Christians of our times. "For I fear lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults"." "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind one to another, and tender hearted."

2. It is a sin which gratifieth satan, and serveth his malice against our neighbour. He is malicious against all, and speaking evil, and doing hurt, are the works which are suitable to his malignity! And should a Christian make his tongue the instrument of the accuser of the brethren, to do his work against each other?

3. It signifieth want of Christian love. For love speaketh not evil, nor openeth men's faults without a cause, but covereth infirmities: much less will it lie and slander others, and carry about uncertain reports against them. It is not to do as you would be done by and how essential love is to true Christianity, Christ himself hath often told us.

4. It is a sin which directly serveth to destroy the hearer's love, and consequently to destroy their souls. If the backbiter understood himself, he would confess that it is his very end to cause you to hate (or abate your love to) him whom he speaketh evil of. He that speaketh good of a man, representeth him amiable; for amiableness and goodness are all one. And he that speaketh evil of a man representeth him hateful or unlovely: for hatefulness, unloveliness, and evil are all one. And as it is not the natural way of winning love, to entreat and beg it, and say, I pray you love this person, or that thing; but to open the goodness of the thing or person, which will command love: so is it not the natural way to stir up hatred, by entreating men to hate this man or that; but to tell how bad they are, which will command hatred in them that do believe it. Therefore to speak evil of another, is more than to say to the hearers, ' I you hate this man, or abate your love to him.' And that the killing of love is the killing or destroying of men's souls, the apostle John doth frequently declare.

pray

5. And it tendeth also to destroy the love, and consequently the soul of him that you speak evil of. For when ⚫ Eph. iv. 31.

d 2 Cor. xii 20.

it cometh to his hearing, (as one way or other it may do,) what evil you have reported of him behind his back, it tendeth to make him hate you, and so to make him worse.

6. It is a great make-bate and peace-breaker wherever it is practised. It tendeth to set people together by the ears. When it is told that such an one spake evil of you in such a place, there are then heartburnings, and rehearsals, and sidings, and such ensuing malice as the devil intended by this design.

7. They that use to speak evil of others behind their backs, it is ten to one will speak falsehoods of them when they do not know it. Fame is too ordinarily a liar, and they shall be liars who will be its messengers. How know you whether the thing you report is true? Is it only because a credible person spake it? But how did that person know it to be true? Might he not take it upon trust as well as you? And might he not take a person to be credible that is not? And how commonly doth faction, or interest, or passion, or credulity, make that person incredible in one thing, who is credible in others, where he hath no such temptation? If you know it not to be true, or have not sufficient evidence to prove it, you are guilty of lying and slandering interpretatively, though it should prove true; because it might have been a lie for aught you knew.

8. It is gross injustice to talk of a man's faults, before you have heard him speak for himself. I know it is usual with such to say, 'O we have heard it from such as we are certain will not lie.' But he is a foolish and unrighteous judge, that will be peremptory upon hearing one party only speak, and knoweth not how ordinary it is for a man, when he speaketh for himself, to blow away the most confident and plausible accusations, and make the case appear to be quite another thing. You know not what another man hath to say till you have heard him.

9. Backbiting teacheth others to backbite: your example inviteth them to do the like: and sins which are common, are easily swallowed, and hardly repented of; men think that the commonness justifieth or extenuateth the fault.

10. It encourageth ungodly men to the odious sin of backbiting and slandering the most religious, righteous per

sons. It is ordinary with the devil's family to make Christ's most faithful servants their table talk, and the objects of their reproach and scorn, and the song of drunkards! What abundance of lies go current among such malignant persons, against the most innocent, which would all be ashamed, if they had first admitted them to speak for themselves? And such slanders and lies are the devil's common means to keep ungodly men from the love of godliness, and so from repentance and salvation. And backbiting professors of religion encourage men to this: for with what measure they mete, it shall be measured to them again. And they that are themselves evil spoken of, will think that they are warranted to requite the backbiters with the like.

11. It is a sin which commonly excludeth true, profitable reproof and exhortation. They that speak most behind men's backs, do usually say least to the sinner's face, in any way which tendeth to his salvation. They will not go lovingly to him in private, and set home his sin upon his conscience, and exhort him to repentance: but any thing shall serve as a sufficient excuse against this duty; that they may make the sin of backbiting serve instead of it: and all is out of carnal self-saving; they fear men will be offended if they speak to their faces, and therefore they will whisper against them behind their backs.

12. It is at the least, but idle talk, and a misspending of your time: what the better are the hearers for hearing of other men's misdoings? And you know that it no whit profiteth the person of whom you speak. A skilful, friendly admonition might do him good. But to neglect this, and talk of his faults unprofitably, behind his back, is but to aggravate the sin of your uncharitableness, as being not contented to refuse your help to a man in sin, but you must also injure him and do him hurt.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Cases and Directions against Censoriousness and Unwarrantable Judging.

Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Judging of Others.

Quest. I. AM I not bound to judge truly of every one as he is.'

Answ. 1. There are many that you are not bound to meddle with, and to pass any judgment at all upon. 2. There are many whose faults are secret, and their virtues open; and of such you cannot judge as they are, because you have no proof or evidence to enable you: you cannot see that which is latent in the heart, or done in darkness. 3. You neither ought on pretence of charity, nor can believe an evident known untruth of any man.

Quest. Doth not charity bind me to judge men better than they are?'

Answ. Charity bindeth you, 1. Rather to observe the best in them, than the worst. 2. And as I said, to judge of no man's faults uncalled. 3. Nor to judge of that which is not evident, but out of sight; and thus consequently it bindeth you to judge some men better than they are; but not directly.

Object. Then a man is bound to err, and believe an untruth.'

Answ. No: you are not bound to believe that it is certainly true, that such a man is better than he is; because you have no evidence of its certain truth. But you are bound to believe it a thing probable or verisimile, likely to be true, by an opinion or fallible human faith; and this is not a falsehood; for that is likely and probable to you, which hath the more probable evidence, and more for it than against it: so that the thing which you are to believe immediately is this proposition, 'There is more evidence to me to prove it likely that this man is sincere than the contrary:' and consequently you believe this, and believe not the contrary, because the contrary hath no evidence. But you are

not to take it as a certain thing, that the contrary hath no latent reality.

Quest. 11. How far may I judge ill of one by outward appearances, as by the countenance, gestures and other uncertain but suspicious signs?'

Answ. There are some signs which are not so much as probable, but a little suspicious, and which men are very ordinarily mistaken by; as those that will judge of a man at the first look, by his face; and those that will judge a studious, serious person (a lawyer, a judge, or a divine) to be morose or proud, because they are not complimental, but of few words; or because they have not patience to waste precious hours in hearing an empty vessel sound; an ignorant, self-conceited person talk foolishly. Such censures are but the effects of injudiciousness, unrighteousness and rash haste. There are other signs which make it probable to a wise and charitable person, that the man is bad (e. g. proud, or covetous, or an hypocrite). If with these, there are as great signs to make the contrary probable, we must rather incline to the better, than the worse. But if not, we may fear the worst of that person, but not conclude it as a certainty; and therefore we may not in public censures, proceed upon such uncertainties, nor venture to divulge them; but only use them to help us for due caution, and pity, and prayer, and endeavour for such an one's recovery and help.

Quest. III. How far may I censure upon the report of others?'

Answ. According to the degree of the credibility of the persons, and evidence of the narrative; not simply in themselves, but as compared with all that is to be heard on the contrary part: else you are partial and unjust.

Quest. IV. Doth not the fifth command oblige me in honour to parents and princes, to judge them to be better than their lives declare them to be?'

Answ. You are gradually to honour them more than others, and therefore to be more afraid of dishonouring them, and must not sit in judgment on them, to believe any harm of them, which evidence doth not compel you to believe. But you are not to judge any sin the less, because it is theirs; nor to judge contrary to evidence, nor to call