The sixth bar in the way to salvation §6is evil company*. They will takes us off our work; the sweet waters lose their freshness when they run into the salt; Christians lose their freshness and savouriness among the wicked; Christs Doves will be sullied by lying among these pots*. Sinful company is like the water in a Smiths forge, which quencheth the iron, be it never so hot; such cool good affections. The wicked have the plague of the heart*, and their breath is infectious. They will discourage us from working out our salvation; just as he who is a suitor to a woman, & is very earnest in his suit, there ⟨p. 66⟩comes one, and tells him, he knows something by the woman of ill report, some impediment; the man hearing this, is presently taken off, & the suit ceaseth; so 'tis with many a man who begins to be a suitor to Religion, fain he would have the match made up, & he grows very hot and violent in the suit, and falls a working out his salvation; but then there come some of his confederates, and they tell him they know something by Religion that is of ill report. This Sect is everywhere spoken against*. There must be so much strictness & mortification that he must never look to see good day more; hereupon he is discouraged, & so the match is broken off. Take heed of such persons, they are devils covered wth flesh; they are (as one saith) like Herod, who would have killed Christ-as soon as he was born: Thus when Christ is, as it were, beginning to be formed in the heart, they would in a spiritual sense kill him.
The sixth bar in the way to salvation §6is evil company*. They will takes us off our work; the sweet waters lose their freshnesse when they run into the salt; Christians lose their freshnesse and savourinesse among the wicked; Christs Doves will be sullied by lying among these pots*. Sinful company is like the water in a Smiths forge, which quencheth the iron, be it never so hot; such cool good affections. The wicked have the plague of the heart*, and their breath is infectious. They will discourage us from working out our salvation; just as he who is a suitor to a woman, & is very earnest in his suit, there ⟨p. 66⟩comes one, and tels him, he knows something by the woman of ill report, some impediment; the man hearing this, is presently taken off, & the suit ceaseth; so 'tis with many a man who begins to be a suitor to Religion, fain he would have the match made up, & he grows very hot and violent in the suit, and falls a working out his salvation; but then there come some of his confederates, and they tell him they know something by Religion that is of ill report. This Sect is everywhere spoken against*. There must be so much strictness & mortification that he must never look to see good day more; hereupon he is discouraged, & so the match is broken off. Take heed of such persons, they are devils covered wth flesh; they are (as one saith) like Herod, who would have killed Christ-as soon as he was born: Thus when Christ is, as it were, beginning to be formed in the heart, they would in a spiritual sense kill him.
- *Mclius est habere malorum odium quam consortium. Bern.
- *Ps. 68. 13.
- *1 King. 8. 38.
- *Act. 28. 22.
