2. More particularly I shall show you that we are not left to run at random in our ordinary discourse, as if our tongues were our own, to speak what we please. This I shall show — (1.) Negatively ; (2.) Positively.
First, Negatively ; no profane, no idle discourse.
1. No profane discourse : Eph. iv. 29, ' Let no corrupt communica- tion proceed out of your mouth.' Christians are accountable for their words as well as actions.
Quest. But what is corrupt communication ?
Ans. (1.) Obscene scurrilous discourse. When the heart is filled with such corrupt stuff, the mouth will be apt to vent it. So Col. iii. 8, ' Put away filthy communication out of your mouth.' Sins of the tongue and outward man must be abstained from, as well as sins out of the heart. That al<rxpo\oyiav, that filthy speaking, rotten speech, is one of the great sins of the tongue. When we speak of those things which belong to uncleanness, this is quite unbeseeming the purity and cleanness of Christians ; the heart of man being as powder to the fire, easily taken with such temptations.
(2.) Calumnious and censorious discourses, when we cannot meet together but we must be speaking of others, suggesting evil against them, blemishing their graces, or carping at their weaknesses, or aggravating their sins, or divulging their secret miscarriages beyond what Christianity requireth. This sin the scripture brandeth as mischievous to ourselves and others. Ourselves : James i. 26, ' If any man seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, this man's religion is in vain.' Censuring is a pleasing sin, very suitable with corrupt nature, but yet it is a bad sign. It is made to be the hypocrites' sin, who, being acquainted with the guile of their own spirits, are apt to suspect others, and deprave their best actions, and upon the ruin of other men's credit build their own reputation for religion. And it is mischievous to others, and against that justice and charity which we owe to them : Prov. xx. 22, ' The words of a tale- bearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.' They wound men's reputation unperceivably, and secretly strike
256 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. CLXXXV.
them a blow that smarts not for the present, but destroyeth their service, at least to such as receive these privy defamations and whisper- ings; and it is more craftily carried when they wound while they pretend to kiss, and make their praise but a preface to their reproach, as an archer draweth back his hand that the arrow may fly with the more force. They say, He is this and that ; but, &c.
(3.) Proud and arrogant speaking, when all our discourse is a self- boasting. The pride of the heart sometimes shooteth out by the eyes, and therefore we read of haughty eyes and a proud look ; but usually it is displayed in our speech, in a proud ostentation of our own worth and excellency : 1 Sam. ii. 3, ' Talk no more so exceeding proudly : let not arrogancy come out of your mouth.' When i" cometh in at every sentence, irepiavTo\oyia, wanteth not its vanity : Prov. xxv. 27, ' For men to search their own glory is not glory.' All their discourses is to set off themselves, and to usher in something of themselves ; and if religion be talked of, it is to commend their own knowledge, and their own notions, or their own endeavours for Christ, or to blemish others, that they may shine alone.
(4.) When anger sets us a-discoursing ; therefore the apostle saith, Eph. iv. 31, ' Let bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and evil-speaking be put away from you, with all malice/ Where there is bitterness, or a secret smothered displeasure, or alienation of affection, it soon breaketh out into rage ; which if an impetuous rage, or passionate commotion, that produceth anger, or a desire of revenge. Anger produceth clamour, or boisterous words, loud menaces, and brawlings, or inordinate speeches, which are the black smoke whereby anger and wrath within doth first manifest itself ; then clamour produceth evil- speaking, which are disgraceful and contumelious speeches ; therewith the party incensed doth stain the reputation of him with whom he is angry ; and then malice is rooted anger and continued wrath. Now all these should be put away. Christians should have nothing to do with them. But that we have in hand is disgraceful and contumelious speaking, as it is the result of anger, wrath, and malice, either by open railing, or derision, and jeering at their sins and infirmities to shame them, or by imprecation and cursing, and wishing evil to them ; all which is contrary to that meekness and love which should prevail in the hearts of Christians. As Saul in his anger called Jonathan, 1 Sam. xx. 3, ' Thou son of the perverse and rebellious woman ; ' in his raging fit he blemisheth his own wife, of whom we hear elsewhere no such imputation. Thou art more likely to be a bastard than my own son. Frantic words, all interpreters think them to be.
This is a taste of that profane discourse which is forbidden to Christians. Now the reasons of it are these : —