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

And in very deed they have buried Jesus Christ in such sort, that he is as good as hidden in the world. For they have robbed him of all that belonged to him:¹ insomuch that whereas he is called the lawgiver, the Judge and the King, to show that he alonely ought to bear rule: we see how men have decked themselves with all those feathers. Therefore let us keep our selves from such confusion: & if we increase, let us always abide in the root & groundwork of the simplicity of the Gospel. Let us take good heed that we swerve not a hear breadth ⟨image 56⟩from it. And as touching that which is rehearsed here concerning the conversion of S. Paul: it tendeth still to this end, namely to do us to wit, that he did not thrust himself in of his own head, but that God reached him his hand, and that the doctrine which he had preached was given him by revelation, so as it might safely be held as the word that proceeded out of the mouth of God, and [consequently] as the certain and infallible truth. I have told you heretofore, that if a man seek to be heard for his own skill, for his great and deep understanding, for his fair speech, or for his great eloquence: all those things are nothing but filthiness and dung, and that God only must have that authority and honour at our hands: and that forasmuch as it pleaseth God to speak to us by the mouth of his only son: only Jesus Christ must have the preeminence to be the master and teacher of all his, and we likewise must become his flock to hear his voice. Lo how our Lord Jesus Christ is to be honoured among us: namely by becoming his true scholars, and without feigning. In the Popedom a man may well enough worship some Marmoset with the honour of Jesus Christ, when as in the mean while the Gospel is trodden under foot and blasphemed, and yet notwithstanding those blind wretches think themselves too have made a fair hand. Yea, but [in very deed] it is an open spitting in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, when men renounce his word wherein they should behold his glory and majesty, as Saint Paul saith in the second to the Corinthians.² Then is it no honouring of Christ, when men make many murlimewes and ceremonies: but when they submit themselves simply to the doctrine wherein it is his will to be known, and wherein he showeth himself unto us as it were face to face.