Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin [is] for him? shall [one] take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?
Ver. 5. Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth? &c.] Think you that all things are carried here by blind fortune, and not by a particular providence, as if
“ mundo nullus inesset
Rector, et incerto fluerent mortalia casu? ”
Will you say of the evils you have suffered, in the language of Ashdod, "It is a chance?" 1 Samuel 6:9 . Is that heathen idol fortune anything in the world, 1 Corinthians 10:19 , more than a blasphemy, spued out by the devil against the Divine providence? Can a sparrow fall to the ground, or any the least bird into a snare upon the earth, without your heavenly Father? Matthew 10:29 . Birds flying seem to be at liberty, yet are guided by an overruling hand. They fall sometimes into a gin; and do not you thereupon conclude that some fowler's hand is in it? Lo, you are ensnared and ensnarled by your enemies; and can you not discern that it is the Lord who hath done it? Lam 3:37-38 Acts 17:25 ; Acts 17:28 Ecclesiastes 9:12 , "For man knoweth not his time" (nor his chance, Amo 3:11 ): "as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly" (but providentially) "upon them."
Or shall one take up a snare from the earth, &c. ] No wise fowler will take up his nets till he have gotten his prey; no more will God withdraw his hand, or call off the enemy and the avenger, till he have his design; till he hath either reformed or ruined you.