Mr. Alex Moncreiff,(394) minister at Scoonie,

_Sic Sub._
GEORGE GILLESPIE.
F. C. _Witness_
A. M. _Witness_

Section V.

Scriptures Showing The Sin And Danger Of Joining With Wicked And Ungodly
Men.

When the Lord is punishing such a people against whom he hath a
controversy, and a notable controversy, every one that is found shall be
thrust through: and every one joined with them shall fall, Isa. xiii. 15.
They partake in their judgment, not only because in a common calamity all
shares, (as in Ezek. xxi. 3.) but chiefly because joined with and
partakers with these whom God is pursuing; even as the strangers that join
to the house of Jacob partake of her blessings, chap. xiv. 1. To this
purpose is Isa. xxxi. 2, 3, and Ezek. xxx. 5, 6, 8. The mingled people and
those that are in league with Egypt partake in her plagues, and those that
uphold that throne that God so visibly controverts with, their power shall
come down, and all its helpers shall be destroyed, as it is Jer. xxi. 12,
20, 24. And this is the great reason of these many warnings to go out of
Babylon, Jer. l. 8. and li. 6. Remember that passage, 2 Kings i. 9, 10,
11, 12. The captain and messenger of the king speaks but a word in
obedience to his wicked master's command, and the fifty are but with him,
and speak not: but their master's judgment comes on them all.

Consider how many testimonies the wise king, in his Proverbs, gives
against it. Chap. i. from ver. 10, to 19. "My son, if sinners entice thee,
consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood,
let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause. Let us swallow them up
alive as the grave, and whole as those that go down into the pit. We shall
find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil. Cast in
thy lot among us, let us all have one purse. My son, walk not thou in the
way with them; refrain thy foot from their path. For their feet run to
evil, and make haste to shed blood," &c. Here are the practices and
designs of wicked men expressed in their own nature. But certainly they
would colour them over with fair pretences. Their purpose is to undo men,
especially godly men that classed and purged them. Yea, it is the
profession of many, and they scarce lie privily, or have so much wisdom as
to conceal their designs till their fit opportunity, but before the power
be confirmed in their hand, they breathe out cruelty agai