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

7 Behold therefore the reason why this Queen addeth, and contemplate the King Solomon. But we must know what it is to contemplate. It is not simply to look upon a thing, as at the entrances of kings every man getteth him up into a window, or goeth out into the street to see him pass by, and after that there is an end. But to contemplate is rather an action of the mind then of the eyes, when to take the thorough view of a thing & perfectly to know it, a man looketh round about it & peereth to the very bottom: which is said of S. Peter when he came unto the Sepulchre, and leaned his body down into it to see throughly whether the body of the Lord were there or no, Luk. 24.12. Yea but will some man say, when these things were written, the king figured by Solomon was not yet visible, seeing he had not yet put on him our flesh, & yet still at this day, having withdrawn himself so far from us shall not be seen until his latter coming. I confess all this, & I say farther that even so long as he was in this world truly visible and in sensible and palpable flesh, yea after his resurrection, Luk. 24.39. so far is it notwithstanding, that this visible nature caused him to be known, that contrariwise to see him man as others, and so vile and contemptible without, was as it were a veil over the eyes of the beholders, hindering not only such as were carnal, as they who called him Nazarene, Joh. 1.47. and Carpenter the son of a Carpenter, Mar. 6.3. and Herod who did nothing but mock him, Luk. 23.11. but his disciples also to see and apprehend ⟨p. 392⟩either his majesty, or that which we ought principally to seek after for our salvation, albeit his glory shined in his words and in his works. And this is the cause why Jesus Christ answered Philip, requesting him that he would show him his father, Joh. 14.9. that it was expedient that he should depart,