A17698:1194
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.
But seeing that GOD made an agreement and as it were a solemn league with Abraham,1 saying, this is the sign that I enter into covenant with thee and with thine offspring this day, namely that thou shalt inherit this land: howbeit, that shall not be presently, but thou thy self must live and dye there as a stranger, and also they that come of thee and their offspring likewise, must be sojourners in a strange land, and ⟨p. 279⟩be there vexed and grieved with continual tyranny: nevertheless they shall return thence at the end of four hundred years, and then will I perform my promise: Doth it not appear by these sayings, that God wrought in that behalf? Should any further proof be sought thereof? may not even blind folks feel it with their hands? We see then for what purpose Moses allegeth here the promise that had bin made to Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob: yea and Gods rehearsing of §10his promise again, was a larger proof thereof, so as the thing became the better known and of more authority. In deed the people are also put in mind therewithal, that this inheritance befell them not by their own policy,2 nor for any worthiness that was in themselves, nor was conquered by their own power or strength, but was given them freely of God, so as it behoved them to acknowledge that they had received it, and that their possessing of it was not §20as though they had obtained it by their own power. The Lord (saith he) promised you this land. At what time? when none of them was yet borne or bred. Then could they not have earned or deserved aught. And therefore it behoved them to acknowledge that Gods only free gift was the cause of it, and that they obtained not any thing but through his freebestowed mercy, because it pleased him so to do. For men will never sufficiently perceive themselves §30bound unto God, until they be utterly bereft of all their merits and that it be showed them that they have not any thing of their own to bring, but that it is God which doth all, not of duty, but of good will. Men must be fully persuaded of that, or else they will never duly perceive themselves to be bound unto God.