A17698:3529
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.
Now it is added afterward Cursed shall he be which plucketh up his neighbours buttals, [Meres, or Landmarks.] We must always bear in mind that which I have told you already; namely that here under one kind. GOD comprehendeth §10all. And I expounded therewithal, that if the bounds of mens Lands be not kept certain, no man shall be Master of his own possessions, but all shall go to spoil and havoc. And surely the having of just weights and measures, the maintaining of lawful money, and the keeping of bounds and buttals unchanged; are things that have been ever privileged. For how might men buy and sell, or use any trade among them; if the coin be §20not lawful? Again, if weights and measures be falsified; in what taking are we? To what purpose shall Justice serve any more? To what end shall all the laws in the world serve? As much is to be said for bounds, buttals, meres, & landmarks. So then, under this saying God meant to show, that it behooveth us to observe equity and uprightness in dealing one with another. True it is that laws are made for the punishing of such offences; insomuch that if any man §30do shift or remove his neighbours buttell, he shall not be discharged by setting it in the right place again, and by making amends for the harm that he hath done; but he shall be openly punished also as for a heinous crime. As much is to be done for the falsifying of weights, and for the having of wrong measures. As touching the counterfeiting of Coin, if a man have used it, it is not enough that he pay back that which he hath wrongfully taken; but he must §40also die for it; and good reason. For otherwise (as I said) all laws were to be abolished. And it were better for us to be wild beasts, than to live without those means which God hath ordained and nature also hath taught us. But put the case that some man do defraud his neighbour, be it by false measure or by some other wicked practice, and that he seek to advantage himself by an other mans loss, & the magistrate knoweth nothing thereof, by means whereof it §50scapeth unpunished: yet is it showed us here, that in the end it must needs come to account before the heavenly Judge. If a poor man be put from his right, or oppressed by authority, violence, or otherwise, and dare not say a word to it;