A17698:3207
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.
I Have declared already at large, how men ought to live in agreement with their wives, and how the bond of marriage is such as cannot be broken. It remaineth now, that we come to the exception which our Lord Jesus Christ maketh; to wit,1 that for the cause of adultery, it shall be lawful for a man to put away his wife. The reason is, for that the man on his part breaketh not the faith which he plighted, but the wife having played the harlot doth as much as in her is, ⟨p. 840⟩undo the marriage altogether, and so defileth it▪ as there remaineth no longer any holiness in it. For on what other condition is the husband joined unto the wife, but that they should live chastely one with another? But the party which committeth adultery, breaketh this condition, and therefore the bond of marriage is then untied. So then if a man knowing his wife to be a whore, and having likewise proved her such a one, for sake her: he violateth not the institution §10of God, neither transgresseth he this law▪ They shall be two in one flesh:2 but he is quit, and set free, because the wife hath swerved aside from the order of God and of nature. Let us therefore note well, that when our Lord Jesus Christ alloweth the divorcement which is made for the cause of adultery, it is not to grant a man leave to change any thing in the institution of God. For it must ever hold true, That man may in no wise sunder those whom God hath joined together.§20 But because the woman hath broken the condition of marriage, the husband is freed from it. The thing then which we have to bear in mind is that the exception which we here have rehearsed, serveth not in any way to lessen the force of the law of God. That conjunction which God hath ordained must always remain firm and steadfast. But she that playeth the harlot, is no longer a wife, she is no longer to be taken & deemed for such a one. Now if a man demand §30on the other side, whether the woman for her part hath like liberty, we hear what Saint Paul saith, that like as the husband is not master of his own body,