Master Bezaes sermons upon the three chapters of the canticle of canticlesMaster Bezaes sermons vpon the three chapters of the canticle of canticles

6 To return unto our text: mention being made here of the church as of a queen in the most noblest and highest estate a man can imagine, there is speech of her costly & rich borders and chains, as she is in like manner painted out unto us, Psal. 45.10.14. and 15. and at large in Ezekiel the 16. being meant hereby inward and spiritual gifts whereof S. Peter and Saint Paul in the places which I have alleged, do speak. And what are these gifts? to say it all in a word, it is the bridegroom himself, and all that he hath. Now he hath in himself the holy spirit and all the graces of him, not only because he is God coeternal and coessential with the father and the holy Ghost, but also in as much as he is man he received them not in part, 1. Cor. 12.8. but without number or measure, Joh. 3.34. The divinity therefore of Christ is as it were the very well-spring ⟨p. 174⟩of all grace, Jam. 1.17. And the humanity of Jesus Christ is as it were the basin or vessel receiving all this abundance of grace poured into it, Joh. 1.14. Which thing was represented by the descending of the Dove at his Baptism, Joh. 1.32. as is declared, Isaiah. 11.2. And this not to the end that this should stay in his only person, but to the end that so much as it pleaseth him to bestow upon us for his glory might run down upon us, baptising & bedewing us therewith within, as the same is represented unto us by outward baptism, Joh. 1.33. For which cause the Angels announcing his birth unto the shepherds said not only A child is borne, but a child is borne unto you, Luk. 2.11. Now these gifts are not all of one sort & quality. For some of them are generally and universally bestowed on every christian, which are reduced unto four points by the Apostle,