Who teacheth like him?" II. To make it appear, that he can teach men better than they can teach one another. "Who teacheth like him?" Elihu viewed God as the best of teachers. And this will appear to be true, if we consider the following observations. I. God can teach the most universally. He can teach all sorts of men, without exception. He is greater than the greatest, higher than the highest, and wiser than the wisest of his intelligent creatures. There are many men, whose abilities, whose stations, whose interests, and whose hearts place them above all human instruction. But God is infinitely above all such persons, and as able to teach them as any of the lower ranks in life. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and able to teach the greatest potentates on earth. This Elihu takes notice of in the context. "He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous; but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them forever, and they are exalted. And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in the cords of affliction; then he sheweth them their work; and their This mode of expression plainly implies, that God is a distinct and independent teacher. He can teach of himself, without human aid or instrumentality. It is true, he hath appointed human teachers, and commonly makes use of them, to convey instruction to their fellow creatures. He requires the aged to teach the young; the knowing to teach the ignorant, and the ministers of the gospel to teach their people. But he is able to supersede all these human teachers, and take the work of instruction into his own hands, and sometimes he sees it to be proper and necessary to do it. He never does it, however, only when there is something which requires his special interposition and exertion. He em ploys human instructions in all cases in which they will answer his purposes. But when these fail, he goes above them, and instructs mankind himself independently of all other teachers; and on this account, he claims to be the supreme Teacher. "Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit." And of the same people transgressions, that they have exhe says again, “Though I taught them rising up early, and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction." Thus God taught his people of old, and thus he continues to teach mankind himself. I now proceed, ceeded. He openeth also their ear to discipline." God often taught the kings of Israel. When David ordered the people to be number. ed, and Joab could not persuade him to give up his ambitious purpose, God effectually taught him humility and submission. When taught. He can bring them into Hezekiah's heart was lifted up, God laid him upon a bed of pining sickness, and taught him his frailty and mortality. God undertook to instruct Nebuchadnezzar the haughty king of Babylon, and humbled him to the dust. And he made Belshazzar, who had defied him to tremble before him. God can teach kings and emperors as easily as the lowest and meanest of their subjects. He can teach those who think they know too much to be instructed by their fellow mortals. He taught Solomon the wisest of men the folly, and vanity, and evil of his supreme love to the world. He taught Paul who was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and who had despised the instructions of Stephen, the knowledge of his own heart. He taught Manasseh humility and self-abasement, after he had rejected the instructions of his father, and of the priests and prophets in Jerusalem. And he taught his own people in Babylon what none of his priests and prophets were able to teach them before. Thus God is able to teach all descriptions of men, whether high or low, whether learned or unlearned, whether vain, profligate, or obstinate. In this respect there is none can teach like him. 2. God can teach men the most easily. He has them all in his hands, and a perfect access to their minds. He can always place them in a proper situation to be any situation he pleases, and turn their attention to whatever objects he sees best to instruct them. How easily did he strip Job of his wealth, of his friends, of all the objects of his affection, and fix his whole attention upon himself, which prepared him in the best manner to receive instruction? How easily did he carry the sons of Jacob into Egypt, and there teach them humility and penitence for their inhumanity and cruelty towards their brother Joseph? And how easily can he shift the situation and condition of any person in the world, and teach him the lesson he needs to learn? Whatever is necessary to be done in order to teach men, God can easily do. If it be necessary to make them rich, he can easily do it. If it be necessary to make them poor, he can easily do it. If it be necessary to put them into different stations, he can easily do it. Or if it be necessary to put them into any new, untried circumstances, he can easily do it. And when they are placed in a proper state to receive instruction, he can, with perfect ease, give them that kind and degree of instruction he pleases. Men often find great difficulty in teaching one another. They sometimes exhaust both their bodily and mental strength in labouring to teach one another, and without much or any affect. But God can teach thousands and mi' lions at once, with the utmost the proper seasons of instructing: ease. Neither dulness, nor obsti- He often chooses those seasons nacy can be the least impediment which men consider as the most to his instructions. Those who improper. But he always judges have resisted all other teachers, right in regard to the most proper and rejected all other instruction, seasons of instructing every parbecome quite teachable uuder his ticular person. He took the most wise and powerful teaching. He proper season to teach Jacob.can open the eye, the ear, and all He was in the midst of prosperithe powers of the mind, to re- ty, and the greatest of all the men ceive instruction. He can take of the east. This prepared him to the scales from the eyes, and the feel the weight and hear the voice veil from the heart, and pour of the rod of instruction. When light and conviction through all Isaac was in the flower of his age, the avenues of the mind. and engrossed his father's affections; then was a proper time for God to try and teach Abraham submission. When Moses was come to years, and began to raise his views and hopes to the throne of Egypt; then was a proper time for God to blast his expectations, take him from the court of Pharaoh, and teach him humility in 3. God can teach men the most seasonably. They know not the best seasons to teach one another. Their instructions are often entirely lost by being mistimed.But God always knows how to time instructions. He never instructs too soon, nor too late, but always teaches when there is the most proper occasion for it. knows every person, and all his outward circumstances, and internai state of mind. Of course, he knows the exact time, when any of mankind need his special instruction. He sees He a proper to teach some when they are young, and some when they are old.He sees proper to teach some whilst they are rising, and some after they have risen to distinction in the world. He sees proper to teach some in the height of their prosperity, and others in the height of their obstinacy and wickedness. God often judges very differently from men, in respect to solitary wilderness. When Charles V. had reached the summit of his wishes and triumphed over Europe; then was a proper time, for God to seize his mind, shut him up in a monastery, and teach him in silence the folly and madness of his life. When the Earl of Rochester had prostituted his noble talents to the vilest purposes; then was a proper time for God himself to teach him what no human instructions could teach him. In all other instances of this kind, God always chooses the most proper seasons to teach those, who need his special instruction. He constantly keeps his eye upon every one of the children of men, and observes their characters, stations, and particular circumstances; and if needs be, he takes this, that, and the other person into his own school; to teach him in his own way. Sometimes he sees it proper to teach a whole nation at once; sometimes to teach a whole city; sometimes to teach a whole family; and sometimes to teach a single individual. 4. God teaches the most effecttually. Other teachers may labour in vain and spend their strength for nought. Paul may plant and Apollos water, without any success. The best human instructions may be lost upon those, to whom they are given. If persons are unwilling to be instructed, no human efforts can teach them. Any person may if he pleases, put him self out of the reach of instruction or shut his mind against it. Observation and experience unitedly teach us that many remain ignorant, who enjoy the means of light and conviction. But when God himself teaches, be teaches effectually. He has a supreme and absolute dominion over the minds of men. Every power and faculty of their souls are under his immediate influence. And even their hearts are in his hand, and he can turn them whithersoever fears of the stupid, and make them feel. He can do still more, he can soften the hearts of the hardened, and make them yield to his instructions. This has been visibly manifested in numerous instances. He made Pharaoh hear, attend, and yield so far as he pleased. He recalled his backsliding people to himself, from time to time, as soon as he undertook to teach them himself. He awakened, convinced, and humbled any individual among his people, at any time he saw best. When the body of his people had become as ignorant, as stupid, as unfeeling as the dry bones in the valley, he called them to life and sensibility, by his own sovereign and irresistible influence. In a few hours, he effectually and savingly taught the thief on the cross. He as instantly and savingly taught Saul of Tarsus while breathing out slaughter and death to the followers of Christ. He can irresistibly dart light and conviction into the consciences of the most bold and stout-hearted sinners, and throw them into the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. How often have scoffers attempted to resist divine teachings, and been confounded and conquered. God does not, indeed, always mean to teach sinners savingly; but he al he pleases. He can open the ways teaches those effectually eyes of the blind, and make them He can open the ears of the deaf, and make them hear. see. He can awaken the hopes and whom he means to teach effectually, and wounds those whom he means to destroy. 5. God teaches the most profitably. He gives more useful instructions to men, than they can give to one another. They can enlighten each other in respect to their temporal concerns, and in some measure in respect to their eternal interests. Job's friends said many good things to him; but he received very little light or conviction from their instructions. At length, God himself undertook to teach him, and his teaching carried light and conviction to his conscience and heart, and made the most useful impressions on his mind. This he freely acknowledged before God. "I have heard of thee, by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." This leads me to observe in partic. ular, : hand of the potter, that he can wound and heal, and none can deliver out of his hand. He can teach more about himself in one day, than one man can teach another in years. Let God only bereave a man of his friend, or take away his health, or disappoint his hopes, and he will teach him more about his holy and right. eous sovereignty, than he ever did or could learn without divine teaching. God can place men in such circumstances, that they cannot help realizing his supremacy and their own dependance, and the weight of his great, and glorious, and awful character. Men must know God before they can either love, or serve, or enjoy him. To know God and Jesus Christ is life eternal, and none can come to the Son, but those who have been taught and learned of the Father. The knowledge which God teaches men concern. ing himself is essential to their salvation. 2. God can give the most profitable instruction respecting the human heart. This is a very useful branch of knowledge, which none but God can give. While God lets men alone, and does not take them into his own school, they always remain ignorant of their hearts. No discourses on total depravity, that man can utter, will teach men their native depravity. Paul had received much human instruction while in the state of nature; but he says he |