Sermons upon the Book of Job

Behold what he did set down: and as in respect of himself, he would have made himself a §20Mahomet, to have the holy Ghost at his commandment. But a man may see how the Devil had carried him away: and it was requisite that God should bring some such men to that point, to the end we might the more abhor them. But for our part, let us follow the order that I have told already: that is to wit, let us be taught according to the rule that God hath ordained, and let us not be so heady as to bind God to agree to our desires, nor to our fashions: but let us content us with the holy Scripture, seeing that God hath enclosed us within the bounds thereof.§30 Furthermore as touching that Eliphas sayeth, That he heard the voice in silence: It is too show, that God had prepared him in such wise, as he bare away that which was spoken unto him. For a man that is ravished as it were in a trance, may well hear a thing, and yet have no remembrance of it when he cometh again to himself: and so there are many, who when they come too Sermons, do hear well the matter that is treated of, but it settleth not in them, in so much that if one ask them what was treated of, they cannot tell him one word. And §40why so? for (as the proverb saith) their wits were a woolgathering: one of them mused on this thing, and another on that: they were hovering in the air, and they were not settled to give ear unto God. For all such vain fancies as we conceive, and as come in our minds, are as many turmoils to hinder us from giving such ear and audience unto God, as we ought too give. So then, those that wander in their own imaginations, can not comprehend these things, to say, I see a lesson which ought to be common among us, and we must be fully §50settled in it by faith. For this cause Eliphas sayeth, that this voice came too him in silence or stillness. For before that God had so disposed him, he presupposed that it stood him on hand to give ear, and too be attentive too that which should be spoken unto him. And this is it that I have touched already: namely that when we come to hear Gods word, we must not have our wits roving here and there after that manner: but we must hold them short, too give diligent hearing unto God, so as our fleshly affections and vanities carry us not unto wickedness,§60 and turn us not hither and thither out of the way.