A Treatise of the Cohabitation Of the Faithful with the Unfaithful | Page 3

they do lyue an holy lyfe / and that amonge the vnbeleauers their conuersacion be so godly / graue / comely / and agreing with their profession / that in no wise they do gyue any offence through the wickednes of their lyfe: for yf by their lyfe the vnfaythfull shuld be offendid / then shuld their mynistery be vnprofitable to the vnbeleuers / for that by their euell doings they shuld ouerthrowe what soeuer they labored to builde vpp in wordes.
[[3]]
The thred thinge that theise men must take heede of / and Rule which they must obserue is. That they do not communicate / with the vnfaythfull in their supersticions and idolatries / nor iet do so mutch as outwardly to seame to allowe them. Thys ys not to be doone in ony wise / no not in hope therby to wynne the vnbeleauer from hys supersticion / and Idolatrie:
[[Ro. 3]]
For this Rule of the holy ghoste doth euer remain certain / Euell things ar not to be doone / that goode maye comme therof. This vnchaungeable rule must not be broken.
[[4]]
The fourth and last thing that theise men must take heede of / and Rule which they must obserue is this. That they haue not ther familiar conuersacion with the vnbeleuers for their own cause / as for their pleasure and recreacion / or for their gayn and profite / but only in respect of wynnynge them to the gospell of christe. Neither ys this conuersacion and companie / contynually to be hadd and kept with the vngodly and vnbeleuers / but so long as ther is goode hoope of wynninge / and conuerting them to the gospell of christe. For yf the vnbeleauers shall shew themselues so obstinate in their euell / that they giue iuste cause to despaire of ther amendement / then ar they vtterly to be forsaken / and no conuersacion or companie is to be hadd with them / farther then the necessitie of lyfe enforcith either partie. As yff the vnbeleauers shuld be in such extreme necessitie / that they could not be releaued but at the hand of the faythfull: or yf theise shuld be in that necessitie / that they could not otherwise obtain thinges necessarie but of the vnfaithfull. Also in byinge and selling thinges necessarie for the lyfe / as garmentes / victuals / and such like: Agayn in such thinges as cyuile estates / and condicions do require / as of princes and Rulars to demaunde lawfull defence / and to obey them in thinges lawfvll: to fathers / maried folke / masters / and such lyke / to do thos duties which ar appointed in godds worde. In theise thinges to vse the vnbeleauers / or to minister vnto them / ys not vnlawfull.
Thus and in thys manier / yt ys lawfull for a priuate man / which is lerned / and constant in godds truithe / being in that place wher no man ys compelled to be partaker of wicked supersticions / to dwell together / and vse familiar conuersacion with the vnbeleuers and vnfaythfull / as theise named Rules and condicions / do appoint and suffer. And so haue ye this proposicion declared and opened / The same ys confirmed / by the example of Christ our Sauiour. He dyd resorte to the dyners / and feastes / where scribes and pharisees / publicanes and synners were / to thys ende onlie / euen to teache them and to winne them vnto the Gospell. So saieth hierom.
[[Hiero in Matt. cap. 9.]]
The lorde dyd go vnto the feastes of synners / that he mighte haue occasion to teache them and that he mighte gyue spirituall meates to them which dyd bydde hym: and after speaking how christe went ofte to feastes / Theare ys (saithe he) no other thinge reported / but what he dyd / and what he taughte there. That bothe the humblenes of the lorde in goinge to synners / and the power of hys doctrine in conuertinge the penitents / mighte be declared.
After the same maner / the prophetes in the olde tyme were conuersaunte with the Idolatrous people. So were the Apostles famyliarlie conuersaunte with the vnbeleuinge Iues / and went also emongest other vnbeleuing nations and men.
[[Act. 17.]]
S. Paule when he came to Athens / dyd not thinke skorne so famyliarlie to behaue him selfe that he went in to the temples of their Idolls / and verye curiouslie searched the corners of the same / he dyd viewe their altars / the titles and inscriptions of ther altars / so that he founde owte that title / Ignoto Deo which was an altar dedicated vnto the vnknowen God / wherof he dyd take occacion to make that same