10. Scripture saith, “Ye
have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the
Lord.”1780
When we
read what great
trials Job
endured, it makes one shudder, it makes
one shrink, it makes one
quake. And what did he receive? The double
of what he had lost. Let not a man therefore with an
eye to
temporal
rewards be willing to have
patience, and say to himself,
“Let me
endure loss,
God will give me back sons twice as many;
Job received double of all, and
begat as many sons as he had
buried.” Then is this not the double? Yes, precisely the double,
because the former sons still lived. Let none say, “Let me bear
evils, and
God will
repay me as He repaid Job:” that it be now no
longer
patience but avarice. For if it was not
patience which that
Saint had, nor a brave enduring of all that came upon him; the
testimony which the
Lord gave, whence should he have it? “Hast
thou observed,” saith the
Lord, “my
servant Job? For there is
not like him any on the
earth, a man without fault,
1781
true
worshipper of
God.” What a
testimony, my
brethren, did this holy
man deserve of the
Lord! And yet him a bad
woman sought by her
persuasion to
deceive, she too representing that
serpent, who, like
as in
Paradise he
deceived the man whom
God first made, so likewise
here by suggesting blasphemy thought to be able to
deceive a man
who pleased
God. What things he
suffered, my
brethren! Who can have
so much to
suffer in his
estate, his
house, his sons, his
flesh,
yea in his very
wife who was left to be his
tempter! But even her
who was left, the
devil would have taken away long ago, but that he
kept her to be his
helper: because by
Eve he had mastered the first
man, therefore had he kept an
Eve. What things, then, he
suffered!
He lost all that he had; his
house fell; would that were all! it
crushed his sons also. And, to see that
patience had great place in
him, hear what he answered; “The
Lord gave, the
Lord hath taken
away; as it pleased the
Lord, so hath it been done;
1782
blessed be
the name of the
Lord.”
1783
He hath taken what He gave, is He
lost Who gave? He hath taken what He gave. As if he should say, He
hath taken away all, let Him take all, send me away
naked, and let
me keep Him. What shall I lack if I have
God? or what is the good
of all else to me, if I have not
God? Then it came to his
flesh, he
was stricken with a
wound from head to
foot; he was one running
sore, one mass of crawling
worms: and showed himself immovable in
his
God, stood
fixed. The
woman wanted,
devil’s
helper as she was
not
husband’s comforter, to put him up to
blaspheme God. “How
long,” said she, “dost thou
suffer” so and so; “speak some
word against the
Lord,
1784
and
die.”
1785
So then, because he had been
brought low, he was to be exalted. And this the
Lord did, in order
to show it to men; as for His
servant, He kept greater things for
him in
heaven. So then Job who was brought low, He exalted; the
devil who was lifted up, He brought low:
for “He putteth down
one and setteth up another.”
1786
But let not any man, my
beloved
brethren, when he
suffers any such-like tribulations, look for a
reward here: for instance, if he
suffer any losses, let him not
peradventure say, “The
Lord gave, the
Lord hath taken away; as it
pleased the
Lord, so is it done:
blessed be the name of the
Lord;” only with the
mind to receive twice as much again. Let
patience praise God, not avarice. If what thou hast lost thou
seekest to receive back twofold, and therefore praisest
God, it is
of
covetousness thou praisest, not of
love. Do not
imagine this to
be the example of that holy man; thou deceivest thyself. When Job
was enduring all, he was not hoping for to have twice as much
again. Both in his first confession when he bore up under his
losses, and bore out to the
grave the dead bodies of his sons, and
in the second when he was now suffering
torments of sores in his
flesh, ye may observe what I am saying. Of his former confession
the words
run thus: “The
Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away:
as it pleased the
Lord, so is it done:
blessed be the name of the
Lord.”
1787
He might
have said, “The
Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away; He that
took away can once more give; can bring back more than He took.”
He said not this, but, “As it pleased the
Lord,” said he, “so
is it done:” because it pleases Him, let it please me: let not
that which hath pleased the good
Lord misplease His submissive
servant; what pleased the
Physician, not misplease the
sick man.
Hear his other confession: “Thou hast spoken,” said he to his
wife, “like one of the foolish
women. If we have received good at
the
hand of the
Lord, why shall we not bear
evil?”
1788
He did not
add, what, if he had said it, would have been true. “The
Lord is
able both to bring back my
flesh into its former condition, and
that which He hath taken away from us, to make manifold more:”
lest he should seem to have
endured in
hope of this. This was not
what he said, not what he hoped. But, that we might be taught, did
the
Lord that for him, not hoping for it, by which we should be
taught, that
God was with him: because if He had not also restored
to him those things, there was the
crown indeed, but hidden, and we
could not see it. And therefore what says the
divine Scripture in
exhorting to
patience and
hope of things future, not
reward of
things present? “Ye have heard of the
patience of Job, and have
seen the end of the
Lord.” Why is it, “the
patience of Job,”
and not, Ye have seen the end of Job himself? Thou wouldest open
thy mouth for the “twice as much;” wouldest say, “Thanks be
to
God; let me bear up: I receive twice as much again, like Job.”
“
Patience of Job, end of the
Lord.” The
patience of Job we
know, and the end of the
Lord we know.
1789
What end of the
Lord? “My
God,
my
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” They are the words of the
Lord hanging on the
cross. He did as it were leave Him for present
felicity, not leave Him for
eternal immortality. In this is “the
end of the
Lord.” The
Jews hold Him, the
Jews insult, the
Jews
bind Him,
crown Him with
thorns,
dishonor Him with spitting,
scourge Him, overwhelm Him with revilings, hang Him upon the
tree,
pierce Him with a
spear, last of all bury Him. He was as it were
left: but by whom? By those insulting ones. Therefore thou shall
but to this end have
patience, that thou mayest rise again and not
die, that is, never die, even as Christ. For so we read, “Christ
rising from the dead henceforth dieth not.”
1790
| 1790 Rom. vi. 9. The Article
of the descent into Hell appears not to have been included in this
Creed. |
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