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

Let the only cross therefore of Jesus Christ be the whole and entire satisfaction for our sins, his only sufferances our merits, his only death and victory our life.

Let the onelie crosse therefore of Iesus Christ be the whole and entire satisfaction for our sinnes, his onely sufferances our merites, his only death and victory our life.

13. In the mean time our spike-nard, I mean the virtue of the spirit of God, working in us freely as it is freely given & continued unto us, shall give his sweet and fragrant smell indeed. For they and no others are the children of God which are regenerate and borne a new by the spirit of God. Rom. 8.14. & we are freed ⟨p. 190⟩from sin by the Son as well as justified, Joh. 8.36. But there is a great difference between these two questions. How and by whom we are made the children of God, and whereby a man knoweth whether we are the children of God or no. The first of these two questions enquireth after the cause, & the second speaketh of the effects. The only mere grace and favour of God therefore hath elected us, called us to salvation, and is the cause of our salvation, from the beginning unto the ending. For, that faith created in us by grace, apprehendeth and taketh hold of Jesus Christ, and of life in him, it is because it hath pleased God so to ordain and appoint the causes, by the which he executeth his eternal counsel touching our election and salvation. But hereby a man knoweth the faithful and by consequent the elect to be glorified, that being by the free grace of God changed into newness of life, they depart from iniquity to follow after righteousness, according as it pleaseth God to work in them sooner or latter and in diverse measure. The faithful therefore are those who are known by their good works, and God crowneth them both in this world and in the other. But how? Of his mere gratuity and sole mercy, and not that there is in them any value which meriteth, or that they are accepted for satisfaction (seeing the only oblation of Jesus Christ once made is more then sufficient in this behalf) or for that they are correspondent and answering unto the righteousness required by the Law, and which only meriteth and deserveth, according unto the tenor of the covenant, life everlasting; agreeable to this resolution, Do all these things and thou shalt live, and cursed is he which accomplisheth not all these things. In sum therefore it is in Jesus Christ alone who hath perfectly accomplished and fulfilled all righteousness, that the promises of the Law are available unto us.