[[1. Cor. 7.]]
Paule wolde not that the faithfull maried vnto an vnbeleuer
sholde departe / yf the vnbeleuer will dwell together with the
other. This I do also acknowledge / as befor I haue said: for
vnto them / al necessary businesses / especially those which are
ordeyned of God / are to be done. And yet in that place which is
here alledged / Paule is not so to be vnderstanded without
exception / as these men do iudge: for yf the vnbeleuing maried
parson / shold continually moue the faithfull to Idolatrie / or
sholde not cease to blaspheme Christ / and prouoke the other to
commit like blasphemie / so long as thei did liue together / this
ioynt life in mariadge were not to be continued: for this were
not to dwell together / but to conspire together against Christ:
Paule therfor speaketh of suche cohabitacion as is laufull
without suche soliciting or mouinge to euell and blasphemye.
An other sentence of Paule is broughte which he writeth to the
Corinthians /
[[1. Cor. 5.]]
where he teacheth that all couetous parsons / euill speakers /
dronckardes / whoremungars / and such lyke are not to be
auoided / for then sholde they haue gone out of the worlde.
But he wold / that we sholde kepe our selues from them / which
being called brethren / are infected with these vices. As
concerninge this place / we must consider the mynde and purpose
of Paule. Firste he dyd perceyue that for the necessitie of lyfe
it coulde not be that the faithfull shulde auoyde the companie
of all which at that tyme were vnbeleuers / for the greater part
of men at that ceason was without Christ / and they beinge
auoided of our men / coulde not therby haue bene made the
better / But into them which before were bretheren / bothe sorowe
and shame was dryuen / when they dyd see that they wer now
shonned of the godlye / to whome as they were before righte
deare / so with them they were familiar. And by this meanes the
church was not euill reported / neither for clokinge of euill
among themselues / nor for to seuere separatinge themselues from
them which were not yet conuerted: seing that they lyued with
the vnbeleuers / partly for the necessitie of lyfe / partlye to
turne them to the gospell of Christ: wherfore this sentence doth
make nothing at all agaynst those thinges which we haue alreadye
spoken.