A17698:1842
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 he addeth immediately, that men should lay up the things in their hearts which he telleth them,§40 & that they should make a continual monument of them: as if it were of bracelets about their wrists, or of attires on their heads, or of devices in writing at the entrance of their doors: so the intent they might occasion them to think upon the law of God; so as at their rising in the morning, & as their going to bed at night, men should talk & confer of it, that their children might learn thereby. Hereby Moses showeth yet better, that unless men be held as it were by force, they will soon start away from God: Like as when §50a man thinks he hath made a Fox tame, if he let him alone but one half day, he returns again to his kind by and by. Even so is it with us. We be so wild, that although it may seem for a time that we be throughly brought home unto God, & very well reformed: yet in the turning of a hand all is quite forgotten. And therefore our Lord is fain to put us in remembrance, (as he doth in this text) & to quicken us up to enforce our selves to seek all the means and helps that may §60be, to hold our selves in awe under his obedience. That is the cause why he saith, that folk should make them frontlets as ornaments of their heads. Whereas men do commonly wear brooches, buttons, & such other things, & women wear billiments of gold and other costly attires upon their heads: the attire of the faithful must be to have some remembrance of Gods law. In stead of bracelets & other fine toys to apparel & deck our selves withal; we must use such an attire as may teach us to garnish our souls, yea & to give our selves wholly to God, & to submit our selves altogether to his word. In stead of the having of gay things to furnish our houses withal for delight, we must have some such thing as may put us in mind to say, These are the things that our God calleth us unto, he will never have us to forget him. And if we have overshot our selves, so as our minds do wander abroad, he calleth us home again, & telleth us that we must not range so after our own vain fancies. Thus we see the sum of that which is contained here. We have had the like saying in the sixth Chapter.1 But yet this showeth us more expressly, that it is not enough for us to have withdrawn our selves for once from our vain and wandering imaginations: