Sermons upon the Book of Job

Albeit that the Devil do but his office §40here, that is to wit, pervert all goodness, and falsely accuse Job as though he were an hypocrite: Yet nevertheless, in so doing he discovereth the evil which is in men willingly, and whereunto we be inclined by nature. For being wily and politic as he is, he knoweth full well on which side to assail us. Let us mark then, that here the Devil bewrayeth a disease wherewith all of us are attainted, until God have healed §50us of it by his grace: that is to wit, that in time of prosperity we can bliss God: but if he afflict us, we change our mind, and thenceforth begin to grudge against him, forgetting all the praise which we had given him so long as he dealt with us after our desire. And so there be many hypocrites which cannot be known nor discovered until God send them adversity. For so long as they be at their ease, and in rest: they show not the rebelliousness that is within them, but let it lie hid. Lo §60here the cause why the Scripture so oftentimes showeth us, that God trieth those that are his, •i•ting them by afflictions, and casting them as it were gold into a furnace, not only to purge them, but also to make them known: for to those two purposes do afflictions serve: that is to wit, God killeth the vices that are in us. For when he punisheth us, then are we tamed, and he commandeth us to withdraw ourselves from the world, and not to be given to our pleasures and fleshly delights. But there is yet a further thing: that is to wit, that like as in a furnace gold is tried to know whither it have any dross in it: so also God showeth what we be, by afflicting us. For men know not themselves before they have been so proved. Before we have passed through the •ive, we seem to our selves to fear God, and that there is nothing to be misliked in us: and yet all the while there be many vices in us, that we know not of. It is God that showeth them unto us, it is he that maketh us to perceive them: when he sendeth us any trouble, or any adversity: then find we what our infirmity is. Now if God make the afflictions of his faithful ones to serve them as ⟨p. 22⟩a mirror wherein to behold themselves: