A35537:287
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.
Now if God hath taught us more than the Beasts, then, we should not live by sense, nor pursue sensible things, as Beasts do, but aspire to and seek after union and communion with God, whom the beasts of the earth know not. How greatly will this aggravate the sin of man, if having been taught more than beasts, any man should be found to have learned less than beasts; as will appear yet more in the next observation but one.
Fourthly, Elihu at least intimates this Note; Men sometimes act but as, or indeed below, the very beasts of the earth, and the fowls of the air:
For (saith he) they say not, Where is God our maker, who gives us songs in the night? who teacheth us better, or more, than the beasts of the earth. As if he had said,1 The beasts of the earth answer the instinct of nature, (which is all the cost God bestows in teaching them) better than men do those costly teachings and instructions which God bestows upon them by his Word, by his Spirit, by his Ministers, by his Ordinances, and by his Providences; for all these ways doth the Lord teach and instruct men from day to day; yet men often act, not only beside and below, but quite contrary to all these teachings. The beasts of the earth keep up to the instruction which they have received, the instinct of nature, they move according to that; but man who hath an understanding, doth not always move suitably to his understanding; man hath reason, yet he doth not always regulate his motions by reason, but is hurried by passion, or led by sense, as a beast. (Psal 49.20.) Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish; that is, though his state and sphere be higher than a beast, yet he moves by as low a principle as a beast, even by sense, or sensual appetite, either irascible, or concupiscible, as a beast doth. By the man in honour, that understandeth not, the Psalmist intends not a fool that hath no understanding, nor an Idiot that hath no use of reason, but he is said not to understand, because he doth not use his understanding; as he in the Parable that did not use his Talent, is said to have none, (