: heap together all the paffionate fpeeches, all the froward and imprudent actions of the best man, all that he had faid or done amiss in his whole live, and prefent it all at one view, concealing his wifdom and virtues; the man, in this difguife, would look like a mad man or a fury and yet, if his life were fairly represented, and juft in the fame manner it was led, and his many and great virtues fet over againft his failings and infirmities, he would appear to all the world to be an admirable and excellent perfon. But how many and great foever any man's ill qualities are, it is buft juft, that, with all this heavy load of faults, he fhould have the due praise of the few real virtues that are in him. 5. That you may not speak ill of any, do not delight to hear ill of them. Give no countenance to bufy-bodies, and thofe that love to talk of other men's faults: or, if you cannot decently reprove them because of their quality, then divert the difcourfe fome other way; or, if you cannot do that, by feeming not to mind it, you may fufficiently fignify that you do not like it. 6. Let every man mind himself, and his own duty and concernment. Do but endeavour in good earnest to mend thyfelf, and it will be work enough for one man, and leave thee but little time to talk of others. When Plato withdrew from the court of Dionyfius, who would fain have had a famous philofopher for his flatterer, they parted in fome unkindnefs, and Dionyfius bade him not fpeak ill of him when he was returned into Greece. Plato told him, He had no leifure for it; meaning, that he had better things to mind, than to take up his thoughts and talk with the faults of fo bad a man, fo notoriously known to all the world. 7. Laftly, Let us fet a watch before the door of our lips, and not fpeak but upon confideration: I do not mean to speak finely, but fitly. Efpecially when thou fpeakest of others, confider of whom, and what thou art going to fpeak. Ufe great caution and circumfpection in this matter. Look well about thee, on every fide of the thing, and on every perfon in the company, before thy words flip from thee; which, when they are once out of thy lips, are for ever out of thy power. Not that men fhould be fullen in company, and fay nothing; nor fo ftiff in converfation, as to drop nothing but aphorifms and oracles. Efpecially among equals and friends, we fhould not be fo reserved, as if we would have it taken for a mighty favour that we vouchsafe to fay any thing. If a man had the underftanding of an angel, he must be contented to abate fomething of this excefs of wisdom, for fear of being thought cunning. The true art of converfation, if any body can hit upon it, feems to be this; an appearing freedom and openness, with a refolute reservednefs as little appearing as is poffible. All that I mean by this caution is, that we should con fider well what we fay, especially of others. And to this end, we fhould endeavour to get our minds furnished with matter of difcourfe concerning things ufeful in themselves, and not hurtful to others. And, if we have but a mind wife enough, and good enough, we may eafily find a field large enough for innocent converfation, fuch as will harm no body, and yet be acceptable enough to the better and wifer part of mankind. And why fhould any one be at the cost of playing the fool, to gratify any body whatsoever ? I have done with the five things I propounded to speak to upon this argument. But, because hardly any thing can be fo clear, but fomething may be faid against it; nor any thing fo bad, but fomething may be pleaded in excufe for it, I fhall therefore take notice of two or three pleas that may be made for it. 1. Some pretend mighty injury and provocation. If in the fame kind, it feems thou art fenfible of it; and therefore thou of all men oughtest to abstain from it. But in what kind foever it be, the Chriftian religion forbids revenge. Therefore do not plead one fin in excufe of another, and make revenge an apology for reviling. 2. It is alledged by others, with a little better grace, that if this doctrine were practifed, conversation would be fpoiled, and there would not be matter enough for pleafant difcourfe and entertainment. I answer, the defign of this difcourfe is, to redress a great evil in converfation, and that, I hope, which mends mends it, will not fpoil it. And however, if mens tongues lay a little more ftill, and most of us fpake a good deal less than we do, both of ourselves and others, I fee no great harm in it: I hope we might for all that live comfortably and in good health, and fee many good days. David, I am fure, prescribes it as an excellent receipt, in his opinion, for a quiet, and chearful, and long life, to refrain from evil speaking: Pfal. xxxiv. 12. 13. What man is he that defireth life, and loveth many days, that he may fee good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from Speaking falfehood. But granting that there is fome pleasure in invective, I hope there is a great deal more in innocence: and the more any man confiders this, the truer he will find it; and whenever we are ferious, we ourselves cannot but acknowledge it. When a man examines himself impartially before the facrament, or is put in mind upon a deathbed, to make reparation for injuries done in this kind, he will then certainly be of this mind, and wifh he had not done them. For this certainly is one neceffary qualification for the bleffed facrament, that we be in love and charity with our neighbours; with which temper of mind this quality is utterly inconfiftent. 3. There is yet a more fpecious plea than either of the former, that men will be encouraged to do ill, if they can efcape the tongues of men; as they would do, if this doctrine did effectually take place: becaufe by this means, one great restraint from doing evil would be ta ken away, which thefe good men, who are fo bent upon reforming the world, think would be great pity. For many who will venture upon the difpleasure of God, will yet abftain from doing bad things for fear of reproach from men befides that this feems the most proper punishment of many faults which the laws of men can take no notice of. Admitting all this to be true, yet it does not feem fo good and laudable a way, to punish one fault by another. But let no man encourage himfelf in an evil way, with this hope, that he fhall escape the cenfure of men. When I have faid all I can, there will, I fear, be evil-fpeaking enough in the world to chastise them that do ill: though we should hold our peace, there will be bad tongues tongues enough to reproach men with their evil-doings. I wish we could but be perfuaded to make the experi-1 ment for a little while, whether men would not be fufficiently lafhed for their faults, though we fat by and faid nothing. So that there is no need at all that good men should be concerned in this odious work. There will always be offenders and malefactors enough to be the executioners to inflict this punishment upon one another. Therefore let no man prefume upon impunity on the one hand; and, on the other, let no man despair, but that this business will be fufficiently done one way or other. I am very much mistaken, if we may not fafely truft an ill-natured world that there will be no failure of juftice in this kind. And here, if I durft, I would have faid a word or two concerning that more public fort of obloquy by lampoons and libels, fo much in fashion in this witty age. But I have no mind to provoke a very terrible fort of men. Yet thus much I hope may be faid without offence, that how much foever men are pleafed to fee others abufed in this kind, yet it is always grievous when it comes to their own turn. However, I cannot but hope that every man that impartially confiders, muft own it to be a fault of a very high nature, to revile those whom God hath placed in authority over us, and to flander the footsteps of the Lord's anointed; efpecially fince it is fo exprefsly written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. Having reprefented the great evil of this vice, it might. not now be improper to fay fomething to those who fuffer by it. Are we guilty of the evil faid of us? Let us reform, and cut off all occafions for the future; and fo turn the malice of our enemies to our own advantage, and defeat their ill intentions by making fo good an use of it; and then it will be well for us to have been evil' fpoken of. Are we innocent? We may fo much the better bear it patiently; imitating herein the pattern of our bleffed Saviour, who when he was reviled, reviled not again; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. We may confider likewife, that though it be a misfor-1 tune tune to be evil fpoken of, it is their fault that do it, and not ours; and therefore fhould not put us into paffion; . because another man's being injurious to me, is no good reafon why I fhould be uneafy to myself. We should not revenge the injuries done to us, no not upon them that do them, much lefs upon ourfelves. Let no man's provocation make thee to lose thy patience. Be not fuch a fool, as to part with any one virtue, because fome men are so malicious, as to endeavour to rob thee of the reputation of all the reft. When men speak ill of thee, do as Plato faid he would do in that cafe, "live "fo, as that no body may believe them.' : All that now remains is, to reflect upon what hath been faid, and to urge you and myself to do accordingly for all is nothing if we do not practise what we fo plainly fee to be our duty. Many are fo taken up with the deep points and myfteries of religion, that they never think of the common duties and offices of human life. But faith and a good life are fo far from clafhing with one another, that the Chriftian religion hath made them infeparable. True faith is neceffary in order to a good life, and a good life is the genuine product of a right belief; and therefore the one never ought to be pressed to the prejudice of the other. I forefee what will be faid, because I have heard it fo often faid in the like case, that there is not one word of Jefus Chrift in all this. No more is there in the text. And yet I hope that Jefus Chrift is truly preached, whenever his will and laws, and the duties enjoined by the Christian religion, are inculcated upon us. But fome men are pleased to fay, that this is mere morality. I anfwer, That this is fcripture morality and Chriftian morality; and who hath any thing to fay against that? Nay, I will go yet farther, that no man ought to pretend to believe the Chriftian religion, who lives in the neglect of fo plain a duty, and in the practice of a fin fo clearly condemned by it, as this of evil-speaking is. But because the word of God is quick and powerful and harper than a two-edged fword, yea fharper than calumny itself, and pierceth the very hearts and confciences of men, laying us open to ourfelves, and convincing us |