Four sermons of Master John Calvin entreating of matters very profitable for our time,…Foure sermons of Maister Iohn Caluin entreating of matters very profitable for our time,…

And that therefore he exhort her not to distrust, but too be of good comfort, and if so be that he cannot win her, so soon as he would, that he therefore leave not of until he have obtained his purpose. Although that the wife be utterly against it, yet that he leave not of to deal importunately with her, until that she show herself altogether obstinate and wilful. If after he have done all that which he shall be able & can no longer remain there, he is altogether free & at liberty: for he hath performed his duty to the uttermost, & for any thing that was in him, his wife might ⟨p. 43⟩have followed him as she was bound & ought to have done, Although that such a kind of departure from the wife is no divorce: but the husband goeth before to lead his wife the way. Now concerning the wife inasmuch as she is not the head, she is bound with a more straight bond. Therefore she is bound too labour by all manner of means (as much as shall be possible for her) too persuade her husband, to the setting of both them two at liberty. When she shall have diligently performed all this as much as she shall be able, yet is she not therefore at liberty, to leave her husband too whom she is subject, unless that some persecution be raised, and that her manifest danger be in it: and specially if her husband be as it were a provoker too persecute her to death. Now then she forsaketh not her husband, but she flieth the evil which is prepared for her, and the rage of her enemies as it is permitted and granted unto her of god. To be short, the constraint and force which is done unto her, freeth and setteth her at liberty: notwithstanding no respect of the world ought to withhold the husband or the wife one from the other, but only the mutual love which they owe one to the other in God, for the procuring of each others salvation. For if the husband must forget him self concerning that which belonggeth to this earthly life and to the body, he must have no regard too any thing that any whit belongeth to him self. Let us return therefore too this estimation which David maketh of seeking the face of God, as also he speaketh thereof in the 84. Psalm,¹ saying. that it is better to live one day in the courts of the Lord then a thousand too be far from it.

And that therefore he exhort her not to distrust, but too be of good comfort, and yf so be that he cannot win her, so soone as he would, that he therefore leaue not of vntill he haue obteined his purpose. Although that the wife be vtterly against it, yet that he leaue not of to deale importunatly with her, vntyll that she shew herself altogether obstinat and wilful. If after he haue done al that which he shalbe able & can no longer remaine there, he is altogether free & at libertie: for he hath performed his duety to the vttermost, & for any thing that was in him, his wife might