A treatise of the cohabitacyon of the faithfull with the vnfaithfull. / Whereunto is added. A sermon made of the confessing of Christe and his gospell, and of the denyinge of the same.

by Pietro Martire Vermigli; Heinrich Bullinger

together with potage / and water / and vtterly to forsake thos pleasures / and delicacies / then they wold defile them selues with the meates of the vnbeleauers. Moses also / as it is writon in the epistle to the hebrues / Hebr. 11. might if he wold haue beene taken for the Sonne of Pharaos daughter / and so to haue beene in greate hoope of obtaynynge the kingdome of Egipte: but all this sett a parte / he did chose rather / forsaking all theise thinges / to go vnto his brethern / which wer in miserable bondage / seruinge and laboring in claye / and bricke: Which thing to do / as it was a greate triall of his faithe / so the doinge of it doth commend / and sett furth his faithe / and shew what loue he hadd to be conuersant with the people of godd. They which do not folowe these examples / do shew how litell they do regarde the glorie of godd / and the communiõ and felowship of sayntes / which they will not gayne nor redeame with losse / no thoughe it be of neuer so litill: And in this preferring of their own gayne welthe and commoditie / aboue the glorie of godd / and the felowlie communion of the godlye / they do most wickedly. 1. Cor. 10. Do we (saithe Paule to the corinthians) prouoke the lorde? Ar we strõger then he? Theise weake brethern / which do not trie their own strenghth to fele their weaknes so / that they might seeke the encreace of strenghth in them selues / but being weake indeede / both dare and do thus desperatlie committ themselues vnto this familiar conuersacion with the vnfaithfull / they do

tempt godd / and do after a sort prouoke hym / as thoughe they wolde becõme stronger than he.

Many more reasons might I bringe to proue this proposicion true. That a priuate man / being in a place wher he is not compelled to communicate with the supersticiõs of the vnfaithfull / and is vnlearned vnable / and to weake to confesse the truithe / must not ioyne in familiaritie / nor be familiarly dwelling and conuersant together with the vnfaithfull. But bicause I do suppose that it is sufficiently proued by the reasons which I haue alledged / I will now prepare myself to an other proposicion.

The thred proposicion shalbe / of Priuate men and subiectes / which ar lerned and stronge / and of them also which ar weake and vnlearned / of that dwelling which is not fre / wher as men ar compelled by lawes / and Tyrannye to communicate and to be partakers with the wicked in their supersticions and Idolatries: And of theise I make this proposicion / and sentence. The thred proposicion. Priuate men and subiectes be they learned or vnlearned / stronge or weake / which ar dwelling and abyding in that place wher men ar compelled to communicate / and be partakers withe Idolatrors / and to be present at vnlawfull supersticions and Idolatries / defiling thẽselues with vncleane Religiõ / maye not dwell together nor be familiarly conuersaunt / they may not ioyne in societie with suche Idolatrors: I saye / that this cohabitacion / and familiar dwelling

together is vnlawfull / vngodlye / and not to be kept in ony wise: But in this case a faithfull man must either flye / or dye for the truithe / that he be not compelled to defile himself with Idolatrie. Ther is truly but one truithe / and that same must be holden with a pure cõscience / neither must it be forsakẽ for the pleasure of ony man. 1. Cor. 10. S. Paul saith to the Corinthians: flye ye Idolatrie. Then do men flye Idolatrie / when either they do depart frõ the place wher Idolatrie is cõmitted / or when abiding still in the same place / they do gyue their lyues and suffer deathe bicause they will not cõmitt Idolatrie nor allowe it with ther presence. Paul therfor teachith by this sayinge / that in no wise the faithfull shuld come at the Idolatries of the vnfaithfull / but flye frõ them: which sentence is so playn to the vnderstondinge of the most symple / that it neadith no exposicion at all. The lawe and the prophetes / the olde Testament and the newe / ar full of such sentences / ãd cõmaundementes / which do forbidd straũge worshippinge of godd and Idolatrie. 2. Mach. 7. Call to your mynde the historie of the Machabees / which I do not recite as thoughe I wold gyue to that booke ony lyke autoritie with the Canonicall scriptures, but bicause the historie is rehersed not only ther / but also in Iosephus / and the examples of them ar profitable for vs / therfor I do alledge them. That godly Mother hadd rather haue the whole fruite of her bodie to be miserablie destroyed / thẽ ons to taste of swynes fleshe.

Gen. 2. Swynes fleshe / and Adams apple / of their very nature ar not so to be abhorred / for eiche of them is a goode creature of godd. But forsomutche as vnto them godd hathe ioyned his worde to forbid the tasting of them / therfor euen as Adam could not eate the forbidden apple / so could not they eate swynes fleashe without committing of greate synne: which rather then they wolde do / the poore babes offer themselues to the deathe / and the godly mother doth most stronglye therto encorage thẽ and most constauntly abide the same herself.

In the church of christe ther haue beene innumerable martirs / as Eusebius / and others do write / which haue most constantly abidden deathe / bicause they wold not depart from the Religion of christe / nor file thẽselues with Idolatrie: They wold not put one grayne of franckinsence vppon the altars of the Idols / nor throwe one floure / nor ons bowe the knee before them / but suffered rather deathe. Matth. 10. Luc. 12. They hadd this alwais before ther eyes: Feare not hym that killethe the bodie / &c. And that he speakith of killing the bodie / is likewise to be vnderstonded of taking awaye of goodes ãd ritches: But he is to be feared / which after that he hath taken awaye bothe lyfe and goodes / can throwe the soule into euerlastinge fire / feare hym.

S. Paule to persuade the Corinthians that they shuld abstayn from meates offered vnto Idols / vsith theise reasons: 1. Cor. 3. Bicause they wer the Temple of godd. They wer the membres of christe / and therfor

they might not become the mẽbres of an Idoll. Bicause they wer partakers of the lords table of which they could not be partakers and of the table of Deuels also. And the same thing that Paule said vnto the Corinthians / do I also saye vnto these our brethern of whom I do entreate.

Daniel. 3. Daniel his thre felows did gyue themselues / to be thrown in to the burnynge fornace / rather then they wold worshipp the kinges golden Image. But theise thinges must now be applied vnto theise most vnhappie Daies / in whiche / wher poperie rulith / the godly which do dwel togither with the vngodlie / the professours of christes gospell / I meane / With the papistes / ar compelled to be at ther Masses / and most vile and filthie Idolatries and supersticions: vnto them doth this proposicion reatche / and of them therfor I do playnly affirme / and saye this / It is not lawfull to be present at the popyshe Masse and supersticions That it is not lawfull for thẽ to be present at the popishe Masses / at popishe superstitions and jdolatries. It is to well knowne / that many fondlye do flatter / and indeede deceyue them selues / imagining that it is lawfull for them to be present at this popish pelf. Againste whom with all ther clokes I vse this sayinge of Paule / flye ye Idolatrie. But here they resiste and saye / that this sayinge and suche other as before I haue alledged / are to be vnderstanded of the sacryfices done vnto Idoles / and false goddes / and not of such supersticions as are nowe growen and vsed in papistrie / As of masses / and such like / for in