A17716:9
Sermons of John Calvin, upon the song that Hezekiah made after he had been…Sermons of Iohn Caluin, vpon the songe that Ezechias made after he had bene…
Sermons of John Calvin, upon the song that Hezekiah made after he had been sick and afflicted by the hand of God, contained in the 38. chapter of Isaiah. Translated out of French into English. 1560.Sermons of Iohn Caluin, vpon the songe that Ezechias made after he had bene sicke and afflicted by the hand of God, conteyned in the 38. chapiter of Esay. Translated out of Frenche into Englishe. 1560.
London: printed by John Day, 1560London: printed by Iohn Day, 1560
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.
❧TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, AND Christian Princess, the Lady Katharine, Duchess of Suffolk.
❧TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, AND Christian Princesse, the Lady Katharine, Duchesse of Suffolke.
IT often falleth out in experience (my gracious & singular good Lady) that some men being oppressed with poverty, tossed with worldly adversity, tormented with pain, soreness, & sickness of body, and other such common matters of grief, as the world counteth miseries & evils: Yet having their minds armed & furnished with prepared patience, and defence of inward understanding, all these calamities can not so far prevail, as to make them fall, nor yet once stoop into the state of men to be accounted miserable: but they bear them with such constancy, as if such afflictions were not of such nature as other commonly do feel them, or as if those men were such upon whom those troubles could not work their natural property. On th'other side we see some that flowing in earthly wealth & suffisance, free from ⟨image 3⟩fortunes cruelty, healthy in body, and every way to the worlds seeming blessed: yet with mind not well instructed, or with conscience not well quieted, even upon such small chances as other can lightly bear, are vexed above measure with reasonless extremity. Whereby appeareth that the grieves of body and calamities of fortune do so far only extend, to afflict, or make a man miserable, as they approach to touch the mind, & assail the soul. Which proveth that the pains and diseases of mind & soul are not only the most grievous, & most dangerous, but also they only are painful & perilous, and those of the body & fortune are such as the mind useth, and maketh them. So as to a sick stomach of mind, all bodily matters of delight and worldly pleasures are loathsome and displeasant, as on th'other side the power of a healthy soul easily digesteth and gathereth good nurture of the hard pains, and bitter torments of the body and fortune. He then, that cureth the sick mind, or preserveth it from disease, cureth or preserveth not only mind, but body also: and deserveth so much more praise and thank, than the bodies Physician, as the soul excelleth the body,