A17698:1514
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.
The third reason that Moses allegeth is this: that God in setting his people in possession of the promised Land, had an eye to the promise which he had made and sworn to Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob. Hereby the Jews are put in mind, that God chose them not as more worthy, more noble, & more §60excellent than other men, as hath been showed already: but because he had made promise to their forefathers. But now let us see what cause moved and led God to give this land to Abraham and to his seed. If he had had an eye to mans worthiness: Abraham deserved much more than any other, to have been set in possession of that land. And yet contrariwise, his dwelling there was but as a stranger, he was driven out of it, and he was so far off from having of it at his commandment,1 that he was kept even from water, not only when he would have borrowed it at other mens pits, but also when he had digged pits by his own labour: both he and his successors were driven from them.2 Lo how the holy Patriarchs were tossed too and fro, and how men mocked them & did them many outrages & wrongs, and of all that while they had not one foot of ground more than a burying place. In so much that at length, Jacob was driven to pay for the ground where he lodged and pitched his tents:3 and finally constrained to go into the land of Egypt, by reason of dearth which drave him out of the land of Canaan. Now seeing that the holy fathers were not put in possession of it during their lives: shall we say that their posterity were worthier than they? No: it followeth then that Gods covenant was merely of free gift, and that he had no respect to any deserts of men. And why? Because he loved that people. We must not ask whether he found any virtue in them or no: but it must suffice us that he listed to magnify his mercy. As if he should say, I seek no cause in men to do them good. But I find it in my self. For of men that are worthy to be utterly rejected, I choose out some and take them to be my children, to the intent they should give me all the praise thereof. That is the thing which Moses had an eye unto, in alleging the covenant which God had made with their fathers. Now we know (as I said afore) that this covenant was made before these people were borne.