Sermons upon the Book of Job

WE have seen heretofore what they win which repine against God, and accuse him of cruelty, & pass their bounds into all impatience▪ that is to wit, that they make their case the worser, and that they must be consumed in their fretting and rage.§20 But forasmuch as oftentimes the despisers of God do prosper & are well at their ease: here is mention made of their state, notwithstanding that men esteem them happy to the worldward. Eliphas saith that when he saw a foolish man in prosperity, he judged not after the common trade, (which is to say, This man is happy, he is blessed of God:) but knew by and by that the end of him should be evil, & that he should be punished even in his offspring. And although Eliphas do misapply this sentence unto Jobs person: yet is it the doctrine of God and of the holy §30Ghost, and not of man. For God doth oftentimes utter such kind of sayings to turn us from the false opinion which we may conceive, when we see not them punished out of hand which run into such excess of wickedness, but rather (to our seeming) are favoured of God. I know what the common opinion is, for we esteem things after as they may be seen by the eye, & our mind wadeth no further. If God lift up his hand & execute any justice that may be seen: scarcely will men vouchsafe to regard it. But if he wink at things, and tarry patiently for the sinners,§40 we think him to be asleep, and that he governeth not the world, but letteth things go at random without any mind to remedy them. See how blockish we be. But our Lord showeth us, that the wicked cease not to be cursed, even in the midst of their prosperity, and that we need not to spite them for their good fortune as they term it. For they must be double punished, so as it were far better for them that they were miserable, because they shall pay over deer for their pleasures. Behold in effect what Eliphas sayeth. And behold also why §50I said that it behoveth us to mark well this sentence: namely because it containeth a very profitable lesson. And that we may the better profit our selves by that which is contained here: first it behoveth us too note, that this word fool, is put for all such as regard not God. For although the world take those to be wise men, which can skill to deal well for their own profit, and can shift their matters cunningly (as they say:)