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

3 To answer therefore this matter, which is the last refuge of our adversaries, what is that the spouse here saith, being so affrighted & hared, for that her Bridegroom is departed from her, while she was asleep in her bed? It is this, which I say & repeat again, that she thought, that he whom she sought, and so consequently the truth, and her salvation, were to be found in the religion which was commonly received among the people. And what induced her to think so? The promises made unto that people and to no other, before the coming of the Bridegroom in flesh, Act. 3.25. as at this day, the Church, say they, cannot err, hereupon to ground all their errors. Wherein then did this spouse deceive her self? Even with that which was answered, Jer. 18.18. and presupposing (as they would gladly make us to believe at this day of Saint Peters steeple at Rome) that religion was nailed as it were with a tenpenny nail, unto Abraham's race, without distinguishing the true Israelites from the false, as Saint John Baptist reproached them in his time: she judged of true religion according unto that which was brought in when she was asleep, & of a long time received of great & small, whereas she should have sought after that which was proposed and commanded for a rule unto the people, that is to say, in the law and in the testimony, as it is said, Esa. 8.20. For seeing that the true Church judgeth not the the controversies of religion, but so far as to refer her self wholly unto that which the Bridegroom hath thereof determined, ⟨p. 321⟩by the mouth of his Prophets & Apostles, it followeth that it is neither unto that which is commonly received and maintained, nor unto the greater number that we are to refer our selves to be resolved, seeing that even in the affairs of this world there be more fools then wise men, and more wicked men then good: but we must refer our selves unto the Bridegroom himself, who is judge both of the one and of the other. Yea, but where shall a man find him? We must not say, (saith the Apostle after Moses) we will ascend up into heaven to find him there, or pass the Sea to seek him. But the word is in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is to say, this word of faith which we preach,