A17698:4475
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.
Let us come to that which is spoken of Reuben. Let Reuben live, and not die. We know that Reuben was Jacobs eldest son, and ought to have obtained the right of the first begotten, and ought to have had a double portion, and to have reigned among his brothers: but he was bereft of it by his own lewdness. For he committed incest, which was a crime worthy of more than death: he deserved to have been wiped out of the world, and to have had his name reproachful for ever.1 Nevertheless God pardoned him. Yea, but not without chastisement, as we see by the blessing which was given him: and he seemeth rather to have been accursed. For Jacob his father said unto him,2 Reuben, thou wast my first borne, the beginning of my force and strength; but thou hast also been the beginning of my sorrows. And therefore thou must slip away like water, and dry up. For thou diddest loose the title of thy birth right, when thou wentest up upon thy fathers bed, and committedst incest, which is a horrible crime. Forasmuch therefore as thou hast been a grief and sorrow to me whereas I ought to have received joy and comfort of thee; thou must be banished and excluded from thy birthright, and from the dignity which thou shouldest have had. It should seem that Jacob taketh too great displeasure against his eldest son, when he overwhelmeth him so with infamy, & thundereth so against him. Howbeit, it is but a temporal ⟨p. 1194⟩correction. For notwithstanding this, yet he continueth still a Patriarch. And soothly it is a great honour, that a detestable villain having broken the whole order of nature, yea and committed adultery with his own fathers wife, did yet for all that, live still upon the earth. But God maketh him a Patriarch in his Church, & he will have his name holy & his posterity holy. Lo here a won derful mercifulness of God. Yet must he be fain to humble himself, & have his fault known, that §10he may no more flatter himself. That is the cause why Jacob speaketh so roughly, and (as ye would say) thundereth against him being his eldest son as I said afore. Now the comfort which Moses setteth down here, may seem strange, as why he should say, Let Reuben live and not dye.