A17698:3925
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 here a general instruction, which is, y• forasmuch as God hath evermore punished the world, it should therefore be the more to our reproach, if we profited not thereby, in acknowledging our selves so much the more guilty according to the saying of S. Paul who giveth the very same rule,1 in the tenth chapter of the first to the Corinthians, namely that when God punisheth mens stubbornness, covetousness, unbelief, superstition, fornication, and such like sins: his so doing is a lively image of his judgement. Let us beware that when God teacheth us at other mens cost, we profit in that school. For if we become hardhearted, it shall be made manifest unto us at the last day, that it was long of nobody but of our selves, that we were not reduced into the way of salvation, because we would needs wilfully miss it, as if we had conspired with Satan, to our own destruction. Therefore doth he also say,2 that the vengeance of God is wont to come upon all misbelievers: as if he should say, let us not tarry till God strike us, but seeing we do perceive him to be Judge of the world, let it touch us, & let every of us bestir himself to repentance. Moses having spoken so, addeth this further declaration, and saith that they which come from far countries, & the children also that should be born after the event of such a punishment: shall all inquire of it as astonished, saying: What meaneth this? And now he addeth for a confirmation, that the shame thereof shall remain upon them that be so afflicted: whereby he showeth, that they shall not yet escape, after that God hath taken them out of the world, but that they shall bear the mark of infamy, insomuch that even the blind shall condemn them, and every man despise them even when their carcasses be rotten and brought to nothing, and that the remembrance of them shall be odious to the world. For men will say, It is because they forgot the God of their fathers, which had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and turned to strange Gods whom they never knew. That is one point which we have to note in this place.
We haue here a generall instruction, which is, y• for asmuch as God hath euermore punished the worlde, it shoulde therefore be the more to our reproch, if wee profited not thereby, in acknowledging our selues so much the more guilty according to the saying of S. Paul who giueth ye verie same rule,