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 recompence I shall therefore in respect to the Reader dismiss this noisom Subject and thereby give an example with what abhorrence he should alwaies reject such kind of discourse remembring 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 1. I Have now touched upon those enormities of Speech which I principally design'd to observe wherein I have bin 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 do's so makes fair approches towards being that perfect man St. James speaks of chap. 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 ingenuous 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 laught at in our fore-fathers wardrobes or pictures when by the circulation of time and vanity they are brought about we think very becoming T is the same in our diet our very palates conform to the fashion and every thing grows amiable to our fancies according as t is more or less received in the world And upon this account all sobriety and strict vertue lies now under a heavy prejudice and no part of it more then this of the Tongue which custom has now enfranchized from all the bonds Moralists or Divines had laid upon it 2. BUT the greater the difficulties are the more it ought to awake our diligence if we lie loose and carelesly t is odds we shall be carried away with the stream We had need therefore fix our selves and by a sober recollection of the ends for which our Speech was given us and the account we must one day give of it impress upon our selves the baseness and the danger of misemploying it Yet a negative innocence will not serve our turns t will but put us in the condition of him who wrapt up the talent he was commanded to employ Mat. 25.25 Nay indeed t will be impossible to preserve even that if we aspire no farther The Tongue is a busie active Part t will scarce be kept from motion and therefore if that activity be not determin'd to good objects t will 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 Peasant-like and Religion the most insufferable of all so by excluding all useful subjects of converse we come together as St. Paul in another case saies Not for the better but for the worse 1. Cor. 11.17 And if the Philosopher thought he had lost that day wherein he had not learnt somthing worthy his notice how many daies do we worse then lose by having them not only emty 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 stomac which if it be not supplied with wholesome nurishment will at last suck in those humors with which the body most abounds So that if in our converse we do not interchange sober usefull notions we shall at the best but traffique toies 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 and incentive to vertue by which he shall not only secure the negative part of his duty but comply with the positive also in 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 somthing is to be indulged to common civility more to the intimaces and endearments of friendship and a competency to those recreative discourses which maintain the cherefulness of society all which are if moderatly used within the latitude of the rule as tending tho 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 encroch 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 Gods 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 praiers 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 praies Hallowed be thy name and do's not as much endeavor it with men as he solicites 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 soever we can implant a true reverentialaw 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 shew themselves concern'd in all the petty secular interests of
are put such as should a Heathen observe he would little suspect them to be own'd by us as the rule of our Religion and could never think they were ever meant for any thing beyond a whet-stone 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 Psal. 50.21 and charging him with those defects which are indeed their own They want learning or industry to sound the depth of those sacred tresures and therefore they decry the Scripture as mean and poor and to justify their own wisdom dispute Gods This is as if the mole should complain the Sun is dark because he dwells under ground and sees not his splendor Men are indeed in all instances apt to speak ill of all things they understand not but in none more then this Their ignorance of local Customs Idioms of Language and several other circumstances renders them incompetent Judges as has bin excellently evinced by a late Author T will therefore befit them either to qualifie 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 genious is so accomodated to all successions of Ages Stiles and waies 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 confest 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 to day and for ever 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 Plaies 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 heightned and inspirited by that profaneness A Bible phrase serves them in discourse as the haut-goust do's in diet to give a relish to the most insipid stuff And were it not for this Magazine a great many mens 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 barr'd them And indeed it seems a tacite confession that they have little of their own when they are fain thus to commit sacriledg to drive on the Trade But sure 't is 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 alwaies enter lard his discourse with fragments of Horace or Virgil or the Aphorisms of Pythagoras or Seneca Now 't is too evident that it is not from any speculative 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 't is folly in other instances The truth is 't is so much the reserve of those who can give no better testimony of their parts that methinks upon that very score it should be given over by those that can And sure were it possible for any thing that is so bad to grow unfashionable the world has had enough of this to be cloied with it but how fond soever men are of this divertisement 't will 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 mesures it must be a high provocation of God 14. LET any of us but put the case in our own persons suppose we had written to friend to advertise him of things of the greatest importance to himself had given him ample and exact instructions back'd 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 we should hear of that letter were to have it put in doggrel rime to be made sport for the rabble or at the best have the most eminent phrases of it pickt 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 do's sufficiently answer nay out-go the first part of the parallel and God knows our vile usage of it do's too much I fear too literally adapt the latter And if we think the affront to base for one of us can we believe God will take it in good part That were to make him not only more stupid then any man but as much so as the heathen Idols that have eies and see not Pselm 115.5 And 't is 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 promulged 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 in Tables all the whole equipage of the Tabernacle was designed only for its more decent Repository the Ark it self receiving its value only from 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 were commieted to Writing the Jews were such scrupulous reverers of it that 't was 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 19. AND sure the New Testament is not of less concern then the Old nay the Apostle asserts it to
any vertue 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 preferr'd them before Goods or Life Indeed 't is that which gives us an inferior sort of Immortality and makes us even in this world survive our selves 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 confidence that he left behind him a perpetual memory of the Victories he had atchieved for his Country Brutus so courted the fame of a Patriot that he brake through all the obstacles of gratitude and humanity to attemt it he cheerfully bare the defeat of his attemt in contemplation of the glory of it 'T were 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 them selves 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 Vertue from whence all true Reputation springs and like Esops Dog lose the substance by too greedy catching at the shadow an irrefragable proof how great a price they set upon their Fame 6. AND then since Reason sets it at so high a rate and Passion at a higher we we may conclude the violating this interest one of the greatest injuries in 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 wound without an afflictive smart And tho the power of Christianity does in some so moderate this resentment that none of these blows shall recoil no degree of revenge be attemted 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 then abated by the goodness of the person injured nor of danger since God is the more immediate avenger of those who attemt not to be their own But if the injury meet not with this meekness as in this vindictive Age 't is 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 robb'd 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 once at war with Heaven and Earth And tho as to this immediate judgment he must bear his iniquity answer for his impatience yet as in all civil Insurrections the ring-leader is lookt on with a peculiar 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 Saviour Wo be to that man by whom the offence cometh Matth. 28.7 8. INDEED there is such a train of mischiefs usually follow this sin that 't is scarce possible to make a full estimate of its malignity 'T is one of the grand Incendiaries which disturbs the peace of the world and has a great share in most of its quarrels For could we examine all the feuds which harrass Persons Families nay somtimes Nations too we should find the greater part take their rise from injurious reprochful 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 9. IN regard therefore of its proper guilt and all those remoter sins and miseries which ensue it 't is every mans 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 seasons but the opportunities of this are alwaies ready I can do my neighbor this injury when I can do him no other Besides the multitude of objects do proportionably 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 tho some sorts of Detractions seem confined to those to whom we bear particular malice yet there are other kinds of it more raging which fly indifferently at all Lastly this sin has the aid almost of universal example which is an advantage beyond all the others there being scarce any so irresistable insinuation as the practice of those with whom we converse and no subject of converse so common as the defaming our Neighbors 10. SINCE then the path is so slippery it had not need 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 SECT V. Of Lying Defamation 1. DETRACTION being as we have already said the lessning and impairing a man in his repute we may resolve that what ever 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 tho 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 Somtimes a man invents a perfect falsity of another somtimes he that does not invent it yet reports it tho he know it to be false and a third sort there are who having not certain knowledg whether it be false or no do yet divulge it as an absolute certainty or at least with such artificial Insinuations as may biass the hearer on that hand The former of these is a crime of so high so dis-ingenious a nature that tho 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 bare-fac'd this is fain 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 but to
that you cannot go to one but you shall be entertain'd 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 tho we expose for it our greatest Temporal Concerns but cannot without despight to him as well as our brethren be thus prostituted 21. YET if we consider it abstractedly from those more solemn mischiefs which attend it the mere levity and unworthiness of it sets it below an ingenuous Person We generally think a tatler and busy-body a title of no small reproch yet truly I know not to whom it more justly belongs then to those who busy themselves first in learning and then in publishing the faults of others an emploiment 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 tho a state which in other respects he much prefers 1 Cor. 7.8 into marriage rather then expose themselves to the temtation 1 Tim. 5.13.14 And if their impotence cannot afford excuse for it what a debasement is it of mens nobler Faculties to be thus entertained The Historian gives it as an ill indication of Domitians temper that he emploi'd 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 the divulging the faults of others there is another branch of Detraction naturally springing from this root and this is Censuring and severe Judging of them We think not we have well plaid the Historians when we have told the thing unless we add also our Remarks and Animadversions on it And altho 't is 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 Judg. And we may easily divine the fate of that mans fame that is so unduly tried 23. 'T IS indeed sad to see how many private Tribunals are every where set up where we scan and judg our Neighbors action 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 somthing which appears not in the more general view of the fact and which perhaps never was in the actors intention In a word we do like witches with their Magical Chymistry extract all the venem and take none of the allay By this means we confound the degrees of sins and sentence deliberate and indeliberate an habit or an act all at one rate that is commonly at the utmost it can amount to even in its worse acception and sure this were a most culpable corruption in judgment could we shew our commission to judg our brethren 24. BUT here we may every one of us interrogate our selves in our Saviours words Who made me a Judg Luke 12.14 And if he disclaim'd it who in respect of his Divinity had the Supreme right and that too in a case wherein one at least or 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 Autority Nay which is infinitly more t is superseded by our great Law-giver in that express prohibition Matth. 7.1 Judg not and that back'd with a severe penalty that ye be not judged As God hath appropriated Vengeance to himself so has he Judicature also and t is an invasion of his peculiar for any but his Delegates the lawful Magistrates to pretend to either And indeed in all private judgment so much depends upon the intention of the Offender that unless we could possess our selves of Gods Omniscience 't will be as irrational as impious to assume his Autority Until we know mens hearts we are at the best but imperfect Judges of their actions At our rate of judging St. Paul had surely pass'd 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 'T is therefore good counsel which the Apostle gives 1 Cor. 4.5 Judg nothing before the time until the Lord come For tho 't is said The Saints shall judg 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 then 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 tho not of the Actor nay it may somtimes 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 judg only according to the visible undoubted circumstances and not aggravate the crime upon presumtions and conjectures if we do how right soever our guesses may be our judgment is not but we are as Saint 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 alwaies look down with contemt on those at the Bar. And certainly there is nothing does so gratify so regale a haughty humor as this piece of usurpt Soverainty 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 heightning it which we cannot more effectually do then by this censorious humor for by that we are so perpetually emploi'd abroad that we have no leisure
they may sum up their account at night in the wise mans simile their Laughter has bin 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 annoied 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 somtimes stop the current and sure 't were a noble essay of mans parts to stem this tide and by a more useful application of their own faculties convince others that theirs might be better emploied T is 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 laught saying an Ape was ridiculous by nature but men by art and study And truly t is a great contemt of human nature to think their intellects were given them for no better end then 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 bin more rigid to our Minds then 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 alwaies to be scrued 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 ill emploied in those little skirmishes of Wit which pass familiarly between intimates and acquaintances which besides the present divertisement 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 spightful intent The world wants not experiments of the mischiefs have happened by too severe Railleries in such Fencing jest has proved earnest and Florets have oft turn'd to Swords and not only the Friendship but the Men have fallen a Sacrifice to a Jest. 19. SECONDLY this is to have the same restriction with all other recreations that it be made a divertisement not a trade T is an insinuating thing and is apt to encroch too much upon our time and God knows we have a great deal of business of this world and much more for the next which will not be don with laughing and therefore t is not for us to play away too much of that time which is exacted by more serious concerns T is sure we shall die in Earnest and it will not become us to live altogether in Jest. But besides this stealth of our time t is apt to steal away mens hearts too make them so dote upon this kind of entertainment that it averts them from any thing 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 any thing 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 their Diet at the same rate they shall eat the Husk rather then 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 bin less and their Ballast more For the preventing therefore of more such wracks 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 mans slightest Faculty 11. A third Caution in this matter is to confine our selves to present Company not to make absent Persons the Subject of our mirth Those freedoms we use to a mans face as they are commonly more moderate so they are more equitable because we expose our selves 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 mans fame T was 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 then 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 T was 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 accessary 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 then one of their jocular reproches for he that designs seems to acknowledg them considerable but he that mocks them seems to think them too low for any thing but contemt and we learn from Aristotle that the mesure 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 whethere 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 t is much more to make God so by levelling our blowes at any thing sacred but of that I have already had occasion to speak and shall not repete only give me leave to say that besides the profaner sort of jests which more immediately reflect on him he is concern'd in all the unjust reproches of our brethren our love to them being confirm'd by the same divine Sanction with our reverence to him and sure nothing is more inconsistent with that love then the exposing them to that contemt we are our selves so impatient of In a
But that which I would disswade is the promiscuous use of this liberty in common conversation the satisfying our Spleen when we cannot ease our hearts by it the loud declamings at our misery which is seldom sever'd 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 concern'd to vindicate those whom we asperse In a word 't is 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 the Jovial for the unplesantness So that the murmurer seems to be turn'd off to the company of those doleful Creatures which the Prophet mentions which were to inhabit the ruines of Babylon 13.21 For he is ill Conversation to all men tho the worst of all to himself 10. AND now upon the force of all these considerations I may reasonably impress the Wise mans 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 't is hard to say whether they speak more of instruction or reproch 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 do's it shame our more explicite knowledg 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 Ethnic 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 do's indeed perfect and crown those graces which were here inchoate and begun but no mans conversion ever succeeded his being there for Christ has expresly told us That except we be converted we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven if we go hence in our froward discontents they will associate us with those with whom is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth SECT XI Of Positiveness 1. ANOTHER very unhandsom circumstance in discourse is the being over confident and peremtory a thing which do's very much unfit men for conversation it being lookt on as the common birth-right of mankind that every man is to opine according to the dictates of his own understanding not anothers Now this Peremtoriness 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 mens 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 eies 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 do weighty they write Tekel upon them This is one of the most oppressive Monopolies imaginable all others can concern only somthing without us but this fastens upon our nature 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 temted to rally it and not too tamely resign this native liberty Reason submits only to Reason and he that assaults it with bare Autority that which is Divine alwaies excepted may as well cut flame with his sword or harden wax in the sun 3. T IS true indeed these great Dictators do somtimes 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 safest 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 fore-see the impossibility of convincing one who thinks himself not subject to error Upon these or other like grounds t is 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 attackt and stand upon their guard and reckon they must part with Honor together with their Opinion if they suffer themselves to be hector'd out of it Besides this imposing humor is so unaimable that it gives an aversion to the Person and we know how forcible personal prejudices are tho t is true they should not be towards the biassing 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 control'd men are not very fond of associating themselves T is 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 inconveniencies are evidently consequent to this Dogmatizing supposing men be never so much in the right but if they happen to be in the wrong what a ridiculous pageantry is it to see such a Philosophical gravity set to man out Solecism A concluding Face put upon no concluding Argument is the most contemtible 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 undiscern'd these Rodomontade errors force themselves upon mens observation and make it as impossible for men not to see as it is not to despise them when they do For indeed Pride is as ill linkt with Error as we usually say it
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 think 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 intrenching on the Physitians Faculty Many 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 eie approches Besides as such a one may easier discern the disease so he has better advantages for administring remedies so Children will not take those Medicines from the Doctors 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 stomacs 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 inclosure 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 daies bin 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 saies They get their living Acts 16.25 But admit it were so in this last respect yet it do's not infer it should be so in the former If it be a Trade t was sure thought as in all Ages but this a very useful one else there would never have bin such encouragement given to it No state ever alloted 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 T is rather an argument on his side that because such an interest of his own depends on it he has bin 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 t is hard if neither of these can be granted when both ought I am sure all is little enough that can be don tho we should have as the Prophet speaks Precept upon precept Line upon Line here a little and there a little Is. 28.13 Mans nature is so unattentive to good that there can scarce be too many monitors We see Satan tho 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 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 attemts 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 T is a generous ambition to benefit many to oblige communities which can no way so well be don as by endeavoring to subvert vicious customs which are the pests 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 Cor. 15.33 t would be a fundamental piece of reformation to introduce a better sort of converse into the world which is an instance so agreable to my present subject that I cannot close more pertinently then to commend the endeavor to the Readers who if he have bin 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 convictons then by attemting 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 t will be objected t is 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 attemt is laudable But as Christ saies of Wisdom so may we of Courage The Children of this world are more daring then the Children of light The great corrupters of discourse have not bin so distrustful of themselves for t is visible to any that will reflect that t is within mans 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 venemous will thrive in our Soil Would some of parts and autority 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 t is 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