glory, that contributed nothing to his glory, in the actions of his life very hardly shall that man be a martyr in a persecution, that did not what he could, to keep off persecution. Thus then Job comes first, to the si occiderit, if he should kill me; if God's anger should proceed so far, as so far, it may proceed. Let no man say in a sickness, or in any temporal calamity, this is the worst; for a worse thing than that may fall: five and thirty years' sickness may fall upon thee; and, (as it is in that gospel) a worse thing than that; distraction, and desperation may fall upon thee let no church, no state, in any distress say, This is the worst, for only God knows, what is the worst, that God can do to us. Job does not deny here, but that this si occiderit, if it come to a matter of life, it were another manner of trial, than either the si irruerent Sabai, if the Sabians should come and drive his cattle, and slay his servants; more, than the si ignis caderet, if the fire of God should fall from heaven, and devour all; more, than the si centus concuteret, if the wind of the wilderness, should shake > down his house, and kill all his children. The devil in his malice saw, that if it came to matter of life, Job was like enough to be shaked in his faith; Skin for skin, and all that ever a man hath will he give for his life. God foresaw that, in his gracious providence too; and therefore he took that clause out of Satan's commission, and inserted his veruntamen animam ejus serva, meddle not with his life. The love of this life, which is natural to us, and imprinted by God in us, is not sinful: Few and evil have the days of my pilgrimage been, says Jacob to Pharaoh: though they had been evil, (which makes our days seem long) and though he were no young man, when he said so, yet the days which he had passed, he thought few, and desired more. When Elijah was fled into the wilderness, and that in passion, and vehemence he said to God, Sufficit Domine, tolle animam meam, It is enough O Lord, now take away my life, if he had been heartily, thoroughly weary of his life, he needed not to have fled from Jesabel, for he fled but to save his life. The apostle had a cupio dissolvi, a desire to be dissolved; but yet a love to his brethren corrected that desire, and made him find that it was far better for him to live. Our Saviour himself, when it came to the pinch, and to the agony; had a transeat calix, a natural declining of death. The natural love of our natural life is not ill: it is ill, in many cases, not to love this life to expose it to unnecessary dangers, is always ill; and there are overtures to as great sins, in hating this life, as in loving it; and therefore Job's first consideration is, si occiderit, if he should kill me, if I thought he would kill me, this were enough to put me from trusting in any. But Job's consideration went further, than to the si occideret, Though he should kill me, for it comes to an absolute assurance that God will kill me; for so it is in the original, Ecce occidet, Behold, I see he will kill me; I have, I can have no hope of life, at his hands. It is all our cases; Adam might have lived, if he would, but I cannot. God hath placed an ecce, a mark of my death, upon everything living, that I can set mine eye upon; everything is a remembrancer, everything is a judge upon me, and pronounces, I must die. The whole frame of the world is mortal, Heaven and earth pass away: and upon us all, there is an irrecoverable decree passed, Statutum est, It is appointed to all men, that they shall once die29. But when? quickly; if thou look up into the air, remember that thy life is but a wind3, if thou see a cloud in the air, ask St. James his question, What is your life? and give St. James his answer, It is a vapour that appeareth and vanisheth away. If thou behold a tree, then Job gives thee a comparison of thyself; a tree is an emblem of thyself; nay a tree is the original, thou art but the copy, thou art not so good as it for, There is hope of a tree (as you read there) if the root wax old, if the stock be dead, if it be cut down, yet by the scent of the waters, it will bud, but man is sick, and dieth, and where is he? he shall not wake again, till heaven be no more. Look upon the water, and we are as that, and as that spilt upon the ground: look to the earth, and we are not like that, but we are earth itself: at our tables we feed upon the dead, and in the temple we tread upon. the dead and when we meet in a church, God hath made many echoes, many testimonies of our death, in the walls, and in the windows, and he only knows, whether he will not make another testimony of our mortality, of the youngest amongst us, before we part, and make the very place of our burial, our death-bed. 29 Heb. ix. xxvii. 30 Job vii. 7. 32 Job xiv. 7. Job's contemplation went so far; not only to a si occideret, to a possibility that he might die, but to an ecce occidet, to an assurance that he must die; I know there is an infallibleness in the decree, an inevitableness in nature, an inexorableness in God, I must die. And the word bears a third interpretation beyond this; for, si occideret, is not only, if he should kill me, as he may, if he will, and it may be he will; nor only, that I am sure he will kill me, I know I must die, but the word may very well be also, though he have killed me. So that Job's resolution that he will trust in God, is grounded upon all these considerations, that there is exercise of our hope in God, before death, in the agony of death, ⚫ and after death. First, in our good days, and in the time of health, Memorare novissima, says the wise man, We must remember our end, our death. But that we cannot forget, everything presents that to us; but his counsel there is, in omnibus operibus, in all thine undertakings, in all thine actions, remember thine end; when thou art in any worldly work, for advancing thy state, remember thy natural death, but especially when thou art in a sinful work, for satisfying thy lusts, rememember thy spiritual death be afraid of this death, and thou wilt never fear the other: thou wilt rather sigh with David, My soul hath too long dwelt with him that hateth peace: thou wilt be glad when a bodily death may deliver thee from all further danger of a spiritual death: and thou wilt be ashamed of that imputation, which is laid upon worldly men, by St. Cyprian. Ad nostros navigamus, et ventos contrarios optamus, we pretend to be sailing homewards, and yet we desire to have the wind against us; we are travelling to the heavenly Jerusalem, and yet we are loath to come thither. Here then is the use of our hope before death, that this life shall be a gallery into a better room, and deliver us over to a better country: for, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable3. : Secondly, in the agony of death; when the sessions are come, and that as a prisoner may look from that tower, and see the judge that must condemn him to-morrow, come in to-night; so we lie upon our death-bed, and apprehend a present judgment to be given upon us, when, if we do not plead to the indictment, if we stand mute, 33 Psalm cxx. 5. 34 41 Cor. xv. 19. and have nothing to say to God, we are condemned already, condemned in our silence; and if we do plead, we have no plea, but guilty; nothing to say, but to confess all the indictment against ourselves; when the flesh is too weak, as that it can perform no office, and yet would fain stay here, when the soul is laden with more sins than she can bear, and yet would fain contract more; in this agony, there is this use of our hope, that as God shall then, when our bodily ears are deaf, whisper to ourselves, and say, Memento homo, Remember, consider man, that thou art but dust, and art now returning into dust, so we, in our hearts, when our bodily tongues are speechless, may then say to God, as it is in Job, Memento quæso, Remember thou also, I beseech thee, O God, that it is thou that hast made me as clay, and that it is thou that bringest me to that state again 35; and therefore come thou, and look to thine own work; come and let thy servant depart in peace, in having seen his salvation. My hope before death is, that this life is the way; my hope at death is, that my death shall be a door into a better state. Lastly, the use of our hope, is after death, that God by his promise, hath made himself my debtor, till he restore my body to me again, in the resurrection: my body hath sinned, and he hath not redeemed a sinner, he hath not saved a sinner, except he have redeemed and saved my body, as well as my soul. To those souls that lie under the altar, and solicit God, for the resurrection, in the Revelation, God says, That they should rest for a little season, until their fellow-servants, and their brethren, that should be killed, even as they were, were fulfilled. All that while, while that number is fulfilling, is our hopes exercised after our death. And therefore the bodies of the saints of God, which have been temples of the Holy Ghost, when the soul is gone out of them, are not to be neglected, as a sheath that had lost the knife, as a shell that had spent the kernel; but as the godhead did not depart ! from the dead body of Christ Jesus, then when that body lay dead in the grave, so the power of God, and the merit of Christ Jesus, doth not depart from the body of man, but his blood lives → in our ashes, and shall in his appointed time, awaken this body again, to an everlasting glory. 35 Job x. 9. 36 Rev. vi. 11. Since therefore Job had, and we have this assurance before we die, when we die, after we are dead, it is upon good reason, that he did, and we do trust in God, though he should kill us, when he doth kill us, after he hath killed us. Especially since it is Ille, He who is spoken of before, he that kills and gives life, he that wounds, and makes whole again. God executes by what way it pleases him; condemned persons cannot choose the manner of their death; whether God kill by sickness, by age, by the hand of the law, by the malice of man, si ille, as long as we can see that it is he, he that is Shaddai, Vastator, et Restaurator, the Destroyer, and the Repairer, howsoever he kill, yet he gives life too, howsoever he wound, yet he heals too, howsoever he lock us into our graves now, yet he hath the keys of hell, and death, and shall in his time, extend that voice to us all, Lazare veni foras. Come forth of your putrefaction, to incorruptible glory. Amen. SERMON CXII. PREACHED AT HANWORTH, TO MY LORD CARLISLE, AND HIS COMPANY, BEING THE EARLS OF NORTHUMBERLAND, AND BUCKINGHAM, &c., Aug. 25, 1622. JOB XXXVI. 25. Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off. THE words are the words of Elihu; Elihu was one of Job's friends, and a mere natural man: a man not captivated, not fettered, not enthralled, in any particular form of religion, as the Jews were; a man not macerated with the fear of God; not infatuated with any preconceptions, which nurses, or godfathers, or parents, or church, or state had infused into him; not dejected, not suppled, not matured, not entendered, with crosses in this world, and so made apt to receive any impressions, or follow any opinions of other men, a mere natural man; and in the mere use 37 Deut. xxxii. 39. |