and our Judge, upon whofe mere will and difpofal all our SERM. fubfiftence, all our welfare does abfolutely depend? What XVIII. greater madness can be conceived, than to deprive our minds of all true content here, and to separate our fouls from eternal blifs hereafter; to gall our consciences now with fore remorfe, and to engage ourselves for ever in remedilefs miferies? Such folly doth all fin include: whence in Scripture ftyle worthily goodness and wisdom are terms equivalent; fin and folly do fignify the fame thing.

If thence this practice be proved extremely finful, it will thence fufficiently be demonftrated no lefs foolish. And that it is extremely finful, may easily be shewed. It is the character of the fuperlatively wicked man; Thou Pf. 1. 19, 20. giveft thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit : thou fittest and fpeakest against thy brother; thou flandereft thine own mother's fon. It is indeed plainly the blackest and most hellifh fin that can be; that which giveth the grand fiend his names, and most expreffeth his nature. He is ỏ Aιáboλos, the flanderer; fatan, the fpiteful adverfary; the old fnake, or dragon, hiffing out lies, and spitting forth venom of calumnious accufation; the ac- Apoc. xii. cufer of the brethren, a murderous, envious, malicious 10. calumniator; the father of lies; the grand defamer of Joh.viii.44. God to man, of man to God, of one man to another. And highly wicked furely must that practice be, whereby we grow namesakes to him, confpire in proceeding with him, resemble his difpofition and nature. It is a complication, a comprisal, a collection and fum of all wickednefs; oppofite to all the principal virtues, (to veracity and fincerity, to charity and justice,) transgreffing all the great commandments, violating immediately and directly all the duties concerning our neighbour.

1 Pet. ii. 1.

lxxxvi. 15.

To lie fimply is a great fault, being a deviation from Eph. iv. 25. that good rule which prefcribeth truth in all our words; Pf. xxxi. 5. rendering us unlike and disagreeable to God, who is the xxv. 10. God of truth; (who loveth truth, and practiseth it in all lxxxix. 14. his doings, who abominateth all falsehood;) including a cxlvi. 6. treacherous breach of faith toward mankind; (we being 22. vi. 17. D d

VOL. I.

Prov. xii.

T

SERM. all, in order to the maintenance of fociety, by an implicit XVIII. compact, obliged by speech to declare our mind, to inform truly, and not to impofe upon our neighbour;) arguing pufillanimous timorousness and impotency of mind, a distruft in God's help, and diffidence in all good means to compass our designs; begetting deception and error, a foul and ill-favoured brood: lying, I fay, is upon fuch accounts a finful and blameable thing: and of all lies those certainly are the worst, which proceed from malice, or from vanity, or from both, and which work mischief; fuch as flanders are.

18.

48.

Again, to bear any hatred or ill-will, to exercise enmity toward any man, to defign or procure any mischief to our neighbour, whom even Jews were commanded to Levit. xix. love as themselves, whofe good, by many laws, and upon divers fcores, we are obliged to tender as our own, is a heinous fault and of this apparently the flanderer is most guilty in the highest degree. For evidently true it is Prov. xxvi. which the Wife Man affirmeth, A lying tongue hateth thofe that are afflicted with it; there is no furer argument of extreme hatred; nothing but the height of ill-will can fuggeft this practice. The flanderer is an enemy, as the most fierce and outrageous, so the most base and unworthy that can be: he fighteth with the most perilous and most unlawful weapon, in the most furious and foul way that Jam. iii. s. can be. His weapon is an envenomed arrow, full of Pfal. Ixiv. deadly poifon, which he shooteth fuddenly, and feareth not ; a weapon which by no force can be refifted, by no art declined, whose impreffion is altogether inevitable and unfustainable. It is a moft infidious, moft treacherous and cowardly way of fighting; wherein manifeftly the weakeft and basest spirits have extreme advantage, and may eafily prevail against the braveft and worthieft: for no man of honour or honesty can in way of refiftance or requital deign to use it, but muft infallibly without repugnance be borne down thereby. By it the vile practiser achieveth the greatest mischief that can be. His words are, as the Pfal. lii. 4. Pfalmift faith of Doeg, devouring words, (Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue :) and, A man,

3, 4. lvii. 4.

XVIII.

18. xii. 6.

evil, and in

there is a

Prov. xvi.

27. Ecclus.

&c.

faith the Wife Man, that beareth falfe witness against his SERM. neighbour is a maul, and a fword, and a sharp arrow that ; is, he is a complicated inftrument of all mischiefs: he Prov. xxv. fmiteth and bruifeth like a maul, he cutteth and pierceth An ungodly like a sword, he thus doth hurt near at hand; and at dif- man digtance he woundeth like a sharp arrow, it is hard any where geth up to evade him, or to get out of his reach. Many, faith his lips another wife man, the imitator of Solomon, have fallen burning by the edge of the fword: but not fo many as have fallen fire. by the tongue. Well is he that is defended from it, and hath not paffed through the venom thereof; who hath not xxviii. 18, drawn the yoke thereof, nor hath been bound in its bands. For the yoke thereof is a yoke of iron, and the bands thereof are bands of brafs. The death thereof is an evil death, the grave were better than it. Incurable are the wounds which the flanderer infli&teth, irreparable the damages which he causeth, indelible the marks which he leaveth. No balfam Adverfus can heal the biting of a sycophant; no thread can stitch up antæ a good name torn by calumnious defamation; no foap is morfum able to cleanse from the ftains afperfed by a foul mouth. remedium. Aliquid adhærebit; fomewhat always of fufpicion and ill opinion will stick in the minds of those who have given ear to flander. So extremely oppofite is this practice unto the queen of virtues, charity. Its property indeed is, to believe all things, that is, all things for the best, and to 1 Cor. xiii. the advantage of our neighbour; not fo much as to fuf-7 pect any evil of him, without unavoidably manifest cause : how much more not to devise any falfehood against him? It covereth all things, ftudiously conniving at real defects, Prov. xvii. and concealing affured mifcarriages: how much more not 9. divulging imaginary or false scandals? It disposeth to seek and further any the leaft good concerning him: how much more will it hinder committing grievous outrage upon his dearest good name?

Again, all injuftice is abominable: to do any fort of wrong is a heinous crime; that crime, which of all most immediately tendeth to the diffolution of fociety, and disturbance of human life; which God therefore doth most loathe, and men have reason especially to deteft. And of

syco

phantæ

nullum eft

Prov. xix. 28.

SERM. this the flanderer is most deeply guilty. A witness of BeXVIII. lial fcorneth judgment, and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity, faith the Wise Man. He is indeed, according to juft eftimation, guilty of all kinds whatever of injury, breaking all the fecond table of commands respecting our neighbour. Most formally and directly he beareth falfe witness against his neighbour: he doth covet his neighbour's goods; for 'tis constantly out of such an irregular defire, for his own presumed advantage, to difpoffefs his neighbour of fome good, and transfer it on himself, that the flanderer uttereth his tale: he is ever a thief and robber of his good name, a deflowerer and defiler of his reputation, an affaffin and murderer of his honour. So doth he violate all the rules of justice, and perpetrateth all sorts of wrong against his neighbour.

He may indeed perhaps conceive it no great matter that he committeth; because he doth not act in fo boifterous and bloody a way, but only by words, which are fubtile, flim, and tranfient things; upon his neighbour's credit only, which is no substantial or visible matter. He draweth, thinks he, no blood, nor breaketh any bones, nor impreffeth any remarkable fcar: 'tis only the soft air he breaketh with his tongue, 'tis only a flight character that he stampeth on the fancy, 'tis only an imaginary stain that he daubeth his neighbour with: therefore he suppofeth no great wrong done, and seemeth to himself innocent, or very excufable. But thefe conceits arife from great inconfiderateness, or mistake; nor can they excuse the flanderer from grievous injuftice. For in dealing with our neighbour, and meddling with his property, we are not to value things according to our fancy, but according to the price fet on them by the owner: we must not reckon that a trifle, which he prizeth as a jewel. Since then all men (especially men of honour and honefty) do, from a neceffary inftinct of nature, estimate their good name beyond any of their goods, yea do commonly hold it more

Dei Epifcopos linguæ gladio jugulâftis, fundentes fanguinem non corporis, fed honoris. Qp. lib. ii. Woe be to them who juftify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous. from him. Ifạ. v. 23.

dear and precious than their very lives; we, by violently SERM. or fraudulently bereaving them of it, do them no lefs XVIII. wrong, than if we should rob or cozen them of their fubftance, yea than if we fhould maim their body, or spill their blood, or even stop their breath. If they as grievously feel it, and refent it as deeply, as they do any other outrage, the injury is really as great to them. Even the flanderer's own judgment and confcience might tell him fo much: for they who moft flight another's fame, are ufually very tender of their own, and can with no patience endure that others fhould touch it: which demonftrates the inconfiderateness of their judgment, and the iniquity of their practice. It is an injustice not to be corrected or cured. Thefts may be restored, wounds may be cured; but there is no restitution or cure of a loft good name: it is therefore an irreparable injury.

Eccles. vii.

Nor is the thing itself, in true judgment, contemptible; but in itself really very confiderable. A good name, saith Prov. xxii. Solomon himself, (no fool,) is rather to be chofen than 1. xv. 30. great riches; and loving favour rather than filver and 1. gold. In its consequences it is much more fo; the chief interefts of a man, the fuccefs of his affairs, his ability to do good, (for himself, his friends, his neighbour,) his Prov. xii. 6. fafety, the best comforts and conveniences of his life, fometimes his life itself, depending thereon: fo that whoever doth fnatch or filch it from him, doth not only according to his opinion, and in moral value, but in real effect, commonly rob, sometimes murder, ever exceedingly wrong his neighbour. It is often the fole reward of a man's virtue and all the fruit of his induftry; fo that by depriving him of that, he is robbed of all his eftate, and left stark naked of all, excepting a good conscience, which is beyond the reach of the world, and which no malice or misfortune can diveft him of. Full then of iniquity, full of uncharitableness, full of all wickedness is this practice; and confequently full it is of folly. No man, one would think, of any tolerable fense, should dare, or deign to incur the guilt of a practice fo vile and base, so indeed diabolical and deteftable. But farther more particularly,