Proverb faith of a Flayl, is much truer of a Slan dering Tongue, that, There is no Fence against it. If any thing be a fure Protection from it, one would think the moft Spotless Innocence, and the most Exemplary Virtue needs muft, but the Example of our Bleffed Saviour affures us of the Contrary. No Man ever arrived to His Innocence or Vertue; but for all that, never was any one so strangely Wronged in his Good Name as He. Though no Man more Practifed or Taught Loyalty, yet was He Represented as an Enemy to Cafar. Though never had the Devil such an Enemy, yet was he Calum niated as a Great Wizzard, in league with Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils. Though never was the Breast of any one so poffeffed with Divine Love, nor any man's Mind with fo great a Reverence, and Veneration of the Divine Majesty, yet was He Stigmatized with the Blackest of all Marks and Characters, viz. That of a Blafphemer. And as the moft horrid Slan ders were invented and publifhed to the World of Him, fo were they generally believed too. There is Nothing we are Owners of that's fo Exposed to the Mercy of others, as are our Good-Names. Whofoever hath a Tongue in his C 2

Head,

Head, if he be but Wicked enough, and not Univerfally known to be a Wicked Man, can, when he pleafeth, do our Names a mischief. The Wife man faith, Prov. 25. 18. that A Man that beareth falfe Witness against his Neighbour, is a Maul, and a Sword, and a Sharp Arrow. That is, He is made up and Compounded of all fatal Mischiefs. A Maul cannot give greater Bruifes, nor more effectually Fell to the ground, than this fort of Weapon: Nor a Sword pierce deeper, or Cut and Slash more Cruelly: Nor a sharp Arrow wound at a greater diftance, no nor at nothing fo great a distance; for there is no getting out of the Reach of a Slandering Tongue; nor is there any where to be found Security against it: I mean, befides the Special and Extraordinary Providence of God. St. James tells. us in the fore-mentioned Chapter, ver. 7. &c. that Every kind of Beafts, and of Birds, and of Serpents, and things in the Sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of Man-kind; But the Tongue (viz. The Tongue of a Slanderer, as is plain by ver. 9.) can no Man tame, it is an unruly Evil, (fuch an Evil as there is no dealing with it) full of deadly Poifon : Such as is too ftrong for the moft Sovereign Antidote.

Many

Many (faith the Son of Syrack) have fallen by the Edge of the Sword, but not fo many as have fallen by the Tongue: Well is he that is defended from it, and hath not paffed through the Venome thereof. Who hath not drawn the Yoke thereof, nor bath been bound in its bands? For the Yoke thereof is as a Yoke of Iron, and the bands thereof as bands of Brass. The death thereof is an evil death, the Grave were better than it. So that the Slanderer being an Enemy, against whose Affaults the greatest Human Power, Policy or Wisdom, cannot wholly defend us; well might King David conceive fo high a displeasure against him, as he here expreffeth. And the like difpleasure doth he declare against him, Pfalm. 120. 2, 3, 4. Deliver my Soul, O Lord, from lying Lips, and from a deceitful Tongue. What shall be given unto thee, or what shall be done unto thee thou falfe Tongue? Sharp Arrows of the Mighty, with Coals of Juniper. Or, with hot burning Coles, according to the other Tranflation.

I proceed now to make fome Application of what hath been faid; And it fhall be This.

Firft, This little we have difcourfed on this Argument, is abundantly enough to render the

Sin of Slandering our Neighbour most abominable in our Eyes. I mean,

1. The Sin of Devising and Inventing Defa▪ mations and Slanders. This indeed is such a wickedness as one would think it fhould be needless to caution those against it, I will not say, who profess Christianity, but who have not bid adieu to all Humanity. It is fuch a Black, fuch a Hellish Sin, as that the Devil hath both his chief Names and Characters from it. "O Aláßor, i. e. This Name Devil, fignifies the Slanderer. Satan fignifies the Spiteful Enemy. The chief Characters we meet with in Scripture of the Devil, are these two, The Father of Lies, and The Accufer of the Brethren. And therefore nothing can denominate us more perfectly like the Devil, than this forging of Lies and Calumnies against our Brethren. And we fee, Pfalm. 50. 19, &c. with what feverity the Great God expreffeth himself against those that dare to commit This Sin. Saith He, Thou giveft thy Mouth to Evil, and thy Tongue frameth Deceit. Thou fittest and speakest against thy Brother, thou flandereft thine own Mothers Son. These things haft thou done, and I kept filence; thou thought eft that I was altogether fuch an one as thy felf: But

I

I will reprove thee, and fet them in order before thine Eyes. And v. 16. He asks fuch as These, What they had to do to declare his Statutes, or that they should take his Covenant into their Mouths: Or to make profeffion of his Religion, or indeed of any Religion. And v.22. He threatens them that He would tear them in Pieces, and there should be none to deliver, if they would not confider what he now had faid, and lay it to heart.

King Solomon putteth this Practice of Slandering, in the number of those Sins, which God, Abominates in a more Especial manner. Prov. 6.16. c. These fix things doth the Lord hate, yea feven are an Abomination to him. A Proud Look, a Lying Tongue, and Hands that shed Innocent Blood: An Heart that devifeth Wicked Imaginati= ons: Feet that be fwift in Running to Mischief:: A Falfe Witness that Speaketh Lies: And he that Soweth Difcord among Brethren. And indeed all thefe Seven things, except the first, are fuch as make the proper Character of This fort of Slan-derers I am now expofing. And Rev. 22. 15.. Whosoever loveth and maketh a Lie, is reckoned. with Dogs and Sorcerers, and Whoremongers, and. Murtherers, and Idolaters; who are to have their,

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