John Trapp on Job 8:10

Verſe 10. Shall they not teach thee, and tell thee] They, that is, the forefathers, verſe 8. theſe, though dead and gone, yet by their records and monuments, by their Apopthegmes and Oracles (for the words of dying men are living oracles) do ſtill teach us and tell us their minds, as if they were yet living, Heb. 11.4. Luke 16.29. Books are mute, matters, ſilent voices. The way to be wiſe, ſaid an Heathen, is to converſe with the dead. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Hiſtories are faithful Counſellors, and by the reading of them, many young men have attained to more underſtanding then their elders; as Auguſtus, Theodoſius, Maca[illegible: 1 letter]ius, who was ſirnamed [non-Latin text not transcribed], the oldyouth, for his wiſedom and gravity above his years gotten by reading and prayer, as ſaith Nicephorus.

And utter words out of their hearts] Diſcourſes digged out of their own hearts, things new and old,è cordibus, non è codicibus. thrown out of that good treaſure: they were egregiè cordati homines, hearty-good men, and their ſpeeches were heart-ſprung, dipt in their hearts, and there recalled ad limam, priuſquam ad ling[illegible: 1 letter]am, weighed before uttered. They ſpake not as thou doſt Job, raſhly and at random; but judiciouſly, ſolidly, oraculouſly: conſult them therefore, and as they ſpeake from their own heart, ſo let them ſpeak to thine. With the ancient is wiſedom, and in length of dayes underſtanding, chap. 12.12.