cret faults and infirmities, efpecially to those who have no true fenfe of piety, but are ready to improve the fame to the reproach of them or of religion, or both, Prov. xxv. 9. 10. Debate thy caufe with thy neighbour himself; and difcover not a fecret to another left he that heareth it, put thee to fhame, and thine infamy turn not away.

(2.) Bearing falfe witnefs against ourselves, as acculing ourfelves unjustly, denying the gifts and graces of God in us, as Job fays, chap. xxvii. 5. 6. God forbid that I should justify you: till I die, I will not remove my integrity from me, My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me fo long as I live. Pride often puts people on this, that they may appear the more humble. But humility never teaches men to rob God of his praife, or to lie against the truth. Lying againft our minds can never be good, though it feem to humble us.

(3.) Bearing falfe witness for ourselves. Thus people are guilty, upon being duly called to confefs their fins, they deny them, hide them, and, over the belly of their confcience, caufe their tongues witnefs for them, Prov. xxviii. 13. He that covereth his fins fhall not profper: but whofo confeffeth and forfaketh them fhall have mercy. It is fad witnesfing when the conscience within tells people they are lying.

Of this fort is vain-glorious boafting and brag ging. There are fome who when they speak of themfelves are fure to speak very big, as the Pharifee did, Luke xviii. 11. A man or woman that is a boafter, will be found to be a liar ordinarily. They will boaft of what they have not, or of doing what they never did, Prov. xxv. 14. Whofo boafteth of a falfe gift, is like clouds and wind without rain. Yea, fome will accufe themselves of wickedness which they did not commit, for the pleasure that they take in boafting of mifchief. And where the

man has any ground to walk on in his boafting, he is a liar in magnifying it, as was the cafe of the Pharifee, Luke xviii. 12. It is one of the bafeft offices for a man to trumpet his own praise: it is a great evidence there is little in him, that he makes fo much noife with it. Such are in the black roll, 2 Tim. iii. 2.

III. I come now to confider this command as it forbids what is injurious to our neighbour and his good name. We may contract guilt in injuring our neighbour, over the belly of this command, feveral ways.

First, In our hearts; for all the commands of God reach to the heart as well as the outward man. We are injurious in our hearts to our neighbour's good name by,

1. Unjuft fufpicions of him, 1 Tim. vi. 4. Thus Potiphar injured Jofeph, fufpecting him of that villany which he was far from. Chrift bids us beware of men, and fo not to be credulous. But there is a medium betwixt vain credulity and evil groundlefs fufpicion, which fills mens heads with a forefight of what others will do when they have fuch and fuch temptations, from no light but that of their own uncharitable fpirits.

2. Uncharitable judging and condemning of others in our hearts, Matth. vii. 1. The prevailing of the cenforious humour amongst us, is a fpeaking evidence of this wafpifh difpofition, which is a compound of pride, rashness, harfhnefs, lightnefs, and emptiness, directly oppofite to the love and clarity that we owe to our neighbours, which beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, 1 Cor. xiii. 7. I grant that to call an evil action an evil thing, and an habitual groffly profane life a mark of a profane heart, is no breach of charity, Gal. v. 19. But to lafh men in our hearts beyond what the habitual frame of their lives gives ground for, is that uncharitable judging.

It is the product of pride and felf-conceit; for the man makes himself the rule, fo all that is beyond him, or does not reach his length, muft fall under his condemnatory fentence; he invades the throne of God, fetting up one for himself in his neighbour's heart, not confining himself to his outward actions, Rom. xiv. 10. It is rafhnefs, flowing from want of confideration; it is harfhnefs, carrying their judgement farther than the matter will bear; it is lightnefs and emptinefs, for they are confident of that which really they do not know. How confident were the barbarians, upon feeing the viper faften on Paul's hand, that he was a murderer, &c.? Acts xxviii. 4. Thus men condemn the actions of others merely from their own rashness, as Eli did Hannah; and, which is worst of all, they will judge their ftate before God from things utterly unable to bear the weight of their prefumptuous fentence, as Job's friends did, and thrust in themselves to the fecrets of their hearts, as those mentioned, Rom. xiv. 4. Who art thou that judgeft another man's fervant? judging their confciences: the like whereto was the horrible judgement fome have expreffed touching thofe that took the oath of abjuration, that they had gone over the belly of their confcience, and in other cafes too. you think that I am fpeaking for it, ye are uncharitable but I would not for the world judge other mens confciences at that rate. It is fufficient for me to condemn mens evil actions which I fee, not to judge their confciences, which I neither fee nor can Were the impreflions of the tremendous tribunal of God more on mens fpirits, they would not be fo hafty to judge before the time.

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3. Mifconftructing of others their intentions, words, and actions. No innocence can be a fafeguard against that temper, which is always ready to give the worst turn to the intentions, words, and actions of their neighbour, which they are capable

to bear. It is like the corrupted ftomach that corrupts whatever is put into it. See Neh. vi. 6. Rom. iii. 8. Pfal. Ixix. 10.

4. Contempt of others in our hearts, undervaluing and thinking bafely of them; when men ftop their eyes from beholding whatever is praife-worthy in their neighbour, and gather together what makes against them, and fit brooding on that. This is evil in all cafes, but efpecially where men contemn others for what is good in them, 2 Sam. vi. 16. We are even in our hearts to give every one their due; and fo far as we with hold it we are guilty, Luke xviii. 9. 10. 11.

5. Envying and grieving at the juft and deferved credit or reputation of any. This is a mok unchriftian and truly Pharifaical temper, Matth. xxi. 15. It is the nature of envy to torment a man with the good of his neighbour. What refreshes the charitable spirit, vexes and frets theirs. They are like the moon that turns pale and wan whenfoever the fun begins to fhine above the horizon. But if men loved their neighbour as themfelves, and their God more than themselves, they would rejoice at their neighbour's reputation, though it fhould outfhine their own, Numb. xi. 29.

6. Rejoicing in the difgrace and infamy of others, Jer. xlviii. 27. This is a devil-like fin, for duft is the ferpent's meat. Whatever mischief befalls men is the devil's delight; and fo there are many, that if a black cloud be thrown over the reputation of others, it tickles their hearts, they have a fecret fatisfaction in it; their hearts fay within them, Aha, fo we would have it. And many vent their fatisfaction in outward rejoicing at it.

7. Lastly, Fond admiration of men, Jude 16. As the former are fins in defect, fo this is a fin in excefs. And indeed we become guilty by thinking too highly and above what is meet of any man, as well as thinking too meanly of them, 1 Cor, iv. 6. VOL. III.

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This is both a fin and a fnare: for those whom we fondly admire, we are apt to imitate in evil as well as good, and fo to follow them to the prejudice of truth. It is a fad evidence of the corruption of man's heart, that he is ready either to idolize or else to defpife others.

Secondly, In our lives and actions. Men may injure the good name of others without speaking a word against them.

1. Men may be guilty of the breach of this command to the prejudice of their neighbour's good name, by bare gefture of the body, Prov. vi. 13. He winketh with his eyes, he fpeaketh with his feet, be teacheth with his fingers. A man may with a wink, a nod, a grave look, a figh, &c. ftab another's reputation, filling others by these means with fufpicions of him unjustly; or when one is flandered in our presence, making fuch figns, which import our confent thereto.

2. Drawing others into things that are ill or evillike, and of bad report. Thus many ruin one another's reputation, till they are made as rotten things laid one upon another, which corrupt each other till both fend forth a ftinking fmell, Matth. xviii. 7. They that lay the ftumbling-block, and they that fall over it, are both ruined together, though double vengeance abides them who ruin others together with themfelves.

3. By not hindering what we can in others thofe things that procure an ill name. The evil that befalls others which we might have prevented, will juftly be laid at our door. This brought the judgements of God on good Eli and his houfe too, fo that they went all to ruin together, 1 Sam. iii. 13. The Spirit of God records, for the juftification of poor Tamar, the care fhe had of preventing the ill name of herfelf and of Amnon, 2 Sam. xiii. 12. 13. So that neither by terror nor allurements fhe could be drawn into the villany, though fhe was forced, which was her mifery, but not her fin.