A Treatise of the Cohabitation Of the Faithful with the Unfaithful | Page 6

conuersacion of the vnbeleauers / so mutch as cyuile and naturall businesses and affaires will suffer / and as the necessitie of lyfe shall require (as I saide before). Lykewise all houshold duties and offices appointed in gods worde must be obserued / els shall he offend / for as Paule saithe:
[[1. Timo. 5.]]
He that prouidith not for hys / and especially for them of hys own howshold / the same hath denied the faithe / and ys wors then an Infidell. And to proue farther / that this vnlearned and weake man must abstayn from the familiar companie of the vnbeleauers / yea thoughe they be most deere vnto hym / that Rule doth serue / which Christe our Sauiour gyuithe sayinge.
[[Matt. 5. 18.]]
If thy hande or fote offend the / and hinder the / cut yt of / and cast it from the / &c. If thyn eye offend the / plucke yt out / and caste yt from the. We ar not commaunded in this place / to cut of the outward membres of our bodie / as Origen (yf it be true that sum do report of hyme) dyd vntruly thincke / but as the sownd interpretours do write / thos frends and thinges / which ar most nighe and deere vnto vs / Theise ar they which must be cut of plucked out / and cast awaye from our familiaritie and companie / when they do plucke / and separate vs / from the true waye of saluacion / or be such a hinderaunce vnto vs as puttinge impedimentes and lettes in our waye / do hynder vs from walking in gods lawe. Chrisostom entreating this matier / writithe.
[[In Ioan. hom. 15.]]
If the membre which ys misioined vnto the bodie must be cut of / ar not then euell frends mutch nore to be cut of? And agayn / he saith / If we do cut of that membre which ys rotten / and incurable from the bodie / for feare les yt shuld corrupt the other partes therof / (which we do not bicause we do neglect it / for who yet did euer hate his own fleshe, but to saue the rest) how mutch more is this to be done to them which ar euell ioyned vnto us? Which yet we must not do as thoughe we did despise them / but to prouide that our helthe and saluacion be not brought in daunger by them, after that we do see that we can not profite them at all. To this also belongith the lawe which christe did giue:
[[Matth. 18.]]
That he which will not heere the brethern admonishing him / And doth contemne the voice of the churche when it reprouith / and correctith hym: he is then to be estemed and taken as an ethnicke / and a publicane.
[[1. Cor. 5.]]
Which thing Paule puttith in practise when he biddith / that the Corinthians shuld excommunicat the fornicator / les that a litill leauen shuld soure the whole lumpe of dowe. To the same pupose he usith the vearse of the poete Menander.
[[1. Cor. 15.]]
Euell wordes do corrupt goode maniers. Ther Paul teachith that the true doctrine of the Resurrection was greatly hindered amonge the Corinthians / which wer but newly turned vnto christe / bicause they dyd to lightly gyue eare to the vngodly argumentes and reasons of philosophers / or rather of heretiques / which did contend and stryue agaynst that doctrine. No man can sufficiently consider / how the bewitching of wicked tales / and talkes / do shake and hurt the tender conscience and weake faithe / of the foeble and weake brother. Wherfor it is most necessari and profitable to admonishe them which ar weake / that they do abstayn / and withdrawe them selues / from the felowshipp and familiar companye / of the vnbeleauers. The phisicions / do cowncell when a contagius disease hath enfected any nigh place / that thei which as yet ar sownd and not enfected / shuld not comme vnto them that be enfected alreadye and sicke / bicause that in the bodies of men / and the temperatures / and disposicions of the same / ther is such a common passion and suffering / that the infection doth easily go from them that be infected / vnto the other. And though they which do not take heede and keape them selues from that infection / do not presently feale the poyson and force therof / yeat inasmutch as by lytill and litill the infection / and poyson receyued doth growe / not long after they ar sure to feale the force and strenghthe of it. Seing this is so / and eich man maye worthily and godly take heede to auoide