A17698:4662
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.
There is another second end. That is to wit, when God taketh away a man that was able to do service in his Church either publicly or privately, we ought to be sorry for it forasmuch as our Lord chastiseth us. If there be a good Shepherd, a good Prince, a good Magistrate, a man of counsel, or any other that is fit to serve the whole body; and §40God taketh him away: we ought to be sorry for him; and not without cause: for it is a sign that he is minded to diminish his grace in us. And ought we not to be grieved in feeling Gods wrath? On the other side we see how it is said, that our Lord taketh away the righteous,1 when he hath any vengeance in a readiness: he calleth away his servants to rest, that they may be free from the mischief which is at hand. Therefore when God taketh away the excellent §50men from among us, it is always a threatening unto us. For it is all one as if he told us, that we be not worthy to have him to dwell in our company, according to this saying in the Epistle to the Hebrews,2 that the world was not worthy to have the men that served God with such virtuous conversation. True it is that men mislike of them and thrust them out of their company, as though they were not worthy to go upon the earth. But yet on §60the contrary part, God telleth us that we forgo the company of the good men, and of those whom he hath reserved to himself. Therefore when we bewail the death of honest men, which have lived in the fear of God, which were endued with excellent virtues and gifts of grace, which have done service to the building up of the Church, and which could have continued in doing the same still: that is a well-ordered mourning. But yet must we also come to the measure. For it may be that a man shall mourn for just cause; and yet if he give his sorrow too much scope, then is it a fault and a vice. As how? If we sorrow for our sins without comfort, we shall be swallowed up of heaviness: and thereupon oftentimes spring grudgings and repinings against God. But saint Paul telleth us that when we mourn so for the death of our friends and kinsfolk, or of such as served in the Church, we must not resemble the unbelievers,3