The Morning exercise [at] Cri[ppleg]ate, or, Several cases of conscience practically resolved

3. Beware of those things that may occasion the commission of this sin: for instance, if thou art prone to the sin of lying, keep a door before thy lips: if to gluttony and drunkenness, when thou goest to a feast, put a knife to thy throat. We use to say proverbially occasion makes a thief, this is true also in other cases, occasion makes a liar: occasion makes a drunkard, it is a sign of a naughty heart to dally with occasions to sin, Look not thou upon the wine, ¹saith Solomon, when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth it self a right: it is not simply unlawful to look upon wine in the glass, but if this may occasion intemperance, ⟨p. 57⟩here is a law laid upon our looks: that command which forbids a sin, forbids also those things that have a tendency thereunto, as is observed by learned Commentators on the decalogue, sometimes this is expressed in Scripture, the Commandment that forbids Adultery: takes in all causes and occasions thereunto: thus Solomon speaking of an Harlot, Prov. 5.8. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: Harlots like pestilential diseases, make the houses infectious where they are, and therefore come not nigh the door of her house: 1 Thes 5.22. Avoid all appearance of evil: I know there are some that dislike the translation of [Greek or Hebrew] by appearance, and rather think it should be expounded sort or kind; but whether the word is taken in a Logical notion, in the whole book of God is very questionable, & therefore why we should depart from the current and stream of Exposit•rs, and the sense of our learned Translators, I know not. When God would forbid the sin of injustice, selling wares by false weights, mark how it is expressed, Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, ²a great and a small. It was a sin not only to sell wares by one sort of weights, & take wares in by another: but to have a great, and small weight in his bag, God would not have us come near the sin of injustice. Hence also is that caution of St John, Little children keep your selves from Idols; ³