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 the excellency of their faith appeareth in this, that although they had not the promises so apparent as we have, but very darkly, yet notwithstanding they overcame all such temptations as would have overthrown us a hundred thousand times. If any of us were put to the enduring of the encounters of Abraham or David, what would become of us?¹ For Abraham was a wayfarer all his life long in a strange country, where men grudged him water to drink, though he himself digged the wells. He was put to as many plunges as could be. Finally God exercised him in so many encounters, that he seemed to be minded to throw him into the bottom of hell: and yet nevertheless his faith abideth still unvanquished. As touching David, he was driven a long time from place to place. Being hunted out of the whole realm & having no succour to retire unto, but […] among the infidels and ⟨image 191⟩enemies of God, or else into dens and among wild beasts: he was moreover put to such reproach, that every man cursed him as the veriest villain and caitiff in the world: and yet for all that, he held out still, he called still upon God, and he never fell to any murmuring or blaspheming, but rather glorified God in those his extremities and distresses. So then we see that their faith ought to make us all ashamed. And when every of us shall have looked well into his own conscience, we shall find that we scarcely have any little piece of the faith that they had. But the greatness of their faith must not be measured here by the constancy and ablenesse that every of them had to trust in God. Whereby then? By the outward object of their faith. As for example: Although Isaiah was an excellent teacher, so that his like is not to be found in the world: yet the least preacher that setteth forth the Gospel purely, shall be preferred before Isaiah,² as is avouched by the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. And why is that? Because that although Isaiah was as an Angel, and spake with such authority yea, and majesty, as were able to touch the hearts to the quick which are most fallen asleep in this world, insomuch that even God himself seemeth to have opened his own holy mouth in him, and his words were not as the words of a mortal man: yet did he hold but the manner of teaching that was convenient for that time: