A17692:42
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
Sermon 2: The .ii. sermon conTEINING AN EXHORTATION to suffer persecution, that we may therein fo…
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.
We must chiefly consider how precious & honourable the confession & testification of our faith is before god ⟨image 31⟩For we do little know, how god doth esteem this confession, when our life which is of no value, is more set by & dear unto us. Wherein our wonderful and beastly foolishness is showed: for we can not in this sort spare our life, but we must needs confess that we set more thereby, then by gods honour and our own salvation. A certain heathen man could use this saying, that it is a miserable thing, to forsake & betray the causes why we life for the conservation of life. Yet he and his like did never know truly to what end men were set in the world, and wherefore they lived therein. They might well say, that virtue is to be esteemed and followed, & that we ought to live an honest life without blame. But all their virtues were nothing else but colours and shadows. But we have better understanding, whereunto our life must be referred, which is, that we honour god, with all praise and glory, that he himself may be our glory. Without him, our life is miserable, the which we can not continue the least moment, but we shall heap upon our selves, a perpetual malediction. And yet we are nothing ⟨image 31⟩ashamed for the winning of a few days, for this feeble life, to refuse the eternal kingdom, & to separate our selves from him, by whose power we are continued in this life. If a man should examine the most unlearned, yea those whose wit is so dazed, and whose life is so voluptuous, that they be most like to brute beasts, what manner of life is appointed them, they durst not say plainly & openly, that it should consist only in eating, drinking, and sleeping. For they know that they are created to a better, worthier and more higher thing: which is nothing else, but to serve and honour god with all kind of honour, & to suffer our selves as good children to be ordered and ruled by our most benign father, that after the end of this frail and unsure life, we may be received into his eternal heritage. In the appointing & winning of this end, consisteth the chefest and greatest point of our felicity, yea all the whole weight of everlasting life. But when we carry our minds and thoughts another way, & do snatch fast hold of this present life worse than a thousand deaths, what excuse can we have? ⟨image 32⟩For, to live and be ignorant of yt causes wherefore we live, is unnatural.