Of the danger of too much familiarity
1. Open not your heart to every man, but deal with one who is wise and fears God. Be seldom with the young and with strangers. Be not a flatterer of the rich; nor willingly seek the society of the great. Let your company be the humble and the simple, the devout and the gentle, and let your discourse be concerning things that edify. Be not familiar with any woman, but commend all good women alike unto God. Choose for your companions God and His Angels only, and flee from the notice of men.
2. We must love all men, but not make close companions of all. It sometimes falls out that one who is unknown to us is highly regarded through good report of him, whose actual person is nevertheless unpleasing to those who behold it. We sometimes think to please others by our intimacy, and forthwith displease them the more by the faultiness of character that they perceive in us.
1. Open not your heart to every man, but deal with one who is wise and fears God. Be seldom with the young and with strangers. Be not a flatterer of the rich; nor willingly seek the society of the great. Let your company be the humble and the simple, the devout and the gentle, and let your discourse be concerning things that edify. Be not familiar with any woman, but commend all good women alike unto God. Choose for your companions God and His Angels only, and flee from the notice of men.
2. We must love all men, but not make close companions of all. It sometimes falls out that one who is unknown to us is highly regarded through good report of him, whose actual person is nevertheless unpleasing to those who behold it. We sometimes think to please others by our intimacy, and forthwith displease them the more by the faultiness of character that they perceive in us.
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