A17698:3950
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.
For when God said to David, that the redeemer of the world which was promised unto Abraham should come of his seed,1 he confirmed and ratified that which we hear in this Text, saying, If thy seed do fall away and forget my law, and go astray: I will (saith he) visit their iniquities, but it shall be with the rod of a man: I will punish them, but it shall be with measure, & I will never take away my mercy from them. This is a more large declaration of that which is said here, to wit, that God must needs so punish the Jews, after he had long suffered their misbehaviour. And when they had showed themselves unreformable, he must punish them, howbeit in such wise, as there should yet be reserved some mercy. And wherefore? Because he hath not respect unto them simply, but unto him self and to his own trueth. Now we must note that when God made his covenant with Abraham, as we have already said, the same was not for the worthiness that was in that people, neither was it for their deserts; but God grounded himself upon his own free goodness only. Albeit that the people show themselves unworthy, yet notwithstanding must GOD remain always firm in his purpose: according as Saint Paul also speaketh,2 saying, that the calling of GOD whereby he did choose the linage of Abraham and sanctified it, is without repentance, and inchaungeable. It is true, that the hypocrites, (as it hath also been treated of,) have been punished according as they were worthy, and yet Gods continual keeping of his promise profited them nothing at all. And why? See here how it came to pass. God had chosen the linage of Abraham; that people fell away from him, and he punished them: according as their malice did increase and augment, even so were their punishments always the sorer, until they came even to the extremity, insomuch as God seemed even to have forsaken them, and to have cut them off from his house. And when he hath done so, then wrought he after such a sort, as there remaineth yet some seed hidden under the ground, and in time will he make it manifest that he forgetteth not what he had said, namely that in the seed of Abraham all nations of the earth should be blessed.3 Lo here a handful of people whom God keepeth, even after an incomprehensible manner.