Downame - Puritan-02038 v2

z ¢Thatthefriendfhip ofwkk!d worldling: is to be Conf emoed dropping;mettals are not prefently melted,as Toone as they are put into the furnace; greene wood doth not forthwith flame out,as Toone as it is laid on the fire : but yet within a while with much and often raining,the waters arife, with greatand continuall heate the mettais melt,and the greene wood after Tome weake refiflance is burned and confumed. And fo although the fire of Gods grace burning in vs is not quenched at firfl (as it were) with this water of worldly wickedneffe; yearather perhaps it may through oppofition, make it to gather his flrength, and burne more hotly; but yetifitbe much and oftencaf} vpon it,it will in the end put Ifidor.lib.x. it deane out. e4lthough (faith one) thou were made ofiron, foliloqu. yet funding continually before a greatfire, thou wouldet at 141 bediffolued andfoftned ; and he that fill dwelleth at the next dore to danger, cannot long be fafe: By agiduitie a man is often delivered otter as captiue to fn, and oftentimes familiaritie bath intangled men,and minfred vnto them occafon of finning ; and what he eusllat the firkt could not, that lingring affiduitie and cuflome harp atch,eued.Atthe firft,i t may be a Chriflian mans heart rifeth,and his foule ablrorreth the wickedneffe which he leech committed euen by his deareftfriends,but at thefe- cond time he is not fo much mooned, and when he is a little inured thereunto, the lotie ofhis friend weakening the ha- tred which hebeareth the finne,heis content to winke at it, and then to tolerate it,and after to like it, and by and by to imitate it,and within a while after to approoue,defetid, and boafl of it. At the firfl hearing of blafphemie, ribauldrie and corrupt communication, it may bee for the prefent wee feele not our foules hurt and infefled, but yet (as one faith) Senec.epi4. it leauethfeed: in the mind,and even after we are departed from 123, then:, eurll fproutethvp. tlndasMofe who heart pleating mufck, haue,when the melodie it ceafed, the tunes founding in their Bares ; fo the talky of wicked men doth longer continue lbtth v:, then it is in hearing : and it is not eafie to forget a found which is fo fweet to our corrupt flefh. Neither doth the lingring growth of our corruptions,which by degrees creep vpon vs leffen our hurt anddanger, but rather much increa- feth them, Peeing it ouercommeth vs, before wee feele our felues