A17698:1446
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.
Now then we have to mark, that if GOD give us abundance, our minds must not be wedded to it: for can the bread quicken us, seeing it is a dead thing? Although God use it as an instrument, it is not to deface his own commendation, no more than when he giveth us light by §40the Sun. For we know that in the creation of the world, light was made before the Sun was created. And why? To the intent we should not convey the honour of God unto creatures. Therefore let us so use the light of the Sun, as we acknowledge therewithal, that there is but only one God, to whom the glory of that benefit ought to be yielded. And when we have bread to eat, it is not the bread that sustaineth us, but it is God, who poureth out his §50goodness continually upon us. Although he apply those means to our use: yet is it he himself that worketh, it is he that is the author of them. And in that respect is it that he saith he will break the staff of bread.1 True it is that he threateneth to shut up the heaven as if it were iron, and to make the earth to be of brass, so that when the earth crieth out to the heaven, the heaven shall not hear it. God then when he intendeth to send barrenness upon a land,§60 useth such means as he thinketh good: by reason whereof we have not wherewith to sustain our selves: in so much that when the ground hath borne a harvest good and great enough, yet will God well enough diminish it and make it to moulder away, yea and when the corn is carried to the mill, it shall consume in the grinding: and when it is brought from the mill to the oven, if it be measured or weighed again,2 it shall not hold full weight and measure. Howbeit, we must come to this point, that the strength which bread hath, is not of the bread it self, but of Gods breathing of this word into it whereof Moses speaketh here: that is to wit, that when God will have us to be nourished and sustained by the bread, he uttereth his goodness towards us, by making us to feel his blessing which sheddeth it self into it after a secret fashion. Albeit that we behold it not with our eyesight, yet must we be throughly persuaded of it by faith. Then let us mark well, that when we have whereof to feed, we must not be so doltish as to think that the power is enclosed in the bread or in any other victuals or drinks: