A17698:957
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.
Otherwise, God is misused in their persons, and it is all one as if we refused to honour him and to be subject to him.
Otherwise, God is misused in their persons, and it is all one as if we refused to honour him and to be subiect to him.
Now after that Moses hath set down this fifth commandment: he addeth, That we must not be murderers. In deed it may seem at the first blush, that God led not his people to great perfection in forbidding them to commit murder. But we must mark, that God intended to comprise (as it were in a short abridgement) all that is requisite for the well ruling of this our life: and therefore it was not for him to forget any thing, or to leave any thing behind. Now we must understand that the1 way for men to rule their lives well & orderly, is to abstain from all evil doing, injury, & violence, and therewithal to live chastely and honestly with out hurting or hindering of any man, and on the ⟨p. 219⟩other side, to keep their tongues from harming any man by any manner of falsehood and lying. All these good properties must be in us, if we will frame our selves to Gods will and righteousness. So then, it is not to be marvelled at, that God should speak here of murders. For it is done to hold us in awe, that we should not go about to do any outrage or harm to our neighbours. But yet for all this, we must come back again to that which I have touched already:§10 that is to wit, that God speaketh after a rude and gross fashion, to apply himself both to great and small▪ and even to the very idiots. For we see how every man excuseth himself by ignorance: and if a thing be somewhat dark and hard, we think we have wherewith to wash our hands of the matter. When we have done amiss, [we think all is safe,] if we can say, Oh, it was too high and too profound for me, I understood never a whit of