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

¹This latter part of the verse explains the former, and shows that the Ostriches want of wisdom is not privative, but negative; God hath not taken it from her, but not given it her. But here it may be demanded, hath God given wisdom, or imparted understanding to any fowls of the air? Are not these two words, wisdom and understanding, too high for beasts or birds, indeed, for the whole irrational part of the creation? I answer, as the Ostrich hath no true wisdom nor understanding, so neither hath any beast or bird. Wisdom and understanding taken strictly, are proper only to rational creatures, Men and Angels; there is no wisdom where there is no reason: yet wisdom and understanding are ascribed sometimes to brutish creatures, and here the Ostrich, a brutish creature, is said to be deprived of them, or not to have them communicated to her, because not so much as that shadow of wisdom and understanding is given to her, which appears in some beasts and birds. Brutes are said to have wisdom, because they have that which serves their turn for their preservation; and some of them are said to have wisdom, because they are indeed wiser, and more subtle than other brutes (Gen. 3.1.) yet all their wisdom is nothing to the wisdom of man. That natural affection and forecast of beasts and birds, in providing for, and bringing up their young ones, is their wisdom; of this wisdom God hath deprived the Ostrich, neither hath he imparted unto her so much as this small parcel of understanding, not so much as this shadow of understanding, which he hath bestowed upon other, both birds and beasts. And there appears somewhat in nature, as a proof, that the Ostrich is a foolish bird, for her head is very little, and her brains (in proportion) much less. And that any one Ostrich hath not much brains, may be collected from a piece of the Roman History, which reports, that Heliogabalus the Emperor had the heads of six hundred Ostriches prepared for ⟨p. 415⟩him at one supper, only for the brains sake. 'Tis added also by the same Author, that the Ostrich is naturally deaf,² and that there is no perfect anima else, in the whole compass of nature, that is deaf or wants the sense of hearing. And needs must that creature have little or no understanding, which hath no hearing, that being the sense of discipline.