A sermon of the famous and Godly learned man, master John Calvin chief Minister…A sermon of the famous and Godly learned man, master Iohn Caluine chiefe Minister…

Wherefore the faithful ought to hold themselves assured into whose hands soever they shall come, that God hath not cast of the safeguard which he hath of their persons, If such a persuasion were well imprinted in our hearts, we should be delivered from the most part of doubts and perplexities that torment and hinder us from doing our duty. We see that Tyrants are let lose: and hereupon it seemeth to us that God hath no further mean to save us: For this cause we are tempted to provide for our selves, as though there were no more waiting upon him. But contrariwise his providence which he hath declared unto us is such, as ought to be unto us an inuinsible fortress.¹ Let us therefore labour to learn this short sentence, that our bodies are in his hands who hath created them. For this cause he hath sometimes delivered his own after a miraculous manner, ⟨p. 17⟩and beyond all hope of men, as Sidrach-Meshach and Abednego, from the fiery furnace, Daniel from the Lyons den, Peter from Herod's prison, where he was enchained, fettered & kept so straightly. By these examples he would testify unto us,² that he holdeth our enemies bridled, though it seem not so, and hath power to draw us out, even from the mouth and middest of death when he will. Not because he always doth it: but by keeping unto himself the authority of disposing of us both in life & death, he would have us fully resolved that he hath us in his keeping: in such sort that whither soever Tyrants look, or with what fury soever they rush upon us, that it is from him only who is the orderer of our life. If he suffer Tyrants to kill us,³ it is not because our lives are not dear unto him, and in greater recommendation an hundred fold then it is worthy, seeing it is so, that he hath pronounced by the mouth of David,⁴ That the death of his saints is precious before him, and saith he also by the mouth of Isaiah: That the earth shall disclose the blood which seemed to be bidden. Let the enemies therefore of the Gospel, be as ⟨image 19⟩