Anglican

Iob. 42. 12.

The Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than his beginning.

Gregorie observes in his ^a Morals, that those vertues which God hath taught us, at the last, by an united Example in the New, hee had taught us before, by severall Examples in the Old Testament. To shew unto us, that, as Claudian sayd of Stilicon,

—— ^b sparguntur in omnes,
In te mista fluunt.

Those veines of Vertues distinguish’t in the Patriarckes, as in severall members ^a are conjoyned in Christ, as the common head, and what Christ teacheth in the New Testament by one whole, & united, the Patriarckes preach unto us in the Old, by many broken, and divided examples. Hence we are taught (before the Law written) but one lesson, for the most part, from any one man. As Innocencie onely from ^b Abel, Religion from ^c Enoch, Hope from ^d Noah, Obedience from ^e Abraham, Wedlocke-keeping from ^f Isaack, doing good for evill from ^g Joseph, Meekenesse from ^h Moses, Courage from ⁱ Josuah, and Patience in Calamities from holy Job. And this most Christian Vertue of Patience, in great afflictions, though we heare of it, in all this Booke, yet doe wee learne to follow it in this Chapter onely. For as this holy Man, Si non flagellaretur, non agnosceretur, (as ^k Gregory notes) had never beene knowne, if he had not beene afflicted in the body of the Booke; so say I, that hee had never beene taken up for imitation by any man, encompassed with flesh and blood, if he had not been rewarded in the end of the Booke. It is not the love of Affliction, (a ^l most unwelcome guest to this Nature of ours) but the ἀπογελεσμα, and issue of a godly mans Affliction, to wit, a Blessing upon the latter end, which teacheth us to fast, and pray in time of Affliction. And so (say the Grammarians) that a Reward is called Pretium, quasi Praeitium, it must goe before, at least in our ^m faith, and beliefe, or else our Patience in Afflictions never comes after.

ANd upon this consideration, was this Booke first translated by ^a Moses out of Syriacke into Hebrew, not to teach the Children of Israel (who were yet in ^b Aegypt) to suffer Afflictions, but to teach them ^c comfort, and hope of deliverance from their Afflictions. And afterward, this very selfe same Booke was read to the Christians, in the Primitive Church, not onely in this time of ^d Lent, and publique Sorrow, but withall, upon each severall occasion of any sudden mishap, or private sorrow, Pro consolatione, & spe liberationis, for their praesent comfort, and hope of deliverance, as Origen writes.

ANd this is the reason, that I have also, according to the Praesidents of Antiquitie, chosen a peice of the same Booke, for my Text, at this time. It is a time of Lent, or publique Sorrow, over all, or the greatest part of the ^a Christian World, wherein men doe use to humble themselves, by Fasting, Prayer, Repentance, and all manner of Devotion, for their sinnes against God.

ANd surely if we consider (with Saint ^a Hierome) the infinite number of those men, of all sorts, and callings, qui saeculo magis vacant, quam Deo, who spend more time in the service of the World, than in the service of their God, and never dreame of Fasting, and Prayer, but when this Season of the yeare doth call upon them, wee shall finde, that this standing Fast was most profitably instituted by the Church, ^b Commonefactionis gratiâ, to call upon the backward, as Chemnitius; ^c Ad cessatores excitandos, to spurre them onward, that lagge behinde, as Cassander writes.

BEing therefore to offer up unto God, in sorrow, and repentance, these 36. dayes ( ^a the whole time of our cleane Lent) either as the Tyth of our dayes, as S. ^b Bernard, or as the Tyth of the yeare, as ^c Aquinas, or as the Tyth of our life, as ^d Gerson, or as the Tole, and Tribute of all that wee are, as ^e Cassianus thinkes; Wee cannot doe it in better tuned meditations, than in these Sorrowes, and Comforts of the Booke of Job.

AGaine, it is a time of our Private, or Nationall Sorrow, wherein this little world of ours, the Church, and State of this Kingdome doe cast themselves downe before their God, in true Compunction, and contrition of heart, because of their departing from their God, in life, and Conversation, and of Gods departing from them, in his wonted Benediction.

IT is true indeed, that as the Lent of a Christian man, should take up non 40. tantùm, sed singulos, & universos dies hominis, as S. ^a Bernard, not 40. onely, but all the daies, and minutes of a Christian man: So surely this Generall Fast for the sinnes of the Nation, in-steed of taking up this one short day, should not leave one day untaken up, of the whole Lent of an English-man. But the wisedome of the State, finding the weakenesse of our flesh, and bloud, τῇ δυνάμει τοῦτο συνεμετρήσε (as ^b Naz. speakes in the like case) hath proportion’d our humiliation to our power, and strength to endure the same, making this one solemne day to be non solum partem, sed & sacramentum (to use the words of S. ^c Bernard) not a portion onely, but a Symbole, and repraesentation of a whole Lent, and therefore to be solemnized, with no Theme more conveniently, than the Sorrowes, and Comforts of this ^d Booke of Job.

NOw all the Comfort of this Booke (for upon the Comfort I principally insist) is put off to this Chapter, and all the Comforts of this Chapter Epitomiz’d in this Verse, and all the quint-essence of this Verse couched in the beginning of the Verse, which I have read unto you. Where, notwithstanding the miseries, which Job endured, yet when his Faith was once discerned, his latter end became more blessed; The Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than his beginning.

I Have heretofore, some yeares sithence, dealt with this Verse, as God did with Job in this verse, given some blessing upon the latter end thereof, but none as yet on the beginning, which shall be the Subject of this praesent Discourse. The beginning of this verse I may fitly terme the Reward of an afflicted Christian; For that Job was ante Evangelia Evangelicus, as ^a Julian the Pelagian doth wittily terme him, a Christian man long before Christ, is acknowledged by all the ^b Fathers. And that Christian vertues are really rewarded, ex promisso, though not ex commisso, by way of promise, though not of contract, is truely taught by ^c Peter Lombard, and the Schoolemen. Heere then have you the Reward of Christian patience in Adversity, invested with foure severall Circumstances.

FIrst, the Efficient cause, or the Rise of this Reward, which is the Lords Blessing, The Lord Blessed; Secondly, the Materiall cause, or Subject of this Reward, double in this place; The first points out the person, Job; the second reflects upon his disposition, The later end of Job; The Lord blessed the later end of Job. Fourthly, and lastly, the Portion and quantity of this Reward, which is very ample, more than the greatest man in the East is held to be worth; for so Job was in the beginning, Job. 1. 3. verse; But now hee is more than in the beginning. The Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than the beginning. So have you the Efficient of this Reward of a Christian mans Patience in time of affliction, the Lords blessing, the Subject, generally, Job, particularly, the latter end of Job, the Portion, more than his beginning. The Lord blessed, &c. Of these parts by Gods assistance, and your Lordships honourable patience, I shall speake plainely, briefly, and orderly.

BEginne we therefore with the Efficient cause, and let us take our rise at the Magazin, and Treasury, where Christian Patience, and forbearance is usually rewarded, which is the Lords blessing; The Lord Blessed. Dicere Dei est facere, saith S. ^a Augustine, Gods saying is operation, and doing; For Dixit, & factum est, hee spoke but the word, and it was done, as it is in the ^b Psalm. And as his saying is his doing: so his Benediction, or saying of some good, is his doing of some good; or (to speake properly) his augmenting, & superadding of some good; For as the first blessing, that ever fell from God, was a Crescite, & multiplicamini, a kinde of increasing, and multiplying, Gen. 1. 22: So ever since, Cum Dominus nobis Benedicit, nos crescimus, Gods Blessing of us, is an encreasing of us, saith ^c S. Augustine in his Commentary upon the 66. Psalme. And so the ^d Rabbins define Gods Blessings to be תספי תכה an Addition of some good. And Chemnitius notes, that temporall Blessings are ever expressed in the old Testament, by the Verbe יסף which signifies to Adde, or as our Saviour translates it προστίθεμαι, to adde over and above, Mat. 6. 33. And so in this place, over and above the ^e treasures of the spirit, wherewith the mind of this holy man was highly enriched, the Lord heaped upon him, and added unto him, these temporall Blessings; The Lord Blessed. From the nature therefore of the Lords Blessing in this place, I will borrow some five severall Observations, which I hope your Lordships shall not hold impertinent to this portion of Scripture.

FIrst, if Gods blessing be an overadding, it is neither pietie, nor policie (for there is a kinde of policie even in Pietie) for ^a any Nation whatsoever, to forbeare her humbling, and bowing of her selfe before her God, untill the last cast, as it were, of her fortunes, That is, untill the utmost period of her Calamities bee come, untill all Gods Graces be quite spent out, untill that Nation bee settled upon the lees, and dregges, as it were, of Desperation. For that blessing, which crownes this humbling, is not alwaies a creating, or restoring, but many times a praeventing, & super-adding of blessing upon blessing, as in this place, The Lord blessed. Be a Nation never so happy in many Circumstances; in a Prince all made of vertues; in a people full of pietie, and devotion; in a Religion well established; in a Governement politiquely founded; in a Land that floweth with milke, and honey; yet hath it not quite drawne dry all the Treasurie of Gods blessings, Hee hath still some in store: For, if God goe not in, and out with their ^b Armies, if Cadmus teeth be sowne in their land, and the Apples of Contention throwne in among them, if ^c Ephraim bee set against Manasses, Manasses against Ephraim, both against Juda; if the Prince be jealous of the People, the People suspicious of the Prince, and Achitophels practising up, and down, and putting ends upon both, then surely there is great cause of humbling, because there is great need of blessing, that is, of increasing, & super-adding new blessings still to those in the beginning, as in this place, The Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than the beginning. And so much of the first Observation.

SEcondly, if Gods outward blessings bee onely an over-adding, though our heavenly Father should (as sometimes he doth) close up his hands, and adde none of these outward blessings, yet were our Patience in time of ^a Adversity sufficiently rewarded in its owne selfe. So this holy man in my Text, before this outward blessing, Intus dives erat, was rich enough with his inward blessings, as ^b Saint Bernard writes. And had hee received no other wreath at all, yet Patientiae munere coronabatur, He was sufficiently adorned with his Crowne of Patience, saith S. ^c Gregorie. And yet every Patience will not serve our turne; for to have a carelesse, and brawnie soule, relying wholy upon imaginarie suppositions, as that there is no providence at all, as the Epicures in ^d Tullie, or if it be, that it fall no lower than the Sphaere of the Moone, as Aristotle in ^e Epiphanius, or if it vouchsafe to descend to the Earth, it relates unto none but two or three Favorites, as some in ^f Isidorus Pelusiota are of opinion, would proove but a raw, and naked blessing: So likewise that Paper-patience of the Philosophers, begotten either by former praemeditations, or by a continuall habite of suffering, or some opinion of fatall necessitie, or lastly by an abandoning of all naturall affections, is but a thinne, and bare shelter, for a man to repose himselfe, in the stormes of Adversitie. But that patient enduring of the child of God, we now speake of, when the faithfull soule staies her selfe upon Gods ^g providence, and upon an assured resolution of an happy issue in his good time, passeth in the meane while, in all securitie through the sharpe pikes of woes, and miseries, is such an admirable endowment, and portion of the spirit, as that it was reward, and blessing enough, though the Lord had no otherwise blessed the end of Job.

ANd many times, when God hath beene bountifull and magnificent in the inward, hee spares the ^a super-addition of these outward Blessings. So as wee finde whole Kingdomes, & Nations, where the Gospell is planted, and the true Religion generally embraced, not to abound for all that, as plentifully, as the heathen, which know not God, or the people which have not called upon his Name, in these outward, and ^b externall blessings. And I would to God, we were to fetch a larger compasse to finde some instances hereof, and had not so many so neere unto us, amongst our distressed Brethren of the Reformed Churches. But passages of this nature God suffereth to come to passe (saith S. ^c Augustine) for two severall reasons. First, lest the wicked should thinke, Ob has colendum Deum, That God is worshipped by people upon this ticket only, for outward blessings only. Secondly, lest the Godly should bee ever expecting of these blessings, by the mercenary way of compact, and ^d Salarie, ^e Quae non Patientia foret, sed Avaritia, which would amount, not to Christian Patience, but to a kinde of carnall concupiscence, saith S. Augustine. And this is Gods ordinary course with us now adayes, that live under the Gospell. For as before the comming of Christ, and the manifestation of his spirituall Kingdome, corporal blessings were for the most part, tendred under the law: So now sithence the incarnation of our Saviour, and the erection of his spirituall Scepter, ^f spirituall blessings are every where proposed to us in the Gospell; So as Gods children, that endure their afflictions, sent by him, as they ought to doe, are still one way, or other rewarded; Sometimes spiritually, sometimes corporally, alwaies certainely. And this ^g spirituall reward had here sufficed, though the Lord had no otherwise blessed this Holy man Job. And so much of the second Observation.

THirdly, when wee consider this blessing to bee a super-adding, wee may observe, that God sometimes, besides these inward ^a Jewels of the minde, Faith, Hope, Patience, and the like, which wee survaied but even now, doth heape upon his servants (even in the time of the Gospell) these outward favours, and blessings also, and that for many reasons. First, Ne ^b malae putentur, lest Riches otherwise, and the like outward Blessings of God, may be thought to bee evill; Evill in themselves, saith S. Augustine in his Commentaries upon the 66. Psalme. Secondly, lest the Godly, compassed with flesh, and blood, should boggle at the Religion, Worship, and Service of God, if these outward blessings were thus monopolized to the wicked onely, saith the same ^c Father in his 1. B. ad Catechumenos. Thirdly, ^d because these temporall blessings are expedient, and necessary to set many of the Vertues a going, as Charitie, Almes-giving, and the like. In which consideration Aristotle is not so justly taxed by S. ^e Gregory Nazianzen, for making riches necessary for some of the Vertues, Because they are out of all quaestion, Bonum unde facias bonum, a Good without which we cannot doe good, saith S. Augustine in his 5. Sermon De verbis Domini. Fourthly, God many times addes these temporall, because men are not able to take such exact notice, as they should, of those spirituall blessings, wherewith the Elect are ^f inwardly adorned; As here, what God did for Job, ^g fecit ut ostenderet hominibus, hee did it onely that men might observe it, saith S. Augustine in his 1. B. ad Catechumenos. For these reasons, and the like, Almighty God (besides the riches of the Spirit) rewards many times the long suffering of his Servants, with an Amalthaea’s horne, of these outward blessings; especially those, that hee knowes will ^h use them aright. Those, that (with ⁱ Job) can never eate their morsels alone, but must have the Fatherlesse taste thereof. Those, that cannot endure the poore without covering, but warme them continually with the fleece of their sheepe. Those, who suffer not the Strangers to lodge in the streete, but open their doores to the Travailers, &c. These, beside these spirituall, shall be crowned also with temporall blessings, as the Lord here blessed the end of Job. And so much of the third Observation.

FOurthly, if these temporall blessings are blessings of the Lord, those Cloister conceits of the Monckes, and Fryers, are meerely ridiculous, ^a that God loves none, but the poore, & needy, & hath praepared the Kingdome of heaven for the beggar onely, as some Maison de Dieu, or great Hospital. Salomon tels us another Story, that the rich, and the poore meet together, and the Lord is the maker of them all. Prov. 22. 2. verse.  And S. ^b Augustine, together with S. ^c Ambrose, observe, in many passages of their writings, that the Holy Ghost hath plac’t, of purpose, Lazarus, that was so poore, in the bosome of Abraham, that was so rich, Luc. 16. 22. to teach us, that both rich, and poore, noble, and ignoble, if they be indenizon’d by faith in the Kingdome of Grace, have an aequall interest in the kingdome of Glory. I will conclude this point with that passage in ^d Cassiodorus, Si pauper superbiat, non est Dei pauper, & si locuples humilitatem diligat, non est saeculi dives: voluntates enim talium sunt inspiciendae, non Nomina, If a poore man bee sturdie, and stubborne, he is none of Gods poore men, and if the rich man, bee lowly, and humble, hee is no worldly rich man, for in such you must not marke so much their outward styles, and denominations, as their inward habits, and dispositions. And so much for this fourth Observation.

FIfthly, and lastly, if these outward blessings come from the Lord; ^a Qui disponit omnia suaviter, who linckes up all his businesses in a decent, and comely method, it behooves us to observe, by what Pipes, and Conduits they are usually derived from so remote a fountaine. This wee are taught by this little Particle in the front of my Text, So, So the Lord blessed. So. These blessings are derived from God to men, so, and so; By such meanes, and conveyances, as are most beseeming the wisdome of God, and most corresponding with the nature of men. Deus enim sic administrat omnia, quae creavit, ut ea proprios quoque motus exercere sinat; It is a saying of Saint ^b Augustin, quoted by all the ^c Schoolemen, God doth so moderate, and reigle all his creatures, as hee followeth the bent, and inclination of his creatures. If a people be to be blessed, God doth it by the goodnesse, sweetnesse, and gratiousnesse of the King. If a King bee to be blessed, he doth it by the affection, love, zeale, and cheerefull supplie of the People. And in this last sense, the learned Interpreters expound this place. This greatest man of all the East, not beggar’d (which ^d Pellican fitly termes a beggarly exposition) but as ^e Shelamo Ben Iarchi prooves out of the Ancient Rabbins, impaired onely in his state, and fortunes, comes now to be supplied per modum subventionis, as Aquinas tearmes it, by ^f way of support, and subsidie. And so, according to the lawes, and customes of those ancient times, and Easterne Countries, every man, as it followeth immediately before my Text, gave him a ^g summe of money, and every man an ^h earing of gold, and so in this very sort, and manner, The Lord blessed his latter end, more than his beginning. And so much of the first part of my Text, the Efficient cause, or fountaine of this reward of our Patience in Afflictions, and humiliation under the same, which is the Lords blessing; The Lord blessed.

NOw I come to the Second part of my Text, the common, and generall subject of this reward, which relates to a person, by name Job; The Lord blessed Job. Of him I will say, as ^a Velleius Paterculus did of another, Neque nihil, neque omnia dicenda sunt, somewhat I must, and all I may not here speake; For those ordinary Quaestions, concerning Job; as whether he was descended from ^b Cain, ^c Abraham, ^d Nachor, or ^e Esau, whether he lived in the time of ^f Jacob, or of ^g Moses, or of the ^h Judges or of the ⁱ Babylonian, or the ^k Aegyptian Captivity; whether this Booke was penn’d by one of his ^l Friends, or one of the ^m Prophets, or some ⁿ Rabbin of Babylon, or by Salomon, or by his ^o owne selfe, or by ^p Moses, or by both, (as ^q Origen thinkes) these doubts are no more interessed in this peice of Scripture, than in any other part of the whole Booke; and to passe, in despight of all Logicque, the whole history of Job through one little Text, like a Camell through the eye of a Needle, were to drive out Myndo’s once more, at one of her gates, as Diogenes was wont to say. I will only touch the two ordinary Quaestions in all Artes, and Sciences, An fuit? Quis fuit? First, whether Job was a man, and, if that appeare, what kinde of man hee was, that was so blessed. For the first, as Lucian says in Dion Chrysostomus, and our late Chronologers write of the Trojans, that they fought 10. yeares in defence of ^r Helen, when then they had no more but her withered Carcasse, or bare picture, her selfe being in Aegypt, or dead long before: So the ^s Rabbins of old, and many ^t writers of latter times, will have here nothing, but the picture of Job, A lesson, an Idea, a Patterne, a Repraesentation, and a perfect example of the reward of Patience, and of true magnanimitie in great afflictions; But this phantasie, and Chymaera is easily refuted, out of bookes Canonicall, Ecclesiasticall, prophane, and reason it selfe. For the first, Ezech. 14. 14. Though Noah, Job, and Daniel were in it, &c. Now Noah, and Daniel were no Phantasies, Repraesentations, or imaginations of men, and therefore no more was Job. Againe, James 5. 10. 11. we are turn’d over to the Prophets, and Job, to take out lessons, and patternes της κακοπαθείας, καὶ ὑπομονῆς of Patience, and long suffering in those adversities, which it shall please God to send upon us; Now the Prophets were no Idea’s, conceptions, or Repraesentations of men, and consequently, no more was Job. Secondly, for Ecclesiasticall historie, we will take the booke of Tobias, commended for antiquitie by S. ^u Jerome, and S. ^v Augustine, Where in the second Chapter, and the fifteenth verse in the Latine, though not in any Greeke Copie, that ever I saw, or (I beleeve) is extant, Tobias is compared to holy Job; Now Tobias is there set out for a reall, and an Individuall man, and consequently, so was Job. Thirdly, for prophane histories, we have Aristaeus a Jew, that brings Job for a Patterne τῆς διψυχίας, of long suffering, and patience, as Eusebius cites him in his ninth Booke de praeparatione Evangelica: And ^w Averroes that famous Philosopher, and Jobs owne Countryman, that points him out, for a Patterne of magnanimity, in his Commentaries upon the fourth Booke of Aristotles Ethiques. Lastly, for Reason, I will goe no further than the first words of this ^x Booke. Erat vir, saith the Holy Ghost, Hee was a man, and therefore I cannot beleeve that he was no man, but a Morall vertue, or a Lecture of the same, which is likewise the Collection of ^y Origen, and ^z S. Chrysostome.

NOw how great a man hee was, I have had occasion heretofore to speake at large in a ^a whole Sermon, but hold it not so pertinent for this praesent purpose, unlesse your Lordships will be pleased to heare him a little ^b speake forth him selfe in the 29. Chapter of this Booke. ^c I washed my steps in butter, and the Rockes poured out Rivers of Oyle. The young men saw mee, and hidde themselves, and the aged arose, and stood up. The Princes refrained talking, and laid their hands on their mouth. The Nobles held their peace, and their tongues cleaved to the roofe of their mouth. I broke the jawes of the wicked, and pluck’t the spoyles out of their teeth &c. Surely Job, in these passages, and the like, doth Plus quàm civilia agitare, as ^d Tacitus would describe it, speake in a higher phrase, than the language of a Subject; I make no quaestion, but hee was as great, as the greatest of you all, and yet humbled himselfe in repentance, and devotion, under the hand of God, and by his ^e humbling obteined this blessing; For so the Lord blessed the latter end of Job.

ANd surely the person of a meaner, or of a more ^a private man, could never have afforded so remarkable a Patterne, either of such Patience, and Christian magnanimitie in the Sufferer, or of such bountie, and unspeakeable magnificence, in the rewarder, or blesser in this place; For (as ^b Gregory well observes) Ad majorem dolorem, damna majora, The losses of Princes, Realmes, and States, require the more ^c Fortititude (for so indeed it is) and Patience; and their recompencing againe, the more magnificence. God was desirous to leave an example to all, that should come after, how that, Pro majoribus plagis, major Corona, as ^d Chrysostome speakes, wheresoever, and whomsoever hee visited the more heavily, there, if he found ^e Faith, Patience, Repentance, Humiliation, and the Concomitant Graces of the same, he would reward againe, the more bountifully; Now no fortunes, but the fortunes of a Prince, and a whole Estate; no Patience, and Humiliation, but the patience, and humiliation of a Prince, and a whole Estate, was able to fetch off, either the deepe Cup of Gods afflictions, or that bottomlesse Sea of his outward consolations. When God is dispos’d to hang up a ^f picture in his Church, to bee well observ’d of all, that shall come after, that the People, which shall be borne, may praise the Lord, hee doth it not by limming, and painting, but by the Art of Cutting, and Embroydering. For the Painter, as your Lordships knowe, deales but in colours, ordinary colours, which, according to the strength of his imagination, he tempers, and layes out to the view of the Eye; But the Embroyderer deales in more costly matter, takes his cloth of Gold, and Silver, which hee mangles into a thousand pieces, bittes, and fragments, to frame, and set out his curious ymagerie: So Almighty God, being to adorne his Church, not with blockes, and stones, but with some rare ^g pictures of Christian vertues, workes not these in ordinary colours, but in gold, and silver, Princes, Nobles, and great Estates, whom he first mangles, and cuts into bits, and pieces, with Crosses, calamities, and deepe temptations, but afterwards, when he findes them suppled, and humbled with sorrow, and Repentance, he makes up againe into most heavenly, and Angelicall formes, and images, to bee ^h look’t on by us in the Church Militant, and to looke upon him in the Church triumphant. So Abraham a great, rich, noble, and mighty Patriarcke, was first tempted in his sonne, and then set up for an example of ⁱ obedience.  Moses another Prince, and Potentate, was first afflicted in Aegypt, and then erected in the Church, for an image of ^k meekenesse. David a King, first persecuted by Saul, and then accounted a Statue of ^l uprightnesse. Lastly, ^m this greatest man, in all the East, was first pull’d in pieces with a thousand miseries, and in the latter end blessed up, for an aeternall praesident of the reward of Patience, and true courage in Princes, & great ones; For so the Lord blessed his latter end, more than his beginning. And so much of the second part of my Text, the common, and generall subject of this reward, in this word Job; The Lord blessed Job.

NOw I come more closely to my Text againe, and fall upon the proper, and praecise subject of this reward of Patience, and Christian humiliation, which is (to speake truely, and according to Logicque) not all Job, but his latter end onely; The Lord blessed the latter end of Job. The latter end. It is observed by S. ^a Ambrose, that when God had created the heaven, the earth, the night, the day, the fowles of the Ayre, the fish of the Sea, and the beasts of the Land, hee gave his approbation, that they were good, and commended them every one in the beginning; But when he came to Man, he paws’d upon the matter, and never grac’t him with the least Commendations in the beginning; And why thinke yee? Because, saith ^b S. Ambrose, prius probandus, quam laudandus, hee was first to bee tempted, and then respectively to bee commended. And this method wee finde observ’d in this holy man Job; For although God spoke kindely of him unto others, Job 1. 8. and suffered him to tast largely of his common blessings, in the very beginning, yet had he never as much as one ^c word with Job himselfe, or afforded him any extraordinary Blessing, that the Scripture takes notice of, before his temptations were all past, before his latter end of his Booke, and the latter end of his Patience, humiliation, and repentance; The Lord blessed the latter end of Job.

THe latter end onely. For as S. ^a Bernard wittily makes the Allusion, Patientia, & perseverantia, Patience in Affliction, Repentance, and perseverance unto the end, are fellow-partners indeed in the Lords harvest, and yet though the ^b former endure the burthen, the latter onely receives the blessing; Because, as S. Augustin observes in his seaventeenth Booke De Civitate Dei, and fifth Chapter, Non in quo medio, sed in quibus extremis, every man, and every Societie, and state of men, is cursed, or blessed, not as they suffer in the middle, but as they speed in the end; The Lord blessed the end of Job. The Schoolmen make of this Perseverance unto the end (which some late Divines had rather fasten with a rope of sands to the libertie of our will, than with a chaine of Adamant to Gods steddie, & immoveable Grace, and goodnesse) not any one particular vertue, but ^c conditionem annexam cuilibet virtuti, saith Bonaventure upon the third of the sentences, a condition implied in every vertue, this being Dei Donum, quo caetera servantur dona, saith S. ^d Augustine, Gods rare, and speciall gift, which praeserves, and maintaines his other gifts; For although (as the Apostle tels us) πᾶσα δόσις ἀγαθὴ καὶ πᾶν δώρημα, the vertues, that adorne a Christian soule, ^e doe every one of them claime kindred of Almighty God, ^f et Deus est in utroque parente, and descend from him both in the one, and the other line, yet this perseverance unto the latter end, is Unica filia, saith S. ^g Bernard, his onely daughter, and heire, which carries all away; Cum enim omnes virtutes currant in stadio, sola perseverantia accipit bravium, saith S. ^h Augustine, when all the vertues, Patience, Repentance, and Humiliation have run the race, none but this Perseverance to the latter end, can get the Cuppe, I meane the Cuppe of the Lords blessings; The Lord blessed the latter end of Job. Our Saviour promised a table in heaven, not to those, that heard him, or to those, that followed him, saith S. ⁱ Chrysost. but to those onely, Qui permanserunt, who continued with him. Luc. 22. 28. And he once provided a Table on earth, to those onely, Qui perseverarunt, who persevered with him, Mat. 5. 32. to teach us, that both these Tables, that is, the blessings of the Heaven, and the blessings of the Earth, are provided for them, and them onely, which continue, and persevere in their Repentance, & Devotions, to the latter end. If a sacrifice be offered unto God, hee likes it not, unlesse it come entire, cum cauda, with his latter end, saith ^k Gregorie. If his Priests be annointed with holy oyle, it must be in extremis, in their outmost parts, and latter ends, saith S. Cyrill. If the Sonne of man appeare unto ^l John, he doth it vestitus podêre, in a long garment downe to his latter end, as Aquinas observes; And all to teach us, that if we looke for a blessing upon any of these Graces, which the holy Ghost hath stirred in us, to wit, Faith, Repentance, sorrow for our sinnes, and the like, we must cherish, and praeserve them to the latter end, for of those the Lord blesseth onely the ^m latter end. Our great Assemblies, of late, have begun very well with the Generall Devotions of Fasting, and Prayer. Who so prophane as to deny it? But out alas, Lachrymâ nihil citiùs arescit, as ⁿ the famous Orator was wont to say, Nothing dries up faster than a publique teare; It seldome continues moist a whole day. ^o Faction, Ambition, and private ends, by separating a Good King from a Good people, a good People from a good King, and so both King, and People (for the time) from the wonted benedictions of a good, and gracious God, have hitherto praevented that world of blessings, which is readie to fall upon a devout perseverance to the latter end; For, say what you will, of all our humbling, and Repenting, the Lord blesseth but the ^p latter end. And because these Blessings ever fall upon the latter end, Sathan is ever fighting against the latter end; For, as the K. of Syria commanded those 32. Captaines to fight against neither small, nor great, save onely against the K. of Israel, 1 King. 22. 31: So the Deuill commands his leading, and master-Temptations, not to fight against any, small, or great vertue, not to fight against any of Gods Graces whatsoever, save onely against this perseverance in true Repentance, unto the latter end, quam solam virtutum novit coronari, saith S. ^q Bernard, upon the which vertue onely, hee knoweth very well, the Crowne must fall, the Crowne of all Blessings temporall and ^r aeternall, as here, The Lord blessed the latter end of Job.

ANd indeed, if that conceit of the Fryars may passe for Gold, and will endure the Touch, no vertue whatsoever can expect those aeternall blessings, save onely a perseverance in Repentance, and pietie unto the latter end; For nothing, but Aeternitie, can expect to be rewarded with Aeternitie; And if we looke for a ^a blessing aeternall, which shall continue, as long as Gods beeing, wee ought to endure (not one daies Fast, and sorrow for sinne) but a ^b sorrow, and a suffering aeternall, which is to continue, as long as our being; I meane our worldly, and mortall being. So that no vertue can lay claime to this Aeternitie of God, but Perseverance unto the End, which is the Aeternitie of man, As the Lord here blessed the latter end of Job. You therefore that would climbe up to blessings, by Jacobs Ladder, & beginning at the foote therof, the blessings here on earth, get up to the top, the blessings in heaven, remember what you saw upon that ladder, There were Angels descending, and Angels ascending, but not any sitting, or ^c standing still; And therefore, if you looke to have your Fasting, your praying, your sorrow for sinne, and your other vertues rewarded by God, you must never rest then, but breath them in continuall motion, untill the time of their Blessing come, which is onely the latter end, as here; The Lord blessed the latter end of Job. And so much of the third part of my Text, the proper subject of this reward of Christian Patience, Repentance, and Sorrow for sinne, which is the latter end thereof; The Lord blessed the latter end of Job.

I Hasten now to the last part of my Text, which is the Quantitie of this Reward, and is drawne from a Comparison with those blessings, which this great man had in common with other Princes of the East, before his Affliction, and from the beginning; and these blessings of his latter end, being duely weighed, beare down the scales, & prove more than those of his beginning; The Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than his beginning. And this in many respects, which to avoid taediousnesse in this honourable Assembly, I will run over very briefly. First, all the Blessings in the beginning made Job but unum ex multis, one of Gods Children at large, amongst whom the evill, and unjust are also reckoned, Mat. 5 45. But this Chastisement, and correction toward the latter end made him Gods speciall ^a Minion, and darling, as it were, for he chastiseth every sonne, whom he receiveth, Heb. 12. 6. whom he receiveth, that is, Quem approbat, whom hee makes his whice Boy, as Theophylact interprets that place; For indeed the word, Prov. 3. 11. from whence the Apostle takes it, is ייןצא quem unicè diligit, whom he cockers above the rest of his Children, and may bee interpreted ἐν ᾦ ἐυδώκησ[…], that Sonne, in whom hee is well pleased, as Mercerus, that great Linguist, makes the Observation. You see then what height of favour, and privacie Job by this Correction, and due humiliation under the same, is got unto, and all this sithence his beginning, and therefore, The Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than his beginning.

SEcondly, in the beginning, I doe beleeve he was a great man, but I doe not reade he was a ^a Knight, your Lordships will pardon the lightnesse of the Notion, which I chose of purpose, that the Thing may be the better remembred; But in the latter end he had this honour added to be made a Knight, a Knight of the Order, I meane, Christs own Order, a Knight of the Crosse, that when ^b he should rise againe out of the Earth in the last day, and bee covered with his skinne, and see God in his flesh, he might accompanie his Redeemer unto Judgement in a fitting aequipage, adorned with his Passions, like a Collar of Pearle, and covered with his Afflictions, the Robes of the Martyrs. Now to this Addition of Honour hee was advanced in his latter end, and not in his beginning, and therefore, The Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than his beginning.

THirdly, ^a His Fame, and Renowne, which in honourable Persons, no man, without impudency, can deny for one of Gods blessings, is now much enlarged in his latter end; For, as Philostratus saith very well, that one Jupiter, set out by Homer the Poet, was worth tenne Jupiters set out by Phidias the Carver, because the former flew abroad through all the world, whereas the latter never budg’d from his pedistall at Athens : So the Fame of Job in his latter end, which is cum sole, & luna, as hee speakes, as farre spread, as the beames of the Sunne, and the influence of the Moone, extinguisheth the Fame of his beginning, confined to Husse, and a little corner of Arabia. The Devill in the beginning was faine perambulare, Job 1. 7. to compasse the world, before hee could finde him, but ever sithence, hee cannot tempt the least of Gods children, but instantly hee heares of him, saith Saint ^b Chrysostome. I confesse he was from the beginning notus Deo, knowne unto God, but now hee is become notus nobis, knowne also unto us, and a praesident for all men that expect deliverance from great afflictions, saith S. ^c Gregory. In the beginning the Holy Ghost could say no more, but Erat vir, there was such a man; In the latter end he might have said, Erat ^d Philosophus, there was such a Philosopher, and notable Christian, saith Origen. So that the Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than his beginning.

LAstly, his learning, and knowledge in the way of Godlinesse, was nothing so praegnant in his beginning, as in his latter end. Doctrina viri per patientiam noscitur, Pro: 19. 11. Patience is the best teacher of true Intelligence. The Schoole-men, ^a Hales, Aquinas, Biel, and others, when they suite the Beatitudes (The Gospell appointed for this solemne Fast) to the fruits (as they call them) of the holy Ghost, doe joyne that of Sorrow, and weeping for sinne, to Science, and knowledge, Because (say they) this Sorrow for sinne can issue from no other Fountaine, than the true faith, & knowledge of God, nor is it ever found in any man, sundred, or divided from the same. Qui addit scientiam, addit dolorem, He that encreaseth his knowledge of the faith of Christ, shall ever encrease the sorrow for his sin, as ^b S. Augustine applies that of Ecclesiastes, the 1. and the 18. verse, and so say I, è converso, Hee that encreaseth his sorrow for sinne, shall proove a great Clerke in the Schoole of Christ. It was the Gall of the Fish, that restored Tobias to his seeing, Tob. 11. 14. verse, and it is onely the Gall, and bitternesse of the Crosse, which restores a Christian to his perfect understanding, Ubi multum Crucis, multum lucis, as ^c Luther was wont to say, A Christian Soule is best instructed, when it is most scourged, and ^d afflicted. For as Joseph entertain’d his Brethren roughly, before hee was pleas’d to be discover’d by them, Gen. 45. 1: So God will have his Children exercised with roughnesse, before hee will bee perfectly knowne unto them. Job (it seemes) was no young man in the beginning, but sure hee was a young Scholar, and never put to his Christs Crosse (the reall Alphabet of true Christianity, which wee spell out by suffering, not by reading) untill his latter end; And so the Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than his beginning. And so much of my Text.

For the use thus in a word, both for the Generall, and the particular Application.

Generally.

FIrst, if a Christian man lie under any temporall losses, of Health, Wealth, Wife, or Childe, let him remember they were the blessings of the Lord, and if hee hath lost these blessings, unlesse by impatience hee ^a loose the Lord too, the Lord knoweth how to blesse him again, as here, The Lord blessed.

SEcondly, what wicked Cain said of his sinnes, that they were greater than could be forgiven, no Childe of God must thinke of those losses, that they are greater than can be given; For be hee the greatest man in all the Country, as Job was in all the East, ^a yet if he humble his soule with Prayer, and Repentance, the Lord can blesse him above all his losses, as here, The Lord blessed Job.

THirdly, if a Christian man hath expected some time to have his Patience, and Repentance rewarded, and thinkes it now long, ere this blessing fall, let him suspect he is yet in ^a his nonage, and uncapable of the same; Hee must therefore prolong his patience, and eke out his repentance, and awaite the Lords goodnesse, untill the latter end, and then, without all doubt, the Lord will blesse him, as here, The Lord blessed the latter end of Job.

LAstly, if the reward of his Repentance seeme to be already received, and the outward blessings (for all that) appeare no more, nor (peradventure) so much as in the beginning: yet let the Childe of God take along with him the observation of S. ^a Augustine, Quamvis arca exinanita sit auro, Cor tamen plenum est fide, though he hath the lesse in his chest, hee hath the more in his heart, Hee hath it in the one, or the other Alloye; If not in the riches of the flesh, yet surely in the riches of the spirit, in Faith, Hope, Patience, and Perseverance, which make him more blessed in his latter end, than it was possible hee should be in his beginning, as here, The Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than his beginning.

And so much by way of use, Generally.

Particularly.

I Would to God my Text were impertinent to my purpose, and that I could make no application at all of the Gall, and wormewood, that praeceded the same. I would the State were nothing neare that estate, that Job is made to bee in the beginning of this Book, & I little doubt ^a if our Humiliation be cordiall, true, and sincere, but it will be (in a short time) in as good an estate, as he is made to bee in the end of the Booke. I would to God, that no ^b Sabaeans had slaine our Servants with the edge of the sword, as we read, Job 1. 15. I would to God we could call to remembrance no bands of ^c Chaldaeans, that had carried away any thing, that was ours, as we reade, Job 1. 17. I would to God that no wind from the wildernesse had blowne down our houses, ^d those timber houses, that floate on our Seas, and makes us as safe in his Island, as men use to bee in Houses, as we reade was done, Job 1. 19. I would we heard of no mishaps of our ^e Children, the sacred branches of that Royall Stemme, that might any way relate to that, which we heare of, Job 1. 18. To say little by way of discourse of the principall object of our humiliation at this time, the most deplorable case of our distressed Brethren in the Palatinate, and other places, where, in regard of any free profession of the true Religion, the fire of God seems to have fallen from heaven, and to have ^f consumed all, as it doth, Job 1. 16. Lastly, to say nothing, how, in these last Parliaments, that should have yeelded her some comfort, this State of ours, by the jealousie, and distraction of her best Friends, had but too much cause to crie out ^g miserrimi Consolatores, miserable Comforters are ye all; as it is Job 16. 2. These are bitter things indeed, and sore corrosives, I confesse, to the hearts of true Englishmen; And yet for all this (Gods name bee praysed for it) Nondum ad sterquilinium redacti sumus, Our State is not yet brought unto the dunghill; Nondum versa est in cineres Troja; Although wee in our particulars doe this day, by the custome of the Church, which cals it our Ashwednesday, yet the State in generall (Gods name be glorified therefore) doth not lie in Dust, and Ashes; All her Noble parts are strong, and entire; We have a King, who is (as ^h Velleius said of Cato) Virtuti simillimus, as like Virtue it selfe, as can be partern’d in flesh, and blood; We hauve a wise, religious, and valiant Nobilitie; We have (what ever desperate, and obnoxious persons may whisper to the contrary) a dutifull, zealous, and (as I hope they will ever shew themselves) a respectfull Communaltie; Wee have a knowing, learned, and (the busie medling of some few, in some matters of no substance, excepted) a right venerable Clergie; And therefore let no man laugh at ⁱ Davids sackcloth, or mistake our humiliation; The exercise of this day doth not call upon the State to despaire, but onely to repent; Mutatus mutatum inveniet, as S. ^j Bernard speakes, let it change it selfe, and God will bee praesently changed. There is nothing but our sinning, that keepes off the Blessing, and there is nothing but a ^k serious, and continued repentance, that can breake off our sinning; A Repentance of some length, that will not fall short, but reach out, as farre as Gods blessing, which falles not upon the beginning of any spirituall Grace, or Vertue, but still upon the latter end, as here, The Lord blessed the latter end of Job, more than his beginning.

TO conclude all in a word, This Assembly began, as this Booke began, with Sorrowing, Fasting, and Prayer, as I touch’t before; But this Fasting, Prayer, Repentance, and Humiliation lasted not long enough, it reach’t not to the End; For as S. ^a Bernard speakes of Lent, Vita Quadragesima, that all our life, by right, should be a Lent: so say I of this Fast, for the sinnes of this Nation, that all our life should bee nothing else, but magnum, & generale jejunium à vitijs, a great, solemne, and continued Fast from sinne, and enormities, as ^b S. Augustine speakes; A Fast that hath not onely a Beginning, as all Fasts have, but withall an Ending, which we must not fixe upon this day, or the next day, or any day at all, ^c untill the day of Blessing shine upon us, which will bee at the latter end of our Repenting, when we shall finde, to our unspeakable comfort, that God will surely blesse the latter end of our Fast, more than the Beginning.

Which God of his infinite mercy grant, &c.