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

5 And what have we to do hereupon? Soothly that which the Bridegroom here saith, & the Lord of the vineyard willeth us to do. Take us, saith he, those foxes & those cubs which wast the vines. But to whom speaketh he? Certainly to those to whom he hath given in charge to husband & look unto his vineyard, who should be watchful and diligent aswell to husband it, as also to fence and keep it from whatsoever may hurt it, arming themselves the better to do this with his authority and power, both in reproving the false doctrine by the true, and also in cutting off the dead and rotten members. For although themselves be also members of the Church, which is here generally ⟨p. 292⟩represented in the person of the spouse, yet notwithstanding in respect of their particular calling and vocation, which is to provide for the purity and surety of the Church, they are particularly distinguished from the rest of the body, and in this regard they are here willed and commanded to take these foxes. Such have been, and yet are, and shall be unto the end of the world, those whose ministry and mouth the Bridegroom always useth to declare his holy will, and therefore they are called his mouth, because they speak being moved by the holy Ghost, 2. Pet. 1.21. which for this cause specially are called in the holy Scriptures by diverse names, to wit, Men of God, Seers, prophets, watchmen, builders of the house of God, pastors, doctors, ambassadors of God, the friends of the Bridegroom, and dealers in the marriage match between Jesus Christ and his Church, keepers of the vineyard of the Lord, dispensers of the secrets of God, names and titles exceeding honourable before God, but despised of men: names, I say, of great honour, but of a marvellous, yea unsupportable charge, if we take them strictly, 2. Cor. 2.16. And this is the cause why the Apostle calleth not this charge a dignity, as they use to term it who have forged that goodly Apostatical Hierarchy, but he calleth it a work or a business, 1. Tim. 3.1. whose charge is understood oftentimes generally by the word of watching and feeding, sometimes more distinctly, by attending unto the word and unto prayers,