A17698:1828
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 let us come to the word that Moses addeth; which is, I will give. Here he speaketh in the person of God. He had said afore, look that ye obey the commandments which I set before you, & the Lord your God will bless you. And now he saith: I will give, as though he himself were god. It is not without cause that he changeth the person after that fashion: for it serveth to give the greater authority to his doctrine, & to make it to be the better received. For we be inclined to such contempt & scornfulness, that when God speaketh unto us by men, we make no account of it, because his word is preached unto us by mortal men. Behold, a man speaketh in the pulpit, & we be not touched with his doctrine as were requisite. It ought to have there a heavenly majesty; and we be so dull and gross, that we perceive not how it is God that speaketh there. In this respect Moses saith here; I will give thee: and yet for all ye, he was not able to give them one drop of rain. And what is his giving then? Verily he showeth that his speaking is not of himself, but of ⟨p. 469⟩God, and therefore that we must receive it as if God had spoken it with his own mouth, and had showed himself in visible shape, and uttered his glory to the eye. Let us mark well then that in this text we be done to understand, that when we come to the hearing of a sermon or to the reading of the holy scripture, we must not bring deaf ears with us to be no whit moved at the words, nor to be quickened up by the commandments and exhortations that are §10given us there: but we must yield our selves unto our God, assuring our selves that although he serve his turn by men as his instruments, yet is it he himself that sendeth the message and authoriseth the word, according to this saying of our Lord Jesus Christ:1 He that heareth you heareth me, and he that receiveth you receiveth me. And whosoever rejecteth you, rejecteth me also, and likewise my father that sent me. Ye see then how it is an open rebelling §20against God, when we disdain to hear his word that is preached unto us by men, and to hear it with as much humility as if he himself came down unto us, or as if he sent it us by the Angels of heaven. That is the matter which Moses meant to show here.