A17694:34
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,…
Four sermons of Master John Calvin entreating of matters very profitable for our time, as may be seen by the preface: with a brief exposition of the LXXXVII. Psalm. Translated out of French into English by John Field.Foure sermons of Maister Iohn Caluin entreating of matters very profitable for our time, as may bee seene by the preface: with a briefe exposition of the LXXXVII. Psalme. Translated out of Frenche into Englishe by Iohn Fielde.
London: printed by Thomas Dawson for Thomas Man, 1579
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.
And truly these things, the Supper of Jesus Christ, and the Popish Mass, are things no less repugnant and contrary one to the other, then the sacrifices of Moses & Jeroboam. Wherefore, whence came that dispensation to go to the Mass, under colour, that it is but an altering or disguising of the Supper of Jesus Christ? Contrariwise I say, that they which truly fear God ought too have it in a double detestation, forasmuch as it more manifestly profaneth the holy ordinance of the Son of God, then if it had not been so contrary and repugnant unto it. Let us then briefly hold this rule, that all the inventions of men, which are set up to corrupt the simple purity of the word of God, and to overthrow the service which he demandeth and alloweth, they are very sacrileges, wherewith a Christian man may not communicate, without blaspheming of God: that is to say, without treading his honour under his feet. I know very well that this rigour will seem hard and intolerable to them that would have a man to handle them according to their appetite. But what would they that I should d•• herein, knowing them to be so delicate? I would •••re them if it were possible for me. But yet must bo•• I and they suffer condemnation, when God once speaketh: They say they find no man more severe herein then I am. But I would them to understand, that hitherto I have handled them but too gently, which being so, they cannot be exempted from that which the Prophet Jeremiah requireth of the Jews,1 who were Captives in Babylon. It was not only forbidden them to go to the abominations of the Chaldeans, or to make show to consent unto ⟨p. 7⟩them: but an express commandment is given them, to show that they should count it a most vile and filthy savour. His words are these: You shall say unto them. The Gods which have not made Heaven and earth, shall perish from the earth, and from under the Heaven. There is one circumstance worthy to be well marked, that the Prophet having written his Book in Hebrew coucheth this verse in great Calda•y letters: as though he had pressed the Jews to change their language, to the end to show more plainly the disagreement they had with the idolaters.