A17692:120
Four godly sermons against the pollution of idolatries comforting men in persecutions, and teaching…Foure godlye sermons agaynst the pollution of idolatries comforting men in persecutions, and teachyng…
Four godly sermons against the pollution of idolatries comforting men in persecutions, and teaching them what commodities they shall find in Christs church, which were preached in French by the most famous clerk John Calvin, and translated first into Latin and afterward into English by divers godly learned men.Foure godlye sermons agaynst the pollution of idolatries comforting men in persecutions, and teachyng them what commodities thei shal find in Christes church, which were preached in French by the moste famous clarke Ihon Caluyne, and translated fyrst into Latine and afterward into Englishe by diuers godly learned men.
London: printed by Rouland Hall, 1561
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.
But all these yet imagine, how they may set before their eyes those impediments whereby they may stop the way whereby they should come unto GOD, that is to say: Though they do not find the matters so hard and intricate as they make them: Yet will they cover them selves gladly with what cloaks they can. And when they have poured forth these grievous & ⟨image 88⟩miserable complaints they think that they have stopped Gods mouth, and that he doth them great injury if he still charge them as though he would compel them to those things which were not possible to be done. Truly I have nothing to answer to these things but that which is written in the psalm .lxxxiiii. that is that the faithful passing by the valleys and dry wilderness that want all water, will dig themselves pits and cisterns. And I think this sufficient to overcome them that will not resist God of obstinate malice. Wherefore they that see themselves so beset with so great discommodities & dangers that they can see no way nor path to go by, must remember that even the desert places, wherein there is no drop of water to be gotten ought not to let their journey. And that we may understand this sentence more sensibly & plainly, we must mark that Gods purpose is to be sought of his children, not by the green meadows that may delight them with variety of sweet flowers, neither by the sweet arbres and pleasant shadows: but by rough and steep ways by hills and dales by ditches & sand pits, by barren ⟨image 88⟩countries and waste wilderness: and all this is done for that purpose that their faith may be exercised and that their fervent zeal and desire to come unto him may be proved and tried. Wherefore though we can not come unto God, but that we must pass by some wilderness and waste and wild desert by the way, let us know that this is not the first time that God dealeth so with his faithful and let us prepare our minds and fully determine to follow them who have gone a long time before us.
But all these yet imagine, howe they maye sette before theyr eyes those impedimentes whereby they maye stoppe the waye whereby they shoulde come vnto GOD, that is to saye: Though they do not fynde the matters so harde and intricate as they make them: Yet wyll they couer them selues gladly wyth what clokes they can. And when they haue powred forth these greuous & ⟨image 88⟩