VeR. 115.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 183
2. They will molest and disturb us in the exercise of godliness by their scoffs and persecutions ; you can never be acceptable to them if you live as you should. Why ? For you will upbraid their consciences by your lives, dart conviction and reproofs into them ; as Noah con- demned the world, Heb. xi. 7. Christ saith, The world hates me be- cause I testify of it that the works thereof are evil, John vii. 7. You that live up to your profession, and do not run into the same excess of riot with others, your estrangement of course revives guilt upon their conscience, and therefore not to follow them in all things will be dis- tasteful. As sore eyes cannot endure the light, so they cannot endure you if you are faithful to God. Diversity of humours cannot long agree together. You must eitlier be like them, or be hated by them. You must either jump with them in all things, or expect a greater trouble. Now there is less danger in the flight than fight. Now a total with- drawment is better than a partial compliance.
3. They will seek to pervert us by carnal suggestions and counsels ; as the Psalmist speaks, Ps. i. 1, ' Blessed is the man tliat walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.' Like troublesome flies, they will always be buzzing about us to take share and lot with them, and impor- tunate suitors will prevail at length, Prov. i. 10-15, the enticiags of the wicked are spoken of : ' My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not ; walk thou not in the way with them ; refrain thy foot from their path,' &c.
4. Familiarity with them will be a blemish and scandal upon your good name. Every man's company declares what he is. Birds of a sort flock together. So that, if they rob not the conscience, they wound the reputation, and we are polluted and defiled by being of the same society, which a Christian should be tender of. When a scandalous sin breaketh out in the church, the blot lies upon all. The apostle tells us in Heb. xii. 15, ' When any root of bitterness springs up, thereby many are defiled ; ' many are defiled, not only by the contagion of the example, but the imputation of the fault ; much more in private and intimate familiarity doth this hold good. A carnal man delights in such as are like him, and run with him in the same folly and sin. But when a man is changed, he will change his company : Ps. cxix. 53, ' I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.' That is one thing David avoucheth for his innocency. One wicked man falls in with another, as the tenon doth into the mortise, and their spirits suit frequently : Ps. Ix. 18, ' AVhen thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.' There is no such out- ward sign to discover our temper.
5. If we have any love for God, and zeal for his glory, their com- pany must needs be grievous and offensive to us ; for how can they that love God delight in their company that are always grieving the Spirit of God with unsavoury speeches and a vain conversation ? Ps. cxxxix. 21, ' Do not I hate them, 0 Lord, that hate thee ? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee ? I hate them with perfect hatred : I count them mine enemies.' So 2 Peter ii. 8, Lot's 'righteous soul was grieved from day to day.' It is not only said his righteous soul was vexed, which is passive, but he is said to vex him-
184 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CXXVI.
self at their wickedness, which is an active word. Injuries done to God should touch us no less nearly than injuries done to ourselves ; it will be a continual grief and vexation of heart to us. Well, then, how can their company be acceptable to us, unless wc have a mind to vex and brini^ trouble upon ourselves ?
6. Our familiarity with them may be a means to harden them in their sin, and our withdrawing a means to humble them : 2 Thes. iii. G, 11,
* Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly : and if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.' While you company freely with them, you seem tacitly to approve their doing, and make them more obstinate in their way. An alien from the faith may be melted with kindness, but a brother that walketh disorderly is more ashamed if you withdraw from him, whereas otherwise you seem to show approbation. He that biddeth him God-speed is par- taker of his evil deeds, 2 John 10, 11, as he seemeth to countenance them in their damnable errors ; but now when a man lives as an outcnst from Gotl's people, this may work upon his heart. Society with God's children is not only a duty, but a privilege ; by the loss of this privilege we are to make them sensible of the evil course wherein they are.