A17698:2508
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.
And whereas God forbiddeth his people to have any stranger to be their king: there are two reasons which we ought to mark well. The one is that that kingdom was a Sacrament of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore it was not meet that it should have come to the hand of an unbeliever or idolater: for that had bin a defiling of holy things. If heathen kings reigned over their like, it was not to be wondered at. For although some unbelieving kings reigned over the people of Israel by Tyranny,1 as was done by the Babylonians and afterward by the kings of Assyria: yet doth it not follow but that there was always this exemption, that God had still a peculiar kind of reigning, whereby he showed as in a looking glass, they that people was gathered together as into his own house. Therefore if a stranger had bin set up in the seat of David, it had been treachery against God, & the reproach had bin offered to God and to his only son. For when the kingdom was stablished in the line of David, this promise was added; I will be his father,2 and he shall be my son. And the Apostle declareth that it was so honourable a title that it belonged not even to the Angels. True it is that the Angels are sometimes called the sons of God: howbeit, that is not without an addition; whereas Christ hath it, because he is preferred before all creatures. Now then, ⟨p. 648⟩had they chosen an idolater, and set him up in the seat which God had reserved for his own only son, who was established in his infinite grace, who was the mark of his divine majesty, and who was above all the principalities of the world, yea and above heaven it self as in respect of the creatures;3 as the Apostle speaketh of him, in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Colossians: what a thing had that been? Had it not been an unnatural confusion, and too shameful a defiling §10of the grace of GOD? Then let us mark that for the first reason why GOD would not have a stranger to sit in the seat of David.
And whereas God forbiddeth his people to haue any straunger to be their king: there are two reasons which we ought to marke well. The one is yt that kingdome was a Sacrament of our Lord Iesus Christ, and therefore it was not meete that it should haue come to the hande of an vnbeleeuer or ydolater: for that had bin a defiling of holy thinges. If heathen kings reigned ouer their like, it was not to be wondred at. For although some vnbeleeuing kinges reigned ouer the people of Israell by Tyranny,