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fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive-berries? either a vine, figs? Lay your hands upon your hearts, and let your consciences speak. Ought not the same just principle which restrains you from cruelty and wrong in one case, equally to withhold you from it in another? Should not charity and good-will, like the principle of life, circulating through the smallest vessels in every member,-ought it not to operate as regularly upon you throughout, as well upon your words as upon your actions?

If a man is wise, and endued with knowledge, let him show it out of a good conversation, with meekness and wisdom. But if any man amongst you seemeth to be religious (seemeth to be, for truly religious he cannot be), and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. This is the full force of St. James' reasoning, upon which I have dwelt the more, it being the foundation upon which is grounded this clear decision of the matter left us in the text; in which the Apostle seems to have set the two characters of a saint and slanderer at such variance, that one would have thought they could never have had the heart to have met together again. But there are no alliances too strange for this world. How many may we observe every day, even of the gentler sex as well as our own, who, without conviction of doing much wrong, in the midst of a full career of calumny and defamation, rise up punctually at the stated hour of prayer, leave the cruel story half untold till they return; go and kneel down before the throne of Heaven, thank God that he had not made them like others, and that his Holy Spirit had enabled them to perform the duties of the day in so Christian and conscientious a manner.

This delusive itch for slander, too common in all ranks of people, whether to gratify a little ungenerous resentment; whether oftener out of a principle of levelling, from a narrowness and poverty of soul, ever impatient of merit and superiority in others; whether from a mean ambition, or the insatiate lust of being witty (a talent in which ill-nature and malice are no ingredients); or lastly, whether from a natural cruelty of disposition, abstracted from all views and considerations of self: to which one, or whether to all jointly, we are indebted for this contagious malady, thus much is certain, from whatever seeds it springs, the growth and progress of it are as destructive to, as they are unbecoming, a civilised people. To pass a hard and ill-natured reflection upon an undesigning action; to invent, or which is equally bad, to propagate, a vexatious report without colour and grounds; to plunder an innocent man of his character and good name, a jewel which perhaps he has starved himself to purchase, and probably would hazard his life to secure ; to rob him at the same time of his happiness and peace of mind, perhaps his bread, the bread,

may be, of a virtuous family; and all this, as Solomon says of the madman who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, and saith, Am I not in sport?-all this out of wantonness, and oftener from worse motives, the whole appears such a complication of badness as requires no words or warmth of fancy to aggravate. Pride, treachery, envy, hypocrisy, malice, cruelty, and self-love may have been said, in one shape or other, to have occasioned all the frauds and mischiefs that ever happened in the world; but the chances against a coincidence of them all in one person are so many, that one would have supposed the character of a common slanderer as rare and difficult a production in nature as that of a great genius, which seldom happens above once in an age.

But whatever was the cause when St. James wrote his epistle, we have been very successful in latter days, and have found out the art, by a proper management of light and shade, to compound all these vices together, so as to give body and strength to the whole, whilst no one but a discerning artist is able to discover the labours that join in finishing the picture; and indeed, like many other bad originals in the world, it stands in need of all the disguise it has. For who could be enamoured of a character made up of so loathsome a compound, could they behold it naked, in its crooked and deformed shape, with all its natural and detested infirmities laid open to public view?

And therefore it were to be wished that one would do, in this malignant case of the mind, what is generally done for the public good in the more malignant and epidemical cases of the body; that is, when they are found infectious, to write a history of the distemper, and ascertain all the symptoms of the malady, so that every one might know whom he might venture to go near, with tolerable safety to himself. But, alas! the symptoms of this appear in so many strange and contradictory shapes, and vary so wonderfully with the temper and habit of the patient, that they are not to be classed, nor reduced to any one regular system.

Ten thousand are the vehicles in which this deadly poison is prepared and communicated to the world; and by some artful hands 'tis done by so subtle and nice an infusion, that it is not to be tasted or discovered but by its effects.

How frequently is the honesty and integrity of a man disposed of by a smile or a shrug! How many good and generous actions have been sunk into oblivion by a distrustful look! or stamped with the imputation of proceeding from bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper!

Look into companies of those whose gentle natures should disarm them, we shall find no better account. How large a portion of chastity is sent out of the world by distant hints, nodded away and cruelly winked into suspicion by the

envy of those who are past all temptation of it themselves! How often does the reputation of a helpless creature bleed by report, which the party who is at the pains to propagate it beholds with much pity and fellow-feeling! that she is heartily sorry for it hopes in God it is not true! however, as Archbishop Tillotson wittily observes upon it, is resolved in the meantime to give the report her pass, that at least it may have fair play to take its fortune in the world, -to be believed or not, according to the charity of those into whose hands it shall happen to fall. So fruitful is this vice in a variety of experiments, to satiate as well as disguise itself. But if these smoother weapons cut so sore, what shall we say of open and unblushing scandal, subjected to no caution, tied down to no restraints? If the one, like an arrow shot in the dark, does nevertheless so much secret mischief, this, like the pestilence which rageth at noonday, sweeps all before it, levelling without distinction the good and the bad'; a thousand fall beside it, and ten thousand on its right hand; they fall, so rent and torn in this tender part of them, so unmercifully butchered, as sometimes never to recover either the wounds or the anguish of heart which they have occasioned.

But there is nothing so bad which will not admit of something to be said in its defence.

And here it may be asked whether the inconveniences and ill effects which the world feels from the licentiousness of this practice are not sufficiently counterbalanced by the real influence it has upon men's lives and conduct? That if there was no evil speaking in the world, thousands would be encouraged to do ill, and would rush into many indecorums, like a horse into the battle, were they sure to escape the tongues of men.

That if we take a general view of the world, we shall find that a great deal of virtue, at least of the outward appearance of it, is not so much from any fixed principle as the terror of what the world will say, and the liberty it will take upon the occasions we shall give.

That, if we descend to particulars, numbers are every day taking more pains to be well spoken of, than what would actually enable them to live so as to deserve it.

That there are many of both sexes who can support life well enough without honour and chastity, who, without reputation (which is but the opinion which the world has of the matter), would hide their heads in shame, and sink down in utter despair of happiness. No doubt the tongue is a weapon which does chastise many indecorums which the laws of men will not reach, and keeps many in awe whom conscience will not; and, where the case is indisputably flagrant, the speaking of it in such words as it deserves scarce comes within the prohibition. In many cases 'tis hard to express ourselves so as to fix a distinction betwixt opposite charac

ters; and sometimes it may be as much a debt we owe to virtue, and as great a piece of justice, to expose a vicious character, and paint it in its proper colours, as it is to speak well of the deserving, and describe his particular virtues. And, indeed, when we inflict this punishment upon the bad merely out of principle, and without indulgence to any private passion of our own, 'tis a case which happens so seldom, that one might venture to except it.

However, to those who, in this objection, are really concerned for the cause of virtue, I cannot help recommending what would much more effectually serve her interest, and be a surer token of their zeal and attachment to her, and that is, in all such plain instances where it seems to be a duty to fix a distinction betwixt the good and the bad, to let their actions speak it instead of their words, or at least to let them both speak one language. We all of us talk so loud against vicious characters, and are so unanimous in our cry against them, that an inexperienced man, who only trusted his ears, would imagine the whole world was in an uproar about it, and that mankind were all associating together to hunt vice utterly out of the world. Shift the scene, and let him behold the reception which vice meets with: he will see the conduct and behaviour of the world towards it, so opposite to their declarations: he will find all he heard so contradicted by what he saw, as to leave him in doubt which of his senses he is. to trust, or in which of the two cases mankind were really in earnest. Was there virtue enough in the world to make a general stand against this contradiction,—that is, was every one who deserved to be ill spoken of sure to be ill looked on too;-was it a certain consequence of the loss of a man's character, to lose his friends, tolose the advantages of his birth and fortune, and thenceforth be universally shunned, and universally slighted ;

Was no quality a shelter against the indecorums of the other sex, but was every woman, without distinction, who had justly forfeited her reputation,-from that moment was she sure to forfeit likewise all claim to civility and respect!

Or, in a word, could it be established as a law in our ceremonial, that, wherever characters in either sex were become notorious, it should be deemed infamous either to pay or receive a visit from them, and the door were to be shut against them in all public places, till they had satisfied the world, by giving testimony of a better life, a few such plain and honest maxims, faithfully put in practice, would force upon us some degree of reformation. Till this is done, it avails little that we have no mercy upon them with our tongues, since they escape without feeling any other inconvenience.

We all cry out that the world is corrupt, and, I fear, too justly; but we never reflect what we

have to thank for it, and that our open countenance of vice, which gives the lie to our private censures of it, is its chief protection and encouragement. To those, however, who still believe that evil speaking is some terror to evil doers, one may answer, as a great man has done upon the occasion, that, after all our exhortations against it, 'tis not to be feared but that there will be evil speaking enough left in the world to chastise the guilty; and we may safely trust them to an ill-natured world that there will be no failure of justice upon this score. The passions of men are pretty severe executioners; and to them let us leave this ungrateful task, and rather ourselves endeavour to cultivate that more friendly one, recommended by the Apostle, of letting all bitterness, and wrath, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from us; of being kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake forgave us. Amen.

XII. JOSEPH'S HISTORY CONSIDERED.
FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father
was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate
us, and will certainly requite us all the evils which
we did unto him.'-GEN. L. 15.

duct of almost every part and stage of a man's
life. But as the words of the text, as well as
the intention and compass of this discourse,
particularly confine me to speak only to one
point, namely, the forgiveness of injuries, it
will be proper only to consider such circum-
stances of the story as will place this instance of
it in its just light; and then proceed to make a
more general use of the great example of mode-
ration and forbearance which it sets before us.
It seems strange, at first sight, that after the
sons of Jacob had fallen into Joseph's power,
when they were forced by the soreness of the
famine to go down into Egypt to buy corn, and
had found him too good a man even to expostu-
late with them for an injury, which he seemed
then to have digested, and piously to have re-
solved into the overruling providence of God
for the preservation of much people, how they
could ever after question the uprightness of his
intentions, or entertain the least suspicion that
his reconciliation was dissembled. Would one
have imagined that the man who had discovered
such a goodness of soul, that he sought where
to weep because he could not bear the struggles
of a counterfeited harshness, could ever be sus-
pected afterwards of intending a real one; and
that he only waited till their father Israel's
death to requite them all the evil which they
had done unto him? What still adds to this
difficulty is, that his affectionate manner in
making himself known to them,-his goodness
in forbearing not only to reproach them for the
injury they had formerly done him, but extenu-
ating and excusing the fault to themselves,—his
comforting and speaking kindly to them, and
seconding all with the tenderest marks of an
undisguised forgiveness, in falling upon their
necks and weeping aloud, that all the house of
Pharaoh heard him ;-that, moreover, this be-

THERE are few instances of the exercise of particular virtues which seems harder to attain to, or which appear more amiable and engaging in themselves, than those of moderation and the forgiveness of injuries; and when the temptations against them happen to be heightened by the bitterness of a provocation on one hand, and the fairness of an opportunity to retaliate on the other, the instances then are truly great and heroic. The words of the text (which are the consultation of the sons of Jacob amongst them-haviour of Joseph could not appear to them to selves upon their father Israel's death, when, because it was in Joseph's power to revenge the deadly injury they had formerly done him, they concluded, in course, that it was in his intention) will lead us to a beautiful example of this kind in the character and behaviour of Joseph consequent thereupon; and as it seems a perfect and very engaging pattern of forbearance, it may not be improper to make it serve for the groundwork of a discourse upon that subject. The whole transaction, from the first occasion given by Joseph in his youth, to this last act of remission, at the conclusion of his life, may be said to be a masterpiece of history. There is not only in the manner throughout, such a happy, though uncommon, mixture of simplicity and grandeur, which is a double character so hard to be united, that it is seldom to be met with in compositions merely human; but it is likewise related with the greatest variety of tender and affecting circumstances, which would afford matter for reflections useful for the con

be the effect of any warm and sudden transport, which might as suddenly give way to other reflections, but that it evidently sprung from a settled principle of uncommon generosity in his nature, which was above the temptation of making use of an opportunity for revenge, which the course of God's providence had put into his hands for better purposes; and what might still seem to confirm this, was the evidence of his actions to them afterwards, in bringing them and all their household up out of Canaan, and placing them near him in the land of Goshen, the richest part of Egypt, where they had so many years' experience of his love and kindness: and yet it is plain all this did not clear his motive from suspicion, or at least themselves of some apprehensions of a change in his conduct towards them. And was it not that the whole transaction was written under the direction of the Spirit of Truth, and that other historians concur in doing justice to Joseph's character, and speak of him as a com

passionate and merciful man, one would be apt, you will say, to imagine here that Moses might possibly have omitted some circumstances of Joseph's behaviour which had alarmed his brethren, betwixt the time of his first reconciliation and that of their father's death; for they could not be suspicious of his intentions without some cause, and fear where no fear was. But does not a guilty conscience often do so, and though it has the grounds, yet wants the power, to think itself safe?

And could we look into the hearts of those who know they deserve ill, we should find many an instance where a kindness from an injured hand, where there was least reason to expect one, has struck deeper, and touched the heart with a degree of remorse and concern which perhaps no severity or resentment could have reached. This reflection will in some measure help to explain this difficulty which occurs in the story; for it is observable that, when the injury they had done their brother was first committed, and the fact was fresh upon their minds, and most likely to have filled them with a sense of guilt, we find no acknowledgment or complaint to one another of such a load as, one might imagine, it had laid upon them: and from that event, through a long course of years, to the time they had gone down to Egypt, we read not once of any sorrow or compunction of heart which they had felt during all that time for what they had done. They had artfully imposed upon their parent-(and as men are ingenious causists in their own affairs) they had probably as artfully imposed upon their own consciences; and possibly had never impartially reflected upon the action, or considered it in its just light, till the many acts of their brother's love and kindness had brought it before them, with all the circumstances of aggravation which his behaviour would naturally give it they then began maturely to consider what they had done; that they had at first undeservedly hated him in his childhood for that which, if it was a ground of complaint, ought rather to have been charged upon the indiscretion of the parent than considered as a fault in him; that, upon a more just examination and a better knowledge of their brother, they had wanted even that pretence. It was not a blind partiality which seemed first to have directed their father's affection to him, though then they thought so; for, doubtless, so much goodness and benevolence as shone forth in his nature, now that he was a man, could not lie all of it so deep concealed in his youth, but the sagacity of a parent's eye would discover it; and that, in course, their enmity towards him was founded upon that which ought to have won their esteem. That if he had incautiously added envy to their ill-will in reporting his dreams, which presaged his future greatness, it was but the indiscretion of a youth unpractised in the world,

who had not yet found out the art of dissembling his hopes and expectations, and was scarce arrived at an age to comprehend there was such a thing in the world as envy and ambition ;that if such offences in a brother so fairly carried their own excuses with them, what could they say for themselves, when they considered it was for this they had almost unanimously conspired to rob him of his life; and, though they were happily restrained from shedding his blood upon Reuben's remonstrance, that they had, nevertheless, all the guilt of the intention to answer for? That whatever motive it was which then stayed their hands, their consciences told them it could not be a good one, since they had changed the sentence for one no less cruel in itself, and what, to an ingenuous nature, was worse than death, to be sold for a slave. The one was common to all, the other only to the unfortunate. That it was not compassion which then took place; for had there been any way open to that, his tears and entreaties must have found it when they saw the anguish of his soul,

when he besought, and they would not hear. That if aught still could heighten the remorse of banishing a youth, without provocation, for ever from his country and the protection of his parent, to be exposed naked to the buffetings of the world, and the rough hand of some merciless master, they would find it in this reflection,

That the many afflictions and hardships which they might naturally have expected would overtake the lad, consequent upon this action, had actually fallen upon him.'

That, besides the anguish of suspected virtue, he had felt that of a prison, where he had long lain neglected in a friendless condition; and where the affliction of it was rendered still sharper by the daily expectation of being remembered by Pharaoh's chief butler, and the disappointment of finding himself ungratefully forgotten. And though Moses tells us that he found favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison, yet the Psalmist acquaints us that his sufferings were still grievous, that his feet were hurt with fetters,' and the iron entered ' even into his soul.' And, no doubt, his brethren thought the sense of their injury must have entered at the same time, and was then riveted and fixed in his mind for ever.

It is natural to imagine they argued and reflected in this manner; and there seems no necessity of seeking for the reason of their uneasiness and distrust in Joseph's conduct, or any other external cause, since the inward workings of their own minds will easily account for the evil they apprehended. A series of benefits and kindnesses from the man they had injured, gradually heightened the idea of their own guilt, till at length they could not conceive how the trespass could be forgiven them; it appeared with such fresh circumstances of aggravation, that though they were convinced his

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resentment slept, yet they thought it only slept, and was likely some time or other to awake, and most probably then, that their father was dead, when the consideration of involving him in his revenge had ceased, and all the duty and compassion he owed to the grey hairs and happiness of a parent was discharged and buried with him.

This they express in the consultation held amongst themselves in the words of the text; and in the following verse we find them accordingly sending to him to deprecate the evil they dreaded; and either because they thought their father's name more powerful than their own in this application, or rather that they might not commit a fresh injury in seeming to suspect his sincerity, they pretend their father's direction; for we read they sent messengers unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying: So shall ye say unto Joseph,-'Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren and their sin; for they did unto thee evil; and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father.' The address was not without art, and was conceived in such words as seemed to suggest an argument in their favour,-as if it would not become him, who was but a fellow-servant of their father's God, to harbour revenge, or use the power their father's God had given him against his children. Nor was there a reason in anything but the fears of a guilty conscience to apprehend it, as appears from the reception the address met with, which was such as bespoke an uncommon goodness of nature; for when they thus spake unto him, the historian says he wept. Sympathy for the sorrow and distress of so many sons of his father, now all in his power,-pain at so open and ingenuous a confession of their guilt,- -concern and pity for the long punishment they must have endured by so stubborn a remorse which so many years seemed not to have diminished, the affecting idea of their condition, which had seemed to reduce them to the necessity of holding up their hands for mercy when they had lost their protector, so many tender passions struggling together at once overcame him: he burst into tears, which spoke what no language could attempt. It will be needless, therefore, to enlarge any further upon this incident, which furnishes us with so beautiful a picture of a compassionate and forgiving temper, that, I think, no words can heighten it; but rather let us endeavour to find out by what helps and reasoning the patriarch might be supposed to attain to so exalted and engaging a virtue. Perhaps you will say that one so thoroughly convinced, as Joseph seemed to be, of the overruling providence of God, which so evidently makes use of the malice and passions of men, and turns them as instruments in his hands to work his own righteousness, and bring about his eternal decrees, and

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of which his own history was so plain an instance, could not have far to seek for an argument to forgiveness, or feel much struggle in stifling an inclination against it. But let any man lay his hand upon his heart, and say how often, in instances where anger and revenge had seized him, has this doctrine come in to his aid! In the bitterness of an affront, how often has it calmed his passions, and checked the fury of his resentment! True, and universally believed as the doctrine is amongst us, it seldom does this service, though so well suited for it, and, like some wise statute never executed nor thought of, though in full force, lies as unheeded as if it was not in being.

"Tis plain 'twas otherwise in the present instance, where Joseph seems to acknowledge the influence it had upon him in his declaration,—

That it was not they, but God, who sent him.' And does not this virtue shine the brightest in such a pious application of the persuasion to so benevolent a purpose?

Without derogating from the merit of his forbearance, he might be supposed to have cast an eye upon the change and uncertainty of human affairs which he had seen himself, and which had convinced him we were all in one another's power by turns, and stand in need of one another's pity and compassion; and that, to restrain the cruelties and stop the insolence of men's resentments, God has so ordered it in the course of his providence, that very often in this world our revenges return upon our own heads, and men's violent dealings upon their own pates.

And besides these considerations, that in generously forgiving an enemy he was the truest friend to his own character, and should gain more to it by such an instance of subduing his spirit than if he had taken a city. The brave only know how to forgive !-it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at. Cowards have done good and kind actions; cowards have even fought, nay, sometimes even conquered; but a coward never forgave! It is not in his nature; the power of doing it flows only from a strength and greatness of soul, conscious of its own force and security, and above the little temptations of resenting every fruitless attempt to interrupt its happiness. Moreover, setting aside all considerations of his character in passing by an injury, he was the truest friend likewise to his own happiness and peace of mind; he never felt that fretful storm of passions which hurry men on to acts of revenge, or suffered those pangs of horror which pursue it. Thus he might possibly argue, and no further; for want of a better foundation and better helps, he could raise the building no higher; to carry it upwards to its perfection we must call

1 Christian Hero.

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