ing innocently, in the multitude of words fin fhall not ceafe.

Secondly, The great wisdom of refraining our lips, of confidering before we fpeak, and avoiding all rash and unadvis'd talk; He that refraineth his lips is wife.

First, The great difficulty, or rather impoffibility, of talking much and talking innocently. There are fo many feveral ways of offending with our Tongues, both against God and againft Man: by prophane and athe iftical, lewd and irreligious, light and fcoffing Difcourfes by reproach and Scandal, by flander and detraction, by falfe defamations and uncharitable truths, by lying and equivocation, by court and flattery, by bragging and boafting, by murmuring and complaining, by arrogancy and pofitiveness &c. and the Tongue is in its own nature fuch an unruly member, fo very apt to run into all this variety of fin, that those who have been moft careful in bridling it in, yet have found it an impracticable task to keep it alway's within due bounds And therefore

Serm.14.

St.

St. James had great reason to call him, Serm.14 who offends not in word, a perfect man: Jam.3.2. and the Son of Sirach to pronounce Ecel.14.1. him bleffed, who hath not flipp'd with his mouth, and is not prick'd with the multitude of his fins; where, to my prefent purpose, he feems to make a multitude of fins the natural confequence of flipping with the mouth. And indeed this is fuch a perfection, fuch a bleffing, as no Man ever yet arriv'd at, the blessed Jefus only ex1 Peti2. 22. cepted, in whofe mouth there was no guile. All other the most eminent patterns of Piety and Vertue, recorded in Scripture, have had their flips and failings in this point, and, notwithstanding all their utmost care and vigilance, have been betray'd into fin, by their Tongues. Mofes, who was the meekeft of Men, and therefore we may be fure not given to rash talking, Ff.106.33. yet spake sometimes unadvifedly with his lips, and David, that Man after God's own heart, who seems generally to have been very jealous and watchful over this Treacherous member his Tongue, yet in Uriah's cafe fuffer'd it to play the Hypocrite: fpake words in1 Sam.. deed unto him which were smoother

12,13.

than

than oyl, but he foon found them, without a figure, to be very fwords. Serm.14. Nay, even thofe two great Apoftles p£. 55. 21. of our Saviour, St. Peter and St. Paul muft plead guilty in this cafe: fince the one deny'd bis Mafter, and the other, by his own confeffion, contrary to the Law of God, revild the A&. 23.5. High-priest.

Since this is fo, fince even these Holy Men, who took great heed to Pf.39.1. their ways, that they might not offend with their Tongues, were nevertheless fometimes overtaken in a fault, and unawares drawn into the Devil's fnare; what can be expected from thofe Men, who take no heed to their ways at all, but talk, as without meafure, fo without care? Since those, who us'd the greatest caution, and fet the frictest guard upon the door of their lips, were nevertheless fometimes furpriz'd into a tranfgreffion of their Duty, what can be expected from thofe Men, who are fo far from keeping any guards upon their Tongues, that they entirely let loofe the reins to them, and fuffer them to ramble, whither foever they please?

What

What indeed can be expected from Serm.14 them, but that their whole talk should

be one continu'd tranfgreffion, and that the unruly Member, being once unbridled, fhould furiously hurry them into all forts of extravagance, furpass all Bounds, and trample upon all Laws?

And yet this alas must neceffarily be the cafe of every Man, who accustoms himself to talk much. Confideration, which is the only check upon the Tongue, and alone is able to keep it to its good behaviour: because it is this alone which informs it of its Duty, and at once reprefents to it and warns it against the many dangerous ways of tranfgreffing it. Confideration, I fay, muft neceffarily be thrown off by fuch a Man, because he talks abundantly faster than he can poffibly think, I mean, than he can think to purpose, than he can judge and deliberate, what is lawful and expedient for him to fay. For in such a cafe as this, where there are fo many Rules to be obferv'd, and fo many By-paths to be avoided, judgment and deliberation can proceed

but

but flowly, and may more properly be m faid to creep than fly and if fo, he Serm.14. who is hafty, or as the Septuagint and Prov. 29. vulgar Latin tranflate it fwift, in his 20. words, will certainly go too fast for his judgment, and leave all confideration behind him; and, if all Confideration, all Law, and all Restraint, nay, and I may fafely add, all Religion alfo; fince Religion it felf can have no fecurity any where but there, where its Laws are conftantly and duly remembred and confider'd.

Theophraftus, in his Moral Characters, has aptly enough defcrib'd this fort of Men to be Bablers of long and unpremeditated Difcourfes: this is indeed their true and proper Character: they think little but talk much, and are in continual danger of tranfgreffing many Rules, but have regard to none at all. Nor can they take it ill that I fix this Character upon them, fince it is exactly agreeable to that, which upon all occafions they give themselves. For, if at any time you tax them with having faid what they ought not, they immediately endeayour to excuse themfelves, by telling Gg yous

cap.3

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