A17690:470
Divers sermons of Master John Calvin, concerning the divinity, humanity, and nativity of our…Diuers sermons of Master Iohn Caluin, concerning the diuinitie, humanitie, and natiuitie of our…
Divers sermons of Master John Calvin, concerning the divinity, humanity, and nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ as also touching his passion, death, resurrection, ascension: together with the coming down of the holy Ghost upon his Apostles: and the first sermon of S. Peter. The order of which you shall find in the page ensuing.Diuers sermons of Master Iohn Caluin, concerning the diuinitie, humanitie, and natiuitie of our Lorde Iesus Christe as also touching his passion, death, resurection, ascention: togeather with the comming downe of the holy Ghoste vpon his Apostles: and the first sermon of S. Peter. The order of which you shall finde in the page ensuing.
London: printed by Thomas Dawson for George Byshop, 1581
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Since then it is so, although on the one side we are miserable transgressors, and therefore not worthy to come near unto God, yet when we by the mean of the Gospel, do embrace through faith the promises therein contained, then may we present our selves unto the Lord, because he will not only accept us, forasmuch as his only Son hath made intercession for us, but that we may also at this day call upon him, and be likewise, as he himself saith, Companions with him,1 for these are his words, Behold me, and the servants which thou hast given me. He offereth himself here in the first place (as hath already been declared in the viii. Chapter) and then bringeth with him his whole company. Now it is said, that he, and all the company which were given unto him, were there ready to worship God his Father. And therefore there is no doubt but that we shall all be linked together in this prayer, & in all the praises & thanks giving unto the Lord, and that Jesus Christ doth as a man would say, pour out and become as it were, the chief chanter, to bring us into our prayers, so that by his mean the sound of our voices do in such sort join together, as that they make very sweet & pleasant harmony. For, when we & the Angels of heaven shall pray together to God, will not this be a most excellent privilege? But, when the son of God will vouchsafe to be so familiar with us, as to say, come your ways, & I will be your spokes man, would not this marvellously ravish us? Moreover, his was figured in the Law whenas the high Priest did not only offer unto God the Sacrifices, but joined also with them prayers & supplications. And therefore under the ancient shadows, no Priest could make intercession unto god, ⟨p. 145⟩and be made acceptable without the shedding of blood: howbeit, he joined also with blood prayers, that the sins of the people might be forgiven, and that God might receive such to mercy, as were worthy to be rejected. Thus we see that our Lord Jesus Christ hath taken away the figures of the law, and hath fulfilled and ended them in his own person. That is, he hath offered up blood for the washing away of our sins, not the blood of Calves,2 and sheep, as the manner was in the law, but even his own precious blood, which was consecrated by the holy Ghost, to the end we might be wholly sanctified by him.