353 / 514
SEAM.
XX.}
TRUTH, SINCERITY,
&C.
$45
change
:
There
luxury
and riot, there
fury
and
passion
reign
in every
room,
their
dwelling
is
without God, with-
out
prayer,
without
piety
or
peace,
arid
has
more
of
hell
than
of
heaven in
it.'
O
my soul,
come
not into their
secret, to
their
family, my
honour,
be
not thou
united
!
for
truth
and goodness
are far
from
them.
4.
The true christian
is
the
same
in
all
companies:
And
though
he
does
not
think himself
obliged
to
cast
his
pearls before
swine,
to
give
that
which
is
holy to dogs,
or
to
impose
a
discourse
of
religion upon those
that
hate
it
;
yet
he
never
forgets
his
religion in the worst
of
com-
pany,
nor
does he
throw off the christian in the midst
of
heathens.
The
general course
of
his
life
shines in
the
beauty of
holiness,
and
glorifies his
God
in
an impious
world.
And there are
seasons too, when
he sees
it
ne-
cessary to rebuke
public iniquity,
and bear a testimony
against a
vicious
age
:
He
has never
any
fellowship with
the unfruitful
works
of
darkness,
but
rather
he reproves
them, Eph.
v. 11.
Yet
sometimes
his
prudence directs
his Christianity to lie concealed,
but
he
never dares
do
any thing
that
contradicts
it.
It
is
like
a garment
that
he
ever
wears
about
him,
though
he does,
not
always
wear
it
uppermost
:
He
keeps it ever
as
his
guard,
though he
does
not
always
expose
his glory.
What
a scandal
is
it
to
any
person
who
professes
the
name
of
Christ,
that
he
can sometimes lay aside
all
his
Christianity,
and bury
it
in
an
hour
of riot
!
That
he
can
drink
till
midnight
when
he
gets
among
drunkards,
and take
his
cup
as
merrily
and as
often
as
they
!
That
he
can relish
a
lewd
or profane jest, and
make one too,
when
he sits in
the company
of
lewd
or profane
jesters
!
That
he can lisp
out
an oath, and stammer
at
a
curse,
or perhaps
he
can swear
roundly
when he
is
in
the midst
of
swearing wretches
!
And
yet
he can
pray and talk de
-_
voutly when he
falls
into religious
company, and
pretend
to tremble
at
the profaneness
of
the
age.
What
shameful
hypocrisy and falsehood
is
this
!
There are
some
persons
who
have
appeared
in
the
country
to be
professors
of
religion,
and perhaps
may
have
obtained
a
name
of
piety;
but
when they come
up
to the
city
among
loose
libertines, where their
vices
are
better
hid,
they
give
themselves up to loose
practices,
Ind
indulge
a
licentious month or
twpo.
They are pious