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 thẽ / but to prouide that our helthe and saluaciõ be not brought in daũger by thẽ, after that we do see that we can not profite them at all. To this also belõgith 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 leauẽ 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 ãd weake faithe / of the foeble ãd 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 cõme 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 commõ 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 thẽ 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 the diseases of the bodie / mutch more diligẽt heede is to be taken of all men / that they do not frõ ony man or place gett vnto themselues infecting vices of the minde. Our Nature / and disposiciõ through our naturall and [birthe] syn is now so corrupt / (as both the holy scripture doth warn vs / ãd infinite examples of dayly experiẽce do teache vs) that we neade not to dowt at all / but that we shall easily receyue the poison / and infectiõ of other mẽs synnes / if we do not fle farr from them: And as with no great labour they will cleaue vnto vs / so after they be ons crept and roted vnto vs / thẽ hardly
and not without great payn and labor / will they be thrust out agayn. In Ioẽm. hom. 56. Wherefor Chrisostom in the afore named place semith to say well. If (saithe he speaking of the vnbeleauers and wicked) we coulde make them better / and not hurt our selues / all thinges wer to be doone: but whẽ we can not profite them / bicause they be incurable / and such as will not be amended / and yet we hurt our selues / they ar vtterly to be cutt of. And to the end that he might the more strongly confirme his saying / he alledgith that sayinge of Paul: 1. Cor. 5. Put awaye the euell from among yowe. Which wordes of Paule ar not to be vnderstonded of the synne / for the greke word is in the masculyne gendre / τὸν πονηρον / and therfor he meanith by it / the wicked man. The same wordes I will now sumwhat bend / vse / and turn / vnto the profite of you that be weake / and thus saye vnto yowe. Put awaye your own selues from the euell men that ar emongst you: for seing ye ar but priuate men / and vnlearned / and therfor can not put away the euell from among you / yet your selues ye may ridd / and conuey awaye from being emongst the wicked / and the euell men.
Morouer it happeneth that whilest the weake and vnlearned do thus familiarly accompanie the vnbealeuers / They cã not chose but they must heare many subtill reasons and see many other thinges which do mutch make against the true religiõ that they do profes: Which thinges when they se and be not able to disproue and confute / They do it
not: And so they rõne into two mischeifs. The furst is / That they ar as it wer witnesses of the blasphemie / and of the reproche that the vnbeleauers do to the truthe: the seconde / that they maie happ to haue summe stinge left sticking in their concience / with which they shalbe longer / more greuusly and daungerusly tormented / thẽ either they thincke of or do feare. Let vs heere therfor the wise mã which doth saye. Eccles. 13. Who so touchithe pitche shalbe fyled ther with all / and he that is familiar with the proude / shall become lyke vnto hym: Take not a burthẽ vppon the / aboue thy poure / neither ioyne thow thi self to hym that is more honorable / and ritche then thiself. These words of the wiseman / do for two causes belong to our purpos. Furst / bicause that they do teache / that other mens synnes ar lyke vnto pitche / which doth stycke vnto the fingars and garments of them that do touche it. Agayn / that eich man shuld well trie and consider his own poure and strenghth. Vppõ which cowncell / I do gather two thinges. Furst / that the infirme and weake must not ioyn themselues in familiaritie with the wicked / for wickednes will then cleaue vnto them: Secondly that eich man must so well consider / and iustly trie his own poure and strenghth / that he doth not ouermatch himself.
The churche of godd in all ages hath felt by experience that mutch euell hathe happened through this familiar companie / and felowshipp keapt betwene the weake in faithe and knowledge / and the
vnbeleauers. In the Primitiue churche forthwith after christes ascension / because the Iues which wer conuerted vnto christe did lyue a great while with thos gentils which hadd receyued the gospel / ther begon a very Iuishnes. For the Iues did enforce the ceremonies of Moses lawe / myngling thẽ with the doctryne of the gospell / through which they did infect many congregacions of the christiãs so sore / that scarsely and hardely at lẽghth could that euell be roted out: Yea that euell hath so preuailed / that euen vntill our tymes / in Spayn namely / and in sum other places also / ther be many which do not only holde still the ceremonies of Moses lawe with the professiõ of christe / but they do thincke them to be necessarie vnto Saluacion. They emongst the Spaniards which be of this mynde / ar called Marrani. And vnto this daye the churche of India is enfected with the same vice. But let the examples of the holy scripture / I praye you / teache vs euen the same. The Israelites which wer captyues in Babilon / by the space of 70. yeares / when they hadd libertie gyuen them furst of Cyrus / then of Darius / thos two most noble Kinges to return / they did not all forthewith return / but a great nũber of thẽ / such namely as wer weaker in the lord thẽ other / being delighted with the commodities ãd pleasures of their houses / feildes and traffique of merchandize / did abide still amonge the chaldees: Which men how sharpely they wer reproued of Esdras / Nehemias / Zacharias / and
other prophetes / it dothe playnly appeare in the scripture to them that liste to seake and knowe it. How the Israelites wer infected throughe that conuersacion which they hadd with the Egiptiãs / it appearith playnly by this / that whilest they wer in the desert / when as yet the wonderfull benefites of godd wer euen before ther eyes / they did fall frõ the lord their dilyuerer vnto Idolatrie / and vnto that kinde of Idolatrie / which they wer acquaynted withall in Egipte. Ther they hadd seene howe the Egiptians worshipped an Oxe / Exod. 23. they therfor violently trauailed with Aarõ when Moses was absent / that he shuld make thẽ a calf to worshipp: which when he hadd doone / thẽ began they ioyously to crye: Theise ar the godds / O. Israell / which brought the out of the lande of Egypt. Agayn / when by the desert wild and barren places / Numer. 25. they wer comme to the coastes of the Moabites / and began to waxe more familiar with them then became the poeple of godd / through that familiaritie they wer brought to this / that not only they did cõmitt most vile whordom with thos beastly womẽ / but also that they sacrificed vnto their most shamefull Idoll / Baalpeor / and suffred themselues to be coupled vnto his sacrifices. for which they suffred many miseries and calamities. Math. 26. Peter likewise / when he cãme into that wicked court of the cheif prest and was ther conuersant emongst thos damsels and vngodly seruantes / most miserablie did he denie ãd forsweare his master christe our Sauiour:
which his fault / after he departed frõ thence / he did bewaile with abundaunce of teares. By these histories ye may playnly see / what happenith vnto the weake through that familiar conuersacion which they haue with the vnfaithful. Esaiæ 6. Esaye the prophet / when he did se the lorde sitting vppon his seate of glorie / with his Angels about hym most purely publishing his prayse / though he semith not to thincke hymself greatlye gyltie of ony notable [cryme] or fault / yet cryeth he out / O wo is me / &c. I dwell amonge a poeple that hath vncleane lyppes. This man of godd truly did thincke / that he hadd gotton no small corruption and infection / bicause he hadd lyued long with an vncleane poeple.
The histories of the heathen do teache vs the same thinge. Alexander that gret and mightie kinge of Macedonia / who by the force of armes / and most notable victories / hadd subdued the greatest parte of the whole worlde / Euen he hymself was ouercomme with the maniers of the Persians.
And vppon whom of right / as vppon a conquered poeple / he shuld haue laied lawes / to haue brought them to that seuere kinde of lyfe which the Macedonians vsed / euen he as a mã cõquered ãd ouercõme of ther maniers / suffered hymself to be so shamefully misused / that he did take vnto hym their kinde of araye / their lowse delicacie / their pompe and pride / and set furthe hymself to be worshipped of thẽ as godd. And so being corrupted he did [allow] that