purse. Men fhould be careful in this particular, because an injury of this fort is without after-recompence. We cannot follow a lie at the heels, whereas goods taken away may be reftored or recovered. What is ill spoken of any one, is hardly forgotten; nor is it eafy for the wronged to make his defence. Here in particular I must take notice of one thing, which I have always looked on as a fhameful unaccountable mifcarriage; viz. to take an advantage against men from the liberty that is to be allowed and justly taken in mutual converse, wherein men trust each other. He is not fit to come in any company, who will not allow this as a rule of converse, to take every thing in the better part, to make candid conftruction, and to fuppofe that whatever is spoken fuddenly or merrily, hath no ill intention. If a man thinks he cannot keep another's counfel, then it is fair for him to give an intimation and warning; and then if men will not forbear, it is at their own peril; the hearer is discharged. Refpect to God, and fidelity to government and the community, is an antecedent obligation; and against God and his country, no man is to be patient or hear. Therefore a man by the laws of converfation is not under an obligation to keep counsel, if God and his country be spoken against because every man is under an antecedent engagement and duty to these. Also, we are to be chary of the credit of those that are abfent. We fhould be impatient to hear them spoken against, that are not present for it is unmanly to fpeak evil of those that are not present to give an account of themfelves; the credit of the abfent is not to receive pre

judice by the liberty of talking. It is commonly faid, de mortuis non nifi bene, never speak evil of the dead ; because they are not within poffibility to make any defence. If this rule be not obferved, but men will make fevere interpretations, or lie at the catch; away with all converse. If this be not minded, then the good of company is under too great reftraint, and men will take no pleasure in conversation; because they are always in fear they may be mistaken; mifconftruction may be made: thus converse will be dangerous, fo not pleasurable. This, I fay, of converse between man and man, as our fellow-creatures, as qualified with power of fpeech, whereby we may communicate our notions, one to another. As chriftians, we are still under more and greater obligations.

DISCOURSE XCIII. The great inftances of wickedness.

PSALM V. 4, 5.

Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, &c.

I

Am difcourfing of things that are contrary to righteousness and juftice. Now we may be guilty of fins of unrighteoufnefs to our neighbour these three ways. 1. By fevere and harsh cenfure. 2. By perfidiousness and false testimony. 3. By cruel ufage.

1. By fevere and harsh cenfure; rigid interpretations, hard constructions, whereby others innocent meanings are perverted; captious, fevere, morofe, cynical, humourfome, uncivil conversation; these things are materially unrighteous; for what have we to do to judge our fellow-fervants? With what judgment we judge, we fhall be judged, Mat. vii. 2. A man doth really pass a fentence of condemnation upon himself, when he doth feverely cenfure any other perfon. If this were confidered, we should have a far eafter being in the world.

2. By perfidiousness and violating the rules and laws of fociety and converfe, by giving falfe teftimony. By God's law, fuch a perfon fhould fuffer what the accufed fhould, if he had been found guilty, Deut. xix. 18. Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai; and in common reason Nec lex eft juftior ulla,

Quam necis artifices arte perire fua.

There is no law more juft, more equal, more reafonable, than that whofoever defigns evil and mifchief against any innocent perfon, fhould perish himself, and fall into the pit which he mischievously had digged for others.

3. By cruel ufages. These partake of the devilish nature; cruelty is the devil in a compleat form; it is an hellifh temper. We cannot exprefs any thing that is perfectly diabolical, more fully than in the temper of cruelty: I do find men have been infamous. from generation to generation, and have been recorded as monfters, Timons, cannibals, enemies to mankind; who have practifed cruelty: fuch of whom

it

it is faid, ingeniofi in tormenta, witty to find out torments; fuch as that horrid monfter Phalaris, of his brazen bull; and those who used thefe fpeeches, fentiat fe mori; nondum tecum redii in gratiam; of whom may be faid, exuerunt humanam naturam, induerunt feritatem; that they have divefted themfelves of human nature, and taken upon them that of ravenous wild beafts. It is horrid to think how the innocent harmlefs nature of man, may be altered to cruelty; what a man may come to, by grofs neglect of himself, by base use, custom and practice; Hazael did not think he could have done those cruel. acts the prophet admonished him of; am I a dog? Such an one was Tiberius, who delighted in torturing; of whom it was faid that he was lutum fanguine maceratum, a lump of clay foak'd in blood: Caligula made it his diverfion to fee men rack'd, and Nero to fee the city on fire.

But I must do right to the maker of our nature; and therefore declare that man, if he be right, and have not abused his nature, but is as God brought him into the world, and hath done himself no wrong, is a mild, meek, gentle, calm, loving creature, fitted for converfation. I am fure many are fo, and have been fo from the beginning, and grow more fo; and if any find it otherwife, I will fay he may be afhamed of himself. I account that man, whofoever he is, if he be of years and understanding, he hath lived to little purpose in the world, and can give no account of himself, unless he can ftand up and verify this of himself, omnia in me funt fubjecta rationi, all things that I allow, and do with knowledge, delight and confent, they

they are as in reason they should be; the reafon of my mind leads me to it; and I do as I do, because my judgment doth firft determine me. This in refpect of all deliberate acts; for, as for furprizes or mistakes, being taken unawares; in these I am to be excused : but for deliberate acts, he doth not deserve to be named a man ; much lefs a perfon under denomination of religion, unless he bring it to this, that in all deliberate acts, he do with fatisfaction to his own reason and judgment.

I confider man, 1st. As God made him : 2dly, As Chrift redeemed him.

1. In the former refpect, man is a converfable creature; forafmuch as he is invested with intellectual nature, and is qualified with principles of reason, and with a power of speech; for by all these he is enabled and disposed for converse: the principle of reason that works inwardly, thereby he is apt to conceive notions of things, and prepare matter: by the other, he is able to bring forth, direct, communicate, resolve, fatisfy, teach, inftruct, and make others partakers. It is a thing of the highest advantage in the world, to know what a confiderate mind finds cause to think. I take this to be the beft office, either of kindness or of fervice, that one man can perform to another; that we may be as oracles mutually one to another. In feveral matters, one hath examined this, another that; ars longa, vita brevis; our lives are fhort, but matters of knowledge are ten thousand times more than the years we have to live. It is not compatiable to any of us to be more than this, aliquis in fingulis, fingularis in aliqua, either to be a fmatterer in more things,