A

SERMON

AGAINST

Murmuring:

PREACHED in the

Lathedzal Church

Of St. PETER

ΕΧΟΝ

On the XXIXth of May, 1680.

By THOMAS LONG, B. D. One of the Pre-
bendaries of that Church.

Exod. xvi. 8.

Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.

LONDON,

Printed for Richard Royston, and are to be Sold by George
May, Bookfeller in Exon. MDC LXXX.

TO THE

Right Reverend FATHER in GOD

THOMAS

LORD Bishop of

Lamplugh

EXETE R

T

HIS Sermon not reaching the ears of those for
whom it was chiefly intended, I have by your Lord-

bips direction offered it to their hands, that it may be as a Glafs not only to fhew them their distorted faces but infectious breaths, which may fix fome Spots on the glass it Self, but fuch as (I doubt not) will be easily wiped off. I have attempted a very difficult work, The governing of an unruly evil, for as St. James Jayes, every kind of beasts Chap.3-7. and ferpents have been tamed by man, except the Serpent that is within him, the Tongue,which no man can tame. It was made to be our Glory, but we generally turn it to our fhame, especially while therewith we seem to bless God, but curfe and speak evil of those who bear most of his Image, his Magiftrates and Minifters, v. 9. It is full

A 2

Chap. 3.

14.

full of deadly poyfon, fuch as never hurts less than three at once, the perfon flandered in his good name, by Calumny ; the person that lifteneth to him, in his Charity, by Preju dice and evil furmifes; and himself most of all, by doing the Devils work in flandering his brethren, v. 8. It is a Fire, faith St. James, v. 6. and the worst of fires, for it is fet on fire of hell; (i. e.) the Devil the father of lyes; He is that god of Contention who imploys these Boutefeaus as Mars did his Priests to Scatter coals of fire in the Temple and inflame the whole courfe of Nature. Other evils may be feen and avoided, but this boots out arrows that fly as invifibly in the day as in the dark; it is of fuch a Verfatile and Proteus-like nature, that no knot can hold it, but it defies the Laws of God and man. Our tongues are our own, we ought to speak, who is Lord over us? Pfal. 12.

I should not have enlarged this discourse but that I però ceive Calumny is become the malus genius of the Nation, which seems to be poffeffed not with a dumb but a talkative Spirit, that hath turned Religion into lying and flandering. And fuch mens Religion, St. James affures us, is vain, ch. 1.26. 'Tis like that wherewith the Votaries of Mercury did worship him by cafting Stones at his Image and murdering their brethren in Effigie. Our Apofile difcovers the root of this evil to be a bitter zeal, or envy, ing and ftrife in the heart: the blistering of the tongue is caufed by an ulcerous heart; and 'tis from within out of

the