A17698:3653
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, when he sayeth that these curses shall take hold of us; it behooveth us to remember that which was spoken of here before.1 For in speaking of the blessings of GOD, he said; Thou shalt be compassed round about; and now he doeth in like wife join the curses in the same manner, so that we may not think to escape the hand of God. Howe sly so ever we be, we shall be always entrapped, it will not boot us to seek s•art•ngholes, according to this saying of his by his Prophet, If thou go into thy house, and shut thy door and double bar it,2 yet shall the serpent come in and sting thee there: If thou go into the field, & seek means to escape, thou shalt meet with a lion upon the way: if thou slip aside from the lion, ⟨p. 964⟩a Bear shall meet thee, and to be short, whatsoever men do, when God is against them, & is become, as it were, their enemy, they must needs find that they be surprised, caught, and entrapped, and environed round about with these curses, without any hope to get out. Therefore, let us not deceive our selves in seeking worldly means to save us: for if the hand of God be lifted up against us, (as we shall see in the song here at hand) He hath his storehouse §10full of rods,3 and not of three or four sorts only, but of infinite: and if we suppose that we are escaped, when we have overcome some one evil; then we deceive our selves: for God hath by and by an hundred moe. Let us then look for all manner of woe, if we obey not Gods law. But it were a miserable appeal if we should come unto God by compulsion, only for fear of his punishments. What must we then do? We must submit our selves willingly §20unto him, praying him to keep us from procuring his wrath, and from warring against him, and from enforcing him to come to defy us. That were as if some petty lord would attempt war against a great Prince; having neither strong town, nor munition, nor ought else: and yet would needs presume to defy one that is able to swallow him up, if he did but lift up his finger against him; and were not that a madness? Likewise, when we provoke our