A35538:1646
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 13-18
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.
Others give two reasons, why the Ostrich leaves her eggs in the dust, and doth not sit upon them; both which are very unsuitable to what God himself saith of the Ostrich. First, (They say) she leaveth them and warms them in the dust, lest she should break them with the weight of her body; but doubtless there is no fowl so heavy, but may sit on her eggs, and not break them. The least bird that sits upon eggs may break them if she be careless, and the greatest may preserve them by care. Besides, an Ostriches egg is a very hard egg, and not easily broken; therefore surely, that cannot be the reason. Secondly, That she doth not sit upon her eggs her self, because she wanteth feathers; her under parts being bare and naked, and so very unfit to yield warmth. But if the Ostrich did thus upon a natural instinct, there would be no reason to charge her with folly, or to say God hath deprived her of wisdom; for as the former reason, so this would prove her to be a wise and provident creature, therefore we must lay the reason somewhere else. And God himself hath given us the true reason, her blockish forgetfulness and unnaturalness, having no consideration how soon her eggs may be spoiled.
Vers. 15. And forgetteth that the foot may crush them.
That is, she hath no thought that they may take hurt,1 and therefore takes no care, nor makes any provision to preserve them from hurt; she minds not, nor doth at all apprehend the danger which her eggs are •n: She forgetteth that the foot (of man) may crush them, Or that the wild beast (that passeth along in those wildernesses and desert places) may break them.
That is, she hath no thought that they may take hurt,