A17698:1797
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.
And in deed we be worse than blind, if we perceive not that our life hangeth as by a thread. For there needeth but the turning of a hand to dispatch us all: one conspiracy was like enough to have put the whole church of God in danger of destruction. But yet for all this God hath preserved us. And after what fashion?§20 We cannot tell. Had we any drop of wisdom, surely as oft as it came to our mind we would be astonished at it & say; Lord, how far hast thou exceeded the expectation of men! Again on the other side let us mark, let us mark I say how God hath lifted up his hand to punish such as went about to trouble the order of his Church, and to overthrow the building which he had set up by his Gospel. For it is certain that he hath punished them, to the end that we should take instruction at §30their cost. He hath bin so gracious to us as to let us see and know his vengeance, and yet we our selves have been exempted from it: not for our own deserts, (for there is none of us all, but upon due examination of his doings, he shall find him self faulty) but because it pleased God to spare us. Nevertheless he hath showed us as it were with his finger, that it is not for any man to provoke him: and that if any body step up against him, he shall find himself too hardly overmatched.§40 This (say I) hath bin told us sufficiently. But what? God worketh, and we have no eyes to see his working: & although we have, yet do we wilfully shut them against him. Yea & (to go no further,) let us apply this story to our own use. Truly I touch things as soberly as I can; but yet is not the holy scripture written to the end we should but only know what was done to the people of Israel: but to the end we should consider the likeness that is between them & us, that when the like matters §50befall among us, we might do our selves good by the warning peals that are given us by them. According whereunto S. Paul saith,1 that the things which God did at that time, are as a picture for us to look upon, to the end we should refer all to our own profit: For the end of time (saith he) is come upon us, and we see now the perfection of the things which God had but begun as then.