graſs or flower of the field, which he can ſoone blaſt or corrode by ſome worme of his providing. Moneo te iterumque iterum que monebo, ſaith Lactantius, I warn thee therefore, & will do it againe & againe, that thou look not upon thoſe earthly delights as either great or true to thoſe that truſt them:De opiſicio Da. ad Dem. but as things that are not onely deceitfull, becauſe doubtfull but alſo deadly, becauſe delicious. There is a worm lies couchant in every gourd to ſmite it, a teredo to waſt it, beſides the worm of conſcience bred in that froath and filth, for a perpetuall torment.

and it ſmot the gourd that it withered] Plants have alſo their wounds, diſeaſes and death,Lib. 17. cap. 14. ſaith Pliny. The gourd being gnawed at the root, and robbed of its moiſtneſs withered. Sic tranſit gloria mundi. But the righteous ſhall flouriſh like a palmtree tree (not like this palm-criſt) Pſal. 92.12. Now the palm-tree though it have many waights at the top, and many ſnakes or wormes at the root, yet it ſtill ſayes,Alciat: Emb. Nec premor nec perimor, I am neither born down, nor dried up: but as Noahs olive drown'd, kept its verdure; and as Moſes buſh fired but not conſumed; ſo fareth it with the righteous, perſecuted but not forſaken &c. 2 Cor. 4.8, 9. and at death a crown of life awaites him, Quanta perennis erit, an immarceſcible crown, Sr. Thom. Bodlye's poſy. an inheritance undefiled and that withereth not, Pet. 1.4. that ſuffereth no Maraſmus, but is reſerved freſh and green for you in heaven; like the palm-tree which Pliny ſaith never loſeth his leafe nor fruit: or like that Perſian tree, whereof Theophraſtus ſaith, that at the ſame time it doth bud, bloſſome and beare fruit.