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5. II.

felves with the wicked and vicious, Prov. 1. 14, 15. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not into the way of evil men; avoid it, pafs not by it; turn from it and pass away. 2. Theff. 3. 6. Now we command you Brethren, in the name of our Lord Jefus Chrift, that ye withdraw your felves from every Brother that walks diforderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. 1 Cor. But now I have written unto you not to keep Company. If a Man that is called a Brother, be a Fornicator, or Covetous, or an Idolater, or a Railer, or a Drunkard, or an Extortioner, with Such a one, no not to eat. Nor do the Examples of Holy Men deviate in this point, from the Precepts and Exhortations of the Spirit. Pfal. 26. 4, 5. I have not fate with vain perfons, neither will I go in with diffemblers.. have hated the congregation of evil doers, and will not fit with the wicked. Pfal. 119. 63. I am a companion of all them that keep thy Precepts. And thus it was with other good Men, they did equally covet good, and fhun evil Company. Thus Mal. 3. 16. when wickednefs abounded, then they that feared the

Lord

Lord talk'd often one to another. And in the first times of Christianity, great was the Intimacy and Dearness of the Disciples of Jefus one with another; great was their Abhorrence of all the Works of Darkness, and all Communion and Fellowship with those that practis'd them, as may eafily be inferr'd from Acts 2. and 3, and other places of Holy Writ. The Scripture then is plain in this point; And from what I have faid, it appears that Reafon is fo too, unless we can think that Wisdom and Folly, Happinefs and Mifery, are things indiffe

rent.

But here 'twill be objected, At this rate we fhall foon find our felves oblig'd to renounce the World, and quit all Company. Is not our Cafe much the fame with that which St.Paul. puts, 1 Cor. 5. 9, 10. I wrote unto you in an Epiftle, not to company with Fornicators; yet not altogether with the Fornica. tors of the World, or with the Covetous or Extortioners, or with Idolaters, for then muft ye needs go out of the World? To this I answer..

(1.) Be

(1.) Be it granted, as the Objection fuppofes,that we must keep ill Company or none; in this cafe I affirm it is far better to keep none. Retire

ment is not fo dreadful a thing to a Christian as fome think; the Calm and Peace of the Mind is much more defirable than Noife and Laughter; and the Quiet and Regularity of Privacy T much to be prefered before the Senfuality and Confufion of vicious Company; nor need any one complain of the uncomfortablenefs of Solitude, who can converfe when he pleases with Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles; nay, with God and his Son Jesus. A good Man may meet God like Ifaac, res in the Fields, or Mofes in the Defart; he may enjoy Communion with him, like David, in his Bed-chamber, or Fofeph in the Dungeon. The Promife, John 12. 23. is not limited to place; If a Man love me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him; and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. But on the other hand, in the Company of the wicked we shall never find God, nor ever feel any effects of his gracious Prefence, but

fhall

fhall be exposed to the Attempts and Practifes of Evil Spirits, and to the Contagion of Vice. The wife Man, obferves, That it is better to live alone, than with a Companion of a rough, intractable, and exafperating Temper: But I am fure there can be no Company, how froward and rough foever, fo fatal to our Happiness, as that which inftils Vanity under the Advantages and Opportunities of Friendship: No Solitude can be fo difmal or uncomfortable as that Society which infects the Heart, or darkens the Understanding; no Provocation or Infolence can be half fo injurious, as that which tends to Softnefs or Debauchery, to the betraying us into a love of this World, and a forgetfulness of God.

one.

(2.) This Objection may have some colour in a Pagan or a Jewish World, but fure it has none in a Chriftian The Church of Chrift is not yet left like a Cottage in a Vineyard; our Ferufalem is not yet degenerated to the degree of Jerufalem of old, when God fpoke thus of it in the Prophet, Jer. 5. 1 Run ye through the streets of Jerufalem,

and

and fee now and know, and feek in the broad freets thereof if ye can find a Man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that feeketh the truth, &c.. Nor need we yet pray with the Pfalmift, Pfal. 12. 1. Help, O Lord, for the godly man ceafeth, for the faithful fail from among the Children of Men: for the Servants of God are yet numerous; nor are they driven to their Secret Chambers, or to the Wilderness, or afhamed to own their Lord and Saviour, or to make an open Profession of the Hope that is in them.

I grant, will you fay, that there are good Christians, but they are not eafily, they are not every where to be found; but the Worshippers of Pleasure do every where fwarm, every where haunt us. There is an easie Remedy for this: Do thy Duty with an humble and unaffected Confidence, with a steddy and unalterable Refolution: Put on the Garb of a Disciple; let the Air of a Chriftian appear in every thing that thou doft, or fayeft; let the brightness and beauty of Holinefs, that enriches and adorns the Soul, break forth ever and anon in thy C Con

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