Deuteronomy 4:27-31 And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

We have said heretofore, that God’s using of the similitude of fire, is not to dismay us in such sort as we should not come unto him: but contrariwise to make us come to him with reverence. For what should it benefit men to be stricken in such terror, as should make them shrink away from GOD, and loathe to have anything to do with him? Again we know that our Lord hath not any other mark or intent, than to win us to him and to draw us to salvation. Now the only means thereof, is to go right forth unto him, and to be joined unto him. Wherefore let us bear well in mind this lesson, that God’s intent is not to scare us in such wise, as we should shun him: and that is the thing which we have to gather at this time upon that which is rehearsed here. For the threat that Moses giveth here, is hard: but yet it serveth to bring the people back to God. If thou disobey the voice of the Lord (saith he) thou shalt be scattered. Flatter not thyself in his choosing of thee from among all other nations to be his inheritance, nor with his giving of thee this land in possession: for he can well enough bereave thee of all these benefits. Yet notwithstanding, he addeth that if God see repentance in his people, after he hath chastised them: he will bring them again and deal  favourably with them, so as they shall feel him to be a merciful God, and such as one as powereth not out of his rigour with extremity upon offenders, when he sees that they be not utterly past amendment. What is to be done then? First of all, we hear this sentence which God gave in old time upon his people: let us learn to beware that we abuse not his goodness. Let us go to him with all humility while he allureth us by gentleness as the Apostle declares in the Epistle to the Hebrews. For there he saith that we be not come to Mount Sinai where there was nothing but flashes of lightning and thunder-cracks: and where the people were so amazed, as they look for present death. What remaineth then? Behold (saith he) God calleth us by his Gospel, to the intent we should be fellows with the angels and with the spirits of the faithful, and that we should be very citizens of his kingdom. Seeing it is so (saith he) let us enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, for at the first sight that there is some contrariety to these two sayings, That we should come boldly and after an assured manner to our God: and also that he should be a consuming fire. But both these agree very well together. For first the Apostle sheweth that we ought not to be so afraid of the Majesty of our God, as that we should shun him, but rather consider that there is nothing in him but gentleness. But yet therewithal we must know also, that we must worship him unfeigned: or else we must learn that he can well revenge himself of such as shall have abused his grace, and of such as shall have held scorn of it. Therefore let us receive God’s goodness when it is offered us,  and that with such reverence and lowliness, as we provoke him not to wrath against us, and make him arm himself as he doth against the despisers of his grace.

Sermon 26 on Deuteronomy
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