Armor of Proof, Section 26
§. 26.
IT is true, they will perswade us; that instead of being infected, we may gain by their company; and tell us, that true Crystal may touch the Toade without being poysoned; that the Diamond will lye in the fire, witho…t being consumed; that fish may live in salt waters, and yet retain a fresh tast; that though rust will fret into the hardest steel, yet it doth not eate into the Eme…al…; that though the Load-stone draweth Iron after it, yet it cannot stir Gold, nor the Jet steel, though it doth straw; that though the Sun hardens clay▪ yet it so tens wax; that if a Ship hath a sure A…c…or, it may lye safe any where▪ neither is it absolutely unlawfull for us to keep them company, seeing Christ kept company with Publicans and sinners of all sorts.
Answ. Here are good words, but no security; which therefore an experi…nced man gives the hearing of, but stands (the while) upon his own guard. No charity binds us to a trust of those whom we have found faithl…sse. Credu…ity upon weak grounds, after palpable disappointments, is the daughter of fol…. He that hath once broken his faith, will not easily be t…usted. I know Physitians may converse with Leprous pe…sons, 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 Physick: …o that may be lawfull, in a sage and stayed person, which is unfit for an ungovern'd eye once to looke upon. We read, Gen. 19. 17. that Lot and his wife, were forbidden to look back at the destruction of So…om; when to Abraham it was left at large, and without restraint, he being a man of better ru…ed affections. Again. I know the Devil 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, …he very fear of God, and thought that he looketh on, as one spake of grave Cato, will keep 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 Angels will keep us in all our wayes, but not in our wandrings: though it may be lawful to come among them, yet wisdom forbears some lawful things, because they may be occasions of things unlawful. He that abstaines from nothing that is l…wful, will soon be brought to …lo that which is unlawful. The note which comes too neer in the Ma…gent, will skip into the Text, at the next impression. He that will go as ne…r the ditch as he can, will at some time or other fall in. He that will do all that he may, will sometimes do what he ought not. It is hard for the b…st man to say …how far he will be tempted. If a man will put himself among Philistins, hee cannot promise to come forth innocent; or if he do, that soul which lives among thornes, shall hardly thrive in Grace. How many have fallen into a fa…hion of swearing, scoffing, drinking, out of the usual practise of others: as …hose that live in an ill ayre, are infected with disea…es? A man may passe …hrough Ethiopia unchanged, but he cannot dwell there, and not be di…colou…ed. When once a man gives himself over to be the companion of vice, in the …nd he becomes the very slave of vice. The Oxe being tyed to the Figg-tree, …ooseth his strength. Many strokes overthrow the strongest Oke. Many drops of raine, though never so soft, pierce the hardest Marble, yea, even the slint …one. And let graces be never so well fixt in a mans heart, yet …e may …oon …ave them consumed and wasted this way, if he take not heed: as S…ow and Ice …annot be so hard congealed, but they will melt, if they come to the fire. And …ttle do our peremptory resolvers in this case know, or conside, … the insi…ative power of evil, or the treachery of t…ir own hearts, in receiving it, or … importunity of wicked deceivers, in ob…uding it: they are the worse …
An Egg covered with salt (as Philosophers teach) hath the meate of it deleli consumed, whilst the shell is whole. And we reade of many Towns, which hav… in time been undermined, even with the most impotent and weake Creatures… as one in Spaine, with Con…yes; in Thessalia with Moles; in France wit… Frogs; in Africa with Flies.
Many an one receives poyson, and knowes not when he took it. Many breat… in this world, like men sleeping in a boate, are carried down the stream, even … …their …, without waking, to think where they are.
No man proves extreamly evil on the sudden: through many insensible d… …clinations do we fall from vertue. Sathan's agents are still scattering his … darts, among the Army of Israel; and when they light upon wood, they kindle; when upon fl…x, they flam…; when upon gunpowder, they blow up all They therefore that lov… such intricate and perplexed walkes, had need of … ron shoes.
T…ue it is, that Christ conve…sed and kept company with Publicans and sinners (as the Physitian with the sick) to heale their soules: neither did the… make him worse, but he made them better: but as true it is, that he was with…out the level or temptation; and so is no gene…al war…nt. I will therefore no… only shun evil, but the means to come to i…; an… to avoid hurt, I will … my selt out of …hot: n…ither 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 think they can come in any company, and yet come of clear: but he which comes to save one drowning, must be stronger then th… other, or else he will be drowned himself.
Pliny reports, that a Family neare Rome would go upon live coles withou… being burnt: had it hereupon been necessary for others to put the same in practise? no, neither is it necessary for us to do that herein which our Saviour did Our min…s have not that ballast in them, which his …ad, and so are sooner endangered, by the floods of wickedness.
Secondly, wher…as they object: that we may gaine by their company: I confesse it possible, for even t…e most venomous and …a…nous things that are▪ have their commodi…es, as well as their annoyances: And the Cocke by scraping in a dungnill, did once find a Jewel: Virgil from Enniu's dunge did Gold extract: and Apoth…caries of Vipe s flesh can make an An…idote against poyson: an Harlots tace may suggest …: and a s…ul sureset may prove an Antidore for sin: yea, as external cold kindles the heate or the stomack: so we find it reco…ded in holy Writ, that some, by a spiritual Ant p…ist… …sis, have grown horter in th…ir z…ale, by being encompassed with the outward cold o… Wicked and irreligious company: like Roses and Lillies, which flourish the more for being beset with T…nes: and Violets, which are the sweeter and more od… ri…erous▪ for being beset with Garlick and Onie…s; for as much as they suck and draw all the ill …avours of the ground unto them. Thus it fa… with Lot, who served God better among the beastly Sod…tes, then when he was separated …om them. And some others there are no doubt, who, as they owe not this … to themselves, so they are more for wonder, then imitation. For … found a guard in the Lyons Den, shall another thrust himself t…reinto for …elter? And if Peter walkt upon the pavement of the water, did the rest of t… …sciples step forth and follow him? No.
Ob. But say some. By keeping them company we may winne them, and hap…ily convert their soules.
Answ. I answer. Hope not so much to convert them; as fear that they will …ervert thee, for vertue is not so alluring as vice: the one spreads it self, like …oyson in a vessel; the other is not half so dispersive. Sin, and Hagar, are more …ruitful then vertue and Sara…: fal…hood, more successeful then t…uth. The …ore eye infecteth the sound: the sound will not mend the sore. Vinegar will …ar w…ne; wine will not mend vinegar, Infection is sp…eading and catching: …ealth is not so. An hund…ed sound pe…sons shall sooner catch the plague, from one infected person; then he receive his h…alth from them.
Salomon that wonder of Wisdom, might think by joyning in affinity with his neighbour Princes, and marrying their Daughters, to win those Heathens to the Kingdom of God: but he was deceived, fo… he could do no good upon them; they wrought him too much evil. 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 clear the sick.
We reade of certain Magnetical, or Adamantine Rockes, in the Iles of Moni…le, which draw all ships u…to them, that have any Iron pinnes, holding them so fast, that they are not able to sti…: evil society, are such Rockes; holy men, the ships; naturall and inbred corruption, the Iron pinnes: he that will be safe, let him ke…p far enough from such Rocks.
A good man, joyned in l…ague 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 I sickle, can endure the rough northern wind of persecution well enough, but melteth wi… the heate of th… S…n, swee… allurements of the world, and the flesh. The children of God are, as it were, dead … l…sts; 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 evil speeches and actions may kindle and enflame them with the love and liking of …? 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 do my best to make thee a Convert.