A17698:3731
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.
Because that things be so greatly confused in this world, that it is heard to discern who they •ee whom God meaneth to punish for their sin•or to whom he meaneth to show his love: Moses saith expressly, that God will send such §60apparent tokens upon them that be stubborn against him, as shall be wonderful to them: Insomuch as they shall be compelled to understand, that the same cometh to pass neither by fortune, nor by common mean; but that they be extraordinary things, and that God doth show forth his power therein. It is true (as we have said heretofore) that at the first sight it cannot be well discerned, who they be whom God loveth, and who they be whom he misliketh: because that (as Solomon saith) both the good and the evil is common unto all. He that serveth God doeth some times prosper;1 and oftentimes he is afflicted: And so is a despiser of God also. This is the cause saith he that men become hardhearted, for it seemeth unto them that they win nothing by serving of god: or rather that it is but lost labour. Moreover it is often ⟨p. 986⟩[…] ⟨p. 987⟩[…] ⟨p. 988⟩seen that the children of God be sometimes more hardly handled than the most wicked in the world, and therefore it is to be gathered after carnal capacity, that it is much better to despise God.2 David confessed, that he staggered as upon the Ice, when he beheld the course of things to be such as that the good, and they that endeavoured to walk in all manner of integrity, must be constrained to drink the water of troubles, to eat the bread of heaviness, and to §10moisten themselves with tears: and in the mean while the wicked, which cease not to do evil, to live at their ease and in pleasure: whereby it should seem that God loveth them. And what a dealing were that? But our Lord declareth in this place, that in the end he will make it apparent to them that be corrected at his hand, that their sins are the cause why they suffer smart, howbeit that it be not so quickly perceived. We have seen heretofore among other