A09998:402
Master Bezaes sermons upon the three chapters of the canticle of canticlesMaster Bezaes sermons vpon the three chapters of the canticle of canticles
Master Bezaes sermons upon the three chapters of the canticle of canticles wherein are handled the chiefest points of religion controversed and debated between us and the adversary at this day, especially touching the true Jesus Christ and the true Church, and the certain & infallible marks both of the one and of the other. Translated out of French into English by John Harmar ...Master Bezaes sermons vpon the three chapters of the canticle of canticles wherein are handled the chiefest points of religion controversed and debated betweene vs and the aduersarie at this day, especially touching the true Iesus Christ and the true Church, and the certaine & infallible marks both of the one and of the other. Translated out of French into English by Iohn Harmar ...
Oxford: printed by Joseph Barnes, 1587Oxford: printed by Ioseph Barnes, 1587
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
4 But yet this spouse is not so contented, if the Bridegroom hold not up her head with one hand & her body with the other, & that for two reasons. The first because the force and vigour of that wine, and of those apples, that is to say, of the preaching of the word of God which quicken our hart & cause our spirits to come again unto us, dependeth wholly and entirely upon the inward power and working of God, without which the word preached is no other thing then a sound which entereth in at the one ear, and goeth forth at the other: and the sacraments are nothing else but vain shows and representations of things terrestrial and common: save that the contempt, either of this word or of these sacraments condemneth the contemner & despiser of them before God. For it is for sorcerers, charmers, and enchanters, to attribute a power of working unto the bare and simple pronunciation of words, be they understood and liked of, or not: as also to attribute any kind of holiness or virtue of working in our soul unto the sign of the Sacrament, is not only superstition, but execrable and damnable Idolatry. For this is a thing denied unto the Angels themselves, this virtue being incommunicably proper and belonging unto God, signifying only by his word and by his sacraments, that which he doth truly work and effect within and in the heart and soul of every faithful by his only powerful working: which I will declare and make plain unto you by a familiar similitude, that we jut not any more and run a-shelf on such Idolatry and very manifest sorcery. The question therefore being of corporal nourishment, because God hath so ordained it ⟨p. 232⟩from the beginning, that the creatures should be sustained in their earthly and sensual life, as Saint Paul calleth it, by that which the earth bringeth forth and produceth, Gen. 1.29.30. It is certain that God hath withal given & as it were enclosed in the bread, that which the Prophet calleth the staff of bread, Ezech. 4.16. that is to say, a natural virtue and power to maintain the strength of body in him who eateth thereof and can digest it. Likewise he hath given unto the wine a natural and inward virtue and property to sustain and to cheer the heart of man which drinketh thereof competently and measurably: