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

But there is yet more, for they teach that it is sufficient unto salvation to know that which their Church believeth, without any farther enquiring or knowing what it is. And what meditation, I pray you, or contemplation can a man have of that, of which he knoweth nothing, & of which he is no whit bound to know any thing in special? But provided a man have a good meaning and refer himself to the articles of their faith, be it as be may, and kneel himself down before a Crucifix, or sometimes seek a great way for one when he hath one hard by, or be as ready to say an Ave Maria, as a Pater noster (for indeede the one in this case is as good as the other, being as little understood of him that saith it, as it is heard of the Image before which he prayeth) behold a merit by and by achieved, behold the wrath of God very well appeased. And how so? Is this to pray unto God in spirit and truth, Joh. 4.24. ⟨p. 397⟩to present our selves before him in faith, without the which a man cannot please God, Heb. 11.6. To believe & to be ignorant of a thing is this all one? Is this this faith by which we stand? 1. Cor. 16.13. by which we beat back the fiery darts of our enemy? Eph. 6.16. 1. Pet. 3.9. in which we ought to continue grounded and stablished? Coloss. 1.23. Is this that doctrine which we must meditate day and night, without inquiring after it or knowing it? Psal. 1.2. And if this be it, how shall we be ready to yield a reason thereof, according unto the ordinance of the Apostle, when we never knew what it meant? That is to say, how can we give an account of that, for which we never made either spent or received? And who teacheth this lesson? That doth saint Peter, 1. Pet. 3.15