An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

It should seem that God even calls a Counsel, which way the Clouds shall be directed, they go by his Counsel: The word in the Hebrew is a very significant one (that I mean) which we render his Counsel, others his skill, his art or cunning, and there are not a few who render it, they are turned about by his Engines, as if God did use (as it were) artificial Engines to turn about those mighty bodies of the Clouds;¹ Properly the word signifieth the Ropes and Tackling of a Ship, in ordering which Ropes and Tackling the whole management of the Ship doth consist. The Mariner shows his skill and art in steering his Ship a right course, which he doth, not only by guiding the Rudder, but by ordering the Ropes and Tackling this way and that way, to compass or avoid the wind. And the Hebrew word (Tachbuloth) here used, hath a very great nea•ness in sound, to the Tackling of a Ship. This is a most elegant Metaphor, showing how the Lord doth, as it were, steer the course of the Clouds, or guide the Clouds, as the Sea-man doth his Ship; his Counsels may be compared to the Tackling and the Ropes, or rather to the Helm, by which the Ship is guided; God is as the great Pilot sitting at the Stern, and he turns these Clouds as his Ship, he turns them about as a Ship tacks this way and that way, to reach her Port and there unlade. The Rain, Snow, & Hail, are the Lading which these swift Ships, the Clouds, carry from place to place, to serve the providences of God towards man. This divine conduct of the Clouds is very admirable! the Lord knowing what parts of the Earth need those Commodities, Rain, Snow, &c. which those aerial Vessels are laden with, for the enriching of the world. We render it by his Counsel, that is, by those means which he in his Wisdom and Counsel useth to turn the Clouds about, they are turned: we translate the word (Pro. 1.5.) Wise Counsels, and (Pro. 20.18.) Good advice, there Solomon saith, With good advice make war. ⟨p. 507⟩And indeed good advice is the best tackling for Ships in a war at Sea, and the best ammunition for a war at Land: Counsel is a noble, a notable Engine: The greatest things on Earth are turned about by it, and so are those great things in the air, the Clouds, They are turned about by his Counsel, That they may do whatsoever he Commandeth them.