The works of George Swinnock, M.A

I Wish that I may consider whom I choose for my Companions,³ least I be disappointed in the ends of Company, My God intendeth society to be helpful to his people in the best things; But they are never likely to further me in holiness, who walk in the broad way that leadeth to Hell; Satan's Servants will not teach me to do the Lords work; That friendship is ill made, which is soon broken; no band can hold him who is a stranger to Religion; Where there is no fear of God in the heart, there can be no true friendship; They who are two in disposition, will scarce be one in affection; Where there is no true likeness, there can be no true love; Can two walk together, unless they be agreed? Grace is the only Cement which conglutinates hearts, and maketh true friends; A brutish Sinner and a Believer are contrary each to other. An unjust man is abominable to the just; and he that is upright in his way is abominable to the wicked; the Eagle hath perpetual emnity with Serpents, and Dragons, and their seed; So hath the Eagle-eyed Christian with the seed of the Serpent; Beasts hate fire, and ⟨p. 142⟩so do those whom God calleth Foxes, and Lions, and Bulls, the fire of grace that burneth in a Saints heart, and flameth out in his life; Lambs and Wolves, Doves and Ravens, cannot unite. Jerusalem and Babylon, Zion and Sodom, can never be compact and at unity together. Can I expect love from that person that hath none for his own soul, nor for the blessed God? Can contraries meet, and not fight? Is there any hope of an amicable conjunction betwixt them that are not only differing but opposite? I am born of God, he is of his Father the Devil; My work is to do the will of my Father in Heaven; his work is to do the lusts of the wicked one. Self is the Bias by which he moveth; Scripture i• the Compass by which I sail; I am travailing towards heaven, he is hastening to hell; and is it possible for us to have one heart? O that no worldly advantage might make me ever strive to strike a Covenant with them, to whom I am thus contrary. They must needs be false to me, that are made up of unfaithfulness. A true friend is another self; a vicious man cannot be a true friend, because he is never himself. Sometimes he is drunk with passion, and so loseth his guide, and leaveth the dictates of reason; those servants are often in rebellion, and th•n like the troubled Sea, he casteth up mire and dirt;