them good: Elfe, perhaps, thou mayst thy felf get Infection, while thou intendeft to cure it. For the foundest Christian hath corrupt Humours in him, which are very apt to take the Contagion. The best Preservative you have is your utmoft Care and Caution, which if you do in the leaft flacken, it is great Odds but you will be involved in their Guilt and Sin, either by being drawn by their Examples into the fame Acts, or by conniving at them, when it may be fit and neceflary, to reprove them.

And, 2dly. That you venture not into wicked Company, if you have not very probable Grounds to hope that your Prefence among them will be an Occafion to hinder their Sins. Which ordinarily you may with Reason expect, if either, You have Prudence enough to divert them.

Or Authority enough to affright them, Or, Thirdly, Reverence enough to overawe and fhame them.

One of these three Qualifications is abfolutely neceffary for every one that would converfe with wicked Men to their - Benefit and Advantage; either Prudence, or Authority, or Reverence and Respect. But for any other Chriftian (though he be never fo zealous, and come fortified Y A with

with never fo good Intentions and Purpofes) he is no fit Man for such Society.

For, First, It is hazardous whether he fhall be able to preserve his Conscience fafe, where he fhall be born down and outbraved by boisterous Sinners, who will fcorn to be controul'd by a Person in whom there is nothing venerable but that Holiness and Piety which they defpife and contemn. And fo he will lie under a Temptation to do many undecent, if not finful Actions, only that The may not be expofed to their Scoffs and Injuries. Or,

Secondly, If he preferve his Confcience fafe, yet his very Zeal and Godliness will be made a Prey to their Taunts, and the weak inefficacious Attempts he makes to check their Sins, will but the more enrage and embolden them. They will but in the more, to beat him quite out of Countenance; and that out of mere Defpight that a Perfon, whom they fo much contemn, fhould take upon him to prefcribe Laws and Orders to them: And fo inftead of Physicians, they will, out of a mistaken Charity, prove only Murdérers to their Brother. And this I have frequently obferved in the World to be the fad and woful Iffue of it. And there

fore

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fore you, who have Reason to suspect either the Frailty of your Nature, or the Weakness of your Parts and Authority, beware that you venture not into fuch Company. The best Security thou canst have, is to withdraw thy Foot far from. them; and to disengage thy felf as foon as poffible, if at any Time thou art accidentally cal upon them. For either they will wound thy Confcience; or thou wilt but occafion them to wound their own the deeper. But if God hath endowed thee with fuch Courage, Prudence and Authority, that thou canst baffle and fhame the Impudence of wicked Men, know that it is thy Duty," and a Work of Charity, at fit Times and Seafons, when God's Providence hall caft thee upon it, to converse with evil Men. Thou goeft among them but to part a Fray, wherein though they all feem merry, and very good Friends, yet they are desperately stabbing, and wounding, and murdering one another by their Sins. And if thou canft either hinder any one of thofe Blows, or cure any of those Wounds, thou haft done a kind Office to their Souls, and an acceptable Service unto God. That's the third Particular.

2

Fourthly,

Fourthly, We are not to withdraw and feparate from wicked Men in the Service of God. We may join with them in Prayer, in hearing the Word, yea, and in all the Ordinances of Jefus Chrift; and be glad they will fo far own Religion, as to give it any, though but an outward and complemental Reverence and Refpect. The great Scruple, I know, is concerning that most facred Ordinance of the Lord's Supper; and that Place before-mentioned, 1 Cor. 5. 11. is here much infifted on, with fuch an one, no not to eat. From whence they infer, that if they may not eat common Bread with fuch who are Drunkards, Railers, Extortioners, or Unclean, &c. at their own Tables, then much less may they eat facred Bread with them at the Lord's Table. And this paffeth as an unanswerable Argument to justify Separation from them in this Inftitution.

But to this I answer,

Ift. Jefus Chrift himself eat his Supper in Communion with one whom he knew to be a wicked Perfon, yea, and whom he had branded with the Black Name of See Luke Devil: Which, were it needful, could be 22.20, 21. demonstrated as plain as Evidence it self Mark 14. can make any Thing. But,

23.

Secondly,

Secondly, Let it be supposed that fuch have no Right to partake of that holy Ordinance, yet you ought not to withdraw your felves because of their Admiffion, but endeavour rather to remove them. If you do not know them to be guilty, you are most uncharitable both in fufpecting them, and in feparating only upon a Sufpicion. If you certainly know their Guilt, have you admonish'd them? If you have admonish'd them both fecretly and before Witneffes, and yet they still persevere in their Sins; have you ac cufed them, and before the Church brought convictive Proofs of the Scandal they have given? If thou haft ufed this plain Course, which our Lord Chrift himfelf hath commanded towards an offending Brother, Matth. 18. 15, 16, 17. there will be no need of feparating, but by this Means thou shalt either remove and eject him that hath given the Offence, or clear thine own Soul, and not partake of his Sin, in partaking of the same holy Ordinance. If otherwife, if thou haft neither reproved the Offender in private, nor accused him in publick, how darest thou separate from the Communion of the Church of Chrift? How darest thou contradict his express Order and Command; yea, and think thy self

the