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

nay letteth not, but that a man may retire himself into purer and cleaner flocks (if there be any such) and where he may be in less danger of being corrupted by the contagion and infection of others. The other imperfection consisteth in doctrine. In which again there are many circumstances to be considered before we deprive any assembly, be it great or small, of the name of the Church. And that this should be so, we see by the first epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, that in the church of Corinth, not only touching manners, the discipline of the church was very loosely observed, and the manner of teaching the word greatly profaned by a vain and affected kind of ⟨p. 89⟩babbling: but which more is that the pro and the con touching the article of the resurrection of the dead was stoutly and stiffly disputed, an article notwithstanding of such ground & foundation in the Church, that without it the preaching of the gospel would become vain: 1. Cor. 15.17. And yet notwithstanding it was so called and held of the Apostle for the true and holy Church of God. Among the Galatians it was yet worse, being for the most part of them turned aside, by the false Apostles, from the principal ground-plot and foundation of the Christian Church, namely, from the free justification, by the only satisfaction of one only Jesus Christ: and yet all this notwithstanding, Saint Paul giveth them the name of Church. The reason is, as touching the Corinthians, because they showed not themselves incorrigible and past amendment, and that, though there were some but badly instructed in the article of the resurrection of the dead, notwithstanding the body of the Church did still retain and hold the truth. The Galatians also had not banded themselves against the doctrine of the Apostle, but were only turned somewhat aside by a light headiness, and yet not all of them, as is to be presupposed.

nay letteth not, but that a man may retire himselfe into purer and cleaner flocks (if there be any such) and where he may be in lesse danger of being corrupted by the contagion and infection of others. The other imperfection consisteth in doctrine. In which againe there are many circumstances to be considered before we depriue any assembly, be it great or small, of the name of the Church. And that this should be so, we see by the first epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, that in the church of Corinth, not only touching manners, the discipline of the church was very loosly obserued, and the manner of teaching the word greatly prophaned by a vaine and affected kinde of