generality of men live, and who carry it to an excess which you avoid? But their fate is perhaps lefs to be, mourned, and less desperate than your own; They at least know their malady, while you regard your own as a state of perfect health. Is it the dread of being unable to fup-. port a more mortified, watchful, and Chriftian life? But. fince you have hitherto been able to support some remains of virtue and innocence, without the comforts and confolations of grace, and in spite of the wearineffes and disgusts which your lukewarmness has spread through all your duties, what will it be when the Spirit of God, fhall soften. your yoke, and when a more fervent and faithful life, fhall have restored to you all the grace and confolations, of which your lukewarmness has deprived you? Piety is never fad, or infupportable, but when it is cold and unfaithful.

Rife then, fays a prophet, wicked and flothful foul: Break the fatal charm, which lulls, and chains the to thine indolence. The Lord whom thou believeft to ferve, because thou doft not openly affront him, is not the God of the wicked, but of the faithful; he is not the rewarder of idleness and floth, but of tears, watchings, and combats: He establisheth not in his abodes, and in his everlasting city, the useless, but the vigilant and laborious fervant: And his kingdom, fays the Apostle, is not of flesh and blood, that is to say, of an unworthy effeminacy, and a life devoted to the appetites, but the strength and virtue of God; namely, a continued vigilance; a generous facrifice of all our inclinations; a conftant contempt of all things which pass away; and a tender and ardent defire for thofe invifible. bleffings which fade not, nor even pass away: Which may God, in his infinite mercy, grant to all affembled here. Amen.

SERMON

SERMON VI.

ON EVIL-SPEAKING.

JOHN ii. 24.

But Jefus did not commit himself unto them; because he knew all men.

THESE were the fame Pharifees, who a little before had been decrying to the people, the actions of Jefus Christ, and endeavouring to poison the purity and fanctity of, his words, who now make a fhew of believing in him, and, claffing themselves amongst his difciples. And fuch is the character of the evil-speaker; under the mark of esteem, and the flattering expreffions of friendship, to conceal the gall and bitterness of flander.

Now, although this be perhaps the only vice, which no circumftance can palliate, it is the one we are most ingenious in concealing from ourselves, and to which piety and the world at present show the greatest indulgence. Not,. that the character of a flanderer is not equally odious to men, as, according to the expreffion of the Holy Spirit, it is abominable in the fight of God; but in that number, they comprise only particular defamers of a blacker and more avowed malignity, who deal their blows indifcrimi-, nately, and without art; and who, with fufficient malice to cenfure, are deftitute of the wit neceffary to please:, Now,

Now, the defamers of that description are more rare; and had we only them to address ourselves to, it would be fufficent at present to point out, how much unworthy of reafon and religion this vice is, to inspire with a juft deteftation of it, those who feel themselves guilty.

But there is another description of flanderers, who condemn the vice, yet allow themselves the practice of it; who, without regard, defame their brethren, yet applaud themselves for circumfpection and moderation; who carry the fting to the heart; but, because it is more brilliant and piercing, perceive not the wound it has made. Now, defamers of this character are every where to be found; the world is filled with them; even the holy asylums are not free; this vice is the bond of union to the assemblies of finners; it often finds its way even into the fociety of the juft; and we may fafely fay, that all have erred from the ftrait road; and there is not one, who has preferved his tongue pure, and his lips undefiled.

It is proper, then, my brethren, to expofe at prefent the illufion of the pretexts, made ufe of every day in the world, in juftification of this vice; and to attack it in the circumflances, where you believe it most innocent; for were I to defcribe it to you, in general, with all its meannefs, cruelty, and irreparability, you would no longer apply it to yourselves; and far from inspiring you with horror at it, I fhould be acceffary towards your perfuafion, that you are free from its guilt.

Now, what are the pretexts, which, in your eyes, foften, or justify the vice of evil-fpeaking? In the first place, It is the lightness of the faults you cenfure: We perfuade ourselves, that as it is not a matter of culpability, there

cannot

cannot likewise be much harm in cenfuring it. adly, It is the public notoriety, by which those to whom we speak, being already informed of what is reprehenfible in our brother, no loss of reputation can be the confequence of our difcourfes. Lastly, Zeal for truth, and the glory of God, which does not permit us to be filent on those disorders which dishonour him. Now, to these three pretexts, let us oppose three incontrovertible truths. To the pretext of the lightness of the faults; that the more the faults which you cenfure are light, the more is the flander unjust: First Truth. To the pretext of the public notoriety; that the more the faults of our brethren are known, the more cruel is the flander which cenfures them: Second Truth. To the pretext of zeal; that the fame charity, which, in piety, makes us hate finners, makes us likewise cover up the mul titude of their faults: Laft Truth.

a

PART I The tongue, fays the Apostle James, is a de, youring fire, a world of iniquity, an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. And behold, what I would have applied to the tongue of the evil-speaker, had I undertaken to give you a just and natural idea of all the enormity of this vice: I would have said, that the tongue of the flanderer is a devouring fire, which tarnishes whatever it touches; which exercises its fury on the good grain, equally as on the chaff; on the profane, as on the facred; which, wherever it passes, Inaves only defolation and ruin; digs even into the bowels of the earth, and fixes itself on things the most hidden; turns into vile afhes, what, only a moment before, had appeared to us fo precious and brilliant; acts with more violence and danger than ever, in the time when it was apparently fmothered up, and almoft extinct; which blackens, what it cannot confume; and fometimes fparkles and delights, before it deftroys. I would have told you, that evilSpeaking

fpeaking is an affemblage of iniquity; a fecret pride, which discovers to us the mote in our brother's eye, but hides the beam which is in our own; a mean envy, which hurt at the talents or profperity of others, makes them the subject of its cenfures, and studies to dim the splendour of whatever outfhines itself; a difguifed hatred, which fheds in its speeches, the hidden venom of the heart; an unworthy duplicity, which praises to the face, and tears in pieces behind the back; a fhameful levity, which has no command over itself, or words, and often facrifices both fortune and comfort, to the imprudence of an amufing converfation; a deliberate barbarity, which goes to pierce your abfent brother; a fcandal, where you become a fubject of fhame and fin to thofe who liften to you; an injuftice, where you ravish from your brother, what is dearest to him. I would have faid that flander is a restless evil; which disturbs fociety; fpreads diffention through cities and countries; difunites the ftri&teft friendships; is the fource of hatred and revenge; fills, wherever it enters, with disturbances and confufion; and, every where, is an enemy to peace, comfort, and Christian good breeding. Laftly, I would have added, that it is an evil full of deadly poifon; whatever flows from it is infected, and poifons whatever it approaches; that even its praises are impoifened; its applauses, malicious; its filence, criminal; its geftures, motions and looks, have all their venom, and spread it each in their way.

Behold, what in this discourse, it would have been my duty, more at large, to have exposed to your view, had I not proposed only to paint to you, the vilenefs of the vice, which I am now going to combat; but as I have already faid, these are only general invectives, which none apply to themselves. The more odious the vice is reprefented,

the