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           Title: The Government of the Tongue
      Creator(s): Allestree, Richard (1619-1681)
          Rights: Public Domain
   CCEL Subjects: All; Ethics; Theology
      LC Call no: BJ1533.C7
   LC Subjects:

   Ethics

   Individual ethics. Character. Virtue (Including practical and applied
   ethics...)
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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 Second Impression

   MDCLXXIV.
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The Preface

   The Government of the Tongue has ever been 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 persuasions to, and encomiums of it, taking up a considerable
   part of his book of Proverbs. I shall not therefore need to say
   anything, to justify my choice of this subject, which has so much
   better Authorities to commend it. I rather with 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 though
   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
   attempt 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 attained by loose
   trifling spirits. The Tongue is so slippery, that it easily deceives a
   drowsy or heedless guard. Nature seems to have given it some unhappy
   advantages towards that. Tis 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 easy frame; it often
   goes without giving us warning; and as children when they happen upon a
   rolling engine, can set it in such a carrier, 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
   disorder, as our reason cannot easily rectify. The due management
   therefore of this unruly member, may be rightly be esteemed on of the
   greatest mysteries of Wisdom and Virtue. 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, Jam. 3. 2. Tis 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 take heed to my ways, that
   I offend not with my Tongue; upon hearing of which first verse, he
   stopped his Tutor, saying, "This is enough for me, if I learn it as I
   ought"; and being after six months rebuked for not coming again, he
   replied, that he had not yet learned his first lesson: nay, after
   nineteen years he professed, that in that time he had scarce learned 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 inordinacies 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 tempt him;
   be 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 solicit a reformation. But whatever the hopes are, I am sure the
   needs are great enough to justify the attempt; for as the disease is
   Epidemic, so it is mortal also, utterly inconsistent with that pure
   religion, which leads to life. We may take St. James's word for it, "If
   any man seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, that man's
   religion is in vain", Jam. 1. 26. God knows we have not much Religion
   among us: Tis 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.
   Though indeed if that were supposable, Twere but a broken reed to trust
   to, none knowing whether he shall have time or grace for that. He may
   be surprised with an Oath, a Blasphemy, a Detraction in his mouth: many
   have been so. Tis 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 employed? Sure they cannot
   think that those incantations (though hellish enough) can make them
   scot free, render them invulnerable to death's darts; and if they have
   not that or some other as a ridiculous reserves, Tis 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 the unskillful managing of those points it does 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 than 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 attempted it; and
   by saying much I should have said nothing at all to those who most need
   it. Men's stomachs are generally so queasy in these cases, that Tis not
   safe to overload them; let them try how they can digest this: if they
   can so as to turn it into kindly nourishment, 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 prescribed, may without much difficulty refrain from 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 Philistine; And may that God who
   loves to magnify his power in weakness, give it the like success.
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The Contents

   Section 1. Of the Use of Speech.

   Section 2. Of the manifold Abuse of Speech.

   Section 3. Of Atheistical Discourse.

   Section 4. Of Detraction.

   Section 5. Of Lying Defamation.

   Section 6. Of Uncharitable Truth.

   Section 7. Of Scoffing and Derision.

   Section 8. Of Flattery.

   Section 9. Of Boasting.

   Section 10. Of Querulousness.

   Section 11. Of Positiveness.

   Section 12. Of Obscene Talk.

   The Close.
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Section I.
Of the Use of Speech.

   Man at his first creation was substituted by God as his Viceregent, 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 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 royalty,
   amidst all the throng and variety of creatures, he still remained
   solitary. But God who knew what an appetite of society he had implanted
   in him, judged this no agreeable state for him, It is not meet that man
   should be alone. Gen. 2. 18. And as in the universal frame of nature,
   he engrafted such an abhorrence of vacuity, that all creatures do
   rather submit to a preternatural motion than admit it, so, in this
   empty, 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 intercourses of Sense: had that been 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 Solomon's
   resemblance, answered his, As in water face answers face, Prov. 27. 19.
   with whom he might communicate minds, traffic and interchange all the
   notions and sentiments of a reasonable soul.

   3. But though there were this sympathy in their sublimer part which
   disposed them to a 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 than 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 cognition with the body, and so
   is the fittest instrument to manage a commerce between the rational yet
   invisible powers of human souls clothed 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 than
   the Antipodes now do to us. All our arts and sciences for the
   accommodation of this life, had remained 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 solicit relief; by this we interchange advices, reproofs,
   consolations, all the necessary aids of human feebleness. This is that
   which possesses us of the most valuable blessing of human life, I mean
   Friendship, which could no more have been contracted amongst dumb men,
   than 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 God's will: for had there
   been no language there had been no writing. And though 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 Apostle's inference in Rom. 10. 14. How shall they believe in Him
   of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a
   preacher?

   5. From all these excellent uses of it in respect to man, we may
   collect another in relation to God, that is in praising and magnifying
   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 in Ecclus. 51. 22.
   The Lord hath given me a tongue, and I will praise him 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
   winepress 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. Psa. 57.
   9, 10. And O praise the Lord with me, and let us magnify His name
   together. Psa. 34. 3. And indeed, whoever observes that excellent
   magazine of Devotion, the book of Psalms, shall find that the Lauds
   make up a very great part of it.

   6. By what hath been 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
   everything is so far approvable as it answers the end of its being,
   what part soever of our discourses agrees not with these 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 touchstone: for though in our depraved estimate the
   Eloquence of Language is more regarded than the innocence, though we
   think our words vanish with the breath that utters them, yet they
   become records in God's Court, are laid up in his Archives as witnesses
   either for, or against us: for he who is truth itself hath told us,
   that By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt
   be condemned. Mat. 12. 37.
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Section II.
Of the manifold Abuse of Speech.

   And now, since the original designs of speaking are so noble, so
   advantageous, one would be apt to conclude no rational creature would
   be tempted to pervert them, since tis 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 force of all our other depravation.
   Original sin came first out of the mouth by speaking, before it entered
   by eating. The first use we find Eve to have made of her language, was
   to enter parley with the tempter, and from that to become a tempter to
   her husband. And immediately upon the fall, guilty Adam frames his
   tongue to a frivolous excuse, which was much less able to cover his sin
   than the fig leaves his nakedness. And as in the infancy of the first
   world, the tongue had licked up the venom 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 Ham, a detractor of his own father,
   inviting his brethren to that execrable spectacle of their parent's
   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 exempt. Abraham used a repeated 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
   obtained his father's blessing by a flat lie. Simeon and Levi spake not
   only falsely, but insidiously, nay, hypocritically, abusing at once
   their proselytes, and their religion, for the effecting their cruel
   designs upon the Shechemites. Moses, though a man of unparalleled
   meekness, yet spake unadvisedly with his lips, Psa. 106. 33. David
   uttered a bloody vow against Nabal, spake words smoother than oil to
   Uriah, when he had done him one injury, and designed him another. Twere
   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;
   though 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 than the one of
   Judas: that traitor owned his relation, cried Master, Master, even when
   he betrayed him, so that had he been measured only by his tongue, he
   might have passed for the better disciple.

   4. These are sad instances, not recorded to pratonize 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 King. 10. And we may well apply it to this: if
   persons of so circumspect a piety have been thus overtaken, what
   security can there be for our wretched obstinacy? If those who kept
   their mouths, as it were, with a bridle, Psa. 39. could not have always
   preserve their innocence, to what guilts may not our unrestrained
   licentious tongues hurry us? Those which as the Psalmist speaketh in
   Psa. 73. 9. go through 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 screwed 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
   than 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 praise and prayers, 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 them. We do not only fall
   by the slipperiness of our tongues, but we deliberately discipline and
   train them to mischief. We bend our tongues as our bows for lies. As
   the Prophet speaks in Jer. 9. And in a word, what God affirmed of the
   old world in relation to thoughts, is too applicable 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 attempt 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, and 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 I shall rather make an essay by way of
   instance, than attempt to exact enumeration or survey.
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Section III.
Of Atheistical Discourse.

   I Begin with those which relate to God, this poor despicable member the
   tongue being of such a gigantic insolence, though not size, as even to
   make war with heaven. Tis true every disordered speech doth remotely
   so, as it is a violation of God's law; but I now speak only of those
   which as it were attack his person, and immediately fly in the face of
   Omnipotency. In the highest rank of these we may well place all
   Atheistical Discourse, which is that bold fort 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 scorned those
   piece-meal guilts, sets up a single monster big enough to devour them
   all: for all inferior profaneness is an much outdated by Atheism, as is
   religion itself.

   2. Time was when the inveighing against this, would have been thought a
   very impertinent subject in a Christian nation, and men would have
   replied upon me as the Spartan Lady did, when she was asked 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 Deity. 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
   renounced all. Tis 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 enclosure, the
   peculiarity of those, who by their names and institution should be
   Christians: as if that natural Aphorism, That when things are at their
   height they must fall again, had place here also, and our being of the
   most excellent, most elevated religion, were but the preparation to our
   being of none.

   3. Tis indeed deplorable to see, how the professors of no God begin to
   vie numbers with all the differing persuasions in religion, so that
   Atheism seems to be the gulf that finally swallows up all our Sects. It
   has struck on a sudden into such a reputation, that it scorns any
   longer to skulk, but owns itself more publicly than most men dare do
   the contrary. Tis set down in the seat of the scorner, and 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. Even the dullest creature that can but stoutly disclaim his
   Maker, has by it sufficiently secured its title to ingenuity; and such
   measures being once established, no wonder at its shoals of proselytes,
   when it gives at the one hand license to all sensual inordinancies,
   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 tis 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 choose to take them in present with all their 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 cause, this would
   be found the most operative. Tis so convenient for a man that will have
   no God to control 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, than
   leave such a sting in his pleasures, 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 become his
   interest there should be none.

   4. This is indeed, considering the depravity 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. Its
   bold monopolizing of wit and reason compels, as other invited men. This
   we many indeed call the devil's press, by which he hath filled up his
   troops. Men are afraid of 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 Christ's sake. 1 Cor. 4. 10. I dare appeal to the breasts
   of many in this Age, whether this have not been one of the most
   prevalent temptations with them to espouse the tenet: and though
   perhaps they at first took it up, only in their own defense, for fear
   of being thought fools, yet that fear soon converts into ambition of
   being thought wits. They do not satisfy themselves with deserting their
   religion, unless they revile it also; remembering how themselves were
   laughed 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 colors for defending it: so that he that would measure
   the opinions by their industry and the remissness of believers, would
   certainly think that the great interests of Eternity lay wholly on
   their side. Yet I take not this for any argument of the confidence of
   this persuasion, 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 somewhat of horror in an uncouth way, which
   makes men unwilling to travail it alone.

   5. The truth is, though 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 judgement, 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 sometimes such damps and shivering within them. If they
   shall say, that these are but the relics of prepossession and
   education, which their reason soon dissipates, Let me then ask them
   farther, whether they would not really give a considerable sum to be
   infallibly ascertained there were no such thing: 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 anything (as I dare say
   they cannot deny to themselves that they would) tis a tacit
   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
   inevitable 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, tis to be considered, that if there be a God,
   He, as well as men, may be provoked by our words as well as our deeds.
   Secondly, tis possible he may be more. Our ill deeds may be done upon a
   vehement impulse of temptation; 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 ourselves, not to spite 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 tis
   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 implies a malice of the highest sort. Human spite is
   usually confined within some bounds, aims sometimes at the goods,
   sometimes at the fame, at most but at the life of our neighbor: but
   here is an accumulation of all those, backed with the most prodigious
   insolence. Tis 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 anti-creative 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 ringleaders also, draw in others to that accursed
   association: for tis only this liberty of Discourse that has propagated
   Atheism. The Devil might perhaps by inward suggestions have drawn here
   and there a single Proselyte, but he could never have had such numbers,
   had he not used some as decoys to ensnare others.

   8. And now let the alert Atheist a little consider, what all these
   aggravations will amount to. `Twas good counsel was give 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 than a Demonstration can justify the reasonableness of such a
   daring. And when they can produce that, they have so far outgone all
   the comprehensions of mankind, they may well challenge the liberty of
   their Tongue, and say, We are our own, who is Lord over us? Psa. 12. 4.

   9. But till this be done, twere well they would soberly balance 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 encroach on the Devil's
   right too, who is commonly the prompter, and therefore, if there be any
   credit in it may justly challenge it. Indeed tis to be feared he will
   at last prove the master wit, when as for those little loans he made to
   them, he gets their souls in mortgage. Would God they would consider
   betimes, what a woeful 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
   plays the Platonic to damnation, and courts it purely for itself,
   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
   been assaulted so often by better pens, and has showed itself so much
   proof against all Homily, that it is as needless as discouraging a task
   for me to attempt it. Tis indeed a thing taken up so perfectly without
   all sense, that tis the less wonder to find it maintain itself upon the
   same principle tis 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 itself 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, than 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 tis more so, to invoke it. Whey 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 surprise thus blurt out: if it argue
   not this, it does something 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 though 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 a 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 of contradictions. And the
   Devil succeeds in it as far as his concern reaches: for though he
   cannot solve the repugnancies in reason, yet as long as he can unite
   the sins in men's 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 bottomed
   on the most sacred, I mean those profane paraphrases that are usually
   make 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 this 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 use it as coarsely 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's faith, and the
   Atheist's drollery upon it: and tis hard to say in which they are more
   the 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 owned by us as the rule of our religion, and
   could never think they were ever meant for anything beyond a whetstone
   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, Psa. 50. 21.
   and charging Him with those defects which are indeed their own. They
   want learning or industry to sound the depths of those sacred
   treasures, and therefore they decry the Scripture as mean and poor; and
   to justify their wisdom, dispute God's. This is as if the mole should
   complain that the sun is dark, because he dwells under ground, and sees
   not its splendor. Men are indeed in all instances apt to speak ill of
   all things they understand not, but in none more than this. Their
   ignorance of local customs, Idioms of language, and several other
   circumstances, renders them incompetent judges, (as has been
   excellently evinced by a late Author). Twill therefore befit them,
   either to qualify 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 genius is so
   accommodated to all successions of ages. Styles and ways 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 confessed 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, today, and forever. 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 plays, 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 heightened and inspired by that profaneness. A Bible phrase serves
   them in discourse as the haut-goust does in diet, to give a relish to
   the most insipid stuff. And were it not for this magazine, a great many
   men's 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
   barred them. And indeed, it seems a tacit confession that they have
   little of their own, when they are fain thus to commit sacrilege to
   drive on the trade. But sure tis 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 always enterlard his discourse with fragments of
   Horace, or Virgil, or the Aphorisms of Pythagoras, or Seneca? Now tis
   too evident, that it is not from any superlative 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 tis folly in other instances? The
   truth is, tis so much the reserve of those who can give no better
   Testimony of their parts, that me thinks upon that very score it should
   be given over by those that can. And sure were it possible for anything
   that is so bad to grow unfashionable, the world has had enough of this
   to be cloyed with it: but how fond soever men are of this
   divertissement, twill 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 measure, it must be a high provocation of
   God.

   14. Let any of us but put the case in our persons: suppose we had
   written to a friend, to advertise him of things of the greatest
   importance to himself, had given him ample and exact instructions,
   backed 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 of we should hear of that letter, were to have it put in
   doggerel rime, to be made sport for the rabble, or at best have the
   most eminent phrases of it picked 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 does sufficiently answer, nay, outgo the
   first part of the parallel, and God knows our vile usage of it does too
   much (I fear too literally) adapt the latter. And if we think the
   affront too base for one of us, can we believe God will take it in good
   part? That were to make Him not only more stupid than any man, but as
   much so as the heathen idols, that have eyes and see not, Psa. 115. 5.
   And tis 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 promulgated, 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 on tables, all the whole equipage of the Tabernacle, was
   designed only for its more decent repository, the Ark itself receiving
   its value only for 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 was committed to writing, the Jews were such scrupulous
   reverers of it, that twas 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.

   16. And sure the New Testament is not of less concern than 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 steadfast,
   and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense,
   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 it? 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 tis but an ill essay of that reverence
   and godly fear, to use that very Gospel so irreverently and ungodily as
   men now do. If we pass from the Apostolic to the next succeeding ages
   of the Church, we find the Primitive Christians looked on their Bibles
   as their most important treasure. Such was the outward respects they
   paid to them, (of which the standing up at the reading of 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 an 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 burned, 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 Traitors, 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
   comtempts 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 looked upon 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 night's 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 ourselves expose them to the
   worse: they would but have burned them, we scorn and vilify them, and
   outvy even the persecutor's malice with our contempt. These are
   miserable Antitheses; 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 Heathen Elysium, much less the Christian
   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 conveyed to
   him; but if 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 conveyances 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. Prov. 1. 24.
   which deserves to be set down at large, Because I have called, and ye
   refused, I have stretched out may hand and no man regarded: But ye have
   set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof, I will also
   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 men's
   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 days 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 contempt 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 the Section; they had
   need be very well assured that foundation be not sandy: for if it be,
   this reproaching God's 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 somewhat, 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 that they
   have so long derided. Tis 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, than in the dazzling beams of health
   and vigor. It would therefore be wisdom beforehand 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 twill then appear: and then
   sure to hearts that are not wholly petrified, twill seem safer to own a
   God early and upon choice, than later upon a compulsion.

   19. However, if they will not yield themselves Homagers, yet the mere
   possibility of their being in the wrong, should methinks, persuade them
   at least to be civil to adversaries. A generous man will not pursue
   even a falling enemy with revilings and reproach, must less will a wise
   man do it to one who is in any the least probability of revenging it:
   it being a received Maxim, That there is no greater folly than for a
   man to let his tongue 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
   losers by it: for at the utmost, tis 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 need 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. Tis true there are some so cool, that they are of the same
   mind for God, that Gideon's father was for Baal, Judg. 6. 31. Let him
   plead for himself, they will not appear in His defense: 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 Judge, Luke 17. 1. in respect to men
   abstain from all sorts of impious discourse; and at least be civil,
   though they will not be pious.
     __________________________________________________________________

Section 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, Psa. 7.
   39. we are not to wonder if there be more that will shoot their arrows,
   even bitter words, against the best on earth, Psa. 64. 3. I shall not
   attempt to ransack the whole quiver, by showing every particular sort
   of verbal injuries which relate to our Neighbors, but rather choose 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 tis one of the highest sins, so in the general tis 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
   easy thoughts of the guilt smoothed the way to it.

   It may therefore be no unkind attempt, to try to disentangle from this
   snare by displaying it; showing the whole contexture of the sin, how
   tis woven with threads of different sizes, yet the least of them strong
   enough to noose and entrap us. And alas, if Satan fetter us, tis
   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 though 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 replay of Plato's, to one who murmured at his
   reproving him for a small mater, Custom, says 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 may sins, than
   with an allowed persistence 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 ourselves. And surely that which at once violates the sum
   of the whole second Table of the Law, for so our Savior renders it,
   Luke 10. 7. must be looked 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, rendering him less valued and esteemed by others, which is the
   final aim of Detraction, though pursued by various means.

   2. This is justly looked on as one of the most unkind designs one man
   can have upon another, there being implanted in every man's nature a
   great tenderness of Reputation: and to be careless of it, is looked on
   as a mark of a Degenerous mind. On which account Solon in his Law
   presumes, that he that will sell his own fame, will also sell the
   public interest. Tis 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 Cannibal 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 than great riches, Prov. 22. 1. And again, A good name is
   better than precious ointment. Eccles. 7. 1. And the more to recommend
   it, he proposes it as a reward of piety and virtue, 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 virtue, 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, preferred them before goods or life.
   Indeed, tis that which gives us an inferior sort of Immortality, and
   makes us even in this world survive ourselves. 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 a
   confidence that he left behind him a perpetual memory of the victories
   he had achieved for his Country. Brutus so courted the fame of a
   Patriot, that he broke through all the obstacles of gratitude and
   humanity to attain it: he cheerfully bore the defeat of his attempt, in
   contemplation of the glory it. Twere 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 themselves 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 virtue from when
   all true reputation springs, and like Aesop's dog, lose the substance
   by too greedy catching at the shadow; an irrefragable proof how great a
   price they set on their fame.

   6. And then, since reason sets it as so high a rate, and passion at a
   higher, we may conclude the violation this interest, one of the
   greatest injuries in the 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 would without an afflictive smart. And though the power of
   Christianity does in some so moderate this resentment, that none of
   those blows shall recoil, no degree of revenge be attempted; 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 than abated by the goodness of the person
   injured; nor of danger, since God is the more immediate avenger of
   those who attempt not to be their own. But if the injury meet not with
   this meekness (as in this vindictive age tis 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 robbed 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 war with heaven and earth. And
   though as to his immediate judgement, he must bear his iniquity, answer
   for his impatience: yet as in all Civil insurrections the ring-leader
   is looked on with a particular 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 Savior, Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.
   Matt. 18. 7.

   7. Indeed, there is such a train of mischiefs usually following this
   sin, that tis scare possible to make a full estimate of its malignity.
   Tis one of the grand incendiaries which disturbs the peace of the
   world, and has a great share in the most of its quarrels. For could we
   examine all the feuds which harass Persons, Families, nay, sometimes
   Nations, too, we should find the greater part take their rise from
   injurious, reproachful 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.

   8. In regard therefore, of its proper guilt, and all those remoter sins
   and miseries which ensue it, tis every man's 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 season, but the
   opportunities of this are always ready: I can do my neighbor this
   injury, when I can do him no other. Besides the multitude of objects do
   proportionally 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 though some sorts of Detractions
   seem confined to those to whom we bear particular malice, yet there are
   other kinds of it more ranging, which fly indifferently at all. Lastly,
   this sin has the aid almost of universal example, which is an advantage
   beyond all other, there being scarce any so irresistible insinuation as
   the practice of those with whom we converse, and no subject of converse
   so common as the defaming our neighbors.

   9. Since then the path is so slippery, it had not need to 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.
     __________________________________________________________________

SECTION V.
Of Lying Defamation.

   Detraction being (as we have already said) the lessening and impairing
   a man in his repute, we may resolve, that whatever 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 though 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. Sometimes a man invents a
   perfect falsity of another; sometimes he that does not invent, yet
   reports it, though he know it to be false; and a third sort there are,
   who having not certain knowledge whether it be false or no, do yet
   divulge it as an absolute certainty, or at least with such artificial
   insinuations, as may bias the hearer on that hand. The former of these
   crimes is so high, so disingenuous a nature, that though 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
   barefaced, this is feign 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 to defeat his design. Indeed, it
   is of all other sins the most Diabolical, it being a conjunction of two
   of Satan's most essential properties, Malice and Lying. We know tis his
   peculiar title to be the Accuser of the brethren: and when we
   transcribe his copy, we also assume his nature, entitle ourselves to a
   descent from him, Ye are of your Father the Devil. John. 8. 44. We are
   by it rendered a sort of Incubus brats, the infamous 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 discernable, and
   therefore, I need not further expatiate on it.

   3. The next degree is not much short of it; what it wants is rather of
   invention than malice: for he that will so adopt another's lie, shows
   he would willingly have been its proper Father. It does indeed differ
   no more than the maker of adulterate wares, does from the vendor of
   them: and certainly there cannot be a more ignominious trade, than the
   being Hucksters to such vile Merchandize. Neither is the sin less that
   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 to 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 Proverbs, Chap. 30. Wipe their mouths, and say they have
   done no wickedness. The 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 attempted to examine it. But
   Secondly, it does not suffice that I do not know the falsity; for to
   make me a true speaker, tis 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 received 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, and often prove
   indelible injuries to the party accused: how much more than do the more
   positive and confident aspersions we have hitherto spoken of? Let me
   add only this concerning this later sort, that they are greater
   advancers of Defamatory designs, than the very first contrivers. For
   those, upon a consciousness of their falseness, 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, tis
   proverbially said, that if there were no receivers there would be no
   thieves; so in this 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 tis observable,
   that those who make the greatest havoc of other men's 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 ourselves.

   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 disingenuous, 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 plays the Artist: and as the fatalest poisons to man are (they
   say) drawn from human bodies, so here he extracts the venom of our
   Irascible and Concupiscible part, and in it dips those arrows, which we
   thus shoot to one another.

   7. Tis needles to harangue severally upon each. The world too
   experimentally knows the force of both. Malice is that whirlwind, which
   has shook States and Families, no less than 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, tis 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 persuade to mortify, and but restrain one
   Lust, at Mammon's beck will disclaim 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 Cyclopses will be perpetually
   forging Thunderbolts, against which no innocence or virtue can be
   proof. And alas, we daily find too great effect of their industry. But
   though 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 divertissement, 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 firebrands, arrows and death, so is he that deceiveth his
   neighbor, and saith, am I not 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 neighbor's 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
   persuade the thirsty earth to refund the water she has sucked into her
   veins, as them to deposit 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 temptation an enhancement of guilt. For sure, he that
   can put such an interest of his neighbor's in balance with a little fit
   of laughter, sets it at a lower price than he that hopes to enrich or
   advance himself by it: and thought it pass among some for a specimen of
   Wit, yet it really lifts them among Solomon's fools who make a mock at
   sin, Prov. 14. 9. In the meantime, since slander is a plant that can
   grow in all soils, since the frolic humor, as well as the morose,
   betrays to the guilt, who can hope to escape this Scourge of the
   Tongue, as the Wise man calls it, which communicates with all, Ecclus.
   26. 6. 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, than (like the Astrologer, who made his Almanac 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 or opinion seeking to represent its Antagonist as odious as
   it can. And whilst they contend for speculative truth, they by mutual
   calumnies forfeit the practice: 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.

   9. 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
   Joseph's resolute purity had changed the scene of his Mistress's
   passion, she does as readily shift that of guilt too, and fixes her
   crime upon him, Gen. 39. 14. So when Zeba 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 into 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 itself partakes of the same fate,
   falls under the two edged 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 these storms only in the upper regions, in the higher ranks of
   men; but if we pass through all degrees, we shall find the difference
   is rather in the value of the things, than in the means of pursuing
   them. He that pretends to the meanest office, does as studiously
   disparage his competitor, as he that is rivaled 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 man's reputation.

   10. Thus we do accommodate every petty temporal interest at the cost of
   our eternal: and as an unskillful Fencer, whilst he is pursuing his
   thrust, exposes his body; so whilst we thus actuate our own malice, we
   abandon ourselves to Satan's, 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, than 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.
   Matt. 22. 20.

   11. And now, how great a madness is it to make such 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 than burn his Romance. Alas, are there not gross
   corporal sins enough to ruin us, but must we have aereal ones too, damn
   ourselves with Chimeras, and by these forgeries of our brains, dream
   ourselves to destruction?

   12. Let all those who thus unhappily employ their inventive faculty,
   timely consider, how unthriving a trade tis 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 twill infallibly be
   torn off at the great day of manifestation, when before God, Angels,
   and Men, they will be rendered infinitely more vile, than twas possible
   for them here to make others.
     __________________________________________________________________

SECTION VI.
Of Uncharitable Truth.

   In the next place we are to consider of the other branch of Defamatory
   reports, viz. such as are true: which though they must be confessed to
   be of a lower form of guilt than the former, yet as to the kind, they
   equally agree in the definition of Detraction, since tis possible to
   impair a man's credit by true reports as well as by false.

   2. To clear this I shall first observe, that although every fault hath
   some penal effect which are coetaneous to the act, yet this of Infamy
   is not so: this is a more remote consequent; that which it immediately
   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 although 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,
   concealed fault, stands accountable for all the consequences that flow
   from that divulging; but whether accountable as for guilt, must be
   determined by the particular circumstances of the cause. So that here
   we must admit of an exception: for though every discovery of another's
   fault be in the strict natural sense of the word a Detraction, yet it
   will not always be the sin of Detraction, because in some instances
   there may be some higher obligation intervene, and supersede that we
   own 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
   virtue, 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 owe to Justice. Now it may often
   fall out, that by concealing one man's fault, I may be injurious to
   another, nay, to a whole community: and then I assume the guilt I
   conceal, and by the Laws both of God and Man am judged an accessory.

   5. And as Justice to others enforces, so sometimes Justice to a man's
   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 redress of it, is a
   liberty rather assumed by rage and impatience, than authorized by
   Justice. Nay, often in that case the complainer is the most injurious
   Person; for he inflicts more than 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 no sure obligation upon
   any man to wrong himself, to indulge to another.

   6. Neither does Charity retrench this liberty; for though it be an act
   of Charity to conceal another man's faults, yet sometimes 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 concerned. 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 tis a true rule, that mercy to
   the evil proves cruelty to the innocent. And as in a competition of
   mischiefs, we are to choose the least, so of two goods the greatest,
   and the most extensive, is the most eligible.

   7. Nay, even that Charity which reflects upon myself, may also
   sometimes supersede that to my neighbor, the rule obliging me to love
   him as, not better than, myself. I need not sure silently assent to my
   own unjust Defamation, for fear of proving another a false accuser; nor
   suffer myself to be made a beggar, to conceal another man's being a
   thief. Tis true, in a great inequality of interest, Charity (whose
   Character it is, Not to seek her own, 1 Cor. 13. 5.) will prompt 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 myself. If I will recede even from that, I may; but that is then to
   be accounted among the Heroic flights of Charity, not her binding and
   indispensable Laws.

   8. Having now set the boundaries to the excepted cases; as all
   instances within them will be legitimated, so all without them will be
   (by the known rule of exceptions) be precluded, and fall under that
   general duty we owe to our neighbor, of tendering his credit: an
   obligation so Universally infringed, that tis not imaginable the breach
   should always happen within the excepted cases. When tis remembered how
   unactive the principles of Justice and Charity are 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
   always mounting, so it will make use of any footstool towards its rise.
   A man who affects an extraordinary splendor of reputation, is glad to
   find any foils to see him off; and therefore will let no fault nor
   folly of another's enjoy the shade, but brings it into the open light,
   that by that comparison, his own excellencies may appear the brighter.
   I dare appeal to the breast of any proud man, whether he do not upon
   such occasions, 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. though 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 betrays 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 ruins of other
   men's. The true Diamond sparkles even in the sunshine: tis but a
   glow-worm virtue that owes its luster to the darkness about it.

   10. Another prompter to Detraction is Envy, which sometimes is
   particular, sometimes general. He that has a pique to another, would
   have him as hateful to all mankind as he is to him; and therefore, as
   he grieves and repines at anything that may advance his estimation, so
   he exults and triumphs when anything occurs which may depress it, and
   is usually very industrious to improve the opportunity, nay, has a
   strange sagacity in hunting it out. No vulture does more quickly scent
   a carcass, than an envious Person does, those dead flies which corrupt
   his neighbor's ointment, Eccles. 10. 1. the vapor whereof his hate,
   like a strong wind, scatters and disperses far and near. Nor needs he
   any great crime to practice on: every little infirmity or passion,
   looked on through his Optics, appears a mountainous guilt. He can
   improve the least speck or freckle to leprosy, which shall overspread
   the whole man: and a cloud no bigger than a man's hand, like that of
   Elisha, 1 King. 18. 44. may in an instant, with the help of prejudice,
   grow to the utter darkening of the brightest reputation, and fill the
   whole horizon with tempest and horror. Sometimes this Envy is general,
   not confined to any man's person, 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 professed 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. Tis
   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 proposed to Ostracism, being
   asked what displeasure Aristides had done him, he replied, None,
   neither do I know him, but it grieves me to hear everybody call him a
   just man. I fear some of our keenest accusers nowadays may give the
   same answer. No man that is eminent for Piety (or indeed but moral
   virtue) but he shall have many insidious eyes upon him watching for his
   halting: and if any the least obliquity can be espied, he is used worse
   than 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
   pleasure, 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
   balance with a neighbor's Credit. Of those some will pick up all the
   little stories they can 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, Psa. 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 offspring, 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 reach of it, stick not to
   assume that vilest office of common Delators. There are others who when
   they have got the knowledge of another man's fault, think it an
   endearing thing to whisper it in the ear of some friend or confidant.
   But sure if they must needs sacrifice some secret to their friendship,
   they should take David's 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 show something of
   trust: but those experiments upon another man's 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 Gazettes, only that they may be
   telling News: and Itch wherewith some people's tongues are strangely
   over-run, who can as well hold a glowing Coal in their mouths, as keep
   anything they think New; nay, will sometimes run themselves out of
   breath, for fear least anyone should serve them as Ahimaaz did the
   Cushite 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 the 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 not of depth
   enough to supply themselves out of their own store, and therefore can
   let no foreign accession pass by them, no more than a Mill which is
   always going, can afford any waters to run wait. I know we used to call
   this Talkativeness a Feminine vice; but to speak impartially, I think,
   though we have given them the enclosure of the Scandal, they have not
   of the fault, and he that shall appropriate Loquacity to Women, may
   perhaps sometimes need to light Diogenes's Candle to seek a man: for
   tis possible to go into Masculine company, where twill be as hard to
   edge 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 Judge, that could determine between them.

   13. Now lest this 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
   though it be granted, that the proud and envious are to make a distinct
   account for their Pride and envy; yet as far as related to the
   neighbor, they are equally mischievous. Anacreon that was choked with a
   grape-stone, died as surely as Julius Caesar with his three and twenty
   wounds; and a man's reputation may be as well fooled and prattled away,
   as maliciously betrayed. 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 tis 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 says in another case, will be applicable to this, He
   that is not for us is against us. Matt. 12. 30. He that in publishing
   his neighbor's 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 implicitly and generally
   forbid all such discoveries.

   15. For first, if a fault divulged be of a light nature, the offender
   cannot thereby merit so much, as to be made a public discourse. Fame is
   a tender thing, and seldom is tossed and bandied without receiving some
   bruise, if not a crack: for reports we know, like snow balls, gather
   still the farther they roll, 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 lain 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
   Mat. 13. 32. immediately shoots up into a tree. And when it is so, it
   can no more be reduced back into its first cause, than 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 than
   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 repaired. In the Levitical Law, he that
   knew his ox was apt to 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 even little trivial accusations
   are to tear and mangle one's 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, tis true
   the delinquent may deserve the less pity, yet perhaps the reporter may
   not deserve the less blame: for often such a discovery serves but to
   enrage, not reclaim the offender, and precipitate him into farther
   degrees of ill. Modesty 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 feared, he
   will then be apt to discard all caution, and to think he owes himself
   the utmost pleasures of his vice, as the price of his reputation. Nay,
   perhaps he advances farther, and sets up for a reversed 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
   concealed crime remain in its wished obscurity, than by thus rousing it
   from its covert, bring it to stand at bay, and set itself in this open
   defiance; especially in this degenerous age, when vice has so many well
   willers, that, like a hoping party, 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 displays 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
   conformity and imitation. But if the instance happen in a crime, which
   more suits the practice of the hearers, thought 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 accessory to their
   Party, invite them the more heartily and openly to espouse it.

   18. These are such effects as surely do very ill 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 so perfectly contradicts the grand rule both of Justice and
   Charity, The doing as we would be done 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,
   what false dresses, what varnishes have we for them? There are not more
   arts of disguising our Corporal blemishes, than our Moral: and yet
   whilst we thus paint and parget our deformities, we cannot allow any
   the least imperfection of another's to remain undetected, but tear off
   the veil from their blushing frailties, and not only expose them, but
   proclaim them. And can there be a grosser, a more detestable partiality
   than this? God may sure in this instance (as in many others)
   expostulate with us as he did with Israel, Ezek. 33. Are not your ways
   unequal? What Barbarism, what inhumanity is it, thus to treat those of
   the same common nature with ourselves, 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 it is, that that Evangelical precept, of
   doing as we would be done to, which met with so much reverence even
   from the Heathens, that Severus the Emperor preferred it to all the
   Maxims of Philosophers, should be thus condemned 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 Justice 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 persuade himself, that the hearers will keep his counsel any
   better than 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 tis considered how unwilling men are to hear of their faults,
   though even in the mildest and most charitable way of admonition, tis
   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 proclaimed 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 entertained 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, though we
   expose for it our greatest temporal concerns, but cannot without
   despite to Him, as well as our brethren, be thus prostituted.

   21. Yet if we consider it abstractedly, from these more solemn
   mischiefs which attend it, the mere levity and unworthiness of it sets
   it below an ingenuous Person. We generally think a tattler and busybody
   a title of no small reproach: yet truly I know not to whom it more
   justly belongs, than to those, who busy themselves first in learning,
   and then in publishing the faults of others: an employment 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 (though a state which in
   other respects he much prefers, 1 Cor. 7. 8) into marriage, rather than
   expose themselves to the temptation, 1 Tim. 5. 13, 14. And if their
   impotence cannot afford excuse for it, what a debasement is it of men's
   nobler faculties to be thus entertained? The Historian gives it as an
   ill indication of Domitian's temper, that he employed 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 this divulging the faults of others, there is another
   branch of Detraction naturally springing from this root, and this is
   the censuring and severe judging of them. We think not we have well
   played the Historians, when we have told the thing, unless we add also
   our remarks, and animadversions of it. And although tis, 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 Judge. And we may
   easily divine the fate of that man's fame that is so unduly tried.

   23. Tis indeed sad to see how many private tribunals are everywhere set
   up, where we scan and judge our neighbor's actions, 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 something
   which appears not in the more general view of the fact, and which
   perhaps never was in the actor's intentions? In a word, we do like
   witches with their Magical Chemistry, extract all the venom, and take
   none of the allay. By this means we confound the degrees of sins, and
   sentence deliberate and indeliberate, a habit or an act all at one
   rate, that is commonly, at the utmost it can amount to, even it its
   worse exception: and sure this were a most culpable corruption in
   judgment, could we show our commission to judge our brethren.

   24. But here we may every one of us interrogate ourselves in our
   Savior's words, Who made me a Judge? Luke. 12. 14. And if he disclaimed
   it, (who in respect of his Divinity had the Supreme right) and that too
   in a case wherein one (at least) of 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
   Authority? Nay, (which is infinitely more) tis superseded by our great
   Law-giver, in that express prohibition, Matt. 7. 1. Judge not, and that
   backed with a severe penalty, that ye be not judged? As God hath
   appropriated vengeance to himself, so has He Judicature also; and tis
   an invasion of His peculiar, for any (but His Delegates the lawful
   Magistrates) to pretend to either. And indeed, in all private Judgments
   so much depends upon the intention of the Offender, that unless we
   could possess ourselves of God's Omniscience, twill be as irrational as
   impious to assume His Authority. Until we know men's hearts, we are at
   the best but imperfect Judges of their actions. At our rate of judging,
   St. Paul surely passed 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. Tis therefore good counsel which the Apostle gives,
   1 Cor. 4. 5. Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come. For
   though tis said the Saints shall judge 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
   than 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, though not of the Actor; nay, it may
   sometimes 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 judge only according to the visible
   undoubted circumstances, and not aggravate the crime upon the
   presumptions and conjectures; if we do, how right soever our guesses
   may be, our judgment is not, but we are as St. 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 always look down with contempt on those at the bar.
   And certainly there is nothing does so gratify, so regale a haughty
   humor, as this piece of usurped Sovereignty 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 heightening it, which we
   cannot more effectually do, than by this censorious humor? for by that
   we are so perpetually employed abroad, that we have no leisure to look
   homeward, and see our own defects. We are like the inhabitants of Ai,
   Josh. 8. so eager upon the pursuit of others, that we leave ourselves
   exposed to the ambushes of Satan, who will be sure still to encourage
   us in our chase, draw us still farther and farther from ourselves, 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 everything 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 tis 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 always swayed by due motives: sometimes
   little accidents, and often fancy, and most often 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 enhance it. Men are apt
   to think it some disparagement to their acuteness and invention, if
   they cannot say something as sharp upon the subject as hath been said
   before; and so tis 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, though that
   free not his Abettors from their share of the guilt.

   27. And as this is very uncharitable in respect of the injury offered,
   so also it is in reflection on the grand rule of Charity. Can we
   pretend to love our neighbors as ourselves, and yet shall our love to
   him have the quite contrary effects to that we bear ourselves? Can
   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 diminutive
   size, and yet shuffle the other to us when we are view his. No, these
   are Tricks of Legerdemain we learn in another School, even in whose
   style is the accuser of the brethren. We know how frequently God
   protests against false weights and false measures. And sure tis not
   only in the shop or market that he abhors them, they are no less
   abominable in conversation than in traffic. To buy by one measure and
   sell by another, is not more unequal, than it is to have these
   differing standards for our own and our neighbor's faults, that our own
   shall weigh, in the Prophet Jeremiah's Phrase, lighter than vanity, yea
   nothing, and yet his (though really the lighter) shall prove
   Zechariah's talent of lead. This is such a partiality, 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's 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 men's
   faults, and indulgence or palliation of their own, shows their zeal
   lies in their spleen, and that they consider no so much what is done,
   as who does it: and to such the sentence of the Apostle is very
   applicable, Rom. 2. 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever
   thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest
   thyself, for thou that judgest dost the same thing. But admit a man
   have not the very same guilts he censures in another, yet tis sure
   every man has some, and of what sort soever they be, he desires not
   they should be rigorously scanned, and therefore by the rule of
   Charity, yea, and justice too, ought no 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 myself, 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 been received among the maxims of civil life, not
   unnecessarily to exasperate anybody; to which agrees the advice of an
   ancient Philosopher, Speak not evil of they 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 displeasure: 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
   observed) but to the Aggressors great secular detriment, both in fame,
   and oftentimes interest also. Revenge is sharp-sighted, and overlooks
   no opportunity of a retaliation, and that commonly not bounded as the
   Levitical ones were, An eye for any eye, a tooth for a tooth, Exod. 21.
   24. no, nor by the larger proportions of their restitutions fourfold,
   Exod. 22. 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 an indiscretion, that to
   them we may well apply that of Solomon, A fool's 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 backbiting 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 occurrences of
   the day, shall very rarely be able to say he has spent it without
   hearing or speaking (perhaps both) somewhat 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 neighbor's property, that as
   Abraham once said, Gen. 14. 23. they would not take from him, even from
   a thread to a shoe latchet, are yet so inconsiderate of his Fame, as to
   find themselves discourse at the expense of that, though infinitely a
   greater injury than the robbing of his Coffer: which shews what false
   measures we are apt to take of things, and evinces that many of those,
   who have not only in a general abjured the world in their baptism, but
   do in many instances seem to themselves (as well as others) to have
   gained a Superiority over it, do yet in this undiscernibly yield it the
   greatest ensign of Sovereignty, by permitting it to set the Standards
   and estimate 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? Tis true those that profess themselves men of this world, who
   design only their portion in this life, may take it up as sometimes
   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
   Authority, 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, Ex. 32. 19. But to such I
   may answer in Christ's words, Luke 9. 55. Ye know not what manner of
   spirit you 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 ourselves, the Elder brother's raiment only to disguise
   the Supplanter. Gen. 27. Let men truly ransack their own breasts, and I
   doubt the best will find there is something of vanity which lies at the
   bottom, if it be not the positive sort mentioned before, of designing
   to illustrate myself by others' blemishes, yet at least the negative,
   that I am unwilling to incur the contempt incident to those who scruple
   at small sins. Besides, I observe perhaps, that tis 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 reproached 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.

   30. 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, than break down his
   neighbor's enclosure, 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 women 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 remarked by no other property,
   before the Bee that sucks the flowers and returns honey.

   31. But in the next place, admit this restraint should certainly expose
   one to that reproach; 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 than in this instance. What am I the worse if a
   vain Talkative Person think me too reserved? Of if he whose frolic
   levity is his disease, call me dull because I vapor not out all my
   spirits into froth? Socrates, when informed of some derogatory 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 disturbed 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 says, never sow,
   Eccles. 11. 4. He must suspend even the necessary actions of common
   life, if he will not venture them to the being misjudged by others.

   32. But there is a yet 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 reproach 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, than this dread of ill men's reproach. Other
   corruptions must be gratified with cost and industry, but in this the
   Devil hath no farther trouble than to laugh men out of their souls. So
   prolific a vice therefore had need be weeded out of men's hearts: for
   if it be allowed the least corner, if it be indulged to in this one
   instance, twill quickly spread itself farther.

   33. Yet after all, this fear of reproach is a mere fallacy, started to
   disguise a more real cause of fear: for the greater danger of reproach
   does indeed lie on that other side. Common estimation puts an ill
   Character upon pragmatic, meddling people. For though the
   inquisitiveness and curiosity of the hearer may sometimes render such
   discourses grateful enough to him, yet it leaves in him no good
   impressions of the speaker. This is well observed by the son of Sirach,
   Ecclus. 19. 8, 9. Whether it be to friend or foe, talk not of other
   men's lives; and if thou canst without offense, reveal them not, for he
   heard and observed thee, and when time cometh he will hate thee. In a
   word, all considering Persons will be on their guard in such company,
   as foreseeing that they will talk no less freely of them, than they do
   of others before them. Nor can the commonness of the guilt obviate the
   censure, there being nothing more frequent than 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 another's 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 temptation, even to our
   vanity, to comply with this uncharitable custom, we being sure to lose
   more repute by it than we can propose to ourselves to gain. The being
   esteemed an ill man will not be balanced by being thought pleasant,
   ingenuous company, were one sure to be so. But tis odds that will not
   be acquired by it neither, for the most assiduous tale-bearers and
   bitterest revilers are often half-witted people: there being nothing
   more frequently observable, than such men's aptness to speak evil of
   things they understand not, Jude. 1. 2.

   34. O Let not then those that have repudiated the more inviting sins,
   shew themselves pilfered and bewitched by this, but instead of
   submitting to the ill example of others, set a good one to them, &
   endeavor to bring this unchristian custom out of fashion. I am sure if
   they do not, they will be more deeply chargeable than 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 than other
   men's, and is apt to insinuate easy thought of the sin. Men are apt to
   think themselves safe while they follow one of noted piety, and the
   authority 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. Gal. 2. 13.
   And I doubt not in this particular many are encouraged 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
   than is proportionable to the brevity of the rest; but I think no
   longer than agrees to the importance of the subject.

   35. And now, since we have considered the malignity of this sin of
   Detraction, and yet withal find that tis a sin, which, as the Apostle
   speaks, doth easily beset us, tis but a natural Corollary that we
   enforce our vigilance against it. And where the importance and
   difficulty are both so great, twill be a little necessary to consider
   what are the likeliest 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 too, 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
   temptations to this sin of Detraction, whether any of those I have
   before mentioned, 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, tis not cured merely by outward application, but by such
   alterative Medicines as purify the blood; so this Leprosy of the Tongue
   will still spread farther, if it be not checked 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 man's own Conscience,
   which alone can testify by what impulses he acts. Yet as the Rabbis
   were wont to say, that in every Signal Judgment which befell 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 tis 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 designed to
   preclude all insulting of one man over another. Neither has He only
   thus insinuated it by his Providence, but has enforced 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 St. 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 Cor. 5. 2. When we see
   a dead Corpse, 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 God's grace, to secure us from the same effects, and
   by these insulting reflections forfeit that too; for He gives grace
   only to the humble. Jam. 4. 6. St. Paul's advice, therefore, is very
   apposite to this case, Gal. 6. 1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a
   fault, restore such a one in the spirit of Meekness, considering
   thyself, least thou also be tempted. In a word, the falls of others
   ought to excite our pity towards them, our caution as to ourselves and
   our thankfulness to God, if he hath hitherto preserved 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 ourselves to
   worse. Other sins like Rocks may split us, yet the lading may be
   preserved; but Pride like a Gulf swallows us up; our very virtues when
   so leavened, becoming weights and plummets to sink us to our deepest
   ruin. 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 involved in the same guilt; and then
   what are all our accusations and bitter censures of others, but
   indictments and condemnatory sentences against ourselves? 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 though our
   officious vehemence against another's crime, may blind the eyes 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 other men's Persons, tis not a time for us to
   join in the prosecution, but rather by humble and penitent reflections
   on ourselves to provide for our own safety. When therefore, we find
   ourselves (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, John 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 importuned him to establish a popular parity in the state,
   Do thou, says 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 secured 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 applied by St. Paul to this of judging
   and despising our Brethren. Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why
   dost thou set at nought thy brother? We shall all stand before the
   Judgement 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 spiteful folly for the
   Malefactors that were going together to the bar, to spend their time in
   exaggerating each other's crimes: so surely it is for us, who are all
   going toward the dreadful tribunal, to be drawing up Charges against
   one anoth