A17698:4193
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.
Hereupon Moses showeth yet better, how God hath uttered his goodness towards the people of Israel. He found him (saith he) in a desert land, in a desolate place, in a dreadful wilderness, where was nothing but roaring of wild beasts. There he led him up & down, there he nurtured him, there he kept him as the apple of his eye. If the people of Israel had not served as slaves in Egypt, and travelled through the wilderness: Gods goodness had not bin so well known and so glorious as it is at this day. For why? Whereas God took Abraham out of his country, and brought him into a strange Land, and afterward gave him a son when he was upon the point of a hundred years old, & that of that one child there issued such an infinite multitude: it might well have bin said that God had showed favour to that linage: but yet so blind are men in considering Gods goodness towards them, that it would never have bin perceived how God uttered his bountifulness towards that stock, unless Jacob had gone down into Egypt, and that the people of Israel had bin kept in cruel bondage,1 as Moses reporteth in Exodus. But when they had bin held in such slavery that the king of Egypt had commanded all their men-children to be slain: then were they come to the uttermost pinch. And then did God fetch them away, and make them to pass the red sea, having wrought a great number of miracles before. By means whereof they were after a sort wakened, that they might the better bethink them how dearly God loved them & how much he set by them, seeing he vouchsafed to yield so great & so stately records of the goodness and favour which he bare towards them. Moses therefore following the same reason, saith here, Look back to your first original from whence you be issued. Did God find you in a fat and fertile coū try, as though he should say, I will maintain you ⟨p. 1119⟩in the state wherein ye be: for it is not enough for men to have a convenient and easy dwelling place, unless I preserve them and hold them under my protection. You therefore shall be mine, and I will be your safeguard. Did God find his people in such state? No. And therefore Moses sayeth to the children of Israel, Consider from whence ye came, & from whence your God hath fetched you. Were ye not in a wilderness sayeth he? Yes; that then is the §10place from whence he hath fetched you: