from the universe to the lesser world : Ps. cxxxix. 15 ; Eccles. xii. 2 ; and not only to man : there is a reference to the whale, Jonah ii. 3, 6, 7. James employs this figure. The world has its higher and its lower parts : these are, in a better point of view, the heaven and the earth ; in a worse, the earth and hell. And as in the world, heaven or hell is with reference to the earth ; so in man, the heart, of which the tongue is the instrument, is with reference to the whole body or nature. For in the case of the good, heaven, and in the case of the wicked, hell, has its veins in the heart : from which source so many wonders are diffused to the course of nature (nativitatis). We may learn from Psalm lxxvii. 18, what is meant by this course. ®wvv\ rrjg f3povrrig ffou sv roD rpoyJjj^ etpavav ai affrpartctj ffou rr\ oixovpsvri. The voice of Thy thunder was in the heaven , Thy lightnings lightened the world : for as in that passage rpo^og, as opposed to rji denotes the celestial or aerial sphere,
so in this place rpoybg rrjg ys/svsojg, the course of nature , as opposed to -fi jzsvvTj, hell , or the heart, denotes the higher parts of the earth, or the entire nature of man, which holds a middle place between heaven and hell ; and thus it denotes the body with its entire temperament. Comp. ver. 15, from above , earthly , devilish. — yevsoig , the natural constitution ; i. 23 ; and life ; Judith xii. 18. — navag rag rhuspag r? jg yivsffsug /aou, all the days since I was born. The metaphor is taken from a round wheel , and is very appropriate : for as a wheel is turned about with great velocity ; so it is with the sphere of heaven, and the nature of man ; and this being set on fire while it revolves, soon breaks out into a blaze in every part, so that the fire seems not only to be borne in a circle, but also to be a circle. Respecting the flaming wheels of the Divine throne, see Dan. vii. 9. — ourwc, so) This word not read in the African copies, has been introduced into this place from the beginning of the fifth verse.1 If the apostle had intended to use it a second time in this comparison, he would have used it at the beginning, and not in the middle of the Apodosis, ouru xal v\ yXZxrca vZp. A few copies, but those of great authority, omit ourug. Isidorus of
“ Quid mirum, noscere mundum Si possunt homines, quibus est et mundus in ipsis Exemplumque Dei quisque est in imagine parva ?”
And Shakespeare : —
Coriolanus. — “ If you see this in the map of my microcosm/’ — T.
1 ABC Vulg. both Syr. Versions, Memph. Theb. omit ovrag before y^awcc kuOIqtcctcu. Rec. Text supports it without very old authority. — E.
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