A17698:1393
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.
God, to humble them and to make them meek, subdueth them and overmastereth §40them as they deserve.
God, to humble them and to make them meeke, subdueth them and ouermastereth §40them as they deserue.
True it is that God could confound them at the first blow, and make them to feel such a heavenly force, as were able to daunt the whole world: but he will not deal so with them. Howe then? He undermines them by such means as they never thought of: and that is to scorn their fond overweening the more, which made them worse than mad, and wherewith they had been besotted before. And that §50is the cause why he sent flies and other vermin upon Egypt, rather than raised his Angles to destroy the Egyptians. It is true that God wrought all manner of ways to make them feel his power. He sent darkness, he turned the waters into blood, and in the end an Angel came and slew all the first borne of their houses. This was well done. But yet Gods meaning was to pull down the pride of Egypt, by sending vermin to consume them. Lo what §60men of war God chooseth to wage battle for him, when he listeth to laugh mens loftiness to scorn, and to spite them that they may be ashamed of it. For by means thereof they come to know themselves, whereas erst they forgot themselves,1 and bare themselves in hand that their own power was wonderful. And indeed when we read that Herod was so consumed of worms: it ought to put us in mind, that God sent him a punishment sit for him, because he had suffered men to call him a God. He was not contented with the degree of a mortal man: but he would needs imagine that he could transform himself. Therefore it was meet that he should be abased beneath all men, and that the filthiness of his body should make him drop in pieces, so as he should seek to murder himself with his own hand. Now then Gods handling of him after that fashion, is to humble him the better. And when we read this present text, let us look that we live in the fear of our God: and then we may be sure of his help, so as we may live not only among Wasps and Hornets and other such vermin, but also even among Dragons and wild beasts, according as it is said in the fourscore and eleventh Psalm,