prosperous; but, like a wheel, is turned upside down, without any intermission. Consider, also, the continual motion of our life, never resting night nor day, but goeth forward without ceasing, and every day more and more wasteth itself; so that it may not unfitly be compared to a candle, which, by little and little, consumeth itself, and when it giveth the clearest light, the sooner it approacheth unto its end; also to a flower, which springeth up in the morning, at noon fadeth, and at night wholly withereth away. Which Almighty God, speaking by the Prophet Isaiah of this mutation, excellently shadoweth in these words: "Omnis caro foenum, et omnis gloria ejus quasi flos agri:" " All flesh is hay, and all the glory of it is like the flower of the field."
Which words, St. Jerome expounding, saith:[1] If one doth rightly consider the frailty of the flesh, and that we grow and decrease according to the moments of hours; never remaining in one state, and that the very thing we now speak, do, or write, passeth away as part of our life, he will not doubt to confess that all flesh is hay, and the glory thereof as a flower, or the green meadows. He that is now an infant will, by and by, be a little child, then presently a young man, growing towards his decrepid age, through uncertain seasons, and before he hath contented himself in youth, feeleth old age to come upon him. The beau-
- ↑ Hieron. 1. ii. Com. in Isa. cap. 40.
