The twelfth device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin is,
Device (12). To affect wicked company, to keep wicked society. And oh! the horrid impieties and wickedness that Satan hath drawn men to sin, by working them to sit and associate themselves with vain persons. Now, the remedies against this device of the devil are these:
Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is, To dwell, till your hearts be affected, upon those commands of God that do 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. iv. 14-16, 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. 9-11, 2 Thes. iii. 6, Prov. i. 10-15. Turn to these Scriptures, and let your souls dwell upon them, till a holy indignation be raised in your souls against fellowship with vain men. God will not take the wicked by the hand,” as Job speaks, xxxiv. 20, xxx. 24. 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 millstones to sink thee, in that day that Christ shall judge thee.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, seriously to consider, That their company is very infectious and dangerous, as is clear from the scripture above mentioned. Ah, how many have lost their names, and lost their estates, and strength, and God, and heaven, and souls, by society with wicked men! As ye shun. a stinking carcase, as the seaman shuns sands and rocks, and shelves,’ as ye shun those that have the plague-sores running upon them, so
should you shun the society of wicked men. As weeds endanger the corn, as bad humours endanger the blood, or as an infected house the neighbourhood, so doth wicked company the soul! Prov. xiii. 20.
Bias, a heathen man, being at sea in a great storm, and perceiving many wicked men in the ship, called 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?
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is, To look: always upon wicked men, under those names and notions that the Scripture doth set them out wnder. The Scripture calls them lions for their fierceness, and bears for their cruelty, and dragons for their hideousness, and dogs for their filthiness, and wolves for their subtleness. The Scripture styles them scorpions, vipers, thorns, briers, thistles, brambles, stubble, dirt, chaff, dust, dross, smoke, scum, as you may see in the margin. It is not safe to look upon wicked men under those names and notions that they set out themselves by, or that flatterers set them out by; this may delude the soul, but the looking upon them under those names and notions that the Scripture sets them out by, may preserve the soul from frequenting their company and delighting in their society. Do not tell me what this man calls them, or Liow such and such count them; but tell me how doth the Scripture call them, how doth the Scripture count them? As Nabal’s name was, so was his nature, 1 Sam. xxv. 25, and as wicked men’s names are, so are their natures. You may know well enough what is within them, by the apt names that the Holy Ghost hath given them.
Remedy (+). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan, is, solemnly to consider, That the society and company of wicked men have been a great grief and burden to those precious souls that were once glorious on earth, and are now trivmphing in heaven: Ps. exx. 5, 6, Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech, that I sojourn in the tents of Kedar! My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.” So Jeremiah, Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men,” Jer. ix. 2. So they “vexed Lot’s righteous soul by their filthy conversation,” 2 Pet. ii. 7; they made his life a burden, they made death more desirable to him than life, yea, they made his life a lingering death. Guilt or grief is all the good gracious souls get by conversing with wicked men. 1 Eusebius reports of John the Evangelist, that he would not suffer Cerinthus, the EBuseb. 1. iii. cap. 25. [Cf. Note in Sibbes, vol. vii. 603.—G.] A man that keepeth ill heretic, in the same bath with him, lest some judgment should abide them both.—
The second thing to be shewed is,
The several devices that Satan hath, as to draw souls to sin, so to keep souls from holy duties, to hinder souls in holy services, and to keep them off from religious performances.
“And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him,’ Zech. iii. 1.
The truth of this I shall shew you in the following particulars: