The Drunkards Character, Section 198
§ 198.
IT is true,Object. they will perswade us; that instead of being infected,Many objections answered. we may gaine by their company; and tell us, that true Crystall may touch the Toade, vvithout being poysoned; that the Diamond vvill lye in the fire, vvithout being consumed; that fish may live in salt vvaters, and yet retaine a fresh tast; that though rust will fret into the hardest steele, yet it doth not eate into the Emerald; that though the Load-stone draweth Iron after it, yet it cannot stirre Gold; nor the Jet steele, though it doth straw; that though the Sunne hardens clay, yet it softens wax; that if a Ship hath a sure Anchor, it may ly safe any where; neither is it absolutely unlawfull for us to keepe them company, seeing Christ kept company with Publicans and sinners of all sorts.
Answ. Here are good words, but no security; which therefore an experienced man gives the hearing of, but stands (the while) upon his owne guard. No charity binds us to a trust of those whom we have found faithlesse. Credulity upon weake grounds, after palpable disappointments, is the daughter of folly. He that hath once broken his faith, will not easily be trusted. I know Physitians may converse with Leprous persons, uninfected; but then they must have stronger Antidotes, then their natures give them, or else themselves shall stand in the same need, and of Physitians become Patients, and need Physicke: so that may be lawfull, in a sage and stayed person, which is unfit for an ungovernd eye once to looke upon. We read, Gen. 19. 17. that Lot and his wife, were forbidden to looke back at the destruction of Sodom; when to Abraham it was left at large, and without restraint, he being a man of better ruled affections. Againe, I know the Devill cannot hurt me, so long as God is with me: as the best Load-stone cannot draw Iron unto it, if the Diamond be by: yea, the very feare of God, and thought that he looketh on, as one spake of grave Cat…, will keepe a man from yeilding to their temptations, as it did Ioseph, touching his Mistrisses allurements: and that faith, as it is no coward, so it is ever victorious: what then? though faith be confident, yet it is not impudent; it knowes a guard of Angells will keepe us in all our wayes, but not in our wandrings: though it may be lawfull to come among them, yet wisdome forbeares some lawfull things, because they may be occasions of things unlawfull. He that abstaines from nothing that is lawfull, will soone be brought to doe that which is unlawfull. The note which comes too neere in the Margent, will skip into the Text, at the next impression. He that will goe as neere the ditch as he can, will at some time or other fall in. He that will doe all that he may, will sometimes doe what he ought not. It is hard for the best man to say how farre he will be tempted. If a man will put him selfe among Philistins, he cannot promise to come forth innocent; or if he doe, that soule which lives among thornes, shall hardly thrive in Grace. How many have fallen into a fashion of swearing, scoffing, drinking, out of the usuall practice of others: as those that live in an ill ayre, are infected with diseases? A man may passe through Ethiopia unchanged, but he cannot dwell there, and not be discoloured. When once a man gives himselfe over to be the companion of vice, in the end he becomes the very slave of vice. The Oxe being tyed to the Figg-tree, looseth his strength. Many strokes overthrow the strongest Oke. Many drops of raine, though never so soft, pierce the hardest Marble, yea, even the flint stone. And let graces be never so well fixt in a mans heart, yet he may soone have them consumed and wasted this way, if he take not heede: as Snow and Ice cannot be so hard congealed, but they will melt, if they come to the fire. And little doe our peremptory resolvers in this case know, or consider, either the insinuative power of evill, or the treachery of their owne hearts, in receiving it, or the importunity of wicked deceivers, in obtruding it: they are the worse for their society, and perceive it not.
An Egg covered with falt (as Philosophers teach) hath the meate of it consumed, whilst the shell is whole. And we reade of many Townes, which have in time beene undermined, even with the most impotent and weake Creatures, as one in Spaine with Coneyes; in Thessalia with Moles; in France with Frogs; in Africa with Flies.
Many an one receives poyson, and knowes not when he tooke it. Many breath in this world, like men sleeping in a boate, are caried downe the streame, even to their gravesend, without waking, to thinke where they are.
No man proves extreamly evill on the sudden: through many insensible declinations doe we fall from vertue. Sathan's agents are still scattering his firy darts, among the Army of Israel; and when they light upon wood, they kindle; when upon flax, they flame; when upon gunpowder, they blow up all. They therefore that love such intricate and perplexed walkes, had need of Iron shoes.
True it is, that Christ conversed and kept company with Publicans and sinners, (as the Physitian with the sicke) to heale their soules: neither did they make him worse, but he made them better: but as true it is, that he was without the levell of temptation; and so is no generall warrant. I will therefore not only shun evill, but the meanes to come to it; and to avoid hurt, I will keepe my selfe out of shot: neither will I presume, being but a man, to follow my master in that which he did as God. Indeed, many are so presumptuous of their strength, that they thinke they can come in any company, and yet come off cleare: but he which comes to save one drowning, must be stronger then the other, or else he will be drowned himselfe.
Pliny reports, that a Family neare Rome would goe upon live coles without being burnt: had it hereupon beene necessary for others to put the same in practise? no: neither is it necessary for us to doe that herein which our Saviour did. Our minds have not that ballast in them, which his had, and so are sooner endangered, by the floods of wickednesse.
Secondly, whereas they object: that we may gaine by their company: I confesse it possible, for even the most venimous and ravenous things that are, have their commodities, as well as their annoyances: And the Cocke by scraping in a dunghill, did once finde a Iewell: Virgil from Enniu's dunge did Gold extract: and Apothecaries of Vipers flesh can make an Antidote against poyson: an Harlots face may suggest chastnesse: and a sinfull surfet may prove an Antidote for sinne: yea, as externall cold kindles the heate of the stomacke: so we finde it recorded in holy Writ, that some, by a spirituall Antiperistasis, have growne hotter in their zeale, by being encompassed with the outward cold of wicked an irreligious company: like Roses and Lillies, which flourish the more for being beset with Thornes: and Violets, which are the sweeter and more odoriferous, for being beset with Garlike and Onions; for as much as they suck and draw all the ill savours of the ground unto them. Thus it fared with Lot, who served God better among the beastly Sodomites, then when he was separated from them. And some others there are no doubt, who, as they owe not this grace to themselves, so they are more for wonder, then imitation. For if Daniel found a guard in the Lyons Den, shall another thrust himselfe there into for shelter? and if Peter walkt upon the pavement of the water, did the rest of the Disciples step forth and follow him? No.
Ob. But say some. By keeping them company we may winne them, and happily convert their soules.
Answ. I answer. Hope not so much to convert them; as feare that they will pervert thee: for vertue is not so alluring as vice: the one spreads it selfe, like poyson in a vessell▪ the other is not halfe so dispersive. Sinne, and Hagar, are more fruitfull then vertue and Sarah: falsehood, more successefull then truth. The sore eye infecteth the sound: the found will not mend the sore. Vinegar will mar wine; wine will not mend vinegar, Infection is spreading and catching: health is not so. An hundred sound persons shall sooner catch the plague, from one infected person; then he receive his health from them.
Salomon that wonder of wisdome, might thinke by joyning in affinity with his neighbour Princes, and marrying their Daughters, to winne those Heathens to the Kingdome of God: but he was deceived, for he could doe no good upon them; they wrought him too much evill. And doth not experience teach us, that the good are sooner perverted by the bad, then the bad converted by the good? even as a tainted ayre doth more easily infect a sound body, then an wholesome can cleare the sicke.
We reade of certaine Magneticall, or Adamantine Rockes, in the Iles of Moniole, which draw all ships unto them, that have any Iron pinnes, holding them so fast, that they are not able to stirre: evill society, are such Rockes; holy men, the ships; naturall and inbred corruption, the Iron pinnes: he that will be safe, let him keepe farre enough from such Rocks.
A good man, joyned in league with one that is wicked; is like a living man, bound to a dead corps, which will sooner suffocate him, then he revive that: or, like an Isickle, can endure the rough northerne wind of persecution well enough, but melteth with the heate of the Sunne, sweete allurements of the world, and the flesh. The children of God are, as it were, dead to their lusts; but if they should tempt God, by a too familiar society with the vicious; who knowes, but as live coles will kindle dead ones; so their evill speeches and actions may kindle and enflame them with the love and liking of lewdnesse? Indeed, as one said to his suppliant, make me a Diviner, and I will make thee rich: so may a good man say to a vicious; make me Angelicall, that is, incapable of being seduced, and I'le doe my best to make thee a Convert.