Sermons of M. John Calvin upon the Epistle of Saint Paul to the GalatiansSermons of M. Iohn Caluine vpon the Epistle of Saincte Paule to the Galathians

Let us mark that our life is but short, and passeth away swiftly, and that occa••••s of welldoing slip away […] And therefore let us ply it according as our Lord giveth us […], yea even towards all men (saith S. Paul) but chiefly towards the ⟨p. 311⟩household of faith. Now when he saith too all men, it is to show us that although men discourage us to do them good, yet we must not cease to do still as God commandeth us. For (as I have touched already) we must not look what every man is, nor what he deserveth: but we must mount up higher and consider that God hath set us in this world too the end we should be united and knit together: and that for as much as he hath imprinted his image in us, and we have all one common nature: the same ought too move us too succour one another. For he that will exempt him self from relieving his neighbours, must get him a new shape, and show that he intendeth too be no more a man: for so long as we be of mankind, we can not but behold our own face as it were in a glass, in the person that is poor and despised, which is not able too hold out any longer, but lieth groaning under his burden, yea though he were the furthest stranger in the world. Let a Moore or a Barbarian come among us, and yet in as much as he is a man, he bringeth with him a looking glass, wherein we may see that he is our brother and neighbour. For we can not abolish the order of nature, which God hath set to be inviolable. So then we be bound too all men without difference, because we be all one flesh, as the Prophet Isaiah avoweth, saying:¹ Thou shalt not despise thine own flesh. As if he should say, they that are niggardly and pinching, and shrink away when they should do good, do not only despise God, and reject his word: but also are ugly monsters, because they consider not that there ought too be a community among all men. Thus ye see why S. Paul saith expressly, that we must endeavour to do good to all men, yea even to such as are unworthy, even though they were our deadly enemies. Truly this is hard, and contrary to our inclination: but yet therein God trieth us so much the better. For if we do good to such as deserve it, or to such as are able to recompense it: it is no declaration or proof that we be willing to serve God:² for it may be that we had respect to our own profit.