A35537:272
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of the book of Job being the substance of thirty-five lectures / by Joseph Caryl ...
London: printed by M. Simmons, 1664
AN EXPOSITION WITH Practical Observations UPON The Thirty-fifth, Th… › Chapter 35 › Verses 9-13
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Who, not only gives us songs in the night, (matter of praise, but) teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth.
Some of the Jewish Interpreters read these words positively, not (as we) comparatively, or •hey render them, to show that God hath appointed the very beasts to be our Tutors, not (as we) that himself tutors us beyond the beasts: Thus; Who teacheth us by the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wise by the fowls of heaven. This answers what Job spake in the 12th Chapter of this book, (v. 7.) Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee: and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee. 'Tis a truth that God doth teach us by the beasts of the earth, and makes us wise by the very fowls of the air. We may learn much in the School of those creatures who have not only no learning, but no understanding, and may be stirred up to the exercise of excellent virtues, by those which have not the exercise of reason. The Scripture sendeth man, the highest of visible creatures, to the lowest of visible creatures, to creatures so little, that they are scarce visible, for instruction; Go to the Ant thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise, (Pro. 6.6.) There are several observable qualities, and, as I may call them, virtues, not only in the beasts of the earth, and fowls of the air, but in the meanest creeping things, which are very imitable by man; and thus God doth teach us by the beasts of the earth, and by the fowls of the air, virtually, though not formally, by their practise and example, though not by their precepts or rules; for such teachings neither the beasts of the earth nor the fowls of the air have any competency at all. Man alone cannot teach man effectually to conversion and salvation; all that are so taught, are and must be taught of God, (1 Cor. 3.5, 6, 7.) yet the beasts of the earth, and the fowls of the air, may and do teach us instrumentally to conviction, and if we learn not by them, their teachings (as rude as they are) will be to our shame, confusion, and condemnation.