VeR. 63.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 181
p.] If they be not like, intimacy and converse will make them like : eveiy man is wrought upon by his company. We imitate those whom we love, and with whom we often converse : Prov. xiii. 20, ' He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.' As a man that walketh in the sunshine is tanned insen- sibly, and as Moses' face shined by conversing with God, ere we are aware we adopt their manners and customs, and get a tincture from them. So Prov. xxii. 24, 25, ' Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul.' A man would think that of all sins, wrath and anger should not be propagated by company, the motions and furies of it are so uncomely to a beholder ; yet secretly a liking of the person breedeth a liking of his ways, and a man getteth such a frame of spirit as those have whom he hath chosen for his companions. This should be the more regarded by us, because we are sooner made evil by evil company than good by good company : 1 Cor. xv. 33, ' Be not deceived ; evil communications corrupt good manners;' evil words or oixCKiat KUKoi, evil converses, corrupt good manners. We convey a disease to others, but not our health. Oh, how careful should we be of our friendship, that we may converse with such as may go before us as examples of piety, and provoke us by their strictness, heavenly- mindedness, mortification, and self-denial, to more love to God, zeal for his glory, and care of our salvation ! Especially doth this concern the young, who, by their weakness of judgment, the vehemency of their affections, and want of experience, may be easily drawn into a snare.
[3.] Our love to God should put us upon loving his people and making them our intimates ; for religion influenceth all things, our relations, common employments, friendships, and converses ; it is a smart question that of the prophet, 2 Chron. xix. 2, ' Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord ? ' Surely a gracious heart cannot take them into his bosom. He lovetli all with a love of good- will, as seeking their good, but not with a love of complacency, as delighting in them. Our neighbour must be loved as ourselves ; our natural neighbour as a natural self, with a love of benevolence ; and our spiritual neighbour as our spiritual self, with a love of complacency. In opposition to complacency we may hate our sinful neighbour, as we must ourselves : ' The wicked is an abomination to the righteous,' Prov. xxix. 26. The hatred of abomination is opposite to the love of com- placencv, as odium inimiciiicc to amo7^ benevolent ice. So David saith, Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22, 'Do not I hate them, 0 Lord, that hate thee? and am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee ? I hate them with a perfect hatred; I count them mine enemies;' I cannot cry up a confederacy with them. They that have a kindness for God will be thus affected.
3. There is a threefold friendship — sinful, civil, and religious.
[1.] Sinful, when men agree in evil, as drunkards with drunkards, or robbers with robbers : Prov. i. 14, ' Cast in thy lot among us ; let us all have one purse.' Wlien men conspire against the truth and interest of Christ in the world, or league themselves against his people, as Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, Ps. Ixxxiii. 3, divided in interests, but united in hatred ; as Herod and Pilate against Christ. This is
182 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LXXI.
unitas contra tmitatem, as Austin, or consortium factionis, a bond of iniquity, or confederacy in evil. Again —
[2.] There is a civil friendship, built on natural pleasure and profit, when men converse together for trade or other civil ends. Thus men are at liberty to choose their company as their interests and course of their employments lead them. The apostle saith, a man must go out of the world if he should altogether abstain from the com- pany of the wicked : 1 Cor. v. 9, 10, ' I wrote to you in an epistle not to company with fornicators ; yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world.' But —
[3.] There is religious friendship, which is built on virtue and grace, and is called ' the unity of the Spirit:' Eph. vi. 3, ' Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' Now this is the firmest bond of all. Sinful societies are soon dissolved ; drunkards and profane fellows, though they seem to unite and hold together, j^et upon every cross word they fall out and break ; and civil friendship, which is built on pleasure and profit, cannot be so firm as that which is built on honesty and godliness. This is among the good and holy, who are not so changeable as the bad and carnal, and the ground of it is more lasting. This is amicitia 'per se, the other ^er accidens, from constitution of soul and likeness of spirits. The good we seek may be possessed without envy ; the friends do not straiten and intrench upon one another. Self-love and envy soon breaketh our friendship, but these seek the good of another as much as their own delight in the graces of one another.