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,…

Too which agreeth that which is said in the 78. Psalm,¹ that God hath rejected Shiloh the tribe of Ephraim, ⟨p. 55⟩the tabernacle, of Joseph that he might dwell in Zion which he had loved, Let us mark well also the cause which the Prophet mentioneth here, why God hath preferred one certain place, before all others: to wit, not for the worthiness of the place, but for the mere love which he bare unto it, wherefore if any man ask, whence this excellent privilege that Jerusalem had came, that it should be called the holy City of God, and his royal Palace: the answer is easy and short, and that is because it hath so pleased God. This pleasure is as it were, the fountain and root of his love. The end as he showeth was, because he would have there some place, wherein his religion should have dwelling to nourish an assured unity of faith amongest the Jews, until the coming of our Lord Jesus: and that in the end the Gospel should spring from thence, too be published throughout the whole world. And thus the Prophet to magnify the City of Jerusalem saith, that God is the founder thereof, and that he there ruleth as the governor. But to the end that men should not take occasion too be proud of such an honour, he addeth and showeth, that all the excellency which Jerusalem hath, must be attributed too the mere grace and adoption of God. In that he putteth Zion for the whole City, and the gates for the whole wall and compass of the City, it is by taking a part for the whole. By the mountains, whereof he speaketh in the plural number, they understand commonly Zion, & Moriah, which butted either upon other. Now although I do not utterly reject this exposition, yet me thinks one might extend this word further: too wit, to the whole region. For Jerusalem was situated among mountains.