181 SERMON XXVI. JAMES IV. 11. Speak not evil one of another. T is an invariable truth, and as SERM. IT such hath been universally acknowledged, that thofe things which have power to be moft ferviceable, have alfo the power of being most pernicious; a truth never perhaps more apparent, than in that illuftrious privilege which so eminently distinguisheth man from the inferior part of the creation, the privilege of communicating our fentiments to each other, by that amazing faculty of fpeech which God hath gracioufly be stowed N 3 XXVI. SERM ftowed upon us. To make it ferve XXVI. meaner and for other purposes than those for which it was originally defigned, will doubtless subject its ungrateful poffeffor to the divine displeasure. It were better, as an eminent writer obferves, to have been born deftitute of speech or reason, than to make use of those noble gifts of Providence to each others deftruction. The tongue, fays the Apoftle St. James, is a world of wickedness; it defileth the whole body, and fetteth on fire the course of nature: therewith bless we God the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the fimilitude of God. St. James, we may obferve, reproaches men for their folly and ingratitude, and deems them, what they most certainly are, both impious and abfurd, to adore their Maker one moment, and in the next abuse and vilify his creatures; to pretend refpect and honour for the original, and at the same time fhew so much hatred and contempt SERM. for the copy and resemblance of him. XXVI. These things, fays the apoftle, ought not to be; they ought not, and yet they are, and perhaps ever will be fo: whilft there are men in the world, there will be calumniators; and whilst virtue and merit fubfift, there will be tongues to defame and leffen them. Passions for the most part, like habits, modes, and cuftoms, fhift and vary with a variable world, but evil-fpeaking is a vice that will be always in fashion. Some diseases affect fome bodies and ages only; fome plants and trees thrive but in that foil which is peculiar to their natures but this disease affects every constitution, this weed sprouts up in every clime, and flourishes in every foil. It is indeed a vice which all men readily and univerfally condemn, and yet which almost all men do as readily and as univerfally XXVI. SERM. practise: a crime, in fhort, which deferves the heartieft cenfure from all the lovers of truth, and the warmest refentment from all the friends of virtue, as it is destructive of the precepts, and abfolutely in oppofition to the practice of our holy religion, and the divine Author of it; who came down to bring peace upon earth, and good-will towards men, that peace which the evil-speaker destroys, and that good-will which he is a stranger to, and which as he is himself incapable of feeling, he is perpetually endeavouring to banish from the breafts of others. Such is the hard lot of mankind,' that the most valuable of our poffeffions is the most easily fnatched from us, and with the greatest difficulty recovered : that beauty which fickness impairs, health may restore; and thofe riches which fortune deprives us of, fhe often repays with intereft; whilft our reputation, if once loft, XXVI. loft, either by our own folly, or through SERM. the malice and wickednefs of others, is scarce ever to be regained. A good name, as the wife man fayeth, is like precious ointment, and one dead fly in it spoileth the whole box. The poifon of flander feldom finds an antidote, and the wounds of honour never clofe. Lofs of character is ever attended with this peculiar misfortune, that it is not always even in the power of him who ftole, to restore it: the calumny may wander where the recantation cannot: the found may be forth into all parts, and the report unto the ends of the world: the arrow of the flanderer cannot be recalled, and falfehood may travel too fast, for truth ever to overtake her. gone When we confider how much the welfare and profperity of men depends on their good name; however little vir tue |