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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. Th3 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 another. And who knows but we may then meet with the fate of
Daniel’s accusers, see him we censured acquit, and ourselves doomed. The
penitence of the criminal may have numbered him among the Saints, when our
unretracted uncharitableness may send us to unquenchable Flames. I conclude
this consideration with the words of St. James, There is one Lawgiver who is
able to save and to destroy, who are thou that judgest another? Jam. 4. 12.
40. A Third expedient may be, to try to make a revulsion of the humor, to
draw it into another channel. If we must needs be talking of other people’s
faults, let it not be to Defame, but to amend them, by converting our
Detraction and backbiting into Admonition and fraternal correction. This is
a way to extract medicine out of the viper, to consecrate even this so
unhallowed a part of our temper, and to turn the ungrateful meddling of a
busybody, into the most obliging office of a friend. And indeed, had we the
zeal for virtue, which we pretend when we inveigh against vice, we should
surely lay it out this way, for this only gives a possibility of reforming
the offender. But alas, we order the matter so, as if we feared to lose the
occasion of Clamor, and will tell all the world but him that it most
concerns. Indeed, tis a deplorable thing to see how universally this
necessary Christian duty is neglected; and to that neglect we may in a great
degree impute that strange overflowing of Detraction among us. We know the
receiving anything into our Charge, insensibly begets a love and tenderness
to it (a nurse upon this account comes often to vie kindness with the
mother:) and would we but take one another thus into our care, and by
friendly vigilance thus watch over each other’s souls, tis scarce imaginable
what an endearment it would create: such certainly as would infallibly
supplant all our unkind reportings, and severe descants upon our brethren;
since those can never take place, but when there is at least an
indifference, if not an enmity.
41. The next cure I shall propose for Detraction, is to subtract its
nourishment, by suppressing all Curiosity and inquisitiveness concerning
others. Were all Supplies thus cut off, it would at last be subdued. The
King of Ethiopia in a vie of Wit with the King of Egypt, proposed it as a
Problem to him, to drink up the Sea, to which he replied by requiring him
first to stop the access of Rivers to it: and he that would drain this other
Ocean, must take the same course, dam up the avenues of those Springs which
feed it. He that is always upon the scent, hunting out some discovery of
others, will be very apt to invite his neighbors to the quarry; and
therefore twill be necessary for him, to restrain himself from that range:
not like jealous States, to keep Spies and pensioners abroad to bring him
intelligence, but rather discourage all such officious pick-thanks: for the
fuller he is of such informations, the more is his pain if he keep them in,
and his guilt if he publish them. Could men be persuaded to affect a
wholesome ignorance in these matters, it would conduce both to their ease
and innocence: for tis this Itch of the ear which breaks out at the Tongue:
and were not Curiosity the Purveyor, Detraction would soon be starved into a
tameness.
42. But the most infallible recipe of all, is the frequent recollecting, and
serious applying of the grand rule, of doing as we would be done to; for as
Detraction is the violation of that, so the observation of that must
certainly supplant Detraction. Let us therefore, when we find the humor
fermenting within us, and ready to break out in Declamations against our
brethren, Let us, I say, check it with this short question, Would I myself
be thus used? This voice from within, will be like that from heaven to St.
Paul, which stopped him in the height of his carrier, Acts 9. 4. And this
voice, every man may hear, that will not stop his ears, nor gag his
conscience, it being but the Echo of that native Justice and equity which is
planted in our hearts: and when we have our remedy so near us, and will not
use it, God may well expostulate with us, as he did with the Jews, Why will
ye die, O house of Israel? Ezek. 33. 11.
These are some of those many recipes which may be prescribed against this
spreading disease. But indeed, there is not so much need to multiply
remedies, as to persuade men to apply them. We are in love with our Malady,
and as loath to be cured of the Luxury of the Tongue, as St. Augustine was
of his other Sensuality, against which he prayed with a Caveat, that he
might not be too soon heard. But tis ill dallying, where our Souls are
concerned: for alas, tis they that are wounded by those darts, which we
throw at others. We take our aim, perhaps at our Neighbors, but indeed hit
ourselves: herein verifying in the highest Sense that Axiom of the Wise-man,
He that diggeth a pit, shall fall into it, and he that rolleth a stone, it
shall return upon him. Prov. 26. 27. If therefore, we have no tenderness, no
relentings, to our Brethren, yet let us have some to ourselves, so much
compassion, nay, so much respect to our precious immortal Souls, as not to
set them at so despicable a price, to put them in balance with the
satisfying of a petulant, peevish vanity. Surely the shewing ourselves ill
natured (which is all the gain Detraction amounts to) is not so enamouring a
design, that we should sacrifice to it our highest interest. Tis too much to
spend our breath in such a pursuit, O let not our souls also exhale in the
vapor; but let us rather pour them out in prayers for our brethren, than in
accusations of them: for though both the one and the other will return into
our own bosoms, yet God knows to far differing purposes, even, as differing
as those wherein we utter them. The Charity of the one, like kindly
exhalations will descend in showers of blessings, but the rigor and asperity
of the other, in a severe doom upon ourselves: for the Apostle will tell us,
He shall have Judgement without mercy, that shewed no mercy, James 2. 13.
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Section VII.
Of Scoffing and Derision.
There is also another fault of the Tongue injurious to our neighbor, and
that is Derision and Mockery; the striving to render others as ridiculous
and contemptible as we can. This in respect of the subject matter differs
from the other of Detraction, as much as folly or deformity does from vice:
yet since injuries as well as benefits are to measured by common estimation,
this may come in balance with the other. There is such a general aversation
in the human nature to contempt, that there is scarce anything more
exasperating. I will not deny but the excess of that aversation may be
leveled against Pride, yet sure scorn and disdain never sprung from
humility, and therefore, are very incompetent Correctors of the other; so
that it may be said of that, as once it was of Diogenes, that he trampled on
Plato’s Pride with greater of his own.
2. Nor is this injury enhanced only by the refinement of the sufferer, but
also by the way of inflicting it. We generally think those are the severest
marks of infamy, which are the most indelible. To be burnt in the hand or
pilloried, is a more lasting reproach than to be scourged or confined; and
it is the same in this case, for here commonly Wit is the Lictor, which is
armed with an edged tool, and leaves scars behind it. The reproach of rage
and fury seem to be writ in Chalk or Lead, which a dispassionate hearer
easily wipes out, but those of Wit are like the engraver’s burn upon copper,
or the corrodings of Aquafortis, engrave and indent the Characters that they
can never be defaced. The truth of this daily experience attests. A dull
contumely quickly vanishes, nobody thinking it worth remembering; but when
tis steeled with Wit, it pierces deep, leaves such impressions in the fancy
of the hearers, that thereby it gets rooting in the memory, and will scarce
be eradicated: nay, sometimes it happens to survive both speaker and hearer,
and conveys itself to posterity; it being not unusual for the sarcasms of
Wit to be transmitted in story. And as it thus gives an edge, so also does
it add wings to a reproach, makes it fly abroad in an instant. Many a poor
man’s infirmities had been confined to the notice of a few relations or
neighbors, had not some remarkable strain of drollery scattered and
dispersed them. The jest recommends the Defamation, and is commonly so
incorporate with it, that they cannot be related apart. And even those who
like it not in one respect, yet are many time so transported with it in the
other, that they choose rather to propagate the contumely, than stifle the
conceit. Indeed, Wit is so much the Diana of this age, that he who goes
about to set any bounds to it must expect an uproar, Acts 19. 28. or at
least to be judged to have imposed an envious inhibition on it, because
himself has not stock enough to maintain the trade. But however sharp or
unexpected the censure may be, yet tis necessary that plain, downright truth
should sometimes be spoken, and I think that will bear me out, if I say, tis
possible men may be as oppressive by their parts, as their power; and that
God did no more design the meaner intellectuals of some for triumphs to the
Pride and vanity of the more acute, than he did the possessions of the less
powerful, as a prey to the rapine and avarice of the mighty.
3. And this suggests a yet farther aggravation of this sin, as it is a
perverting of God’s design, and abuse of the talent he has committed to men
in trust. Ingenuity and quickness of parts, is sure to be reckoned in the
highest ranks of Blessings, an instrument proper for the most excellent
purposes: and therefore we cannot suppose the Divine wisdom, so much short
of Human, as not in His intention to assign it to uses worthy of it. Those
must relate either to God, ourselves, or our neighbors. In respect of God,
it renders us more capable of contemplating His Perfections, discerning the
Equity and excellence of his Laws, and our obligations to obedience. In
regard of ourselves, it makes us apprehend our own interest in that
obedience; makes us tractable and persuadable, contrary to that Brutish
stubbornness of the Horse and Mule, which the Psalmist reproaches, Psa. 32.
9. Besides it accommodates us in all the concerns of Human life, forms
itself into all those useful contrivances, which may make our being here
more comfortable: especially it renders a man company to himself, and in the
greatest dearth of Society, entertains him with his own thoughts. Lastly, as
to our neighbors, it renders us useful and assistant. All those discoveries
and experiments, those Arts and Science, which are now the common treasure
of the world, took their first rise from the ingenuity of particular
Persons: and in all Personal exigencies wherein any of us are at any time
involved, we need not be told the usefulness of a wise adviser. Now all
these are employments commensurable to the faculty from whence they flow,
and that answer its excellence and value; and he that so bestows his talent,
gives a good account of this trust. But I would fain know under which of
these Heads Derision of our Neighbors comes in: certainly not under that of
being assistant to him. It would be a sorry relief to a poor indigent
wretch, to lavish out wit upon him, in upbraiding of his misery. And is not
this a parallel case? Is it not the same Barbarism, to mock and reproach a
man that wants the gifts of Nature, as him that wants those of Fortune? Nay,
perhaps it may be more, for a Beggar may have impoverished himself by his
own fault, but in Natural defects there is nothing to be charged, unless we
will fly higher, and arraign, that Providence that hath so dispensed. In a
word, as the Superfluities of the Rich are by God assigned as the
store-house of the poor, so the Abilities of the Wise are of the ignorant:
for tis a great mistake, to think ourselves Stewards in some of God’s gifts,
and proprietors in others. They are all equally to be employed, according to
the designation of the Donor, and there is nothing more universally designed
by him, than that mankind should be equally helpful to one another. Those
therefore, whom God hath blessed with higher degrees of sagacity and
quickness, ought not to look down on others as the objects of their contempt
or scorn, but rather of their care and pity, endeavoring to rescue them from
those mischiefs, to which their weakness may expose them, remembering still,
that God might have changed the Scene, and made themselves what they see
others. It is part of Job’s justification of his integrity, that he was eyes
to the Blind, and feet to the Lame, Job 29. 25. (i.e.) he accommodated his
assistances to all the wants and exigencies of others: and sure tis no less
the part of a good man to do it in the Mental than in the Corporal defects.
4. But alas, many of us would rather put a stumbling block in the way of the
Blind, pull away the Crutch from the Lame, that we may sport ourselves to
see them tumble: such a sensuality we have in observing and improving the
imperfections of others, that it is become the grand excellence of the Age
to be Dexterous at it, and Wit serves some men for little else. We are got
indeed into a merry world, Laughing is our main business; as if because it
has been made part of the Definition of man, that he is Risible, his
man-hood consisted in nothing else. But alas, if that be all the use men
have of their understandings, they were given them to little purpose, since
mere Idiots can laugh with as much pleasure and more innocence than they;
and it is a great instance how extremes may be brought to meet, that the
excess of Wit in the one, and of Folly in the other, serve but to produce
the same effect.
5. Yet so voracious is this humor now grown, that it draws in everything to
feed it. There is not game enough from the real folly of the world, and
therefore, that which is the most distant from it must be stamped with its
mark. Tis a known story of the Friar who on a fasting day bid his Capon be
Carp, and then very canonically ate it; and by such a transubstantiating
power our Wits bid all seriousness and consideration be formality and
foppery, and then under that name endeavor to hunt it out of the world. I
fear moral honesty fares not better with some of them than moral prudence.
The old Philosophical virtues of Justice, Temperance, and Chastity are now
hissed off the stage, as fit only for that Antiquated set of Actors; and he
that appears in that equipage, is by many thought more ridiculous than he
that walks the street in his Ancestor’s trunk hose. Nay indeed, vice itself
is scarce secure if it have not the grand accomplishment of impudence: a
puny blushing sinner is to be laughed out of his Modesty, though not out of
his sin; and to be proof against their scorns, he must first be so against
all the regrets of his own mind.
6. And if mere Ethic virtue, or shame-faced vice have this treatment,
Christian piety must expect worse: and so indeed, it finds its professors
being, beyond all others, exposed to their scorn and contempt. Nor is it
strange it should be so, such men being made, as it is Wisd. 2. 14. to
reprove their ways, they think in their own defense they are to deride
theirs. This is it indeed, which gives a secret sting and venom to their
reproaches: other men they abuse as an exercise of their Wit but these in
defense of the party. So Julian after his Apostasy, thought it a more
effectual way to persecute the Christians by taunts and ironies than by
racks and tortures, as thinking it more possible to shame than fright them
out of their religion. And the stratagem seems to have been reassumed by
many in this age, and I fear with too great success: for I doubt not there
are divers who have herded themselves amongst these profane Scoffers, not
that they are convinced by their reasons, but terrified by their
contumelies; and as some Indians are said to worship the Devil, that he may
not hurt them; so these choose to be active, that they may not be passive in
the contempts flung upon religion: such men forget the dreadful denunciation
of Christ against those that shall be ashamed of Him and His words. Matt. 8.
38.
7. As for those who, upon a juster estimate, find the advantages of piety
worthy to be chosen, and take it with all its accessory ignominies, they
have the encouragement of very good company in their sufferings. The
Psalmist long ago had his share, when not only Those that sat in the gate
spake against him, but the drunkards made songs upon him, Psa. 69. 12. Twas
also the Prophet Jeremiah’s complaint, I am in Derision daily, everyone
mocketh at me, Jer. 20. 7. Nay, our blessed Lord himself was derided in his
life by the Pharisees, Luke 16. 14. mocked and reviled at His death by the
Priests, the Elders, the Soldiers, nay, by casual passengers, Matt. 27. 39.
And shall the servant think himself greater than his Lord? Shall a Christian
expect an immunity from what his Savior has borne before him? (He that does
so, is too delicate a member for a crucified head.) No, sure let us rather
animate ourselves, as the Apostle exhorts, by considering Him who as well
despised the shame, as endured the cross for us, Heb. 12. 3. and who has not
only given an example, but proposed a reward, a Beatitude to those who are
reviled for righteousness sake, Matt. 5. 11. And when this is soberly
pondered, twill sure make it easy for us to resolve with holy David in a
like case, I will yet be more vile, 2 Sam. 6. 22.
8. But to return from this digression to those who thus unhappily employ
their parts, let me propose to them, that they would borrow every day some
few minutes from their mirth, and seriously consider whether this be (I need
not say a Christian, but) a manly exercise of their faculties. Alas, when
they have rallied out the day from one company to another, they may sum up
their account at night in the wise man’s simile, their Laughter has been but
like the crackling of Thorns under a pot, Ecclus. 6. 7. made a little brisk
noise for the present, and with the sparkles perhaps annoyed their
Neighbors, but what real good has it brought to themselves? All that they
can fancy is but the repute of Wit: but sure that might be attainable some
other way. We find the world affected to new things, and this of Derision
and abuse to others is so beaten a road, that perhaps the very variety of a
new way would render it acceptable. They are the lighter substances that
still swim away with the stream, the greater and more Solid bodies do
sometimes stop the current: and sure twere a noble essay of a man’s parts to
stem this tide, and by a more useful application of their own faculties,
convince others that their might be better employed. Tis said of Anacharsis,
that at a feast he could not be got to smile at the affected railleries of
common Jesters, but when an ape was brought in he freely laughed, saying an
ape was ridiculous by nature, but men by art and study. And truly, tis a
great contempt of human nature to think their intellects were given them for
no better end, than to raise that laughter which a brute can do as well or
better.
9. I Would not be thought to recommend such a Stoical sourness, as shall
admit of nothing of the cheerful, pleasant part of Conversation. God has not
sure been more rigid to our Minds than to our Bodies: and as He has not so
devoted the one to toil, but that He allows us some time to exercise them in
recreation as well as labors, so doubtless He indulges the same relaxation
to our Minds: which are not always to be screwed up to the height, but
allowed to descend to those easinesses of Converse, which entertain the
lower Faculties of the Soul. Nor do I think those are all employed in those
little skirmishes of Wit, which pass familiarly between intimates and
acquaintances, which besides the present divertissement, serve to whet and
quicken the Fancy. Yet I conceive this liberty is to be bounded with some
Cautions: as first in these encounters, the Charge should be Powder not
Bullets; there should nothing be said, that should leave any ungrateful
impressions, or give any umbrage of a spiteful intent. The world wants not
experiments of the mischiefs have happened by too severe Railleries: in such
Fencings jest has proven earnest, and Florets have often turned to Swords,
and not only the Friendship, but the Men have fallen a Sacrifice to a Jest.
10. Secondly, this is to have the same restriction with all other
recreations, that it be made a divertissement, not a trade. Tis an
insinuating thing, and is apt to encroach too much upon our time, and God
knows we have a great deal of business for this world, and much more for the
next, which will not be done with laughing: and therefore, tis not for us to
play away too much of that time, which is exacted by more serious concerns.
Tis sure we shall die in Earnest, and it will not become us, to live
altogether in Jest. But besides this stealth of our time, tis apt to steal
away men’s hearts too, make them dote so upon this kind of entertainment,
that it averts them from anything more serious. I believe I may appeal to
some who have made this their business, whether it go not against the hair
with them to set to anything else, and having espoused this as their one
excellence, they are willing to decry all others, that they may the more
value themselves upon this. By this means it is, that the gift of Raillery
has in this Age, like the lean Kine, devoured all the more solid worthy
qualifications, and is counted the most reputable accomplishment. A strange,
inverted estimate, thus to prefer the little ebullitions of Wit before solid
reason and judgment. If they would accommodate either Diet at the same rate,
they should eat the Husk, rather than the Kernel, and drink nothing but
froth and bubbles. But after all, Wisdom is commonly at long running
justified even of her Despisers; these great Idolaters of Wit often dashing
themselves upon such Rocks, as make them too late wish their Sails had been
less, and their Ballast more. For the preventing, therefore, of more such
wrecks, I wish the present caution may be more adverted to, not to bestow an
unproportionable part of our time or value on this slight exercise of man’s
slightest Faculty.
11. A Third Caution in this matter, is to confine ourselves to present
Company, not to make absent Persons the Subject of our mirth. Those freedoms
we use to a man’s face, as they are commonly more moderate, so they are more
equitable, because we expose ourselves to the like from him; but the back
blows are disingenuous, and give suspicion we intend not a fair trial of
Wit, but a cowardly murder of a man’s fame. Twas the precept of the
Philosopher, Deride not the absent, and I think it may well be so of the
Politician: there being nothing more imprudent as to our civil concerns than
the contrary liberty. For those things never die in the company they are
first vented in (nay, perhaps the hearer is not willing his wit should so
soon expire;) and when they once take air, they quickly come to the notice
of the derided Person, and then nothing in the world is more disobliging.
Twas a sober precept given one, not so much as to laugh in compliance with
him that derides another, for you will be hated by him he derides. And if an
accessory be hated, sure much more the principal: and I think I may say,
there are many can sooner forgive a solemn deep contrivance against them,
than one of their jocular reproaches: for he that designs seems to
acknowledge them considerable, but he that mocks them, seems to think them
too low for anything but contempt: and we learn from Aristotle, that the
measure of anger is entirely taken thence, men being so far provoked, as
they imagine they were slighted or affronted. In mere secular wisdom it will
therefore become men to consider, whether this trade be like to turn to
account; or whether it be worth the while, at once to make a jest and an
enemy.
12. And if it be imprudent to make man our enemy, tis much more to make God
so, by leveling our blows at anything sacred: but of that I have already had
occasion to speak, and shall not repeat; only give me leave to say, that
besides the profaner sorts of jests, which more immediately reflect on Him,
He is concerned in all the unjust reproaches of our brethren, our love to
them being confirmed by the same divine Sanction with our reverence to Him:
and sure nothing is more inconsistent with that love, than the exposing them
to that contempt we are ourselves impatient of. In a word, what repute
soever this practice now has of Wit, it is very far from wisdom to provoke
God that we may also disoblige man: and if we will take the Scripture
estimate, we shall find a Scorner is no such honorable Epithet as we seem to
account it. Solomon does almost constantly set it in opposition to a Wise
man: thus it is, Prov. 9. 8. and again Chap. 13. 1. and many other places;
and on the other side, closely links it with the Fool: and that not only in
title, but in punishment too, Judgments are prepared for scorners, and
stripes for the backs of fools, Prov. 19. 29. So that if our Wits think not
Solomon too dull for their Cabal, we see what a turn he will give to their
present verdict.
13. And if these reproaches which aim also at ostentation of Wit, be so
unjustifiable, what shall we say to those that are drawn with blacker lines,
that are founded in Malice and Envy, or some undermining design? Every man
that is to be supplanted cannot always be attacked with a downright battery:
perhaps his integrity may be such, that, as twas said of Daniel, Chap. 6. 4.
they can find no occasion against him: and when they cannot shake the main
Fort, they must try if they can possess themselves of the out-works, raise
some prejudice against his discretion, his humor, his carriage, and his most
extrinsic adherents, and if by representing him ridiculous in any of these
they can but abate men’s reverence to him, their confidence of him will not
long hold out; bare honesty without some other adornment, being looked on as
a leafless tree, nobody will trust himself to its shelter. Thus the enemies
of Socrates, when they could no otherways suppress his reputation, hired
Aristophanes, a Comic Poet, to personate him on the stage, and by the
insinuations of those interludes, insensibly conveyed first a contempt, then
a hatred of him into the hearts of the people. But I need not bring
instances of former times in this matter, these being sufficiently versed in
that mystery.
14. It is not strange that men of such designs, should summon all their Wit
to the service, make their Railleries as picquant as they can, that they may
wound the deeper: but methinks tis but a mean office they assign their Wit,
to be (I will not say the Pander, that being in this age scarce a title of
Reproach but) the executioner or hangman to their malice. Christ bids us be
wise as Serpents, yet adds withal harmless as Doves, Matt. 10. 18. But here
the Serpent has quite eat up the Dove, and puts a Vulture in the place, a
creature of such sagacity and diligence in pursuit of the prey, that tis
hard for any art or innocence to escape its talons.
15. There is yet another sort of Contumelious Persons, who indeed are not
chargeable with that circumstance, of ill employing their Wit, for they use
none in it. These are people whose sole talent is Pride and Scorn; who
perhaps have attained the Sciences of dressing themselves finely, and eating
well, and upon the strength of those excellencies, look fastidiously, and
disdainfully on any who want them, concluding if a man fall short of their
Garniture at the Knees and Elbows, he is much inferior to them in the
furniture of the Head. Such people think crying, O Ridiculous! is an ample
Confutation of anything can be said, and so they can but despise enough, are
contented not to be able to say why they do so. These are I confess, the
most innocent kind of Deriders in respect of others, what they say having
not edge enough to cause any smart. The greatest hurt they do is to
themselves, who though they much need, yet are generally little capable of a
rescue, and therefore I shall not clog the present discourse with any advice
to them: I shall choose rather to conclude with enforcing my Suit to the
former, that they would soberly and sadly weigh the account they must one
Day give of the Employment of their Parts, and the more they have hitherto
to embezzled them, the more to endeavor to expiate that Unthriftiness, by a
more careful Managery for the future; that so instead of that vain, empty,
vanishing Mirth they have courted here, they may find a real, full, and
eternal Satisfaction in the Joy of their Lord.
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Section VIII.
Of Flattery.
The last of Verbal injuries to our Neighbor which I shall mention, is
Flattery. This is indeed the fatalest wound of the Tongue, carries least
Smart, but infinitely more of Danger, and is as much superior to the former,
as a Gangrene is to a Gall or Scratch; this may be sore and vexing, but that
stupifying and deadly. Flattery is such a Mystery, such a Riddle of
iniquity, that its very softnesses are its cruelest rigor, its Balm
corrodes, and (to comprise all in the Psalmist’s excellent Description) its
words are smoother than oil, and yet be they very swords. Psa. 56. 21.
2. But besides the mischiefs of it to the Patient, tis the most dishonoring,
the most vilifying thing to the Agent. I shall not need to empanel a Jury
either of Moralists or Divines, every man’s own breast sufficiently
instructing him in the unworthiness of it. Tis indeed a Collective,
accumulative Baseness, its being in its Elements a compound and a complex of
the most sordid, hateful qualities incident to Mankind. I shall instance in
three viz. Lying, Servility, and Treachery, which being detestably deformed
single must in conjunction make up a loathsome Monstrous guilt. Now, though
Flattery has two Branches, yet these lie so at the Root as equally to
influence both: for whether you take it as it is the giving of praise where
it is not due, or the professing of kindness which is not real, these
Properties are still is Constitutive parts.
3. And first we may take Lying to be the very corner Stone of the Fabric;
for take it away, and the Whole falls to the ground. A Parasite would make
but a lean trade of it, that should confine himself to truth. For though tis
possible so to order the manner and circumstances, as to flatter even in the
representing a man’s real virtues to him, yet commonly if they do not
falsify as to the kind, they are forced to do it as to the degree. Besides,
as there are but few such subjects of Flattery, so neither are men of that
Worth so receptive of it. Such sort of addresses are less dangerous to those
who have the perspicuity to see through them: so that these Merchants are
under a necessity of dealing with the more ignorant Chapmen, and with them
their counterfeit wares will go off best. It is indeed strange to consider,
with what gross impudent falsehoods men of this trade will court their
Patrons. How many in former ages have not only amassed together all
sublunary excellencies, but have even ransacked heaven to supply their
Flattery, Deified their Princes, and persuaded them they were gods, who at
last found they were to die like men? And though this strain be not
out-dated, yet perhaps tis not that the vice is grown more modest, but that
Atheism has robbed it of that Topic. Those that believe no God, would rather
seem to annihilate than magnify the person to whom they should apply the
title. But I do not find that the practice has any other bounds. A great
man’s vices shall still be called virtues, his deformities beauties, and his
most absurd follies the height of ingenuity. Such a subtle Alchemist is this
Parasite, that he turns all he touches into gold, imaginary indeed as to the
deluded Person, but oft-times real to himself. Nor is Lying less natural to
the other part of Flattery, the Profession of service and kindness. This
needs no evidencing, and to attempt it would be a self-Confutation: for if
those Professions be true, they are not Flattery, therefore, if they be
Flattery, they must needs be Lies. It will be almost as needless to
expatiate on the Baseness and meanness of that sin; for though there is no
Subject that affords more matter for Declamation, yet Lying is a thing that
is ashamed of itself, and therefore may well be remitted to its own
convictions. Tis Aristotle’s observation, that all Elements but the Earth,
had some Philosopher or other, that gave it his vote to be the first
productive Principle of all things: and I think we may now say, that all
Crimes have had their Abettors and fautors, somebody that would stand up in
their defense; only Lying is so much the dregs and refuse of wickedness,
that none had yet had Chemistry enough to sublimate it, to bring it into
such a reputation, that any man will think fit to own it: the greater wonder
that what is under so universal a reproach, should be so commonly admitted
in practice. But by this we may make an estimate, what the whole body of
Flattery is, when in one limb of it we find so much corruption.
4. A Second is Servility and Abjectness of humor: and of this there needs no
other proof than has been already given; this charge being implicitly
involved in the former of Lying, the condescending to that, being a mark of
a disingenuous spirit. And accordingly, the nobler Heathens looked on it as
the vice of Slaves and vassals, below the liberty of a free man, as well as
an honest. But though I need no other evidence to make good the accusation,
yet every Sycophant furnishes me with many supernumerary proofs. Look upon
such a one, and you shall see his eyes immovably fixed on his Patron’s face,
watching each look, each glance, and in every change of his countenance
(like a Star-gazer) reading his own destiny, his Ears chained (like
galley-slaves at the oar) to his dictate, sucking in the most insipid
discourses with as much greediness as if they were the Apothegms of the
seven Sages, his Tongue turned only to Panegyrics and acclamations, his feet
in winged motion upon every nod or other signification of his pleasure: in a
word, his whole body (as if it had not other animal spirits than what it
derived from him) varies its postures, its exercises, as he finds agreeable
to the humor he is to serve. And can humanity contrive to debase itself
more? Yes it can, and does too often, by enslaving its Diviner part too,
taking up not only opinions, but even crimes also in compliance, playing the
incarnate Devil, and helping to act those villainies which Satan can only
suggest: and if this be not a state of abject slavery, sure there is none in
the world. Plutarch tells us, that Philoxenus for despising some dully
Poetry of Dionysius, was by him condemned to dig in the quarries: from
whence being by the mediation of friends remanded, at his return Dionysius
produced some other of his verses, which as soon as Philoxenus had read, he
made no reply, but calling to the waiters, said, Let them carry me again to
the quarries. And if a heathen Poet could prefer a corporeal slavery before
a mental, what name of reproach is low enough for them, who can submit to
both, in pursuit of those poor sordid advantages they project by their
Flatteries. Nor is this baseness more observable in these mean fawnings and
observances, than it is in the protestations of kindness and Friendship.
Love is the greatest gift any man has to bestow, and Friendship the
sacredest of all moral bonds: and to prostitute these to little pitiful
designs, is sure one of the basest cheats we can put upon our common nature,
in thus debasing her purest and most current coin, which by these frequent
adulterations is become so Suspected, that scarce any man knows what he
receives. But Christian Charity is yet worse used in this case: for that
obliging to all sincerity, is hereby induced to give gold for dross, exhibit
that Love indeed and in truth, which is returned only in word and in Tongue,
1 John 3. 18. And so it does in those who observe its rules: but in those
who own, yet observe them not, tis yet a greater sufferer, by laboring under
the scandal of all their dissimulations. It was one the Character give
Christians, even by their Enemies, Behold, how they love one another: but
God knows we may now be pointed out by a very differing mark, Behold, how
they deceive and delude one another. And sure this violation we herein offer
to our religion, does not allay but aggravate the baseness of this practice:
for if in the other we fell ourselves, in this we fell our God too,
sacrifice our interest in Him to get a surreptitious title to the favor of a
man. And this, I conceive, does in the second place not much commend the Art
of Flattery, which is built up of so vile materials.
5. And to complete this infamous composition, in the third place Treachery
comes in; a crime of so odious a kind, that to name it is to implead it: yet
how intrinsic a part this is of Flattery, will need no great skill to
evidence, daily experience sufficiently doing it. Tis a common observation
of Flatterers, that they are like the Heliotrope, open only towards the sun,
but shut and contract themselves at night, and in cloudy weather. Let the
object of their adoration be but eclipsed, they can see none of those
excellencies which before dazzled their eyes: and how ever inconstant they
may seem to others, they are indeed very constant to themselves, true to
their fixed principle, of courting the greatness not the man; in pursuit
whereof their old Idol is often made a sacrifice to their new: all malicious
discovery is made of their falling friend, to buy an interest in the rising
one. Of this there are such crowds of examples in Story, that it would be
impertinent to single out any, especially in an age that is fitter to
furnish presidents for the future, than to borrow of the past times. But
supposing the Parasite not actually guilty of this base revolt, (which yet
he seldom fails to be upon occasion) yet is he no less Treacherous even in
the height of his Blandishments; and while he most courts a man, he does the
most ruinously undermine him. For first he abuses him in his understanding,
precludes him form that which wise men have judged the most essential part
of Learning, the knowledge of himself, from which tis the main business of
the Flatterer to divert him. And to this abuse there is another inevitably
consequent: for this ignorance of his faults or follies, necessarily
condemns him to the continuing in them, it being impossible for him to think
of correcting either the one or the other, who is made believe he has
neither. This is like the treachery of a bribed officer in a Garrison, who
will not let the weak parts be fortified, and lays the man as open to
assaults, as that doth the Town. Yet this is not all, he does not only
provide for the continuance, but the improving of his crimes and errors,
which alas, are too prolific of themselves, but being cultivated and manured
with perpetual soothings and encouragements, grow immeasurably luxuriant.
And accordingly, we see that men used only to applauses are so fooled with
them that their insolences are intolerable. And this they are sometimes
taught to their cost, when they happen among free men, who will not submit
to all they say, nor commend all they do. And finding these uneasy
contradictions when they come abroad, they are willing to return to their
most complaisant company: and so this Sycophant Devil having once got them
within his circle, may enchant them as he pleases, lead them from one
wickedness to another. And as Caligula and other voluptnous Emperors, by
being adored as gods, sunk in their sensuality below the Nature of man, so
these celebrated Persons are by that false veneration animated to all those
reproachful practices, which may expose them to a real contempt: their
follies, as well as their vices still get had, till they answer the
description the Wise man give of the old Giants, Who fell away in the
strength of their foolishness. Ecclus. 16. 7.
6. And sure he that betrays a man to all these mischiefs, may well be
thought perfidious. But that which infinitely amplifies and enhances the
Treachery is, that all this is acted under the notion and disguise of a
friend; a relation so venerable, that methinks tis the nearest secular
transcript of the treason, which is storied of those who have administered
Poison in the Eucharist. The Name of a friend is such an endearment, as
nothing human can equal. All other natural or civil ties take their greatest
force from this. What signifies an unfriendly Parent, or Brother, or Wife?
Tis friendship only that is the cement which really and effectively combines
mankind: and therefore we may observe, that God reckoning up other
relations, illustrates them by several notes of endearment, but when he come
to that of friendship, tis the friend who is as thine own soul, Deut. 13. 6.
nothing below the highest instance was thought expressive enough of that
union. What a Legion of Fiends then possesseth man that can break these
chains, Matt. 5. 4. nay, that can hammer and forge those very chains into
Daggers and Stilettos, and make their friendship an engine of ruin? This is
certainly the blackest color wherein we can view a Parasite, his false light
makes the shadow the more dismal: as the Ape has a peculiar deformity above
other brutes by that awkward and ungraceful resemblance he has to a man, so
sure a Flatterer is infinitely the more hateful for being the ugly
counterfeit of a Friend. And as this Treachery lies at the bottom of the
Panegyrics, so also does it of all the caresses and exuberant kindness of a
Flatterer, which if they aimed not at any particular end of circumvention
must yet in the general be Treacherous by being false. A man looks on the
love of his friend as one of the riches possessions (upon which account the
Philosopher thought friends were to be inventoried as well as goods.) What a
defeat and discomfiture is it to a man, when he comes to use this wealth, to
find it all false metal, such as will not answer any of those purposes of
which he depended on it. There cannot sure be a greater Treachery, than
first to raise a confidence and then deceive it. But besides this
fundamental falseness, there are also many incidental Treacheries, which
fall in upon occasion of particular designs. A pretence of kindness is the
universal stale to all base projects: by this men are robbed of their
fortunes, and women of their honor: in a word all the wolfish designs walk
under this sheep’s clothing, and as the world goes, men have more need to
beware of those who call themselves friends, than those who own themselves
enemies.
7. These are those lineaments of this vice of Flattery, which sure do
together make up a face of most extreme deformity. I might upon a true
account add another, and charge it with Folly too. I am sure according to
the Divine estimate it is always so: and truly it does not seldom prove so
in the secular also. Men of this art do sometimes drop their vizard before
they have got the prize, and then there is nothing in the world that appears
so contemptible, so silly; a barefaced Flatterer being everybody’s scorn.
The short is, wherever this game is played there is always a fool in the
case: if the Parasite be detected, it falls to his share: if he be not, to
his whom he deludes. But at the best tis but subtlety and cunning he can
boast of; and if he can in his own fancy raise that to the opinion of true
wisdom, tis a sign he is come round to practice his deceits upon himself,
and is as much his own Flatterer as he has been others.
8. And now I know not whether it be more shame or wonder, to see that men
can so put off ingenuity, and the native greatness of their kind, as to
descend to so base, so ignoble a vice: yet alas, we daily see it done, and
not only by the scum and refuse of the people, such as Job speaks of, who
are viler than the earth. Chap. 30. 8. but by Persons of all conditions.
Flattery, like a spring forced upward ascends, as cares are by the wise man
said to descend, Ecclus. 40. 4. from him that weareth a linen frock to him
that weareth a crown: all intermedial degrees are but like pipes, which as
they suck from below, so transmit it still upwards. There are few so low but
find somebody to cajole and Flatter them. Some interest or other may
sometimes be to be served even upon the meanest, and those that fine
themselves thus solicited for benefits, are easily taught by it how to
address to their immediate superiors, from whom they expect greater: and as
tis thus handed from one rank to another, the art still is more subtilized
and refined. (God help poor Princes the while, who commonly meet with the
Elixir, and quintessence of this venom.) And thus it passes through all
states and conditions: as they are passive on the one side, and are
Flattered by some, so they are active on the other, and Flatter others.
9. I Say all conditions, I do not say all Persons in those conditions, for
no truly generous soul can stoop so low: but tis too evident to what a low
ebb Generosity as well as Christianity is grown, by the numbers of those who
thus degrade themselves, every little petty interest being thought worth
these base submissions. And truly, it is hard to find by what Topic of
persuasion to assault such men. The meanness, or the sin will scarce be
dissuasives to those who have reconciled themselves to both: if anything can
be pertinently said to them, it must be upon the score of Interest, for that
being their grand principle, they can with no pretence disclaim the
inferences drawn thence.
10. Let them therefore, duly balance the advantages they project from this
practice with the mischiefs and dangers of it. What they expect is commonly
either Honor or wealth, these they hope may be acquired by their
prostrations to those who can dispense or procure them. Tis true, as Honor
signifies Greatness and power, it is sometimes attained by it, but then as
it signifies Reputation and esteem, tis as sure to be lost. He that thus
ascends, may be looked on with fear, but never with reverence. Now I think
tis no good bargain to exchange this second notion of Honor for the first,
for besides the difference in the intrinsic value, tis to be considered how
tottering a Pinnacle unmerited Greatness is. He that raised him to satisfy
his humor at one time, can (with more ease and equal justice) throw him down
at another: and when such a man does fall, he falls without pity, so without
remedy, has no foundation on which to rebuild his fortune. His Sycophanting
arts being detected, that Game is not to be played the second time: whereas
a man of a clear reputation, though his barque be split, yet he saves his
Cargo, has something left towards setting up again, and so is in capacity of
receiving benefit not only from his own industry, but the friendship of
others. A sound piece of Timber, if it be not thought fit for one use, yet
will be laid by for another: and an honest man will probably at one time or
other be thought good for something.
11. As for the other aim, that of Wealth, tis very possible that may
sometimes be compassed; and well it may, the Flatterer having several
Springs to feed it by. For he that has a great Patron, has the advantage of
his countenance and Authority, he has that of his bounty and liberality, and
he has another (sometimes greater than both) that of his negligence and
deceivablenesss. But yet all these acquisition are may times like Fairy
money, what is brought one night, is taken away the next. Men of this mold
seldom know how to bear prosperity temperately, and it is no new thing to
see a Privado carry it so high, as to awaken the jealousy of his promoter,
which being assisted by the busy industry of those who envy his fortune,
twill be easy enough to find some flaw in his Gettings, by which to unravel
the whole Web: an event that has been oft experimented not only in the
private managery of Families, but in the most public administrations. And
these are such hazards, that laid altogether would much recommend to any the
Moral of Horaces’s Fable, and make one choose the country Mouse’s plain fare
and safety, rather tan the delicacies of the City with so much danger. This
then is the state of the prosperous Parasite: but alas, how many are there
who never arrive to this but are kicked down ere they have climbed the two
or three first rounds of the Ladder, whose designs be so humble, as not to
aspire above a Major-Domo or some such domestic preferment, for in this
trade there are adventurers of all sizes? But upon all these considerations,
methinks it appears no very inviting one to any. At the long run an honest
freedom of speech will more recommend a man, than all these sneaking
flatteries: we have a very wise man’s word for it, he that rebuketh a man
afterwards shall find more favor, than he that flattereth with his lips.
Prov. 28. 23.
12. But after all that hath or can be said, the suppression of Flattery will
most depend upon those Persons to whom it is addressed: if it be not
repulsed there, nothing else will discourage it, and if it be, tis crushed
in the egg, and can produce no viper. These Vultures prey only on carcasses,
on such stupid minds, as have not life and vigor enough to fray them away.
Let but Persons of quality entertain such customers with a severe brow, with
some smart expression of dislike, those Leeches will immediately fall off.
In Sparta when all laws against theft proved ineffectual, at last they fixed
the penalty on them that were robbed, and by that did the business: and in
the present case, if twere made as infamous to be flattered as tis to
flatter, I believe it might have the like effect. Indeed, there is pretence
enough to make it so: for first, as to Wit, the advantage is clear on the
Flatterer’s side: he must be allowed to have more of that (which in this age
is more than a counterpoise to honesty;) and as for virtue, the balance (as
to the principle motive;) seems to hang pretty even, tis the vice of Avarice
that tempts the one to Flatter, and the vice of Pride that makes it
acceptable to the other. The truth is, there is the bottom of the matter:
tis that secret confederate within that exposes men to those assaults from
without. We have generally such an appetite to praise, that we greedily such
it in without staying to examine whether it belong to us or no, or whether
it be designed as a kindness or an abuse. Other injuries rush upon us with
violence, and give us notice of their approach: they may be said to come
like water into our bowels; but this like oil into our bones, Psa. 109. 18.
penetrates easily, undiscernibly, by help of that native propension we have
to receive it. Tis therefore, the near concern of all, especially of those
whose quality most exposes them, to keep a guard upon that treacherous
inmate, not to let that step into the scale to make a base Sycophant
out-weigh a true friend, and whenever they are attacked with extravagant
Encomiums, let them fortify themselves with the Dilemma, Either they have
those excellencies they are praised for, or they have not: if they have not,
tis an apparent cheat and gull, and he is of a pitiful, forlorn
understanding that delights to be fooled: but if they have, they are too
good to be exposes to such worms who will instantly wither the fairest
gourd, Jonah 4. 7.
For as it is said of the Grand Signior, that no grass grows where his horse
once treads: so we may say of the Flatterer, no virtue ever prospers where
he is admitted: if he finds any he hugs it till he stifles it, if he find
none, he so indisposes the soil that no future seeds can ever take root. In
fine, he is a mischief beyond the description of any Character. O let not
men then act this part to themselves by being their own Parasites! and then
twill be an easy thing to escape all others.
_________________________________________________________________
Section IX.
Of Boasting.
We have now seen some effects of an ungoverned Tongue, as they relate to God
and our Neighbor. There is yet a third sort which reflect upon a man’s self.
So unboundedly mischievous is that petulant member, that heaven and earth
are not wide enough for its range, but it will find work at home too: and
like the viper, that after it had devoured its companions, preyed upon
itself, so it corrodes inward, and becomes often as fatal to its owner, as
to all the world besides.
2. Of this there are as many instances, as there are imprudent things said,
for all such have the worst reflection upon the speaker: and therefore, all
that have given rules for civil life, have in order to it, put very severe
restraints upon the Tongue, that it run not before the judgment. Twas the
advice of Zeno to dip the tongue in the mind before one should permit it to
speak. Theophrastus used to say, It was safer trusting to an unbridled
horse, than to intemperate speech. And daily experience confirms the
Aphorism, for those that set no guard upon their tongues are hurried by them
into a thousand indecencies, and very often into real considerable
mischiefs. By this means men have proved their own delators, discovered
their own most important secrets: and, whereas their heart should have kept
a lock upon their Tongue, they have given their Tongue the key of their
heart, and the event has been oft as unhappy as the proceeding was
preposterous. There are indeed so many ways for men to lose themselves in
their talk, that I should do the like if I should pretend to trace them.
Besides, my subject leads me not to discourse Ethically but Christianly of
the faults of the Tongue, and therefore I have all along considered the one
no farther than it happens to be twisted with the other.
3. In the present case I shall insist only upon one fault of the tongue,
which partakes of both kinds, and it is at once a vice and a folly, I mean
that of Boasting and vaunting a man’s self: a strain to which some men’s
tongues have a wonderful glibness. No discourse can be administered, but
they will try to turn the Tide, and draw it all into their own Channel, by
entertaining you with long stories of themselves: or if there be no room for
that, they will at least screw in here and there some intimations of what
they did or said. Yea, so stupid a vanity is this, that it works alike upon
all materials: not only their greater and more illustrious acts or
sentences, but even their most slight and trivial occurrences, by being
theirs, they think acquire a considerableness, and are forcibly imposed upon
the company; the very dreams of such people strait commence prophesy, and
are as seriously related, as if they were undoubted revelations. And sure if
we reflect upon our Savior’s rule, that Out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaketh, we cannot but think these men are very full of
themselves, and to be so, is but another phrase of being very Proud. So, tis
Pride in the heart, which is the spring that feeds this perpetual current at
the mouth, and under that notion we are to consider it.
4. And truly there is nothing can render it more infamous, Pride being a
vice that of all others is the most branded in Scripture as most detestable
to God, and is signalized by the punishment to be so. This turned Lucifer
out of Heaven, Nebuchadnezzar out of his Throne, nay, out of Human society.
And indeed, it seems still to have something of the same effect, nothing
rendering a man so inconsiderable; for it sets him above the meaner sort of
company, and makes him intolerable to the better, and to compete the
parallel, he seldom comes to know himself till he be turned a-grazing, be
reduced to some extremities.
5. But this Boasting, arrogant humor, though always bad, yet is more or less
so according to the Subject on which it works. If it be only on Natural
excellencies, as Beauty, Wit, or accidental acquisitions, as Honor, Wealth,
or the like, yet even here tis not only a Theft, but a Sacrilege; the glory
of those being due only to the Donor, not to the receiver, there being not
so much as any predisposition in the subject to determine God’s bounty. He
could have made the most deformed Beggar as handsome and as rich as those
who most pride themselves in their wealth and beauty. No man fancies himself
to be his own Creator, and though some have assumed to be the Architects of
their own fortunes, yet the frequent defeats of men’s industry and
contrivance, do sufficiently confute that bold pretense, and evince that
there is something above them, which can either blast or prosper their
attempts. What an invasion then is it of God’s right, to engross the honor
of those being done, which were not at all in their power to do? And sure
the folly is as great in respect of men, as the sin is towards God. This
boasting, like a heavy Nurse, overlays the Child, the vanity of that quite
drowns the notice of the things in which tis founded; and men are not so apt
to say such a man is Handsome, Wise, or Great, as that he is proud upon the
fancy of being so. In a word, he that celebrates his own excellencies, must
be content with his own applauses, for he will get none of others, unless it
be from those fawning Sycophants, whose praises are worse than the bitterest
Detractions.
6. And yet so sottish a vice is Pride, that it can make even those insidious
Flatteries matter of boast, which is a much more irrational object of it
than the former. How eagerly do some men propagate every little Encomium
their Parasites make of them? With what gust and sensuality will they tell
how such a Jest of theirs took, or such a Magnificence was admired? Tis
pleasant to see what little Arts and dexterities they have to wind in such
things into discourse: when alas, it amounts to no more than this, that some
have thought them fools enough to be flattered, and tis odds but the hearers
will think them enough so to be laughed at.
7. But there is yet another Subject of Boasting more foolish, and more
criminal too, than either of the former, and that is when men vaunt of their
Piety; which if it were true, were yet less owing to themselves than any
natural endowment. For though we do not at all assist towards them, yet do
we neither obstruct, but in the operations of Grace tis otherwise: we have
there a principle of opposition, and God never makes us his own till He
subdues that: and though He do it not by irresistible force, but by such
sweet and gentle insinuations, that we are sometimes captivated ere we are
aware: yet that does not impeach His right of conquest, but only shews Him
the more gracious conqueror. Tis true in respect of the event we have great
cause of exultance and joy, God’s service being the most perfect freedom:
yet in regard of the efficiency, we have as little matter of Boast, as the
surprised City has in the triumphs of its victor.
8. But secondly, either this vaunted Piety is not real, and then tis good
for nothing; or else by being vaunted becomes so. If it be not real, tis
then the superadding Hypocrisy to the former sacrilege, an attempt at once
to rob God and cheat men, and in the event usually renders them hateful to
both: to God (who cannot be mocked) it does so at the instant, and seldom
misses to do so at last to men. An Hypocrite has a long part to act, and if
his memory fail him but in any one scene, his play is spoiled: so that his
hazards are so great, that tis as little prudent as tis honest to set up the
trade, especially in an age when Piety itself is at so low a price, that its
counterfeit cannot pass much. But if the Piety be indeed true, the Boasting
it blasts it, makes it utterly insignificant. This we are told by Christ
Himself, who assure us, that even the most Christian actions of prayer,
alms, and fasting, must expect no other reward (when boasted) that the
sought-for applause of men. Matt. 6. When a man shall make his own tongue
the trumpet of his Alms, or the echo of his prayers, he carves, or rather
snatches his own reward, and must not look God should heap more upon him:
the recompense of his pride he may indeed look for from Him, but that of his
virtue he has forestalled. In short, piety is like those Lamps of old, which
maintained their light some Ages under ground, but as soon as they took air
expired. And surely there cannot be a more deplorable folly, than thus to
lose a rich Jewel, only for the pitiful pleasure of shewing it: it’s the
humor of Children and Idiots, who must be handling their birds till they fly
away, and it ranks us with them in point of discretion, though not of
innocence.
9. From the view of these particulars we may in the gross conclude, that
this ostentation is a most foolish sin, such as never brought in advantage
to any man. There is no vice so undermines itself as this does: tis glory it
seeks, and instead of gaining that, it loses common, ordinary estimation.
Everybody that sees a bladder puffed up, knows tis but wind that so swells
it: and there is no surer argument of a light, frothy brain than this
bubbling at the mouth. Indeed, there is nothing renders any man so
contemptible, so utterly useless to the world; it excludes him almost from
all commerce, makes him uncapable of receiving or doing a benefit. No man
will do him a good turn, because he foresees he will arrogate it to himself,
as the effect of his merit: and none (that are not in some great exigence)
will receive one from him, as knowing it shall be not only proclaimed, but
magnified much above the true worth. There seems to be but one purpose for
which he serves, and that is to be sport for his company: and that he seldom
fails to be, for in these gamesome days men will not lose such an
opportunity of divertissement, and therefore, will purposely give him hints,
which may put him upon his Rodomontades. I do not speak this by way of
encouragement to them, but only to shew these vaporers, to what scorn they
expose themselves, and what advantage they give to any that have a mind to
abuse them: for they need not be at any pains for it, they do but swim with
their stream; an approving nod or smile, serves to drive on the design, and
make them display themselves more disadvantageously, more ridiculously, than
the most Satirical Character could possibly do.
10. But besides these sportive projects, such a man lays himself open to
more dangerous circumventions. He that shews himself so enamoured of praise,
that (Narcissus like) dotes on his own reflections, is a fit prey for
Flatterers, and such a Carcass will never want those Eagles: when his weak
part is one discerned (as it must soon be when himself publishes it) he
shall quickly be surrounded with assailants. The last Section has shewed the
misery of a man so besieged, therefore, I shall not enlarge on it here, this
mention being only intended to evince how apt this vainglorious humor is to
betray men to it.
11. These are competent Specimens of the folly of this vice: but it has yet
a farther aggravation, that it precludes all means of growing wiser: tis
Solomon’s assertion, Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more
hope of a Fool than of him. Prov. 26. 12. And the reason is evident, for he
discards the two grant instruments of instruction, Admonition and
Observation. The former he thinks superseded by his own Perfections, and
therefore, when any such friendly office is attempted towards him, he
imputes it either to Envy, and a desire to eclipse his luster by finding
some spot, or else to Ignorance and incapacity of estimating his worth: the
one he entertains with Indignation, the other with disdainful Pity. As for
Observation, he so circumscribes it within himself, that it can never fetch
in anything from without. Reading of men has been by some thought the most
facile and expedite Method of acquiring Knowledge; and sure for some kinds
of Knowledge it is: but then a man must not only read one Author, much less
the one worst he can pick out for himself. Tis an old and true saying, He
that is his own Pupil shall have a fool for his Tutor: and truly he that
studies only himself, will be like to make but a sorry Progress. Yet this is
the case of arrogant men, they lose all the benefit of Conversation, and
when they should be enriching their Minds with foreign treasure, they are
only counting over their own store. Instead of adverting to those sober
discourses which they hear from others, they are perhaps watching to
interrupt them by some pompous Story of themselves, or at least in the
abundance of their self-sufficiency, think they can say much better things,
Magisterially obtrude their own notions, and fall a-teaching when tis fitter
they should learn: and sure to be thus forward to lay out, and take no care
to bring in, must needs end in a Bankrupt state. Tis true, I confess, the
study of a man’s self is (rightly taken) the most useful part of Learning,
but then it much be such a Study as brings him to know himself, which none
do so little as these men, who in this are like those silly women the
Apostle describes, 2 Tim. 3. 7. Who are ever learning yet never attain. And
tis no wonder, for they begin at the wrong end, make no inquiry into their
faults or defects, but fix their Contemplation only on their more splendid
qualities, with which they are so dazzled, that when you bring them to the
darker parts of themselves, it fares with them as with those that come newly
from gazing on the Sun, they can see nothing.
12. And now having dissected this swelling vice, and seen what it is that
feeds the tumor, the cure suggests itself. If the disease be founded in
Pride, the abating that is the most natural and proper remedy: and truly,
one would think that mere weighing of the foregoing considerations might
prove sufficient allays to it. Yet because where humors are turgent, tis
necessary not only to purge them, but also to strengthen the infested part,
I shall adventure to give some few advices by way of fortification and
Antidote.
13. In the first place, that of the Apostle offers itself to my hand, Look
not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Phil. 2. 4. A counsel which in a distorted sense seems to be too much
practiced. We are apt to apply it to worldly advantages, and in that notion
not to look on our own things with thankfulness, but on other men’s with
envy. We apply it also to errors and sins, and look not on our own to
correct and reform, but on others to despise and censure. Let us at last
take it in the genuine sense, and not look on our own excellencies, but
those of others. We see in all things how desuetude does contract and narrow
our faculties, so that we may apprehend only those things wherein we are
conversant. The droiling Peasant scarce thinks there is any world beyond his
own Village, or the neighboring Markets, nor any gayety beyond that of a
Wake or Morris, and men who are accustomed only to the admiration of
themselves, think there is nothing beside them worthy of regard. These
unbred minds must be a little sent abroad, made acquainted with those
excellencies which God has bestowed on other men, and then they will not
think themselves like Gideon’s fleece to have sucked up all the dew of
heaven: nay, perhaps they many find they rather answer the other part of the
miracle, and are drier than their neighbors. Let them therefore put
themselves in this course, observe diligently all the good that is visible
in other men, and when they find themselves mounting into their altitudes,
let them clog their wings with the remembrance of those who have out-soared
them, not in vain opinion, but in true worth. Tis nothing but the fancy of
singularity that puff us up. To breath, to walk, to hear, to see, are
excellent powers, yet nobody is proud of them, because they are common to
the whole kind: and therefore, if we would observe the great number of those
that equal or exceed us, even in the more appropriate endowments, we should
not put so excessive a price upon ourselves.
14. Secondly, if we will needs be reflecting upon ourselves, let us do it
more ingeniously, more equally, let us take a true survey, and observe as
well the barren as the fertile part of the soil: and if this were done, may
men’s value would be much short of what they are willing to suppose it. Did
we but compare our crop of Weeds and Nettles, with that of our Corn, we must
either think our ground is poor, or ourselves very ill husbands. When
therefore, the recollection of either real or fancied worth begins to make
us airy, let us condense again by the remembrance of our sins and folly: tis
the only possible service they can do us, and considering how dear they are
to cost us, we had not need lose this one accidental advantage. In this
sense Satan may cast out Satan, our vilest guilts help to eject our pride,
and did we will manage this one stratagem against him, twould give us more
cause of triumph, than most of those things for which we so spread our
plumes: I do not say we should contract new guilts to make us humble, God
knows we need not, we have all of us enough of the old stock if we would but
thus employ them.
15. In the last place I should advise those who are apt to talk big things
of themselves, to turn into some other road of discourse: for if they are
their own theme, their tongues will as naturally turn into Eulogies, as a
horse does into that Inn to which he is customed. All habits do require some
little excess of the contrary to their cure: for we have not so just a
scantling of ourselves, as to know to a grain what will level the scales,
and place in the right Mediocrity. Let men therefore that have this
infirmity, shun (as far as prudence and interest permits) all discourse of
themselves, till they can sever it from that unhappy appendage. They will
not be at all the less acceptable company, it being generally thought none
of the best parts of breeding, to talk much of one’s self: for though it be
done so an not to argue pride, yet is does ignorance of more worthy
subjects.
16. I Should here conclude this Section, but that there is another sort of
vaunting Talk, which was not well reducible to any of the former Heads, the
subject matter being vastly distant: for in those the Boasting was founded
in some either real or supposed worth, but in this is all Baseness and
villainy. There are a Generation of men, who have removed all the Land-marks
which their Fathers (nay, even the Father of Spirits) have set, reversed the
common notions of Humanity, and call evil good, and good evil, and those
things which a moderate impudence would blush to be surprised in, they not
only proclaim but boast of, blow the Trumpet as much before their crimes, as
others before their good deeds. Nay, so much to they affect this inverted
sort of Hypocrisy, that they own more wickedness than they act, assume to
have made practical the highest Speculations of villainy, and like the
Devil’s Knights errant, pretend to those Romantic achievements, which the
veriest Fiend incarnate could never compass. These are such Prodigies, such
Monsters of villainy, that though they are objects of Grief and Wonder, they
are not of Counsel. Men who thus rave, we many conclude their brains are
turned, and one may as well read Lectures at Bedlam as treat with such. Yet
we know that there sharp corrections recover crazed men to Sobriety; and
then their Cure lies only in the hand of Civil Justice: if that would take
them at their words, receive their brags as Confessions, and punish them
accordingly, it may be a little real smart would correct this mad Itch, and
teach them not to glory in their shame. Phil. 3. 19.
In the mean time, let others who are not yet arrived to this height consider
betimes, that all indulgent practice of sin is the direct Road to it, and
according to the degrees of that indulgence, they make more less haste. He
that constantly and habitually indulges, rides upon the Spur, and will
quickly overtake his Leaders. Nay, if it be but this one vice of vanity, it
may finally bring him to their state. He that loves to brag, will scarce
find exercise enough for that faculty in his virtues, and therefore, may at
last be tempted to take in his vices also. But that which is more seriously
considerable is, that Pride is so provoking to Almighty God, that it often
causes him to withdraw His Grace, which is a Donative He has promised only
to the humble. Jam. 4. 6. And indeed, when we turn that Grace into
wantonness, as the proud man does who is pampered by it into high conceits
of himself, tis not probable God will any longer prostitute his favors to
such abuse. The Apostle observes it of the Gentiles, who had in
contradiction of their natural light abandoned themselves to vile
Idolatries, that God after gave them up to a reprobate mind and vile
affections. Rom. 1. 25, 26. But the proud now stifle a much clearer light,
and give up themselves to as base an Idolatry, the adoration of themselves.
And therefore, tis but equal to expect God should desert them, and (as some
Nations have Deified their diseases) permit them to celebrate even their
foulest enormities. The application of all I shall sum up in the words of
the Apostle. Rom. 11. 21. Take heed also that he spare not thee.
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Section X.
Of Querulousness.
To this of Boasting may not unfitly be subjoined another inordinancy of the
Tongue, viz. murmuring and complaining. For though these faults seem to
differ as much in their complexions, as Sanguine does from Melancholy, yet
there is nothing more frequent than to see them united in the same person.
Nor is this a conjunction of a later date, but is as old as St. Jude’s days,
who observes that murmurers and complainers are the very same with those who
speak great swelling words, Jude 16.
2. Nor are we to wonder to find them thus conjoined, if we consider what an
original cognation and kindred they have, they being (however they seem
divided) streams issuing from the same fountain. For the very same Pride
which prompts a man to vaunt and overvalue what he is, does so forcibly
incline him to contemn and disvalue what he has; whilst measuring his
enjoyments by that vast Idea he has formed of himself, tis impossible but he
must think them below him.
3. This indeed is the true original of those perpetual complainings we hear
from all sorts and conditions of men. For let us pass through all Degrees,
all Ages, we shall rarely find a single person, much less any number of men,
exempt from this Querulous, this sullen humor: as if that breath of life
wherewith God originally inspired us, had been given us not to magnify his
Bounty, but to accuse his illiberality, and like the more dismal sorts of
instruments, could be tuned to no other Strains but those of Mourning and
Lamentation. Every man contributes his note to this doleful Harmony, and
after all that God has done to oblige and delight mankind, scare any man is
satisfied enough, I will not say to be thankful, but to be patient. For
alas, what tragical complaints do men make of their infelicity, when perhaps
their prosperity is as much the envious outcry of others? Every little
defeat of a design, of an appetite, every little disregard from those above
them, or less solemn observance from those below them, make their Heart hot
within them, Psa. 39. 3. and the tongue (that combustible part) quickly
takes fire and breaks out into extravagant exclamations. It is indeed
strange to see how weighty every the trivialest thing is when a passion is
cast into the scale with it, how every the slightest inconvenience or petty
want preponderates hundreds of great substantial blessings; when indeed,
were it in an instance never so considerable, it could be no just
Counterpoise. Yet so closely is this corruption interwoven with our
constitution that it has sometimes prevailed even upon good men. Jacob
though he had twelve sons, yet upon the supposed death of one despised the
comforts of all the rest, and with an obstinate sorrow resolves to go
mourning to his Grave. Gen. 35. 37. David after that signal victory which
had preserved his life, reinstated him in his Throne, and restored him to
the Ark and Sanctuary, yet suffered the loss of his rebellious son, who was
the Author of his danger, to overwhelm the sense of his deliverance, and
instead of Hymns and praises, breaks out into ejaculations and effeminate
wailings. 2. Sam. 18. 33.
4. But God knows the most of our complaints cannot pretend to such
considerable motives: they are not the bowels of a Father, the impresses of
Nature that excite our repinings, but the impulses of our lusts and
inordinate appetites. Our discontents are usually such as Ahab’s for his
neighbor’s vineyard, Haman’s for Mordecai’s obeisance, Achitophel’s for
having his counsel rejected. Every disappointment of our avarice, ambition,
and pride, fills our hearts with bitterness and our mouths with clamors. For
if we should examine the numerous complaints which sound in every corner, it
would doubtless be found that the greatest part of them have some such
original: and that whether the pretended grievances be public or private.
For the first: many a man is a state malcontent merely because he sees
another advanced to that honor or wealth which he thinks he has better
deserved. He is always inveighing against such unequal distributions, where
the best services (such you may be sure his own are) are the worst rewarded:
nor does he ever cease to predict public ruins, till his private are
repaired. But as soon as that is done, his Augury grows more mild: and as if
the estate and he were like Hippocrate’s twins, his recruits give new vigor
to that, and till his next suit is denied everything is well administered.
So full, alas, are men of themselves, that tis hard to find any the most
splendid pretenses which have not something of that at the bottom: and would
every man ransack his own heart, and resolve not to cast a stone till he had
first cleared it of all sinister respects, perhaps the number of our
complainers would be much abated.
5. Nor is it otherwise in private discontents. Men are apt to think
themselves ill used by any man who will not serve their interest or their
humor, nay, sometimes their vices; and are prone in all companies to arraign
such an unpliant Person, as if he were an enemy to mankind, because he is
not a slave to their will. How many have quarreled even with their dearest
friends, because they would not assist them to their own ruin, or have
striven to divert them from it: so forcible are our propensions to mutiny,
that we equally take occasions from benefits or injuries.
6. But the highest and most unhappy instance of all is in our behavior
toward God, whose allotments we dispute with the same, or rather greater
boldness than we do those of men. What else mean those impatient murmurs at
those things which are the immediate issues of Providence? Such are our
native blemishes, disease, death of friends, and the like. Nay, what indeed
are our displeasure even at those things which we pretend to fasten upon the
Second Causes? For those being all under the subordination of the first,
cannot move but by its permission. This holy Job well discerned, and
therefore does not indite the Chaldeans or Sabeans for his plunder, but
knowing they were but the instruments he submissly acknowledges that there
was a higher agent in his loss, The Lord has taken away, Job 1. 21. When
therefore, we ravingly execrate the rapine of one man, the deceit of another
for our impoverishment, when we angrily charge our defamation on the malice
of our maligners, our disappointments on the treachery or negligence of our
friends, we do interpretatively conclude either that there is no over-ruling
providence which could have restrained those events, or else (which is
equally horrid) we accuse it as not having done well in permitting them. So
that against whomsoever we direct our clamors, their last rebound is against
Heaven; this Querulous humor carrying always an implicit repugnance to
God’s disposals: but where it is indulged to, it usually is its own
expositor, and explicitly avows it, charges God foolishly, and by impious
murmurs blasphemes that power which it cannot resist. Indeed, the progress
is very natural for our impatiences at men to swell into mutinies against
God: for when the mind is once embittered, it distinguishes not of objects,
but indifferently lets fly its venom. He that frets himself, the Prophet
tells us, will curse his King, nay his God, Isa. 8. 21. and he that quarrels
at God’s distributions is in the direct road to defy His Being.
7. By this we may estimate the danger of our discontents, which though at
first they are introduced by the inordinate love of ourselves, yet are very
apt to terminate in hatred and Blasphemies against God. He therefore, that
would secure himself from the highest degree, just watch against the lowest;
as he that would prevent a total Inundation must avert the smallest breach
in his Banks. Not but that even the first beginnings are in themselves well
worth our guarding: for abstracting from all the danger of this enormous
increase, there murmurings (like a mortiferous Herb) are poisonous even in
their first Spring, before they arrive to their full maturity. To be always
moralizing the Fable of Prometheus upon one’s self, playing the Vulture upon
one’s own entrails, is no desirable thing, though we were accountable to
none but ourselves for it: to dip our tongues in gall, to have nothing in
our mouths but the extract, and exhalation of our inward bitterness, is sure
no greater Sensuality. So that did we consult only our own ease, we might
from that single Topic draw arguments enough against our mutinies.
8. But besides our duty and ease, our credit and reputation make their plea
also. Fortitude is one of the noblest of moral virtues, and has the luck to
appear considerable even to those who despise all the rest. Now one of the
most proper and eminent acts of that is, the bearing adverse events with
evenness and temper. This passive valor is as much the mark of a great mind
as the active, nay, perhaps more, the later being often owing to the Animal,
this to the Rational part of man. And sure we must strangely have corrupted
the principles of Morality as well as Religion, if every turbulent, unruly
Spirit, that fills the world with blood and rapine, shall have his ferocity
called gallantry; yet that sober courage that maintains itself against all
the shocks of Fortune, that keeps its Post in spite of the rudest
encounters, shall not be allowed at least as good a name. And then on the
contrary we may conclude, that to sink under every cross accident, to be
still whining and complaining, crying our upon every touch, is a note of a
mean, degenerous soul, below the dignity of our reasonable nature. For
certainly God never gave us reason for so unkind a purpose, as only to
quicken and enhance the resentment of our sufferings, but rather to control
those disorders, which the more tumultuous part of us, our senses, are apt
to raise in us: and we are so far men and no farther, as we use it to that
end. Therefore, if the dictates of religion cannot restrain our murmurs, if
we are not Christians enough to submit to the divine precepts of meekness
and acquiescence: yet let us at least keep within those bounds which
ingenious nature has set us, and not by our unmanly impatiences enter common
with Brutes and Animals.
9. Nay, I may fuller add, if neither for God’s nor our own sakes, yet for
others, for humane society’s sake, this querulous inclination should be
suppressed; there being nothing that renders a man more unpleasant, more
uneasy company. For (besides that tis very apt to vent itself upon those
with whom he converses, rendering him capricious and exceptious; and tis a
harsh, a grating sound to hear a man always in complaining Key) no man would
willingly dwell within the noise of shrieks and groans; and the exclamations
of the discontented differ from those only by being more articulate. It is a
very unwelcome importunity, to entertain a man’s company with remonstrances
of his own infelicities and misadventures, and he that will relate all his
grievance to others, will quickly make himself one to them. For though he
that is full of the inward sense of them, thinks it rather an ease than
oppression to speak them out, yet the case if far otherwise with his
Auditors: they are perhaps as much taken up with themselves, as he is, and
as little at leisure to consider his concerns, as he theirs. Alas, we are
not now in those primitive days, when there was as it were one common sense
among Christians, when if one member suffered, all the members suffered with
it. 1 Cor. 12. 26. That Charity which gave that sympathetic motion to the
whole, is now itself benumbed, flows rarely beyond the narrow compass of our
personal interest; and therefore we cannot expect that men should be very
patient of our complaints who are not concerned in the causes of them. The
Priest answer to Judas does speak the sense of most men in the case What is
that to us? See thou to that. Matt. 27. 4. I do not deny but that the
discharging one’s griefs into the bosom of a true friend, is both innocent
and prudent: nay indeed, he that has such a treasure is unkind to himself if
he use it not. But that which I would dissuade, is the promiscuous use of
this liberty in common Conversation, the satisfying our Spleen, when we
cannot ease our hearts by it, the loud declaimings at our misery, which is
seldom severed from as severe reflections on those whom we suppose the
causes of it; by which nothing can be acquired but the opinion of our
Impatience, or perhaps some new grievance from some, who think themselves
concerned to vindicate those whom we asperse. In a word, tis as indecent as
it is unacceptable, and we may observe all men are willing to slink out of
such company, the Sober for the hazards, and Jovial for the unpleasantness.
So that the murmurer seems to be turned off to the company of those doleful
Creatures which the Prophet mentions which were to inhabit the ruins of
Babylon, Isa. 13. 12. For he is ill Conversation to all men, though the
worst of all to himself.
10. And now upon the force of all these considerations, I may reasonably
impress the Wise man’s Counsel, Therefore beware of murmuring, Wisd. 1. 11.
And indeed, it is not the precept of the Wise man alone, but of all who have
made any just pretence to that title. For when we consider those excellent
lectures of contentation and acquiescence, wherewith the writings of
Philosophers abound, tis hard to say whether they speak more of instruction
or reproach to us. When their confused notions of a Deity had given them
such impressions of His Wisdom and goodness, that they would not pretend to
make any elections for themselves, how does it shame our more explicit
knowledge, who dare not depend on Him in the smallest instance? who will not
take His disposals for good unless our senses become His sureties? which
amounts but to that degree of credit, which the most faithless man may
expect from us, the trusting him as far as we see him. This is such a
contumely to Him, as the Ethic world durst not offer Him, and is the
peculiar insolence of us degenerated Christians, who sure cannot be thought
in earnest when we talk of singing Hallelujahs in the next world to Him,
whilst we entertain Him here only with the sullen noise of murmurs and
repinings. For we are not to think that Heaven will Metamorphose us on a
sudden, and turn our exclamations and wild clamors into Lauds and
Magnificats. It does indeed perfect and crown those graces which were here
inchoate and begun, but no man’s conversion ever succeeded his being there:
for Christ has expressly told us, That except we be converted, we shall not
enter the kingdom of heaven; and if we go hence in our froward discontents,
they will associate us with those with whom is Weeping and wailing and
gnashing of teeth.
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Section XI.
Of Positiveness.
Another very unhandsome circumstance in discourse is the being over
confident and peremptory, a thing which does very much unfit men for
conversation, it being looked on as the common birth-right of mankind, that
every man is to opine according to the dictates of his own understanding,
not another’s. Now this Peremptoriness is of two sorts, the one a
Magisterialness in matters of opinion and speculation, the other a
Positiveness in relating matters of fact: in the one we impose upon men’s
understandings, in the other on their faith.
2. For the first, he must be much a stranger in the world who has not met
with it: there being a generation of men, who as the Prophet speaks, Are
wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight, Isa. 5. 21. Nay, not
only so, but who make themselves the standards of wisdom, to which all are
bound to conform, and whoever weighs not in their balance, be his reasons
never so weighty, they write Tekel upon them. This is one of the most
oppressive Monopolies imaginable: all others can concern only something
without us, but this fastens upon our natures, yea, and the better part of
it too, our reason, and if it meet with those who have any considerable
share of that within them, they will often be tempted to rally it, and not
too tamely resign this native liberty. Reason submits only to Reason, and he
that assaults it with bare Authority (that which is Divine always excepted)
may as well cut flame with his sword, or harden wax in the sun.
3. Tis true indeed, these great Dictators do sometimes run down the company,
and carry their Hypothesis without contest: but of this there may be divers
reasons besides the weight of their arguments. Some unspeculative men may
not have the skill to examine their assertions, and therefore, an assent is
their fastest course; others may be lazy and not think it worth their pains;
a third sort may be modest and awed by a severe brow and an imperious nod:
and perhaps the wiser may providently foresee the impossibility of
convincing one who thinks himself not subject to error. Upon these or other
like grounds tis very possible all may be silenced when never a one is
convinced so that these great Masters may often make very false estimates of
their conquests, and sacrifice to their own nets, Heb. 1. 16. when they have
taken nothing.
4. Nay indeed, this insolent way of proposing is so far from propagating
their notions, that it gives prejudice against them. They are the gentle
insinuations which pierce (as oil is the most penetrating of all liquors)
but in these Magisterial documents men think themselves attacked, and stand
upon their guard, and reckon they must part with Honor together with their
Opinion, if they suffer themselves to be Hectored out of it. Besides, this
imposing humor is so unamiable, that it gives an aversion to the Person; and
we know how forcible personal prejudices are (though tis true they should
not be) towards the biasing of Opinions. Nay indeed, men of this temper do
cut themselves off from the opportunities of Proselyting others, by averting
them from their company. Freedom is the endearing thing in Society, and
where that is controlled, men are not very fond of associating themselves.
Tis natural to us to be uneasy in the presence of those who assume an
Authority over us. Children care not for the company of their Parents or
Tutors, and men will care less for theirs, who would make them children by
usurping a Tutorage.
5. All these inconveniences are evidently consequent to this Dogmatizing,
supposing men be never so much in the right: but if they happened to be in
the wrong, what a ridiculous pageantry is it, to see such a Philosophical
gravity set to man-out a Solecism? A concluding Face put upon no concluding
Argument, is the most contemptible sort of folly in the world. They do by
this sound a trumpet to their own defeat: and whereas a modest mistake might
slip by undiscerned, these Rodomontade errors force themselves upon men’s
observations, and make it impossible for men not to see, as it is not to
despise them when they do. For indeed, Pride is as ill linked with Error, as
we usually say it is with Beggary, and in this as well as that, converts
pity into contempt.
6. And then it would be considered, what security any man that will be
imposing has, that this will not be his case. Human nature is very fallible,
and as it is possible a man may err in a great many things, so tis certain
every man does in something or other. Now who knows at the instant he is so
positive, but this may be his erring turn? Alas, how frequently are we
mistaken even in common ordinary things! for as the Wiseman speaks, hardly
do we judge aright even in things that are before us, Wisd. 9. 16. our very
senses do sometimes delude us. How then may we wander in things of abstruse
speculation? The consideration of this hath with some so prevailed, that it
has produced a Sect of Skepticism: and though I press it not for that
purpose, yet sure it may reasonably be urged to introduce some modesty and
calmness in our assertions. For when we have no other certainty of our being
in the right, but our own persuasions that we are so; this may often be but
making one error the gauge for another. For God knows confidence is so far
from a certain mark of truth, that tis often the seducer into falsehood,
none being so apt to lose their way as those who, out of an ungrounded
presumption of knowing it, despise all direction from others.
7. Let all this be weighed, and the result will be, that this peremptoriness
is a thing that can befit no form of understanding. It renders Wise men
disobliging and troublesome, and fools ridiculous and contemptible. It casts
a prejudice up on the most solid reasoning, and it renders the lighter more
notoriously despicable. Tis pity good parts should be leavened by it, made a
snare to the owners, and useless to others. And tis pity too that weak parts
should by it be condemned to be always so, by despising those Aids which
should improve them. Since therefore, tis so ill calculated for every
Meridian, would God all Climes might be purged from it.
8. And as there are weighty objections against it in respect of its effects,
so there are no inconsiderable prejudices in relation to its causes, of
which we may reckon Pride to be the most certain and universal: for whatever
else casually occurs to it, this is the fundamental constitutive principle;
nothing but a great overweening of a man’s own understanding being able to
inflate him in that imaginary empire over other men’s. For here sure we may
ask the Apostle’s question, Who made thee to differ from another? When God
has made Rationality the common portion of mankind, how came it to be thy
inclosure? or what Signature has he set upon thine, what mark of excellency,
that thine should be paramount? Doubtless if thou fanciest thou hast that
part of Jacob’s blessing, To be Lord of they brethren, and that all they
mother’s sons should bow down to thee, Gen. 27. 29. thou hast got it more
surreptitiously than he did, and with less effect: for though Isaac could
not retract his mistaken benediction, God will never ratify that fantastic
thou hast pronounced to thyself, with his real effective one.
9. But there happens many times to be another ingredient besides Pride, and
that is Ignorance: for those qualities however they may seem at war, do
often very closely combine. He who has narrow notions, that knows but a few
things, and has no glimpse of any beyond him, thinks there are no such: and
therefore, as if he had (like Alexander) no want but that of worlds to
conquer, he thinks himself the absolute Monarch of all knowledge. And this
is of all others the most unhappy composition: for ignorance being of itself
like stiff clay, and infertile soil, when Pride comes to scorch and harden
it, it grows perfectly impenetrable: and accordingly we see none are so
inconvincible as your half-witted people; who know just enough to excite
their pride, but not so much as to cure their ignorance.
10. There remains yet a 2d kind of Peremptoriness which I am to speak to,
and that is of those who can make no relation without an attestation of its
certainty: a sort of hospitable people, who entertain all the idle vagrant
reports, and send them out with passports and testimonials; who when they
have once adopted a story, will have it pass for legitimate how spurious
soever it originally was. These somewhat resemble those hospitals in Italy,
where all bastards are sure of reception, and such a provision as may enable
them to subsist in the world: and were it not for such men, many a
Fatherless lie would be stifled in its birth. It is indeed strange to see,
how suddenly loose rumors knit into formal stories, and from thence grow to
certainties; but tis stranger to see that men can be of such profligated
impudence, as knowingly to give them that advance. And yet tis no rarity to
meet with such men who will pawn their honor, their souls, for that unworthy
purpose: nay, and that too with as much impertinence as baseness, when no
interest of their own, or perhaps any man’s else is to be served by it.
11. This is so prodigious a thing, as seems to excite one’s Curiosity to
inquire the cause of so wonderful an effect. And here as in other unnatural
productions, there are several concurrents. If we trace it from its
original, its first Element seems to be Idleness: this diverting a man from
serious useful entertainments, forces him upon (the usual refuge of vacant
Persons) the inquiring after News; which when he has got, the venting of it
is his next business. If he be of a credulous Nature, and believe it
himself, he does the more innocently impose it on others: yet then to secure
himself from the imputation of Levity and too easy Faith, he is often
tempted to lend some probable circumstance. Nay, if he be of a proud humor,
and have that miserable vanity of loving to speak big, and to be thought a
man of greater correspondence and intelligence than his neighbors, he will
not bate an Ace of absolute certainty, but however doubtful or improbable
the thing is, coming form him it must go for an indisputable truth. This
seems to be the descent of this unhappy folly, which yet is often nursed up
by a mean or imprudent Education. A man that hat conversed only with that
lower sort of company, who durst not dispute his veracity, thinks the same
false Coin will pass over the world, which went current among his Father’s
Servants or Tenants: and therefore we may observe, that this is most usual
in young men, who have come raw into company with good fortunes and ill
breeding. But it is too true also that too many never lose the habit, but
are as morosely positive in their Age, as they were childishly so in their
Youth. Indeed, tis impossible they should be otherwise, unless they have the
wit to disentangle themselves first from the love of Flattery, and after
from the company of Flatterers: for (as I have before observed) no vice will
ever wither under their shade. I think I shall do the Reader no ill office
to let in a little light upon them, and shew him some of those many
mischiefs that attend this unworthy practice.
12. First, it engages a man to oaths, and for ought he knows to perjuries.
When he has launched out boldly into an incredible relation, he thinks he
has put his Credit upon the forlorn hope, and must take care to relieve it:
and there is no succor so constantly ready at hand as that of oaths and
imprecations, and therefore whole vollies of them are discharged upon the
doubtful. Thus do we make God a witness, and our Souls parties in the cause
of every trifling rumor, as if we had modeled our Divinity by the Scheme of
that Jesuitical Casuist, who legitimates the Killing of a man for an Apple.
13. A Second mischief is, that it betrays a man to quarrels. He that is
peremptory in his own Story, may meet with another that is as peremptory in
the contradiction of it, and then the two Sir Positives must have a skirmish
indeed. He that has attested the truth of a false, or the certainty of a
doubtful thing, has brought himself into the same trait with Balaam’s Ass,
he must either fall down flat or run upon a sword, Num. 22. 27. For if his
Hearers do but express a diffidence, either he must sink to a down-right
confession that he was a Liar: or else he must huff and bluster till perhaps
he raise a counter-storm, and as he fooled himself out of his truth, so be
beaten out of his pretence to it. Indeed, there is scarce any quality that
does so tempt and invite affronts as this does: for he that can descend to
such a meanness, may reasonably enough be presumed to have little (as of
true worth, so) even of that which the world calls Gallantry, and so every
puny swordman will think him a good tame Quarry to enter and flesh himself
upon.
14. In the third place, it exposes him to all the contempt and scorn which
either good or ill men can fling upon him: the good abominate the sin, the
ill triumph over the folly of it. The truth is, there can be nothing more
wretchedly mean. To be Knight of the Post to every fabulous relation, is
such a sordid thing, that there can scarce be any name of reproach too vile
for it. And certainly he that can pawn his faith upon such miserable terms,
will by those frequent mortgages quickly be snapped upon a forfeiture; or
however will have his credit so impaired by it, that no man will think his
word a competent gauge for the slightest concern.
15. And this may pass for a fourth consideration, That this Positiveness is
so far from gaining credit to his present affirmation, that it destroys it
for the future: for he that sees a man make no difference in the confidence
of his asserting realities and fictions, can never take his measures by
anything he avers, but according to the common Proverb, will be in danger of
disbelieving him even when he speaks truth. And of this no man can want
conviction, who will but consult his own observation. For what an allay do
we find it to the credit of the most probable event, that it is reported by
one who uses to stretch? Thus unhappily do such men defeat their own
designs: for while they aver stoutly that they may be believed, that very
thing makes them doubted, the world being not now to learn how frequently
Confidence is made a supplement for truth. Nor let any man who uses this,
flatter himself that he alone does (like Job’s messenger) escape the common
fate: for though perhaps he meet with some who in civility or pity will not
dispute the probability of his narrations, or with others who for raillery
will not discourage the humor with which they mean (in his absence) to
divert themselves, yet he may rest assured he is discerned by all and
derided for it.
16. It therefore concerns men who either regard their truth, or their
reputation, not to indulge to this humor, which is the most silly way of
shipwrecking both. For he that will lay those to stake upon every flying
story, may as well wager his estate which way the wind will sit next
morning, there being nothing less to be confided in, than the breath of
fame, or the whispers of private tale-bearers. Wise men are afraid to report
improbable truths: what a foolhardiness is it then to attest improbable
falsities, as it often is the luck of these Positive men to do?
17. Certainly there is nothing which they design by this, which may not be
obtained more effectually by a modest and unconcerned relation. He that
barely relates what he has heard, and leaves the hearer to judge of the
probability, does as much (I am sure more civilly) entertain that company,
as he that throws down his gauntlet in attestation. He as much satisfies the
itch of telling news; he as much persuades his hearers: nay, very much more
(for these over earnest asseverations serve by to give men suspicion that
the Speaker is conscious of his own falseness:) and all this while he has
his retreat secure, and stands not responsible for the truth of his
relation. Nay indeed, though men speak never so known and certain truths,
tis most advisable not to press them too importunately. For boldness, like
the Bravoes and Banditti, is seldom employed but upon desperate services,
and is so known a Pander for lying, that truth is but defamed by its
attendance.
18. To conclude, modesty is so amiable, so insinuating a thing, that all the
rules of Oratory cannot help men to a more agreeable ornament of discourse.
And if they will try it in both the foregoing instances, they will
undoubtedly find the effects of it: a modest proposal will soonest captivate
men’s reasons, and a modest relation their belief.
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Section XII.
Of Obscene Talk.
There is another vice of the Tongue which I cannot but mention, though I
knew not in which of the former Classes to place it: not that it comes under
none, but that tis so common to all, that tis not easy to resolve to which
peculiarly to assign it, I mean obscene, and immodest talk, which is
offensive to the purity of God, damageable and infectious to the innocence
of our Neighbors, and most pernicious to ourselves: and yet is now grown a
thing so common, that one would think we were fallen into an Age of
Metamorphosis, and that the Brutes did (not only Poetically and in fiction)
but really speak. For the talk of many is so bestial, that it seems to be
but the conceptions of the more libidinous Animals clothed in human
Language.
2. And yet even this must pass for Ingenuity, and this vile descent below
Humanity, must be counted among the highest strains of Wit. A wretched
debasement of that sprightful Faculty, this to be made the interpreter to a
Goat or Boar: for doubtless had those Creatures but the organs of Speech,
their Fancies lie enough that way to make them as good company, as those who
more studiously apply themselves to this sort of entertainment.
3. The crime is comprehensive enough to afford abundance of matter for the
most Satyrical zeal, but I consider the dissecting of putrid Bodies may cast
such pestilential fumes, as all the benefits of the scrutiny will not
recompense. I shall therefore, in respect to the Reader dismiss this noisome
Subject, and thereby give an example with what abhorrence he should always
reject such kind of discourse, remembering the advice of St. Paul, That all
uncleanness should not be once named among those who would walk as becometh
Saints, Eph. 5. 3.
_________________________________________________________________
The Close
I Have now touched upon those enormities of Speech which I principally
designed to observe, wherein I have been far from making a full and exact
Catalogue: therefore, I would have no man take this little Tract for a just
Criterion, by which to try himself in reference to his words. Yet God grant
that all that read it, may be able to approve themselves even by this
imperfect essay: and he that does so, makes fair approaches towards being
that perfect man St. James speaks of, Jam. 3. 1. these being such faults of
the Tongue as are the harder to avoid, because they are every day
exemplified to us in common practice, (nay, some of them recommended as
reputable and ingenious). And it is a strange insinuative power which
example and custom have upon us. We see it in every trivial secular
instance, in our very habit: those dresses which we laugh at in our
forefathers wardrobes or pictures, when by the circulation of time and
vanity they are brought about, we think very becoming. Tis the same in our
diet: our very palates conform to the fashion, and everything grows amiable
to our fancies, according as tis more or less received in the world. And
upon this account all sobriety and strict virtue lies now under a heavy
prejudice, and no part of it more, than this of the Tongue, which custom has
now enfranchised from all the bonds Moralists or Divines laid upon it.
2. But the greater the difficulties are, the more it ought to awake our
diligence: if we lie loose and carelessly, tis odds we shall be carried away
with the stream. We had need therefore fix ourselves, and by a sober
recollection of the ends of which our Speech was given us, and the account
we must one day give of it, impress upon ourselves the baseness and the
danger of misemploying it. Yet a negative innocence will not serve our
turns, twill but put us in the condition of him, who wrapped up the talent
he was commanded to employ, Matt. 25. 25. Nay indeed, twill be impossible to
preserve even that if we aspire no farther. The Tongue is a busy active
Part, will scarce be kept from motion: and therefore, if that activity be
not determined to good objects, twill be practicing upon bad. And indeed, I
believe a great part of its licentiousness is owing to this very thing.
There are so few good Themes of discourse in use, that many are driven to
the ill for want of better. Learning is thought Pedantic, Agriculture
Peasantlike, and Religion the most insufferable of all: so by excluding all
useful Subjects of converse, we come together as St. Paul (in another case)
says, Not for better but for the worse. 1 Cor. 11. 17. And if the
Philosopher thought he had lost that day wherein he had not learned
something worthy of his notice, how many days do we worse than lose, by
having them not only empty of solid useful acquisitions, but full of noxious
and pernicious ones? And indeed, if they be the one, they will not miss to
be the other also: for the mind is like the stomach, which if it be not
supplied with wholesome nourishment, will at last suck in those humors with
which the body most abounds. So that if in our converse we do not
interchange sober useful notions, we shall at the best but traffic toys and
baubles, and most commonly infection and poison. He therefore, that would
keep his tongue from betraying himself or others to sin, must tune it to a
quite contrary Key, make it an instrument, an incentive to virtue, by which
he shall not only secure the negative part of his duty, but comply with the
positive also, employing it to those uses for which it was given him.
3. It would be too vast an undertaking to prescribe the particular subjects
of such discourse, nay indeed, impossible, because many of them are
occasional, such as cannot aforehand be reduced to any certain account. This
only in the general we may rest upon, that all speech tending to the glory
of God, or the good of man, is aright directed. Which is not to be
understood so restrictively, as if nothing but Divinity or the necessary
concerns of human life, may lawfully be brought into discourse: something is
to be indulged to common civility, more to the intimacies and endearments of
friendships, and a competency to those recreative discourses which maintain
the cheerfulness of society; all which are, if moderately used, within the
latitude of the rule, as tending (though in a lower degree) to the
well-being of men, and by consequent to the honor of God, who indulges us
those innocent refreshments. But if the subordinate uses come to encroach
upon the higher, if we dwell here and look no farther, they then become very
sinful by the excess which were not so in their nature. That inordinacy sets
them in opposition to God’s designation, in which they were allowed only a
secondary place. We should therefore, be careful to improve all
opportunities of letting our tongues pay their more immediate homage to God,
in the duties of prayers, and praises, making them not only the interpreters
of our pious affections, but the promoters of the like in others. And
indeed, he can scarce be thought in earnest, who prays, Hallowed by Thy
Name, and does not as much endeavor it with men, as he solicits it from God.
4. And if we answer our obligations in this point, we shall in it discharge
the highest part of our duty to man also: for in whose heart we can implant
a true reverential awe of God, we sow the seed of immortality, of an endless
happy being, the greatest the most superlative good whereof he is capable.
Besides, in the interim we do by it help to manumit and release him from
those servile drudgeries to vice, under which those remain who live without
God in the world. And these indeed, are benefits worthy the dignity of human
nature to communicate. And it is both sad and strange to see among the
multitude and variety of Leagues that are contracted in the world, how few
there are of these pious combinations; how those who show themselves
concerned in all the petty secular interests of their friends, never take
this at all into their care; a pregnant evidence how little true friendship
there is among men.
5. I Know some thing they sufficiently excuse themselves when they shift off
this office to Divines, whose peculiar business they say it is. But this is
as if one who sees a poor fainting wretch, should forbear to administer a
Cordial he has at hand, for fear of entrenching on the Physician’s Faculty.
Man opportunities a Friend or Companion may have which a Divine may want. He
often sees a man in the very fit, and so may more aptly apply: for where
there is an intimacy of Converse, men lay themselves open, discover those
passions, those vices, which they carefully veil when a strange or severer
eye approaches. Besides, as such a one may easier discern the disease, so he
has better advantages for administering remedies: so Children will not take
those Medicines from the Doctor’s hand, which they will from a Nurse or
Mother: and we are usually too Childish in what relates to our Souls, look
on good counsel from an Ecclesiastic as a Divinity Potion, and set our
stomachs against it; but a Familiar may insensibly insinuate it into us, and
ere we are aware beguile us into health. Yet if Lay Persons will needs give
the Clergy the enclosure of this office, they should at least withdraw those
impediments they have laid in their way, by depositing those prejudices
which will certainly frustrate their endeavor. Men have in these later days
been taught to look on Preaching as a thing of form to the Hearers, and of
profit only to the Speakers, a craft whereby as Demetrius says They get
their living. Acts. 19. 25. But admit it were so in this last respect, yet
it does not infer it should be so in the former. If it be a Trade, twas sure
thought (as in all Ages but this) a very useful one, or else there would
never have been such encouragement given to it. No State ever allotted
public certain Salaries for a set of men that were thought utterly useless:
and if there be use to be made of them, shall we lose our advantages merely
because they gain theirs? We are in nothing else so senseless: no man will
refuse counsel from a Physician, because he lives by the Profession. Tis
rather an argument on his side, that because such an interest of his own
depends on it, he has been the more industrious to fit himself for it. But
not to run farther in this digression, I shall apply it to my purpose, by
making this equitable proposal, that Lay men will not so moralize the common
Fable, as neither to admonish one another themselves, nor suffer Ministers
to do it without them. And truly tis hard if neither of these can be granted
when both ought. I am sure all is little enough that can be done, though we
should have as the Prophet speaks, Precept upon precept, Line upon line,
here a little and there a little. Isa. 28. 13. Man’s nature is so
unattentive to good, that there can scarce be too many monitors. We see
Satan though he have a much stronger party in our inclinations, dares not
rely upon it, but is still employing his emissaries, to confirm and excite
them, and if whilst he has so many Agents among us, God shall have none, we
are like to give but an ill account of our zeal either to God or our
neighbor, or of those tongues which were given us to glorify the one, and
benefit the other. Indeed, without this, our greatest officiousness in the
secular concerns of others is no kindness. When we strive to advance the
fame, to increase the fortune of a wicked man, what do we do in it, but
enable him to do the more mischiefs, by his wealth to foment his own
luxuries, and by his reputation commend them to the practice of others? He
only makes his friend truly rich and great, who teaches him to employ those
advantages aright; and would men turn their tongues to this sort of Oratory,
they would indeed shew they understood for what ends they were given them.
6. But as all good receives enhancement from its being more diffusive, so
these attempts should not be confined to some one or two intimates or
relatives, but be as extensive as the common needs, or at least as our
opportunities. Tis a generous ambition to benefit many, to oblige
communities: which can no way so well be done, as by endeavoring to subvert
vicious customs, which are the pest and poisons of all societies. The
heathens had many ceremonies of lustrations for their cities and countries,
but he that could purify and refine their manners, would indeed attain to
the substance of those shadows. And because the Apostle tells us that Evil
words corrupt good manners, twould be a fundamental piece of reformation, to
introduce a better sort of converse into the world: which is an instance so
agreeable to my present subject, that I cannot Close more pertinently, than
to commend the endeavor to the Reader, which if he have been by this Tract
at all convinced of the sin and mischief of those Schemes of discourse
deciphered in it, cannot be more just to his convictions, than by attempting
to supplant them.
7. It were indeed a design worthy of a noble soul, to try to new model the
Age in this particular, to make it possible for men, to be at once
conversable and innocent. I know twill be objected, tis too vast a project
for one or many single Persons to undertake: yet difficulties use to animate
generous spirits, especially when (as here) the very attempt is laudable.
But as Christ says of Wisdom, so may we of Courage, The Children of this
world are more daring than the Children of light. The great corrupters of
discourse have not been so distrustful of themselves: for tis visible to any
that will reflect, that tis within man’s memory since much of this monstrous
exorbitancy of discourse grew in fashion, particularly the Atheistical and
Blasphemous. The first propugners of it were but few, and durst then but
whisper their black rudiments, yet the world now sees what a Harvest they
have from their devilish industry.
8. And shall we give over our Clime as forlorn and desperate, and conclude
that nothing which is not venomous will thrive in our Soil. Would some of
parts and authority but make the experiment, I cannot think that all places
are yet so vitiated, but that they may meet with many who would relish sober
and ingenuous discourse, and by their example be animated to propagate it to
others: but as long as Blasphemy, Ribaldry, and Detraction set up for Wit,
and carry it without any competition, we do implicitly yield that title we
dispute not: and tis hard to say, whether their triumphs be more owing to
the boldness of ill men, or the pusillanimity of the good. What if upon the
trial they should meet with the worser part of St. Paul’s fate at Athens,
That some will mock, Acts 17. 32. yet perhaps they may partake of the better
also, and find others that would be willing to hear them again, and some few
at least may cleave unto them. And sure they are too tender and delicate,
that will run no hazard, nor be willing to bear a little share in that
profane drollery, with which an Apostle was, and their God is daily
assaulted: especially when by this exposing themselves, they may hope to
give some check to that impious liberty. However besides the satisfaction of
their own consciences, they may also gain this advantage by the attempt,
that it may be a good test by which to try their company. For those whom
they find impatient of innocent and profitable converse, they may assure
themselves can only ensnare not benefit them; and he is a very weak
Gamester, that will be drawn to play upon such terms, as make it highly
probable for him to lose, but impossible for him to win. Therefore, in that
case the advice of Solomon is very proper, Go from the presence of a foolish
man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of Knowledge. Prov. 14. 7.
9. But he that will undertake so Heroic and enterprise, must qualify himself
for it, by being true to his own pretensions. He must leave no uneven thread
in his loom, or by indulging to any one sort of reprovable discourse
himself, defeat all his endeavors against the rest. Those airy Speculators
that have writ of the Philosopher’s Stone have required many personal
qualifications, strict abstinences and purities in those who make the
experiment. The thing may have this sober application, that those who would
turn this Iron Age into Gold, that would convert our rusty, drossy converse
into a purer strain, must be perfectly clean themselves. For alas, what
effect can that man hope from this most zealous reprehensions, who lays
himself open to recrimination? He that hears a man bitterly inveigh against
Blasphemy and profaneness, and yet (in that almost the same breath) hears
his monitor inveigh bitterly against his Neighbor, will scarce think him a
good guide of his tongue, that has but half the mastery of his own. Let
every man, therefore, be sure to begin at the right end of his work, to wash
his own mouth clean, before he prescribe Gargarisms to others. And to that
purpose let him impartially reflect on all the undue liberties he has given
his tongue, whether which have been here remarked, or those others which he
may find in all Practical books, especially in (the most Practical of all
books) his own Conscience. And when he has traced his talk through all its
wild rambles, let him bring home his stray; not like the lost sheep with
joy, but with tears of penitence and contrition, and keep a strict watch
over it that it break not loose again; nay, farther require it to make some
restitution for the trespass it has committed in its former excursions, to
restore to God what it has robbed of his Honor, by devoting itself an
instrument of His service; to his Neighbor what it has detracted from him,
by wiping off that fullage it has cast upon his Fame; and to himself by
defacing those ill Characters of vanity and folly it has imprinted on him.
Thus may the Tongue cure its own sting, and by a kind of Sympathetic virtue,
the wound may be healed by dressing the weapon. But alas, when we have done
all, the Tongue is so slippery that it will often be in danger to deceive
our watch: nay, it has a secret intelligence with the heart, which like a
corrupted Gaoler is too apt to connive at its escape. Let us therefore
strengthen our guards, call in Him who sees all the secret practices of our
treacherous hearts, and commit both them and our tongues to His custody. Let
us say with the Psalmist, Try me, O God, and seek the ground of my heart.
Psa. 129. 23. And with him again, Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and
keep the door of my lips, O let not my heart be inclined to any evil thing,
Psa. 141. 3. And if hand thus join in hand, Prov. 16. 6. if God’s grace be
humbly invoked, and our own endeavor honestly employed, even this unruly
evil of the Tongue (as St. James calls it Chap. 3. 8.) may be in some degree
tamed. If now and then it get a little out by stealth, yet it will not like
the Demoniac be so raving, as quite to break all its chains. If we cannot
always secure ourselves from inadvertence and surprise, but that a forbidden
word may sometimes escape us, yet we may from deliberate willful offences of
the Tongue. And thought we should all aspire higher, yet if we can but reach
this, we ought not to excuse ourselves (upon remaining infirmities) from the
Christian generous undertaking I was recommending, the reforming of others.
Indeed, I had made a very impertinent exhortation to that, if this degree of
fitness may not be admitted; for I fear there would be none on earth could
attempt it upon other terms: the world must still remain as it is, and await
only the Tongues of Angels to reduce it. Nor need we fear that censure of
Hypocrisy which we find, Matt. 7. 5. for the case is very differing. Tis
indeed as ridiculous as insolent an attempt, for one that has a Beam in his
own eye, to pretend to cast a Mote out of his brother’s: but it hold not on
the contrary, that he that has a Mote in his own, should not endeavor to
remove the Beam in his Brother’s. Every speck does not blind a man, nor does
every infirmity make one unable to discern, or incompetent to reprove the
grosser faults of others.
10. Yet after all, let us as much as is possible clear our eyes even of this
mote, and make our Copy as worth transcribing as we can: for certainly the
best instrument of reformation is example: and though admonition may
sometimes be necessary, yet there are many circumstances required to the
right ordering of that, so that it cannot always be practicable, but a good
example ever is. Besides, it has a secret magnetic virtue like the
Loadstone, it attracts by a power of which we can give no account: so that
it seems to be one of those occult qualities, those secrets in nature, which
have puzzled the enquirers, only experience demonstrates it to us. I am sure
it does (too abundantly) in ill examples, and I doubt not might do the like
in good, if they were as plentiful experimented. And that they may be so,
let every man be ambitious to cast in his mite: for the two make but a
farthing, yet they may be multiplied to the vastest sum. However, if a man
cannot reform, yet I am sure twill be worth his while, so to save himself
from this untoward generation, Acts. 2. 40. I have now presented the Tongue
under a double aspect, such as may justify the ancient Definition of it,
that it is the worst and best part of man, the best in its original and
design, and the worst in its corruption and degeneration. In David, the man
after God’s heart, it was his glory, Psa. 57. 8. The best member that he
had, Psa. 108. 1. But in the wicked it cuts like a sharp Razor, Psa. 52. 2.
Tis as the venom of Asps, 140. 3. The Tongues from heaven were Cloven Acts.
2. 2. to be the more diffusive of good: but those that are fired from hell
are forked, Jam. 3. 6. to be the more impressive of mischief: it must be
referred to every man’s choice, into which of the forms he will mold his.
Solomon tells us Death and Life are in the power of the Tongue, and that not
only directly in regard of the good or ill we may do to others, but
reflexively also, in respect of what may rebound to ourselves. Let Moses
then make the inference from Solomon’s premises, Therefore choose life,
Deut. 30. 15. a proposal so reasonable, so agreeable to nature, that no
flourishes can render it more inviting. I shall therefore leave it to the
Reader’s contemplation, and shall hope that if he please but to resolve it
with that seriousness which the importance exacts, he will new set his
tongue, compose it to those pious Divine strains, which may be a proper
preludium to those Allelujahs he hopes eternally to sing.
F I N I S.
_________________________________________________________________
Indexes
_________________________________________________________________
Index of Scripture References
Genesis
[1]2 [2]6:5 [3]14:23 [4]27 [5]27:29 [6]35:37 [7]39:14
Exodus
[8]8:26 [9]21:24 [10]21:29 [11]22:1 [12]32:19
Numbers
[13]22:27
Deuteronomy
[14]13:6 [15]25:3 [16]30:15
Joshua
[17]8
Judges
[18]6:31
1 Samuel
[19]2:39
2 Samuel
[20]6:22 [21]12:7 [22]16:3 [23]18:23 [24]18:33
1 Kings
[25]18:44
2 Kings
[26]10
Job
[27]1:21 [28]2:2 [29]29:25
Psalms
[30]7:39 [31]12:4 [32]14 [33]32:9 [34]34:3 [35]39 [36]39:3
[37]50:21 [38]52:2 [39]56:21 [40]57:8 [41]57:9 [42]57:10
[43]64:3 [44]69:12 [45]73:9 [46]106:33 [47]108:1 [48]109:18
[49]115:5 [50]129:23 [51]141:3
Proverbs
[52]1:24 [53]9:8 [54]10:7 [55]13:1 [56]14:7 [57]14:9 [58]14:13
[59]16:6 [60]18:7 [61]18:21 [62]19:29 [63]22:1 [64]26:12
[65]26:18 [66]26:19 [67]26:27 [68]27:19 [69]28:23 [70]30
Ecclesiastes
[71]7:1 [72]10:1 [73]11:4
Isaiah
[74]5:21 [75]8:21 [76]13:12 [77]28:13
Jeremiah
[78]2:11 [79]9 [80]20:7
Ezekiel
[81]33 [82]33:11
Daniel
[83]3 [84]6:4
Jonah
[85]4:7
Micah
[86]6:11
Matthew
[87]5:4 [88]5:11 [89]6 [90]7:1 [91]7:5 [92]8:38 [93]10:18
[94]12:30 [95]12:37 [96]13:32 [97]18:7 [98]22:20 [99]25:25
[100]27:4 [101]27:39
Luke
[102]9:55 [103]10:7 [104]12:14 [105]16:14 [106]17:1 [107]18
John
[108]8:7 [109]8:44
Acts
[110]2:2 [111]2:40 [112]9:4 [113]17 [114]17:32 [115]19:25
[116]19:28
Romans
[117]1:25 [118]1:26 [119]2:1 [120]10:14 [121]11:20 [122]11:21
[123]14:10
1 Corinthians
[124]4:5 [125]4:7 [126]4:10 [127]5:2 [128]6:3 [129]7:8
[130]11:17 [131]12:26 [132]13:5
Galatians
[133]2:13 [134]6:1
Ephesians
[135]5:3
Philippians
[136]2:4 [137]3:19 [138]4:8
1 Timothy
[139]1:13 [140]5:13 [141]5:14
2 Timothy
[142]3:7
Hebrews
[143]1:16 [144]2:23 [145]12:3 [146]12:28 [147]13:7 [148]13:15
James
[149]1:26 [150]2:4 [151]2:13 [152]3:1 [153]3:2 [154]3:6
[155]3:8 [156]4:6 [157]4:6 [158]4:12
1 Peter
[159]4:4
1 John
[160]3:18
Jude
[161]1:2 [162]1:16
Revelation
[163]21
Wisdom of Solomon
[164]1:11 [165]2:14 [166]9:16
Sirach
[167]6:7 [168]16:7 [169]19:8 [170]19:9 [171]26:6 [172]40:4
[173]51:22
_________________________________________________________________
This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
generated on demand from ThML source.
References
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