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An epistle both of Godly consolation and also of advertisement writtenAn epistle both of Godly consolacion and also of aduertisement written
An epistle both of Godly consolation and also of advertisement written by John Calvin the pastor & preacher of Geneva, to the right noble prince Edward Duke of Somerset, before the time or knowledge had of his trouble, but delivered to the said Duke, in the time of his trouble, and so translated out of French by the same Duke.An epistle both of Godly consolacion and also of aduertisement written by Iohn Caluine the pastour & preacher of Geneua, to the right noble prince Edvvarde Duke of Somerset, before the tyme or knoweledge had of his trouble, but delyuered to the sayde Duke, in the time of his trouble, and so translated out of frenshe by the same Duke.
London: printed by W. Baldwin?, 1550
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Considering that, and forasmuch as ⟨image 10⟩his hand is not now any shorter than it was than, and that he hath at this day in so great recommendation the defence of his people, truth and verity, as ever he had: Doubt ye not, but that he will help you, and not only for one time, but in as many temptations as he shall send unto you. If the most part of the world resist the Gospel, and likewise enforceth themselves, with all rage and violence, to impeach and hinder the setting forth thereof:1 We ought not to think it strange. For it is the unthankfulness of men, which ever have been and shall be, to recoil when GOD approacheth to them, ⟨image 10⟩and also to stumble against him, when he will charge them with his yoke. Moreover, for that of their nature they be given to hypocrisy, they may not endure to be brought to the light of the word of GOD, which discovereth their infamy and shame, nor to be drawn out of the superstitions which serveth unto them as hiding places, for to give them shadow. It is then no new thing, if there be great contradiction, when one goeth about to bring them to the pure obedience of GOD.2 And also we have advertisement of our Lord Jesus, the which sayeth to us, that he hath brought the sword ⟨image 11⟩with his evangely. But this must not astonish us, nor make us worse willing or fearful: for in the end when men shall have well mutinied and put forth all their malices, they shall be confounded in a moment, and shall overthrow themselves, with their own violences. It is true (as it is said in the second psalm) that god shall not but laugh at their stirrings,3 that is to say, that in dissimulyng he shall leave them tormented, as the thing touched him not. But for all that, in the end they shall be always driven back by his power, of the which if we be armed, we have a good perfect and ⟨image 11⟩