A17698:2033
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 there is yet another point which I glanced at. For those two may be put both into one. The other point then is, that they utterly deface the sovereign dominion that God hath over us. For thus do they allege: Very well, God hath ordained by his law, that we should keep his commandments, Statutes and Ordinances: but yet is it not amiss to add moreover what I my self would have done. But if a private person should fall to mingling of the inventions of his own brain, with the statutes that are set forth by public authority, should he not trouble the whole order of the Common weal? And as for such as took part with him, should they not show themselves to be rebels to their superiors?1 Now our Lord saith by his prophet Isaiah that he himself will be known to be our only lawgiver. That is a title which he challengeth to himself. Seeing then that God will be our only Lawmaker, what shall we say when men do thrust themselves into his place? Is it not more than to confound heaven and earth together? And surely Saint James ⟨p. 526⟩expresseth yet better the same thing that was said by the Prophet Isaiah.2 For he saith that there is but only one Lawgiver which is able to save and condemn. When men are set up in state and authority of making Laws to govern our souls by, I mean as touching the spiritual government; (for we treat not here of civill Laws, but of the serving of God;) when men (I say) are so highly exalted or take so highly upon them: it is all one as if they bereaved §10God of the title of Saviour and Judge. For if he be not the only Lawmaker, Saint James concludeth that he is not the only Judge, nor the party that hath power alone to condemn us or to save us. And what a presumption is it that the creature should proceed so far, as to father our salvation upon wretched carcasses and earthworms, which is to be fathered alonely upon God? So then let us mark well, that whereas Moses hath told us here that it §20is not Lawful for us to add any whit to the things that God commandeth in his Law: thereby he condemneth all the devotions that ever were invented by the world. It will seem strange why God hath so strictly forbidden men to add any thing to his Law: but ought not the reasons to suffice which I will allege? Verily the world condemneth it self by his own mouth. Hath this proverb bin invented in our time?