A17698:1892
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.
but also because he is incomprehensible, & his majesty passeth all our understanding: he will have us to look upon him in his lively image, that is to wit in our Lord Jesus Christ.1 He is the son of god, which hath showed himself so familiarly, that we may be sure enough that we worship the living God forasmuch as we know that the whole fullness of glory & of the Godhead dwelleth in him.2 That is the cause also why the Prophet Isaiah speaking of him, saith, Lo this is he, lo this is our god. If the case stood so with the fathers of old time, that it behoveth them to stand upon a certainty even in the time of the law, so as God would not have his people hang in doubt, but that they should be certified of as much as was for their behoof & benefit: much more ought we to be sure nowadays. For we have a larger discovery of things in our Lord Jesus Christ, so as the voice of the prophet Isaiah; Lo this is he; lo this is our God, ought to sound continually in our ears; by ⟨p. 486⟩reason whereof it is not for any man to turn away from it, nor to run gadding at rovers, nor to reel one way or other; but we must know & assure our selves that we have the full & perfect measure of all wisdom, if we can hold us to Jesus Christ, & to the things which his doctrine teacheth us. But herein we see how the wretched world gaddeth up & down, every man trotting after his own way, so as every mans will is to go astray: & yet notwithstanding we shield our selves with ignorance.§10 When we have shut our eyes after that fashion against the light, when we have stopped our ears against the doctrine of salvation, when we have turned our backs upon him at his showing of his face, & when we have spit at him for his reaching of hand unto us: yet we fall still to excusing of our selves by ignorance. So then the thing which we have to remember here in this place, by Gods upbraiding of men with their turning away from his word when it is preached unto them; is that §20their so doing is through a devilish stubbornness, & that (even by the witness of their own consciences) it is a worshipping of gods which they have not known. For our faith must not be uncertain, it must not be an opinion or weening, but it must bring a sure knowledge with it. And what manner of knowledge?