Abstain from all appearance of evil. Of doctrinal evil. Not only open error and heresy are to be avoided, but what has any show of it, or looks like it, or carries in it a suspicion of it, or may be an occasion thereof, or lead unto it; wherefore all new words and phrases of this kind should be shunned, and the form of sound words held fast; and so of all practical evil, not only from sin itself, and all sorts of sin, lesser or greater, as the Jews have a saying,"take care of a light as of a heavy commandment,''that is, take care of committing a lesser, as a greater sin, and from the first motions of sin; but from every occasion of it, and what leads unto it, and has the appearance of it, or may be suspected of others to be sin, and so give offence, and be a matter of scandal.
The Jews have a saying very agreeable to this ,"remove thyself afar off (or abstain) from filthiness, and from everything, wl hmwdh, "that is like unto it".'' Pirke Abot, c. 2. sect. 1.