A Treatise of the Cohabitation Of the Faithful with the Unfaithful | Page 4

hys sermon in which he preached Christe vnto them euen as yt were owt of their own bokes.
And thus / I thinke / that this our proposition / (which of yt owne selfe ys plaine and euident ynoughe) ys sufficientlie proued. Namelie thys / that a priuate man / learned / and constaunte in the truithe / beinge in that place where no man ys compelled to communicate with wicked supersticions / maye be familiarlie conuersante with the vnbeleuers / so longe as in hys conuersation he doth obserue and kepe / the conditions before mencioned.
[[Conuersation vuith men excommunicate.]]
Here I thinke good to adde / as yt were by the waye of admonicion / that kepinge these rules and conditions / yt ys lawfull for the godlie to be conuersaunte with them which be excommunicate / euen to call them in to the waye of godlynes / and not to communicate with them in any euill or synne.
[[The secund proposition.]]
Nowe will I put forthe an other proposition or sentence / whiche shalbe of those persons whych be of a priuate estate and are subiectes / of that cohabitacion which ys fre wher no man is compelled to communicate with wicked supersticions / and of suche men as be vnlearned in the knowledge of gods truithe / weake in faythe / and therfor vnable to make a christian confession of truithe. Thys collection agreeth with that which I gathered before / of which I made my former proposition / sauinge that wheras there / with the priuate estate and free dwellinge
[[Ignoraunnce in men is intollerable.]]
/ I coupled men that were learned and stronge to confesse the truithe / heare I do adde in the place of them / men vnlearned / vnable / and to weake to confesse the truithe. But herin thincke not that I do alowe suche ignoraunce and vnablenes in men. Suche ignoraunce in men is sharply to be reproued / for ther is none so veri an idiote / so simple and vnlearned amonge Christianes / but he ys bounde in conscience to be able to rendre an accompte of hys faythe / and also to be somwhat able to teache and instructe others / yea and to saye somwhat for the truthe / in all the principall poyntes of the christian faythe / which he may do yf he be but meanlie instructed in the Catechisme. But bicause / partlie throughe the peruersnes of the ministers which do not their office to instructe men / partlie throughe the negligence of men which do not their dutie in seekinge to be instructed / suche ignoraunce there is / I admytt therfore into this my collection those ignoraunte / vnable / and weake men. And so I make this proposition. Those men which are of a priuate estate and condition / dwellinge or beinge in a place where they be not compelled to communicate with wicked supersticions. And are them selues vnlearned and vnable to confesse and defende the truithe / maye not vse famyliar conuersation with the vnbeleuers.
These men ar not in that condition that the learned be / of whom I dyd speake before / for they cannot teache the vnbeleuers / yea they be not able to defende the gospell of christe from the blasphemie of the vnbeleuers / neither can they deliuer them selues from suche false snares as the vnbeleauers shall laye for them: Wherfor they must not haue familiar conuersacion with them / through which they shall thus throwe themselues into perill / and ieoperdie: Except that they can assure themselues of such strenghth / that they shall not yealde vnto the wickednes of the vnbeleuers. Otherwise / if they shall happen to dwell togither in one place with the vnfaithfull: Lett them take goode heede that they do lyue an holy lyfe amonge them: And for the rest / let them so far as the necessitie of lyfe / and ciuile businesses and affaires shall suffer them / vtterly abstayn from the companie of the vnbeleauers.
[[A question.]]
But heere risith a question: Whether that such a weake and vnlearned man / maye learn ony of the liberall artes / or philosophie / of such a master as is an vnbeleauer.
Vnto which I answer: that forbicause to lern such artes of an vnfaithfull master is not of such necessitie as can not be auoided / therfor the man that ys weake in faithe must not lern them of hym. Yt is a very daungerus thinge / to vse them which ar vnbeleauers as Masters and teachers: for often tymes in the myndes of the hearers ther arisith a gret admiracion and estimacion of the teacher / and it maye easilye com to pas at the lenghthe / that they shall thincke and Iudge