table tho' true Cenfure, every Omission of vindicating injured Characters, every induftrious With-holding of due Commendation, will add to the Foulness of their own Demerits; when they shall be judged, even as they have judged; when they fhall be condemned, even as they have condemn'd, without Mercy. SERMON Let no corrupt Communication proceed out of your Mouth, but that which is good for the Ufe of Edifying, that it may minifter Grace unto the Hearers. H AVING already confidered common Converfation, as it relates more immediately to God and our Neighbour, under the Two Heads of Religious and Charitable Difcourfe, proceed we now, according to our proposed Divifion, in the Third Place, to confider fuch Matter of Converfation as doth doth more immediately concern Ourfelves. In the former Refpects, Duty is more apparently concern'd, because Prophaneness and Obscenity, which are oppofed to Religious; Flattery, Rudenefs and Defamation, whether true or false, which are opposed to Charitable Difcourfe, are all of them Circumftances confeffedly and and directly finful; but this last Branch of Converfation, which includes all other Subjects of Discourse whatever, may feem at first View, to be of too indifferent a Nature to fall under Precept, especially in this Place, where it is generally expected that Articles of strict Divinity should be treated of rather than the Affairs of common Life, where Inftructions of Piety ought rather to be inculcated, than thofe Directions which it is the proper Bufinefs of Reason and Prudence to fuggeft. But there is nothing fo indifferent, as not to be capable both of a good and bad Turn; nothing fo minute in the most remote Inftances of Duty, which the Gospel may not improve into a Virtue, and confequently which may not fall under useful Confide ration in a Christian Way, tho' fuch Points as these need not be fo frequently and largely infifted on, as those of greater Importance. OUR Bleffed Saviour compares the Kingdom of Heaven, i. e. the Kingdom of God's Grace or the Gospel, unto Leaven, which a Woman took and hid in three Measures of Meal 'till the Whole was leavened; which Similitude well expreffes how wonderfully the Gofpel infinuates itself into every Part of our Life; what an useful Ferment it makes with refpect to our whole Behaviour; what a grateful Tincture it gives to every one of our Actions. No Circumftance therefore of Life is below a Chriftian Regard, fince there is no Circumftance of it, which not fall under Chriftian Improvement. BUT this Topick is of itself far from being of a trifling Nature; our Bleffed Saviour affures us, that we shall give an Account of every idle Word: Where the Term idle does not only fignify blafphemous, but that likewife which has no good Tendency, that which doth not anfwer any of the Ends of Difcourfe, either may God's |
