Sermons upon the Book of Job

that is to wit, to know that our life is nothing,§20 and that a hundred thousand deaths menace us in the chief lustiness that we have here below. When any of our kinsfolk or friends depart, or if we see any Corpse go to burial: we have the wit to say, And what is mans life? If there be any great death in a Town or in a Country, we be yet more moved. But all this is forgotten with us by and by. Therefore have we need to exercise our selves in this doctrine all the time of our life. And thus we see why the Scripture speaketh so unto us. As concerning the present text, it is said first of all, That men §30dwell in houses of Clay, and that their foundation is but dust. That is to say, if we consider this present life by it self, wherein consisteth it? In being enclosed within lodgings that tend but to corruption. And what else are those but our bodies? Behold then what our steadfastness is: that is to wit, that every whit of it goeth incontinently unto dust, & we be consumed either by worms or by wind: that is too say, we be dispatched as soon as a worm which is but a thing of nought, and which we scarce esteem as a living creature: & yet are we consumed sooner §40than it. Thus we see what is said unto us in the first place. Afterward Eliphas addeth: That men perish and are consumed from morning unto evening. Some expound this, as though it were meant that men perish in small time: & that is very true. But herewithall there is yet more: that is to wit, that we pass not a minute of our life, but it is as it were an approaching unto death. If we consider it well, when a man riseth in the Morning, he is sure he shall not steppe forth one pace, he is sure he shall not take his repast, he is sure he shall not turn about his hand, but §50he shall still wax elder and elder, and his life ever shorteneth. Then must we consider even by eye sight, that our life fleeteth & slideth away from us. Thus we see what is meant by being consumed from Morning to Evening. And it is said afterward, that men perish for ever, because no man thinks upon it. We must treat of these two points, that we may profit our selves by this doctrine. The one point is, that whatsoever we do, we should always have death before our eye, and be provoked to think upon it. This (as I have said) is well known among men: the §60very Heathen had skill to say so.