XVI. hearers. Commonly ill language is a certain sign SERM. of inward enmity and ill-will. Good-will is wont to shew itself in good terms; it clotheth even its grief handsomely, and its displeasure carrieth favour in its face; its rigour is civil and gentle, tempered with pity for the faults and errors which it disliketh, with the desire of their amendment and recovery whom it reprehendeth. It would inflict no more evil than is necessary; it would cure its neighbour's disease without exasperating his patience, troubling his modesty, or impairing his credit. As it always judgeth candidly, so it never condemneth extremely. II. But so much for the explication of this precept, and the directive part of our discourse. I shall now briefly propound some inducements to the observance thereof. 1. Let us consider, that nothing more than railing and reviling is opposite to the nature, and inconsistent with the tenor of our religion; the which, as even a heathen did observe of it, nil nisi Ammian. justum suadet, et lene, doth recommend nothing but what is very just and mild: which propoundeth the practices of charity, meekness, patience, peaceableness, moderation, equity, alacrity or good humour, as its principal laws, and declareth them the chief fruits of the divine Spirit and grace: which chargeth us to curb and compose all our passions; more particularly to restrain and repress anger, animosity, envy, malice, and such like dispositions, as the fruits of carnality Lingua Christum confessa non sit maledica, non turbulenta, non convitiis et litibus perstrepens audiatur. Cypr. de Unit. Eccl. Convitiis et maledictis quæso vos abstinete; quia neque maleregnum Dei consequentur; et lingua quæ Christum confessa est, incolumis et pura cum suo honore servanda est. Cypr. Ep. vii. dici SERM. and corrupt lust: which consequently drieth up all XVI. the sources, or dammeth up the sluices of bad lan1 Pet. iv. 8. guage. As it doth above all things oblige us to bear no ill-will in our hearts, so it chargeth us to vent none with our mouths. 2. It is therefore often expressly condemned and prohibited as evil. It is the property of the wicked, Ps. Ixiv. 3. a character of those who work iniquity, to whet their tongues like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words. 3. No practice hath more severe punishments denounced to it than this. The railer (and it is indeed a very proper and fit punishment for him, he being exceedingly bad company) is to be banished out of all good society; thereto St. Paul adjudgeth 1 Cor. v.11. him: I have, saith he, now written unto you, not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one not to eat. Ye see what company the railer hath in the text, and with what a crew of people he is coupled but no good company he is allowed otherwhere; every good Christian should avoid him as a blot, and a pest of conversation: and finally he is sure to be excluded from the blessed society above Cor.vi. 1o. in heaven"; for neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inRev. xxii. herit the kingdom of God: and, Without (without the heavenly city) are dogs, saith St. John in his Revelation, that is, those chiefly who out of currish spite or malignity do frowardly bark at their neigh 15. Hinc intelligere possumus quam gravis sit et perniciosa maledictio, quando, etiamsi alia bona adfuerint, sola excludit a cœlo. Salv. de Guber. Dei, lib. iii. bours, or cruelly bite them with reproachful lan- SERM. guage. XVI. 4. If we look upon such language in its own nature, what is it but a symptom of a foul, a weak, a disordered and distempered mind? It is the smoke of inward rage and malice: it is a stream that cannot issue from a sweet spring: it is a storm that cannot bluster out of a calm region. The words of Prov.xv.26. the pure are pleasant words, as the Wise Man saith. 5. This practice doth plainly signify low spirit, ill breeding, and bad manners; and thence misbecometh any wise, any honest, any honourable person. It agreeth to children, who are unapt and unaccustomed to deal in matters considerable, to squabble; to women of meanest rank, (apt by nature, or custom, to be transported with passion,) to scold. In our modern languages it is termed villany, as being proper for rustic boors, or men of coarsest education and employment; who, having their minds debased by being conversant in meanest affairs, do vent their sorry passions, and bicker about their petty concernments, in such strains; who also, being not capable of a fair reputation, or sensible of disgrace to themselves, do little value the credit of others, or care for aspersing it. But such language is unworthy of those persons, and cannot easily be drawn from them, who are wont to exercise their thoughts about nobler matters, who are versed in affairs manageable only by calm deliberation and fair persuasion, not by impetuous and provocative rudeness; the which do never work otherwise upon masculine souls, than so as to procure disdain and resistance. Such persons, knowing the benefit of a good name, being wont to SERM. possess a good repute, prizing their own credit as a XVI. considerable good, will never be prone to bereave 4. others of the like by opprobrious speech. A noble enemy will never speak of his enemy in bad termss. We may further consider, that all wise, all honest, all ingenuous persons have an aversation from ill speaking, and cannot entertain it with any acceptance or complacence; that only ill-natured, unworthy, and naughty people are its willing auditors, or do abet it with applause. The good man, in the Psal. xv. 3. fifteenth Psalm, non accipit opprobrium, doth not take up, or accept, a reproach against his neighProv. xvii. bour: but A wicked doer, saith the Wise Man, giveth heed to false lips, and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. And what reasonable man will do that which is disgustful to the wise and good, is grateful only to the foolish and baser sort of men'? I pretermit, that using this sort of language doth incapacitate a man for to benefit his neighbour, and defeateth his endeavours for his edification, disparaging a good cause, prejudicing the defence of truth, obstructing the effects of good instruction and wholesome reproof; as we did before remark and declare. Further, 6. He that useth this kind of speech doth, as harm and trouble others, so create many great inconveniences and mischiefs to himself thereby. Nothing so inflameth the wrath of men, so provoketh their en In quo admirari soleo gravitatem et justitiam et sapientiam Cæsaris, qui nunquam nisi honorificentissime Pompeium appellat. Cic. Epist. tom. vi. 6. It is always taken as an argument of ill-will. Maledicus a malefico non distat, nisi occasione. Quint. xii. 9. mity, so breedeth lasting hatred and spite, as do con- SERM. tumelious words. They are often called swords XVI. and arrows"; and as such they pierce deeply, and cause most grievous smart; which men feeling are enraged, and accordingly will strive to requite them in the like manner, and in all other obvious ways of revenge. Hence strife, clamour and tumult, care, suspicion and fear, danger and trouble, sorrow and regret, do seize on the reviler; and he is sufficiently punished for this dealing. No man can otherwise than live in perpetual fear of reciprocal like usage from him, whom he is conscious of having so abused. Whence, if not justice or charity toward others, yet love and pity of ourselves should persuade us to forbear it as disquietful, incommodious, and mischievous to us. We should indeed certainly enjoy much love, much concord, much quiet, we should live in great safety and security, we should be exempted from much care and fear, if we would restrain ourselves from abusing and offending our neighbour in this kind: being conscious of so just and innocent demeanour toward him, we should converse with him in a pleasant freedom and confidence, not suspecting any bad language or ill usage from him. 7. Hence with evidently good reason is he that useth such language called a fool: and he that abstaineth from it is commended as wise. A fool's Prov. xviii. lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes. A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his Prov. xii. 18. There " The scourge of the tongue, Job v. 21. is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword. Psal. lvii. 4. lix. 7. Ixiv. 3. Psal. lii. 2. Sharp rasor. Prov. xxx. 14. Knives. * The froward tongue shall be cut out. Prov. x. 31. 6, 7. |