A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, writtenA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written

All company with unbelievers or misbelievers is not condemned. We find a Lot in Sodom, Israel with the Egyptians, Abraham and Isaac with their Ab••• lechs; roses among thorns, and pearls in mud; and Jesus Christ among Publicans ⟨p. 447⟩and sinners. So neither we be infected, nor the name of the LORD wronged; to converse with them, that we may convert them, is a holy course. But still we must be among them as strangers: to pass through an infected place is one thing, to dwell in it another. The earth is the LORDS, and men are his: wheresoever GOD shall find the merchant, let him be sure to find GOD in every place.

All company with unbeleevers or misbeleevers is not condemned. We find a Lot in Sodome, Israel with the Egyptians, Abraham and Isaac with their Ab••• lechs; roses among thornes, and pearles in mudde; and Iesus Christ among Publicans ⟨p. 447⟩and sinners. So neither we be infected, nor the name of the LORD wronged; to converse with them, that we may convert them, is a holy course. But still we must be among them as strangers: to passe through an infected place is one thing, to dwell in it another. The earth is the LORDS, and men are his: wheresoever GOD shall find the merchant, let him bee sure to find GOD in every place.

Howsoever, it is a profession not without great danger of iniquity, it is a hard thing to keep sin out of trading. A Merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong? and the very name of it doth in the common dialect Malè audire, sound unhappily: when to be a deceiver is said in a phrase to play the Merchant. Nor is the suspicion of it without all probable ground; for the world hath had trades-men in a continual jealousy. I do not derive merchants from so wicked a patron as Mercury; Expertos furandi homines, hac imbuit art Mercurius; says the verse. But certainly our Saviour would have found another name for buyers and sellers in the Temple, than Thieves; if to buy and sell had been of so clear and innocent a consequence. But our customers (say they) are either acquaintance or strangers. If acquaintance, they come in love, and our affections keeps us from deceiving them. It strangers, we lose our trade in losing our credit, if we deceive them. But alas, what do men talk of acquaintance and love, where covetousness admits of no friend but gain? And for strangers, they are soon forgotten; you think never to meet again, till you meet in heaven, or meet in hell, desire of profit in over-prizing, pride of wit in over-reaching; these are the principles of brokery, that foul the fairest merchandise.