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Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

Device 12

DEVICE 12 To choose wicked company, to keep wicked society

DEVICE 12 To choose wicked company, to keep wicked society. And oh! the horrid impieties and wickedness that Satan hath drawn men to sin, by moving them to sit and associate themselves with vain persons.

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. 5:11): "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them"; (Prov. 4:14-16): "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. 5:9-12, 2 Thess. 3:6, Prov. 1:10-15. 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 (34:20; 30:24). Why then should you? God's commands are not like those that are easily reversed, but they are like those of the Medes, they 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 shoals, 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. 13:20).

Bias, a heathen man, being at sea in a great storm, and perceiving many wicked men in the ship calling upon the gods: "Oh," said 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 under. 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, briars, 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 how 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. 25:25), 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 (4). 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 triumphing in heaven (Ps. 120:5, 6): "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell 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. 9:2). So they vexed Lot's righteous soul by their filthy conversation" (2 Pet. 2:7); 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 that good gracious souls get by conversing with wicked men.

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