An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

Secondly, From mans putting fresh garments and ornaments upon his body.

It is turned as clay to the seal.

That is, The approach of light makes a great change upon the ⟨p. 136⟩face of the earth, even as if it had received a new or fresh impression, as clay doth from a seal. A piece of clay is a rude lump, without form or figure; but if you take a seal and stamp it, that clay readily receives any figure or coat of arms engraven on the seal; and so 'tis turned from what it was in appearance. Thus the meaning seems to be this: The earth before the Sun riseth, is like a rude piece of clay (in the night we see no more beauty in the earth, than if it had no beauty at all; go to a well composed garden, walk there in a dark night, you cannot discern the figure of any border, nor the rarest beauty of any flower, nor the pleasantest fruit of any tree planted there, your eye cannot take in nor feast it self upon any of those delights, while darkness covers the face of the earth) but when the light comes,¹ then you see the form and figure of every thing before you, then the earth is turned as clay to the seal; the Sun, as it were stamps and impresseth a new beauty and bravery upon it; and then the earth, which looked like a void or rude heap, appears in its form and figure, whether natural or artificial. This sense is much insisted upon in opening this Scripture; and 'tis a good sense, setting forth that benefit of the light, causing the earth to appear in its prope• shape, which night or darkness had hidden or obscured.

That is, The approach of light makes a great change upon the