A17698:968
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.
But yet notwithstanding we must go yet further. For it is not enough for men to abstain from evil doing: but forasmuch as they be created to help one another, they must seek one another's maintenance. God then in forbidding us to murder, showeth us on the contrary part that we must set store by our neighbours lives, & endeavour to maintain & preserve them to the uttermost of ⟨p. 222⟩our power. But it was his will to begin at that end, to show us what he commanded. And why? For we see how sinful we be. Look how many thoughts we have, and so many briers and thorns we have. Look how many affections we have: and so many bushes, brambles, and such other things we have. Not without cause therefore intended God to weed out the naughtiness and vice out of our hearts▪ yea and to amend all the parts in us that are sinful and corrupted.§10 For without that, it were unpossible to set so much as one finger to the doing of any good, that we should but so much as think one good thought. That is the cause why the Prophet saith that men break up their lays & sow not among bushes.1 As if he should say, I see how the world goeth with you: if a man tell ye that ye have offended God, ye will make some fair countenance, & pretend as though ye were reformed, & yet in the mean while continue still the same ye were §20before. But it is not enough to sow corn in a field: but ye must also stub up the bushes & cleanse the ground. So long as ye do but endeavour to make some fair show: thorns, briers, thistles, and other evil weeds grow still within. Therefore there can be no good sowing, & much less can ye bring forth good fruit before God. And for the same cause doth our Lord say here, Thou shalt not kill, in stead of saying, Look that thou preserve thy neighbours life. Now we see by experience §30how men would fain discharge themselves to Godward with fair countenances, and yet retain still their vices and corruptions, according to that which I have alleged out of the Prophet. For if a man speak to us of doing good to our neighbours: in deed we dare not altogether gainsay him. So then we would discharge our selves after a sort. But in the mean season our sores do rankle within, & we do but plaster them above, like unto those that are loth to open their purses