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

10 It is said therefore that this beloved caused himself to be seen through the grates or lattice, but it is also added by and by that he spake too. For the true Jesus Christ is not a dumb Idol, nor a crucifix of stone or of wood, he is not this goodly breadden god closed in the Pyx, which cannot show himself, without he be carried about, and is dumb and can make no complaint though the mites or the mice eat him. But this is the true God which spake then in the Temple by the figures of the law, and by the mouth of the Priests doing their duty, Mal. 2.7. and in the Synagogues by the Levites and doctors of the law every sabbath Mat. 23.2. Act. 13.27. and 15.21. & in all places and every where by the Prophets, aswell by mouth as also by writing, Isaiah. 40.6. Zach. 1.14. Jerem. 36.2. & 1. Pet. 1.11. In a word, wisdom did then cry in the streets, even by the mouth also of the pen-man of this Canticle, as all the rest of his writings do also witness, Prover. 1.20. but never by Images or Idols, which were afterward called the books of the ignorant people indeed books to teach them all manner of falsehood, as the Prophets pronounce of them, and such as transform the worshippers also of them into Idols, Psal. 115.8. and 135.18. as indeed is come to pass, and is to be seen with the eye in every false Church of Idols. The true & only Church therefore is she, which alone may say, My well-beloved hath spoken unto ⟨p. 253⟩me, which she could not say neither, if as the Bridegroom spake, so she also did not hearken unto him, and retained that which she heard of him without blending any thing with it, or without adding ought thereto, or diminishing any thing from it. For the false Church vaunteth also that the Bridegroom hath spoken unto her too: but if a man demand what it is he said, then appeareth her shamelessness and forgery. For as for the common sort, whom they call the laity, it is heresy for them to read this word in the common & vulgar language: & as for those to whom they are to refer themselves, shall a man find one man among an hundred, who ever thought upon the holy Scriptures, nay hath seen so much as the cover of the books? Indeed certain wallet-brethren there are, of whom some be chattering until their chaps be made up with the pray they sought after: