Here is, 1. A good caution against being intimate with a passionate
man. It is the law of friendship that we accommodate ourselves to our
friends and be ready to serve them, and therefore we ought to be wise
and wary in the choice of a friend, that we come not under the sacred
tie to any one whom it would be our folly to accommodate ourselves to.
Thought we must be civil to all, yet we must be careful whom we lay in
our bosoms and contract a familiarity with. And, among others, a man
who is easily provoked, touchy, and apt to resent affronts, who, when
he is in a passion, cares not what he says or does, but grows
outrageous, such a one is not fit to be made a friend or companion, for
he will be ever and anon angry with us and that will be our trouble,
and he will expect that we should, like him, be angry with others, and
that will be our sin. 2. Good cause given for this caution: Lest thou
learn his way. Those we go with we are apt to grow like. Our corrupt
hearts have so much tinder in them that it is dangerous conversing with
those that throw about the sparks of their passion. We shall thereby
get a snare to our souls, for a disposition to anger is a great snare
to any man, and an occasion of much sin. He does not say, "Lest thou
have ill language given thee or get a broken head," but, which is must
worse, "Lest thou imitate him, to humour him, and so contract an ill
habit."