A29369:254
Bridge's remains, being VIII sermons
Bridge's remains, being VIII sermons ... by that learned and judicious divine, Mr. William Bridge ...
London : Printed and are to be sold by John Hancock Senior and Junior ..., 1673
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermons › Sermon 4: OF GOOD AND BAD COMPANY, How to avoid the one, and improve the other.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Answ. Yes; for says Paul, If the unbelieving husband will not depart, let him not depart; but you must remember what I said in the beginning, That Company is a matter of choice, and not of necessity; and if you shall rather keep company with your carnal, jeering, and opposing Kindred, then your Spiritual Kindred; then it is not your Kindred, but the Carnality of your Kindred that you keep company with.
Answ. Yes; for says Paul, If the unbelieving husband will not depart, let him not depart; but you must re•ember what I said in the beginning, That Company is a matter of choice, and not of necessity; and if you shall rather keep company with your carnal, jearing, and opposing Kindred, then your Spiritual Kindred; then it is not your Kindred, but the Carnality of your Kindred that you keep company with.
Quest. 3. Why, but if it be unlawful for a Professor of the Gospel to keep bad company; whether may it stand with Grace so to do? Suppose I do keep bad company, and suppose it be unlawful so to do; whether is it such an evil as cannot stand with Grace?
Answ. I answer, That it is in this sin as in all other sins: Now says the Apostle, He that is born of God sinneth not; that is, He doth not so lie in his sin, but he purgeth it out; For he that hath this hope, saith he, purgeth himself, [else he were of the Devil, saith he, who sins, and does not purge out his sin] but as the fountain or spring purgeth out the dirt that doth fall into it; so he that is born of God sinneth not, but he doth purge it out: And so in this case, as a ⟨p. 89⟩good man may fall into another sin, so he may fall into this sin of evil company; but if a Professor be convinced of the evil of it, and doth not leave his evil company, and purge himself from it, then he is not born of God; thus it can no more stand with Grace, then another sin.