A09998:574
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.
10 The other difficulty ariseth upon this manner of speech that the spouse caused her Bridegroom to enter into her mothers house, seeing on the contrary side, it is the Bridegroom, who seeketh after us and findeth us, and bringeth us in into his house. This is most true, and we must do God this honour, to confess that it is he, who according unto his infinite goodness, as he hath destinated us unto salvation in his Son before the foundation ⟨p. 342⟩of the world, so doth he in his time prevent us, seeking after us all when we are strayed, & finding us when we are fled from him, and bringing us into his house, which is also the dwelling place and habitation of our good and holy Mother. But this is after such a manner notwithstanding, that we are not all this while like blocks and trunks, which a man findeth & carrieth whither he will, without any feeling or motion in themselves. God then seeketh after us, forming in us the desire to seek after him: he findeth us giving us the means & the power to find him: we take hold of him and embrace him meeting with him, because he createth in us the faith which taketh hold of him: he bringeth us into the house of our mother, bestowing on us the grace of desiring to join our selves unto the company of the true church never to stir or depart from it. These two things then agree very well together, provided, that we add this, that as God produceth in us natural effects by natural causes which he hath created in us: so, if the question be of these graces which are merely supernatural (seeing flesh and blood reveal not these things unto us, Matth. 16.17. nay our natural wisdom is enmity unto God, Rom. 8) we must vouch and confess that the purity of understanding and uprightness of will are the mere free gifts and graces of him who enlighteneth the eyes of our understanding, Ephesi. 1.8. and createth in us both to will and to do, Philip. 2.13. So that if this proposition and sentence be true, when we speak of the creation of the world, that it made not it self, and that a dead body raiseth not himself: so is it as true, the question being of the light of the soul, be it in the understanding or uprightness of will, that we are truly the workmanship of God by his mere and only grace,