A17698:4225
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.
Again, when our God giveth us such abundance; let us beware that we use his benefits well. For surely to learn to be rich, and to have abundance, and also to be contented with poverty & want (as saith S. Paul) is a point very hard to be attained unto:1 and yet it ought to be common to all the children of God. S. Paul, in saying that he could skill to be poor, meaneth that he was patient, so as he neither troubled nor tormented himself when God sent him scarcity and want of ease: for he knew that God would not fail him in the end. Ye see then that he knowledge of Gods ⟨p. 1127⟩children, is on the one side to be poor. Again on the other side he saith, that he can skill to abound: meaning, that when God gave him abundance and more than he needed: he overshot not himself by abusing it in superfluous expenses or in playing the loose colt as men term it, but that he used it moderately and measurably. Then if God give us more than we need, let us assure our selves that in so doing he approacheth the nearer to us, at leastwise if we can skill §10to use well the benefits which he hath bestowed upon us, that is to say without vainglory, without pride, without disorder, so as we be not too much given to our delights, but use Gods benefits with measure and staidness, and therewithal be ready to endure hunger and thirst when it pleaseth God, that if he give us abundance we be not so drunken with it but that we still acknowledge him to be our fosterfather. But we see on the contrary part how the world behaveth §20it self in this behalf. For what a sort of drunkards, what a sort of gluttons shall a man see, which are like swine in a sty without any understanding or reason? They can fill their paunches well enough, but they can no skill to lift up their heads to heaven to honour him that findeth and maintaineth them so wealthily: their groynes & mussels are ever grubbing downward to their feeding. Therefore let us not resemble them. If God give us wealth, let us not pamper or prank §30up our selves, but rather let it be as a spur to quicken us up to come unto him; the nearer that he approacheth unto us, and the more that he maketh us to feel his goodness; the more wholly let us yield our selves thereto. That is the thing which we be taught in this text.