A35538:1549
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 39 › Verse 9-12
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, Observe; A will, a mind to work, or a w•lling mind to work is better than great strength.
As the Unicorn with his great strength, so they who are like the Unicorn in strength may do little or nothing. But they that have only a little strength, and a mind to be doing, have done, and may do much. Little strength is a kind of weakness, yet where there is a willing mind, weakness will do more than great strength without a willing mind. We have a common saying; John is a good servant when Will is at home. Willingness to work, works better than bare strength: We have this conclusion (Neh. 4.6.) So built we the wall (Nehemiah spake there of the Jews returned from Babylon) And all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof. For the people had a mind (or as the Hebrew is,1 an heart) to work. The wall of a great City being soon raised half up, the reason given was, because they had a mind to work. The Jews at that time, were a people under so much weakness, that the enemies j•ar'd them with it (ver. 2.) What will these feeble Jews do? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish? &c. Will they work miracles? remove mountains? But how feeble soever they were, the work went on amain, For the people had a mind, a heart to work. Though they were no Unicorns, no people of great strength; though they were feeble Jews, yet they attained to half their work quickly: Strong hearts and feeble hands, will dispatch a business better and sooner, than strong hands and feeble hearts. 'Tis thus, as in corporal so in spiritual labour, where there is a mind to the work, though we have but a little strength, we shall do great things. This was the high commendation of the Church of Philadelphia (Rev. 3.8.) Thou hast a little strength and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. He doth a great deal of work for God, who keeps the Word of God. But how unfit the Unicorn is, or any strong one like the Unicorn, to be trusted, or have labour left with them, appears further in the next verse.