I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Ver. 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear] God hath ordained, that as death entered into the world at first by the ear, poisoned by that old man slayer, Genesis 3:14,19, so life shall enter into the soul by the same door: for it is, "Hear, and your soul shall live," Isaiah 55:3. And, The dead (in sins and trespasses) shall hear the voice of the Son of God (sounding in his ordinances); and shall live the life of grace here and of glory hereafter, John 5:25. This great mercy Job had received, and he thankfully acknowledgeth it. But behold a greater.
But now mine eye hath seen thee] Not only in the tempest and whirlwind, those clear testimonies of thy presence, but by some other special glorious apparition (so some think), and by a spirit of prophecy (as the Hebrews would have it), by the inward teaching of thy Spirit howsoever, as Vatablus senseth it. Et quando Christus Magister, quam cito discitur quod docetur, saith Austin. When God by his Spirit taketh in hand to teach a man, he soon becometh a skilful scholar. Nescit tarda molimina Spiritus Sancti gratia, saith Ambrose. The Spirit is not long in teaching those that commit themselves to his tuition. The hypocrite knows God but by hearsay, as a blind man knoweth colours: such may say as those in the Psalm, Audivimus famam, something we have heard, and some confused notions we have got concerning God and his will; but they are merely disciplinary, but not intuitive, id est, Per speciem propriam, &c., such as transform the soul into the same image; it is not that claritas in intellectu quae parit ardorem in affectu, that light in the understanding that kindleth the affections. Job was such, witness his next words.