A35538:1113
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second, being the five last, chapters of the book of Job being the substance of fifty-two lectures or meditations / by Joseph Caryl ...
London: printed by M. and S. Simmons, 1666
Title page typeset from the transcription.
AN EXPOSITION WITH Practical Observations UPON The Thirty-eighth, T… › Chapter 38 › Verse 34-38
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.
Secondly, for as much as the Lord here denies this privilege, both respecting the rain and lightning unto man, he would have us understand and know that both are in himself; though you cannot, yet I can command them, both are under my dominion. While the Lord shows Job his impotency to command these meteors, he asserts his own omnipotency; as he hath made them, so he can rule them.
Secondly, for as much as the Lord here denies this priviledge, both respecting the rain and lightning unto man, he would have us understand and know that both are in himself; though you cannot, yet I can command them, both are under my dominion. While the Lord shews Job his impotency to command these meteors, he asserts his own omnipotency; as he hath made them, so he can rule them.
Hence observe; All treatures, even those which seem to be most out of command, are fully under the command of God.
What, to appearance, is more out of command than the lightning, that quick, that piercing, that fierce and fiery creature, yet that stirs no more than a stone, till the Lord commands; and at his command it stirs, and is gone in a moment. The Lord God hath spoken (saith the Prophet Amos 3.8.) who can but prophesy? And as a faithful Prophet cannot but prophecy, so the not only faithless, but senseless creatures cannot but do what God hath spoken. That of the Psalmist (Psal. 104.4.) which we read, who maketh his Angels spirits, his Ministers a flaming fire; some render thus, who maketh the winds his messengers, and the flames of fire his ministers. That is, he useth tempestuous winds and flames of fire as his messengers and ministers. The same Hebrew word that signifieth an Angel, signifieth a Messenger, at large, and the same word that signifieth a Spirit, signifieth also the Wind. And as the words, so the truth will bear both translations or constructions; for as those higher or highest of rational creatures, the Angels; so those high inanimate creatures, the winds and lightnings, which may properly be called flames of