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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
Sermon 22: THE XXII SERMON. Our help be in the name of God &c. It is written as followeth in the s…
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.
8 And this is the cause why the spouse addeth this verse full of incomprehensible comfort and consolation, saying, The Bridegroom is mine, and I am his. For what a treasure is this? This is the only Son coessential and coeternal with God the father, inasmuch as he is God: and inasmuch as he is man, the perfect of perfits: he in whom the father is fully pleased & contented, in whom are all the treasures of knowledge and understanding, and who hath a name above all names, having power in heaven & in earth: and who is so good, so mighty, so rich as he? And we, what are we? conceived and born in sin: not able of our selves to think on that which is of God in respect of our salvation, but culpable of just and eternal malediction. Who can therefore conceive of such a bounty & liberality, either in respect of the giver, or in regard of that which is given, or in respect of them unto whom it is given? He who is the giver thereof hath all the reason in the world, to hate him on whom he bestoweth this exceeding treasure: the gift is no worlds-good, but the giver himself: he on whom the gift is bestowed is not only unworthy thereof, but worthy of the clean contrary. All which circumstances being well considered ought so to move the senseless and hard hearted, as to be ravished with the admiration of this so bottomless a gulf of bounty and liberality: and make all them die for shame who are so wicked as to contemn such an exceeding grace, what allurement soever were presented them. For what is there to be compared with such a treasure most freely bestowed? And what recompense is a man able to give of his soul? ⟨p. 296⟩Mat. 16.26. Desire we any good thing from an high, or from below? Who shall give it us but he who is the Lord of high and low? Wish we for any true commodity, within or without? Who shall give it us but he who made and preserveth the one and the other? And how shall he refuse to give it him, unto whom he hath given himself, and that by a donation utterly irrevocable? So that when we demand any of these blessings, and receive them not, let us know that this therefore happeneth, because he knoweth a great deal better then we our selves what is for us, or because we do naughtily demand that which is good for us, or because it is good for us to have the denial for a time to sharpen and whet our appetite and desire, Psal. 40.1.