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

8 Let our adversaries then & gainsayers reproach us no longer that we attribute nothing unto the church. For contrariwise we avow & protest that the Apostolic church is our mother, in the which the holy ghost hath in his time begotten us & nursed us, ⟨p. 341⟩as he yet nourisheth us. The controversy then between them and us lieth not in this point, whether there be any salvation without the Church, and whether the Church be our mother in whose chamber we must live and abide as her true children: for hereof we make no doubt. But this is the whole controversy, namely, whether they be the true Church, or rather the clean contrary a false strumpet, which hath driven the true mother out of doors into the deserts, and bereaved her of her children, which she demandeth of her again, and which this true spouses Bridegroom maketh her to restore and deliver every day.

8 Let our aduersaries thē & gainsaiers reproch vs no longer that we attribute nothing vnto the church. For cōtrariwise we auow & protest that the Apostolick church is our mother, in the which the holy ghost hath in his time begottē vs & nursed vs, ⟨p. 341⟩as he yet nourisheth vs. The controuersie then between them and vs lieth not in this point, whether there be any saluation without the Church, and whether the Church bee our mother in whose chamber we must liue and abide as her true children: for hereof wee make no doubt. But this is the whole controuersie, namelie, whether they be the true Church, or rather the clean contrary a false strumpet, which hath driuen the true mother out of dores into the deserts, and bereaued her of her children, which shee demaundeth of her againe, and which this true spouses Bridegroome maketh her to restore and deliuer euery day.

9 But yet there ariseth one, nay two difficulties more upon this matter. For first if this Bridegroom be found no where but in his Church, and this Church is our mother, how can it be that this spouse found him without? For how may it be said that she brought him in into this house, if he were there already and that she found him there? The answer is, that it is true indeed, that this Bridegroom dwelleth, that is to say, declareth his virtue and healthful power in this house. But it followeth not thereupon that he goeth not forth, as I may say, until he find his children even in the bosom of this back-sliding whore (as in our time he hath fetched them and yet fetcheth them every day, out of these sinks of monasteries) to bring them into his house. So he went out of Jerusalem, and sent into the East and West to call us, to make us to draw near unto him, us, I say, which were poor Gentiles and nothing less then his people, to bring us into his admirable light, Ephes. 12.12. And thus you see how this spouse found her Bridegroom abroad, from whom she was, as we have most amply declared before, strayed aside and wandered.