Sermons upon the Book of Job

He maketh it not his general case to treat of, that mans life is transitory, without going any further: but he intendeth to show us, that for so much as we be poor silly creatures creeping here upon the earth: we cannot attain to the perfection of Angels, nor yet come near it. So then whereas he sayeth that all perish for ever because none think of it: he meaneth that men go on as brute beasts, without judgement, without discretion, without §30thinking upon death any long time aforehand, & therefore are taken tardy. On the other side he purposeth to declare, what men are of their own nature, were it not that God hath gathered them to himself, and governed them by his holy spirit, to the end they should take heed to this doctrine. Behold the two points which we have to mark here. And as touching the first, It draweth near to the text which we alleged even now out of the Prophet. For there the Prophet mocketh the carelessness of men, that make their account to dwell here below for ever,§40 notwithstanding that they ought well to perceive what their life is: that is to wit, that in the turning of a hand ye shall see it broken off. But no man thinks of that: It should seem that men take pleasure in beguiling and forgetting themselves: they consider not their ends, but they bear themselves in hand, that they be as it were Idols. Is not this a wilful sotting of themselves in brutishness? But the Prophet saith this folly is reproved, & that it is well known by experience, that men deceive them selves, and throw themselves headlong into destruction,§50 when they frame themselves such an immortality, as to imagine that they shall dwell here for ever. Thus we see a folly here, which is convinced even by eyesight. But yet (saith he) so far off are their posterity from waxing any whit the wiser by it: that they be gathered thither in one flock like sheep, & the grave swalloweth them up both great and small: and yet of all the while, none of them thinks upon it. See how this gear relieth to the purpose of Eliphas. So then let us mark that the holy Ghost intendeth to do us to understand, that forasmuch §60as we be so flyghtfull, we ought to have death always before our eyes, to the end we should make hast thitherward, and not be attached with fearfulness when it shall please God to take us out of this world: