A17728:310
Two and twenty lectures upon the five first chapters of Jeremiah With prayers annexed,…Tvvo and tvventie lectures vpon the fiue first chapters of Ieremiah With prayers annexed,…
Two and twenty lectures upon the five first chapters of Jeremiah With prayers annexed, at the end of every lecture: by Master John Calvin. Which being faithfully collected form him as he uttered them in Latin, in the schools of Geneva, were afterwards translated into French: and now newly turned out of French, into English, with a table at the end, containing the sum and scope of every lecture.Tvvo and tvventie lectures vpon the fiue first chapters of Ieremiah With prayers annexed, at the end of euery lecture: by Master Iohn Caluin. Which being faithfully collected form him as hee vttered them in Latine, in the schooles of Geneua, were afterwards translated into French: and now newly turned out of French, into English, with a table at the end, containing the summe and scope of euery lecture.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Nathanael Newbery, 1620
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
For it was the custom of the husbands then, to put away their wives, when there appeared in them any cause of dislike. It is not a simple comparison, as many think, (neither do I know whether all follow this opinion) for the expositors do not so much as touch this exposition: because God doth not simply here compare himself with an husband that hath put away his wife for her lewdness: but as I have said, there are two distinct members, in regard the ⟨p. 140⟩Jews were wont to cashier their wives for very light causes; yea for such as were of no moment at all. Now God speaks thus in Isaiah, 1Show me your bill of divorce: as if he should say, I have not put away your mother. For at that time, when any purposed to put away his wife, he was liable by the law, to the note of some fickleness. For what (I pray you) was that bill of divorcement, but a testimony of the wives chastity? otherwise, if the woman had been taken in adultery, the husband needed not to send her away, for she was to suffer death. Thus then, adulterous women used not to be divorced. 2But if a mans wife had lived honestly with her husband, and yet notwithstanding he meant to put her away, he was bound by the law to give her a bill of divorce, on this manner: I put away this woman, not for breaking or violating the marriage band; but because her personage, or qualities are not to my liking. Thus the husbands were obliged to incur some note of inconstancy; and therefore it is that the Lord saith in Isaiah, Show me the bill of your mothers divorce: as if he should say, it is she her self that hath cast me off: it is she, who by her whoredoms hath broken the sacred bond of marriage: it is not I then, that am the cause of this alienation. God meant not here then to signify that he divorced the people; for that was a thing worthy of blame, and therefore could not agree with Gods nature: but (as I said) there is a double similitude or comparison. Albeit an husband in his discontent had rejected his wife; and that by means thereof (by his own fault) he occasions her to marry another: notwithstanding, after a second hath lien with her, because he thinks he is now despised, he esteems it so great an indignity, that he will never admit of any reconciliation. But I think you will not say that I have sent you away: