But it is the unnecessary society of ungodly men, and familiarity with unprofitable companions, though they be not so apparently ungodly, that I dissuade you from. It is not only the open profane, the swearer, the drunkard, that will prove hurtful to us; but dead-hearted formalists, or persons merely civil and moral, or whose conference is empty, unsavoury, and barren, may much divert our thought from heaven. ⟨p. 301⟩As mere idleness, and forgetting GOD, w•• •eep a soul as certainly from heaven, as a profane, li•••tious, fleshly life: so also will useless company a surely keep our hearts from heaven, as the company of men more dissolute and profane. Alas! our dullness and backwardness is such, that we have need of the most constant and powerful helps: a clod, or a stone that lies on the earth, is as prone to arise and fly in the air, as our hearts are to move towards heaven. You need not hold them from flying up to the skies; it is sufficient that you do not help them. If our spirits have not great assistance, they may easily be kept from flying aloft, though they never should meet with the least impediment. O think of this in the choice of your company: when your spirits need no help to lift them up, but as the flames, you are always mounting upward, and carrying with you all that is in your way, then you may indeed be less careful of your company; but till then be careful therein. As it is reported of a lord that was near his death, and the doctor that prayed with him read over the litany, For all wom•n labouring with child, for all sick persons, and young children, &c. From lightning and tempest; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death. Alas! saith he, what is this to me, who must presently die? So mayst thou say of such men's conference; alas! what is this to me, who must shortly be in rest? What will it advantage thee to a life with GOD, to hear where the fair is such a day, or how the market goes, or what weather it is, or is like to be, or when the moon changed, or what news is stirring? What will it conduce to the raising thy heart Godward, to hear that this is an able minister, or that an able christian, or that this was an excellent sermon, or that is an excellent book; to hear a discourse of baptisms, ceremonies, the order of GOD'S decrees, or other such controversies of great difficulty, and less importance?
But it is the unnecessary society of ungodly men, and familiarity with unprofitable companions, though they be not so apparently ungodly, that I dissuade you from. It is not only the open profane, the swearer, the drunkard, that will prove hurtful to us; but dead-hearted formalists, or persons merely civil and moral, or whose conference is empty, unsavoury, and barren, may much divert our thought from heaven. ⟨p. 301⟩As mere idleness, and forgetting GOD, w•• •eep a soul as certainly from heaven, as a profane, li•••tious, fleshly life: so also will useless company a surely keep our hearts from heaven, as the company of men more dissolute and profane. Alas! our dulness and backwardness is such, that we have need of the most constant and powerful helps: a clod, or a stone that lies on the earth, is as prone to arise and fly in the air, as our hearts are to move towards heaven. You need not hold them from flying up to the skies; it is sufficient that you do not help them. If our spirits have not great assistance, they may easily be kept from flying aloft, though they never should meet with the least impediment. O think of this in the choice of your company: when your spirits need no help to lift them up, but as the flames, you are always mounting upward, and carrying with you all that is in your way, then you may indeed be less careful of your company; but till then be careful therein. As it is reported of a lord that was near his death, and the doctor that prayed with him read over the litany, For all wom•n labouring with child, for all sick persons, and young children, &c. From lightning and tempest; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death. Alas! saith he, what is this to me, who must presently die? So mayst thou say of such men's conference; alas! what is this to me, who must shortly be in rest? What will it advantage thee to a life with GOD, to hear where the fair is such a day, or how the market goes, or what weather it is, or is like to be, or when the moon changed, or what news is stirring? What will it conduce to the raising thy heart Godward, to hear that this is an able minister, or that an able christian, or that this was an excellent sermon, or that is an excellent book; to hear a discourse of baptisms, ceremonies, the order of GOD'S decrees, or other such controversies of great difficulty, and less importance?
