Part 5
nowadays we must not look to have either kingdoms or principalities as they had; neither have we in like manner the temporal kingdom of David: it is sufficient for us that Jesus Christ is given us, and that we reign with him, and that he being our king, causes us to flourish under his conduction: I say it ought to suffice us, that we be a kingly
Priesthood under our head; which is the Son of GOD. Nevertheless, our Lord has made promise to all the faithful, that if they walk in his obedience, they shall not be oppressed by the tyranny of men, but be maintained in liberty, which is also a blessing as much to be desired as any can be in this world. Knowing therefore that this is a special gift of God, as it is here showed, let us learn to serve him and to give him the whole authority over us: that by his governing of us, we may be set free from bondage of men. We shall see hereafter in this present Chapter, how he threatens them that will not fear him nor shrink at his terribleness, accordingly as is said in the psalm; "God must needs lay the fear of men upon all them that will not fear him, and be his willing subjects." Let us mark therefore, that if in case we yield to the reigning of God over us, we shall be maintained by him, in such sort, as men shall not be able to oppress us. And if at any time the wicked have their scope, and seem to set their feet as it were upon our throats; let us understand that God does bring us low, because we have offended him, and because we have not rendered him the praise that belongs unto him; and that he chastises us according to our deserts. But yet must we ever come back to this point, that if we cast not off GOD, we shall be received of him, in such wise as he will be unto us as an armie, and make us able to walk with our heads upright: as it is said in the third psalm. So then, this blessing served not only for the fathers that lived under the law, but it continues also unto the end of the world, and we shall understand that it is not vain, so we follow in likewise that which is added here: "Keep the commandments which I set before thee this day," says
Moses, "that thou swerve not neither to the right hand nor to the left, to go to seek strange Gods and to worship them." We see how GOD does ever put us in mind of obedience to his word: and that is to the end we should serve him, not in hypocrisy, whereunto we be too much inclined. Let us remember therefore this lesson, which is, that to worship our GOD sincerely, we must evermore begin at the hearkening to his voice, and of giving ear to that which he commands us; for if every man go after his own way, we shall wander, we may well run, but we shall be never a whit the nearer to the right way, but rather the further off from it. And God will not only be heard, but also obeyed of all men without exception, yea even without adding anything to his word, or without taking anything from it. And this is expressly said: For that men dare be so bold as to bring in their new manner of serving GOD, and to do that which they suppose to be good. Contrariwise let us understand that when GOD has once showed what he will have us to do, we must simply hold us there, without presuming to add thereunto or to diminish it by any means at all. But above all things he would have us to acknowledge him to be our GOD. For the very cause that makes men to stray, and altogether to vanish in so many superstitions and idolatries, is that they know not what GOD they ought to worship. We have therefore profited greatly in the Gospel, in the Law and in the Prophets, when we have the skill to say, "This is the GOD that showed himself to Abraham, the GOD that showed himself by Moses, the God that lastly showed himself fully in the person of his only son, and the same is he that is our God." As it is also said in the Prophet Esay, where he speaks of the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ: "Lo, this is he; Lo, this is our GOD." Then let us have a settled faith, that we be not rovers; let us not be like unto little children, nor like wavering Reeds that are carried every way; but let our faith be well stayed, by taking root in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let us fall down before the Majesty of our good God with acknowledgment of our sins, beseeching him so to teach us with true repentance, that we may bewail them, and be heartily sorry for our corruption, to the end to withdraw us more and more, and therein to reform us. And forasmuch as we be not only frail but also altogether froward: it may please him to bring us home again unto him, and to underprop our weakness with his mightiness, so as we may overcome all the hindrances that serve to turn us from him; and that we may with perfect constancy go on to the mark whereunto he calls us, until we attain to the perfection of righteousness. And that in the mean while, it may please him to uphold us in such sort, as that albeit we should fail, yet he cease not to take us still for his children, and make us to understand more and more, that he does confirm us in the trust of our salvation. That it may please him, to grant this grace not only to us but also to all people and nations of the earth, etc.
On Friday the thirteenth of March, 1556.
The 156th. Sermon which is the fourth upon the twenty-eighth Chapter.
15 But if thou wilt not obey the voice of the Lord thy God, in keeping and doing all his commandments and ordinances, which I command thee this day, then shall all these curses come upon thee and take hold of thee.
16 Thou shalt be cursed in the city and likewise cursed in the field.
17 Thy basket shall be cursed and thy store.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy cattle, and of the flocks of thy sheep.
19 Thou shalt be cursed in thy coming in, and cursed in thy going out.
20 The Lord will send upon thee cursedness, trouble, and destruction in all that ever thou puttest thine hand unto, and in all that thou doest, until he hath destroyed thee, and thou quickly perish, because of thy evil inventions, through the which thou hast forsaken me.
21 The Lord will make the pestilence to cleave unto thee, till it hath consumed thee from the land, which thou goest to possess it.
22 The Lord will strike thee with swellings and with fevers, and with hot diseases, and with burning sicknesses, and with drought, and with sword, and with blasting winds, and with the yellow jaundice, and he will pursue thee until he have utterly destroyed thee.
23 And the heaven which is over thy head, shall be brass, and the earth underneath thee shall be iron.
24 Instead of raining upon the earth, the Lord will give thee dust and ashes: and he will come down from heaven upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
WE have seen these other days past how God entreated his people by promises: now on the contrary part he adds threatenings. And that is not without cause, for we see what slowness is in us when the case concerns the submitting of ourselves to the obeying of God. Our feet are swift enough to run to evil, as the Prophet Isaiah says, and as it is spoken in the Proverbs, but God cannot make us to set forth one step, to behave ourselves as becomes us: and therefore we must be compelled to it, as of force. Nevertheless, it is certain that God begins with gentleness and goodness. And that is the cause why he keeps this order of setting forth his blessings to them that serve him. He might very well have begun with threatenings, but he did not. And why? He tries to see whether we are apt to be taught, by showing himself fatherly towards us, and by making it to be seen that he seeks nothing but our benefit and welfare, prosperity, and quietness.
Thus we see how God does first make a trial of us: and if that prevails not, then he uses threatenings; and it behooves those two to go jointly together. For to what purpose is it if we serve not God with a free will? Albeit that men cannot find any fault with us: yet if we go to it unwillingly, all our life is detestable. For the chief point is that we have a pure and free good will to give ourselves over unto God.
For we must not have our eye to the reward: and therefore does it much more follow in reason that if we go to it by constraint, all our life is cursed. Yet notwithstanding, this desire of serving God, because it is not lost labor, is not all that we have to do. For when we come to that point, we are but at the halfway. Although a man receives the promises which are here contained and offers himself to God to serve him: yet his so doing is imperfect, and deserves to be cast off. Wherefore? Because, as I have said, we may not be hirelings: but our yielding of ourselves unto our God must be because we are his, and because he is worthy to have our life employed in his obedience, and especially for that he is our father. He begins with the promises because of our infirmity, to set us the more forward. And when he has brought us on so far, then he manifests unto us a greater perfection.
But to be short, we have to mark that there are three sorts of people which keep the law of God in outward show. One sort does it by compulsion, with gnashing their teeth at it, and they discharge it after a fashion. And wherefore? Because they know well that they cannot escape the hand of God, they fear his anger and his vengeance; and therefore they serve him; but that is by compulsion.
But as I have said, all this is reproved. Another sort takes the middle way: for they know that God is faithful, and that such as serve him shall not lose their labor: these hearken to the promises which are expressed in holy Scripture. And so a great many yield themselves to serve God, because he allures them thereunto by promising them reward, as we have seen before. But, as I said, we may not stay there; but we must rather consider that forasmuch as God has made and fashioned us, redeemed us, and is our father, the same ought to suffice us although we had no respect unto that which he promises us: and forasmuch as he has prevented us with his mercy: and shows himself so bountiful towards us: his so doing ought to inflame us with an ardent affection to serve him. This is one of the principal points of our life. But (as I said before) our Lord in his law has respect to our rawness: and therefore he promises to reward us, to the intent we should have the better courage. And indeed, though we serve God with affection never so pure and freely employed, yet must we always wait for that which is promised us, and stay thereupon.
We must (I say) hope for his blessing when we have served him with a good courage: but we may not do it to that end: we must not be drawn by this respect only. For (as I have said) we must be his children, and honor him as our father. And as it is he that upholds us: so must we assure ourselves that it is not for us to imagine any merit in ourselves, but that he accepts us of his own only infinite goodness; and therefore that we for our part must seek nothing but to vow and dedicate ourselves wholly unto him. However the case stands, let us learn that when God has set his promises before us, he must also be fain to spur us forward. Wherefore? Because our nature is full of rebellion against him: we are not only slow: but also there is in us an inclination to draw quite backward from that which God commands us. If there were no more but slothfulness, yet were that such a vice as were worthy to be corrected, and therefore we should have need of the threatenings that are mentioned here. But seeing we are so froward to be ruled, that we are always kicking, so as God cannot reclaim us nor allure us to his yoke: it appears that the menaces be doubly necessary. And herein there is very just cause to condemn us, seeing that God cannot win us to love, but is fain to show himself dreadful, to make us afraid, without which we would lie still asleep. Seeing then that God does so little prevail with us when he trains us gently, seeking nothing but to make us follow him with a willing heart; let us acknowledge our frowardness and condemn ourselves: and therewithal let us also confess the fatherly care that God has of our salvation, seeing he uses all the means which he knows to be meet for us. For it is all one, as if he should (as you would say) transfigure himself. His only respect is to reclaim us. One while he smiles on us, and another while he frowns at us. But yet all tends to this point, namely, that we may be drawn unto him, to give ourselves to his service.
Now will some man say, Seeing that it is so that our life displeases
God, & that he reproves the same when we serve him by compulsion: if the threats leave us there, what do they avail? It were better that God should forbear them. But let us mark that he trains us by degrees according as he knows it necessary for us. It is certain that if nothing but fear do bring us to serve God, it is nought worth: however, it is a good preparative that leads us farther on, after having begun at it. As for example: before that God has meekened us, we be full of pride, & our flesh is altogether rebellious: & to be short, we be as colts that were never saddled nor bitted. God must be fain to prepare us & to bring us in order, which thing to do, he uses threats. But this (as I have said) were nothing at all, unless he inured us to a voluntary obedience & subjection afterward. And when we tend thitherward, we have greatly profited in that this pride of ours is beaten down, & we be no more so wild-headed, but that we know that there is a Judge before whom we must make account; & that the same consideration restrains us from using such looseness any more, & from being so heady in doing evil, as we have been. This is a beginning, & indeed it is but a beginning; in so much that if we should stay there, we were not yet plucked out of the mire. But when we have thus begun, then does the Lord match his threats with a taste of his goodness in such sort as we be drawn unto him. And in so doing he shows himself to be our father. Now when we understand that God indeed is ready to reward us when we have served him, albeit that we be not able to deserve anything, but rather do provoke his wrath: thereupon we must have our refuge to his mere mercy, to obtain remission of our sins, as it is offered unto us in our Lord Jesus
Christ, and as he has purchased it for us by his death & passion.
When we be thus reformed, and rid of all trust in our own works, then ought we to offer up ourselves willingly in sacrifice unto God, as Saint Paul also does exhort us in the twelfth Chapter to the Romans.
He sets us forth no reward, but says: I beseech you brethren, by the mercy and compassion that God has showed towards you, that every one of you renounce this world, and also himself, that you become lively sacrifices unto God: for that is your reasonable service.
But yet some man will reply again and say: If threats make us ready for the promises of God, it seems that they should be placed in the first rank, and that the promises should follow them. But the answer to this doubt is: that God will hold us more convicted before him, when he begins with us by his promises. For we cannot say but that there is a shameful thanklessness in us, seeing that whereas our Lord seeks only to win us by love, we notwithstanding deal frowardly with him, and draw backward, when he comes so lovingly towards us. You see then how the promises are set before us in the first place, that we might be the better reproved of our frowardness. But has God showed us that his goodness would not avail us, except he threatened us? then does he use rigor, and the same rigor does profit us, inasmuch as we be touched therewith, and our hearts are daunted. I mean not all; for there be many that take the bridle in their teeth to strive against God: but I mean the faithful. Those are they that be prepared for the promises of God, through threatenings. Afterward
God turns yet again, and allures them new again with his goodness, as is said afore: in so much that when he has stung them with his threatenings, to tame the stubbornness of their flesh; (as surely it is requisite that God should show some sign of his wrath:) thereupon he sets before us his mercy, which is the accomplishment of all, to the end (as I have said) that we should learn to yield ourselves wholly unto him with a free disposed affection.
Now let us come to the words that are set down here. If thou wilt not obey the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments & statutes which I set before thee this day: all these curses shall come upon thee, and take hold of thee. Here Moses speaks expressly to such as have been trained in the word of God. True it is that they which offend without the law, shall perish nevertheless,* as Saint
Paul says in the second Chapter to the Romans. And indeed we see that the ignorant and blind escape not unpunished at God's hand.
Albeit that they might plead that they were not taught: yet are they faulty enough. But let us note, that here our Lord doubles his curse upon those unto whom he has showed such favor, as to manifest his will unto them, and to show them the way of saving health, had they obeyed him, and yielded themselves unto his doctrine. This then is not general to all men. But God does first of all show, that when he has given his law, and published it abroad. The fault is in the people that they understand it not. This is the cause why Moses does expressly say: the commandments and statutes, which I set before you this day. When he says, Commandments and statutes, it serves to show that they contain a sufficient instruction, accordingly as we have told you here before; that God has not spoken by halves: but that he has so taught his people, as they cannot reply and say, We wot not what these things mean. Lo here the Statutes & commandments which I set before you, says Moses. If you apply your endeavor to them, you cannot do amiss. And therefore let us bear well in mind, that according as God has delivered us his word, our ungodliness is doubled before him, and our punishment must be so much the more grievous, if we be not willing to do good, yea, and also profit therein, and from day to day be established in his obedience. That is the thing which we have to consider upon that saying.
Moreover when he says: If thou wilt obey the voice of the Lord thy
God: it serves to touch us thoroughly to the quick. For seeing that God vouchsafes to speak unto us: is it not meet that we should at the least give ear unto him? And if we play the deaf folks, is it not a matter contrary to nature? For if we would not hear our equal, he would take it in disdain, and much more would our superior. And whereas God has all sovereign dominion over us, and has done us the favor to deliver us his word, and acquaints himself familiarly with us, if he find us stubborn against him, disdaining to hear him; is it not meet that he should avenge himself of such a contempt? Specially when he sees such a villainous stateliness in us, which are but worms of the earth. The thing then which we have to remember upon this text, is that here Moses intended to condemn the ungodliness of men that do still continue hard-hearted, notwithstanding that God give them the means to return, by setting his word before them.
Now, when he says that these curses shall take hold of us, it behooves us to remember that which was spoken of here before.* For in speaking of the blessings of GOD, he said; Thou shalt be compassed round about; and now he does in like wise join the curses in the same manner, so that we may not think to escape the hand of God.
However sly we be, we shall be always entrapped, it will not boot us to seek strongholds, according to this saying of his by his Prophet, If thou go into thy house, and shut thy door and double bar it,* yet shall the serpent come in and sting thee there: If thou go into the field, & seek means to escape, thou shalt meet with a lion upon the way: if thou slip aside from the lion, a bear shall meet thee, and to be short, whatever men do, when God is against them, & is become, as it were, their enemy, they must needs find that they be surprised, caught, and entrapped, and environed round about with these curses, without any hope to get out. Therefore, let us not deceive ourselves in seeking worldly means to save us: for if the hand of God be lifted up against us, (as we shall see in the song here at hand) He hath his storehouse full of rods,* and not of three or four sorts only, but of infinite: and if we suppose that we are escaped, when we have overcome some one evil; then we deceive ourselves: for God hath by and by an hundred more. Let us then look for all manner of woe, if we obey not God's law. But it were a miserable appeal if we should come unto God by compulsion, only for fear of his punishments.
What must we then do? We must submit ourselves willingly unto him, praying him to keep us from procuring his wrath, and from warring against him, and from enforcing him to come to defy us.
That were as if some petty lord would attempt war against a great
Prince; having neither strong town, nor munition, nor aught else: and yet would need presume to defy one that is able to swallow him up, if he did but lift up his finger against him; and were not that a madness? Likewise, when we provoke our God, by setting ourselves against him wittingly, he must needs beset us, and hold us as in prison. Wherefore, let us pray him not to suffer us to be so far overseen, as to fall to defying of him: but that we simply obey him, so as we may be crowned and encompassed with his blessings; according as it is said in the thirty-second Psalm. He that putteth his trust in God,* shall be crowned with his benefits: that is to say, God will make him to possess his blessings round about him, and he shall be so thoroughly fenced on all sides with his safeguard, that he shall not need to fear. Albeit that we be laid open to never so many dangers, yet shall we be preserved through his goodness. Now as touching that which he addeth; we have expounded here before.
Concerning the curses, he says: Thou shalt be cursed in the town, thou shalt be cursed in the field, thy coming in shall be cursed, thy going forth shall be cursed, the fruit of thy womb shall be cursed, and the fruit of thy cattle and of all thy flocks. Hereby are we again done to understand that all the evil which we see in this world proceeds from the hand of God. By the word evils, I understand all the punishments, and all the wretchedness whereunto we be subject, according also as he speaks thereof by his Prophet Isaiah,* saying: I am the Lord who made both light and darkness, who have in my power both life and death, and who does both the good and the evil.
He uses this kind of speech purposely: not that the evil, whereof we be faulty, does proceed from God, nor that it ought to be imputed unto him: it is not so. But he means that all the miseries and calamities which we suffer in this world, be as it were so many chastisements: we may not attribute them to happenstance, as shall be more plainly touched hereafter;* where God says, If you will needs come against me at all adventure, I will in like wise come against you at all adventure. He uses the same very words. And wherefore? Because that men do blur their own eyes, and say; Lo, what misfortune has befallen me? When they are anyways afflicted, they cast out spiteful speeches against God and overshoot themselves, not considering that God is a Judge, and governs the world by his providence; they are not able to perceive that, so dull and senseless be they. And that is the cause why Moses uses this kind of declaration, and so large in this text. And it serves to bring us to that which I alleged even now out of the Prophet Isaiah; where GOD shows that he made both light and darkness, and did both the good and the evil. We may not here conceive vain thoughts, saying, Whence comes this unto me? It is a misfortune. Would God it were not so. But we must acknowledge the hand that smites us; for that is great wisdom. And for the same cause does God complain thus by his other Prophet:* This people have not regarded the hand that smote them. You see then how we must understand that all the afflictions and miseries which we endure in this world, be very strokes of God's own hand. And even in that respect is it said by the Prophet Amos:*
Is there any evil in the city which God has not done? That is to say, can there happen either war, or pestilence, or famine, or diseases, or poverty, or any other calamity whatsoever it be, that comes not to you from God? Wretched people, are you so foolish and beastly, as to imagine, that God who created the world, does leave it at random, and has no care to watch over his creatures, or to bestow on them, that which he thinks meet for them, sometimes to show his goodness, and sometimes to make them feel that he is a Judge, and to punish men's sins, and to make them to know what his office is?
Think you that he dwells idle in heaven, and that he utters not his virtue, or that the world is not guided and governed by his providence? So then, like as heretofore God has showed that we cannot prosper,* but through his grace and love that he bears us, in that he has chosen us for his children, and will also accept our service; so now he shows in like wise, that if there be any affliction, poverty, or other misery, they come not by happenstance: but are very punishments of God's sending: and therefore when things fall not out after our liking, we must fall to considering and examining of our sins. If we be grieved with any manner of thing, so as one is troubled with his household, another with the loss of his goods, another with some disease, another with some vexation of mind, and another with the forgoing of something that he loved: let us acknowledge, saying; Lo, it is our God that has lifted up his hand, and holds it up still. And wherefore? Because that we have offended him. The first point then is, that men may not flatter themselves when God visits them: but they must know that by this means they are made to understand their offenses, to the end to humble themselves, and to bewail them. Thus much for one point.
The second point is that we must not think to escape the scourges of God, be we never so subtle, but that we shall ever be caught by the back if God be against us. And well may we make us shields and ramparts; but when we have practiced what we can: yet will not our Lord miss to find us, he needs but to blow upon all our defenses whereby we think to guard ourselves against him. It is not like as if we should have to do with creatures. Against them we might fortify ourselves both behind and before; but God will knock us on the pates from heaven. We can have neither shield nor rampart against him, in hope thereby to stop his hand from touching us, when it pleases him to punish us.
Again, to what end shall all the fortifications serve that we are able to build against him, but to overthrow ourselves? Let us therefore understand that all that ever men can do against God shall turn to their own confusion and utter overthrow. That is the thing which Moses meant when he said that we shall be cursed in the town and in the field, that we shall be cursed in our going forth and in our coming in if we obey not the voice of our God. And as he said before, that God will open his good treasure from heaven to give us rain in due time; so now he says that God will make our heaven as brass, and our earth as iron, and that in stead of rain he will send us drought, he will send us dust and ashes, and there shall be nothing but barrenness among us. Here we must call again to mind the lesson that has been laid out briefly before: that is, that according as every one of us is visited by the hand of God, we should benefit ourselves thereby and every man apply that to his own use which is here mentioned. For God uses many ways to chastise us. One is punished in his own person with diseases, reproach, and I know not what else; another has some secret heart-aching, so that although he be whole in body, yet he ceases not to be tormented in mind; another is plagued with his wife or with his children; and another is troubled with his substance. According therefore as every one finds himself afflicted, so let him resort to this that is told us here, saying: Alas, I see how my God calls me unto him, I may not now provoke him: for what shall I win by using many windlasses as the worldlings do, who desire to fall asleep in their miseries: and the only comfort which they seek is to have no regard to God. Now if we do so; then must that which is spoken in the two and thirtieth Psalm be practised upon us, to wit, that God will deal with sturdy and hardhearted folks as with restive horses, and mad mules. As hereafter we shall see more at length. So then yet must we come to the said point of feeling of God's hand according as every one is afflicted, first in his own behalf, and then in common. When we see a drought, let us not accuse the heaven nor yet the air, saying it was the disposition of them. Let us not do as the fantastical folk do, which look no higher than the stars; but let us think upon the hand of God: that as many afflictions as fall upon us, may be unto us as visible signs and marks that God executes the office of a Judge toward us: and that although he condemns us, as often as he punishes us, yet the same is not a condemnation to the death, but a summoning of us to appear before him, there to frame new process against us. This is a point which we ought to mark well. Therefore when we feel any evil or grief, let us understand that we have offended God: but let us think therewithal, that God nevertheless means not to execute a final sentence upon us when he calls us again unto him. To what end then is it? Is it to condemn us without mercy? No: but he does us this favor, that we might be our own judges. When he does summon us, it is to the end that every one should plead guilty of his own good will, and thereupon ask him forgiveness, and flee for refuge to his mercy. Lo here an inestimable privilege. And so let us benefit ourselves both privately and publicly by the things that are told us here: That when we see the heavens burning hot, and we ask rain, and yet go without it, so as the fruits do fail upon the ground, and the heat dries up all things: let us understand that it is the hand of GOD which visits us, and let us confess our sins with one common accord. And if any man feel any household vexation, let him confess; Well, GOD does awaken me by this visitation, because I have offended him. Thus the chief study, wherein God would have the faithful to exercise themselves, is the examining of their sins, after this manner: whereby it will come to pass, that (as Solomon says) Blessed is the man which does trouble and quicken up himself,* not that we must so trouble ourselves as to fall into unmeasurable despair: but we must quicken up ourselves with fear, because the devil seeks nothing else but to make us dull and blockish, to the end we should offend
God, and bleare out our tongues against him like as we see these despisers do, which set themselves against him, dashing at him with their horns, and vomiting out their blasphemies. To the intent therefore that we come not to that pass, we must quicken up ourselves with fear and trembling: which cannot be done unless we profit under the correction of our God, and consider, that when he visits us, it is to call us unto him. It is to the end that we should make our own inditement, and not tarry the last laying of his hand upon us, but present him, that (as St. Paul says), they which condemn themeselves may not be condemned of him (1 Cor. 11:31).
Now finally it is here declared to us that the course of nature, as we call it, is nothing but the disposition of the will of God, and that He bears such rule over both heaven and earth and over rain and fair weather, that He changes them at His own pleasure, and not without cause. If there were a permanent order in nature, it would seem unto us that God did not meddle with it; we would grant that He made the world, but we would then say that He does not govern us. We would think thus: "What? When the springtime comes, we see that the rest of the year goes on in the same course as did the year before. It is always one and the same. But in fact we see one winter is longer, and another winter later, and another earlier yet longer; we see one winter rainy, and another dry; we see abundance ofsnow in one year, and another year none at all; one year is hot, another cold. Now, does not such inequality make it manifest that God is at work? For the sun performs his office in one year as well as in another, and always keeps his just course better than the best clocks in the world. How, then, comes such variety of weather? It is God's doing, to call us to Himself.
Truly the philosophers do seek out causes as they term them. There is such a meeting of stars (say they), and this proceeds ofsuch and such a conjunction. But where does all this come from, if not from the hand of God? We must always resort to the first cause. And indeed, such men are nothing more than beasts if they will not yield to that!
Yet it is not sufficiept to know that God guides all His creatures, and that He holds them bridled in order to make them bow, just as a horseman makes his horse to turn on this hand and on that, to stop, and to run. It is not enough to know that God looses and binds and sends such changes as He likes; rather, we must also understand further that God does nothing without cause. For if we say that God governs the world and do not know why He plagues us, we shall quickly be inclined to murmur against Him. And meanwhile we shall not profit under His chastisements and corrections, but continue dulled in our sins. So then, let us mark that in shutting up the heavens that it yjelds no rain, and in drying up the earth as if it were iron, He is showing us our sins and that He is our judge. This is what we have to bear in mind concerning the course of nature, as it is here declared to us.
Nor is God content simply to say that the heaven will be as brass, but He goes on to say that He will send us ashes and gravel or sand instead of rain. Just as we see caterpillars that eat, mar, and destroy all that is on the earth, so it only takes one blasting or mildew to eat the com and consume it wholly. It is worse than if God should sow salt. And these blastings and mildews are of the same substance as the rain. God only needs to make little changes. He can send a little sharp cold and that same cold will make a clean riddance of all things. When we see such things, then, let us always take warning from this teaching and let us be no longer entangled in our follies.
Let us never say, "Ah, evil fortune, evil fortune." But let us understand that our Lord is calling us back to Himself, and has His Hand stretched out; and let us know that it is He that smites, as if He should say, "I have gone about to draw you to Myself by fair means, but you have not humbled yourselves before Me. Seeing then that you will not be brought to it willingly, 1 shall now compel you, as if 1 drew you by the hair on your heads." Let us, 1 say, be admonished by this teaching, here mentioned, to prevent the wrath and vengeance of God, as often as He gives advertisement of the same.
Again, when God makes the earth fruitful, let us acknowledge it to be His work, and that there does not spring up a blade of grass except
He has put His Hand upon it. Let us then take our daily food from Him, not cramming our ourselves like brute beasts, which fill their bellies not knowing whether there be a Creator that causes the earth to bring them forth food; but let us understand that God blesses the earth and causes it to yield fruit for our nourishment and sustenance.
Let us bear it in mind, that in affiiction as well as in prosperity we may turn our eyes ever more unto God.
And it is expressly said further that God will make pestilence cleave unto us and that He will send other diseases and that they shall continue upon us until we are consumed by them. This should waken us even better, seeing that God does not strike as it were a single blow and then quit, but that His curses shall follow us and cling to us unless we forsake our sins and wickedness.
Finally, let us learn that those who stay away from God and hide from Him day after day, only deceive themselves. For example, we see many who, when God sends them some affliction, take some notice of it, but soon they forget it. They shake their ears and think it is over, and like a dog that has been stuck with a whip they tum their backs and run away, thinking that they may appease God by some means. Thus deals the world. But let us beware of such stupidity, for we see what is said expressly in this place. God has spoken of His curses, and added that they shall hem us in on every side, He concludes that they shall cling to us. And why? Because if we cling to our iniquities, so that they reign in our bones and in our marrow, and are fixed in our hearts and minds, then must God's curses follow us similarly. When a man will not do away with his evil affections, but is delighted in them and continues to soak in them, God for His part must then shut him up in them. And when we so do, then He must send up His curses to stick fast to us like a leprosy that they may consume us utterly, so that they do not respond to medical plasters, being so deeply rooted within us and in away, incurable. Therefore, let us be afraid at the hearing of these things.
And so we see now to what purpose Moses adds that the curses of God shall cling to us, namely to warn us that if the mischief has taken root, we must strain ourselves the more in praying to God to show us the favor of the cleansing of His Holy Spirit, whose property it is to search the bottom of our secret affections; that it may please Him to reprove us in such a way that this fear may cause in us a marvelous purgation, expelling our sins from us that we may no longer be wedded to them.
And therewithal let us realize that when diseases begin to reign, or any other afflictions, we may not hope for any end thereof unless we cease to offend our God. It is said in a common proverb that diseases come on horseback, and that they return on foot. But even though the reason for this is readily apparent, we consider it not. And as I have said before, it is because we do not look to the hand that smites us. Nor can God win us to Himself by the first stroke, when He punishes us. Sure, we are full of fine words: When a man is sick he will protest that his whole desire is to serve God, and that if he may only recover his health, the world will see him a new man. But all is quickly forgotten.
Therefore, it is no wonder that instead of mitagating our punishments God at various times increases them and suffers us to languish in our adversities. It is because He sees that our diseases are so deeply rooted that He must come again more often than only once or twice to purge us of them. And therefore let us learn to pray to Him to vouchsafe to cure our faults in such a way that they may not proceed to the extremity here expressed, but that as soon as we feel a little stroke of the rod of His hand, the same may be sufficient to bring us again to Him; indeed, to Him with the kind of repentance that will show that we are honest, acting in simple truth, and that we continue therein to the end.
Now let us fall down in the sight of our good God, accusing our whole life of the malice and rebellion that is therein, beseeching Him to vouchsafe to chastise us with gentleness and to spare us in such a fashion that we are not cast down into despair but rather are brought home again to Him. And therewithal, since we cease not to offend
Him and it is also necessary that He should daily call upon us and awaken us that we may fare the better by His corrections, let us continue to lament and mourn until that time when He has rid us from all the corruptions of our flesh and has brought us to the perfection of righteousness wherein lies our true rest, which is the heavenly blessedness we hope and long for. And since we cannot obtain any such matter except by means of our Lord Jesus Christ, may it please Him to reconcile us to God His Father by His death and passion and in the meantime so to mortify our old Adam that His own Image may be restored in us, and His glory shine forth in us.
That it may please Him to grant this grace not only to us but also to all people and nations upon earth; etc.
The 157th. Sermon which is the fifth upon the twenty-eighth Chapter.
If we were threatened by a mortal man, as God threatens us in his law: surely we would be moved, albeit that he had no great power over us: wherein our ungodliness is to be seen, insomuch that although we endeavor to cloak it, yet it betrays itself, in that we attribute more power to mortal creatures than we do to the living
God. But hereby God intended to try the honor and obedience that we bear him: to wit, namely in this, that he assures us of his love, we should rest wholly thereupon, and hold ourselves contented therewith. And likewise on the contrary side, that when he gives us any certain token of his anger, we should quake thereat. Let us take good heed therefore of the thing that is here mentioned: namely that we be not so blockish as to make a scorn of God's wrath. But let us return to that which has been said already, to wit, that his hand must needs be against us if we live not according to his law. It is certain that men will naturally give liberty to their lusts, to do whatever God has forbidden them, and that they will not stick to make war against him. Indeed, they will not say so, yet does the thing show itself to be so. For when we on our part have defied him and assaulted him; is it not reasonable that he should arm himself against us? True it is, that so long as we live in this present world, the infirmity of our flesh is such, as we are not able in all respects to satisfy the law of God.
Nevertheless when men pass their bounds so far that good and evil are to them all one; and that they strive not at all against their lusts: they show themselves open enemies unto God. And to that end also is it that Moses speaks. Although we do our endeavor to resist the evil, and that the fear of God does bridle us, yet cease we not to deserve to be chastised of him: as we see the faithful are not exempted from many afflictions: and that God reclaims them much rather than he does the despisers of his majesty. For as they are his children, so has he the greater care over them: and therefore does he chastise them the more earnestly. However, Moses in this place speaks but of such as harden themselves in stubbornness, flinging out of course in such wise, as they make no conscience at all to do evil. They never think that there is a Judge in heaven until he makes them to feel his hand. And therefore he says not; God will chastise you as a father does his children: but God will strike you mainly; you shall feel his hand, so roughly and lively, that you shall not be able to abide it: and that not for one day but continually till you be consumed and perished. Seeing then that we hear such threatenings; let us understand that they be prepared for such as are hardened in evil and are not restrained with any fear, to sigh when they feel any evil temptation in themselves: but go on, taking the bridle in their teeth, and make a mock of God. And what shall follow of that? Over and besides the things which we have seen here before; Moses adds, that God will smite such despisers with diverse plagues. First that he will send them enemies; and give them power to destroy and to consume them, insomuch that they shall persecute them even in their dead carcasses, so as when they be discomfited, he will not do them the honor to suffer them to be buried, but leave them for mere for the crows, and for the beasts of the earth: and moreover that he has diverse other means to plague them in their bodies; by sending them diverse diseases, as cankers, and other bots and scabs, whereby they shall be brought to such an after deal, that they shall not have as it were any more understanding, but be utterly out of their right wit, so as they shall grope at noonday, as the blind do in the dark. And surely the sorest point of God's vengeance, is when men be so overthrown that they have no more the heart to return unto him, nor be able to recover themselves to acknowledge their faults, and to perceive that when the hand of God does visit them, there is no help except they make their refuge to his mercy: but abide astonished as men besides themselves. By which means God shows himself to be a mortal enemy unto them.
Now as touching that which Moses speaks here of enemies: we see again how God holds the hearts of men in his hand: so that if we be in peace and anon war is made against us, and we wot not wherefore: (as I have already showed) it is because God is angry with us: and that forasmuch as we have spited him, he must also war against us.
He has soldiers enough. As soon as he makes any sign (as says the Prophet) all the earth is moved; even though a little while before, no man thought to have stirred. Let us therefore understand that when wars are toward in the world, God shows tokens of his wrath. It is certain, (as we have already said) that albeit we serve God faithfully, and stand in his protection: yet we shall not cease to have enemies.
For it is his will to exercise us by that means: and it is the state of the Church, as it has also always been. But this good comes thereof, that God will maintain us against our enemies. When they have devised wonders against us, yet shall they not bring their purpose about.
They shall be disappointed. And though they be as fierce as lions, and full of desperate rage: yet will God tame them at the last: all though they continue in purpose to devour us, yet they shall not have the power to do it: But (as has been said afore) if they come against us one way, they shall flee seven ways. But now it is said contrariwise that although we be of power above our enemies, and do set upon them in never so good order: so as the victory may seem to be already gotten on our side, (as we see how the wicked be enflamed with pride and presumption) yet when we think ourselves to have gotten the goal, God will touch us with such a fear as we shall not know which way to run fast enough, but every of us shall be at his wits end. Let us understand hereby, that when God stirs up wars to chastise us, though we be never so well furnished, and have all the means that may be to resist; yet must we needs perish if God be against us. For victory is not obtained by the force and valour of men, but by the power of God, who for that cause is called the Lord of hosts. And there is none other help for us, but to be at peace with God, that he may brood us under his wings: accordingly as he uses the same similitude, that he will play the part of a hen towards her chickings. For then shall we be safe though all the world conspired our destruction. And albeit that our enemies be never so mighty and strong, and fully minded in their malice to destroy us utterly: yet is it sufficient that God does warrant us and that albeit we have no succor of men, yet are we sufficiently fortified by his only power. But if we proceed to offend him: and he sees that when he has spared us to recover us unto him; we have lever to be adversaries unto him and to continue in our rebellion: then after he has borne with us long enough, he must needs bring us to this point of being consumed by the hand of our enemies. And although others seem as wicked as we, and that God does not prosper them more than us: let not that deceive us. For God will sometime give victory to the wicked, which are no better than we, but peradventure worse; yet will he not fail to destroy us by their hands, and yet they shall have their turn as well as we. But in the meanwhile, we must not think that this threatening is delivered in vain. Therefore let us not compare ourselves with others, saying, O, are not they offenders as well as we? And has not God good cause to punish them? Yes, he has for but he knows the due time and season, and he can use them as seems good to himself: but let us prepare ourselves to abide his blows if we stop our ears against his threatenings, and sleep when he would waken us. For if we give no credit to his threatenings, we must feel by effect, that he who pronounces them, has power to put them in execution, and that he speaks not, as they say, to scare little children. It is certain that God will threaten often before he execute judgment. But therein let us consider his long patience in tarrying for us. And if we abuse the same, it will be nought else but a heaping up and a doubling of God's wrath towards us: insomuch that it had been better for us that he had rooted us out the first day, than so long to have forborne us. Let scoffers say, that respite is worth gold. But there is no respite so long which we would not redeem with a hundred deaths, if it were possible, when we have been so stubborn against our God, and so disobedient to his word, that we have made but a laughing matter of his giving of some token of his anger. Let us therefore consider, that whilst that God does spare us, he gives us leisure to return unto him: and that if our enemies have forborne us, it is of his favor showed unto us, that we might prevent his wrath. But if we will not hear him when he speaks, nor receive his warnings: it behooves us to give ear to these his threatenings here denounced, and he must be fain to send us to another school. It is the wonderful goodness of our God, that when we have thus provoked him, as we see; yet he forbears us, and all to recover us unto him, not by forcing us with main strokes, but by alluring us after a loving manner, being ready to receive us to mercy, as though he were not a Judge to vex us and to condemn us.
But what? When we have contemned all this, it must fall out in the end (as I have said afore) that our Lord must stir us up other masters, so as the wicked may rise up against us, and seek to make a slaughter of us by butcherly murdering of us, being in very deed the executors of God's vengeance, whereof we were warned long beforehand, and made but a laughing game of it, continuing still in our sins and wickedness. That is the cause why I said, that so long as God speaks unto us, and we condemn ourselves, and acknowledge our sins, and seek atonement with our God that we may live in peace in this world: although it be God's will, that we should have enemies and be kept occupied with wars, yet notwithstanding he holds us still in his keeping and we be maintained and defended by his power and goodness.
Now as to what Moses adds, That the dead carcasses should be eaten of crows and of wild beasts, and that there shall be no man to drive them away: it seems to be a vain threatening: for it is no matter whether it be so or not. If a man is buried when he is dead, what is he either the better or the worse for it? It seems then, at the first blush, that this should not be greatly regarded. But GOD meant to show that he will make his wrath felt even in the bodies of them that be dead. And in very deed, burial is a privilege that GOD has given to mankind for a warrant of the resurrection. Let us not think that the use of burying the dead is proceeded of a foolish superstition, or that men devised it. It is true that the heathen have used it, and that was a witness against them: And at the last day, they shall be convicted by their using of that Ceremony, which should have taught them to look for the last resurrection; and their not considering of it is inexcusable. For our burial ought to be unto us as a lively glass or portraiture, to show unto us that we be not created to go after such a sort in corruption, as though there were not another life, and that we should not be restored unto a new state. And it serves always for a larger declaration, that mankind perishes but for a time, and that their bodies shall be renewed. Now forasmuch as burial is as a memorial of the Resurrection as I said afore; therefore is it given to men as a prerogative, to be buried: in respect whereof there is used an honest comeliness, as who should say that we which remain are taught as it were by eye sight to look continually for a second life. For the dead also bears a certain mark in his body, that he is as it were laid up in safe keeping, until the day come that GOD will raise the dead again. Now on the contrary side: whereas it is said that men shall not be buried, but that they shall be eaten of beasts and fowls: it is as much as if God meant to deprive them of the common benefit that he had granted to all mankind: and as if he had showed openly that both in life and in death they were accursed of him. And that is the cause why it is said: Thou shalt be Buried with the burial of an Ass; which thing was spoken by the Prophet to a King, even the King of Judah. But yet, because he would not be corrected, and that whereas GOD had given him the honor to bear in his lifetime the figure of Jesus Christ: yet notwithstanding forasmuch as he had abused the same and given over himself to all ungodliness: thou shalt be buried with the burial of an ass (says the Prophet.) We be hereby warned to have very great regard of all the corrections that GOD sends us: yea even of the very least: that we may always be stirred to fear. For what is the cause, that we pass over so many chastisements of GOD, without profiting by them? Because we shut our eyes willfully, and unless we are compelled by utter force and necessity, we are contented to bear ourselves in hand, that it is not GOD that chastises us: and (as we shall see hereafter) we fall to such blockishness, as to attribute all to fortune. Let us therefore be admonished to mark all the corrections which GOD sends us, both upon ourselves, and upon our neighbors, that we may receive warning by them. It seems to be but a small matter, not to be buried: yea but yet will God have it noted, and to be understood that it is his hand, and that he shows himself as Judge against such as have offended him. Seeing that GOD will have his Judgments known in so small things? let us be advised to have more wit and discretion. As often as GOD gives us (as you would say) but a fillip, let us be moved to think on him and not tarry until he draws his sword, or bends his bow to hit us with a mortal wound: but let us by all manner of means humble ourselves under his hand. Moreover we have here, a Testimony of the life everlasting. True it is that this point was not so plainly declared in the law, as it is to us in the Gospel, neither that we should rise again to the heavenly glory, nor that we should live with God after our death. But yet for all that, the old fathers did not lead the life of beasts, neither did God leave them in such ignorance, as to have their faith closed up in this present world and in this transitory life. For here we have a record, that when we have finished the course of this life, there is yet a greater Judgment prepared for all men. And if GOD does forbear us here, and notwithstanding that we escape all the curses mentioned in the law, even to the end: yet must we come to a greater reckoning. For it were a needless matter, for GOD to speak of depriving men of their burial, if (as I said even now) he had not a farther meaning in it. Therefore let us so use this doctrine, as we may be provoked to have an eye to the life that is yet hidden from us, and which we look for by faith; and let us not think it shall greatly avail us, when GOD punishes us not in this world. For it is far better for us to linger here beneath, and to be always in miseries: than to enjoy our ease and delights, and that in the meanwhile GOD should but tarry for us, to thunder upon us when he has taken us out of this world. Thus you see whereunto this Text of Moses does serve us, where he says, That the birds and beasts, shall eat our carcasses, and that no man shall drive them away.
Now if God gives such tokens of his wrath on the bodies that have no feeling: what shall become of the souls, wherein is the very seat of evil, and the kingdom of Satan? For our hands, our feet, our eyes, and our ears, offend not of their own proper moving; but by the direction and provocation of our wicked thoughts and affections.
And whereby all those things, or whence proceed they but from our souls? Seeing then that the bodies which were but instruments, do feel the wrath of GOD, and do answer to the same as we see: let us not suppose that the souls go quit. Let us therefore look evermore higher than to this transitory life for to waken us. and to make us to walk in such obedience, that after we have fought against sin, and against Satan, and have been exercised in patience, and in diverse afflictions in this world, having done our endeavor to serve GOD with all diligence, our souls may be taken up to rest, and that our Lord in likewise may show the self-same favor upon our dead bodies.
Notwithstanding, this favor and blessedness of having their bodies buried, does not always happen to the faithful, whereas it falls out that many of the wicked are very honorably buried; howbeit that the same is nothing to them, neither is their state any whit bettered thereby. We see what is said in the Psalm concerning them that have faithfully served GOD: namely, that their bodies were laid out for a prey to the fowls, and the beasts; and yet were they the children of GOD. And albeit that this be a testimony of God's wrath upon the wicked: yet may it oftentimes come to pass, that our Lord will use the same manner of chastisements upon his own people: And yet it shall be nothing to their hurt.
True it is, that we must evermore humble ourselves, when such a thing happens, and we must understand that such things be as it were marks of Adam's sin, and of the corruption that is in us, and also of the offenses which we have committed: and yet for all that our Lord in the meantime turns this evil to good, when he permits the faithful to be deprived of burial. We see what is said of the wicked rich man and of Lazarus. It is said, that the rich man died and was buried: behold how the worldly pomp is bestowed on the reprobate.
It seems that his soul should have been received into paradise when his body was sumptuously carried and used with great ceremonies.
And what of Lazarus? He died too. But what mention is there of his burial? None at all. Whereby our Lord Jesus does us to understand, (for it is he that speaks it) that we must not stay altogether upon these visible things. But yet this threatening (however the case stands) is not in vain. What is to be done then? Let us gather generally (as we have said) that burial serves to lead us to the hope of the heavenly life, and of the resurrection which we must hope for.
Thus much concerning that point.
When we bury them that be dead before us, let it serve always to provoke and to stir us to understand that we are not created to live only in this world: but that there is another better life prepared for us. And again, when we see that our Lord deprives any of their burial, let us understand that he therein shows his wrath.
Nevertheless it is better sometimes for a man to be devoured of beasts and birds, and to be chastised of GOD after that sort in his body for the sparing of his soul, and to have a temporal condemnation, than to perish forevermore: It is better sometimes for a wicked man to be hanged, than to die in his bed. For how many do we see to gnash their teeth against GOD, when he has patiently tarried for them, and given them so many plain and apparent tokens of his wrath for their conversion; and yet nevertheless they make a mock of him, and still continue obstinate in their rebellion? When a wretched ill-doer is condemned by men, he is ashamed of it and cast down in himself, and acknowledges and bewails his sins. This condemnation then, which he bears in his body, albeit that it is an execution of that which is here spoken by Moses: does serve to his salvation; and therefore let us bear away these things. Moreover when the faithful, even the very martyrs are burned, and their bodies consumed to ashes, so as they have not that which should be common to all mankind: let us understand that GOD converts the same to their welfare, and that their glory is thereby doubled. As how? It is certain that this is a threatening of God, as be also all diseases. But when our Lord saves so, he means that they be the ordinary means, which he uses to correct our sins: but yet nevertheless he fails not to chastise those so with his own hand, which have not offended him: or at leastwise whom he means not to pursue with rigor. This is in sum that which we have to bear in mind concerning this Text.
Now let us come to that which Moses says further. He says that GOD will strike the despisers of his law with many diseases. He has spoken heretofore of fevers, and of the hot disease, and of the yellow jaundice, and of such others: now he speaks of the Itch and canker and of other worms and scabs. Where also mention is made of the Hemorrhoids, as some do expound them; all these aforesaid things be the weapons of GOD, to punish the offenders of the Law. To be short, they be his men of war to encounter with us, when he sees that we take heart of grass against him. And truly when we favor our own