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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.
2 Now if this visible world and which tendeth unto his end and term, be subject to such varieties of years, seasons, months and days, the other world which is spiritual, albeit it tend unto immortality, is yet more turning & wheeling, not on two stars, which the Astronomers call Poles, but upon the wheel of Gods providence conducting this other world by the springs of a motion altogether secret and unknown unto us, except it be so far as it please God to make us more particularly to know and perceive them. I understand by this other world him, whose sins are taken away by the Lamb, Joh. 1.29. him, for whom the father gave his Son, Joh. 3.16. and who is opposed unto him, for whom Jesus Christ saith that he prayeth not, Joh. 17.9. and, from whom also we are severed, Joh. 17.16. In a word it is the Church that is here spoken of, and which hath, so long as it continueth here below, her spring-time, and her summer, her autumn & her winter, not ruled by the course of the stars, but, as I have said, by a special motion of him, who hath made the heavens and the earth, to begin and end, where, and how far, and in what sort it pleaseth God. Neither is it therefore to be said that the Church, being composed of men, passeth not through the cold and heat of this lower and elementary world, and by the effects which follow thereof, as are barrenness, famines, plagues, and other inconveniences, nay that sometimes it suffereth not in these things more then others, as this argument is handled at large, Ps. 73. yet notwithstanding, this natural disposition of seasons is not it whereby we must judge the seasons of the Church, because her spring time is often in the greatest and sharpest winter of others: and contrariwise that which is the spring-time to others, is unto her the most rough and tempestuous winter. For she hath her sun by her self, the approaching whereof with a mild and quickening heat, not parching or scorching, bringeth her always ⟨p. 260⟩a most pleasant spring-time for her better sowing, budding, & flourishing: & afterward a temperate summer for the bringing forth of her fruit: after that a goodly autumn to gather it in his ripeness: & finally a good winter for the enjoying thereof, and preparing of another seed.