A17698:2019
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.
Moreover we see by this text, that it is but a simple shift to say, Other men do so as well as I: and yet a great number of silly souls beguile themselves with it even at this day. If a man warn the Papists of their superstitions, to bring them to Gods trueth; O (say they) I am not alone, there be many others in the world. They bear themselves in hand that they may by and by disappoint God, with the multitude of their partakers. But Moses telleth us here, that all shall be tied together in one bundle, and one of them shall not help to acquit another or to diminish another's fault, but that all of them shall be rooted out together, according to this saying of our Lord Jesus Christ,1 If the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch. What shall I have gained by it, when a great number of people shall have perished with me? Then let us not think our faults the lighter for the greatness of the number of them that offend with us: but rather let us mark on the contrary part, that there is not a worse thing than evil custom: and it is the thing that we had need to beware of as long as we live in this world. For we see very few of that sort of men which guide us the right way; but on the contrary part the multitude is infinite of those that thrust us out of the way: so as if we lean unto men, we shall scarcely find one among a hundred, which walketh aright, but all of them do go astray. Also when the Prophet Isaiah speaketh of the disorders that reigned everywhere,2 he sayeth no more but that every man had turned aside ⟨p. 522⟩after his own ways. Whereby he doeth us to understand that we need not to be beguiled by others, for every of us beguileth himself too much. Therefore when men follow their own imaginations, then are they quite and clean out of the way of salvation. And sith it is so that we shall find very few that can amend us, and all the rest do but draw unto evil: what shall become of us if we ground our selves upon custom? If we say, O, there be thus many §10and thus many that take this or that to be good: yea, but God misliketh it, and it makes no matter what men do, for we see they be all given to naughtiness, and are corrupted in their understanding. Again, their hearts are full of malice, so as they drag clean back from that which God hath showed them.