oonoMl'e of it, because its natl11'e transcends 'IIJinb. Gud by his wi'ldom gives to winde him. And kept olo■e from the fowl• of the their exactly lltting degreo of force and air (comp. ver, 7). 'fhe sight of birds is violence, so the.t they perform the work in far keener th,m that of mau; l,ut evou birds the world which they were intended to per- canuot doteot whore wisdom is. form, o.nd which would not he performed, Ver. 22.-Destruotion and death say, We were they either of a leas or of o. greater have hoard the fame thereof with our ears. inteusity. And he weigheth the waters by "Doo.th o.nd destruction " seem to repre- mea.sure (comp. Isa. x.l. 12, "Who bath sent tho.inho.bitants of Sheol-the world of measured the waters in the hollow of his the dep~rled. Job personifies them, and hand, and meted out heaven with a. span, represents them as saying, that in their and comprehended the duet of the earth in gloomy •and remote o.bode ( oh. x. 21 , 22) e. measure, and weighed the mountains in they ·ho.ve heard· some dim rumour, aome scales, and the hills in: a ba:lance ?"). Every- vague report, ol' the "place" of wisdom and thing in creation is dnly proportioned to understanding, the,;nature of which, how- every other thing. All is ordered "by ever, they do not communicate.to him. His weight and with care." ~dea seems to be .that their knowledge on Vm-. 26.-When he me.de a decree for ths the subject do!3s not much transcend the re.in. God " made a decree for the rain " knowledge of living men, whom he regards when he placed the fall of rain nuder fixed as. profoundly ignorant with respect to it. and unalterable la.we. In some conn tries He thUH prepares the way for his assertion rainy seasons begin almost regularly on a in the next'verae. Man, neither living nor fixed day in the calendar, while for several dead, can m·ake any· answer to the great months in the year it is almost certs.in that question raised; but- rain will not fall. Even where there i~ no Ver. 23.'-God understandeth the way such exact regularity as this, the rainfall thereof, and. he knoweth, the place thereof, has its laws, eince there are maxima and God only understands what true wisdom is.· minima which are never exceeded. And & It is a po.rt of his being, an essential element way for the lightning of the thunder. God of his no.ture. He kno.ws "the way" of it, gave laws to the electric current, and pre- (.e. how it wor;ks and manifests itself; and scribed the "way" that it should take in he. kn<Jws "the_ place" of it, i.e, where it it.a passage from heaven to earth, or from dw,ell$1 what limits it has, if any, and how cloud to cloud, or from eu.rth to heaven. far. it is communicable to any beside himself. Everything was ruled beforehand by In- The highest knowledge l.s all hid in God • finite Wisdom. (Col. ii. 3) ; and; except Bo far as God im- Ver. 27.-Then did heaee it, and declare it, parts it to him 1 m'an can know nothing of it. From the creation of the world, e.nd before Ver. 24.-For' he looketh to the ends of it, God foresaw e.11 that was necessary to the earth. Man is conditioned. God is un- maintain his universe in the perfect order conditioned. Man's knowledge has strict and the perfect beauty that he designed for and narrow limits. God "looketh unto the it. At the Creation he. in e. certain sense, encu.oj the earth." It is the universality of "declared it," or set it forth, before such in- Goq.'e. knowledge the.t me.kes ea.eh item of telligences as then existed. Subsequently, it perfect. . Wh,ere knowledge is circum- in part to Adam, in pa.rt to Noe.h, in part to scribed, it. is impossible to be sure that some Moses, l.io further declared, by revelation. truth· outside the circl.e of the person's e.t any rate a. portion of the design of his cognizance has not abee.ring on the.t which creation, and of the lal'<S by which it was is within his. cognize.rice'-a bearing, which, regulated. He prepared it, yea, and searched if ho.vere a.we.re of it, would give the truth it out. This is an inversion of what seems a different aspect. •With God alone there to us the no.tural order, whereof there are are·no such limits, everything being within many examples. God mnat first be.ve in- his cognizance. And aeeth under the whole ve;itige.ted e.nd searched out, in his own heaven. As his knowledge of earthly things seol'8t counsels, the entire scheme of creation, is unlimited,so is his knowledge of hoe.venly and afterwards have proceeded to the "pre- things also; and not only of heavenly things paration" or" establishment" of it. in a material sense, e.s of ~un, moon, stars, Ver. 28.-And unto me.n he said. Not iil comets, plallfots, nebulm, e'to., but also of so many words, not by any written or spoken causes, principles, ends, laws, and the like, revelation ; but by the nature which he whereby both material and immaterial things implanted in man, and especially by the nre governed, orde.red, 1rnd maintained in consoience wherewith be endowed him. biiing. or matters uf this kincl and che.raoter Man feels in his heart of hearts that what- man can only say, "Such knowledge is too ever wisdom may he in the abstract, hia wonderful for me: I cannot attain unto it" \rue wisdom is "the fear of God," his true (Pli. cxxxix. 6). understanding "to depart from evil." No • Ver, 25.-To make the weight for the amount or intelligenoe, no a.mount of cleve:- 460 THE BOOK: OF JOB, [oR, Xllvtn, 1-28,
Dfflll, or of information, or of knowledge, or builds on thi1 foundation, Thia foundation 1 of worldly or 11oienti60 wisdom, will be of at any rate, Job had, einoe God bore him &ny evt1.il to him, unllllll! he ■tarts with thie witnl!88 that he had it ( oh. ii. S). " beginning" (Pl. 011:i. 10; Prov. i. 7), end