Vol. II.

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1. As to the first Rule: We must reject the Authority of Scripture, if we refuse to observe it, for this exprefly forbids us to affociate our felves with the wicked and vicious, Prov.4. 14,15.Enter not into the path of the wicked, and not into the way of evil men; avoid it, pass not by it turn from it, and pass a2 Theff. 3. 6. Now we command you Brethren, in the Name of our Lørd Jefus Chrift, that ye withdraw your felves from every Brother that walks diforderly, and not after the tradition which be received of us. I Cor. 5. 11. But now I have written unto you not to keep Company. If any Man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator, or Covetous, or an Idolater, or a Railer, or a Drunkard, or an Extortioner, with fuch a one, do not to eat. Nor do the Examples of Holy Men deviate in this point from the Precepts and Exhortations of the Spirit. Pfal. 26. 4,5. I have not fate with vain perfons, neither will I go in with diffemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil doers, and will not fit with the wick ed. Pfal. 119. 63. I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and them that keep thy Precepts. And thus it was with other good Men, they did equally co

vet good, and fhun evil Company. Vol. II. Thus Mal. 3. 16. when wickedness abounded, then they that feared the Lord talk'd often one to another. And in the first times of Christianity, great was the intimacy and dearness of the Disciples of Jefus one with another; great was their abhorrence of all the Works of Darkness, and all Communion and Fellowship with thofe that practis'd them, as may eafily be inferr'd from Acts 2.& 3. and other places of Holy Writ. The Scripture then is plain in this point: and from what I have faid, it appears that Reason is fo too, unless we can think that Wisdom and Folly, Happiness and Mifery, are things indifferent.

But here 'twill be objected, At this rate we shall foon find our felves oblig'd to renounce the World, and quit all Company. Is not our Cafe much the fame with that which St. Paul puts, 1 Cor. 5.9, 10. I wrote unto you in an Epiftlé, not to company with Fornicators; yet not altogether with the Fornicators of the World, or with the Covetous or Extortioners, or with Idolaters, for then muft ye needs go out of the World. To this 1 anfwer, I., Be it granted, as the # 2 Objection

Vol. II. Objection fuppofes, that we must keep ill Company or none, in this Cafe I affirm it is far better to keep none. Retirement is not fo dreadful a thing to a Christian as fome think; the Calm and Peace of the Mind is much more defirable than Noise and Laughter; and the Quiet and Regularity of Privacy much to be preferred before the Senfuality and Confufion of vicious Company; nor need any one complain of the uncomfortableness of Solitude, who can converfe when he pleases with Patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles; nay, with God and his Son Jefus. A good Man may meet God like Ifaac, in the Fields, or Mofes in the Defart; he may enjoy Communion with him, like Da vid, in his Bed-chamber, or Jofeph in the Dungeon. The Promife, John 12. 23. is not limited to place; If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love kim; and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. But on the other hand, in the Company of the wicked we fhall never find God, nor never feel any effects of his gracious Presence, but fhall be expofed to the Attempts and Practices of Evil Spirits, and to the Contagion of Vice.

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The wife Man obferves, That it is bet- Vol. II. ter to live alone, then with a Companion of a rough, intractable, and exalperating Temper: but I am fure there can be no Company, how froward and rough foever, so fatal to our Happinefs, as that which inftills Vanity under the Advantages and Opportunities of Friendship: No Solitude can be fo difmal or uncomfortable as that Society which infects the Heart, or darkens the Understanding; no Provocation or Infolence can be half fo injurious, as that Conversation which tends to Softness or Debauchery, to the betraying us into a love of this World, and a forgetfulness of God.

2. This Objection may have fome colour in a Pagan or a Jewish World, but fure it has none in a Christian one. The Church of Christ is not yet left like a Cottage in a Vineyard; our Jerufalem is not yet degenerated to the degree of Jerufalem of old, when God fpoke thus of it in the Prophet, Fer.5.1, Run ye through the streets of Jerufalem, and fee now and know, and seek in the broad Streets thereof if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that feeketh the truth, &c. Nor need we yet

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Vol. II. yet pray with the Pfalmift, Pfal. 1. 12 Help, O Lord, for the godly man ceaf: eth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men for the Servants of God are yet numerous; nor are they driven to their Secret Chambers, or to the Wilderness, or afhamed to own their Lord and Saviour, or to make an open Profeffion of the Hope that is in them.

I grant, will you fay, that there are good Chriftians, but they are not eafily, they are not every where to be found but the Worshippers of Pleasure do every where fwarm, every where haunt us. There is an eafie Remedy for this: Do thy Duty with an humble and unaffected Confidence, with a steddy and unalterable Refolution: Put on the Garb of a Difciple; let the Air of a Chriftian appear in every thing that thou doft, or fayeft; let the brightness and beauty of Holiness, that enriches and adorns the Soul, break forth ever and anon in thy Converfation; and thou shalt foon fee that the Good will love thee, but the Wicked will forfake thee: they will fhun thee, as Ghofts are faid to do the Light and Day; or as Hypocrites and Profligates did the So