upon the fame Stock, and is kept up and improves by the same Principle, from which it was first produced.

THUS we see that the Origin of Defamation is base and finful, and the Effects of it bear a proper Proportion to its Origin; its Business is to rob People of what they esteem most valuable in Life, their good Name; to turn the World upside down with respect to Characters, and to confound good and bad Actions so as to fubject them all indifferently to Calumny and Slander. The Breath of a Defamer is of an infectious Nature, and tends to blast every thing it reaches. Reputation is a Thing nicely conftituted, fine and tender in its Texture, which makes it more liable to Accidents, and more easy to be destroyed. Let therefore a Man's Stock of Merit be never fo large and generous, let it branch out into Actions never so virtuous and laudable, let it promise, let it have actually raised upon it Fruits of Praise and Reputation never so fair and lovely, yet those Fruits are within the Reach and Mischief of Defamation, and the Character

racter of the purest Innocence and most superior Merit, if not quite destroyed, will nevertheless be fullied and deform'd by it. Or to make use of a Scripture Similitude; A good Name, says the Wife Man, is better than precious Ointment; it has therefore a most grateful Odour, it requires great Pains and tedious Application to attain it; it is to be preserved with great Caution and Diligence; yet this so pleasant, so costly, so valuable a Treasure is wantonly to be destroy'd, and lavishly to be squander'd away by every Tongue that loves to utter false Words: In this respect too a good Name is like unto precious Ointment, if it be once poured out, it is not to be recovered again, at least not to its first Degree of Purity; you may as well labour to drive a River back again into its FountainHead, as to trace Scandal through all the Channels it hath pass'd up to its first Author, and to leave those Channels as pure as tho' it had not passed them; for Men receive Defamation with Greediness, part from it with Reluctance, spread it abroad with Pleasure, retract it only upon the greatest Force; and all this while our Neighbour suffers in a most tender Point : His Reputation is the present Reward of his Labours, and a pleafing Encouragement to him in his farther Pursuit after Virtue ; it enables him to do Good with greater Advantage, and to suffer Hardships with greater Chearfulness; it sets him up for a burning and a shining Light to the World, and renders him a much more capable Instrument of promoting God's Glory and Man's Happiness. To rob him therefore of his Reputation is doing him substantial Mifchief; robbing him of his Money, which may be restored to him a thousand Ways, bears no Proportion to it. That which so greatly aggravates the Sin of Murder, is, that it is destroying the Divine Image; and St. James gives that Argument a forcible Turn, with respect to our Speech; The Tongue, says the Apostle, is an unruly Evil, full of deadly Poison; therewith we bless God, even the Father, and therewith curse we Men, which are made after the Similitude of God. And how far Characters of Innocence and Virtue are more VOL. I.

eminent Circumstances of the Divine Image, how far consequently effacing those Characters hath in it the Nature and partakes of the Guilt of Murder, is worth the Defamer's while ferioufly to confider. It hath been a Law in some Countries, and it seems a Law highly reasonable, to punish those who in a judicial Way bear false Witness, in the fame Manner as they would have punish'd the Perfons accused, had they been really guilty: And should the Almighty think fit to take Things in that View at the laft Day, what complicated Guilt will they be oppressed with? What Variety of Vengeance must fall upon their Heads, who have in Conversation born false Witness againft their Neighbour in every Kind and Degree of Wickedness ?

Now it is certainly Defamation in the worst Degree to bespatter Innocence, and to invent and spread abroad scandalous Falfhoods; but to publish even Truths that are injurious, to discover the fecret Faults of our Neighbours, to cenfure publickly what ought to be corrected privately, are likewife Degrees of Defamation, and great Breaches of Charity, because it is the Property of Charity in this respect likewise to cover the Multitude of Sins. These Circumstances arise from Pride and Envy, and are attended with the fame ill Consequences of ruining Reputations, which may in the main be really good. Jofeph, the Husband of the Blessed Virgin, is call'd a just Man for his tender Intentions of putting away his espoused Wife privately, and not making her a publick Example, when he discover'd her to be with Child; he not knowing at that Time that what was conceived in her was from Above. And indeed to publish the fecret Offences of others is finful upon many Accounts, because the expofing the Actors of them to open Shame, tends wonderfully to harden them in Sin; it does not reclaim them from it, it plunges them deeper in Guilt. Again, by making the Vices of other Men the Subjects of common Talk, we make the Notions of Wickedness less affecting, by rendering them more familiar. As all Men fall under Censure for their Failures, Persons who have VOL. I. Ο 2

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