A17698:695
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.
Now when Moses saith, The Lord thy God is merciful, and therefore he will not forsake thee nor cast thee of: he bringeth back the people to the nature of God that they might hope to be received to mercy, if they repented them of their sins. And it is another very notable point. In deed I have touched it heretofore: nevertheless, Moses maketh a larger declaration thereof, and not without cause. For like as he had erst said that GOD is a fire which consumeth all things: so it behoved him to show on the contrary part, that Gods nature is loving and gentle, and that he is ready to forgive the faults of such as acknowledge them. And that also is the cause why God telleth us so often of his mercy. But whatsoever be said to us concerning his goodness: yet can we not trust in him as we ought to do. There is not any thing harder to us than to assure our selves of the goodness and fatherly love of our God. It is a great thing, that when God shall have avowed a hundred thousand times, that he loveth us & will be favourable to us: yet we continue still in a wavering, and stand disputing upon the matter, & feed our own distrustfulness, as though we would needs disable the record that God giveth us of his goodness. Now then, it is not more than needeth, when Moses telleth us that God of his own nature is pitiful. It is a property that is evermore attributed unto him, and that not only in this text, but also in other places as we shall see hereafter:1 and the Scripture is full of the same doctrine.2 And why? Because that else it were not possible to assure men, forasmuch as they be so given to unbelief, as they still martyr themselves, and are always in perplexity and unquietness, bearing themselves in hand that God will never be at one with them. True it is that (as I have said already) we be but too hardy in doing evil: but when we should assure our selves that God will have pity upon us, & when we should seek him: then doth our unbelief bewray it self. Not without cause therefore doth Moses say here that God is merciful, ⟨p. 157⟩to the end that the people might conceive Gods nature and take hold of it, which is altogether contrary to their own, as God himself avoweth in other places.3