There is yet another apprehension concerning Elihu's purpose, when he saith, I will fetch my knowledge from afar, with which I rather close than any of the former; that his meaning was to speak to Job of those things, which as they are not easily comprehended, because the sublimest works of God in nature, so because they might seem far from the present matter; As i• he had said, We have been arguing all this while about Gods dispensations here below, but now I'll speak of things that are wrought above, of those both useful and dreadful or terrible Meteors, the snow and rain, the winds, the lightening and the thunder; these things may be thought very foreign and heterogeneal, very far off from the business in hand, but I will speak to thee of these things, even of the wo•ks of God in the Heavens, in the Air, in the Chambers of the Clouds, and I will convince thee by what God doth there above, of his righteousness, in what he doth here below. The wisdom and power of God, in ordering those natural works in the Clouds, and in the Air, prove that man hath no cause to complain about his providential works on earth: For as those wonderful visible works of God are real demonstrations of those invisible things of God, his eternal power and God-head, so they declare both his righteousness and goodness, his wrath and mercy towards the children of men in the various dispensations of them. And so although those things might be thought far from the point which Elihu supposed Job questioned, at least by consequences, the righteousness of God in his severe dealings with him, yet indeed they contained principles or general grounds, by which that which Elihu had engaged to maintain might be fully confirmed and unanswerably concluded. This, I conceive, is the special afar off, that Elihu intended to fetch his knowledge from, as may appear in the close of this Chapter, and in the next, quite through. I will fetch my knowledge from afar.
There is yet ano•her apprehension concerning Elihu's purpose, when he saith, I will fetch my knowledge from afar, with which I rather close than any of the former; that his meaning was to speak to Job of those things, which as they are not easily comprehended, because the sublimest works of God in nature, so because they might seem far from the present matter; As i• he had said, We have been arguing all this while about Gods dispensations here below, but now I'le speake of things that are wrought above, of those both useful and dreadful or terrible Meteors, the snow and raine, the windes, the lightening and the thunder; these things may be thought very forreigne and heterogeneal, very far off from the business in hand, but I will speak to thee of these things, even of the wo•ks of God in the Heavens, in the Air, in the Chambers of the Clouds, and I will convince thee by what God doth there above, of his righteousness, in what he doth here below. The wisdome and power of God, in ordering those natural works in the Clouds, and in the Air, prove that man hath no cause to complain about his providential works on earth: For as those wonderful visible works of God are real demonstrations of those invisible things of God, his eternal power and God-head, so they declare both his righteousness and goodness, his wrath and mercy towards the children of men in the various dispensations of them. And so although those things might be thought far from the poynt which Elihu supposed Job questioned, at least by consequences, the righteousness of God in his severe dealings with him, yet indeed they contained principles or general grounds, by which that which Elihu had engaged to maintain might be fully confirmed and unanswerably concluded. This, I conceive, is the special afar off, that Elihu intended to fetch his knowledge from, as may appear in the close of this Chapter, and in the next, quite thorow. I will fetch my knowledge from afar.
