flect upon it; and perhaps have reafon alfo to believe, that he to whom you have done this injury is not ignorant of it?

Confider likewife, whether, in the chance of human affairs, you may not fome time or other come to ftand in need of his favour; and how incapable this carriage of your's towards him will render you of it? and whether it may not be in his power to revenge a fpiteful and needlefs word by a fhrewd turn? So that if a man made no confcience of hurting others, yet he fhould in prudence have fome confideration of himself.

3. Let us accuftom ourselves to pity the faults of men, and to be truly forry for them; and then we fhall take no pleasure in publishing them. And this common humanity requires of us; confidering the great infirmities of human nature, and that we ourselves also are liable to be tempted; confidering likewife, how severe a punishment every fault and mifcarriage is to itfelf, and how terribly it exposeth a man to the wrath of God, both in this world and the other. He is not a good Chriftian, that is not heartily forry for the faults even of his greatest enemies; and if he be fo, he will difcover them no farther than is neceffary to fome good end.

4. Whenever we hear any man evil-spoken of, if we know any good of him, let us fay that. It is always the more humane and the more honourable part, to ftand up in the defence and vindication of others, than to accuse and befpatter them. Pollibly the good you have heard of them may not be true; but it is much more probable, that the evil which you have heard of them is not true neither: however, it is better to preserve the credit of a bad man, than to ftain the reputation of the innocent. And if there were any need that a man fhould be evil-fpoken of, it is but fair and equal that his good and bad qualities fhould be mentioned together; otherwife he may be strangely misfreprefented, and an indifferent man may be made a monster.

They that will obferve nothing in a wife man, but his overfights and follies; nothing in a good man, but his failings and infirmities; may make a fhift to render a very wife and good man very despicable. If one fhould

heap

heap together all the paffionate fpeeches, all the froward and imprudent actions of the best man, all that he had faid or done amiss in his whole life, and prefent it all at one view, concealing his wifdom and virtues; the man, in this disguise, would look like a madman or a fury and yet, if his life were fairly reprefented, and juft in the fame manner it was led, and his many and great virtues fet over against his failings and infirmities, he would appear to all the world to be an admirable and excellent perfon. But how many and great foever any man's ill qualities are, it is but juft, that, with all this heavy load of faults, he fhould have the due praise of the few real virtues that are in him.

5. That you may not speak ill of any, do not delight to hear ill of them. Give no countenance to bufybodies, and those that love to talk of other mens faults: or, if you cannot decently reprove them because of their quality, then divert the difcourfe fome other way; or if you cannot do that, by seeming not to mind it, you may fufficiently fignify that you do not like it.

6. Let every man mind himself, and his own duty and concernment. Do but endeavour in good earnest to mend thyself, and it will be work enough for one man, and leave thee but little time to talk of others. When Plato withdrew from the court of Dionyfius, who would fain have had a famous philofopher for his flatterer, they parted in fome unkindnefs, and Dionyfius bade him not to speak ill of him when he was returned into Greece. Plato told him, He had no leifure for it; meaning, that he had better things to mind, than to take up his thoughts and talk with the faults of fo bad a man, fo notoriously known to all the world.

7. Laftly, Let us fet a watch before the door of our lips, and not fpeak but upon confideration: I do not mean to speak finely, but fitly. Especially when thou fpeakest of others, confider of whom, and what thou art going to fpeak. Ufe great caution and circumfpection in this matter. Look well about thee, on every fide of the thing, and on every perfon in the company, before thy words flip from thee; which, when they are once out of thy lips, are for ever out of thy power.

B 3

Not

Not that men fhould be fullen in company, and fay nothing; or so stiff in conversation, as to drop nothing but aphorifms and oracles. Efpecially among equals and friends, we fhould not be fo referved, as if we would have it taken for a mighty favour that we vouchsafe to fay any thing. If a man had the understanding of an angel, he must be contented to abate fomething of this excefs of wisdom, for fear of being thought cunning. The true art of converfation, if any body can hit upon it, feems to be this; an appearing freedom and opennefs, with a refolute refervedness as little appearing as is poffible.

All that I mean by this caution is, that we should con fider well what we fay, especially of others. And to this end, we fhould endeavour to get our minds furnished with matter of difcourfe concerning things ufeful in themselves, and not hurtful to others. And, if we have but a mind wife enough, and good enough, we may eafily find a field large enough for innocent converfation, fuch as will harm no body, and yet be acceptable enough to the better and wifer part of mankind. And why should any one be at the cost of playing the fool, to gratify any body whatsoever ?

I have done with the five things I propounded to speak to upon this argument. But, because hardly any thing can be fo clear, but fomething may be faid against it; nor any thing fo bad, but fomething may be pleaded in excufe for it; I fhall therefore take notice of two or three pleas that may be made for it.

1. Some pretend mighty injury and provocation. If in the fame kind, it feems thou art fenfible of it; and therefore thou of all men oughtest to abstain from it. But in what kind foever it be, the Chriftian religion forbids revenge. Therefore do not plead one fin in excufe of another, and make revenge an apology for reviling.

2. It is alledged by others, with a little better grace, that if this doctrine were practifed, conversation would be fpoiled, and there would not be matter enough for pleafant difcourfe and entertainment.

I answer, The defign of this difcourfe is, to redress a great evil in converfation, and that, I hope, which

mends

mends it, will not fpoil it. And however, if mens tongues lay a little more ftill, and most of us fpake a good deal lefs than we do, both of ourselves and others, I fee no great harm in it: I hope we might for all that live comfortably and in good health, and fee many good days. David, I am fure, prefcribes it as an excellent receipt, in his opinion, for a quiet, and chearful, and long life, to refrain from evil-fpeaking: Pfal. xxxiv. 12. 13. What man is he that defireth life, and loveth many days, that he may fee good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from fpeaking falfhood.

But granting that there is fome pleasure in invective, I hope there is a great deal more in innocence: and the more any man confiders this, the truer he will find it; and whenever we are ferious, we ourselves cannot but acknowledge it. When a man examines himself impartially before the facrament, or is put in mind upon a deathbed, to make reparation for injuries done in this kind, he will then certainly be of this mind, and wish he had not done them. For this certainly is one neceffary qualification for the bleffed facrament, that we be in love and charity with our neighbours; with which temper of mind this quality is utterly inconfiftent.

3. There is yet a more fpecious plea than either of the former, that men will be encouraged to do ill, if they can escape the tongues of men; as they would do, if this doctrine did effectually take place: because by this means, one great reftraint from doing evil would be taken away, which these good men, who are fo bent upon reforming the world, think would be great pity. For many who will venture upon the difpleasure of God, will yet abftain from doing bad things for fear of reproach from men befides that this feems the moft proper punishment of many faults which the laws of men can take no notice of.

Admitting all this to be true, yet it does not feem fo good and laudable a way, to punish one fault by another. But let no man encourage himself in an evil way, with this hope that he fhall efcape the cenfure of men. When I have faid all I can, there will, I fear, be evilfpeaking enough in the world to chaftife them that do ill: and though we fhould hold our peace, there will be

bad

bad tongues enough to reproach men with their evildoings. I wish we could but be perfuaded to make the experiment for a little while, whether men would not be fufficiently lafhed for their faults, though we fat by and faid nothing.

So that there is no need at all that good men should be concerned in this odious work. There will always be offenders and malefactors enough to be the executioners to inflict this punishment upon one another. Therefore let no man prefume upon impunity on the one hand; and, on the other, let no man defpair, but that this business will be fufficiently done one way or other. I am very much mistaken, if we may not fafely truft an ill-natured world that there will be no failure of juftice in this kind.

And here, if I durft, I would have faid a word or two concerning that more publick fort of obloquy by lampoons and libels, fo much in fashion in this witty age. But I have no mind to provoke a very terrible fort of men. Yet thus much I hope may be faid without offence, that how much foever men are pleased to fee others abused in this kind, yet it is always grievous when it comes to their own turn. However, I cannot but hope, that every man that impartially confiders, muft own it to be a fault of a very high nature, to revile those whom God hath placed in authority over us, and to flander the footsteps of the Lord's anointed; especially fince it is fo exprefsly written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.

Having reprefented the great evil of this vice, it might not now be improper to fay fomething to thofe who fuffer by it. Are we guilty of the evil faid of us? Let us reform, and cut off all occafions for the future; and fo turn the malice of our enemies to our own advantage, and defeat their ill intentions by making fo good an ufe of it; and then it will be well for us to have been evil Spoken of.

Are we innocent? We may fo much the better bear it patiently; imitating herein the pattern of our bleffed Saviour, who when he was reviled, reviled not again; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.

We may confider likewife, that though it be a misfor

tune