'Eternal God, father of all mercies, thou hast promised thy children to give them whatsoever they shall ask in faith, and wilt refuse them nothing that is reasonable and just; and hast always heard the prayers of thy servants, who are oppressed in divers manners. Thou knowest now what is the need of this people better than they or I do.... This need is principally to hear thy Word. It is true we have been ungrateful in not acknowledging thee as our only Father, and thine own son Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent to die for us, in order to be our only Saviour and intercessor. But, Lord, thou hast promised us that whensoever the poor sinner draws near thee, by reason of thy Son, born of the Virgin Mary, thou wilt hear him. We know and even are assured that thou desirest not the death and destruction of sinners, but that they should be converted and live.... Thou desirest that they should not remain under the great tyranny of Antichrist, and under the hand of the devil and his servants, who are continually fighting against thy holy Word and destroying thy work.... Our Father! look down upon thy poor blind people, led by the blind, so that they both fall into the ditch, and can only be lifted out by thy mercy.... Lift them out by thy Holy Spirit, open their eyes, their ears, their understandings, their hearts, in order that, confessing their sins, they may look to the goodness of thy Son whom thou hast given to die for them. And since it hath pleased thee, Lord, to send me to them, give both them and me the infinite grace that by thy Holy Spirit they may receive what thou shalt put into the mouth of thy servant, who is unworthy to be the bearer of so great a message. But as it hath pleased thee to choose me from among the weak things of the world, give me strength and wisdom so that thy power may be manifested ... not only in this city but in all the world. How can thy servant stand in the presence of such a multitude of adversaries, unless thou art pleased to strengthen him? Show, then, that thy power is greater than Satan's, and that thy strength is not like man's strength.' Froment concluded with the Lord's prayer.
=SERMON AT THE MOLARD.=
The people were touched: they had often heard the mechanical prayers of the priests, but not a prayer of the heart. They acknowledged that the reformers were certainly not partisans, but Christians who desired the salvation of all men. The evangelist rose and stood once more upon the stall, which was about to become the first pulpit of the Reformation in Geneva. He had heard of the proceedings of the vicars of the Madeleine and St. Germain's, and was moved by the furious opposition of the priests to the preaching of the Gospel. He had their swords and arquebuses still before his eyes, and resolved to oppose them with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. It was necessary to lead the Genevans away from the teachers who deceived them and direct them to Scripture; it was necessary to break with the papacy. All eyes were fixed on him: they saw him take a book—it was the Gospel. He opened it at the seventh chapter of Matthew and read these words: Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves: by their fruits ye shall know them. Then fixing his eyes on his numerous audience, Froment began by expressing his faith in the mysteries of God: 'Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, very God and very Man, conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary, knowing the things that were to happen, foresaw that false prophets would come, not with hideous faces, but with the most pleasing exterior in the world, under the colour of holiness, and in sheep's clothing, so that the children of God might be deceived. For this cause he exhorted his disciples to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Our God does not desire to have a foolish, giddy people, but a people endowed with great wisdom, who can distinguish between the doctrine of God and the doctrine of man. They who do not know it go astray, and are like swine which cannot discern good things from bad, and swallow everything indiscriminately.... Ah! if the serpent, which is but a brute, is so wise in his generation, if he shuts his ears so as not to hear the voice of the charmer, if he casts off his old skin when the time for doing so has come, shall we not fear to follow the cunningly-devised doctrines of men? Shall we not cast off our old skin to put on a new one? Yes, we must put off our old nature which is sin, Satan, idolatry, impurity, robbery, hypocrisy, pride, avarice, and false doctrine, and put on the new man, which is Christ.... It would be of no use to hear the Word of the Gospel if we did not change our wicked intentions, and to distinguish the false teachers if we did not avoid them. What! if we recognized venomous beasts should we live among them? If we saw a dish of poison should we not beware of eating it?
'But Christ desires us further to be harmless as doves. Not with the simplicity of monastic hypocrisy or bigotry, but with simplicity of heart, without gall, lovely as that of doves.... If we walk in such simplicity we shall overcome all our enemies, as Jesus Christ overcame his enemies by his meekness.... Let us not begin fighting, killing, and burning as tyrants do. The child of God has no other sword of defence than the Word of God; but that is a two-edged sword, piercing even to the marrow.'
Everybody understood Froment's allusion, and many, as they thought of the riot of the evening before, looked and smiled at each other. But while these words, delivered with energy, were stirring the crowd assembled in the Molard, there was still greater agitation in the rest of the city. The priests were irritated; they had tried to shut Froment's schoolroom, and now he was preaching in the great square. They went from one to another and excited the laity. 'The Lutherans,' they said, 'have taken their idol to the Molard to make him preach there.' The vicar-episcopal being instructed by them, apprised the syndics, who sent for the chief usher (grand sautier) Falquet, and ordered him to stop the preaching. That officer immediately went down to the Molard, the sergeants cleared a way through the crowd, and going up to Froment, who was then speaking with great boldness, he stretched out his staff towards him and said, 'In the name of my lords I command you to cease preaching.'
Froment stopped, and turning to the chief usher answered him in a loud voice, 'We ought to obey God rather than man. God commands me to preach His word, you forbid it; I am therefore not bound to obey you.' The presence of the public force caused, however, some little sensation in the audience. The evangelist noticing it turned to the people and said, 'Do not be disturbed, my friends, but listen to what our Lord says—that we must beware of false prophets.' Silence was restored, everyone became calm, and Falquet, finding the evangelist was determined to preach, thought it the safest plan to refer to his masters, and withdrew with his officers. Froment then continued his discourse: 'In order to be on our guard against false prophets, we must know what they are, what is their doctrine and life, and with what they are clothed. When they have been described to you in their natural colours, you will avoid their teaching and their life as more deadly than the plague. The plagues with which God has visited you heretofore[608] only touched you outwardly; but this, more venomous than all the other poisons of the earth, infects the soul, kills it, and casts it into perdition. With this plague we and our fathers have been infected for nearly a thousand years. Not that it came upon us suddenly, and in villanous and deformed appearance; no, it came gradually, under the colour of holiness and in sheep's clothing, these ravening wolves having even some good intentions. But although Jesus Christ had warned us of their coming, and had pointed them out to us, we have been blinded and led by the nose to the ditch of deceit like cattle to water.... The son of perdition, who sitting in the temple of God is worshipped as God—him you worship and keep his commandments. Oh! what a fine master you serve, and what prophets you have! Do you know them? Not to keep you in suspense I declare openly that I am speaking of the pope, and that the false prophets of whom I bid you beware are the priests, monks, and all the rest of his train.
'But some of you, who yourselves belong to that band, will say: "It is you that are the false prophets! Our law is old, and yours is but of yesterday, and brings confusion among the people of every country. While our friends reigned, we enjoyed so much good, so many happy years, that it was quite marvellous; but since you have come to preach this new law there have been wars, famines, pestilences, divisions, strifes, and ill-will. Certainly you are not from God."
'Well, let us examine this statement; let us find out who are these false prophets—we or your priests?... In order to discriminate in such a matter the two parties ought to have a competent judge, who is no acceptor of persons, and that the parties should not be judges in their own cause. For if, in civil causes, we need good judges, good pleadings, good witnesses, good reasons, and letters patent, how much more so in the things of God!... We shall take, therefore, a competent judge, and shall produce witnesses, documents, and ancient customs for the defence of our right.'
Curiosity was excited; the hearers asked each other what was the judge's name. Hitherto the pope had been appealed to as sole judge of controversies: who was Froment going to put in his place?
'In the first place,' he continued, 'the judge shall be—God. Yes, God who judges with righteous judgment, not regarding either rich or poor, wise or foolish, and who gives right to whom it belongs;—the judge shall be His true Son Jesus Christ, attended by His good and lawful witnesses the prophets and apostles; and here,' said he, holding up the New Testament, and showing it to the people, 'here are the sealed letters, signed with the precious blood of our Lord, and the cloud of martyrs who were put to death in order to bear this testimony. What read we there?