Sermons on Job #1 (Introduction) — John Calvin

The sermon we will hear today is the first sermon from the first chapter of the book of Job. From a series of sermons on Job preached in the 1500s by the Reverend John Calvin. The sermons were translated from the original French into English by Mr. Arthur Goulding and published in 1574.

The 1574 publication is the basis for the sermon as we will hear it today. And so let us begin. The book of Job chapter 1 verse 1. There was in the land of Huss a man named Job sound and upright fearing God and withdrawing himself from evil.

God’s Sovereignty and the Duty to Submit

The better to profit ourselves by that which is contained in this present book. First and foremost it is advantageous for us to understand the sum of it for the story written here shows us how we be in God's hand and That it lies in him to determine of our life and to dispose of the same according to his good pleasure.

That it is it is our duty to submit ourselves unto him with all humbleness and obedience. That it is good reason that we should be wholly his both to live and die and especially That when it pleases him to lay his hand upon us.

Although we perceive not for what cause he does it. Yet, we should glorify him continually Acknowledging him to be just and upright and not to grudge against him nor fall striving with him assuring ourselves That we shall always be vanquished in pleading against him.

So then the thing that we have briefly to bear in mind in this story is that God has such a sovereignty over his creatures as He may dispose of them at his pleasure and that when he shows any strictness or Hardness which we think strange at the first blush.

Yet notwithstanding we must hold our peace and not grudge grumble or complain but rather confess that he is righteous and wait till he show us for what reason or purpose he chastises us. And Here with this we have to behold the patience of the man that is set here before our eyes.

Job’s Patience and the Purpose of Affliction

According as st. James exhorts us in James chapter 5 verse 11. Turn with me there if you will. James chapter 5 verse 11 behold. We count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord.

That the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. For when God shows us that we ought to bear all the miseries that he shall send upon us We can well afford to confess that it is our duty so to do. But yet there as well We allege our own frailty.

And we bear ourselves in hand that that ought to serve for our reason. Wherefore it is good for us to have such examples as Show one to us how there have been other men as frail as we who nevertheless have resisted temptations and Continued steadfastly in obedience unto God Although he have scourged them even with extremity.

Thus we have an excellent mere. Moreover, we have to consider not only the patience of Job But also the outcome of it as st. James says for had Job continued in misery even though he had had more than an angelical strength in himself.

Yet that would have been no happy outcome. But when we see he was not disappointed of his hope and that he found grace Because he humbled himself before God. Upon the sight of such an outcome we may conclude that there is nothing better Than to submit ourselves unto God and to suffer peaceably Whatever he sends us until he deliver us of his own mere goodness and Here as well besides the story we have to consider the doctrine comprised in this book.

That is namely concerning those that came unto Job under pretense to comfort him and yet Tormented him much more than did his own miseries and concerning the answers that he used to repulse their checks By which it seemed they would have daunted him.

Satanic Assaults and Spiritual Temptation

But first of all as in respect of our afflictions We have to note that although God send them and that they proceed from him Yet despite this the devil also stirs them up in us. According as st. Paul tells us in Ephesians Chapter 6 verse 12 that we have war against the spiritual powers.

For when the devil has once kindled the fire He also has his roar. That is to say He finds men that are fit to prick us always forward both to feed the evil and to increase it. So then we shall see how Job besides the miseries that he endeared Was also tormented both by his friends and by his wife and above all By such as came to tempt him spiritually.

For I call a spiritual temptation not only when we be smitten and afflicted in our bodies But also when the devil comes to put a foolish thought in our head that God is our deadly enemy and that it is not for us to resort any more unto him But rather to assure ourselves that henceforth he will not show us any mercy.

See where unto all the discourse tended which Job's friends laid before him. It was to make him believe that he was a man forsaken of God And that he deceived himself In imagining that God would be merciful unto him.

Surely these Spiritual battles are far more harder to be born than all the miseries and adversities that we can suffer by any persecution and Yet does God let Satan run so far upon the bridle That he also brings his servants with him who give us such assaults as we see Job has endured.

Mark this well for a special point, but here as well. We have further to mark that in all this disputation Job maintains a good case and Yet it is it is more It is more that Job maintains a good quarrel Did handle it ill and that the other setting forth and unjust matter Did convey it well?

Job’s Good Cause and the Danger of Despair

The understanding of this will be as a key to open unto us all this whole book. How is it that Job maintains the good case? It is in that he knows That God does not ever punish men according to the measure of their sins but Has his secret judgments whereof he does not make us privy.

And therefore that it is necessary for us to wait Till he revealed unto us for what cause he does this or that Thus is he in this whole discourse persuaded That God does not always punish man according to the measure of their sins and thereupon assures himself That he is not a man Rejected of God as they would make him to believe.

Behold here a good and true case Notwithstanding that it be ill handled for Job ranges here out of his bounds and With such excessive and outrageous talk that in many points. He seems a desperate person.

Especially he so chafes as It seems that he would even resist God. Thus may you see a good case mishandled but on the contrary part They that undertake the evil case That is to say that God does always punish men according to the measure of their sins.

They that undertake the evil case Have goodly and holy sentences and there is nothing in their whole talk Which would not entice us to receive it as if the Holy Ghost himself had uttered it. For it is plain truth They be the grounds of religion.

They treat of God's providence. They treat of his justice. They treat of men's sins. Thus we see a doctrine Which we must receive without opposing and yet the drift of it is evil namely for that these men Labor by that means to cast Job into despair and to drown him altogether.

But by this means we see That when we have a sure ground It is necessary for us to look that we build upon it in such way as All things be answerable to that according as st. Paul says of himself that he built wealth for as much as he founded the church upon the pure doctrine of Jesus Christ and Therefore that it has Such a conformity in it as those that come after him shall not make any other foundation either of chaff or of stubble or of any other brittle stuff.

But have a good foundation steadfast and Substantial ready laid to their hand likewise in our whole life. We have to look unto this point. Namely that if we be grounded upon good and right reason It is necessary for each one of us to stand upon his guard That he real not Nor wander not one way or the other.

For there is nothing easier Than to mar a good and rightful matter so sinful is our nature as We find by experience at all times God of his grace may give us a good case and Yet, we may be so stung by our enemies that we cannot hold ourselves within our bounds Nor simply follow that which God has enjoined us Without adding some trick of our own seeing them that we be so easily carried away.

We ought the rather to pray unto God That when we have a good case He himself will grant to guide in all singleness by his Holy Spirit. So as we may not pass the bounds which he has set us by his word.

Applying God’s Word with Purity and Simplicity

Together with this we also be put in mind Not to apply God's truth to any evil use. For in so doing we dishonor it like as these men do here who Although they speak holily as we have showed already and as we shall see more fully hereafter Although they speak holily are notwithstanding but traitors to God.

For they corrupt God's truth and abuse it falsely Applying that thing to an evil end which of itself is good and righteous. So then Whenever God gives us the knowledge of his word Let us learn to receive it with such reverence as our receiving of it may not be to deface good things Nor to set a color upon evil things as oftentimes Those that be most sharp-witted and cunning do overshoot themselves and Abuse the knowledge that God has given them unto deceit and naughtiness Turning all things topsy-turvy in such a way as they Do nothing but snare themselves.

Considering therefore how all men are given to such infirmity It stands us so much the more on hand to pray God to give us the grace to apply His word to such use as he has ordained it. That is to say to pureness and simplicity and Thus you see what we ought to consider In essence, but now that we understand what is in this book We must lay forth these matters More at length in such way as the Things that we have but lightly touched may be expanded upon according to the process of the history.

Job’s Historical Setting and Witness Among the Nations

It is said that there was a man in the land of Huss named Job a sound and upright man and fearing God and Withdrawing himself from evil. We do not know neither Can we guess in what time Job lived? Saving that a Man may perceive he was of great antiquity nevertheless Some of the Jews have been of the opinion that Moses was the author of this book That he did set it as a looking-glass before the people To the intent that the children of Abraham of whose race he himself came That the children of Abraham might know that God had showed favor to others that were not of the same line and therefore Be ashamed if they themselves did not walk purely in the fear of God.

Seeing that this man who had not the mark of God's covenant Nor was circumcised But was a pagan and a heathen. Seeing that this man had behaved himself so well but For as much as this is not certain we must leave it in suspense and uncertainty.

Nevertheless Let us take that which is of no doubt That is to say that the Holy Ghost has authored this book to the end that the Jews Should know how God has had people to serve him Even though they have not been separated out from the rest of the world.

And or that although they had not the sign of circumcision yet notwithstanding They walked in all pureness of conversation by the knowledge of which the Jews have had occasion to be So much the more diligent to keep the law of God.

And as he had granted them such favor and Prerogative as to gather them out from among all other strange nations. They ought to dedicate themselves wholly unto him. Also a man may proceed by the book of Ezekiel That the name of Job was renowned among the people of Israel for in Ezekiel 14 We see it is said in verses 14 and 20 that if Noah Job and Daniel were among the people that should perish they should have they should save no more men's lives, but their own and all the rest of the people Should be destroyed.

See how the prophet speaks of these three men as of such as were known and renowned among the Jews as I have touched already and By that we see what the intent of the Holy Ghost is. Namely that the Jews should have a mirror and pattern whereby to know How they ought to keep the doctrine of salvation that was given unto them.

Seeing that this man was which was of a strange nation Had so kept himself in such purity and that is the chief thing that we have to remember concerning the name that is Set down here when he says that Job was of the land of us.

True it is that some men do place this land far eastward. Nevertheless in the fourth chapter of the lamentations of Jeremiah The same word hus is stated as a part of Edom. We know that the Edomites are descended of Esau.

And true it is that they also had circumcision. Nevertheless in view of the fact that they were strayed away from God's Church They had it no more as the sign of his covenant. Therefore if we take Job to have been of this land of us Then he was an Edomite that is to say of the line of Esau.

And We know how the Prophet Malachi in the first chapter of that book in verses 2 3 We know how the Prophet says that although we saw and Jacob were natural brethren born both at one birthing. Yet God of his mere goodness chose Jacob rejecting Esau and cursing him with all his whole lineage.

Behold how the Prophet in speaking to magnify God's mercy towards the Jews Tells them that he chose them not for any worthiness that was in their own persons. Considering that he had rejected Jacob's eldest brother to whom the birthright belonged and had chosen him that was the younger and inferior.

So then Although this man Job was born of Esau's line. Yet despite this we see how soundly he lived and how he served God not only by upright conversation and equitableness among men But also in pure religion.

Which he did not defile with the idolatries and superstitions of the infidels as touching the name of Job. Some interpret it to signify weeping or wailing. Others take it for an utter enemy. Not such a one as he hates But such a one that is as it were a white target for men to shoot at.

Job’s Reality and the Preservation of a Faithful Remnant

There is no cause why we should doubt whether this man Whose country is so marked out and whose name is expressed. There is no cause why we should doubt whether this man existed or not or lied or not or Whether the things that are written here did come to pass or not.

So as we should think it to be but a tale Contrived as if a man should under a counterfeit name set out something unto us that was never done. For I have already alleged the records of Ezekiel and St. James who show very well that there was a Job indeed and further Seeing that the story itself declares it We cannot in any way deface the thing which the Holy Ghost meant to utter so precisely and Indeed we see in Genesis chapter 14 verse 18 that in Abraham's time Melchizedek had God's Church and sacrifices which were without any defilement and so even though that the greater part of the world was wrapped in many errors and false and wicked imaginations.

Yet despite this God had reserved some little seed to himself and He always had some that were hid still under the pure truth Yes, and which waited continually. When God should establish his church and choose out one people that is to say the offspring of Abraham.

To the end they might know that they were picked out from the rest of the whole world. But very true it is That Jacob lived after this time although the Church of God was not then so well established as it was afterward.

For we know that while the children of Israel lived in Egypt it was like that all should come to nothing and Especially we see to what an ordeal they were come to when in the end Pharaoh commanded that their male children Should be killed in Exodus 1 verse 16 and in the wilderness Where it seemed that God had rejected them.

When they were coming to the country of Canaan they had great battles against their enemies and Especially the service of God and his tabernacle were not yet. They're so well appointed as was requisite God therefore Not having yet settled an apparent state of the church Would there should always remain some last seeds of it among the pagans and heathens to the intent He might be worshipped and that was also to convince Those that are turned aside out of the right way like pagans and heathens.

For Job alone was enough to condemn a whole country. Noah also condemned the whole world as the scripture says because he hid himself always in pureness and walked as before God as Such time as every man had forgotten him and all men were gone astray in their own superstitions.

Look with me at Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 7 By faith Noah Being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an ark to the saving of his house by the witch he condemned the world and Became heir of the righteousness Which is by faith.

Here then is Noah judge of the whole world To condemn the unbelievers and rebels as Much as to be said of Job who has condemned all the people of that country. In that he has served God purely and the remainder were full of idolatry shameful deeds and many errors and This came to pass because they hold scorn to know the true and living God.

And How and after what manner it was his will to be honored so great regard has God always had as I have said to make the wicked and the unbelievers always inexcusable and For this cause it was his will That there should always be some men That should follow the things That he had showed to the ancient fathers.

Such a one was Job as the scripture tells us and as this present story shows very well He served God purely and lived uprightly among men. It is said that He was a sound man this word sound in the scripture is taken for a plainness Where there is no point of faking counterfeiting or Hypocrisy in a man but that he shows himself the same outwardly that he is inwardly and especially When he had no hiding places to shift himself from God.

Integrity, Holiness, and the Need for Grace

But lays open his heart and all his thoughts and affections so as he desires nothing but to consecrate and Dedicate himself wholly unto God. The word said has also been translated Perfect by the Greeks as well by the Latins.

But for as much as the word perfect has afterwards being Misconstrued it is much better for us to use the word sound. For many ignorant persons not knowing how the said Perfection is to be taken have thought thus behold Here a man that is called perfect and therefore it follows That it is possible for us to have perfection in ourselves Even during the time that we walk in this present life, but they deface The grace of God whereof we continually have need.

For even they that have lived most uprightly must have recourse to God's mercy and Accept their sins be forgiven them and that God uphold them. They must necessarily all perish. So then although that They which have used the word perfect have meant well yet despite this In view of the fact that there have been some that have bent it to a contrary sense as I have said Let us keep still the word sound then look upon Job who is called sound and how.

For it is because there was no hypocrite nor Hiding in falseness of appearance nor any doubleness of heart in him. For when the scripture means to set down the vice that is Contrary to this virtue of soundness it says heart and heart Meaning by that a double heart let us mark them That first of all this title is attributed unto Job To show that he had a pure and simple mind that he did not uncover two faces in madness Nor served God by haves But labored to give himself Holy unto him.

True it is that as now we cannot be so sound as to attain to the mark as were to be wished. For as touching these those that follow the right way Although they go on limping forward Yet are they so lame that they drag their legs and their wings after them.

The case then stands so with us So long as we be wrapped in this mortal body that until such time as God have quite discharged us of all the miseries to which we be subject as I have said before There shall never be any perfect soundness in us but yet for all that It profits us nevertheless to come to the said plainness and to give over all counterfeitness and lying.

And further let us note That true holiness begins within us in as much that if we show all the fairest countenances in the world Before men and that our lives be so well guided that every man shall commend us.

Yet if we do not have this plainness and soundness before God All is just nothing for it is necessary that the fountain be first pure and afterwards that the streams that run out of it be pure also. Otherwise the water may well be clear and yet nevertheless Be bitter or else have some other filthy corruption in it.

Worship in Spirit and Truth

Therefore it is advantageous for us to always begin with this with this text John chapter 4 verse 24 learning that God will be served in spirit and in truth. For he is a spirit and he regards the truth of the spirit as it is said in the fifth chapter of Jeremiah Turn with me if you will to the Prophet Jeremiah Chapter 5.

And so we read in Jeremiah chapter 5 beginning in verse 1. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and Seek in the broad places thereof if you can find a man if there be any that execute of judgment That seeketh the truth and I will pardon it.

And though they say the Lord liveth Surely they swear falsely O Lord are not thine eyes upon the truth. Then are we to learn first and foremost To frame our hearts to the obeying of God. For after that Job has been reported to have been sound.

It is also said of him that He was upright. This uprightness is meant of the life that he led. Which is as it were the fruit of the said root which the Holy Ghost had planted before Job then had an upright and sound heart.

For his life was simple that is to say He walked and lived among his neighbors without hurting of any person Without doing any wrong or trouble to anybody Without setting of his mind to any guile or naughtiness and Without seeking his own profit by the hindrance of other folks we see now what this uprightness imports which is added in this place and by this means we be admonished to Have an agreeableness between our hearts and our outward senses.

True it is as I have said before That meet that we may well withhold ourselves From ill doing and that we may well have a fair show before men but that shall be nothing if there be any hypocrisy or covert dissimulation and Hiding in a false appearance before God When it comes to the root that is within the heart.

What must? We do then as I have told you before we must begin at the previously mentioned point and then to have perfect soundness. It is necessary that our eyes our hands our Feet our arms and our legs be answering to that.

So as in our whole life, we may show that our will is to serve God and how that it is not in vain that we pretend a meaning to keep the same soundness within and Here you may see why st. Paul also exhorts the Galatians in Galatians chapter 5 verse 25 To walk after the Spirit if they live after the Spirit as if they as if he should say.

Walking After the Spirit in Practical Holiness

Verily it is necessary that the Spirit of God dwell in us and govern us. For it is to no purpose to have a merry life that please men and Is had in great estimation Unless we be renewed by the grace of God.

But what? It is necessary for us to walk. That is to say it is necessary for us to show in effect and by our work How the Spirit of God? reigns in our minds. For if our hands be stained with robbery with cruelty or with other annoyances.

If the eyes be carried with lewd and unchaste looks with coveting other men's goods with pride or with vanity or If the feet as the scripture says be swift to do evil. By that we well declare that our heart is full of naughtiness and corruption.

For it is neither the feet nor the hands nor the eyes that guide themselves. The guiding of them comes of the mind and of the heart. Wherefore let us endeavor To have the said agreeableness Which the scripture shows us when it says that Job having this soundness and plain meaning Did also live uprightly that is to say was conversant among his neighbors without any annoying of them and without seeking of his own peculiar prophet and Kept an even hand with all the world.

Also, you see the reason why God proves Whether we serve him faithfully or not. It is not that he has need of our service or of anything that we can do. But because that when we deal well with our neighbors.

So as we keep our faithfulness toward all men according as nature itself teaches us. In so doing we yield assurance that we fear God we see many which bear the face of very zealous Christians so long as it is but to dispute and to hold long talk and to bear men in hand that they study to serve God and to honor him and Yet for all that as soon as they have to do with their neighbors a man shall perceive What they have in their hearts for they seek their own advantage and make no conscience to gather to themselves and To beguile folk when they have them in their danger by whatever means it be.

Now then there is no doubt But that those which seek their own advantage and profit are hypocrites and that their heart is corrupted and Howsoever earnest Christians they seem outwardly. God reveals that they have nothing but dung and Poison in their hearts.

And why so? For look where soundness is there Must necessarily be uprightness also. That is to say If the affections be pure within Then it will follow That when we have to deal with men We shall procure the welfare of every man in such manner as we shall not be given to ourselves and to our private commodity and convenience But shall have that indifference which Jesus Christ affirms To be the rule of life and the whole sum of the law and the prophets namely That we do not That thing to any other man Which we would not have done to ourselves.

So then we perceive that by this commendation of Job Many men are condemned for as much as the Holy Ghost declares That this man had not only a soundness before God But also in uprightness and plain dealing among men.

Fearing God and Loving One’s Neighbors

This plain dealing which he speaks of shall serve to give sentence of damnation upon all such as are full of maliciousness and upon all such as do not pass over to Snatch and gain to themselves The good of other men or which do not pass over to spoil other men of their livings.

This sort of men are condemned by this present text for it follows That he feared God yea that he was a man which feared God and withdrew himself from evil. Now Seeing that Job had had the prayer of keeping right and equitable among men It necessitated him also to walk before men rather to walk before God for without that The rest is worth nothing.

True it is as I have said before that we cannot live with our neighbors To do harm to none and to do good to all Unless we have an eye unto God. For as for them that follow their own nature Albeit that they be endowed with godly virtues.

For so it will seem Yet are they overtaken with? self-love. And It is nothing else, but being loriness or some other such respect which Thrusts them forward in so much that all the show of virtue which appeared in them is marred by that but although we cannot have the Said uprightness without the fearing of God Yet notwithstanding the serving of God and the regarding of our neighbors are two Separate things as God has also distinguished them in his law At such time as it pleased him to have them written out in the two tables.

Then let us bear in mind That like as up to this time under the word uprightness the Holy Ghost meant to show After what manner Job lived among men? So also when he says that Job feared God He means to set out the religion that was in him and by that means we be warned That if we will frame our life rightly we must first have an eye unto God and Then to our neighbors.

I say we must have an eye unto God To give ourselves over unto him and to yield him his due honor and we must Have an eye to our neighbors To discharge ourselves of our duty towards them according that that we be commanded to help them and to live in equity and uprightness and Finally for as much as God has knit us each to one another that every man study to Employ his whole ability to the common convenience of all.

Thus you see how the case stands with us in having Of an eye both to God and men for the well-ordering of our life. For he that looks on himself it is sure that he has nothing but vanity in him. For if a man were able to order his life in such a way as he might seem faultless to the world and Yet notwithstanding God Dislike him What shall he gain by his excessive working of himself to walk in such manner?

As all men might magnify him as to God word he is nothing else, but uncleanness. And Necessarily must this sentence which is written in st. Luke be verified. Namely that the thing which is most high and excellent before men is abominable before God.

Turn with me if you will to the 16th chapter of the gospel of Luke. Luke Chapter 16 Verse 15. And he said unto them Ye are they which justify yourselves before men. But God knoweth your hearts for that which is Which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

Then let us bear in mind That we can never order our life as we ought to do except We have our eyes fastened upon God and our neighbor upon God. And What for? To The end we may know That we be created to his glory to serve him and to worship him.

For although he have no need of us as our neighbors have Nor is either the better or the worse for our service. Yet it is his will that to have Reasonable creatures, which should know him and in knowing him Yield him that which belongs unto him.

Furthermore Whereas he speaks of the fear of God We have to understand that it is not a slavish fear as men term it. But it is so termed in respect of the honor which we owe him because he is our father and Master do we fear God?

Then it is certain that we desire nothing, but to honor him and to be holy his. Do we know him? That must be in such way as he has uttered himself That is to say that he is our maker our maintainer and One that has showed such fatherly goodness towards us.

That we of duty ought to be as children towards him If we will not be utterly unthankful. Also, it is necessary for us to acknowledge his dominion and superiority over us. To the end that every one of us Yielding him his due honor May learn to please him in all respects.

Thus you see how that under this fearing of God Here is comprehended all religion that is to say all the service and honor which the creatures owe unto their God and Surely it was a right excellent virtue in Job to fear God after that manner Considering how the whole world was turned aside from the right way.

When we hear this when we perceive that although we live among the most wicked ones in the whole world We shall be utterly inexcusable If we be not given to the serving of God as we ought to be and this is well to be marked.

Because many men are of opinion that when they are among the thorns God will hold them acquitted and excused and That if afterwards they corrupt themselves or as the proverb says if they agree and hold with the hair and Hunt with the hound Which is all one God will pardon them, but to the contrary look upon Job Who is called? that man that feared God.

Withdrawing from Evil in a Corrupt World

In what country? It was not in Jewry. It was not in the city of Jerusalem. It was not in the temple. But it was in a defiled place in the middle of such as were utterly perverted. Albeit then that he was among such people.

Yet he had such control of himself and lived in such way That he walked purely among his neighbors notwithstanding that at that time all was full of cruelty of outrage of Robbery and of other similar enormities in that place on which We have to consider That it shall turn so much to our greater shame If we on our behalf have not a care to keep ourselves pure in the service of God and of our neighbors.

Seeing he gives us such occasion as we have That is to say that God's Word is continually preached unto us that we be exhorted unto it. And that he reforms us when we have gone amiss. It stands us on hand then to give ear to that which is which is showed us here and Therefore in conclusion Let us mark that which is added here in the text namely That he withdrew himself From evil for we see that the cause why God why rather why Job? overcame all hindrances and encounters that might Hinder him from the serving of God and from living uprightly among men was because He had control of himself.

For he knew right well That if he had taken liberty to do like other men he should have been given to all vices. So as he should have been the enemy of God Job then did not watch so in the fear of God and in such plain dealing and soundness without great abundance of run-ins or without the devil's Heaving at him to overthrow him and to cast him into the filthiness of the whole world.

But he withdrew himself from evil That is to say He withheld himself. What must we do then? Although we be in the church of God Yet we see great abundance of evils and however it happens There shall never be such plainness and pureness, but we shall be mingled with abundance of scorners and unthankfuls which are firebrands of hell and deadly plagues to infect infect all men.

Therefore it is necessary for us to be very wary seeing there are too many stumbling blocks and so great looseness by which to Train us immediately unto unthankfulness. What remedy then? Let us Withdraw ourselves from evil that is to say Let us fight against such assaults after the example of Job and When we see abundance of vices and corruptions reign in the world Even though we be inclined and desirous to be mixed and intermittent with them.