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IV. Labour to get thy heart into a right frame and temper. The work is ferious, and thou hadft need rally together all the powers of thy foul, that thy thoughts may be intent and fixed when thou fetteft on this duty.

V. Begin with prayer, begging the affistance and help of God, to order thy meditations aright. Prayer fanctifies every thing.

VI. Confine thy thoughts to one Subject only at a time. One truth driven home by meditation will kindly affect the heart.

VII. For the Method.

1. Let thy mind confider and dwell on the thing thou proponndeft to meditate on, fo long, till thou haft fetled fome perfwafions in thy felf concerning

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2. Labour to ftir up and awaken fuch affections in thy heart, as the Subject meditated on re quires.

3. Draw fome fit and proper refolutions tending to Gods Glory, and the furthering thee in a gracious courfe, from thy meditations.

VIII. For the manner.

1. Do it fincerely. Take heed of formality and fuperficialneffe, the bane of most religions performances.

2. Shut up all with prayer.

3. Reduce thy meditations into practife.

CHAP.

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Requent good company, that may further thee, and help thee forward in the way to Heaven. And though thy Calling Neceffity of bufineffe,Charity to their fouls, and a defire to do them good, may draw thee femtimes to converfe with, yet be not willingly, ordinarily, and unnecessarily a companion of wicked and ungodly men; who by their vain, unfavoury difcourfe, and finfull converfation, will be apt to draw thy heart unto a neglect and fighting of spiritual things. 'Tis exceeding dangerous to be ordinarily in fich company, as will be ever hindring, never helping us for ward in the way to Heaven; and where we shall hear no talk of Religion, but in diftaft and contempt. Believe it, Thousands have been everlastingly undone by evil company.

That therefore thou maist be more wary in this Particular, I fhall defire thee to confider of these things.

I. Ill company must needs be exceeding dangereus, becaufe fin is of an infecting, contagious nature. It quickly fpreads among fuch, as ordinarily and familiarly converfe together. Why fhould we not be as much afraid of being infect ed with fin, as with a contagious disease? but that we are carnal, and fear the evil of the body

which is death, more than the evil of the foul, which is fin and damnation. The ground of that dreadful Church-Cenfure, Excommunication, is the contagion of other mens fins. Purge out the old leaven, faies the Apostle, 1 Cor. 5. 7. Which was the incestuous perfon. And why? because a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. There is a strange power in ill company, to infect and deprave the beft difpofitions. Can a man touch pitch, and not be defiled? faies the fon of Sirach, Chap.13.1.

1. By frequent & familiar converfe with fuch, there feals upon a man fecretly & infenfibly,a diflike of Religion,and the waies of Godliness,as too ftrict and restraining to humane nature.

2. He ufually comes by degrees, to approve and delight in fenfual courses, and finful pratifes.

3 At laft he comes to be an utter enemy, and oppofer of the waies of Holiness. And no wonder, for fuch as men ufually converfe with, fuch (for the most part) they prove to be. Ungodly company is the deep ditch, out of which few escape.

II. To delight in ungodly company, is a fure fign a mans heart is naught, Similitude is the caufe of love: Like will to like, whether good or evil. Though many will not be drunk or (wear, &c. Yet if they delight in the company of thofe that do fo, 'tis plain their difpofitions are against Godlineffe. David having a Godly frame of heart, declared

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Chap.7. declared it in this, that in the Saints of the Earth, and the excellent was all his delight, Pfal.16.3. & Pf.119.63 He faies, I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy Precepts. Ecclefiafticus tels us,Ch.13.16. All flesh conforteth according to kind, and a man will cleave to his like. What fellowship bath the wolf with the lamb ? So the finner with the Godly? When you choose wicked, loofe company, when you may have better, and find delight and content in fuch, you plainly declare what you are. There is no reason he fhould be accounted Gods friend,who familiarly converfes with his profeffed enemies.

III. By frequenting ill company, thou dost harden, encourage, and embolden them in their finful courfes. How can they think, but thou approvest their waies, feeing thou delighteft in their fociety: Whereas the Apostle com mands us Eph.5.11. To have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkneffe, but rather reprove them. David's eyes ran down with rivers of tears, because he faw men kept not Gods Law, Pfal.119.136. And Lots righteous foul was vexed with the unclean converfation of the micked among whom he lived. So far is it from the tem per of a gracious heart to hold a delightful famili arity with wicked companions,

IV. Confider ill company is a great hinderance to converfion. Wicked companions (like Herod) kill the young beginnings, and first ten

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361 dencies of the heart towards God. One wicked perfon, by his fcoffs and flouts has done more hurt, than many Sermons have done good. Scoffers at Religion, and deriders of true Piery, and Holineffe, make things of the faddeft and most ferious concernment, to feem ridiculous. And when once the awe of these great Truths is weakned, men are easily induced to caft off all care and profeffion of Religion. Many have been jeer'd from the pra Etife of Godlineffe, and a holy life, that could never by Serious Arguments be disputed or diffwaded from it. Mockers and Scoffers at Religion, are ufually the worst of finners. In Pfal.1. there are three degrees of finners mentioned, and the highest rank are they that fit in the feat of the fcornful: Which the Septuagint render the chair of peftilence: They being indeed the pests of mankind. 'Tis better to go with the frowns and scoffs of carnal friends to heaven,than with their love to hell.

V. Remember, 'tis not only the openly prophane and diffolute, the wearer, the drunkard, and the profeffed open enemies of Godlinesse, that thou art to avoid, as hurtful companions; but thou must also take heed of too frequent fociety with dead hearted formalifts, and perfons meerly civil, whole conference is usually barren and unfavoury, nothing conducing to the raising the heart Heaven ward. And by converfing much with fuch, though thou doft not endanger thy foul as to infection with fin, yet thou doft, as to Bbz

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