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that no man take thy crown.' The crown is the summit of royalty; and such is truth: Let no man take thy crown. Hold fast the faithful word,' as Paul to Titus speaks.* You had better part with any thing than truth; you had better part with honours, riches, friends, pleasures, and the world's favours, yea, your nearest and dearest relations, and your very lives, than to let go truth. Oh! keep the truth, and truth will keep you safe and happy for ever. Blessed are those souls who are kept by THE TRUTH.

Rem. 6. Keep humble; humility will keep the soul free from many darts cast by Satan, and from many erroneous snares spread by him.† As low trees and shrubs are free from many violent blasts of wind, which shake and rend the taller ones, so humble souls are free from those blasts of error, which rend and tear proud lofty souls. Satan and the world have greater difficulty to fasten errors upon humble souls. The God of light and truth delights to dwell with the humble; and the more light and truth dwell in the soul, the further will darkness and error stand from it. The God of grace pours graces into the humble, as men pour liquor into empty

Tit. i 9. Hold fast as with tooth and nail, against those that would snatch it from us.

† I have read of one, who seeing in a vision many snares of the devil spread upon earth, he sat down mourning, and said within himself, "Who shall pass through these?" Whereunto he heard a voice answering, "Humility shall pass through them."

vessels; and the more grace is poured into the soul, the less error will be able to over-power, or infect it.

That is a sweet word in Ps. xxv. 9. The meek (or the humble) will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way.' And certainly, those who are guided and taught of God, are not easily drawn aside into ways of error. Oh! take heed of spiritual pride; pride fills our fancies, weakens our graces, and makes room in our hearts for error. There are no men on earth so soon entangled, and so easily conquered by error, as proud men. Oh! it is dangerous to love to be wise above what is written; to be curious, and unsober in your desire of knowledge, and to trust to your own capacities and abilities, to undertake to pry into all secrets, and to be puffed up with a carnal mind. Souls that are thus soaring up, above the bounds and limits of humility, usually fall into the very worst of errors, as experience daily evidences.*

Rem. 7. Solemnly consider, the great evils that errors have produced. Error is a fruitful mother, and hath brought forth such monstrous children, as have set towns, cities and nations on fire. Error is that whorish woman, hath cast down and wounded many, yea, slain

• that

*The proud soul is like him that gazed upon the moon, but fell into the pit.

tErrors in conscience produce many great evils, not only in men's own souls, but also in human affairs.

many strong, many great, many learned, and many professing men,' in former times, and in our time too, as is evident to all that are not much left of God, destitute of the truth, and blinded by Satan. Oh the graces that error hath weakened, and the joys and comforts that it hath clouded, if not buried. Oh the hands that error hath weakened, the eyes that it hath blinded, the judgments of men that it hath perverted, the minds that it hath darkened, the hearts that it hath hardened, the affections that it hath cooled, the consciences that it hath seared, and the lives of men that it hath polluted. Ah souls! can you solemnly consider of this, and not tremble more at error than at hell itself? &c.

CHAPTER XII.

The twelfth Device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin, is,

TO affect wicked company, to keep wicked society; and oh! the horrid impieties and wickedness that Satan hath caused men to commit, by inducing them to sit and associate themselves with vain persons.-Now the remedies against this device of the devil, are these:

Remedy 1. Against this device of Satan, dwell (till your hearts are affected) upon those commands of God that expressly require us to shun the society of the wicked.* Eph. v. 11. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Prov. 14, 15, 16. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.' 1 Cor. v. 9, 10, 11. 2 Thess. iii. 6. Prov. i. 10 -15. Turn to these scriptures, and let your souls dwell upon them, till a holy indignation be raised in them against fellowship with vain men. 'God will not take the wicked by the hand,' as Job speaks; why then should you? God's commands are not like those that are easily reversed, but they are like those of the Medes, that cannot be changed. If these commands be not now observed by thee, they will at last be witnesses against thee, and mill-stones to sink thee, in that day when Christ shall judge the world.

Rem. 2. Seriously consider, that their company is very infectious and dangerous, as is clear from the scriptures above mentioned. Ah! how many have lost their names, their estates, their strength, God, heaven, and their own souls, by walking with wicked men? As ye shun a stinking carcase; as the seaman shuns sands, and rocks, and shelves; as ye shun those that

«The commands of God must outweigh all authority and example of men.”—JEROME.

"

*

have the plague sore running upon them, so should shun the society of wicked men. you As weeds endanger the corn, and bad humours the blood, or as an infected house in the neighbourhood; so doth wicked company the soul.

Bias, a Heathen man, being at sea in a great storm, and perceiving many wicked men with him in the ship, calling upon the gods, "Oh, saith he, forbear prayer, hold your tongues, I would not have the gods take notice that you are here, they sure will drown us all if they should.' Ah sirs! could a Heathen see so much danger in the society of wicked men, and can you see none? Prov. xiii. 20...

Rem. 3. Look always upon wicked men, under those names and notions in which the scripture represents them. The scripture calls them lions for their fierceness, bears for their cruelty, dragons for their hideousness, dogs for their filthiness, wolves for their subtilty. The scripture stiles them scorpions, vipers, thorns, briars, thistles, brambles, stubble, dirt, chaff, dust, dross, smoke, scum, as you may see in the note. It is not safe to look upon wicked men under those names and notions that they themselves, or their

A man that keepeth ill company, is like him that walketh in the sun, tanned insensibly.

† 2 Tim. iv. 17. Is. xi. 7, 29. Ezek. iii, 10. Mat. xvi. 9. Rev. i. 5, 10. Mat. iii. 7. Is. x. 17. 27. chap. iv. 55. Ezek. xiii. 26. Judges ix. 14. Job xxi. 18. Ps. xxviii, 42. xiv. 18. alii. Ezek. xxii. 18. 19. 1s. xlv. 5. Exek. xxiv. 6.

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