A17698:2582
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.
WE have seen how our Lord, to make his word prevail among the Jews, hath willed them to put away all superstitions §60from among them. For in very deed the trueth of God cannot be coupled with Satan's lies & corruptions: we must be either altogether the ones or altogether the others. Also I have declared unto you, that this order of Preaching Gods word, must be observed to the worlds end. In doing whereof I have reserved hitherto the declaring of the several sorts of the superstitions that are set down here: First of all it is said That the Jews must not make their children to pass through the fire. And it may be taken two ways. For we know they were carried away with such rage, that they burnt their children in sacrifice, & that was a terrible thing. But ye may see how foolish the devotion of men is, when they estrange themselves from God. Needs must they be bereft of ⟨p. 668⟩all humane sense, and needs must the devil possess them & drive them into such fury as is horrible to all men. Yet notwithstanding, this mischief befell among the Jews, that they sacrificed their children to Moloch. But there was yet an other fashion of making their children to go through the fire, whereof Moses doeth rather speak in this place, according to the observing thereof among the heathen. They termed it a manner of purging or cleansing when §10they used such Ceremonies. As for example, there have remained some remnant thereof in the Popedom, in their Bonfires on Midsummer night. They had such a kind of witchery as they did bear themselves in hand, that it was a kind of purging to go take the air of that holy fire (as they esteemed it) in going about it. But our Lord putteth such superstitions among the number of enchantments. Likewise the Papists have their holy water: and what else is §20that than a kind of cleansing invented by them selves to set against the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and against Baptism, which is the true sign thereof? Then let us mark well that here our Lord condemneth all manner of purgings or cleansings which men devise of their own brain, when they will be cleansed by any other mean than he hath ordained, which is, by the only sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by receiving the records and assurances of the same §30by the Sacraments. True it is that the Sacraments of themselves have not this power in them to make men clean: