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Secret satisfaction in it; their hearts say within them, Aha! so we would have it. And many vent their satisfaction in outward rejoicing at it.

7. Lastly, Fond admiration of men, Jude 16. As the former are sins in defect, so this is a sin in excess. And indeed we become guilty by thinking too highly and above what is meet of any man, as well as thinking too meanly of them, 1 Cor. iv. 6. This is both a sin and a snare: for those whom we fondly admire, we are apt to imitate in evil as well as good, and so to follow them to the prejudice of truth. It is a sad evidence of the corruption of a man's heart, that he is ready either to idolize or else to despise others.

Secondly, In our lives and actions. Men may injure the good name of others without speaking a word against them.

1. Men may be guilty of the breach of this command, to the prejudice of their neighbour's good name, by bare gesture of the body, Prov. vi. 13. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers.' A man may with a wink, a nod, a grave look, a sigh, &c. stab another's reputation, filling others by these means with suspicions of him unjustly; or when one is slandered in our presence, making such signs which import our consent

thereto.

2. Drawing others into things that are ill or evil-like, and of bad report. Thus many ruin one anothers reputation, till they are made as rotten things laid one upon another, which corrupt each other, till both send forth a stinking smell, Matth. xviii. 7. They that lay the stumbling-block, and they that fall over it, are both ruined together, though double vengeance abides them who ruin others together with themselves.

3. By not hindering what we can in others those things that procure an ill name. The evil that befals others which we might have prevented, will justly be laid at our door. This brought the judgments of God on good Eli and his house too, so that they went all to ruin together, 1 Sam. iii. 13. The Spirit of God records, for the justification of poor Tamor, the care she had of preventing the ill name of herself and of Amnon, 2 Sam. xiii. 12, 13. So that neither by terror nor allurements she could be drawn into the villainy, though she was forced, which was her misery, but not her sin.

Thirdly, In our lips. The tongue is the principal mischievous instrument whereby people ruin or wound the good name of others. And here come in the sins of the tongue against our neighbour in a special manner, Thus men injure their neighbour,

1. By silence, when they forbear to speak what they ought and can for the credit of their neighbour. Thus men may wrong others by their silence in their neighbour's cause while he is aspersed, Prov. xxxi. 8, for in that case silence is consent. As also when their neighbour is justly commend ed, the entertaining thereof with silent looks, as if they knew something that may justly mar his reputation, If that be not the sense of it, it reflects on the silent person as grudging the reputation of the person commended,

2. Our neighbour may be injured by sinful speaking; and this command may be broken many ways.

(1.) By unnecessary discovering of the faults and infirmi ties of others. O how much guilt is contracted this way, by people's going in the way of cursed Ham. Gen, ix, 22. unavailing instead of vailing the weaknesses of others, without any necessity, but to the lessening of their reputation.

(2.) By aggravating of their lesser faults, Matth. vii. 3, 4, 5. Men see motes like beams in the eyes of others, while beams are as motes in their own, It is a mischievous tongue that, counting the faults of others, for fifty sets down a hun dred, and still looks to them through a magnifying glass, Had we the dexterity of aggravating our own as we have of aggravating the faults of others, we would be happy, because very humble people,

(3.) By reviving the memory of our neighbour's crimes which were worn out of mind, especially being repented of. Thus many vent their malice against others by casting up their former faults to them, as Shimei did to David, Truth it may be, but it is uncharitably and maliciously spoken, for which the speaker must give an account to God.

It is true,

(4.) By betraying of secrets committed to us. if the honour of God and the good of our neighbour require the discovering of a secret, in that case, as we ought not to promise, so we ought not to conceal it. But when we have lawfully promised to keep it, either expressly or tacitly, we sin against truth, justice, and friendship, to betray it. And though there be no promise in the case, yet when the reveal

ing of it tends to the detriment of our neighbour, it is sinful, Prov. xvii. 9. 2 Tim. iii. 4.

(5.) By detracting, or endeavouring any manner of way to impair the deserved credit of our neighbour, Ezek. iv. 12, 13. This is the native result of envy and ill-will at our neighbour; for those who cannot endure others to sit on high, where they are deservedly placed, will go about one way or other to undermine them.

(6.) By evil reports to the prejudicing of our neighbour unjustly. In these many are involved in guilt. [1] The raiser of it, Exod. xxiii. 1. Satan has the mouths of many at command for a forge of ill reports, who strike that hellish coin with their stamp, that it may pass for current. [2.] The receivers and spreaders of it, who are guilty here as well as the raiser; for they are to the raiser as the receiver to the thief: Report, say they, and we will report. If others will gather filth, they will throw it on their neighbours faces, and yet are not innocent, though they can give their authors, Neh. vi. 6. See Psal. xv. 3.

(7.) By slandering, which is an ill report without all ground. Psal. 1. 20. This the venom of a wretched tongue, made use of to kill and bury alive the innocent. It has been the trial of the people of God in general, and seldom if ever do any of them escape without it. Satan loves by his agents to vomit out against them reproaches and slanders, wherewith their good name may be blasted, and especially if religion and the cause of God can be wounded through their sides. The scourge of the tongue is a sharp scourge.

(8.) By backbiting and whispering, Rom. i. 29, 30. Both agree in that they speak evil behind men's back, accusing them, and loading them with reproach when they are not present to answer for themselves. The backbiter does it openly, and the whisperer does it secretly.

(9.) By tale-bearing, Lev. xix. 16. This is a sort of pedlar-trade for the devil, driven by many whose work it is to carry tales out of the house or company where they happen to be; and these are the wares they have to vent in other houses or companies, where they will be ready to take new clashes and tales to where they go next. These are the plagues of society, like Satan sowing discord among brethren. Hence secret grudges against one another, and none

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knows wherefore; and when they are searched to the fur thest, it is all grounded on some talebearer's credit.

(10.) By countenancing and encouraging of the black tribe of slanderers, backbiters, &c. Prov. xxix. 12. If these merchants for hell got not their wares taken of their hands, they would be ashamed of their trade, and forced to quit it. But many are as ready to take them off their hands as they are to deliver them.

(11.) By stopping our ears against the just defence of the parties lesed, as the malicious Jews did against Stephen, Acts vii. 57, 58. How rare is it to find a person as ready to receive a defence for, as an accusation against their neigh bour?

(12.) By scornful contempt, and scoffing, and mocking of others. This was the way of Ishmael's persecuting of Isaac, Gal. iv. 29. These viperous tongues work upon the miseries of others, as the soldiers did at Christ in his sufferings, Matth. xxvii. 28, 29. The natural imperfections of others are their sport, though reproaching the poor they despise his Maker; yea, and their sinful imperfections too, for fools make a mock at sin.

Some have a mighty fondness for gibing and taunting; their whole converse runs that way, to make others uneasy and themselves merry with their taunts. Let them not value themselves on their talent; if any spark of tenderness be left in them, I doubt if they dare look to it as a good gift given them from above, but as an abuse of the good gift of God. It was Ishmael's way, for which he was cast out of the family of the faithful, Gal. iv. 29.

(13.) Reviling and railing, giving others reproachful and opprobrious names, piercing them with bitter words, and murdering them with their tongues, Matth. v. 22. 1 Cor. vi. 10. Revilers are among those excluded out of heaven.

These are some of the ways how the wicked tongue gives home-thrusts to others, and pierces like the piercing of the sword, following the example of him who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. But would ye see them all gathered together in one, ye have them in,

(14.) Lastly, Scolding and rating, an abominable disorder which we are so much disturbed with. There their wicked hearts, stirred up with passion and revenge, vomit out all at once this filthy stuff. For there their neighbour's faults are

unnecessarily discovered, aggravated, &c. as if hell's forces were rendezvousing betwixt them. Wonder not at the expression. See Jude 9. No, the angel durst not engage Satan with these weapons, whereof he was the proper master, and at which none can outdo him. If ye take not better heed to your tongues, they will ruin you, Psal. lii. 2,-5. There are some other evils of the tongue here forbidden, the hurt whereof does not so plainly appear.

1. Talkativeness, or much speaking. Some are ever talking, and are never in their element but when prattling; and when once they loose, it is as hard to stop them as to stop a flood, and turn it another way. Of it I say,

(1.) It is a sign of a loose and frothy heart, where the fear of God hath little place, Eccl. v. 2; for that would make our words few, true, weighty, and useful. When God has given us two ears, and but one tongue, that we may be swift to hear and slow to speak, it is a pregnant evi dence of a naughty heart, to be swift to speak and slow to hear.

(2.) It is the fool's badge, Eccl. v. 3. Talkative persons; for want of acquaintance with themselves, thinking to shew themselves wise, ordinarily present a fool to the company. They will have a flood of words, who have hardly a drop of good sense or judgment; so that they are just a voice, and no more. They that are given to much speaking, can hardly speak either true or well; which made an orator ask a double fee of a talkative scholar, one to learn him to speak well, another to learn him to hold his peace. It is the cha racter of a virtuous woman, that she openeth her mouth with wisdom, Prov. xxxi. 26. Her mouth is not always open, but duly shut, and discreetly opened.

2. Idle speaking, Matth. xii. 36. The tongue was given to man to be for the honour of God, and the good of himself and his neighbour. Though our words, then, be not evit in themselves, they are evil because they are idle; that is, words spoken to no good purpose, tending neither to the honour of God, nor the good of ourselves or others, neither to his moral good, to make him more holy, nor to his civil good, as not being upon the necessary concerns of human life, nor his natural good, to maintain the moderate cheerfulness of society. It may be comprehended under foolish VOL. III. R

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