A17698:1141
Sermons upon Deuteronomy
The sermons of M. John Calvin upon the fifth book of Moses called Deuteronomy faithfully gathered word for word as he preached them in open pulpit; together with a preface of the ministers of the Church of Geneva, and an admonishment made by the deacons there. Also there are annexed two profitable tables, the one containing the chief matters; the other the places of Scripture herein alleged. Translated out of French by Arthur Golding.The sermons of M. Iohn Caluin vpon the fifth booke of Moses called Deuteronomie faithfully gathered word for word as he preached them in open pulpet; together with a preface of the ministers of the Church of Geneua, and an admonishment made by the deacons there. Also there are annexed two profitable tables, the one containing the chiefe matters; the other the places of Scripture herein alledged. Translated out of French by Arthur Golding.
London: printed by Henry Middleton for George Bishop, 1583
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.
Hereunto Moses addeth, that as concerning his office he had not brought them any thing of his own devising, but had set forth Gods Law faithfully according as he had given him in charge. And this protestation is well to be marked. For we must bethink us of the thing that hath been treated of heretofore: namely that Moses was the excellentest Prophet that ever §30God raised up:1 and yet notwithstanding he taketh no liberty here to teach what he himself deemed good: for he knew himself to be a mortal man, and subject to the Law as well as other men. That is the cause why he protesteth that the things which he bringeth are the same that he received of God, so as he delivereth them as it were from hand to hand. Seeing that Moses did so: who dareth say that it is lawful for him to pass further? And yet we see what hath come to pass.§40 For in the whole Popedom is there any hearkening what God sayeth, that they might put a difference betwixt it and the doctrines of men? No: but they have their holy mother the Church as they term it, they have determinations and decrees of their own, and they think it enough to take covert under the name of the Church: and in the mean while they rob God of his authority to bestow it upon men, which are no better but dung. Therefore it is an intolerable §50traitorousness, that God should not be suffered to be any more the Lawmaker that he might guide his people, and hold them under his yoke: but that men should usurp such authority against him. And therefore we have so much the more need to mark what is contained here: namely that although Moses was as an Angel of heaven, and had been exalted above all men by God, and had been forty days and forty nights with him upon the mount without eating §60or drinking, to show that he was no more of the common array of other men: yet notwithstanding when he came from that heavenly glory and as it were from the company of Angels: he humbled himself still, and showed that he did not put forth aught of his own, ne follow his own fancy in that behalf, but was contented to hearken what God said, and reported the same as a good servant that had neither added any thing, nor falsified the commission that was given him. That is another thing which we had to mark again upon this text.