A17698:3949
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.
And now Moses addeth a comfort to them that are afflicted, when they have offended God and that he useth rigour toward them,§20 and that is very necessary. For the land of Canaan was as a special earnest penny and pawn to the Jews, that GOD had chosen and adopted them for his people, they were separated there from the rest of the world, it was a land that GOD had dedicated and reserved to himself, as if he had said, Here shall my name be called upon. The land of Canaan was, as it were, a mirror of the kingdom of heaven, and of the everlasting inheritance.§30 When the Jews were banished from that land, it was, as if God should have rooted them out of his house, and said, I do refuse you, and I renounce you: and that was enough to bring them in despair. On the other side, God promised to keep them evermore with a fatherly care, and to cause them to prosper continually. Therefore when they saw themselves overwhelmed with many miseries, yea almost infinite, it was a kind of driving of them into despair,§40 yea even into unmeasurable despair, as if God had forgotten them. Finally GOD said that he would be their head and their king; and that they should be as a body gathered together unto him. Now when they be dispersed under the Paynims and the infidels, under the wicked and the despisers of the law, among people unholy and unclean: the reigning of such kind of people over the Jews, made it seem unto them that God had forsaken §50them, and that his whole adopting of them was lost; so as they should all have perished in their afflictions, unless they were comforted. And that was the thing which Moses aimed at. He showeth them, that although God be hard and rough to them for a time, yet doeth he not fail to remember that he had chosen them for his people of purpose to use mercy toward them, yea, when the time serveth for it: howbeit not overhastily; but after that he had well §60•amed them, so as in stead of rebelling against him, they have changed their mind to obey him. Now we perceive what is the meaning of Moses; And this is the more expressly and largely showed unto us, according as the Promise concerning the redeemer came more to light.