The government of the tongue by the author of The whole duty of man, &c. Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681. 1667 Approx. 260 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 122 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A23740 Wing A1138 ESTC R4579 12085446 ocm 12085446 53718 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A23740) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 53718) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 705:5, 856:1a) The government of the tongue by the author of The whole duty of man, &c. Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681. Fell, John, 1625-1686. Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683. Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679. Henchman, Humphrey, 1592-1675. The fifth impression. [17], 224 p. At the Theater, Oxford : 1667 [i.e. 1677] Attributed to Richard Allestree. Cf. BM, DNB. Variously ascribed also to John Fell, Richard Sterne, Lady Dortohy Pakington, Humphrey Henchman, and others. Cf. DNB. Table of contents: p. [16] Both Wing and Madan distinguish between two "editions" of 1667 [1677]: Wing A1137 (Madan 3133*), which is 12", lacks a frontispiece, and has an upper case "F" in "fifth impression" on the t.p., and Wing A1138 (Madan 3133), which is 8", has a lower case "f" and includes the frontispiece. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Libel and slander -- Early works to 1800. Conduct of life -- Early works to 1800. 2004-04 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-06 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-07 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2004-07 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Imprimatur , RAD. BATHVRST . Vice-Cancel . Oxon. Januarii 24. 1675. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGVE THE Government OF THE TONGUE . By the Author of THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN , &c. Death and Life are in the power of the Tongue , Prov. 18. 21. The fifth Impression . At the THEATER in OXFORD . M. DC . LXVII . THE PREFACE THE Government of the Tongue has ever bin justly reputed one of the most important parts of human Regiment . The Philosopher and the Divine equally attest this ; and Solomon ( who was both ) gives his suffrage also ; the perswasions to , and encomiums of it taking up a considerable part of his Book of Proverbs . I shall not therefore need to say any thing , to justifie my choice of this subject , which has so much better authorities to commend it : I rather wish that it had not the super addition of an accidental fitness grounded upon the universal neglect of it , it now seeming to be an art wholly out-dated . For tho some lineaments of it may be met with in Books , yet there is scarce any footsteps of it in practice , where alone it can be significant . The attemt therefore of reviving it I am sure is seasonable , I wish it were half as easy . 2. Indeed that skill was never very easy , it requiring the greatest vigilance and caution , and therefore not to be attain'd by loose trifling spirits . The Tongue is so slippery , that it easy deceives a drousy or heedless guard . Nature seems to have given it some unhappy advantage towards that . 'T is in its frame the most ready for motion of any member , needs not so much as the flexure of a joint , and by access of humors acquires a glibness too , the more to facilitate its moving . And alas , we too much find the effect of this its easie frame : it often goes without giving us warning ; and as children , when they happen upon a rolling Engine , can set it in such a carriere , as wiser people cannot on a sudden stop ; so the childish parts of us , our passions , our fancies , all our mere animal faculties , can thrust our Tongues into such disorders , as our reason cannot easily rectify . The due managery therefore of this unruly member , may rightly be esteemed one of the greatest mysteries of Wisdom and Vertue . This is intimated by St. James , if any man offend not in word , the same is a perfect man , and able also to bridle the whole body , Ja. 3.2 . 'T is storied of Bembo a primitive Christian , that coming to a friend to teach him a Psalm , he began to him the thirty ninth , I said I will look to my waies , that I offend not with my Tongue ; upon hearing of which first verse , he stopt his Tutor , saying , This is enough for me if I learn it as I ought ; and being after six months rebuk'd for not coming again , he replied , that he had not yet learn'd his first Lesson : nay , after nineteen years he profest , that in that time he had scarce learn'd to fulfill that one line . I give not this instance to discourage , but rather to quicken men to the study , for a lesson that requires so much time to learn , had need be early begun with . 3. But especially in this age , wherein the contrary liberty has got such a prepossession , that men look on it as a part of their birth-right , nay do not only let their Tongues loose , but studiously suggest inordinaces to them , and use the spur where they should the bridle . By this means conversation is so generally corrupted , that many have had cause to wish they had not been made sociable creatures . A man secluded from company can have but the Devil and himself to temt him ; but he that converses , has almost as many snares as he has companions . Men barter vices , and as if each had not enough of his own growth , transplant out of his neighbors soil , and that which was intended to cultivate and civilize the world , has turned it into a wild desert and wilderness . 4. This face of things , I confess , looks not very promising to one who is to solicite a reformation . But what ever the hopes are , I am sure the needs are great enough to justify the attemt . For as the Disease is Epidemic , so it is mortal also , utterly inconsistent with that pure Religion , which leads to life . We may take James's word for it , If any man seem to be religious , and bridleth not his tongue , that mans religion is vain , James 1.26 . God knows we have not much Religion among us : 't is great pity we should frustrate the little we have , render that utterly insignificant , which at the best amounts to so little . Let therefore the difficulty and necessity of the task , prevail with us to take time before us , not to defer this so necessary a work till the Night come ; or imagine that the Tongue will be able to expiate its whole age of guilt by a feeble Lord have mercy on me at the last . Tho indeed if that were supposable , 't were but a broken reed to trust to , none knowing whether he shall have time or grace for that . He may be surpriz'd with an Oath , a Blasphemy , a Detraction in his mouth : many have bin so . 'T is sure there must be a dying moment ; and how can any man secure himself , it shall not be the same with that in which he utters those , and his expiring breath be so emploied ? Sure they cannot think that those incantations ( tho hellish enough ) can make them shot-free , render them invulnerable to deaths darts ; and if they have not that , or some other as ridiculous reserves , 't is strange what should make them run such a mad adventure . 5. But I expect it should be objected , that this little despicable Tract is not proportionable to the encounter to which it is brought , that besides that unskilful managing of those points it do's touch , it wholly omits many proper to the subject , there being faults of the Tongue which it passes in silence . I confess there is color enough for this objection , but I believe if it were put to votes , more would resolve I had said too much , rather then too little . Should I have enlarged to the utmost compass of this Theme , I should have made the volume of so affrighting a bulk , that few would have attemted it ; and by saying much , I should have said nothing at all to those who most need it . Mens stomacs are generally so queasie in these cases , that 't is not safe to over-load them . Let them try how they can digest this ; if they can so as to turn it into kindly nurishment , they will be able to supply themselves with the remainder . For I think I may with some confidence affirm , that he that can confine his Tongue within the limits here prescrib'd , may without much difficulty restrain its other excursions . All I shall beg of the Reader , is but to come with sincere intentions , and then perhaps these few Stones and Sling used in the name , and with invocation of the Lord of hosts , may countervail the massive armor of the uncircumcised Philistin . And may that God , who loves to magnifie his power in weakness , give it the like success . THE CONTENTS . Sect. 1. Of the Use of Speech . p. 1. Sect. 2. Of the manifold abuse of Speech . 7 Sect. 3. Of Atheistical Discourse . 12 Sect. 4. Of Detraction , 39 Sect. 5. Of Lying Defamation . 49 Sect. 6. Of Vncharitable Truth . 62 Sect. 7. Of Scoffing and Derision . 133 Sect. 8. Of Flattery . 134 Sect. 9. Of Boasting . 155 Sect. 10. Of Querulousness . 174 Sect. 11. Of Positiveness . 188 Sect. 12. Of Obscene Talk. 204 The Close . 206 OF THE Government of the Tongue . SECT . I. Of the use of Speech . 1. MAN , at his first creation , was substituted by God as his Vicegerent , to receive the homage , and enjoy the services of all inferior Beings : nay farther , was endowed with Excellencies fit to maintain the port of so vast an Empire . Yet those very excellencies , as they qualified him for dominion , so they unfitted him for a satisfaction or acquiescence in those his Vassals : the dignity of his nature set him above the society or converse of mere Animals : so that in all the pomp of his Roialty , amidst all the throng and variety of creatures , he still remain'd solitary . But God , who knew what an appetite of society he had implanted in him , judged this no agrecable state for him ; It is not meet that man should be alone , Gen. 2.18 . And as in the universal frame of Nature , he ingraffed such an abhorrence of vacuity , that all Creatures do rather submit to a preternatural motion then admit it ; so , in this emty , this destitute condition of man , he relieved him by a miraculous expedient , divided him that he might unite him , and made one part of him an associate for the other . 2. NEITHER did God take this care to provide him a companion , merely for the entercourses of Sense : had that bin the sole aim , there needed no new productions , there were sensitive Creatures enough : the design was to entertain his nobler principle , his Reason , with a more equal converse , assign him an intimate , whose intellect as much corresponded with his , as did the outward form , whose heart , according to Solomons resemblance , answered his , As in water face answers face , Prov. 27.19 . with whom he might communicate minds , traffic and enterchange all the notions and sentiments of a reasonable soul. 3. BUT tho there were this sympathy in their sublimer part , which disposed them to the most intimate union ; yet there was a cloud of flesh in the way , which intercepted their mutual view , nay permitted no intelligence between them , other then by the mediation of some Organ equally commensurate to soul and body . And to this purpose the infinite wisdom of God ordained Speech ; which , as it is a sound resulting from the modulation of the Air , has most affinity to the spirit , but as it is uttered by the Tongue , has immediate cognation with the body , and so is the fittest instrument to manage a commerce between the rational yet invisible powers of human souls cloathed in flesh . 4. AND as we have reason to admire the excellency of this contrivance , so have we to applaud the extensiveness of the benefit . From this it is we derive all the advantages of society : without this men of the nearest neighborhood would have signified no more to each other , then our Antipodes now do to us . All our Arts and Sciences for the accommodation of this life , had remain'd only a rude Chaos in their first matter , had not speech by a mutual comparing of notions ranged them into order . By this it is we can give one another notice of our wants , and sollicit relief ; by this we interchangably communicate advises , reproofs , consolations , all the necessary aids of human imbecillity . This is that which possesses us of the most valuable blessing of human Life , I mean Friendship , which could no more have bin contracted amongst dumb men , then it can between Pictures and Statues . Nay farther , to this we owe in a great degree the interests even of our spiritual being , all the oral , yea and written revelations too of Gods will : for had there bin no language there had bin no writing . And tho we must not pronounce how far God might have evidenced himself to mankind by immediate inspiration of every individual , yet we may safely rest in the Apostles inference , Rom. 10.14 . How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard , and how shall they hear without a preacher ? 5. FROM all these excellent uses of it in respect of man , we may collect another in relation to God , that is , the praising and manifying his goodness , as for all other effects of his Bounty , so particularly that he hath given us language , and all the consequent advantages of it . This is the just inference of the son of Syrach , Ecclus. 51.22 . The Lord hath given me a tongue , and I will praise them therewith . This is the sacrifice which God calls for so often by the Prophets , the calves of our lips , which answers to all the oblations out of the herd , and which the Apostle makes equivalent to those of the floor and wine-press also , Heb. 13.15 . The fruit of our lips , giving thanks to his name . To this we frequently find the Psalmist exciting both himself and others , Awake up my glory , I will give thanks unto thee , O Lord , among the people , and I will sing unto thee among the nations , Psal. 57.9 , 10. And O p raise the Lord with me , and let us magnify his name together , Psal. 34.3 . And indeed whoever observes that excellent magazine of Devotion , the Book of Psalms , shall find that the Lands make up a very great part of it . 6. BY what hath bin said , we may define what are the grand uses of speech , viz. the glorifying of God , and the benefiting of men . And this helps us to an infallible test by which to try our words . For since every thing is so far approvable as it answers the end of its being , what part soever of our discourses agrees not with the primitive ends of speech , will not hold weight in the balance of the sanctuary . It will therefore nearly concern us to enter upon this scrutiny , to bring our words to this touch-stone : for tho in our depraved estimate the Eloquence of Language is more regarded then the innocence , tho we think our words vanish with the breath that utters them , yet they become records in Gods Court , are laid up in his Archives as witnesses either for , or against us : for he who is truth it self hath told us , that by thy words thou shalt be justified , and by thy words thou shalt be condemn'd , Matth. 12.37 . SECT . II. Of the manifold abuse of Speech . 1. AND now since the original designs of speaking are so noble , so advantageous , one would be apt to conclude no rational creature would be temted to pervert them , since 't is sure he can substitute none for them , that can equally conduce either to his honor or interest . 2. YET Experience ( that great baffler of speculation ) assures us the thing is too possible , and brings in all Ages matter of fact to confute our suppositions . So liable alas is speech to be depraved , that the Scripture describes it as the source of all our other depravation . Original sin came first out of the mouth by speaking , before it entred in by eating . The first use we find Eve to have made of her Language , was to enter parly with the temter , and from that to become a temter to her husband . And immediatly upon the fall , guilty Adam frames his tongue to a frivolous excuse which was much less able to cover his sin , then the fig-leaves were his nakedness . And as in the infancy of the first world , the tongue had licked up the venem of the old Serpent , so neither could the Deluge wash it off in the second . No sooner was that small colony ( wherewith the depopulated Earth was to be replanted ) come forth of the Ark , but we meet with Cham a delator to his own father , inviting his brethren to that execrable spectacle of their Parents nakedness . 3. NOR did this only run in the blood of that accursed person ; the holy seed was not totally free from its infection , even the Patriarchs themselves were not exemt . Abraham use a repeted collusion in the case of his Wife , and exposed his own Integrity to preserve her Chastity . Isaac the Heir of his blessing , was Son of his Infirmity also , and acted over the same scene upon Rebecca's account . Jacob obtain'd his Fathers Blessing by a flat lie . Simeon and Levi spake not only falsly , but insidiously , nay hypocritically , abusing at once their Proselytes , and their Religion , for the effecting their cruel designs upon the Sichemites . Moses , tho a man of an unparellel'd meekness , yet spake unadvisedly with his lips , Psal. 106.33 . David uttered a bloody Vow against Nabal , spake words smoother then oil to Vriah , when he had don him one injury , and design'd him another . 'T were endless to reckon up those several instances the old Testament gives us of these lapses of the Tongue : neither want there divers in the new ; tho there is one of so much horror , as supersedes the naming more , I mean that of St. Peter in his reiterated abjuring his Lord , a crime which ( abstracted from the intention ) seems worse then that of Judas : that traitor owned his relation , cried Master , Master , even when he betraied him , so that had he bin mesured only by his tongue , he might have past for the better Disciple . 4. THESE are sad instances , not recorded to patronize the sin , but to excite our caution . It was a Politic inference of the Elders of Israel in the case of Jehu , Behold two Kings stood not before him , how then shall we stand ? 2 Kings 10. And we may well apply it to this ; if persons of so circumspect a Piety , have bin thus overtaken , what Security can there be for our wretchless oscitancy ? If those who kept their mouths as it were with a bridle , Psal. 39.1 . could not alwaies preserve them innocent , to what guilts may not our unrestrained licentious Tongues hurry us ? Those which , as the Psalmist speaketh , Psalm 73.9 . go thro the world , are in that unbounded range very likely to meet with him who walks the same round , Job 2.2 . and by him be tuned and set to his key , be scrued and wrested from their proper use , and made subservient to his vilest designs . 5. AND would God this were only a probable supposition ! but alas , experience supplants the use of conjecture in the point : we do not only presume it may be so , but actually find it is so . For amidst the universal depravation of our Faculties , there is none more notorious then that of Speech . Whither shall we turn us to find it in its pristine integrity ? Amidst that infinity of words in which we exhaust our breath , how few are there which do at all correspond with the original designation of speech ; nay , which do not flatly contradict it ? To what unholy , uncharitable purposes is that useful faculty perverted ? That which was meant to serve as the perfume of the Tabernacle , to send up the Incenses of Praises and Praiers , now exhales in impious vapors , to eclipse if it were possible the Father of Light , That which should be the store-house of relief and refreshment to our brethren , is become a magazine of all offensive weapons against them , spears , and arrows , and sharp swords , as the Psalmist often phrases it . We do not only fall by the slipperiness of our Tongues , but we deliberately dicipline and train them to mischief . We bend our tongues as our bows for lies , as the Prophet speaks , Jer. 9.3 . And in a word , what God affirmed in the old World in relation to thoughts , is too appliable to our words , they are evil , and that continually , Gen. 6.5 . and that which was intended for the instrument , the aid of human society , is become the disturber , the pest of it . 6. I shall not attemt a particular discussion of all the vices of the Tongue : it doth indeed pass all Geography to draw an exact Map of that World of iniquity , as St. James calls it . I shall only draw the greater lines , & distribute it into its principal and more eminent parts , which are distinguishable as they relate to God , our Neighbor , and our selves ; in each of which l shall rather make an Essay by way of instance , then attemt an exact enumeration or survey . SECT . III. Of Atheistical Discourse . 1. I Begin with those which relate to God ; this poor despicable member the Tongue , being of such a gigantic insolence , tho not size , as even to make war with Heaven . 'T is true , every disordered speech doth remotely so , as it is a violation of Gods Law ; but I now speak only of those which as it were attaque his person , and immediatly fly in the face of Omnipotency . In the higest rank of these we may well place all Atheistical Discourse , which is that bold sort of rebellion , which strikes not only at his authority , but himself . Other blasphemies level some at one Attribute , some another ; but this by a more compendious impiety , shoots at his very being , and as if it scorn'd those piece meal guilts , sets up a single monster big enough to devour them all : for all inferior profaneness is as much out-dared by Atheism , as is Religion it self . 2. TIME was , when the inveighing against this , would have bin thought a very impertinent subject in a Christian nation , and men would have replied upon me as the Spartan Lady did , when she was ask'd what was the punishment for Adulteresses , There are no such things here . Nay even amongst the most barbarous people , it could have concerned but some few single persons ; no numbers , much less societies of men , having ever excluded the belief of a Diety . And perhaps it may at this day concern them as little as ever ; for amidst the various Deities and Worships of those remoter Nations , we have yet no account of any that renounce all . 'T is only our light hath so blinded us : so that God may upbraid us as he did Israel , Hath a nation changed their Gods which yet are no gods ? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit , Jer. 2.11 . This madness is now the inclosure , the peculiarity of those who by their names & institutions should be Christians : as if that natural Aphorism , that when things are at a height they must fall again , had place here also , and our being of the most excellent , most elevated Religion , were but the preparative to our being of none . 3. 'T IS indeed deplorable to see , how the Professors of no God begin to vie numbers with all the differing perswasions in Religion , so that Atheism seems to be the gulph that finally swallows up all our sects . It has struck on a sudden into such a reputation , that it scorns any longer to sculk , but owns it self more publicly then most men dare do the contrary . 'T is set down in the seat of the scorner , & since it cannot argue , resolves to laugh all Piety out of countenance ; and having seized the mint , nothing shall pass for wit that hath not its stamp , and with it there is no metal of so base an alloy , but shall go current . Every the dullest creature that can but stoutly disclaim his Maker , has by it sufficiently secured its title to Ingenuity ; and such mesures being once established , no wonder at its sholes of proselytes , when it gives on the one hand licence to all sensual inordinaces , permits them to be as much beasts as they will , or can ; and yet tells them on the other , that they are the more men for it . Sure 't is not strange that a hook thus doubly baited should catch many . Either of those allurements single , we see has force enough . The charms of sensuality are so fascinating , that even those who believe another world , and the severe revenges that will there attend their Luxuries , yet chuse to take them in present with all the dismal reversions . And then sure it cannot but be very good news to such a one to be told , that that after-reckoning is but a false alarm ; and his great willingness to have it true , will easily incline him to believe it is so . And doubtless were Atheism traced up to its first causes , this would be found the most operative ; 't is so convenient for a man that will have no God to controul or restrain him , to have none to punish him neither ; that that utility passes into argument , and he will rather put a cheat upon his understanding , by concluding there is no future account , then leave such a sting in his plesures , as the remembrance of it must needs prove . This seems to be the original and first rise of this impiety , it being impossible for any man that sees the whole , nay but the smallest part of the Universe , to doubt of a first and supreme Being , until from the consciousness of his provocations , it becomes his interest there should be none . 4. THIS is indeed , considering the depravation of the world , a pretty fast tenure for Atheism to hold by ; yet it has of late twisted its cord , and got that other string to its bow we before mentioned . It s bold monopolizing of wit and reason compels , as the other invited men . This we may indeed call the Devils press , by which he hath filled up his Troops : men are afraid for being reproached for silly and irrational , in giving themselves up to a blind belief of what they do not see . And this bugbear frights them from their religion ; resolving they will be no fools for Christs sake , 1 Cor. 4.13 . I dare appeal to the breasts of many in this age , whether this have not bin one of the most prevalent temtations with them to espouse the tenet : and tho perhaps they at first took it up , only in their own defence , for fear of being thought fools , yet that fear soon converts into ambition of being thought Wits . They do not satisfie themselves with deserting their Religion , unless they revile it also ; remembring how themselves were laught out of it , they essay to do the like by others . Yea so zealous propugners are they of their negative Creed , that they are importunately diligent to instruct men in it , and in all the little sophistries and colours for defending it : so that he that would mesure the Opinions by their industry , and the remissness of Believers , would certainly think that the great interest of Eternity lay wholly on their side . Yet I take not this for any argument of the confidence of this perswasion , but the contrary : for we know they are not the secure , but the desperate undertakings , wherein men are most desirous of partners , and there is somwhat of horror in an uncouth way , which makes men unwilling to travel it alone . 5. THE truth is , tho these men speak big , and prescribe as positively to their pupils , as if they had some counter revelation to confute those of Moses and Christ ; yet were their secret thoughts laid open , there would scarce be found the like assurance there . I will not say to what reprobate sense some particular persons may have provoked God to deliver them , but in the generality , I believe one may affirm , that there is seldom an infidelity so sanguine as to exclude all fears . Their most bold Thesis , That there is no God , no Judgment , no Hell , is often met with an inward tremulous Hypothesis , What if there be ? I dare in this remit me to themselves , and challenge ( not their consciences , who profess to have none , but ) their natural Ingenuity to say , whether they have not somtimes such damps and shiverings within them . If they shall say , that these are but the reliques of prepossession and education , which their reason soon dissipates , Let me then ask them farther , whether they would not give a considerable sum to be infallibly ascertained there were no such thing : now no sensible man would give a farthing to be secured from a thing which his reason tells him is impossible ; therefore if they would give any thing ( as I dare say they themselves cannot deny that they would ) 't is a tacite demonstration , that they are not so sure as they pretend to be . 6. I might here join issue upon the whole , and press them with the unreasonableness , the disingenuousness of embracing a Profession to which their own hearts have an inward reluctance , nay the imprudence of governing their lives by that position , which for ought they know may be ( nay they actually fear is ) false , and if it be , must inevitably immerse them in endless ruin . But I must remember my design limits me only to the faults of the Tongue , and therefore I must not follow this chase beyond those bounds . I shall only extend it to my proper subject , that of Atheistical talk , wherein they make as mad an adventure as in any other of their enormous practices , nay perhaps in some respects a worse . 7. IN the first place 't is to be considered , that if there be a God , he , as well as men , may be provoked by our words as well as deeds . Secondly , 't is possible he may be more . Our ill deeds may be don upon a vehement impulse of temtation ; some profit or pleasures may transport and hurry us ; and they may at least have this alleviation , that we did them to please or advantage our selves , not to spight God. But Atheistical words cannot be so palliated : they are arrows directly shot against Heaven , and can come out of no quiver but malice : for 't is certain there never was man that said , There was no God , but he wished it first . We know what an enhancement our injuries to each other receive from their being malicious : and sure they will do so much more to God , whose principal demand from us is , that we give him our heart . But thirdly , This implieth a malice of the highest sort . Human spight is usually confined within some bounds , aims somtimes at the goods , somtimes at the fame , at most but at the life of our Neighbor : but here is an accumulation of all those , back'd with the most prodigious insolence . 'T is God only that has power of annihilation , and we ( vile Worms ) seek here to steal that incommunicable right , and retort it upon Himself , and by an anticreative power , would unmake Him who has made us . Nay lastly , by this we have not only the utmost guilt of single rebels , but we become ring-leaders also , draw in others to that accursed association : for 't is only this liberty of Discourse that hath propagated Atheism . The Devil might perhaps by inward suggestions have drawn in here and there a single Proselyte ; but he could never have had such numbers , had he not used some as decoies to ensnare others . 8. AND now let the brisk Atheist a little consider , what these aggravations will amount to . 'T was good counsel was given to the Athenians , to be very sure Philip was dead , before they expressed their joy at his death , lest they might find him alive to revenge that hasty triumph . And the like I may give to these men , Let them be very sure there is no God , before they presume thus to defy him , lest they find him at last assert his being in their destruction . Certainly nothing less then a demonstration can justify the reasonableness of such a daring . And when they can produce that , they have so far outgon all the comprehensions of mankind , they may well challenge the liberty of their Tongue , and say , They are their own , who is Lord over them , Psalm 12.4 . 6. BUT 'till this be don , 't were well they would soberly ballance the hazards of this liberty with the gains of it . The hazards are of the most dreadful kind , the gains of the slightest : the most is but a vain applause of wit , for an impious jest , or of reason for a deep considerer : and yet even for that they must incroach on the Devils right too , who is commonly the promter , and therefore if there be any credit in it may justly challenge it . Indeed 't is to be feared he will at last prove the master wit , when as for those little loans he makes them , he gets their souls in morgage . Would God they would consider betimes , what a woful raillery that will be , which for ought they know may end in gnashing of teeth . 10. THE next impiety of the Tongue , is Swearing , that foolish sin , which plaies the Platonic to damnation , and courts it purely for it self ; without any of the appendant allurements which other sins have : a vice , which for its guilt , may justify the sharpest ; and for its customariness , the frequentest invectives which can be made against it . But it has bin assaulted so often by better Pens , and has shewed it self so much proof against all Homily , that it is as needless as diā—couraging a task for me to attemt it . 'T is indeed a thing taken up so perfectly without all sense , that 't is the less wonder to find it maintain its self upon the same Principle 't is founded , and continue in the same defiance to Reason wherein it began . 11. ALL therefore that I shall say concerning it , is to express my wonder , how it has made a shift to twist it self with the former sin of Atheism , by which , according to all rules of reasoning it seems to be superseded : and yet we see none own God more in their oaths , then those that disavow him in their other discourse . Nay , such men swear not only to swell their Language , and make it sound more full and blustering , but even when they most desire to be believed . What an absurdity of wickedness is this ? Is there a God to swear by , and is there none to believe in , none to pray to ? We call it frenzy to see a man fight with a shadow : but sure 't is more so , to invoke it . Why then do these men of reason make such solemn appeals ( for such every Oath is ) to a mere Chimera and Phantasm ? It would make one think they had some inward belief of a Deity , which they upon surprizal thus blurt out : if it argue not this , it does somthing worse , and becomes an evidence how much the appearance of a sin recommends it to them , that they thus catch at it , without examining how it will consist with another they like better . These are indeed wholesale chapmen to Satan , that do not truck and barter one crime for another , but take the whole herd : and tho by reason of their disagreeing kinds they are apt to gore and worry each other , yet he still keeps up his old policy , and will not let one Devil cast out another . A league shall be made between the most discordant sins , and there shall be God , or there shall be none , according as opportunity serves to provoke him : so assuming to himself a power which even Omnipotence disclaims , the reconciling contradictions . And he succeeds it in as far as his concerns reaches : for tho he cannot solve the repugnancies in reason , yet as long as he can unite the sins in mens practice , he has his design ; nay , has at once the gain and the sport of fooling these great pretenders to ratiocination . 12. A third sort of impious discourse there is , which yet is bottom'd on the most sacred , I mean those profane paraphrases that are usually made upon the Holy Text , many making it the subject of their cavils , and others of their mirth . Some do it out of the former Atheistical principle , and I cannot but confess they act consonantly to themselves in it , for 't is but a needful artifice for men to disparage those testimonies , which they fear may be brought against them . But there are others who not only profess a God , but also own the sacred Scripture for his word , and yet use it as coursly as the others . And these I confess , are riddles of profaneness , that hang , as some have pictured Solomon between Heaven and Hell , borrow the Christian Faith , and the Atheists drollery upon it : and 't is hard to say in which they are more in earnest . It is indeed scandalous to see , to what despicable uses those holy Oracles are put : such as should a Heathen observe , he would little suspect them to be own'd by us as the rule of our Religion , and could never think they were ever meant for any thing beyond a whet-stone for wit. One tries his Logic upon them , and objects to the sense ; another his Rhetoric , and quarrels at the phrase ; a third his contrivance , and thinks he could have woven the parts with a better contexture : never considering , that unless they could confute the Divinity of their original , all these accusations are nothing else but direct blasphemy , the making God such a one as themselves , Psal. 50.21 . and charging him with those defects which are indeed their own . They want learning or industry to sound the depth of those sacred tresures , and therefore they decry the Scripture as mean and poor ; and to justify their own wisdom , dispute Gods. This is as if the mole should complain the Sun is dark , because he dwells under ground , and sees not his splendor . Men are indeed in all instances apt to speak ill of all things they understand not , but in none more then this . Their ignorance of local Customs , Idioms of Language , and several other circumstances , renders them incompetent Judges ( as has bin excellently evinced by a late Author . ) T will therefore befit them , either to qualifie themselves better , or to spare their Criticisms . But upon the whole , I think I may challenge any ingenious man , to produce any Writing of that antiquity , whose phrase and genious is so accomodated to all successions of Ages . Stiles and waies of address we know grow obsolete , and are almost antiquated as garments : and yet after so long a tract of time , the Scripture must ( by considering men ) be confest to speak not only properly , but often politely and elegantly to the present age : a great argument that it is the dictate of him that is , The same yesterday , to day , and for ever , Heb. 13.7 . 13. BUT besides these more solemn Traducers , there are a lighter ludicrous sort of Profaners , who use the Scripture as they do odd ends of Plaies , to furnish out their Jests ; clothe all their little impertinent conceits in its Language , and debase it by the mixture of such miserable trifles , as themselves would be ashamed of , were they not heightned and inspirited by that profaneness . A Bible phrase serves them in discourse as the haut-goust do's in diet , to give a relish to the most insipid stuff . And were it not for this Magazine , a great many mens raillery would want supplies : for there are divers who make a great noise of wit , that would be very mute if this one Topic were barr'd them . And indeed it seems a tacite confession , that they have little of their own , when they are fain thus to commit sacriledg to drive on the Trade . But sure 't is a pitiful pretence to Ingenuity that can be thus kept up , there being little need of any other faculty but memory to be able to cap Texts . I am sure such repetitions out of other books would be thought pedantic and silly . How ridiculous would a man be , that should alwaies enter lard his discourse with fragments of Horace , or Virgil , or the Aphorisms of Pythagoras , or Seneca ? Now 't is too evident , that it is not from any speculative esteem of sacred Writ , that it is so often quoted : and why should it then be thought a specimen of wit to do it there , when 't is folly in other instances ? The truth is , 't is so much the reserve of those who can give no better testimony of their parts , that methinks upon that very score it should be given over by those that can . And sure were it possible for any thing that is so bad to grow unfashionable , the world has had enough of this to be cloied with it : but how fond soever men are of this divertisement , 't will finally prove that mirth Solomon speaks of , which ends in heaviness , Prov. 14.13 . for certainly whether we estimate it according to human or divine mesures , it must be a high provocation of God. 14. LET any of us but put the case in our own persons : suppose we had written to friend , to advertise him of things of the greatest importance to himself , had given him ample and exact instructions , back'd them with earnest exhortations and conjurings not to neglect his own concern ; and lastly , enforced all with the most moving expressions of kindness and tenderness to him : suppose , I say , that after all this , the next news we should hear of that letter , were to have it put in doggrel rime , to be made sport for the rabble , or at the best have the most eminent phrases of it pickt out and made a common by-word : I would fain know how any of us would resent such a mixture of ingratitude and contumely . I think I need make no minute application . The whole design of the Bible do's sufficiently answer , nay out-go the first part of the parallel , and God knows our vile usage of it do's too much ( I fear too literally ) adapt the latter . And if we think the affront to base for one of us , can we believe God will take it in good part ? That were to make him not only more stupid then any man , but as much so as the heathen Idols , that have eies and see not , Pselm 115.5 . And 't is sure , the highest madness in the world , for any man that believes that there is a God , to imagine he will finally sit down by such usage . 15. BUT if we weigh it in the scale of religion ; the crime will yet appear more heinous . Mere natural Piety has taught men to receive the Responses of their Gods with all possible veneration . What applications had the Delphic Oracle from all parts , and from all ranks of men ? What confidence had they in its prediction , and what obedience did they pay to its advice ? If we look next into the Mosaical Oeconomy , we shall see with what dreadful Solemnities that Law was promulged , what an awful reverence was paid to the Mount whence it issued , how it was fenced from any rude intrusions either of Men or Beasts : and after it was written in Tables , all the whole equipage of the Tabernacle , was designed only for its more decent Repository , the Ark it self receiving its value only from what it had in custody . Yea such a hallowing influence had it , as transfused a relative sanctity even to the meanest Utensils , none of which were after to be put to common uses : the very Perfume was so peculiar and sacred , that it was a capital crime to imitate the composition . Afterwards , when more of the Divine Revelations were commieted to Writing , the Jews were such scrupulous reverers of it , that 't was the business of the Masorites , to number not only the Sections and Lines , but even the words and letters of the Old Testament , that by that exact calculation they might the better secure it from any surreptitious practices . 19. AND sure the New Testament is not of less concern then the Old : nay the Apostle asserts it to be of far greater , and which we shall be more accountable for , For if the word spoken by Angels were stedfast , and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence , how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation , which at the first began to be spoken to us by the Lord , and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him ? Heb. 2.23 . And it is in another place the inference of the same Apostle , from the excellency of the Gospel above the Law , that we should serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear , Heb. 12.28 . And certainly 't is but an ill essay of that reverence and godly fear , to use that very Gospel so irreverently and ungodly as men now do . If we pass from the Apostolic to the next succeeding ages of the Church , we find the Primitive Christians look'd on their Bibles as their most important tresure . Such was the outward respects they paid to them , ( of which the standing up at the reading of the Gospel , still in use among us , is a faint memorial ) that the Heathen Persecutors made it one part of their examination of the Christians brought to their Tribunals , What those Books were which they adored while they read them ? Such was their intimate esteem , that they exposed all things else to the rapine of their Enemies , so they might secure those Volumes . Nor was this only a heroic piece of zeal in some , but indispensably required of all : insomuch , that when in the heat of Persecution , they were commanded to deliver up their Bibles to be burnt , the Church gave no indulgence for that necessity of the Times , but exhorted men rather to deliver up their lives : and those whose courage failed them in the encounter , were not only branded by the infamous name of Traditors , but separated from the communion of the Faithful , and not readmitted till after many years of the severest penance . 17. I have given this brief narration , with a desire , that the Reader will compare the practice of former Times with those of the present , and see what he can find either among Heathens , Jews , or Christians , that can at all patronize our profaneness . There was no respect thought too much for the false Oracles of a falser God : and yet we think no contemts too great for those of the true . The Moral Law was so sacred to the Jews , that no parts of its remotest retinue , those ceremonial attendants , were to be look'd on as common : and we who are equally obliged by that Law , laugh at that by which we must one day be judged . The Ritual , the Preceptive , the Prophetic , and all other parts of sacred Writ , were most sedulously , most religiously guarded by them : and we look upon them as a Winter nights tale , from which to fetch matter of sport and merriment . Lastly , the first Christians paid a veneration to , nay sacrificed their Lives to rescue their Bibles from the unworthy usage of the Heathens , and we our selves expose them to worse : they would but have burnt them ; we scorn and vilify them , and outvy even the Persecutors malice with our contemt . These are miserable Antithesis's ; yet this God knows is the case with too many . I wonder what new state of Felicity hereafter these men have fancied to themselves : for sure they cannot think these retrograde steps can ever bring them so much as to the Heathens Elyzium , much less the Christians Heaven . 18. IT will therefore concern those who do not quite renounce their claim to that Heaven , to consider soberly , how inconsistent their practice is with those hopes . A man may have a great Estate conveid to him ; but if he will madly burn , or childishly make paper Kites of his Deeds , he forfeits his Title with his Evidence : and those certainly that deal so with the Conveiances of their Eternal Inheritance . will not speed better . If they will thus dally and play with them , God will be as little in earnest in the performance , as they are in the reception of the promises ; nay he will take his turn of mocking too , and when their scene of mirth is over , his will begin . A dreadful menace of this we have , Prov. 1.24 . which deserves to be set down at large , Because I have called , and ye refused , I have stretched out my hand ā–Ŗ and no man regarded : But ye have set at noughe all my counsel , and would none of my reproof , I also will laugh at your calamity , I will mock when your fear cometh . When your fear cometh as desolation , and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind : when distress and anguish cometh upon you , then shall they call upon me , but I will not answer , they shall seek me early , but they shall not find me . Would God I could as well transcribe this Text into mens hearts , and there would need no more to secure the whole Canon of Scripture from their profanation . Could men but look a little before them , and apprehend how in the daies of their distress and agony , they will gasp for those comforts which they now turn into ridicule ; they would not thus madly defeat themselves , cut off their best and only reserve , and with a pitiful contemt cast away those Cordials , which will then be the only support of their fainting spirits . As for those who deride Scripture upon Atheistical grounds , all I shall say , is , to refer to what I have said in the beginning of this Section ; they had need be very well assured that foundation be not sandy : for if it be , this reproching Gods Word will be a considerable addition to the guilt of all their other hostility , and how jolly soever they seem at present , it may be when that question they are so willing to take for granted , is by death drawing near a decision , some of their confidence will retire , and leave them in an amazed expectation of somwhat , which they are sure cannot be good for them , who have so ill provided for it . Then perhaps their merry vein will fail them , and not their infidelity , but their despair may keep them from invocating that Power they have so long derided . 'T is certain it has so happened with some : for as Practical , so Speculative wickedness , has usually another aspect , when it stands in the shadow of death , then in the dazling beams of health and vigor . It would therefore be wisdom before-hand to draw it out of this deceitful light , and by sober serious thoughts place it as near as may be in those circumstances in which 't will then appear : and then sure to hearts that are not wholly petrified , 't will seem safer to own a God early and upon choice , then late upon compulsion . 19. HOWEVER , if they will not yield themselves Homagers , yet the mere possibility of their being in the wrong , should methinks perswade them at least to be civil adversaries . A generous man will not pursue even a falling enemy with revilings and reproach , much less will a wise man do it to one who is in any the lest probability of revenging it : it being a received Maxim , That there is no greater folly , then for a man to let his toā—gue betray him to mischief . Let it therefore in this case at least stand neuter , that if by their words they be not justified , yet by their words they may not be condemned . They can be no loosers by it : for at the utmost , 't is but keeping in a little unsavory breath , which ( supposing no God to be offended with it ) is yet nauseous to all those men who believe there is one . To those indeed who have a zeal for their Faith , there can be no Discourse so intolerable , so disobliging : it turns conversation into skirmishing , and perpetual disputes . The Egyptians were so zealous for their brutish Deities , that Moses presumed the Israelites sacrificing of those Beasts they adored , must needs set them in an uproar , Exod. 8.26 . And sure , those who do acknowledge a Divine Power , cannot contentedly sit by to hear him blasphemed . 'T is true , there are some so cool , that , they are of the same mind for God , that Gideons father was for Baal , Judg. 6.31 . Let him plead for himself , they will not appear in his defence : yet even these have a secret consciousness that they ought to do so , and therefore have some uneasiness in being put to the Test : so that it cannot be a pleasant entertainment even for them . And therefore those who have no fear of God to restrain them , should methinks , unless they be perfectly of the temper of the unjust Judg , Luke 17.1 . in respect of men , abstain from all sorts of impious discourse ; and at least be civil , tho they will not be pious . SECT . IV. Of Detraction . WE have seen in the last Section , the insolence of the Tongue towards God ; and sure we cannot expect it should pay more reverence to men . If there be those that dare stretch their mouths against Heaven , Psalm 7.39 . we are not to wonder if there be more that will shoot their arrows , even bitter words , against the best on Earth , Psalm 64.3 . I shall not attempt to ransack the whole quiver , by shewing every particular sort of verbal injuries which relate to our neighbors , but rather chuse out some few which either for the extraordinariness of their guilt , or the frequency of their practice are the most eminent . I begin with Detraction , in which both those qualities concur : for as in some instances 't is one of the highest sins , so in the general 't is certainly one of the most common , and by being so becomes insensible . This vice ( above all others ) seems to have maintained not only its Empire , but its reputation too . Men are not yet convinced heartily that it is a sin : or if any , not of so deep a die , or so wide an extent as indeed it is . They have , if not false , yet imperfect notions of it , and by not knowing how far its Circle reaches , do often like young Conjurers , step beyond the limits of their safety . THIS I am the apter to believe , because I see some degree of this fault cleave to those , who have eminently corrected all other exorbitancies of the Tongue . Many who would startle at an Oath , whose stomachs as well as consciences recoil at an obscenity , do yet slide glibly into a Detraction : which yet methinks , persons otherwise of strict conversations should not do frequently and habitually , had not their easie thoughts of the guilt smoothed the way to it . IT may therefore be no unkind attemt , to try to dis-entangle from this snare by displaying it ; shewing the whole contexture of the sin , how 't is woven with threds of different sizes , yet the least of them strong enough to nooz and intrap us . And alas , if Satan fetter us , 't is indifferent to him whether it be by a cable or a hair . Nay , perhaps the smallest sins are his greatest stratagems . The finer his line is spun , the less shadow it casts , and is less apt to fright us from the hook : and tho there be much odds between a talent of lead and a grain of sand , yet those grains may be accumulated till they out-weigh the talent . It was a good reply of Plato's , to one who murmured at his reproving him for a small matter , Custom , saies he , is no small matter . And indeed , supposing any sin were so small as we are willing to fancy most , yet an indulgent habit , even of that , would be certainly ruinous : that Indulgence being perfectly opposite to the love of God , which better can consist with the indeliberate commissions of many sins , then with an allowed persistance in any one . BUT in this matter of Detraction , I cannot yield that any is small , save only comparatively with some other of the same kind which is greater : for absolutely considered , there is even in the very lowest degrees of it , a flat contradiction to the grand rule of Charity , the loving our Neighbor as our selves . And surely , that which at once violates the sum of the whole second Table of the Law , for so our Saviour renders it , Luke 10.7 . must be look'd on as no trifling inconsiderable guilt . To evidence this , I shall in the Anatomizing this sin , apply this Rule to every part of it : first consider it in gross , in its entire body , and after descend to its several limbs . 1. DETRACTION in the native importance of the word , signifies the withdrawing or taking off from a thing : and as it is applied to the reputation , it denotes the impairing or lessening a man in point of fame , rendring him less valued and esteemed by others , which is the final aim of Detraction , tho pursued by various means . 2. THIS is justly look'd on as one of the most unkind designs one man can have upon another , there being implanted in every mans nature a great tenderness of Reputation : and to be careless of it , is lookt on as a mark of a degenerous mind . On which account Solon in his ā—aws presumes , that he that will sell his own fame , will also sell the public interest . 'T is true , many have improved this too far , blown up this native spark into such flames of Ambition , as has set the World in a combustion ; Such as Alexander , Caesar , and others , who sacrificed Hecatombs to their Fame , fed it up to a prodigy upon a Canibal diet , the flesh of men : yet even these Excesses serve to evince the universal consent of mankind , that Reputation is a valuable and desirable thing . 3. NOR have we only the suffrage of man , but the attestation of God himself , who frequently in Scripture gives testimony to it : A good name is better then great riches , Prov. 22.1 . And again , A good name is better then precious ointment , Eccles. 7.1 . And the more to recommend it , he proposes it as a reward to Piety and Vertue , as he menaces the contrary to wickedness . The memory of the just shall be blessed , but the name of the wicked shall rot , Prov. 10.7 . And that we may not think this an invitation fitted only to the Jewish Oeconomy , the Apostle goes farther , and proposes the endeavor after it as a duty , Whatsoever things are of good report , if there be any vertue , and if there be any praise , think on these things , Phil. 4.8 . 4. AND accordingly good men have in their estimate ranked their names the next degree to their Souls , preferr'd them before Goods or Life . Indeed 't is that which gives us an inferior sort of Immortality , and makes us even in this world survive our selves . This part of us alone continues verdant in the grave , and yields a perfume , when we are stench and rottenness : the consideration whereof has so prevailed with the more generous Heathens , that they have cheerfully quitted life in contemplation of it . Thus Epaminondas alacriously expired , in confidence that he left behind him a perpetual memory of the Victories he had atchieved for his Country . Brutus so courted the fame of a Patriot , that he brake through all the obstacles of gratitude and humanity to attemt it : he cheerfully bare the defeat of his attemt , in contemplation of the glory of it . 'T were endless to recount the stories of the Codri , Decii , and Curtii , with the train of those noble Heroes , who in behalf of their Countries devoted them selves to certain death . 5. BUT we need no Foreign Mediums to discover the value of a good name : let every man weigh it but in his own Scales , retire to his Breast , and there reflect on that impatience he has when his own Repute is invaded . To what dangers , to what guilts does sometimes the mere fancy of a reproach hurry men ? It makes them really forfeit that Vertue from whence all true Reputation springs ; and , like Esops Dog , lose the substance by too greedy catching at the shadow ; an irrefragable proof how great a price they set upon their Fame . 6. AND then , since Reason sets it at so high a rate , and Passion at a higher , we we may conclude the violating this interest , one of the greatest injuries in Human commerce ; such as is resented not only by the rash , but the sober ; so that we must pick out only blocks and stones , the stupid and insensible part of mankind , if we think we can inflict this wound without an afflictive smart . And tho the power of Christianity does in some so moderate this resentment , that none of these blows shall recoil , no degree of revenge be attemted ; yet that does not at all justify or excuse the inflicter . It may indeed be a useful trial of the patience and meekness of the defamed , yet the defamer has not the less either of crime or danger : not of crime , for that is rather enhanced then abated by the goodness of the person injured ; nor of danger , since God is the more immediate avenger of those who attemt not to be their own . But if the injury meet not with this meekness ( as in this vindictive Age 't is manifold odds it will not ) it then acquires another accumulative guilt , stands answerable not only for its own positive ill , but for all the accidental which it causes in the sufferer , who by this means is robb'd not only of his repute , but his innocence also , provoked to those unchristian returns , which draw God also into the enmity , and set him at once at war with Heaven and Earth . And tho as to this immediate judgment , he must bear his iniquity , answer for his impatience : yet as in all civil Insurrections , the ring-leader is lookt on with a peculiar severity , so doubtless in this case , the first provoker has by his seniority and primogeniture a double portion of the guilt , and may consequently expect of the punishment , according to the doom of our Saviour , Wo be to that man by whom the offence cometh , Matth. 28.7 . 8. INDEED there is such a train of mischiefs usually follow this sin , that 't is scarce possible to make a full estimate of its malignity . 'T is one of the grand Incendiaries which disturbs the peace of the world , and has a great share in most of its quarrels . For could we examine all the feuds which harrass Persons , Families , nay somtimes Nations too , we should find the greater part take their rise from injurious reprochful words , and that for one which is commenced upon the intuition of any real considerable interest , there are many which owe their being to this licentiousness of the Tongue . 9. IN regard therefore of its proper guilt , and all those remoter sins and miseries which ensue it , 't is every mans great concern to watch over himself . Neither is it less in respect both of that universal aptness we have to this sin , and its being so perpetually at hand ; that for others we must attend occasions and convenient seasons , but the opportunities of this are alwaies ready : I can do my neighbor this injury , when I can do him no other . Besides the multitude of objects do proportionably multiply both the possibilities and incitations ; and the objects here are as numerous , as there are Persons in the World I either know , or have heard of . For tho some sorts of Detractions seem confined to those to whom we bear particular malice , yet there are other kinds of it more raging , which fly indifferently at all . Lastly , this sin has the aid almost of universal example , which is an advantage beyond all the others , there being scarce any so irresistable insinuation as the practice of those with whom we converse , and no subject of converse so common as the defaming our Neighbors . 10. SINCE then the path is so slippery , it had not need be dark too . Let us then take in the best light we can , and attentively view this sin in its several branches , that by a distinct discovery of the divers acts and degrees of it , we may the better be armed against them all . SECT . V. Of Lying Defamation . 1. DETRACTION being ( as we have already said ) the lessning and impairing a man in his repute , we may resolve , that what ever conduces to that end , is properly a Detraction . I shall begin with that which is most eminent , the spreading of Defamatory Reports . These may be of two kinds , either false , or true ; which tho they seem to be of very different complexions , yet may spring from the same stock , and drive at the same design . Let us first consider of the false . 2. AND this admits of various circumstances . Somtimes a man invents a perfect falsity of another : somtimes he that does not invent it , yet reports it , tho he know it to be false : and a third sort there are , who having not certain knowledg whether it be false or no , do yet divulge it as an absolute certainty , or at least with such artificial Insinuations , as may biass the hearer on that hand . The former of these is a crime of so high , so dis-ingenious a nature , that tho many are vile enough to commit it , none are so impudent as to avow it . Even in this age of insulting Vice , when almost all other wickedness appears bare-fac'd , this is fain to keep on the vizard . No man will own himself a false accuser : for if modesty do not restrain him , yet his very malice will ; since to confess would be but to defeat his design . Indeed it is of all other sins the most Diabolical , it being a conjunction of two of Satans most essential properties , Malice and Lying . We know 't is his peculiar title to be the Accuser of the brethren : and when we transcribe his copy , we also assume his nature , intitle our selves to a descent from him , Ye are of your father the Devil , Joh. 8.44 . We are by it render'd a sort of Iacubus brats , the infā—mous Progenies of the Lying spirit . It is indeed a sin of so gross , so formidable a bulk , that there needs no help of Optics to render it discernible , and therefore I need not farther expatiate on it . 3. The next degree is not much short of it ; what it wants is rather of invention then malice : for he that will so adopt anothers lie , shews he would willingly have bin its proper father . It does indeed differ no more then the maker of adulterate wares , does from the vender of them : and certainly there cannot be a more ignominious Trade , then the being Hucksters to such vile Merchandize . Neither is the sin less then the baseness : we find the Lover of a lie ranked in an equal form of guilt with the Maker , Rev. 21. And surely he must be presumed to love it , that can descend to be the broker of it , help it to pass current in the World. 4. THE third sort of Detractors look a little more demurely , and with the Woman in the Proverbs . chap. 30. wipe their mouths , and say they have don no wickedness . They do not certainly know the falsity of what they report , and their ignorance must serve them as an Amulet against the guilt both of deceit and malice : but I fear it will do neither . For first , perhaps they are affectedly ignorant : they are so willing it should be true , that they have not attemted to examine it . But secondly , it does not suffice that I do not know the falsity ; for to make me a true speaker , 't is necessary I know the truth of what I affirm . Nay , if the thing were never so true , yet if I knew it not to be so , its truth will not secure me from being a liar : and therefore whoever endeavors to have that receiv'd for a certainty , which himself knows not to be so , offends against truth . The utmost that can consist with sincerity , is to represent it to others as doubtful as it appears to him . Yet even that how consonant soever to truth , is not to charity . Even doubtful accusations leave a stain behind them , & often prove indelible injuries to the party accused : how much more then do the more positive and confident aspersions we have hitherto spoken of ? Let me add only this concerning this latter sort , that they are greater advancers of defamatory designs , then the very first contrivers . For those upon a consciousness of their falsness , are obliged to proceed cautiously , to pick out the credulous and least discerning persons , on whom to impose their fictions , and dare not produce them in all companies for fear of detection : but these in confidence that the untruth ( if it be one ) lies not at their door , speak it without any restraint in all places , at all times ; and what the others are fain to whisper , they proclaim ; like our new Engine , which pretends to convey a whisper many miles off . So that as in the case of Stealing 't is proverbially said , that if there were no receivers there would be no thieves ; so in this of Slander , if there were fewer spreaders , there would be fewer forgers of Libels : the manufacture would be discouraged , if it had not these retailers to put off the wares . 5. Now to apply these practices to our rule of Duty , there will need no very close inspection to discern the obliquity . The most superficial glance will evidence these several degrees of Slanderers to do what they would not be willing to suffer . Who among them can be content to be falsely aspersed ? Nay , so far are they from that , that let but the shadow of their own calumny reflect on themselves , let any but truly tell them that they have falsely accused others , they grow raving and impatient , like a dog at a Looking-glass , fiercely combating that Image which himself creates : and how smoothly soever the original lie slides from them , the Echo of it grates their ears . And indeed 't is observable , that those who make the greatest havock of other mens reputation , are the most nicely tender of their own ; which sets this sin of calumny in a most Diametrical opposition to the Evangelical Precept of loving our neighbors as our selves . 6. THUS much is discernable even in the surface of the crime : but if we look deeper , and examine the motives , we shall find the foundation well agrees to the superstructure , they being usually one of these two , Malice or Interest . And indeed the thing is so dis-ingenuous , so contrary to the dictates of Humanity as well as Divinity , that I must in reverence to our common nature , presume it must be some very forcible impellent , that can drive a man so far from himself . The Devil here plaies the Artist : and as the fatallest Poisons to man are ( they say ) drawn from human bodies , so here he extracts the venem of our Irascible and Concupiscible part , and in it dips those arrows , which we thus shoot at one another . 7. 'T is needless to harangue severally upon each . The World too experimentally knows the force of both . Malice is that whirl-wind , which has shook States and Families , no less then private Persons ; a passion so impetuous and precipitate , that it often equally involves the Agent and the Patient : a malicious man being of like violence with those who flung in the three Children , Dan. 3. consumed by those flames into which he cast others . As for Interest , 't is that universal Monarch to which all other Empires are Tributaries , to which men sacrifice not only their Consciences and Innocence , but ( what is usually much dearer ) their Sensualities and Vices . Those whom all the Divine ( either ) threats or promises , cannot perswade to mortify , nay but restrain one Lust ; at Mammons beck will disclame many , and force their inclinations to comply with their Interest . 8. AND whilst this sin of Calumny has two such potent Abettors , we are not to wonder at its growth : as long as men are malicious and designing , they will be traducing ; those Cyclops's will be perpetually forming Thunder-bolts against which no Innocence or Vertue can be proof . And alas , we daily find too great effects of their industry . But tho these are the forgers of the more solemn deliberate Calumnies , yet this sportive Age hath produced another sort ; there being men that defame others by way of divertisement , invent little stories that they may find themselves exercise , and the Town talk . This , if it must pass for sport , is such as Solomon describes , Prov. 26.18 , 19. As a mad man that casteth fire-brands , arrows and death , so is he that deceiveth his neighbor , and saith , am not I in sport ? He that shoots an arrow in jest , may kill a man in earnest ; and he that gives himself liberty to play with his Neighbors fame , may soon play it away . Most men have such an aptness to entertain sinister opinions of others , that they greedily draw in any suggestion of that kind ; and one may as easily perswade the thirsty Earth to refund the Water she has soakt into her veins , as them to deposite a prejudice they have once taken up . Therefore such experiments upon Fame , are as dangerous as that which Alexander is said to have made of the force of Naptha upon his Page , from which he scarce escaped with life . These jocular slanders are often as mischievous as those of deeper design , and have from the slightness of the temtation an enhancement of guilt . For sure , he that can put such an interest of his Neighbors in balance with a little fit of laughter , sets it at lower price then he that hopes to enrich or advance himself by it : and tho it pass among some for a specimen of Wit , yet it really lists them among Solomons fools , who make a mock at sin , Prov. 14.9 . In the mean time , since slander is a Plant that can grow in all Soils ; since the frolic humor as well as the morose betraies to the guilt , who can hope to escape this Scourge of the Tongue , as the Wiseman calls it , Ec. 26.6 . which communicates with all ? Persons of all ranks do mutually asperse , and are aspersed : so that he who would not have his credulity abused , has scarce a securer way , then ( like that Astrologer , who made his Almanack give a tolerable account of the weather by a direct inversion of the common Prognosticators ) to let his belief run quite counter to reports . Yea so Epidemic is this Disease grown , that even Religion ( at least those Parties and Factions which assume that name ) has got a taint of it ; each Sect and Opinion seeking to represent his Antagonist as odious as it can . And whilst they contend for speculative Truth , they by mutual calumnies forfeit the practic : a thing that justly excites the grief of good men , to see that those who all pretend to the same Christianity , should only be unanimous in the violating that Truth and Charity it prescribes . 10. AND if these be the weapons of our spiritual warfare , what may we think of the carnal ? How are our secular animosities pursued , when our Speculations are thus managed ? How easily do we run down the reputation of any who stand in the way either of our spleen or avarice ? When Josephs resolute purity had changed the scene of his Mistress's passion , she does readily shift that of guilt too , and fixes her crime upon him , Gen. 39.14 . So when Ziba had a mind to undermine Mephibosheth in his estate , he first practices upon his fame in a false accusation , 2 Sam. 16.3 . And alas , how familiarly do we now see both these scenes reacted ? Those who will not take vice in their bosoms , shall yet have it bespatter their faces : they who will not run to the same excess of riot , must expect to be evil spoken of , 1 Pet. 4.4 . Nay not only pious men , but Piety it self partakes of the same fate , falls under the two-edg'd slander both of deceit and folly . And if men cannot be permitted quietly to enjoy their Piety , much less will they those things whereof the World hath more gust , I mean secular advantages . There are still crimes to be discovered in the possessors of Honors or Estates , and they wonderfully excite the zeal of those who would supplant them . What artifices are there to make them appear unworthy of what they have , that others more unworthy may succeed them ? Nor are those storms only in the upper region , in the higher ranks of men ; but if we pass thro all degrees , we shall find the difference is rather in the value of the things , then in the means of pursuing them . He that pretends to the meanest office , does studiously disparage his competitor , as he that is rival'd for a kingdom . Nay , even he that has but a merry humor to gratify , makes no scruple to do it with the loss of another mans reputation . 11. THUS do we accomodate every petty temporal interest at the cost of our eternal : and as an unskilful Fencer , whilst he is pursuing his thrust , exposes his body ; so whilst we thus actuate our own malice , we abandon our selves to Satans , receive mortal wounds from him , only that we may give a few light scratches to one another . For as I have before said , there is nothing does more secure his title to us , then this vice of Calumny , it bearing his proper impress and figure . And we may fear , Christ will one day make the same Judgment of Persons as he did of Coin , and award them to him whose Image and superscription they bear , Matth. 22 : 20. 12. AND now how great a madness is it to make costly Oblations to so vile an Idol ? This is indeed the worshipping our own Imaginations , preferring a malicious fiction before a real felicity : and is but faintly resembled by him , who is said to have chosen to part with his Bishopric , rather then burn his Romance . Alas , are there not gross corporal sins enough to ruine us , but must we have aĆ«real ones too , damn our selves with Chimera's , and by these forgeries of our brains dream out selves to destruction ? 13. LET all those then who thus unhappily employ their Inventive Faculty , timely consider , how unthriving a trade 't is finally like to prove ; that all their false accusations of others will rebound in true ones upon themselves . It does often so in this world , where many times the most clandestine contrivances of this kind meet with detection . Or if they should happen to keep on the disguise here , yet 't will infallibly be torn off at the great day of manifestation , when before God , Angels , and Men , they will be render'd infinitly more vile , then 't was possible for them here to make others . SECT . VI. Of Vncharitable Truth . 1. IN the next place we are to consider of the other Branch of Defamatory reports , viz. such as are true : which tho they must be confest to be of a lower form of guilt then the former , yet as to the kind , they equally agree in the definition of Detraction , since 't is possible to impair a mans credit by true reports as well as by false . 2. To clear this I shall first observe , that altho every fault hath some penal effects which are coetanous to the act , yet this of Infamy is not so : this is a more remote consequent ; that which it immediatly depends upon , is the publishing . A man may do things , which to God and his own conscience render him abominable , and yet keep his reputation with men : but when this stifled crime breaks out , when his secret guilts are detected , then , and not till then , he becomes infamous : so that altho his sin be the Material , yet it is the discovery that is the formal cause of his Infamy . 3. THIS being granted , it follows , that he that divulges an unknown conceled fault , stands accountable for all the consequences that flow from that divulging ; but whether accountable as for guilt , must be determin'd by the particular circumstances of the cause . So that here we must admit of an exception : for tho every discovery of anothers fault be in the strict natural sense of the word a Detraction , yet it will not alwaies be the sin of Detraction , because in some instances there may some higher obligation intervene , and supersede that we ow to the fame of our neighbor ; and in those cases it may not only be lawful , but necessary to expose him . 4. Now all such cases I conceive may summarily be reduced to two heads , Justice and Charity . First as to Justice : that we know is a Fundamental Vertue , and he that shall violate that , to abound in another , is as absurd , as he that undermines the foundation to raise the walls . We are not to steal to give alms , and God himself has declared , that he hates robbery for a Burnt-offering ; so that no pretence either of Charity or Piety can absolve us from the duty we ow to Justice . Now it may often fall out , that by conceling one mans fault , I may be injurious to another , nay to a whole community : and then I assume the guilt I concele , and by the Laws both of God and Man am judged an accessory . 5. AND as Justice to others enforces , so somtimes Justice to a mans self allows the publishing of a fault , when a considerable Interest either of Fame or Fortune cannot otherwise be rescued . But to make loud outcries of injury , when they tend nothing to the repress of it , is a liberty rather assumed by rage and impatience , then authorized by Justice . Nay , often in that case the complainer is the most injurious person ; for he inflicts more then he suffers , and in lieu of some trivial right of his which is invaded , he assaults the other in a nearer interest , by wounding him in his good Name : but if the cause be considerable , and the manner regular , there lies sure no obligation upon any man to wrong himself , to indulge to another . 6. NEITHER does Charity retrench this liberty : for tho it be one act of Charity to concele another mans faults , yet somtimes it may be inconsistent with some more important Charity , which I owe to a third person , or perhaps to a multitude ; as in those cases wherein public benefit is concern'd . If this were not allowable , no History could lawfully be written , since if true , it cannot but recount the faults of many : no evidence could be brought in against a Malefactor : and indeed , all Discipline would be subverted ; which would be so great a mischief , that Charity obliges to prevent it , what Defamation soever fall upon the guilty by it . For in such instances 't is a true rule , That Mercy to the evil proves cruelty to the innocent . And as in a competition of mischiefs we are to chuse the least , so of two goods the greatest , and the more extensive , is the most eligible . 7. Nay , even that Charity which reflects upon my self , may also somtimes supersede that to my Neighbor , the rule obliging me to love him as , not better then my self . I need not sure silently assent to my own unjust Defamation , for fear of proving another a false accuser , nor suffer my self to be made a begger , to concele another mans being a Thief . T is true , in a great inequality of interests , Charity ā—hose Character it is , Not to seek her own , 1 Cor. 13.5 . ) will promt me to prefer a greater concern of my Neighbors , before a slight one of my own : but in equal circumstances , I am sure at liberty to be kind first to my self . If I will recede even from that , I may ; but that is then to be accounted among the Heroic flights of Charity , nor her binding and indispensible Laws . 8. HAVING now set the boundaries , the excepted cases ; as all instances within them will be legitimated , so all without them will ( by the known rule of Exceptions ) be precluded , and fall under that general duty we owe to our Neighbor , of tendring his credit : an Obligation so universally infringed , that 't is not imaginable the breach should alwaies happen within the excepted cases . When 't is remembred how unactive the Principles of Justice and Charity are now grown in the World , we must certainly impute such incessant Effects , to some more vigorous Causes : of which it may not be amiss to point out some of the most obvious , and leave every man to examine which of them he finds most operative in himself . 9. IN the first place , I may reckon Pride , a humor which as it is alwaies mounting , so it will make use of any foot-stool towards its rise . A man who affects an extraordinary splendor of Reputation , is glad to find any foils to set him off ; and therefore will let no fault nor folly of anothers enjoy the shade , but brings it into the open light , that by that comparison his own Excellences may appear the brighter . I dare appeal to the breast of any proud man , whether he do not upon such occasions , delight to make some Pharisaical reflections on himself , whether he be not apt to say , I am not like other men , or as this Publican , Luke 18. tho probably he leave out the God I thank thee . Now he that cherishes such resentments as these in himself , will doubtless be willing to propagate them to other men ; and to that end render the blemishes of others as visible as he can . But this betraies a degenerous spirit , which from a consciousness that he wants solid worth , on which to bottom a reputation , is fain to found it on the ruines of other mens . The true Diamond sparkles even in the Sun-shine : 't is but a glow-worm virtue , that ows its lustre to the darkness about it . 10. ANOTHER promter to Detraction is Envy , which sometimes is particular , sometimes general . He that has a pique to another , would have him as hateful to all man-kind as he is to him ; and therefore as he grieves and repines at any thing that may advance his estimation , so he exults and triumphs when any thing occurs which may depress it , and is usually very industrious to improve the opportunity , nay has a strange sagacity it hunting it out . No vultur does more quickly scent a carcass , then an envious person does those dead flies which corrupt his Neighbors ointment , Ecclesiast . 10.1 . the vapor whereof his hā—ā—e , like a strong wind , scatters and disperses far and near . Nor needs he any great crime to practice on : every little infirmity or passion , look'd on thro his Optics , appears a mountainous guilt . He can improve the least speck or freckle into a Leprosy , which shall overspread the whole man : and a cloud no bigger then a mans hand , like that of Elisha , 1 Kings 18.44 . may in an instant , with the help of prejudice , grow to the utter darkning of the brightest reputation , and fill the whole Horizon with tempest and horror . Somtimes this envy is general , not confin'd to any man persons , but diffused to the whole nature . Some tempers there are so malign , that they wish ill to all , and believe ill of all ; like Timon the Athenian , who profest himself a universal Man-hater . He whose guilty Conscience reflects dismal Images of himself , is willing to put the same ugly shape upon the whole Nature , and to conclude that all men are the same , were they but closely inspected . And therefore when he can see but the least glimmering of a fault in any , he takes it as a proof of his Hypothesis , and with an envious joy calls in as many spectators as he can . 'T is certain there are some in whose ears nothing sounds so harsh as the commendation of another ; as on the contrary , nothing is so melodious as a Defamation . Plutarch gives an apt instance of this upon Aristides's banishment , whom when a mean Person had propos'd to Ostracism , being askt what displesure Aristides had don him , he replied , None , neither do I know him , but it grieves me to hear every body call him a just man. I fear some of our keenest accusers now a daies may give the same answer . No man that is eminent for Piety ( or indeed but Moral Vertue ) but he shall have many insidious eies upon him , watching for his halting : and if any the least obliquity can be espied , he is used worse then the vilest Malefactor : for such are tried but at one bar , and know the utmost of their doom ; but these are arraigned at every Table , in every Tavern . And at such variety of Judicatures , there will be as great variety of Sentences ; only they commonly concur in this one , that he is an Hypocrite : and then what complacency , what triumph have they in such a discovery ? There is not half so much Epicurism in any of their most studied luxuries , no spectacle affords them so much plesure , as a bleeding fame thus lying at their mercy . 11. ANOTHER sort of Detractors there are , whose designs are not so black , but are equally mean and sordid , much too light to be put in ballance with a Neighbors credit . Of those some will pick up all the little stories they gan get , to humor a Patron : an artifice well known by those Trencher-guests , who , like Rats , still haunt the best Provisions . These men do almost come up to a literal sense of what the Psalmist spoke in a figurative , Psalm 14. and eat up people for bread , tear and worry men in their good names , that themselves may eat . It was a Curse denounced against Eli's off-spring , that they should come and crouch for a morsel of bread , 1 Sam. 2.39 . But such men court this as a preferment , and to bring themselves within the reach of it , stick not to assume that vilest office of common Delators . There are others , who when they have got the knowledg of another mans fault , think it an endearing thing to whisper in the ear of some Friend or Confident . But sure , if they must needs sacrifice some secret to their Friendship , they should take Davids rule , and not offer that which cost them nothing . If they will express their confidence , let them acquaint them with their own private crimes . That indeed would shew somthing of trust : but those experiments upon another mans cost , will hardly convince any considering person of their kindness . 12. THERE still remains a yet more trifling sort of Defamers , who have no deliberate design which they pursue in it , yet are as assiduous at the Trade as the deeper contrivers . Such are those who publish their Neighbors failings as they read Gazets , only that they may be telling news ; an Itch wherewith some Peoples tongues are strangely over-run , who can as well hold a glowing Coal in their mouths , as keep any thing they think new ; nay will somtimes run themselves out of breath , for fear least any should serve them as Ahimaaz did Cushi , 2 Sam. 18.23 . and tell the tale before them . This is one of the most Childish Vanities imaginable : and sure men must have Souls of a very low level , that can think it a commensurate entertainment . Others there are who use Defamatory discourse , neither for the love of News , nor Defamation , but purely for love of talk : whose speech , like a flowing current , bears away indiscriminately whatever lies in its way . And indeed such incessant Talkers , are usually people , nor of depth enough to supply themselves out of their own store , and therefore can let no foreign accession pass by them , no more then the Mill which is alwaies going , can afford any Waters to run wast . I know we use to call this Talkativeness a Feminine vice ; but to speak impartially , I think , tho we have given them the inclosure of the Scandal , they have not of the fault , and he that shall appropriate Loquacity to Women , may perhaps somtimes need to light Diogenes's Candle to seek a man : for 't is possible to come into masculine company , where 't will be as hard to edg in a word , as at a Female Gossiping . However , as to this particular of Defaming : both the Sexes seem to be at a vie : and I think he were a very Critical Judg , that could determin between them . 13. NOW lest these later sort of Defamers should be apt to absolve themselves , as men of harmless intentions , I shall desire them to consider , that they are only more impertinent , not less injurious . For tho it be granted , that the proud and envious are to make a distinct account for their pride and envy ; yet as far as relates to the Neighbor , they are equally mischievous . Anacreon that was choaked with a Grape-stone , died as surely as Julius Cesar with his three and twenty wounds ; and a mans reputation may be as well fool'd and pratled away , as maliciously betraied . Nay perhaps more easily ; for where the speaker can least be suspected of design , the hearer is apter to give him credit : this way of insinuating by familiar discourse , being like those Poisons that are taken in at the pores , which are the most insensibly sucked in , and the most impossible to expel . 14. BUT we need not dispute which is worst , since 't is certain all are bad , none of them ( or any that hold proportion with them ) being at all able to pretend their warrant either from Justice or Charity . And then what our Savior saies in another case , will be appliable to this , He that is not for us , is against us , Matth. 12.30 . He that is publishing his Neighbors faults , acts not upon the dictates of Justice or Charity , acts directly in contradiction to them : for where they do not upon some particular respects command , they do implicity , and generally forbid all such discoveries . 15. FOR first , if a fault divulged be of a light nature , the offendor cannot thereby merit so much as to be made a public Discourse . Fame is a tender thing , and seldom is tost and bandied without receiving some bruise , if not a crack : for reports we know , like snow-balls gather still , the farther they roul : and when I have once handed it to another , how know I how he may improve it ? And if he deliver it so advanced to a third , he may give his contribution also to it , and so in a successive transmitting , it may grow to such a monstrous bulk , as bears no proportion to its Original . He must be a great stranger to the World , that has not experimentally found the truth of this . How many persons have laid under great and heavy scandals , which have taken their first rise only from some inadvertence or indiscretion ? Of so quick a growth is Slander , that the least grain , like that of Mustard-seed , mentioned Matth. 13.32 : immediatly shoots up into a Tree . And when it is so , it can no more be reduced back into its first cause , then a Tree can shrink into that little seed from whence it first sprang . No ruins are so irreparable as those of reputation : and therefore he that pulls out but one stone towards the breach , may do a greater mischief then perhaps he intends ; and a greater injustice too : for by how much the more strictly justice obliges to reparation in case of injuries done , so much the more severely does it prohibit the doing those injuries which are uncapable of being repared . In the Levitical Law , he that knew his Ox was apt so gore , and yet kept him not up , stood responsible for any mischief he happened to do , Exod. 21.29 . I think there is no considering man can be ignorant how apt little trivial accusations are , to tear and mangle ones Fame : and yet if the lavish Talker restrain them not , he certainly stands accountable to God , his Neighbor , and his own Conscience , for all the danger they procure . 16. BUT if the report concern some higher and enormous Crime , 't is true , the delinquent may deserve the less pity , yet perhaps the reporter may not deserve the less blame : for often such a discovery serves , not to reclame , but to enrage the Offender , and precipitate him into farther degrees of ill . Modestly and fear of shame , is one of those natural restraints , which the Wisdom of God has put upon mankind , and he that once stumbles , may yet by a check of that bridle recover again : but when by a public detection he is fallen under that infamy he fear'd , he will then be apt to discard all caution , and to think he owes himself the utmost plesures of his vice , as the price of his reputation . Nay , perhaps he advances farther , and sets up for a reverst sort of Fame , by being eminently wicked : and he who before was but a clandestine Disciple , becomes a Doctor of Impiety . And sure it were better to let a conceled crime remain in its wish'd obscurity , then by thus rouzing it from its covert , bring it to stand at bay , and set it self in this open defiance ; especially in this degenerous age , when vice has so many well-willers , that , like a hoping party , they eagerly run into any that will head them . 17. AND this brings in a third Consideration relating to the public , to which the divulging of private ( especially if they be novel unusual ) Crimes , does but an ill piece of service . Vice is contagious , and casts pestilential vapors : and as he that should bring out a Plague-sick person , to inform the World of his disease , would be thought not to have much befriended his Neighborhood ; so he that displaies these vicious Ulcers , whilst he seeks to defame one , may perhaps infect many . We too experimentally find the force of ill Examples . Men often take up sins , to which they have no natural propension , merely by way of conforty and imitation . But if the instance happen in a crime , which more suits the practice of the hearers , tho it cannot be said to seduce , yet it may encourage and confirm them ; embolden them not only the more frequently to act , but even to avow those sins wherein they find they stand not single , and by discovering a new accessary to their Party , to invite them the more heartily and openly to espouse it . 18. These are such effects as surely do not very well correspond with that Justice and Charity we owe either to particular persons , or to mankind in general . And indeed no better can be expected , from a practice which to perfectly contradicts the grand rule both of Justice and Charity , the doing as we would be don to . That this does so , every man has a ready conviction within him , if he please but to consult his own heart . Alas , with what solicitude do we seek to hide our own guilts with false dresses , what varnishes have we for them ? There are not more arts of disguising our Corporal blemishes , then our Moral : and yet whilst we thus paint and parget our own deformities , we cannot allow any the least imperfection of anothers to remain undetected , but tear off the veil from their blushing frailties , and not only expose but proclaim them . And can there be a grosser , a more detestable partiality then this ? God may sure in this instance ( as in many others ) expostulate with us as he did with Israel , Ezek. 33. Are not your waies unequal ? What Barbarism , what Inhumanity is it thus to treat those of the same common nature with our selves , whom we cannot but know have the same concern to preserve a Reputation , and the same regret to lose it , which we have ? And what shame is it , that that Evangelical Precept , of doing as we would be don to , which met with so much reverence even from Heathens , that Severus the Emperor preferr'd it to all the Maxims of Philosophers ; should be thus contemned and violated by Christians , and that too , upon such slight inconsiderable motives , as usually prevail in this case of Defamation ? 19. BUT we are not to consider this fault only in its root , as it is a defect of Juā—tice and Charity , but in its product too , as it is a Seminary of more Injustice and Uncharitableness . Those disadvantageous reports we make of our neighbors , are almost seen to come round : for let no man perswade himself , that the hearers will keep his counsel any better then he does that of the defamed person . The softest whisper of this kind , will find others to Echo it , till it reach the ears of the concerned Party , and perhaps with some enhancing circumstances too . And when 't is considered how unwilling men are to hear of their faults , tho even in the mildest and most charitable way of admonition , t is not to be doubted a public Defamation , will seem disobliging enough to provoke a return ; which again begets a rejoinder , and so the quarrel is carried on with mutual recriminations ; all malicious inquiries are made into each others manners , and those things which perhaps they did in closets , come to be proclamed upon the house top : so the wild-fire runs round , till sometimes nothing but Blood will quench it ; or if it arrive not to that , yet it usually fixes in an irreconcilable feud . To this is often owing those distances we see among Friends and Relations ; this breeds such strangeness , such animosities amongst Neighbors , that you cannot go to one , but you shall be entertain'd with invectives against the other ; nay perhaps you shall lose both , because you are willing to side with neither . 20. THESE are the usual consequences of the liberty of the Tongue : and what account can any man give to himself , either in Christianity or Prudence , that has let in such a train of mischiefs , merely to gratify an impotent childish humor of telling a tale ? Peace was the great Legacy Christ left to his followers , and ought to be guarded , tho we expose for it our greatest Temporal Concerns , but cannot without despight to him , as well as our brethren , be thus prostituted . 21. YET if we consider it abstractedly from those more solemn mischiefs which attend it , the mere levity and unworthiness of it sets it below an ingenuous Person . We generally think a tatler and busy-body a title of no small reproch : yet truly I know not to whom it more justly belongs , then to those , who busy themselves first in learning , and then in publishing the faults of others : an emploiment which the Apostle thought a blot , even upon the weaker sex , and thinks the prevention of such importance , that he prescribes them to change their whole condition of life ; to convert widow-hood ( tho a state which in other respects he much prefers , 1 Cor. 7.8 . ) into marriage , rather then expose themselves to the temtation , 1 Tim. 5.13.14 . And if their impotence cannot afford excuse for it , what a debasement is it of mens nobler Faculties to be thus entertained ? The Historian gives it as an ill indication of Domitians temper , that he emploi'd himself in catching and tormenting Flies : and sure they fall not under a much better Character , either for Wisdom , or good Nature , who thus snatch up all the little fluttering reports , they can meet with to the prejudice of their Neighbors . 22. BUT besides the divulging the faults of others , there is another branch of Detraction naturally springing from this root , and this is Censuring and severe Judging of them . We think not we have well plaid the Historians , when we have told the thing , unless we add also our Remarks , and Animadversions on it . And altho 't is , God knows , bad enough to make a naked relation , and trust it to the severity of the hearers ; yet few can content themselves with that , but must give them a sample of rigor , and by the bitterness of their own censure invite them to pass the like : a Process contrary to all rules of Law or Equity , for the Plaintiff to assume the part of a Judg. And we may easily divine the fate of that mans fame , that is so unduly tried . 23. 'T IS indeed sad to see how many private Tribunals are every where set up , where we scan and judg our Neighbors action , but scarce ever acquit any . We take up with the most incompetent Witnesses , nay often suborn our own surmises and jealousies , that we may be sure to cast the unhappy Criminal . How nicely and scrupulously do we examine every circumstance ; ( Would God we were but half as exact in our own penitential inquisitions ) and torture it to make it confess somthing which appears not in the more general view of the fact , and which perhaps never was in the actors intention ? In a word , we do like witches with their Magical Chymistry , extract all the venem , and take none of the allay . By this means we confound the degrees of sins , and sentence deliberate and indeliberate , an habit or an act all at one rate , that is commonly , at the utmost it can amount to , even in its worse acception : and sure this were a most culpable corruption in judgment , could we shew our commission to judg our brethren . 24. BUT here we may every one of us interrogate our selves in our Saviours words , Who made me a Judg ? Luke 12.14 . And if he disclaim'd it , who in respect of his Divinity had the Supreme right , and that too in a case wherein one ( at least ) or the Litigants had desired his interposition , what a boldness is it in us to assume it , where no such appeal is made to us , but on the contrary , the party disowns our Autority ? Nay ( which is infinitly more ) t is superseded by our great Law-giver , in that express prohibition , Matth. 7.1 . Judg not , and that back'd with a severe penalty , that ye be not judged ? As God hath appropriated Vengeance to himself , so has he Judicature also ; and t is an invasion of his peculiar , for any ( but his Delegates the lawful Magistrates ) to pretend to either . And indeed , in all private judgment , so much depends upon the intention of the Offender , that unless we could possess our selves of Gods Omniscience , 't will be as irrational as impious to assume his Autority . Until we know mens hearts , we are at the best but imperfect Judges of their actions . At our rate of judging , St. Paul had surely pass'd for a most malicious Persecutor , whereas God saw he did ignorantly in unbelief , and upon that intuition had mercy on him , 1 Tim. 1.13 . 'T is therefore good counsel which the Apostle gives , 1 Cor. 4.5 . Judg nothing before the time until the Lord come . For tho 't is said , The Saints shall judg the World , 1 Cor. 6.3 . yet it must be at the great Assize , and he that will needs intrude himself into the office before the time , will be in danger to be rather passive then active in the Judicatory . I do not here advise to such a stupid charity as shall make no distinction of Actions . I know there is a woe pronounced as well to those who call evil good , as good evil . Surely when we see an open notorious sin committed , we may express a detestation of the Crime , tho not of the Actor ; nay it may somtimes be a necessary Charity , both to the Offender , and to the innocent Spectators , as an Amulet to keep them from the Contagion of the Example . But still even in these cases , our Sentence must not exceed the evidence , we must judg only according to the visible undoubted circumstances , and not aggravate the crime upon presumtions and conjectures ; if we do , how right soever our guesses may be , our judgment is not , but we are as Saint James speaks , Judges of evil thoughts , Chap. 2.4 . 25. INDEED this rash judging is not only very unjust both to God and man , but it is an act of the greatest pride . When we set our selves in the Tribunal , we alwaies look down with contemt on those at the Bar. And certainly there is nothing does so gratify , so regale a haughty humor , as this piece of usurpt Soverainty over our Brethren : but the more it does so , the greater necessity there is to abstain from it . Pride is a hardy kind of vice , that will live upon the barest pasture : you cannot starve it with the most industrious mortifications : how little need is there then of pampering and heightning it , which we cannot more effectually do , then by this censorious humor ? for by that we are so perpetually emploi'd abroad , that we have no leisure to look homeward , and see our own defects . We are like the inhabitants of Ai , Jos. 8. so eager upon the pursuit of others , that we leave our selves expos'd to the ambushes of Satan , who will be sure still to encourage us in our chase , draw us still farther & farther from our selves , and cares not how zealous we are in fighting against the crimes of others , so he can but keep that zeal from recoiling upon our own . 26. LASTLY , This judging others , is one of the highest violations of Charity . The Apostle gives it as one of the properties of that grace , that it thinks no evil ( i. e. ) is not apt to make severe constructions , but sets every thing in the fairest light , puts the most candid interpretations that the matter will bear . And truly , this is of great importance to the reputation of our Neighbors . The world we know is in many instances extremely governed by Opinion , but in this 't is all in all ; it has not only an influence upon it , but is that very thing : Reputation being nothing but a fair opinion and estimation among others . Now this Opinion is not alwaies swaied by due motives : somtimes little accidents , and often fancy , and oftest prepossession governs in it . So that many times he that puts the first ill Character , fixes the stamp which afterwards goes current in the World. The generality of people take up prejudices ( as they do Religions ) upon trust : and of those that are more curious in inquiring into the grounds , there are not many who vary on the more charitable hand , or bring the common sentence to review , with intent to moderate but inhance it . Men are apt to think it some disparagement to their acuteness and invention , if they cannot say somthing as sharp upon the subject , as has bin said before ; and so 't is the business of many to lay on more load , but of few to take off : and therefore he that passes the first condemnatory sentence , is like the Incendiary in a popular Tumult , who is chargeable with all those disorders to which he gave the first rise , tho that free not his Abettors from their share of the guilt . 27. AND as this is very uncharitable in respect of the injury offer'd , so also is it in reflection on the grand rule of Charity . Can we pretend to love our Neighbors as our selves , and yet shall our love to him have the quite contrary effects to that we bear our selves ? On self-love lessen our beam into a mote , and yet can our love to him magnify his mote into a beam ? No certainly , true Charity is more sincere , does not turn to us the reverse end of the Perspective , to represent our own faults at a distance , and in the most diminitive size , and yet shuffle the other to us when we are to view his . No , these are Tricks of Legerdemain we read in another Schole , even in his , whose stile is the accuser of the brethren . We know how frequently God protests against false weights and false mesures . And sure 't is not only in the shop or market that he abhors them , they are no less abominable inconversation then in traffic . To buy by one mesure and sell by another , is not more unequal , then it is to have these differing standards for our own and our neighbors faults , that our own shall weigh , in the Prophet Jeremiahs phrase , lighter then vanity , yea nothing , and yet his ( tho really the lighter ) shall prove Zacharies talent of lead . This is such a partiallity , as consists not with common honesty , and can therefore never be reconciled with Christian Charity : and how demurely soever such men may pretend to Sanctity , that interrogation of God presses hard upon them , Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances , and with the bag of deceitful weights ? Mich. 6.11 . Such bitter invectives against other mens faults , and indulgence or palliation of their own , shews their zeal lies in their spleen , and that they consider not so much what is don , as who does it : and to such the sentence of the Apostle is very applicable , Romans 2.1 . Therefore thou art inexcusable , O man , whosoever thou art that judgest , for wherein thou judgest another , thou condemnest thy self , for thou that judgest dost the same thing . But admit a man have not the very same guilts he censures in another , yet 't is sure every man has some ; and of what sort soever they be , he desires not they should be rigorously scan'd , and therefore by the rule of Charity , yea and Justice too , he ought not to do that which he would not suffer . If he can find extenuations for his own crimes , he is in all reason to presume others may have so for theirs : the common frailty of our nature , as it is apt alike to betray us to faults , so it gives as equal share in the excuse ; and therefore what I would have pass for the effect of impotency or inadvertence in my self , I can with no tolerable ingenuity give a worse name to in him . 28. WE have now viewed both these branches of Detraction , seen both the sin and mischiefs of them ; we may now join them together in a concluding Observation , which is , that they are as imprudent as they are unchristian . It has bin received among the maxims of civil Life , not unnecessarily to exasperate any body ; to which agrees the advice of an ancient Philosopher , Speak not evil of thy Neighbor , if thou dost thou shalt hear that which will not fail to trouble thee . There is no person so inconsiderable , but may at some time or other do a displesure : but in this of Defaming men need no harnessing , no preparation ; every man has his Weapons ready for a return : so that none can shoot these arrows , but they must expect they will revert with a rebounded force : not only to the violation of Christian Unity ( as I have before observ'd ) but to the Aggressors great secular demerit , both in Fame , and oftentimes Interest also . Revenge is sharp-sighted , and over-looks no opportunity of a retaliation ; and that commonly not bounded as the Levitical ones were , An eye for an eye , a tooth for a tooth , Exod. 21.24 . no nor by the larger proportions of their restitutions four-fold , Exod. 21.1 . but extended to the utmost power of the Inflicter . The examples are innumerable of men who have thus laid themselves open in their greatest concerns , and have let loose the hands as well as tongues of others against them , merely because they would put no restraint upon their own ; which is so great indiscretion , that to them we may well apply that of Solomon , A fools mouth is his destruction , and his lips are the snare of his soul , Prov. 18.7 . 29. AND now who can sufficiently wonder , that a practice that so thwarts our interest of both worlds , should come universally to prevail among us ? Yet that it does so , I may appeal to the Consciences of most , and to the Observation of all . What so common Topic of Discourse is there , as this of back-biting our Neighbors ? Come into company of all Ages , all Ranks , all Professions , this is the constant entertainment : And I doubt , he that at night shall duly recollect the Occurences of the day , shall very rarely be able to say , he has spent it without hearing or speaking ( perhaps both ) somwhat of this kind . Nay even those who restrain themselves other liberties , are often apt to indulge to this : many who are so just to their Neighbors property , that as Abraham once said , Gen. 14.23 . they would not take from him , even from a thred to a shoe latchet , are yet so inconsiderate of his Fame , as to find themselves discourse at the expence of that , tho infinitly a greater injury then the robbing of his Coffer : which shews what false mesures we are apt to take of things and evinces that many of those , who have not only in general abjur'd the world in their Baptism , but do in many instances seem to themselves ( as well as others ) to have gain'd a superiority over it , do yet in this undiscernibly yield it the greatest Ensign of Soveraignty , by permitting it to set the standards and estimates of things , and taking its customary Prescriptions for Laws . For what besides this unhappy servility to Custom , can possibly reconcile men that own Christianity , to a practice so widely distant from it ? 'T is true , those that profess themselves men of this world , who design only their portion in this life , may take it up as somtimes conducing ( at least seemingly ) to their end : but for those who propose higher hopes to themselves , and know that Charity is one of the main props to those hopes , how foolishly do they undermine themselves , when they thus act against their Principles , and that upon no other Autority , but that of popular usage ? I know men are apt to excuse themselves upon their indignation against vice , and think that their zeal must as well acquit them for this violation of the second Table , as it once did Moses for the breaking both , Exod. 32.19 . But to such I may answer in Christs words , Luke 9.55 . Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of . Meekness and Charity are the Evangelical Graces , which will most recommend and assimilate us to him , who was meek and lowly in heart . But after all this pretext of Zeal , I fear it is but a cheat we put on our selves , the elder Brothers raiment only to disguise the Supplanter , Gen. 27. Let men truly ransack their own breasts , and I doubt the best will find there is somthing of vanity that lies at the bottom , if it be not the positive sort mention'd before , of designing to illustrate my self by others blemishes , yet at least the negative , that I am unwilling to incur the contemt incident to those , who scruple at small sins . Besides I observe perhaps , that 't is the common entertainment of the World , to defame their Neighbors , and if I strike not in upon the Theme , I shall have nothing to render me acceptable company ; perhaps I shall be reproched as morose or dull , and my silence shall be construed to proceed not from the abundance of my Charity , but the defect of my Wit. 20. BUT sure they that can thus argue , do hereby give a more demonstrative proof of that defect . He whose Wit is so precarious , that it must depend only upon the folly or vice of another , had best give over all pretence to it . He that has nothing of his own growth to set before his Guests , had better make no invitations , then break down his Neighbors Inclosure , and feast them upon his plunder . Besides , how pitiful an attestation of Wit is it , to be able to make a disgraceful relation of another ? No scolding Woman but may set up such Trophies : and they that can value a man upon such an account , may prefer the Scarabes , who feed upon dung , and are remark'd by no other property , before the Bee that sucks Flowers and returns Hony. 31. BUT in the next place , admit this restraint should certainly expose one to that reproch ; methinks this should be no news to those who know the condition of Christianity is to take up the Cross : and sure it cannot weigh lighter then in this instance . What am I the worse , if a vain Talkative Person think me too reserv'd ? Or if he , whose frolic levity is his disease , call me dull , because I vapor not out all my spirits into froth ? Socrates when inform'd of some gating Speeches one had used of him behind his back , made only this facetious reply , Let him beat me too when I am absent . And he that gets not such an indifference to all the idle censures of men , will be disturb'd in all his Civil Transactions , as well as his Christian : it being scarce possible to do any thing , but there will be descants made on it . And if a man will regard those winds , he must , as Solomon saies , never sow , Eccl. 11.4 . He must suspend even the necessary actions of common life , if he will not venture them to the being mis-judged by others . 32. BUT there is yet a farther consideration in this matter : for he that upon such a despicable motive will violate his duty in one particular , lets Satan get a main point of him , and can with no good Logic deny to do it in others . Detraction is not the only sin in fashion : Profaneness , and Obscenity , and all sorts of Luxury are so too , and threaten no less reproch to those who scruple at them . Upon the same grounds therefore that he discards his Charity to his Neighbor , he may also his Piety , his Modesty , his Temperance , and almost all other Virtues . And to speak the truth , there is not a more fertile womb of sin , then this dread of all mens reproch . Other corruptions must be gratified with cost and industry , but in this the Devil hath no farther trouble then to laugh men out of their souls . So prolific a vice therefore had need be weeded out of mens hearts : for if it be allowed the least corner , if it be indulged too in this one instance , 't will quickly spread it self farther . 33. YET after all , this fear of reproch is a mere fallacy , started to disguise a more real cause of fear : for the greatest danger of reproch does indeed lie on that other side . Common estimation puts an ill Character upon pragmatic medling people . For tho the inquisitiveness and curiosity of the hearer , may somtimes render such discourses grateful enough to him , yet it leaves in him no good impressions of the speaker . This is well observ'd by the Son of Sirach , Ecclus. 19.8 , 9. Whether it be to friend or foe , talk not of other mens lives , and if thou canst without offence , revele them not , for he heard and observ'd thee , and when time cometh he will hate thee . In a word , all considering Persons will be ever upon their guard in such company , as fore-seeing that they will talk no less freely of them , then they do of others before them . Nor can the commonness of the guilt obviate the censure , there being nothing more frequent then for men to accuse their own faults in other Persons . Vice is like a dark Lantern , which turns its bright side only to him that bears it , but looks black and dismal in anothers hand : and in this particular none has so much reason to fear a Defamer , as those who are themselves such : for ( besides the common prudential motive ) their own consciousness gives them an inward alarm , and makes them look for a retribution in the same kind . Thus upon the whole matter we see , there is no real temtation , even to our vanity , to comply with this uncharitable custom , we being sure to lose more repute by it then we can propose to our selves to gain . The being esteem'd an ill man , will not be balanced by being thought pleasant , ingenuous company , were one sure to be so . But 't is odds , that will not be acquired by it neither , for the most assiduous tale-bearers , and biterest revilers , are often half-witted people : there being nothing more frequently observed , then such mens aptness to speak evil of things they understand not , Jude v. 10. 34. O let not then those that have repudiated the more inviting sins , shew themselves philter'd and bewitch'd by this , but instead of submitting to the ill example of others , set a good one to them , and endeavor to bring this unchristian custom out of fashion . I am sure if they do not , they will be more deeply chargeable then others : for the more command they have over their other corruptions , the more do they witness against themselves . Their remissness and willing subjection to this , besides their example when ill , is more ensnaring then other mens , and is apt to insinuate easie thoughts of the sin . Men are apt to think themselves safe while they follow one of noted Piety , and the autority of his Person often leads them blindfold into his failings . Thus when Peter dissembled , St. Paul tells us , that the other Jews , and even Barnabas also , was carried away with his dissimulation , Galat. 2.13 . And I doubt not in this particular many are incouraged by the liberty they see even good men take . So that such have a more accumulative guilt , for they do not only commit , but patronize the fault : the consideration whereof has kept me , I confess , longer upon this Head , then is proportionable to the brevity of the rest ; but I think not longer then agrees to the importance of the subject . 35. AND now since we have consider'd the malignity of this sin of Detraction , and yet withal find that 't is a sin , which as the Apostle speaks , doth so easily beset us , 't is but a natural Corollary that we inforce our vigilance against it . And where the importance and difficulty are both so great , 't will be a little necessary to consider what are the likliest means , the most appropriate Antidote against this so dangerous , and yet so Epidemic a disease . 36. AND here the common rule of Physic is to be adverted to , viz. to examine the causes , that the remedies may be adapted to them . I shall therefore in the first place desire every man seriously to study his own constitution of mind , and observe what are his particular temtations to this sin of Detraction , whether any of those I have before mention'd , as Pride , Envy , Levity , &c. or any other which lies deeper , and is only discernible to his own inspection . Let him , I say , make the scrutiny , and then accordingly apply himself to correct the sin in its first principle . For as when there is an eruption of Humor in any part , 't is not cured merely by outward applications , but by such alterative Medicines as purify the blood ; so this Leprosy of the Tongue will still spread farther , if it be not check'd in its spring and source , by the mortifying of those corrupt inclinations , which feed and heighten it . 37. THIS is an inquisition I must leave to every mans own Conscience , which alone can testify by what impulses he acts . Yet as the Rabbins were wont to say , that in every signal Judgment which befel the Jews , there was some grain of the Golden-calf ; so I think I may venture to say , that in all Detraction , there is some mixture of Pride : and therefore I suppose , a Caution against that , will be so generally seasonable , that it may well lead the Van of all other advices in this matter . And here 't is very observable , that God who has made of one blood all Nations of the Earth , Acts 17. has so equally distributed all the most valuable privileges of Human-nature , as if he design'd to preclude all insulting of one man over another . Neither has he only thus insinuated it by his Providence , but has inforc'd it by his commands In the Levitical Law we find what a particular care he takes to moderate the rigor of Judicial correction , upon this very account , lest thy Brother be despised in thine eyes , Deut. 25.3 . So unreasonable did he think it , that the crime or misery of one , should be the exultation of another . And S. Paul brands it as a great guilt of the Corinthians , that they upon the occasion of the incestuous person were puffed up , when they should have mourned , 1 Corin. 5.2 . When we see a dead Corps , we are not apt to insult over it , or brag of our own health and vigor ; but it rather damps us , and makes us reflect , that it may ( we know not how soon ) be our own condition . And certainly the spectacles of Spiritual mortality should have the same operation . We have the same principles of Corruption with our lapsed Brethren , and have nothing but Gods grace , to secure us from the same effects , and by these insulting reflections we forfeit that too ; for he gives grace only to the humble , James 4.6 . Saint Pauls advice therefore is very apposite to this case , Gallat . 6.1 . Brethren , if a man be overtaken in a fault , restore such a one in the spirit of meekness , considering thy self , least thou also be temted . In a word , the faults of others ought to excite our pity towards them , our caution as to our selves , and our thankfulness to God , if he hath hitherto preserv'd us from the like , For who made thee to differ from another ? 1 Cor. 4.7 . But if we spread our Sails and triumph over these wrecks , we expose our selves to worse . Other sins like Rocks may split us , yet the lading may be preserv'd : but Pride like a Gulf swallows us up ; our very vertues when so levened , becoming weights and plummets to sink us to the deeper ruine . The counsel therefore of the Apostle , is very pertinent to this matter , Rom. 11.20 . Be not high minded , but fear . 38. BUT God knows we can insult over others when we are not only under a possibility , but are actually involv'd in the same guilt : and then what are all our accusations and bitter censures of others , but indictments and condemnatory sentences against our selves ? And we may justly expect God should take us at our word , and reply upon us as the Prophet did upon David , Thou art the man , 2 Sam. 12.7 . For tho our officious vehemence against anothers crime , may blind the eies of men , yet God is not so mocked . As therefore when a thief or murderer is detected , it gives an alarm to the whole confederacy ; so when we find our own guilts pursued in otā—er mens Persons , t is not a time for us to join in the prosecution , but rather by humble and penitent reflections on our selves to provide for our own safety . When therefore we find our selves ( upon any misdemeanor of our brother ) ready to mount the Tribunal , and pronounce our sentence , let us first consider how competent we are for the office , calling to mind the decision Christ once made in the like case , He that is without sin let him first cast a stone , Job . 8.7 . And if we did this , many perhaps of our fiercest impeachers , would think fit to retire , and leave the delinquent ( as they themselves finally desire to be ) to the merciful indulgence of a Savior . In short , would we but look into our own hearts , we should find so much work for our inquisitions and censure , that we should not be at leisure to ramble abroad for it . And therefore as Lycurgus once said to one , who importun'd him to establish a popular parity in the state , Do thou , saies he , begin it first in thine own family : so I shall advise those that will be judging , to practice first at home . And if they will confine themselves to that , till there be nothing left to correct , I doubt not their neighbor will be well enough secur'd against their Detractions . 39. ANOTHER preservation against that sin is the frequent contemplation of the last and great judgment . This is indeed a Catholicon against all : but we find it particularly appli'd by St. Paul to this of judging and despising our Brethren . Why dost thou judg thy brother ? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother ? We shall all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ , Rom. 14.10 . That is the great day of Revelation and Retribution , and we are not to anticipate it by our private inquests or sentences : we have business enough to provide our own accounts against that day . And as it were a spightful folly for Malefactors , that were going together to that bar , to spend their time in exaggerating each others crimes : so surely is it for us , who are all going toward the dreadful tribunal , to be drawing up Charges against one another . And who knows but we may then meet with the fate of Daniels accusers , see him we censur'd acquit , and our selves doomed . The penitence of the criminal may have numbred him among the Saints , when our unretracted uncharitableness may send us to unquenchable Flames . I conclude this consideration with the words of St. James , There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy , who art thou that judgest another ? Jam. 4.12 . 50. A third expedient may be , to try to make a revulsion of the humor , to draw it into another chanel . If we must needs be talking of other peoples faults , let it not be to Defame , but to amend them , by converting our Detraction and backbiting into Admonition and fraternal correption . This is a way to extract medicine out of the viper , to consecrate even this so unhollow'd a part of our temper , and to turn the ungrateful medling of a busy-body , into the most obliging office of a friend . And indeed had we that zeal for vertue , which we pretend when we inveigh against vice , we should surely lay it out this way ; for this only gives a possibility of reforming the offender . But alas we order the matter so , as if we fear'd to lose the occasion of Clamor , and will tell all the world but him that it most concerns . Indeed t is a deplorable thing to see how universally this necessary Christian duty is neglected ; and to that neglect we may in a great degree impute that strange over-flowing of Detraction among us . We know the receiving any thing into our Charge , insensibly begets a love and tenderness to it ( a nurse upon this account comes often to vie kindness with the mother : ) and would we but take one another thus into our care , and by friendly vigilance thus watch over each others souls , t is scarce imaginable what an endearment it would create : such certainly as would infallibly supplant all our unkind reportings and severe descants upon our brethren ; since those can never take place , but when there is at least an indifference , if not an enmity . 41. THE next cure I shall propose for Detraction , is to substract its nurishment , by suppressing all Curiosity and inquisitiveness concerning others . Were all supplies thus cut off , it would at last be subdued . The King of Ethiopia in a vie of Wit with the King of Egypt , propos'd it as a Problem to him , to drink up the Sea , to which he repli'd , by requiring him first to stop the access of Rivers to it : and he that would drain this other Ocean , must take the same course , dam up the avenues of those Springs which feed it . He that is alwaies upon the scent , hunting out some discovery of others , will be very apt to invite his neighbors to the quarry ; and therefore t will be necessary for him , to restrain himself from that range : not like jealous States , to keep Spies and pensioners abroad to bring him intelligence , but rather discourage all such officious pick-thanks : for the fuller he is of such informations , the more is his pain if he keep them in , and his guilt if he publish them . Could men be perswaded to affect a wholesome ignorance in these matters , it would conduce both to their ease and innocence : for 't is this Itch of the ear which breaks out at the Tongue : and were not Curiosity the Purveior , Detraction woud soon be starved into a tameness . 42. BUT the most infallible receit of all , is the frequent recollecting , and serious applying of the grand rule , of doing as we would be don to : for as Detraction is the violation of that , so the observation of that must certainly supplant Detraction . Let us therefore when we find the humor fermenting within us , and ready to break out in Declamations against our brethren , Let us , I say , check it with this short question , Would I my self be thus us'd ? This voice from within , will be like that from heaven to St. Paul , which stopt him in the heigth of his carrier . Act. 9.4 . And this voice every man may hear , that will not stop his ears , nor gag his conscience , it being but the Echo of that native Justice and equity which is planted in our hearts : and when we have our remedy so near us , and will not use it , God may well expostulate with us , as he did with the Jews , Why will ye die , O house of Israel ? Ezek. 33.11 . 43. THESE are some of those many receits which may he prescrib'd against this spreading disease . But indeed there is not so much need to multiply remedies , as to perswade men to apply them . We are in love with our Malady , and as loth to be cured of the Luxury of the Tongue , as St. Augustine was of his other Sensuality , against which he praied with a Caveat , that he might not be too soon heard . But 't is ill dallying , where our Souls are concern'd : for alas t is they that are wounded by those darts , which we throw at others . We take our aim perhaps at our Neighbors , but indeed hit our selves : herein verifying in the highest Sense that Axiom of the Wise-man , He that diggeth a pit , shall fall into it , and he that roleth a stone , it shall return upon him , Prov. 25.27 . If therefore we have no tenderness , no relenting to our Brethren , yet let us have some to our selves ; so much compassion , nay so much respect to our precious immortal Souls , as not to set them at so despicable a price , to put them in balance with the satisfying of a petulant peevish vanity . Surely the shewing our selves ill-natur'd ( which is all the gain Detraction amounts to ) is not so enamouring a design , that we should sacrifice to it our highest interest . T is too much to spend our breath in such a pursuit ; O let not our souls also exhale in the vapor ; but let us rather pour them out in praiers for our brethren , then in accusations of them : for tho both the one and the other will return into our own bosoms , yet God knows to far differing purposes , even as differing as those wherewith we utter them . The Charity of the one like kindly exhalations will descend in showers of blessings , but the rigor and asperity of the other , in a severe doom upon our selves : for the Apostle will tell us , He shall have judgment without mercy , that hath shewed no mercy , James 2.13 . SECT . VII . Of Scoffing and Derision . THERE is also another fault of the Tongue injurious to our neighbor , and that is Derision and Mockery , and striving to render others as ridiculous and contemtible as we can . This in respect of the subject matter differs from the other of Detraction , as much as folly or deformity do's from vice : yet since injuries as well as benefits , are to be mesured by common estimation , this may come in balance with the other . There is such a general aversation in human nature to contemt , that there is scarce any thing more exasperating . I will not deny but the excess of that aversation may be level'd against Pride : yet sure scorn and disdain never sprung from humility , and therefore are very incompetent Correctors of the other ; so that it may be said of that , as once it was of DiogĆØnes , that he trampled on Plato's Pride with greater of his own . 2. NOR is this injury enhanced only by the resentment of the sufferer , but also by the way of inflicting it . We generally think those are the severest marks of infamy , which are the most indelible . To be burnt in the hand or pilloried , is a more lasting reproch then to be scourged or confined ; and it is the same in this case , for here commonly Wit is the Lictor , which is arm'd with an edg'd tool , and leaves scars behind it . The reproch of rage and fury seem to be writ in Chalk or Lead , which a dispassionate hearer easily wipes out , but those of wit are like the Gravers burine upon Copper , or the corrodings of Aqua-fortis , engrave and indent the Characters that they can never be defaced . The truth of this daily experience attests . A dull contumely quickly vanishes , no body thinking it worth remembring , but when t is steel'd with Wit , it pierces deep , leaves such impressions in the fancy of the hearers , that thereby it gets rooting in the memory , and will scarce be eradicated : nay sometimes it happens to survive both speaker and hearer , and conveys it self to posterity ; it being not unusual for the sarcasms of Wit to be transmitted in story . And as it thus gives an edg , so also do's it add wings to a reproch , makes it fly abroad in an instant . Many a poor mans infirmities had bin confined to the notice of a few relations or neigbors , had not some remarkable strain of drollery scatter'd and dispersed them . The jest recommends the Defamation , and is commonly so incorporate with it , that they cannot be related apart . And even those who like it not in one respect , yet are many times so transported with it in the other , that they chuse rather to propagate the contumely , then stifle the conceit . Indeed Wit is so much the Diana of this Age , that he who goes about to set any bounds to it , must expect an uproar , Acts 19.28 . or at least to be judged to have imposed an envious inhibition on it , because himself has not stock enough to maintain the trade . But how ever sharp or unexpected the censure may seem to be , yet t is necessary that plain downright truth should somtimes be spoken ; and I think that will bear me out , if I say t is possible men may be as oppressive by their parts , as their power ; and that God did no more design the meaner intellectuals of some for triumphs to the pride and vanity of the more acute , then he did the possessions of the less powerful , as a prey to the rapine and avarice of the mighty . 3. AND this suggests a yet farther aggravation of this sin , as it is a perverting of Gods design , and abuse of the talent he has committed to men in trust . Ingenuity and quickness of parts , is sure to be reckoned in the highest ranks of Blessings , and an instrument proper for the most excellent purposes : and therefore we cannot suppose the Divine Wisdom so much short of Human , as not in his intention to assign it to uses worthy of it . Those must relate either to God , our selves , or our neighbors . In respect of God , it renders us more capable of contemplating his Perfections , discerning the Equity and Excellence of his Laws , and our obligations to obedience . In regard of our selves it makes us apprehend our own interest in that obedience ; makes us tractable and perswasible , contrary to that Brutish stub bornness of the Horse and Mule , which the Psalmist reproches , Psal. 32.9 . Besides it accommodates us in all the concerns of Human life , forms it self into all those useful contrivances , which may make our being here more comfortable : especially it renders a man company to himself , and in the greatest dearth of Society , entertains him with his own thoughts . Lastly , as to our neighbors , it renders us useful and assistant . All those Discoveries and Experiments , those Arts and Sciences , which are now the common tresure of the world , took their first rise from the ingenuity of particular persons : and in all personal Exigencies wherein any of us are at any time involved , we need not be told the usefulness of a wise adviser . Now all these are emploiments commensurable to the faculty from whence they flow , and that answer its excellence and value ; and he that so bestows his talent , gives a good account of his trust . But I would fain know under which of these Heads Derision of our Neighbor comes in : certainly not under that of being assistant to him . It would be a sorry relief to a poor indigent wretch , to lavish out wit upon him , in upbraiding of his misery . And is not this a parallel case ? Is it not the same Barbarism , to mock and reproch a man that wants the gifts of Nature , as him that wants those of Fortune ? Nay perhaps it may be more , for a Beggar may have impoverisht himself by his own fault , but in Natural defects there is nothing to be charged , unless we will fly higher , and arraign that Providence that hath so dispensed . In a word , as the Superfluities of the Rich are by God assign'd as the store-house of the poor , so the Abilities of the Wise are of the ignorant : for t is a great mistake , to think our selves Stewards in some of Gods gifs , and proprietaries in others . They are all equally to be emploied , according to the designation of the Donor , and there is nothing more universally design'd by him , then that mankind should be equally helpful to one another . Those therefore whom God hath blest with higher degrees of sagacity and quickness , ought not to look down on others as the objects of their contemt or scorn , but rather of their care and pity , endeavoring to rescue them from those mischiefs , to which their weakness may expose them , remembring still , that God might have changed the Scene , and made themselves what they see others . It is part of Jobs justification of his integrity , that he was eies to the Blind , and feet to the Lame , Job . 29.25 . ( i. e. ) he accommodated his assistances to all the wants and exigencies of others : and sure t is no less the part of a good man to do it in the Mental then in the Corporeal defects . 4. BUT alas many of us would rather put a stumbling block in the way of the Blind , pull away the Crutch from the Lame , that we may sport our selves to see them tumble : such a sensuality we have in observing and improving the imperfections of others , that it is become the grand excellence of the Age to be Dextrous at it , and Wit serves some men for little else . We are got indeed into a merry world , Laughing is our main business ; as if because it has bin made part of the Definition of man , that he is Risible , his man-hood consisted in nothing else . But alas , if that be all the use men have of their understandings , they were given them to little purpose , since mere Idiots can laugh with as much plesure and more innocence then they ; and it is a great instance how extremes may be brought to meet , that the excess of Wit in the one , and of Folly in the other , serve to produce the same effect . 5. YET so voracious is this humor now grown , that it draws in every thing to feed it . There is not game enough from the real folly of the world , and therefore that which is the most distant from it must be stampt with its mark . T is a known story of the Frier who on a fasting day bid his Capon be Carp , and then very Canonically ate it ; and by such a transubstantiating power our Wits bid all seriousness and consideration be formality and foppery , and then under that name endeavor to hunt it out of the world . I fear moral honesty fares not better with some of them then moral prudence . The old Philosophical vertues of Justice , Temperance , and Chastity are now hist off the stage , as fit only for the Antiquated set of Actors , and he that appears in that equipage , is by many thought more ridiculous , then he that walks the street in his Ancestors trunk-hose . Nay indeed vice its self is scarce secure if it have not the grand accomplishment of impudence : a puny blushing sinner is to be laught out of his Modesty , tho not out of his sin ; and to be proof against their scorns he must first be so against all the regrets of his own mind . 6. AND if mere Ethnic virtue , or shame-fac'd vice have this treatment , Christian Piety must expect worse : and so indeed it finds , its possessors being beyond all others exposed to their scorn and contemt . Nor is it strange it should be so , such men being made , as it is Wisd. 2.14 . to reprove their waies , they think in their own defence they are to deride theirs . This is it indeed which gives a secret sting and venem to their reproches : other men they abuse as an exercise of their Wit , but these in defence of the party . So Julian after his Apostacy , thought it a more effectual way to persecute the Christians by taunts and ironies , then by racks and tortures , as thinking it more possible to shame , then fright them out of their religion . And the stratagem seems to have bin reassumed by many in this Age , and I fear with too great success : for I doubt not there are divers who have herded themselves amongst these profane Scoffers , not that they are convinced by their reasons , but terrified by their contumelies ; and as some Indians are said to worship the Devil , that he may not hurt them ; so these chuse to be active , that they may not be passive in the contemts flung upon Religion : such men forget the dreadful denunciation of Christ against those that shall be ashamed of him and his words , Mat. 8.38 . 7. As for those who , upon a juster estimate , find the advantages of piety worthy to be chosen , and take it with all its necessary ignominies , they have the encouragement of very good company in their sufferings . The Psalmist long ago had his share , when not only Those that saā—e in the gate spake against him , but the drunkards made songs upon him , Psalm . 69.12 . T was also the Prophet Jeremies complaint , I am in Derision daily , every one mocketh me , Jer. 20.7 . Nay our blessed Lord himself was derided in his life by the Pharisees , Luke 16.14 . mocked and reviled at his death by the Priests , the Elders , the Soldiers ; nay by casual passengers , Mat. 27.39 . And shall the servant think himself greater then his Lord ? Shall a Christian expect an immunity from what his Savior has born before him ? ( He that do's so , is too delicate a member for a crucified head . ) No sure , let us rather animate our selves , as the Apostle exhorts , by considering him who as well despised the shame , as endured the cross for us , Heb. 12.3 . and who has not only given an example , but proposed a reward , a Beatitude to those who are reviled for righteousness sake , Mat. 3.11 . And when this is soberly ponder'd , 't will sure make it easy for us to resolve with holy David in a like case , I will be yet more vile , 2 Sam. 6.22 . 8. BUT to return from this digression , to those who thus unhappily employ their parts , let me propose to them , that they would borrow every day some few minutes from their mirth , and seriously consider , whether this be ( I need not say a Christian , but ) a manly exercise of their faculties . Alas when they have rallied out the day from one company to another , they may sum up their account at night in the wise mans simile , their Laughter has bin but like the crackling of Thorns under a pot , Ecclus. 6.7 . made a little brisk noise for the present , and with the sparkles perhaps annoied their Neighbors , but what real good has it brought to themselves ? All that they can fancy is but the repute of Wit. But sure that might be attainable some other way . We find the world affected to new things , and this of Derision and Abuse to others is so beaten a road , that perhaps the very variety of a new way would render it acceptable . They are the lighter substances that still swim away with the stream , the greater and more solid bodies do somtimes stop the current : and sure 't were a noble essay of mans parts to stem this tide , and by a more useful application of their own faculties , convince others that theirs might be better emploied . T is said of Anacharsis , that at a feast he could not be got to smile at the affected railleries of common Jesters , but when an Ape was brought in he freely laught , saying , an Ape was ridiculous by nature , but men by art and study . And truly t is a great contemt of human nature to think their intellects were given them for no better end then to raise that laughter , which a brute can do as well or better . 9. I would not be thought to recommend such a Stoical sourness , as shall admit of nothing of the cheerful pleasant part of Conversation . God has not sure bin more rigid to our Minds then to our Bodies : and as he has not so devoted the one to toil , but that he allows us some time to exercise them in recreation as well as labors , so doubtless he indulges the same relaxation to our Minds ; which are not alwaies to be scrued up to the height , but allowed to descend to those easinesses of Converse , which entertain the lower Faculties of the Soul. Nor do I think those are ill emploied in those little skirmishes of Wit , which pass familiarly between intimates and acquaintances , which besides the present divertisement , serve to whet and quicken the fancy . Yet I conceive this liberty is to be bounded with some Cautions : as first in these encounters , the Charge should be Powder , not Bullets ; there should nothing be said that should leave any ungrateful impressions , or give any umbrage of a spightful intent . The world wants not experiments of the mischiefs have happened by too severe Railleries : in such Fencing , jest has proved earnest , and Florets have oft turn'd to Swords , and not only the Friendship , but the Men have fallen a Sacrifice to a Jest. 19. SECONDLY this is to have the same restriction with all other recreations , that it be made a divertisement , not a trade . T is an insinuating thing , and is apt to encroch too much upon our time , and God knows we have a great deal of business of this world , and much more for the next , which will not be don with laughing , and therefore t is not for us to play away too much of that time , which is exacted by more serious concerns . T is sure we shall die in Earnest , and it will not become us to live altogether in Jest. But besides this stealth of our time , t is apt to steal away mens hearts too , make them so dote upon this kind of entertainment , that it averts them from any thing more serious . I believe I may appeal to some who have made this their business , whether it go not against the hair with them to set to any thing else : and having espoused this as their one excellence , they are willing to decry all others , that they may the more value themselves upon this . By this means it is , that the gift of Raillery has in this Age , like the lean kine , devoured all the more solid worthy qualifications ; and is counted the most reputable accomplishment . A strange inverted estimate , thus to prefer the little ebullitions of Wit , before solid reason and judgment . If they would accommodate their Diet at the same rate , they shall eat the Husk rather then the Kernel , and drink nothing but froth and bubbles . But after all , Wisdom is commonly at long running justified even of her Despisers ; these great Idolaters of Wit often dashing themselves upon such Rocks , as make them too late wish , their Sails had bin less , and their Ballast more . For the preventing therefore of more such wracks , I wish the present caution may be more adverted to , not to bestow an unproportionable part of our time or value on this slight exercise of mans slightest Faculty . 11. A third Caution in this matter , is to confine our selves to present Company , not to make absent Persons the Subject of our mirth . Those freedoms we use to a mans face as they are commonly more moderate , so they are more equitable , because we expose our selves to the like from him ; but the back blows are disingenuous , and give suspicion we intend not a fair trial of Wit , but a cowardly murder of a mans fame . T was the precept of the Philosopher , Deride not the absent , and I think it may well be so of the Politician : there being nothing more imprudent as to our civil concerns then the contrary liberty . For those things never die in the company they are first vented in ( nay perhaps the hearer is not willing his wit should so soon expire ; ) and when they once take air , they quickly come to the notice of the derided Person , and then nothing in the world is more disobliging . T was a sober precept given one , not so much as to laugh in compliance with him that derides another , for you will be hated by him he derides . And if an accessary be hated , sure much more the principal : and I think I may say , there are many can sooner forgive a solemn deep contrivance against them , then one of their jocular reproches : for he that designs seems to acknowledg them considerable , but he that mocks them , seems to think them too low for any thing but contemt : and we learn from Aristotle , that the mesure of anger is entirely taken thence ; men being so far provoked , as they imagine they were slighted or affronted . In mere secular wisdom it will therefore become men to consider , whether this trade be like to turn to account , or whethere it be worth the while , at once to make a jest and an enemy . 12. AND if it be imprudent to make man our enemy , t is much more to make God so , by levelling our blowes at any thing sacred : but of that I have already had occasion to speak , and shall not repete ; only give me leave to say , that besides the profaner sort of jests , which more immediately reflect on him , he is concern'd in all the unjust reproches of our brethren , our love to them being confirm'd by the same divine Sanction with our reverence to him : and sure nothing is more inconsistent with that love , then the exposing them to that contemt we are our selves so impatient of . In a word what repute soever this practice now has of Wit , it is very far from wisdom to provoke God that we may also disoblige man : and if we will take the Scripture estimate , we shall find a Scorne is no such honorable Epithet as we seem to account it . Solomon do's almost constantly set it in opposition to a Wise man : thus it is , Prov. 9.8 . and again , Chap. 13.1 . and many other places ; and on the other side , closely links it with the Fool : and that not only in title , but in punishment too , Judgments are prepared for scorners , and stripes for the back of fools , Prov. 19.29 . So that if our Wits think not Solomon too dull for their Cabal , we see what a turn he will give to their present verdict . 13. AND if these reproches which aim only at ostentation of Wit , be so unjustifiable , what shall we say to those , that are drawn with blacker lines , that are founded in Malice or Envy , or some undermining design ? Every man that is to be supplanted , cannot alwaies be attaqued with a down-right battery : perhaps his integrity may be such , that , as 't was said of Daniel , Chap. 6.4 . They can find no occasion against him : and when they cannot shake the main Fort , they must try if they can possess themselves of the out-works , raise some prejudice against his discretion , his humor , his carriage , and his most extrinsic adherents , and if by representing him ridiculous in any of these , they can but abate mens reverence to him , their confidence of him will not long hold out ; bare honesty without some other adornment , being lookt on as a leaf-less tree , no body will trust himself to its shelter . Thus the enemies of Socrates , when they could no other way suppress his reputation , hired Aristophanes a Comic Poet to personate him on the stage , and by the insinuations of those interludes , insensibly conveied first a contemt , and then a hatred of him into the hearts of the people . But I need not bring instances of former times in this matter , these being sufficiently verst in that mystery . 14. IT is not strange that men of such designs , should summon all their Wit to the service , make their Railleries as picquant as they can , that they may wound the deeper : but methinks 't is but a mean office they assign their Wit , to be ( I will not say the Pander , that being in this Age scarce a title of reproch , but ) the executioner or hangman to their malice . Christ bids us be wise as Serpents , yet adds withall harmless as Doves ; Mat. 10.18 . but here the Serpent has quite eat up the Dove , and puts a Vultur in the place , a creature of such sagacity and diligence in pursuit of the prey , that 't is hard for any art or innocence to escape its talons . 15. THERE is yet another sort of Contumelious Persons , who indeed are not chargeable with that circumstance , of ill employing their Wit , for they use none in it . These are people whose sole talent is Pride and Scorn ; who perhaps have attained the Sciences of dressing themselves finely , and eating well , and upon the strength of those excellences , look fastidiously , and speak disdainfully on any that want them ; concluding if a man fall short of their Garniture at the Knees and Elbowes , he is much inferior to them in the furniture of his Head. Such people think crying , O ridiculous ! is an ample Confutation of any thing can be said ; and so they can but despise enough , are contented not to be able to say why they do so . These are , I confess , the most innocent kind of Deriders in respect of others , what they say having not edg enough to cause any smart . The greatest hurt they do is to themselves , who tho they much need , yet are generally little capable of a rescue , and therefore I shall not clog the present discourse with any advise to them : I shall chuse rather to conclude with enforcing my Suit to the former , that they would soberly and sadly weigh the account they must one Day give of the Emploiment of their Parts , and the more they have hitherto embeazled them , the more to endeavor to expiate that unthriftiness , by a more careful Managery for the future ; that so instead of that vain , emty , vanishing Mirth they have courted here , they may find a real , full , and eternal Satisfaction in the Joy of their Lord. SECT . VIII . Of Flattery . 1. THE last of Verbal injuries to our Neighbor which I shall mention , is Flattery . This is indeed the fatallest wound of the Tongue , carries least Smart , but infinitly more of Danger , and is as much superior to the former , as a Gangrene is to a Gall or Scratch ; this may be sore and vexing , but that stupifying and deadly . Flattery is such a Mystery , such a Riddle of iniquity , that its very softnesses are its cruellest rigors , its Balm corrodes , and ( to comprize all in the Psalmists excellent Description ) its words are smoother then oil , and yet be they very swords , Psalm . 56.21 . 1. BUT besides the mischiefs of it to the Patient , 't is the most dishonoring , the most vilifying thing to the Agent . I shall not need to empannel a Jury either of Moralists or Divines , every mans own breast sufficiently instructing him in the unworthiness of it . T is indeed a Collective accumulative Baseness , it being in its Element a compound and complex of the most sordid , hateful qualities incident to Mankind . I shall instance in three , viz. Lying , Servility , and Trechery , which being detestably deform'd single , must in Conjunction make up a loathsom Monstrous guilt . Now tho Flattery has two Branches , yet these lie so at the Root as equally to influence both : for whether you take it as it is the giving of praise where it is not due , or the professing of kindness which is not real , these Properties are still its Constitutive parts . 3. AND first we may take Lying to be the very corner Stone of the Fabric ; for take it away , and the Whole falls to the ground . A Parasite would make but a lean trade of it , that should confine himself to truth . For tho t is possible so to order the manner and circumstances , as to flatter even in the representing a mans real vertues to him , yet commonly if they do not falsify as to the kind , they are forc'd to do it as to the degree . Besides as there are but few such subjects of Flattery , so neither are men of that Worth so receptive of it . Such sort of addresses are less dangerous to those who have the perspicacity to see thro them : so that these Merchants are under a a necessity of dealing with the more ignorant Chapmen , and with them their counterfeit wares will go off best . It is indeed strange to consider , with what gross impudent falshoods men of this trade will court their Patrons . How many in former Ages have not only amass'd together all sublunary excellences , but have even ransacked heaven to supply their Flattery , Deified their Princes , and perswaded them they were Gods , who at last found they were to die like men ? And tho this strein be now out-dated , yet perhaps t is not that the vice is grown more modest , but that Atheism has rob'd it of that Topic . Those that believe no God , would rather seem to annihilate then magnify the person to whom they should apply the title . But I do not find that the practice has any other bounds . A great mans vices shall still be called vertues ; his deformities , beauties ; and his most absurd follies , the height of ingenuity . Such a subtil Alchymist is this Parasite , that he turns all he touches into gold , imaginary indeed as to the deluded Person , but oft-times real to himself . Nor is Lying less natural to the other part of Flattery , the Profession of service and kindness . This needs no evidencing , and to attemt it would be a self-Confutation : for if those Professions be true , they are not Flattery , therefore if they be Flattery , they must needs be Lies . It will be almost as needless to expatiate on the baseness and meaness of that sin ; for tho there is no Subject that affords more matter for Declamation , yet Lying is a thing that is ashamed of it self , and therefore may well be remitted to its own convictions . T is Aristotles observation , that all Elements but the Earth , had some Philosopher or other , that gave it his vote to be the first productive Principle of all things : and I think we may now say , that all Crimes have had their Abettors and fautors , some body that would stand up in their defence ; only Lying is so much the dregs and refuse of wickedness , that none has yet had Chymistry enough to sublimate it , to bring it into such a reputation , that any man will think fit to own it : the greater wonder that what is under so universal a reproch , should be so commonly admitted in practice . But by this we may make an estimate , what the whole body of Flattery is , when in one limb of it we find so much corruption . 4. A second is Servility and Abjectness of humor : and of this there needs no other proof then has bin already given ; this charge being implicitly involv'd in the former of Lying , the condescending to that , being a mark of a disingenuous spirit . And accordingly the nobler Heathens lookt on it as the vice of Slaves and vassals , below the liberty of a free man , as well as an honest . But tho I need no other evidence to make good the accusation , yet every Sycophant furnishes me with many supernumerary proofs . Look upon such a one , and you shall see his eies immoveably fixt on his Patrons face , watching each look , each glance , and in every change of his countenance ( like a Star-gazer ) reading his own destiny , his Ears chain'd ( like Gally-slaves at the oar ) to his dictate , sucking in the most insipid discourses with as much greediness , as if they were the Apothegms of the seven Sages , his Tongue tuned only to Panegyrics and Acclamations , his feet in winged motion upon every nod or other signification of his plesure : in a word , his whole body ( as if it had no other animal spirits then what it derived from him ) varies its postures , its exercises , as he finds agreeable to the humor he is to serve . And can humanity contrive to debase it self more ? Yes it can , and do's to often , by enslaving its Diviner part to , taking up not only opinions , but even crimes also in compliance , playing the incarnate Devil , and helping to act those villanies which Satan can only suggest : and if this be not a state of abject slavery , sure there is none in the world . Plutarch tells us , that Philoxenus for despising some dull Poetry of Dionysius , was by him condemed to dig in the Quarries : from whence being by the mediation of friends remanded , at his return Dionysius produced some other of his verses , which as soon as Philoxenus had heard , he made no reply , but calling to the Waiters , said , Let them carry me again to the Quarries . And if a heathen Poet could prefer a corporeal slavery before a mental , what name of reproch is low enough for those , who can submit to both , in pursuit of those poor sordid advantages they project by their Flatteries ? Nor is this baseness more observable in these mean fawnings and observances , then it is in the protestations of kindness and Friendship . Love is the greatest gift any man has to bestow , and Friendship the sacredest of all moral bonds , and to prostitute these to little pitiful designs , is sure one of the basest cheats we can put upon our common nature , in thus debasing her purest and most current coin , which by these frequent adulterations is become so suspected , that scarce any man knows what he receives . But Christian Charity is yet worse used in the case : for that obliging to all sincerity , is hereby induced to give gold for dross , exhibite that Love indeed , and in truth , which is returned only in word and in Tongue , 1 Joh. 3.18 . And so it do's in those who observe its rules : but in those who own , yet observe them not , 't is yet a greater sufferer , by laboring under the scandal of all their dissimulations . It was once the Character given Christians , even by their Enemies , Behold how they love one another : but God knows we may now be pointed out by a very differing mark , Behold how they deceive and delude one another . And sure this violation we herein offer to our Religion , do's not allay but aggravate the baseness of this practice : for if in the other we sell our selves , in this we sell our God too , sacrifice our interest in him to get a surreptitious title to the favor of a man. And this I conceive do's in the second place not much commend the art of Flattery , which is built up of so vile materials . 5. AND to compleat this infamous composition , in the third place Trechery comes in ; a crime of so odious a kind , that to name it is to implead it : yet how intrinsic a part this is of Flattery , will need no great skill to evidence , daily experience sufficiently doing it . T is a common observation of Flatterers , that they are like the Heliotrope , open only towards the sun , but shut and contract themselves at night , and in cloudy weather . Let the object of their adoration be but eclipsed , they can see none of those excellences which before dazled their eies : and however inconstant they may seem in it to others , they are indeed very constant to themselves , true to their fixt principle , of courting the greatness , not the man ; in pursuit whereof their old Idol is often made a sacrifice to their new : all malicious discovery is made of their falling friend , to buy an interest in the rising one . Of this there are such crouds of examples in Story , that it would be impertinent to single out any , especially in an Age that is fitter to furnish presidents for the future , then to borrow of the past-times . But supposing the Parasite not actually guilty of this base revolt ( which yet he seldom fails to be upon occasion ) yet is he no less Trecherous even in the height of his Blandishments ; and while he most courts a man , he do's the most ruinously undermine him . For first he abuses him in his understanding , precludes him from that which wise men have judged the most essential part of Learning , the knowledg of himself , from which 't is the main business of the Flatterer to divert him . And to this abuse there is another inevitably consequent : for this ignorance of his faults or follies , necessarily condemns him to the continuing in them , it being impossible for him to think of correcting either the one or the other , who is made believe he has neither . This is like the trechery of a bribed officer in a Garrison , who will not let the weak parts be fortified , and laies the man as open to assaults as that doth the Town . Yet this is not all , he do's not only provide for the continuance , but the improving of his crimes and errors , which alas are too prolific of themselves , but being cultivated and manured with perpetual soothings and encouragements , grow immesurably luxuriant . And accordingly we see that men used only to applauses , are so swell'd with them , that their insolences are intolerable . And this they are somtimes taught to their cost , when they happen among free-men , who will not submit to all they say , nor commend all they do . And finding these uneasy contradictions when they come abroad , they are willing to retire to their most complaisant company : and so this Sycophant Devil having once got them within his circle , may enchant them as he pleases , lead them from one wickedness to another , And as Caligula and other voluptuous Emperors , by being adored as Gods , sunk in their sensuality below the Nature of man , so these celebrated Persons are by that false veneration animated to all those reprochful practices , which may expose them to a real contemt ; their follies , as well as their vices still get head , till they answer the description the Wise man gives of the old Giants , Who fell away in the strength of their foolishness . Ecclus. 16.7 . 6. AND sure he that betraies a man to all these mischiefs , may well be thought perfidious . But that which infinitly amplifies and enhances the Trechery is , that all this is acted under the notion and disguise of a friend ; a relation so venerable , that methinks t is the nearest secular transcript of the treason , which is storied of those who have administred Poison in the Eucharist . The name of a friend is such an endearment , as nothing human can equal . All other natural or civil ties take their greatest force from this . What signifies an unfriendly Parent , or Brother , or Wife ? T is friendship only that is the cement which really and effectively combines mankind : and therefore we may observe , that God reckoning up other relations , illustrates them by several notes of endearment , but when he comes to that of friendship , t is the friend who is as thine own soul , Deut. 13.6 . nothing below the highest instance was thought expressive enough of that union . What a Legion of Fiends then possesseth men that can break these chains Mat. 5.4 . nay that can hammer and forge those very chains into Daggers and Stillettoes , and make their friendship an engine of ruine ? This is certainly the blackest color wherein we can view a Parasite , his false light makes the shadow the more dismal . As the Ape has a peculiar deformity above other brutes by that aukward and ungraceful resemblance he has to a man , so sure a Flatterer is infinitely the more hateful for being the ugly counterfeit of a Friend . And as this Trechery lies at the bottom of the Panegyrics , so also do's it of all the caresses and exuberant kindness of a Flatterer , which if they aimed not at any particular end of circumvention , must yet in the general be trecherous by being false . A man looks on the love of his friend as one of the richest possessions ( upon which account the Philosopher thought friends were to be Inventoried as well as goods . ) What a defeat and discomfiture is it to a man when he comes to use this wealth , to find it all false metal , such as will not answer any of those purposes for which he depended on it . There cannot sure be a greater Trechery , then first to raise a confidence and then deceive it . But besides this fundamental falseness , there are also many incidental Trecheries , which fall in upon occasion of particular designs . A pretence of kindness is the universal stale to all base projects : by this men are rob'd of their fortunes , and women of their honor : in a word all the wolfish designs walk under this sheeps clothing ; and as the world goes , men have more need to beware of those who call themselves friends , then those who own themselves enemies . 7. THESE are the lineaments of this vice of Flattery , which sure do together make up a face of most extreme deformity . I might upon a true account add another , and charge it with folly too . I am sure according to the Divine estimate it is alwaies so : and truly it do's not seldom prove so in the secular also . Men of this art do somtimes drop their vizard before they have got the prize , and then there is nothing in the world that appears to contemtible , so silly ; a barefaced Flatterer being every bodies scorn . The short is , wherever this game is plaied there is alwaies a fool in the case : if the parasite be detected , it falls to his share : if he be not , to his whom he deludes . But at the best t is but subtilty and cunning he can boast of ; and if he can in his own fancy raise that to the opinion of true Wisdom , t is a sign he is come round to practice his deceits upon him self , and is as much his own Flatterer as he has bin others . 8. AND now I know not whether it be more shame or wonder , to see that men can so put off ingenuity , and the native greatness of their kind , as to descend to so base , so ignoble a vice : yet alas we daily see it don , and that not only by the scum and refuse of the people , such as Job speaks of , who are viler then the earth , Cap. 30.8 . but by Persons of all conditions . Flattery like a spring forc'd upwards ascends , as cares are by the wise man said to descend , Ecclus. 40.4 . from him that weareth a linen frock to him that weareth a crown : all intermedial degrees are but like pipes , which as they suck from below , so transmit it still upwards . There are few so low but find some body to cajole and flatter them . Some interest or other may somtimes be to be served even upon the meanest ; and those that find themselves thus solicited for benefits , are easily taught by it how to address to their immediate superiors , from whom they expect greater : and as 't is thus handed from one rank to another , the art still is more subtilized and refined ( God help poor Princes the while , who commonly meet with the Elixir , and quintessence of this venem : ) and thus it passes thro all states and conditions : as they are passive on the one side , and are flattered by some , so they are active on the other , and flatter others . 9. I say all conditions , I do not say all Persons in those conditions , for no truly generous soul can stoop so low : but t is too evident to what a low ebb Generosity as well as Christianity is grown , by the numbers of those who thus degrade themselves , every little petty interest being thought worth these base submissions . And truly it is hard to find , by what Topic of perswasion to assault such men . The meanness , or the sin will scarce be disswasives to those who have reconciled themselves to both : if any thing can be pertinently said to them , it must be upon the score of Interest , for that being their grand principle , they can with no pretence disclame the inferences drawn thence . 10. LET them therefore duly ballance the advantages they project from this practice with the mischiefs and dangers of it . What they expect is commonly either Honor or wealth , these they hope may be acquired by their prostrations to those , who can dispense or procure them . T is true , as Honor signifies Greatness and Power , it is somtimes attain'd by it , but then as it signifies Reputation and Esteem , 't is as sure to be lost . He that thus ascends , may be lookt on with fear , but never with reverence . Now I think t is no good bargain to exchange this second notion of Honor for the first : for besides the difference in the intrinsic value , t is to be consider'd how tottering a Pinacle unmerited Greatness is . He that rais'd him to satisfy his humor at one time , can ( with more ease and equal justice ) throw him down at another : and when such a man do's fall , he falls as without pity , so without remedy , has no foundation on which to rebuild his fortune . His Sycophanting arts being detected , that Game is not to be plaid the second time : whereas a man of a clear reputation , tho his barque be split , yet he saves his Cargo , has something left towards setting up again , and so is in capacity of receiving benefit not only from his own industry , but the friendship of others . A sound piece of Timber , if it be not thought fit for one use , yet will be laid by for another : and an honest man will probably at one time or other be thought good for something . 11. As for the other aim , that of Wealth , 't is very possible that may somtimes be compassed ; and well it may , the flatterer having several Springs to feed it by . For he that has a great Patron , has the advantage of his countenance and Autority , he has that of his bounty and liberality , and he has another ( somtimes greater then both ) that of his negligence and deceivableness . But yet all these acquisitions are many times like Fairy mony , what is brought one night is taken away the next . Men of this mold seldom know how to bear prosperity temperately , and it is no new thing to see a Privado carry it so high , as to awaken the jealousy of his promoter , which being assisted by the busy industry of those who envy his fortune , t will be easy enough to find some flaw in the Gettings , by which to unravel the whole Web : an event that has bin oft experimented not only in the private managery of Families , but in the most public administrations . And these are such hazards , that laid all together would much recommend to any the Moral of Horaces Fable , and make one chuse the Country Mouses plain fare and safety , rather then the delicacies of the City with so much danger . This then is the state of the prosperous Parasite . But alas how many are there who never arrive to this , but are kickt down ere they have climb'd the two or three first rounds of the Ladder , whose designs are so humble , as not to aspire above a Major-Domo , or some such domestic preferment ( for , in this trade there are adventures of all sizes . ) But upon all these considerations , methinks it appears no very inviting one to any . At the long run an honest freedom of speech will more recommend a man , then all these sneaking flatteries : we have a very wise mans word for it , he that rebuketh a man , afterwards shall find more favor , then he that flattereth with his lips , Prov. 28.23 . 12. BUT after all that hath or can be said , the suppression of Flattery will most depend upon those Persons to whom it is addrest : if it be not repuls'd there , nothing else will discourage it ; and if it be , 't is crusht in the egg , and can produce no viper . These Vulturs prey only on carcasses , on such stupid minds , as have not life and vigor enough to fray them away . Let but Persons of quality entertain such customers with a severe brow , with some smart expression of dislike , those Leeches will immediatly fall off . In Sparta when all laws against theft prov'd ineffectual , at last they fixt the penalty on them that were robb'd , and by that did the business : and in the present case , if 't were made as infamous to be flatter'd as 't is to flatter , I believe it might have the like effect . Indeed there is pretence enough to make it so : for first as to Wit , the advantage is clear on the Flatterers side : he must be allowed to have more of that ( which in this Age is more then a counterpoise to honesty ; and as for vertue , the balance ( as to the principal motive ) seems to hang pretty even : t is the vice of Avarice that temts the one to flatter , and the vice of Pride that makes it acceptable to the other . The truth is , there is the bottom of the matter : t is that secret confederate within , that exposes men to those assaults from without . We have generally such an appetite to praise , that we greedily suck in without staying to examine whether it belong to us or no , or whether it be design'd as a kindness or an abuse . Other injuries rush upon us with violence , and give us notice of their approch : they may be said to come like water into our bowels ; but this like oil into our bones , Ps. 109.18 . penetrates easily , undiscernibly , by help of that native propension we have to receive it . T is therefore the near concern of all , especially of those whose quality most exposes them , to keep a guard upon that trecherous immate , not to let that step into the scale to make a base Sycophant out-weigh a true friend . And when ever they are attacqued with extravagant Encomiums , let them fortify themselves with this Dilemma , either they have those excellences they are praised for , or they have not : if they have not , t is an apparent cheat and gull , and he is of a pitiful forlorn understanding that delights to be fool'd ; but if they have , they are too good to be exposed to such worms who will instantly wither the fairest gourd , John. 4.7 . For as it is said of the Grand Signior , that no grass growes where his horse once treads : so we may say of the Flatterer , no vertue ever prospers where he is admitted : if he find any he hugs it till he stifles it , if he find none , he so indisposes the soil , that no future seeds can ever take root . In fine , he is a mischief beyond the description of any Character . O let not men then act this Part to themselves by being their own Parasites ! and then t will be an easy thing to escape all others . SECT . IX . Of Boasting . 1. WE have now seen some effects of an ungovern'd Tongue , as they relate to God and our Neighbor . There is yet a third sort which reflect upon a mans self . So unboundedly mischievous is that petulant member , that heaven and earth are not wide enough for its range , but it will find work at home too ; and like the viper , that after it had devoured its companions , prei'd upon its self , so it corrodes inward , and becomes as fatal to its owner , as to all the world besides . 2. OF this there are as many instances , as there are imprudent things said , for all such have the worst reflection upon the speaker : and therefore all that have given rules for civil life , have in order to it put very severe restraints upon the Tongue , that it run not before the judgment . T was the advice of Zeno to dip the Tongue in the mind before one should permit it to speak . Theophrastus used to say , It was safer trusting to an unbridled , horse , then to intemperate speech . And daily experience confirms the Aphorism ; for those that set no guard upon their Tongues , are hurried by them into a thousand indecences , and very often into real considerable mischiefs . By this means men have proved their own delators , discovered their own most important secrets : and whereas their heart should have kept a lock upon their Tongues , they have given their Tongue the key of their heart , and the event has bin oft as unhappy as the proceeding was preposterous . There are indeed so many waies for men to lose themselves in their talk , that I should do the like if I should pretend to trace them . Besides my subject leads me not to discourse Ethically , but Christianly of the faults of the Tongue , and therefore I have all along considered the one no farther then it happens to be twisted with the other . 3. IN the present case I shall insist only upon one fault of the Tongue , which partakes of both kinds , and it is at once a vice and a folly , I mean that of Boasting and vaunting a mans self : a strain to which some mens tongues have a wonderful glibness . No discourse can be administred , but they will try to turn the tide , and draw it all into their own Chanel , by entertaining you with long stories of themselves : or if there be no room for that , they will at least screw in here and there some intimations of what they did or said . Yea so stupid a vanity is this , that it works alike upon all materials : not only their greater and more illustrious acts or sentences , but even their most slight and trivial occurrences , by being theirs , they think acquire a considerableness , and are forcibly imposed upon the company ; the very dreams of such people strait commence prophesy , and are as seriously related , as if they were undoubted revelations . And sure if we reflect upon our Saviors rule , that Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh , we cannot but think these men are very full of themselves ; and to be so , is but another phrase for being very proud . So t is Pride in the heart , which is the spring that feeds this perpetual current at the mouth , and under that notion we are to consider it . 4. AND truly there is nothing can render it more infamous , Pride being a vice that of all others is the most branded in Scripture as most detestable to God , and is signalized by the punishment to be so . This turned Lucifer out of Heaven , Nebuchadnezzar out of his Throne , nay out of Human society . And indeed it seems still to have somthing of the same effect , nothing rendring a man so inconsiderable ; for it sets him above the meaner sort of company , and makes him intolerable to the better , and to complete the parallel , he seldom comes to know himself till he be turn'd a grazing , be reduced to some extremities . 5. BUT this Boasting arrogant humor , tho alwaies bad , yet is more or less so according to the Subject on which it works . If it be only on Natural excellences , as Beauty , Wit ; or accidental acquisitions , as Honor , Wealth , or the like , yet even here t is not only a Theft , but a Sacriledg ; the glory of those being due only to the Donor , not to the receiver , there being not so much as any predisposition in the subject to determine Gods bounty . He could have made the most deformed Beggar as handsom and as rich , as those who most pride themselves in their wealth and beauty . No man fancies himself to be his own Creator , and tho some have assumed to be the Architects of their own fortunes , yet the frequent defeats of mens industry and contrivance , do sufficiently confute that bold pretence , and evince , that there is somthing above them , which can either blast or prosper their attemts . What an invasion then is it of Gods right , to ingross the honor of those things being don , which were not at all in their power to do ? And sure the folly is as great in respect of men , as the sin is towards God. This boasting like a heavy Nurse , over-laies the Child : the vanity of that quite drowns the notice of the things in which t is founded ; and men are not so apt to say , such a man is Handsom , Wise , or Great , as that he is proud upon the fancy of being so . In a word , he that celebrates his own excellences , must be content with his own applauses , for he will get none of others , unless it be from those fawning Sycophants , whose praises are worse then bitterest Detraction . 6. AND yet so sottish a vice is Pride , that it can make even those insidious Flatteries matter of boast , which is a much more irrational object of it then the former . How eagerly do some men propagate every little Encomium their Parasites make of them ? With what gust and sensuality will they tell how such a Jest of theirs took , or such a Magnificence was admired ? T is plesant to see what little arts and dexterities they have to wind in such things into discourse : when alas it amounts to no more then this , that some have thought them fools enough to be flatter'd , and t is odds but the hearers will think them enough so to be laught at . 7. BUT there is yet another Subject of Boasting more foolish , and more criminal too then either of the former , and that is when men vaunt of their Piety , which if it were true , were yet less owing to themselves then any natural endowment . For tho we do not at all assist towards them , yet do we neither obstruct ; but in the operations of Grace t is otherwise ; we have there a principle of opposition , and God never makes us his own till he subdue that : and tho he do it not by an irresistible force , but by such sweet and gentle insinuations , that we are somtimes captivated ere we are aware : yet that do's not impeach his right of conquest , but only shews him the more gracious conqueror . T is true in respect of the event we have great cause of exultance and joy , Gods service being the most perfect freedom ; yet in regard of the efficiency , we have as little matter of Boast , as the surprized City has in the triumphs of its victor . 8. BUT secondly either this vaunted Piety is not real , and then t is good for nothing , or else by being vaunted becomes so . If it be not real , t is then the superadding Hypocrisy to the former sacriledg , an attemt at once to rob God and cheat men , and in the event usually renders them hateful to both ; to God ( who cannot be mocked ) it do's so at the instant , and seldom misses to do so at last to men . An Hypocrite has a long part to act , and if his memory fail him but in any one scene , his play is spoiled : so that his hazards are so great , that t is as little prudent as t is honest to set up the trade , especially in an age when Piety it self is at so low a price , that its counterfeit cannot pass for much . But if the Piety be indeed true , the Boasting it blasts it , makes it utterly insignificant . This we are told by Christ himself , who assures us that even the most Christian actions of praier , almes , and fasting , must expect no other reward ( when boasted ) then the sought-for applause of men . Mat. 6. When a man shall make his own tongue the trumpet of his Alms , or the echo of his Praiers , he carves , or rather snatches his own reward , and must not look God should heap more upon him : the recompence of his pride he may indeed look for from him , but that of his vertue he has forestall'd . In short , piety is like those lamps of old , which maintain'd their light some ages under ground , but as soon as they took air expired . And surely there cannot be a more deplorable folly , then thus to lose a rich Jewel , only for the pitiful plesure of shewing it : it s the humor of Children and Idiots , who must be handling their birds till they fly away , and it ranks us with them in point of discretion , tho not of innocence . 9. FROM the view of these particulars we may in the gross conclude that this ostentation is a most foolish sin , such as never brought in advantage to any man. There is no vice so undermines it self as this do's : t is glory it seeks , and instead of gaining that , it loses common ordinary estimation . Every body that sees a bladder puft up , knows t is but wind that so swells it : and there is no surer argument of a light frothy brain then this bubbling at the mouth . Indeed there is nothing renders any man so contemtible , so utterly useless to the world : it excludes him almost from all commerce , makes him uncapable of receiving or doing a benefit . No man will do him a good turn , because he fore-sees he will arrogate it to himself , as the effect of his merit : and none ( that are not in some great exigence ) will receive one from him , as knowing it shall be not only proclamed , but magnified much above the true worth . There seems to be but one purpose for which he serves , and that is to be sport for his company : and that he seldom fails to be , for in these gamesome daies men will not lose such an opportunity of divertisement , and therefore will purposely give him hints , which may put him upon his Rhodomontades . I do not speak this by way of encouragement to them , but only to shew these vaporers , to what scorn they expose themselves , and what advantage they give to any that have a mind to abuse them : for they need not be at any pains for it , they do but swim with their stream ; an approving nod or smile serves to drive on the design , and make them display themselves more disadvantagiously , more ridiculously , then the most Satyrical Character could possibly do . 10. BUT besides these sportive projects , such a man laies himself open to more dangerous circumventions . He that shews himself so enamour'd of praise , that ( Narcissus like ) dotes on his own reflections , is a fit prey for Flatterers , and such a Carcase will never want those Eagles : when his weak part is once discern'd ( as it must soon be when himself publishes it ) he shall quickly be surrounded with assailants . The last Section has shewed the misery of a man so besieged , therefore I shall not enlarge on it here , this mention being only intended to evince how apt this vain glorious humor is to betray men to it . 11. THESE are competent Specimens of the folly of this vice : but it has yet a farther aggravation , that it precludes all means of growing wiser . T is Solomons assertion , Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit ? there is more hope of a Fool then of him , Prov. 26.12 . and the reason is evident , for he discards the two grand instruments of Instruction , Admonition and Observation . The former he thinks superseded by his own Perfections , and therefore when any such friendly office is attemted towards him , he imputes it either to Envy , and a desire to eclipse his lustre by finding some spot , or else to Ignorance and incapacity of estimating his worth : the one he entertains with Indignation , the other with disdainful Pity . As for observation , he so circumscribes it within himself , that it can never fetch in any thing from without . Reading of men has bin by some thought the most facile and expedite Method for acquiring Knowledg ; and sure for some kinds of Knowledg it is : but then a man must not only read one Author , much less the one worst he can pick out for himself . T is an old true saying , He that is his own Pupil shall have a Fool for his Tutor : and truly he that studies only himself , will be like to make but a sorry Progress . Yet this is the case of arrogant men : they lose all the benefit of Conversation , and when they should be enriching their Minds with foreign tresure , they are only counting over their own store . Instead of adverting to those sober discourses which they hear from others , they are perhaps watching to interrupt them by some pompous Story of themselves , or at least in the abundance of their self-sufficiency , think they can say much better things , Magisterially obtrude their own notions , and fall a teaching when t is fitter they should learn : and sure to be thus forward to lay out , and take no care to bring in , must needs end in a Bunkrupt state . T is true I confess the study of a mans-self is ( rightly taken ) the most useful part of Learning , but then it must be such a Study as brings him to know himself , which none do so little as these men , who in this are like those silly women the Apostle describes , 2 Tim. 3.7 . who are ever learning yet never attain . And 't is no wonder , for they begin at the wrong end , make no inquiry into their faults or defects , but fix their Contemplation only on their more splendid qualities , with which they are so dazled , that when you bring them to the darker parts of themselves , it fares with them as with those that come newly from gazing on the Sun , they can see nothing . 12. AND now having dissected this swelling vice , and seen what it is that feeds the tumor , the cure suggests it self . If the disease be founded in Pride , the abating that is the most natural and proper remedy : and truly one would think that mere weighing of the foregoing considerations , might prove sufficient allaies to it . Yet because where humors are turgent , t is necessary not only to purge them , but also to strengthen the infested parts , I shall adventure to give some few advices by way of Fortification and Antidote . 13. IN the first place , that of the Apostle offers it self to my hand , Look not every man on his own things , but every man also on the things of others . Phil. 2.4 . A counsel which in a distorted sense seems to be too much practiced . We are apt to apply it to worldly advantages , and in that notion not to look on our own things with thankfulness , but on other mens with envy . We apply it also to errors and sins , and look not on our own to correct and reform , but on others to despise and censure . Let us at last take it in the genuine sense , and not look on our own excellencies , but those of others . We see in all things how desuetude do's contract and narrow our faculties , so that we can apprehend only those things wherein we are conversant . The droiling Pesant scarce thinks there is any world beyond his own Village , or the neighboring Markets , nor any gaity beyond that of a Wake or Morrice ; and men who are accustom'd only to the admiration of themselves , think there is nothing beside them worthy of regard . The unbred minds must be a little sent abroad , made acquainted with those excellencies which God has bestowed on other men , and then they will not think themselves like Gideons fleece to have suckt up all the dew of heaven : nay perhaps , they may find they rather answer the other part of the miracle ; and are drier then their neighbors . Let them therefore put themselves in this course , observe diligently all the good that is visible in other men : and when they find themselves mounting into their altitudes , let them clog their wings with the remembrance of those who have out-soar'd them , not in vain opinion , but in true worth . T is nothing but the fancy of singularity that puffs us up To breath , to walk , to hear , to see , are excellent powers , yet no body is proud of them , because they are common to the whole kind : and therefore if we would observe the great number of those that equal , or exceed us , even in the more appropriate endowments , we should not put so excessive a price upon our selves . 14. SECONDLY if we will needs be reflecting upon our selves , let us do it more ingenuously , more equally : let us take a true survey , and observe as well the barren as the fertil part of the soil : and if this were don , many mens value would be much short of what they are willing to suppose it . Did we but compare our crop of Weeds and Nettles , with that of our Corn , we must either think our ground is poor , or our selves very ill husbands . When therefore the recollection of either real or fancied worth begins to make us aĆ«ry , let us condense again by the remembrance of our sins and folly : t is the only possible service they can do us , and considering how dear they are to cost us , we had not need lose this one accidental advantage . In this sense Satan may cast out Satan , our vilest guilts help to eject our pride ; and did we well manage this one stratagem against him , 't would give us more cause of triumph , then most of those things for which we so spread our plumes : I do not say we should contract new guilts to make us humble , God knows we need not , we have all of us enough of the old stock if we would but thus employ them . 15. IN the last place I should advise those who are apt to talk big things of themselves , to turn into some other road of discourse : for if they are their own Theme , their tongues will as naturally turn into Eulogies , as a horse do's into that Inn to which he is customed . All habits do require some little excess of the contrary to their cure : for we have not so just a scantling of our selves , as to know to a grain what will level the scales , and place us in the right Mediocrity . Let men therefore that have this infirmity , shun ( as far as prudence and interest permits ) all discourse of themselves , till they can sever it from that unhappy appendage . They will not be at all the less acceptable company , it being generally thought none of the best parts of breeding , to talk much of ones self : for tho it be don so as not to argue pride , yet it do's ignorance of more worthy subjects . 16. I should here conclude this Section , but that there is another sort of vaunting Talk , which was not well reducible to any of the former Heads , the Subject matter being vastly distant : for in those the Boasting was founded in some either real or supposed worth , but in this in Baseness and villany . There are a Generation of men , who have removed all the Land-marks which their Fathers ( nay even the Father of Spirits ) have set , reverst the common notions of Humanity , and call evil good , and good evil , and those things which a moderate impudence would blush to be surprized in , they not only proclame but boast of , blow the Trumpet as much before their crimes , as others before their good deeds . Nay so much do they affect this inverted sort of Hypocrisy , that they own more wickedness then they act , assume to have made Practical the highest Speculations of villany , and like the Devils Knights errant , pretend to those Romantic atchievements , which the veriest Fiend incarnate could never compass . These are such Prodigies , such Monsters of villany , that tho they are the objects of Grief and Wonder , they are not of Counsel . Men who thus rave , we may conclude their brains are turned , and one may as well read Lectures at Bedlam as treat with such . Yet we know that there sharp corrections recover crazed men to Sobriety ; and then their Cure lies only in the hand of Civil Justice : if that would take them at their words , receive their brags as Confessions , and punish them accordingly , it may be a little real smart would correct this mad Itch , and and teach them not to glory in their shame , Phil. 3.19 . IN the mean time let others who are not ā—et arrived to this height , consider betimes , that all indulgent practice of sin is the direct Road to it , and according to the degrees of that indulgence , they make more or less hast . He that constantly and habitually indulges , rides upon the Spur , and will quickly overtake his Leaders . Nay if it be but this once vice of vanity , it may finally bring him to their state . He that loves to brag , will scarce find exercise enough for that faculty in his vertues , and therefore may at last be temted to take in his vices also . But that which is more seriously considerable is , that Pride is so provoking to Almighty God , that it often causes him to withdraw his Grace , which is a Donative he has promised only to the humble , Jam. 4.6 . And indeed when we turn that Grace into wantonness , as the Proud man do's who is pamper'd by it into high conceits of himself , t is not probable God will any longer prostitute his favors to such abuse . The Apostle observes it of the Gentiles , who had in contradiction of their natural light abandon'd themselves to vile Idolatries , that God after gave them up to a reprobate mind and vile affā—ctions ā–Ŗ Rom. 1.25 26. But the Proud now stifle a much clearer light , and give up themselves to as base an Idolatry , the adoration of themselves . And therefore t is but equal to expect God should desert them , and ( as some Nations have Deā—fied their diseases ) permit them to celebrate even their fowlest enormities . The application of all I shall sum up in the words of the Apostle , Rom. 11.21 . Take heed also that he spare not thee . SECT . X. Of Querulousness . 1. TO this of Boasting may not unfitly be subjoin'd another inordinancy of the Tongue , viz. murmuring and complaining . For tho these faults seem to differ as much in their complexions , as Sanguine do's from Melancholy , yet there is nothing more frequent then to see them united in the same Person . Nor is this a conjunction of a later date , but is as old as St. Jā—de's daies , who observe ā—hat the murmurers and complainers are the very same with those who speak great swelling words , Jude 16. 2. NOR are we to wonder to find them thus conjoined , if we consider what an original cognation and kindred they have , they being ( however they seem divided ) streams issuing from the same fountain . For the very same Pride which promts a man to vaunt and over-value what he is , do's as forcibly incline him to contemn and disvalue what he has ; whilst mesuring his enjoiments by that vast Idea he has form'd of himself , 't is impossible but he must think them below him . 3. THIS indeed is the true original of those perpetual complainings we hear from all sorts and conditions of men . For let us pass thro all Degrees , all Ages , we shall rarely find a single Person , much less any number of men , exemt from this Querulous , this sullen humor : as if that breath of life wherewith God originally inspired us , had bin given us not to magnify his bounty , but to accuse his illiberality , and like the dismaller sort of instruments , could be tuned to no other Streins but those of Mourning and Lamentation . Every man contributes his note to this doleful Harmony , and after all that God has don to oblige and delight mankind , scarce any man is satisfied enough , I will not say to be thankful , but to be patient . For alas what Tragical complaints do men make of their infelicity , when perhaps their prosperity is as much the envious out-cry of others ? Every little defeat of a design , of an appetite , every little dis-regard from those above them , or less solemn observance from those below them , makes their Heart hot within them , Psal. 39.3 . and the tongue ( that combustible part ) quickly takes fire and breaks out into extravagant exclamations . It is indeed strange to see how weighty every the trivialliest thing is when a passion is cast into the scale with it , how every the slightest inconvenience or petty want preponderates hundreds of great substantial blessings : when indeed were it in an instance never so considerable , it could be no just Counterpoise . Yet so closely is this corruption interwoven with our constitution , that it has somtimes prevail'd even upon good men . Jacob tho he had twelve sons , yet upon the supposed death of one deā—pis'd the comforts of all the rest , and with an obstinate sorrow resolves to go mourning to his Grave , Gen. 35.37 . David after that signal victory which had preserv'd his life , reinstated him in his Throne , and restor'd him to the Ark and Sanctuary , yet suffer'd the loss of his rebellious son , who was the Author of his danger , to overwhelm the sense of his deliverance , and instead of Hymns and praises , breaks out into ejulations and effeminate wailings , 2 Sam. 18.33 . 4. BUT God knows the most of our complaints cannot pretend to such considerable motives : they are not the bowels of a Father , the impresses of Nature that excite our repinings , but the impulses of our lusts and inordinate appetites . Our discontents are usually such as Ahab's for his neighbors vineyard , Haman's for Mordecai's obeisance , Achitophel's for having his counsel rejected . Every disappointment of our avarice , ambition , and pride , fill's our heart with bitterness and our mouths with clamors . For if we should examine the numerous complaints which sound in every corner , it would doubtless be found that the greatest part of them have some such original : and that , whether the pretended grievances be public or private . For the first : many a man is a state male-content , merely because he sees another advanced to that honor or wealth which he thinks he has better deserv'd . He is alwaies inveighing against such unequal distributions , where the best services ( such you may be sure his own are ) are the worst rewarded : nor do's he ever cease to predict public ruines , till his private are repared . But as soon as that is don , his Augury grows more mild : and as if the estate and he were like Hippocrates's twins , his recruites give new vigor to that , and till his next suit is denied , every thing is well administred . So full alas men are of themselves , that t is hard to find any the most splendid pretence which has not somthing of that at the bottom : and would every man ransack his own heart , and resolve not to cast a stone till he had first cleer'd it of all sinister respects , perhaps the number of our complainers would be much abated . 5. NOR is it otherwise in private discontents . Men are apt to think themselves ill used by any man who will not serve their interest or their humor , nay somtimes their vices ; and are prone in all companies to arraign such an unpliant Person , as if he were an enemy to mankind , because he is not a slave to their will. Nay many have quarrel'd even with their dearest friends , because they would not assist them to their own ruine , or have striven to divert them from it : so forcible are our propensions to mutiny , that we equally take occasions from benefits or injuries . 6. BUT the highest and most unhappy instance of all is our behavior towards God , whose allotments we dispute with the same or rather greater boldness then we do those of men . What else mean those impatient murmurs at those things which are the immediat issues of his Providence ? Such are our native blemishes , diseases , death of friends , and the like . Nay what indeed are our displesures even at those things which we pretend to fasten upon a Second Cause ? For those being all under this subordination of the first , cannot move but by its permission . This holy Job well discern'd , and therefore do's not indite the Chaldeans or Sabeans for his plunder , but knowing they were but instruments , he submissly acknowledges , that there was a higher agent in his loss , The Lord hath taken away , Job . 1.28 . When therfore we ravingly execrate the rapine of one man , the deceit of another for our impoverishment , when we angrily charge our defamation on the malice of our maligners , our disappointments on the treachery or negligence of our friends , we do interpretatively conclude either that there is no over-ruling providence which could have restrained those events , or else ( which is equally horrid ) we accuse it as not having don well in permitting them . So that against whomsoever we direct our clamors , their last rebound is against Heaven : this Querulous humor carrying alwaies an implicite repugnance to Gods disposals : but where it is indulged to , it usually is its own expositor , and explicitely avows it , charges God foolishly , and by impious murmurs blasphemes that power which it cannot resist . Indeed the progress is very natural for our impatiences at man to swell into mutinies against God : for when the mind is once imbiter'd , it distinguishes not of objects , but indifferently le ts fly its venem . He that frets himself , the Prophet tells us , will curse his King , nay his God , Isa. 8.21 . and he that quarrels at Gods distributions , is in the direct road to defie his Being . 7. BY this we may estimate the danger of our discontents , which tho at first they are introduced by the inordinate love of our selves , yet are very apt to terminate in hatred and Blasphemies against God. He therefore that would secure himself from the highest degree , must watch against the lowest ; as he that would prevent a total Inundation , must avert the smallest breach in his Banks . Not but that even the first beginnings are in themselves well worth our guarding : for abstracting from all the danger of this enormous increase , these murmurings ( like a mortiferous Herb ) are poisonous even in their first Spring , before they arrive to their full maturity . To be alwaies moralizing the Fable of Prometheus upon one's self , playing the Vultur upon one's own entrails , is no desirable thing , tho we were accountable to none but our selves for it : to dip our tongues in gall , to have nothing in our mouth but the extract , and exhalation of our inward bitterness , is sure no great Sensuality . So that did we consult only our own ease , we might from that single Topic draw Arguments enough against our mutinies . 8. BUT besides our duty and ease , our credit and reputation make their plea also . Fortitude is one of the noblest of moral vertues , and has the luck to appear considerable even to those who despise all the rest . Now one of the most proper and eminent acts of that is , the bearing adverse events with an evenness of temper . This passive valour is as much the mark of a great mind as the active , nay perhaps more , the later being often owing to the Animal , this to the Rational part of man. And sure we must strangely have corrupted the principles of Morality as well as Religion , if every turbulent unruly Spirit , that fills the world with blood and rapine , shall have his ferity called gallantry ; yet that sober courage , that maintains it self against all the shocks of Fortune , that keeps its Post in spight of the rudest encounters , shall not be allowed at least as good a name . And then on the contrary we may conclude , that to sink under every cross accident , to be still whining and complaining , crying out upon every touch , is a note of a mean degenerous soul , below the dionity of our reasonable nature . For certainly God never gave us reason for so unkind a purpose , as only to quicken and inhance the resentment of our sufferings , but rather to controle those disorders , which the more tumultuous part of us , our senses , are apt to raise in us : and we are so far men and no farther , as we use it to that end . Therefore if the dictates of Religion cannot restrain our murmurs , if we are not Christians enough to submit to the divine precepts of meekness and acquiescence : yet let us at least keep within these bounds which ingenuous nature has set us , and not by our manly impatiencies enter common with Brutes and Animals . 9. NAY I may farther add , if neither for Gods nor our own sakes , yet for others , for humane society sake , this querulous inclination should be supprest ; there being nothing that renders a man more unplesant , more uneasy company . For ( besides that 't is very apt to vent it self upon those with whom he converses , rendring him capricious and exceptious ; and t is a harsh , a grating sound to hear a man alwaies in the complaining Key ) no man would willingly dwell within the noise of shreeks and groans ; and the exclamations of the discontented differ from those only by being more articulate . It is a very unwelcome importunity , to entertain a mans company with remonstrances of his own infelicites and misadventures ; and he that will relate all his grievances to others , will quickly make himself one to them . For tho he that is full of the inward sense of them , thinks it rather an ease then oppression to speak them out , yet the case is far otherwise with his Auditors : they are perhaps as much taken up with themselves ; as he is , and as little at leisure to consider his concerns , as he theirs . Alas we are not now in those primitive daies , when there was as it were one common sense among Christians , when if one member suffer'd , all the members suffer'd with it , 1 Cor. 12.26 . That Charity which gave that sympathetic motion to the whole , is now it self benum'd , flows rarely beyond the narrow compass of our personal interest ; and therefore we cannot expect that men should be very patient of our complaints who are not concern'd in the causes of them . The Priests answer to Judas do's speak the sense of most men in the case , What is that to us ? See thou to that , Mat. 27.4 . I do not deny but that the discharging ones griefs into the bosome of a true friend , is both innocent and prudent : nay indeed he that has such a tresure , is unkind to himself if he use it not . But that which I would disswade , is the promiscuous use of this liberty in common conversation , the satisfying our Spleen , when we cannot ease our hearts by it , the loud declamings at our misery , which is seldom sever'd from as severe reflections on those whom we suppose the causes of it ; by which nothing can be acquired but the opinion of our Impatience , or perhaps some new grievance from some , who think themselves concern'd to vindicate those whom we asperse . In a word 't is as indecent as it is unacceptable , and we may observe all men are willing to slink out of such company , the Sober for the hazards , and the Jovial for the unplesantness . So that the murmurer seems to be turn'd off to the company of those doleful Creatures which the Prophet mentions , which were to inhabit the ruines of Babylon , 13.21 . For he is ill Conversation to all men , tho the worst of all to himself . 10. AND now upon the force of all these considerations , I may reasonably impress the Wise mans Counsel , Therefore beware of murmuring , Wisd. 1.11 . And indeed it is not the precept of the Wise man alone , but of all who have made any just pretence to that title . For when we consider those excellent lectures of contentation and acquiescence , wherewith the writings of Philosophers abound , 't is hard to say whether they speak more of instruction or reproch to us . When their confused notions of a Deity had given them such impressions of his Wisdom and goodness , that they would not pretend to make any elections for themselves : how do's it shame our more explicite knowledg , who dare not depend on him in the smallest instance ? who will not take his disposals for good , unless our senses become his sureties ? which amounts but to that degree of credit , which the most faithless man may expect from us , the trusting him as far as we see him . This is such a contumely to him , as the Ethnic world durst not offer him , and is the peculiar insolence of us degenerated Christians , who sure cannot be thought in earnest when we talk of singing Hallelujahs in the next world to him , whilst we entertain him here only with the sullen noise of murmurs and repinings . For we are not to think that Heaven will Metamorphose us on a sudden , and turn our exclamations and wild clamors into Lauds and Magnificats . It do's indeed perfect and crown those graces which were here inchoate and begun , but no mans conversion ever succeeded his being there : for Christ has expresly told us , That except we be converted , we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven , if we go hence in our froward discontents , they will associate us with those , with whom is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth . SECT . XI . Of Positiveness . 1. ANOTHER very unhandsom circumstance in discourse is the being over confident and peremtory , a thing which do's very much unfit men for conversation , it being lookt on as the common birth-right of mankind , that every man is to opine according to the dictates of his own understanding , not anothers . Now this Peremtoriness is of two sorts , the one a Magisterialness in matters of opinion and speculation , the other a Positiveness in relating matters of fact : in the one we impose upon mens understandings , in the other on their faith . 2. FOR the first , he must be much a stranger in the world who has not met with it : there being a generation of men , who as the Prophet speaks , Are wise in their own eies , and prudent in their own sight , Isa. 5.21 . Nay not only so , but who make themselves the standards of wisdom , to which all are bound to conform , and whoever weighs not in their balance , be his reasons never do weighty , they write Tekel upon them . This is one of the most oppressive Monopolies imaginable : all others can concern only somthing without us , but this fastens upon our nature , yea and the better part of it too , our reason ; and if it meet with those who have any considerable share of that within them , they will often be temted to rally it , and not too tamely resign this native liberty . Reason submits only to Reason , and he that assaults it with bare Autority ( that which is Divine alwaies excepted ) may as well cut flame with his sword , or harden wax in the sun . 3. T IS true indeed these great Dictators do somtimes run down the company , and carry their Hypothesis without contest : but of this there may be divers reasons besides the weight of their arguments . Some unspeculative men may not have the skill to examine their assertions , and therefore an assent is their safest course ; others may be lazy and not think it worth their pains ; a third sort may be modest and awed by a severe brow and an imperious nod : and perhaps the wiser may providently fore-see the impossibility of convincing one who thinks himself not subject to error . Upon these or other like grounds t is very possible all may be silenced when never a one is convinced : so that these great Masters may often make very false estimates of their conquests , and sacrifice to their own nets , Heb. 1.16 . when they have taken nothing . 4. NAY indeed this insolent way of proposing is so far from propagating their notions , that it gives prejudice against them . They are the gentle insinuations which pierce , ( as oil is the most penetrating of all liquors ; ) but in these Magisterial documents men think themselves attackt , and stand upon their guard , and reckon they must part with Honor together with their Opinion , if they suffer themselves to be hector'd out of it . Besides , this imposing humor is so unaimable , that it gives an aversion to the Person ; and we know how forcible personal prejudices are ( tho t is true they should not be ) towards the biassing of Opinions . Nay indeed men of this temper do cut themselves off from the opportunities of Proselyting others , by averting them from their company . Freedom is the endearing thing in Society , and where that is control'd , men are not very fond of associating themselves . T is natural to us to be uneasy in the presence of those who assume an Authority over us . Children care not for the company of their Parents or Tutors , and men will care less for theirs , who would make them Children by usurping a Tutorage . 5. ALL these inconveniencies are evidently consequent to this Dogmatizing , supposing men be never so much in the right : but if they happen to be in the wrong , what a ridiculous pageantry is it , to see such a Philosophical gravity set to man out Solecism ? A concluding Face put upon no concluding Argument , is the most contemtible sort of folly in the world . They do by this sound a trumpet to their own defeat : and whereas a modest mistake might slip by undiscern'd , these Rodomontade errors force themselves upon mens observation , and make it as impossible for men not to see , as it is not to despise them when they do . For indeed Pride is as ill linkt with Error , as we usually say it is with Beggery , and in this as well as that , converts pity into contemt . 6. AND then it would be considered , what security any man that will be imposing has , that this will not be his case . Human nature is very fallible , and as it is possible a man may err in a great many things , so t is certain every man do's in somthing or other . Now who knows at the instant he is so positive , but this may be his erring turn ? Alas how frequently are we mistaken even in common ordinary things ! for as the Wise man speaks , hardly do we judg aright even in things that are before us , Wisd. 9.16 . our very senses do sometimes delude us . How then may we wander in things of abstruse speculations ? The consideration of this hath with some so prevail'd , that it has produc'd a Sect of Scepticism , and tho I press it not for that purpose , yet sure it may reasonably be urged to introduce some modesty and calmness in our assertions . For when we have no other certainty of our being in the right , but our own perswasions that we are so : this may often be but making one error the gage for another . For God knows confidence is so far from a certain mark of truth , that 't is often the seducer into falshood , none being so apt to lose their way as those who , out of an ungrouded persumtion of knowing it , despise all direction from others . 7. LET all this be weighed , and the result will be , that this peremtoriness is a thing that can befit no form of understanding . It renders Wise men disobliging and troublesom , and fools ridiculous and contemtible . It casts a prejudice upon the most solid reasoning , and it renders the lighter more notoriously despicable . T is pity good parts should be leven'd by it , made a snare to the owners , and useless to others . And 't is pity too that weak parts should by it be condemn'd to be alwaies so , by despising those Aids which should improve them . Since therefore 't is so ill calculated for every Meridian , would God all Climes might be purged from it . 8. AND as there are weighty objections against it in respect of its effects , so there are no inconsiderable prejudices in relation to its causes , of which we may reckon Pride to be the most certain and universal : for whatever else casually occurs to it , this is the fundamental constitutive principle ; nothing but a great overweening of a mans own understanding being able to instate him in that imaginary empire over other mens . For here sure we may ask the Apostles question , Who made thee to differ from another ? When God has made Rationality the common portion of mankind , how came it to be thy inclosure ? or what Signature has he set upon thine , what mark of excellency , that thine should be paramount ? Doubtless if thou fanciest thou hast that part of Jacobs blessing , To be Lord of thy brethren , and that all thy mothers sons should bow down to thee , Gen. 27.29 . thou hast got it more surreptiously then he did , and with less effect : for tho Isaac could not retract his mistaken benediction , God will never ratify that fantastic , thou hast pronounced to thy self , with his real effective one . 9. BUT there happens many times to be another ingredient besides Pride , and that is Ignorance : for those qualities however they may seem at war , do often very closely combine . He who has narrow notions , that knows but a few things , and has no glimpse of any beyond him , thinks there are no such : and therefore as if he had ( like Alexander ) no want but that of worlds to conquer , he thinks himself the absolute Monarch of all knowledg . And this is of all others the most unhappy composition : for ignorance being of its self like stiff clay , an infertile soil , when Pride comes to scorch and harden it , it grows perfectly impenetrable : and accordingly we see none are so inconvincible as your half-witted people , who know just enough to excite their pride , but not so much as to cure their ignorance . 10. THERE remains yet a 2d kind of Peremtoriness which I am to speak to , and that is of those who can make no relation without an attestation of its certainty : a sort of hospitable people , who entertain all the idle vagrant reports , and send them out with passports and testimonials , who when they have once adopted a story , will have it pass for legitimate how spurious soever it originally was . These somwhat resemble those Hospitals in Italy , where all bastards are sure of reception , and such a provision as may enable them to subsist in the world : and were it not for such men , many a Fatherless he would be stifled in its birth . It is indeed strange to see , how suddenly loose rumors knit into formal stories , and from thence grow to certainties ; but ' its stranger to see that men can be of such profligated impudence , as knowingly to give them that advance . And yet t is no rarity to meet with such men who will pawn their honor , their souls , for that unworthy purpose : nay and that too with as much impertinence as baseness , when no interest of their own , or perhaps any mans else is to be served by it . 10. THIS is so prodigious a thing , as seems to excite ones Curiosity to inquire the cause of so wonderful an effect . And here , as in other unnatural productions , there are several concurrents . If we trace it from its original , its first Element seems to be Idleness : this diverting a man from serious useful entertainments , forces him upon ( the usual refuge of vacant Persons ) the inquiring after News ; which when he has got , the venting of it is his next business . If he be of a credulous Nature , and believe it himself , he do's the more innocently impose it on others : yet then to secure himself from the imputation of Levity and too easy Faith , he is often temted to lend some probable circumstance . Nay if he be of a proud humor , and have that miserable vanity of loving to speak big , and to be thought a man of greater correspondence and intelligence then his Neighbors , he will not bate an Ace of absolute certainty ; but however doubtful or improbable the thing is , coming from him it must go for an indisputable truth . This seems to be the descent of this unhappy folly , which yet is often nurst up by a mean or imprudent Education . A man that hath converst only with that lower sort of company , who durst not dispute his veracity , thinks the same false Coin will pass over the world , which went currant among his Fathers Servants or Tenants : and therefore we may observe that this is more usual in young men , who have come raw into company with good fortunes and ill breeding . But it is too true also that too many never lose the habit , but are as morosely positive in their Age , as they were childishly so in their Youths . Indeed t is impossible they should be otherwise , unless they have the wit to disentangle themselves first from the love of Flattery , and after from the company of Flatterers : for ( as I have before observ'd ) no vice will ever wither under their shade . I think I shall do the Reader no ill office to let in a litle light upon them , and shew him some of those many mischiefs that attend this unworthy practice . 12. FIRST , it engages a man to Oaths , and for ought he knows to Perjuries . When he has lancht out boldy into an incredible relation , he thinks he has put his Credit upon the forelorn hope , and must take care to relieve it : and there is no succor so constantly ready at hand as that of Oaths and imprecations , and therefore whole vollies of them are discharged upon the doubtful . Thus do we make God a witness , and our Souls parties in the cause of every trifling rumor , as if we had model'd our Divinity by the Scheme of that Jesuitical Casuist , who legitimates the Killing of a man for an Apple . 13. A second mischief is , that it betraies man to quarrels . He that is peremtory in his own Story , may meet with another that is as peremtory in the contradiction of it , and then the two Sr. Positives must have a skirmish indeed . He that has attested the truth of a false , or the certainty of a doubtful thing , has brought himself into the same strait with Baalams Ass , he must either fall down flat , or run upon a sword , Num. 22.27 . For if his Hearers do but express a diffidence , either he must sink to a downright Confession that he was a Liar : or else he must huff and bluster till perhaps he raise a counter-storm , and as he fool'd himself out of his truth , so be beaten out of his pretence to it . Indeed there is scarce any quality that do's so temt and invite affronts as this do's : for he that can descend to such a meanness , may reasonably enough be presumed to have little ( as of true worth , so ) even of that which the world calls Gallantry , and so every puny sword-man will think him a good tame Quarry to enter and flesh himself upon . 14. IN the third place it exposes him to all the contemt and scorn which either good or ill men can fling upon him : the good abominate the sin , the ill triumph over the folly of it . The truth is there can be nothing more wretchedly mean. To be Kinght of the Post to every fabuā—ous relation , is such a sordid thing , that there can scarce be any name of reproch too vile for it . And certainly he that can pawn his faith upon such miserable terms , will by those frequent mortgages quickly be snapt upon a forfeiture ; or however will have his credit so impar'd by it , that no man will think his word a competent gage for the slightest concern . 15. AND this may pass for a fourth consideraton , That this Positiveness is so far from gaining credit to his present affirmation , that it destroies it for the future : for he that sees a man make no difference in the confidence of his asserting realities and fictions , can never take his mesures by any thing he avers , but according to the common Proverb , will be in danger of disbelieving him even when he speaks truth . And of this no man can want conviction , who will but consult his own observation . For what an allay do we find it to the credit of the most probable event , that it is reported by one who uses to stretch ? This unhappily do such men defeat their own designs : for while they aver stoutly that they may be believed , that very thing makes them doubted , the world being not now to learn how frequently Confidence is made a supplement for Truth . Nor let any man who uses this , flatter himself that he alone do's ( like Jobs messenger ) escape the common fate : for tho perhaps he meet with some who in civility or pity will not dispute the probability of his narrations , or with others who for raillery will not discourage the humor , with which they mean ( in his absence ) to divert themselves , yet he may rest assur'd he is discern'd by all , and derided for it . 16. IT therefore concerns men who either regard their truth , or their reputation , not to indulge to this humor , which is the most silly way of shipwracking both . For he that will lay those to stake upon every flying story , may as well wager his estate which way the wind will sit next morning , there being nothing less to be confided in , then the breath of fame , or the whispers of private tale-bearers . Wise men are afraid to report improbable truths : what a fool-hardiness is it then to attest improbable falsities , as it often is the luck of these Positive men to do ? 17. CERTAINLY there is nothing which they design by this , which may not be obtain'd more effectually by a modest and unconcern'd relation . He that barely relates what he has heard , and leaves the hearer to judg of the probability , do's as much ( I am sure more civilly ) entertain the company , as he that throws down his gauntlet in attestation . He as much satisfies the itch of telling news ; he as much perswades his hearers : nay very much more ; for these over earnest asseverations serve but to give men suspicion that the Speaker is conscious of his own falseness : and all this while he has his retreat secure , and stands not responsible for the truth of his relations . Nay indeed tho men speak never so known and certain truths , t is most advisable not to press them too importunately . For boldness , like the Bravoes and Banditti , is seldom emploied but upon desperate services , and is so known a Pander for lying , that truth is but defam'd by its attendance . 18. To conclude , modesty is so amiable , so insinuating a thing , that all the rules of Oratory cannot help men to a more agreeable ornament of discourse . And if they will try it in both the foregoing instances , they will undoubtedly find the effects of it : a modest proposal will soonest captivate mens reasons , and a modest relation their belief . SECT . X. Of Obscene Talk. 1. THERE is another vice of the Tongue which I cannot but mention , tho I knew not in which of the former Classes to place it : not that it comes under none , but that 't is so common to all , that 't is not easy to resolve to which peculiarly to assign it , I mean obscene and immodest talk , which is offensive to the purity of God , dammageable and infectious to the innocence of our Neighbors , and most pernicious to our selves : and yet is now grown a thing so common , that one would think we were fallen into an Age of Metamorphosis , and that the Brutes did , not only Poetically and in fiction , but really speak . For the talk of many is so bestial , that it seems to be but the conceptions of the more libidinous Animals clothed in human Language . 2. AND yet even this must pass for Ingenuity , and this vile descent below Humanity , must be counted among the highest streins of Wit. A wretched debasement of that sprightful Faculty , thus to be made the interpreter to a Goat or Boar : for doubtless had those Creatures but the organs of Speech , their Fancies lie enough that way to make them as good company , as those who more studiously apply themselves to this sort of entertainment . 3. THE crime is comprehensive enough to afford abundance of matter for the most Satyrical zeal : but I consider the dissecting of putrid Bodies may cast such pestilential fumes , as all the benefits of the scrutiny will not recompence . I shall therefore in respect to the Reader dismiss this noisom Subject , and thereby give an example with what abhorrence he should alwaies reject such kind of discourse , remembring the advice of St. Paul , That all uncleanness should not be once named among those who would walk as becometh Saints , Eph. 5.3 . The Close . 1. I Have now touched upon those enormities of Speech which I principally design'd to observe , wherein I have bin far from making a full and exact Catalogue : therefore I would have no man take this little Tract for a just Criterion , by which to try himself in reference to his words . Yet God grant that all that read it , may be able to approve themselves even by this imperfect essay , and he that do's so , makes fair approches towards being that perfect man St. James speaks of , chap. 3.1 . these being such faults of the Tongue as are the harder to avoid , because they are every day exemplified to us in common practice ( nay some of them recommended as reputable and ingenuous . ) And it is a strange insinuative power which example and custom have upon us . We see it in every trivial secular instance , in our very habit : those dresses which we laught at in our fore-fathers wardrobes or pictures , when by the circulation of time and vanity they are brought about , we think very becoming . T is the same in our diet : our very palates conform to the fashion , and every thing grows amiable to our fancies , according as t is more or less received in the world . And upon this account all sobriety and strict vertue lies now under a heavy prejudice , and no part of it more , then this of the Tongue , which custom has now enfranchized from all the bonds Moralists or Divines had laid upon it . 2. BUT the greater the difficulties are , the more it ought to awake our diligence : if we lie loose and carelesly , t is odds we shall be carried away with the stream . We had need therefore fix our selves , and by a sober recollection of the ends for which our Speech was given us , and the account we must one day give of it , impress upon our selves the baseness and the danger of misemploying it . Yet a negative innocence will not serve our turns , t will but put us in the condition of him , who wrapt up the talent he was commanded to employ , Mat. 25.25 . Nay indeed t will be impossible to preserve even that if we aspire no farther . The Tongue is a busie active Part , t will scarce be kept from motion : and therefore if that activity be not determin'd to good objects , t will be practicing upon bad . And indeed I believe a great part of its licentiousness is owing to this very thing . There are so few good themes of discourse in use , that many are driven to the ill for want of better . Learning is thought Pedantic , Agriculture Peasant-like , and Religion the most insufferable of all : so by excluding all useful subjects of converse , we come together ( as St. Paul in another case saies ) Not for the better but for the worse , 1. Cor. 11.17 . And if the Philosopher thought he had lost that day wherein he had not learnt somthing worthy his notice , how many daies do we worse then lose , by having them not only emty of solid useful acquisitions , but full of noxious and pernicious ones ? And indeed if they be the one , they will not miss to be the other also : for the mind is like the stomac , which if it be not supplied with wholesome nurishment , will at last suck in those humors with which the body most abounds . So that if in our converse we do not interchange sober usefull notions , we shall at the best but traffique toies and baubles , and most commonly infection and poison . He therefore that would keep his tongue from betraying himself or others to sin , must tune it to a quite contrary Key , make it an instrument , and incentive to vertue , by which he shall not only secure the negative part of his duty , but comply with the positive also , in employing it to those uses for which it was given him . 3. IT would be too vast an undertaking to prescribe the particular subjects of such discourse , nay indeed impossible , because many of them are occasional , such as cannot aforehand be reduced to any certain account . This only in the general we may rest upon , that all speech tending to the Glory of God or the good of man , is aright directed . Which is not to be understood so restrictively , as if nothing but Divinity or the necessary concerns of human life , may lawfully be brought into discourse : somthing is to be indulged to common civility , more to the intimaces and endearments of friendship , and a competency to those recreative discourses which maintain the cherefulness of society ; all which are , if moderatly used , within the latitude of the rule , as tending ( tho in a lower degree ) to the well-being of men , and by consequent to the honor of God , who indulges us those innocent refreshments . But if the subordinate uses come to encroch upon the higher , if we dwell here and look no farther , they then become very sinful by the excess , which were not so in their nature . That inordinacy sets them in opposition to Gods designation , in which they were allowed only a secondary place . We should therefore be careful to improve all opportunities of letting our tongues pay their more immediate homage to God , in the duties of praiers and praises , making them not only the interpreters of our pious affections , but the promoters of the like in others . And indeed he can scarce be thought in earnest , who praies , Hallowed be thy name , and do's not as much endeavor it with men , as he solicites it from God. 4. AND if we answer our obligations in this point , we shall in it discharge the highest part of our duty to man also : for in whose heart soever we can implant a true reverentialaw of God , we sow the seed of immortality , of an endless happy being , the greatest the most superlative good whereof he is capable . Besides in the interim , we do by it help to manumit and release him from those servile drudgeries to vice , under which those remain who live without God in the world . And these indeed are benefits worthy the dignity of human nature to communicate . And it is both sad and strange to see among the multitude and variety of Leagues that are contracted in the world , how few there are of these pious combinations ; how those who shew themselves concern'd in all the petty secular interests of their friends , never take this at all into their care ; a pregnant evidence how little true friendship there is among men : 5. I Know some think they sufficiently excuse themselves when they shift off this office to Divines , whose peculiar business they say it is . But this is as if one who sees a poor fainting wretch , should forbear to administer a Cordial he has at hand , for fear of intrenching on the Physitians Faculty . Many opportunities a Friend or Companion may have which a Divine may want . He often sees a man in the very fit , and so may more aptly apply : for where there is an intimacy of Converse , men lay themselves open , discover those passions those vices , which they carefully veil when a strange , or severer eie approches . Besides , as such a one may easier discern the disease , so he has better advantages for administring remedies : so Children will not take those Medicines from the Doctors hand , which they will from a Nurse or Mother : and we are usually too Childish in what relates to our Souls ; look on good counsel from an Ecclesiastic as a Divinity Potion , and set our stomacs against it ; but a Familiar may insensibly insinuate it into us , and ere we are aware beguile us into health . Yet if Lay Persons will needs give the Clergy the inclosure of this office , they should at least withdraw those impediments they have laid in their way , by depositing those prejudices which will certainly frustrate their endeavor . Men have in these later daies bin taught to look on Preaching as a thing of form to the Hearers , and of profit only to the Speakers , a craft whereby , as Demetrius saies , They get their living , Acts 16.25 . But admit it were so in this last respect , yet it do's not infer it should be so in the former . If it be a Trade , t was sure thought ( as in all Ages but this ) a very useful one , else there would never have bin such encouragement given to it . No state ever alloted public certain Salaries for a set of Men that were thought utterly useless : and if there be use to be made of them , shall we lose our advantages merely because they gain theirs ? We are in nothing else so senseless , no man will refuse counsel from a Physician , because he lives by the Profession . T is rather an argument on his side , that because such an interest of his own depends on it , he has bin the more industrious to fit himself for it . But not to run farther in this digression , I shall apply it to my purpose , by making this equitable proposal , that Lay men will not so moralize the common Fable , as neither to admonish one another themselves , nor suffer Ministers to do it without them . And truly t is hard if neither of these can be granted when both ought . I am sure all is little enough that can be don , tho we should have , as the Prophet speaks , Precept upon precept , Line upon Line , here a little and there a little , Is. 28.13 . Mans nature is so unattentive to good , that there can scarce be too many monitors . We see Satan , tho he have a much stronger party in our inclinations , dares not rely upon it , but is still employing his emissaries , to confirm and excite them : and if whilst he has so many Agents among us , God shall have none , we are like to give but an ill account of our zeal either to God or our neighbor , or of those tongues which were given us to glorify the one , and benefit the other . Indeed without this , our greatest officiousness in the secular concerns of others is no kindness . When we strive to advance the fame , to increase the fortune of a wicked man , what do we in it , but enable him to do the more mischiefs , by his wealth to foment his own luxuries , and by his reputation commend them to the practice of others ? He only makes his friend truly rich and great , who teaches him to employ those advantages aright : and would men turn their tongues to this sort of Oratory , they would indeed shew they understood for what ends they were given them . 6. BUT as all good receives enhancement from its being more diffusive , so these attemts should not be confined to some one or two intimates or relatives , but be as extensive as the common needs , or at least as our opportunities . T is a generous ambition to benefit many , to oblige communities : which can no way so well be don , as by endeavoring to subvert vicious customs , which are the pests and poisons of all societies . The heathens had many ceremonies of lustrations for their cities and countries , but he that could purify and refine their manners , would indeed attain to the substance of those shadows . And because the Apostle tells us , that Evil words corrupt good manners , Cor. 15.33 . t would be a fundamental piece of reformation , to introduce a better sort of converse into the world : which is an instance so agreable to my present subject , that I cannot close more pertinently , then to commend the endeavor to the Readers ; who , if he have bin by this Tract at all convinced of the sin and mischief of those Schemes of discourse deciphered in it , cannot be more just to his convictons , then by attemting to supplant them . 7. IT were indeed a design worthy of a noble soul , to try to new model the Age in this particular , to make it possible for men to be at once conversable and innocent . I know t will be objected , t is too vast a project for one or many single Persons to undertake : yet difficulties use to animate generous spirits , especially when ( as here ) the very attemt is laudable . But as Christ saies of Wisdom , so may we of Courage , The Children of this world are more daring then the Children of light . The great corrupters of discourse have not bin so distrustful of themselves : for t is visible to any that will reflect , that t is within mans memory since much of this monstrous exorbitancy of discourse grew in fashion , particularly the Atheistical and Blasphemous . The first propugners of it were but few , and durst then but whisper their black rudiments : yet the world now sees what a harvest they have from their devilish industry . 8. AND shall we give over our Clime as forlorn and desperate , and conclude that nothing which is not venemous will thrive in our Soil ? Would some of parts and autority but make the experiment , I cannot think that all places are yet so vitiated , but that they may meet with many , who would relish sober and ingenuous discourse , and by their example be animated to propagate it to others : but as long as Blasphemy , Ribaldry , and Detraction set up for Wit , and carry it without any competition , we do implicitly yield that title we dispute not : and t is hard to say , whether their triumphs be more owing to the boldness of ill men , or the pusillanimity of the good . What if upon the trial they should meet with the worser part of St. Paul's fate at Athens , That some will mock , Acts 17.32 . yet perhaps they may partake of the better also , and find others that would be willing to hear them again , and some few at least may cleave unto them . And sure they are too tender and delicate , that will run no hazard , nor be willing to bear a little share in that profane drollery , with which an Apostle was , and their God is daily assaulted : especially when by this exposing themselves , they may hope to give some check to that impious liberty . However besides the satisfaction of their own consciences , they may also gain this advantage by the attemt , that it may be a good test by which to try their company . For those whom they find impatient of innocent and profitable converse , they may assure themselves can only ensnare , not benefit them ; and he is a very weak Gamester , that will be drawn to play upon such terms as make it highly probable for him to lose , but impossible for him to win . Therefore in that case the advice of Solomon is very proper , Go from the presence of a foolish man , when thou perceivest not in him the lips of Knowledg , Prov. 14.7 . 9. BUT he that will undertake so Heroic an enterprize , must qualify himself for it , by being true to his own pretensions . He must leave no uneven thred in his loom , or by indulging to any one sort of reprovable discourse himself , defeat all his endeavors against the rest . Those aĆ«ry Speculators that have writ of the Philosophers Stone , have required many Personal qualifications , strict abstinences and purities in those who make the experiment . The thing may have this sober application , that those who would turn this Iron Age into Gold , that would convert our rusty drossy Converse into a purer strein , must be perfectly clean themselves . For alas what effect can that man hope from his most zealous reprehensions , who laies himself open to recrimination ? He that hears a man bitterly inveigh against blasphemy and profaneness , and ( yet in that almost the same breath ) hears his monitor inveigh as bitterly against his Neighbor , will scarce think him a good guide of his tongue , that has but half the mastery of his own . Let every man therefore be sure to begin at the right end of his work , to wash his own mouth clean , before he prescribe Gargarisms to others . And to that purpose let him impartially reflect on all the undue liberties he has given his tongue , whether those which have bin here remarked , or those others which he may find in all Practical books , especially in ( the most Practical of all books ) his own Conscience . And when he has trac'd his talk thro all its wild rambles , let him bring home his stray ; not like the lost sheep with joy , but with tears of penitence and contrition , and keep a strict watch over it that it break not loose again ; nay farther require it to make some restitution for the trespass it has committed in its former excursions : to restore to God what it has rob'd of his Honor , by devoting it self an instrument of his service ; to his Neighbor what it has detracted from him , by wiping off that sullage it has cast upon his Fame , and to himself by defacing those ill Characters of vanity and folly it has imprinted on him . Thus may the Tongue cure its own sting , and by a kind of Sympathetic vertue , the wound may be healed by dressing the weapon . But alas when we have don all , the Tongue is so slippery that it will often be in danger to deceive our watch : nay it has a secret intelligence with the heart , which like a corrupted Goaler is too apt to connive at its escape . Let us therefore strengthen our guards , call in him who sees all the secret practices of our trecherous hearts , and commit both them and our tongues to his custody . Let us say with the Psalmist , Try me , O Lord , and seek the ground of my heart , Psa. 229.23 . And with him again , Set a watch , O Lord , before my mouth , and keep the door of my lips , O let not my heart he inclined to any evil thing , Psa. 141.3 . And if hand thus join in hand , Prov. 16.5 . if Gods grace be humbly invoked , and our own endeavour honestly emploied , even this unruly evil of the Tongue ( as St. James calls it ) Chap. 3.8 . may be in some degree tamed . If now and then it get a little out by stealth , yet it will not like the Demoniac be so raving , as quite to break all its chains . If we cannot alwaies secure our selves from inadvertence and surprize , but that a forbidden word may somtimes escape us , yet we may from deliberate wilful offences of the Tongue . And tho we should all aspire higher , yet if we can but reach this , we ought not to excuse our selves ( upon remaining infirmities ) from the Christian generous undertaking , I was recommending , the reforming of others . Indeed I had made a very impertinent exhortation to that , if this degree of fitness may not be admitted ; for I fear there would be none upon earth could attemt it upon other terms : the world must still remain as it is , and await only the Tongues of Angels to reduce it . Nor need we fear that censure of Hypocrisy which we find , Mat. 7.5 . for the case is very differing . T is indeed as ridiculous as insolent an attemt , for one that has a Beam in his own eie , to pretend to cast a Mote out of his brothers : but it holds not on the contrary , that he that has a Mote in his own , should not endeavor to remove the Beam in his Brothers . Every speck do's not blind a man , nor do's every infirmity make one unable to discern , or incompetent to reprove the grosser faults of others . 10. YET after all let us as much as is possible clear our eies even of this Mote , and make our Copy as worth transcribing as we can : for certainly the best instrument of reformation is example : and tho admonition may somtimes be necessary , yet there are many circumstances required to the right ordering of that , so that it cannot alwaies be practicable , but a good example ever is . Besides it has a secret magnetic vertue : like the Loadstone it attracts by a power of which we can give no account : so that it seems to be one of those occult qualities , those secrets in nature , which have puzled the enquirers , only experience demonstrates it to us . I am sure it do's ( too abundantly ) in ill examples , and I doubt not , might do the like in good , if they were as plentifully experimented . And that they may be so , let every man be ambitious to cast in his mite : for tho two make but a farthing , yet they may be multiplied to the vastest sum . However if a man cannot reform others , yet I am sure t will be worth his while , so to save himself from this untoward generation , Act. 2.40 . I have now presented the Tongue under a double aspect , such as may justify the ancient Definition of it , that it is the worst and best part of man , the best in its original and design , and the worst in its corruption and degeneration . In David the man after Gods heart it was his glory , Ps. 57.8 . The best member that he had , Psal. 108.1 . But in the wicked it cuts like a sharp Razor , Psal. 52.2 . T is as the venem of Asps , 140.3 . The Tongues from heaven were Cloven , Act. 2.2 . to be the more diffusive of good : but those that are fired from hell are forked , Jam. 3.6 . to be the more impressive of mischief : it must be referred to every mans choice , into which of the forms he will mold his . Solomon tells us Death and Life are in the power of the Tongue , and that not only directly in regard of the good or ill we may do to others , but reflexively also , in respect of what may rebound to our selves . Let Moses then make the inference from Solomons premises , Therefore chuse life , Deut. 30.15 . a proposal so reasonable , so agreable to nature , that no florishes can render it more inviting . I shall therefore leave it to the Readers contemplation , and shall hope that if he please but to revolve it with that seriousness which the importance exacts , he will new set his tongue , compose it to those pious Divine streins , which may be a proper preludium to those Allelujahs he hopes eternally to sing . FINIS .