An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

Hence note; The worst and vilest creatures are under the care of God.

The Lord doth not give Job an instance of his care in the people of Israel, for whom he provided a long time in Egypt, and whom he fed forty years in the wilderness; nor in Elijah, fed by Ravens, but in his feeding Ravens; nor among fowls, doth he instance in the Hawk or Falcon, which are highly prized and fed by Princes; nor in the sweet singing Nightingale, or such like musical pretty birds, which men keep choicely and much delight in; but in that hateful and malicious bird, the croaking Raven, whom no man values, but as she eats up the carrion which might annoy him. Behold then, and wonder at the providence and kindness of God, that he should provide food for the Raven, a creature of so dismal a hue, and of so untunable a tone, a creature that is so odious to most men,¹ and ominous to some. There is a great providence of God seen, in providing for the Ant or ⟨p. 297⟩Pismire, who gathers her meat in Summer (Prov. 6.8.) but a greater in the Raven, who though he forgets, or is careless to provide for himself, yet God provides and layeth up for him. One would think the Lord should say of Ravens, let them shift for themselves or perish; no, the Lord God doth not despise any work of his hands; the Raven hath his being from God, and therefore the Raven shall be provided for by him; not only the fair innocent Dove, but the ugly Raven hath his meat from God. As the Lord feeds not only Doves, but Ravens, in kind, so he feeds not only Doves, but Ravens, in a figure; that is, he feeds not only dove-like or innocent men, but raven-like or wicked men. (Mat. 5.45.) He causeth his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good, & sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust: Thus he feeds Ravens in the likeness of men. Such men whose minds feed upon carrion, the Lord feeds their bodies with excellent dainties, they fare deliciously every day, as the rich Glutton is said to do, who was but a Raven. The Lord, I say, doth not only provide for his better and more excellent ones, but he provides for the bad, for the evil, for the wicked; such an indulgent father and provider is God towards all his creatures. We find this reported to the praise of God (