mory to the most distant posterity; it says, at such a time, in such a place, lived a man who attained his hundredth year. After this, he must die. Old age is an incurable malady, and we are old at fourscore. O! shadow of life, how vain art thou! O grass! how little a time dost thou flourish in our field! O wise and instructive principle of Barzillai, there is very little distance between old age and death! "How long have I to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day fourscore years old, I pray thee let me return, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and my mother."

care; but in general they are the direct contrary. A rich man is obliged, as it were, to give himself wholly up to discover and defeat a general plot laid to engross his fortune. He must resist such as would violently force it from him. He must unmask others, who, under colour of justice, and supported by law, involve him in law suits to establish illegitimate claims. He must penetrate through a thousand pretences of generosity, disinterestedness, and friendship, into the soul of a false friend who aims at nothing but gratifying his own avarice or ambition. He must watch night and day to fix his riches, which, having wings, But if the principle of this good old man be are always ready to fly away. How difficult well founded, the consequence derived from it is it for a soul, distracted with so many cares, is better founded, that is, that worldly affairs to devote as much time to work out salvation, do not suit a man drawing near the end of his as a labour so important requires! How neceslife; that when death is so near, a man should sary is it to make up, by retirement and recolbe wholly employed in preparing for it. If lection in the last stages of life, what has been Barzillai had been a wise man through the wanting in days of former hurry, and which whole course of his life, as we may suppose are now no more! I recollect, and I apply to he had, he had not put off till now a prepara- Barzillai, a saying of a captain, of whom histion for this event, which is certainly the most torians have taken more care to record the wisserious and important of life. Even they who dom than the name. It is said, that the saying have lived the most regularly, and gone inno- struck the emperor Charles V., and confirmed cent through all the busy scenes of life, have him in his design of abdicating his crown, and long accounts to settle, and questions of the retiring to a convent. The captain required last importance to agitate, when they come to the emperor to discharge him from service. die. Every thing engages Barzillai to avoid Charles asked the reason. The prudent soldisconcerting himself in his last moments, and dier replied, Because there ought to be a pause beto devote the few that remain to seriousness. tween the hurry of life and the day of death. Yes, every thing engages him to do so; and to confine myself to some reflections, the length of time he had lived, the cares of his mind at present, and the consolation arising from a meditation of death, all incline him to take leave of the king and the court, the pleasures and business of the world, tables richly served, and concerts well performed; all incline him to think of nothing but death.

1. The long time he had lived. If the account which God requires every man to give at death be terrible to all men, it should seem particularly so to old men. An old man is responsible for all the periods of his life, all the circumstances he has been in, and all the connexions he has formed. Then before a tribunal of impartial justice, will every instant of that long life, which is now at an end, be examined. Then will all the objects which time seems to have buried in eternal silence be recalled to view. Then sins of youth, which have left no trace on the mind, because the eagerness with which we proceed to the commission of new crimes, does not allow time to examine what we have committed, then will they all rise out of that sort of annihilation in which they seemed to be lost. Fourscore years spent in offending thee, my God!* said a dying Too true in the mouth of him who said so! Too true in the mouths of most old men! A motive powerful enough to engage an old man to employ in penitential exercises every moment which the patience of God yet affords, and which, at his age, cannot be many.

man.

2. The continual cares which exercised the mind of Barzillai, were a second spring of his action. We consider riches as protectors from Mr. de Montausier. See the close of his funeral orafiou, by Flechier.

3. In fine, if Barzillai seemed to anticipate the dying day, by continually meditating on the subject, it was because the meditation, full of horror to most men, was full of charms to this good old man.

When death is considered as accompanied with condemnatory sentences, formidable irreversible decrees, chains of darkness, insupportable tortures, smoke ascending up for ever and ever, blazing fires, remorse, despair, desperate exclamations, "mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" Rev. x. 11; and vi. 16, 17. When we consider death, as so many men, alas! ought to consider it, and as by their continual irregularities they prepare it for consideration, no wonder the thought is disagreeable, and must be put far away. But when death is considered, as some of you, my brethren, ought to consider it, you, whose faults have been washed with penitential tears, and repaired by a real conversion, your view of death is more delightful, and affords you more pleasure than the tables of the great, the amusements of a court, and the most melodious concerts could procure. Then these expressions, in appearance so mortifying, let me return, let me die, are fraught with happiness.

Let me die, that I may be freed from the many infirmities, and diseases, and pains, to which my frail body is exposed!

Let me die, that I may get rid of the misfortunes, the treachery, the perfidy, the numerous plots and plans which are always in agitation against me, in a society of mankind!

Let me die, and let me no more see truth persecuted and innocence sacrificed to iniquity!

Let me die, let all my doubts and darkness on in the most innocent companies austere vanish, let me surmount all my difficulties, looks, ever declaiming against the manners of and let all the clouds that hide interesting the world, exclaiming against every body, objects from me disappear! Let me go to know affecting to be offended with every thing, and as I am known, and let me put off this body converting every company into a court of of sin! Let me leave a world in which, I justice, resounding with sentences against the cannot live without offending God! Let me guilty. On the other hand, you will find kindle the fire of my love at the altar of the people, under pretence of avoiding this extreme, exceeding the bounds of religion, and imagining that, in order to please in conversation, Christianity must be laid aside, and each expression must have an air sordid and vicious.

a seasoning of solidity. Consequently he con- | with a red hot iron in the forehead,* intending, demns five usual imperfections of conversation. by fixing this mark of infamy in a part so 1. Oaths. 2. Obscene language. 3. Slander. visible, to guard people against keeping com4. Extravagant complaisance. 5. Futility.-pany with a blasphemer. It was Lewis the Either I am deceived, my brethren, or every ninth, a king of France, who was the author person in this auditory needs instruction in of this law. I cannot help relating the words some one of these articles. of this prince in justification of the severity of the law. A man of rank in the kingdom having uttered blasphemy, great intercession was made for his pardon; but the king's answer was this, "I would submit," said he, "to be burnt in the forehead myself, if by enduring the pain I could purify my kingdom from blasphemy."

1. The first vice of conversation, which the apostle condemns, is swearing. The first seasoning, which he recommends to us, is the salt of piety. Sad necessity for a Christian preacher, preaching to a Christian audience! Sad necessity, indeed, obliged to prove that blasphemy ought to be banished from conversation! however, it is indispensably necessary to prove this, for nothing is so common among some called Christians as this detestable vice. It is the effect of two principles, the first is a brutal madness, and the other is a most false and fanciful idea of superior understanding and free and easy behaviour.

We affirmed, farther, that some people habituated themselves to swearing from false notions of glory and freedom of conversation. A man sets up for a wit in conversation, he pretends to conciliate the esteem of his company, and affects to put on the air of a man of the world, free from the stiffness of pedants. (This is not an invention of mine, this is a natural portrait, my brethren, and some of you gave me the original.) This man, I say, having taken into his head this design, and not being able to derive means of succeeding from his genius, or education, calls in the aid of oaths; of these he keeps various forms, and applies them instead of reasons, having the folly to imagine that an oath artfully placed at the end of a period renders it more expressive and polite; and, judging of the taste of his hearers by his own, inwardly applauds himself, and wonders what heart can resist the power of his eloquence. An elocution mean and contemptible, and fitter for an unbridled soldiery than for those that command them. An elocution directly opposite to the words of my text, "Let your speech be seasoned with salt." Never let the name of God go out of your lips without exciting such sentiments of veneration in your minds as are due to that sacred name. Never speak of the attributes of God in conversation without recollecting the Majesty of that Being to whom they belong. "Accustom not thy mouth to swearing," said the wise son of Sirach, "neither use thyself to the naming of the Holy One; for he that nameth God continually shall not be faultless," Eccl. xxii. 9, 10. The first vice of conversation to be avoided is swearing and blasphemy, the first season

It is brutal madness that puts some people on swearing. Our language seems too poor to express this disposition, and the words brutality and madness are too vague to describe the spirit of such as are guilty of this crime. These (shall I call them men or brute beasts?) cannot be agitated with the least passion, without uttering the most execrable imprecations. Froward souls, who cannot endure the least control without attacking God himself, taxing him with cruelty and injustice, disputing with him the government of the world, and, not being able to subvert his throne, assaulting him with murmurings and blasphemies. Certainly nothing can be so opposite to this salt of conversation as this abominable excess. They who practise it ought to be secluded from Christian societies, yea, to be banished even from worldly companies. Thus the Supreme Lawgiver, able to save and to destroy, has determined. Read the twenty-fourth of Leviticus, "The son of an Israelitish woman blasphemed the name of the Lord," ver. 11, &c. At this news all Israel trembled with horror. The prudent Moses paused, and consulted God himself what to do in this new and unheard-of case. The oracle informed him in these words, bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp, and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. And thou, Moses, shalt speaking of conversation is piety. unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever 2. The apostle prescribes us a seasoning of curseth his God shall bear his sin, and he that chastity. Against this duty there are some diblasphemeth the name of the Lord shall surely rect and some oblique attacks. Direct violaters be put to death, and all the congregation shall of this law are those nauseous mouths, which certainly stone him." Have you attended to cannot open without putting modesty to the this sentence? It not only regards the blasphe-blush, by uttering language too offensive to be mer, it regards all that hear him. If you be sincere members of the congregation of Israel, you ought, though not to stone the blasphemer, yet to declare your abhorrence of his conduct, and, if he remain incorrigible, to endeavour to rid society of such a monster.

66

Human legislators have treated such people with the utmost rigour. The emperor Justinian condemned blasphemers to death. Some have bored their tongues.t Others have drowned them. Others have branded them

repeated in this sacred assembly, yea, too filthy to be mentioned any where without breaking the laws of worldly decency. We are not surprised that people without taste, and without education, that a libertine who makes a trade of debauchery, and who usually haunt houses of infamy, should adopt this style; but that Christian women, who profess to respect virtue, that they should suffer their ears to be defiled with such discourse, that they should make parties at entertainments and at cards with such

Paul, Emil. de gest. Franc. fol. 164. p. 2. edit. de Vascoscan 1576.

into a licentiousness that is a disgrace to your families. Music is an art criminal or innocent according to the use made of it. Those pious men whom the holy Scriptures propose to us for models, did not deny themselves the enjoyment of it; but they applied it to proper sub

people, and so discover that they like to have their ears tickled with such conversation, is really astonishing. We repeat it again, decorum and worldly decency are sufficient to inspire us with horror for this practice. And shall the maxims of religion affect us less than human rules? "Fornication and all unclean-jects. St. Paul even recommends it. "Let ness," said St. Paul, "let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints," Eph. v. 3. Barefaced immodest discourse is not the most dangerous, for it ought to be then least tolerated, because it is then most execrable when it is uttered equivocally. There is an art of disguising obscenity, and of conveying poison the most fatally, by communicating it in preparations the most subtle and refined. Men in general choose rather to appear virtuous than to be so, and, to accommodate such people, there is an art of introducing vice under coverings so thick as to seem to respect the modesty of the company, and yet so thin as fully to expose it. A fine and delicate allusion, a lively and original tour of expression, an ingenious equivocation, a double meaning, an arch look, an affected gravity, these are the dangerous veils, these the instruments that wound us when we are off our guard. For what can you say to a man who behaves in this manner? If you suffer his airs to pass without censure, he will glory in your indulgence, and take your silence for approbation. If, on the other hand, you remonstrate, he will tax you only with his own crime; he will tell you that your ear is guilty, his language is innocent; that immodesty is in your heart, not in his expressions; and that of two senses to which his language is applicable, you have adopted the immodest, when you ought to have taken the chaste meaning.

If to talk in this manner be to make an offering of the tongue to the enemy of our salvation, certainly to lend an ear to such conversation, and by certain expressive smiles to promise a favourable attention to it, is to dedicate the ear to him. And do not deceive yourselves, you will never be able to persuade such as know the human heart, that you love virtue, while you take pleasure in hearing conversation injurious to virtue. You will be told, and with great reason, that you are a friend to nothing but the appearance of it. Were virtue itself the object of your esteem, you would not keep company with such as wound it. But by your indulgence of such people, you give us great reason to presume, that were not human laws and worldly decency in your way, you would give yourself up to the practice of vice; for, in spite of these, you take pleasure in beholding it when appearances are saved, and even disguise it yourself under specious pretexts.

Farther, we include in our notion of immodest conversation, licentious songs, which lawless custom has rendered too familiar; songs which, under a pretence of gratifying a passion for vocal and instrumental music, disseminate a thousand loose, not to say lascivious maxins, excite a thousand irregular emotions, and cherish many criminal passions. Attend to this article of our discourse, ye parents, who idolize your children, children whom ye ought to dedicate to Jesus Christ, but whom ye lead

the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all
wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord,"
Col. iii. 16. Thus also a prophet formerly ap-
plied both his voice and his instrument to cele-
brate the praises of his Creator.
"Awake up,
my glory, awake psaltery and harp, I myself
will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord,
among the people; I will sing unto thee among
the nations. Sing aloud unto God our strength;
make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel,
the pleasant harp, with the psaltery," Ps. lvii.
8, 9; and lxxxi. 1, 2, &c. Thus a christian
musician ought to sing; but never, never should
his mouth utter licentious verses. An unchaste
tongue is a sad sign of a depraved heart. A
woman who paints vice in colours so agreea-
ble, proves, that she considers it in a very
amiable light, and has no objection to the prac
tice of it. For my part, I shall never be able
to persuade myself that any consecrate their
bodies to the temples of the Holy Ghost, who,
to use an expression of St. Paul, make their
tongues "members of an harlot," 1 Cor. vi. 15.

Slander and calumny are a third defect of conversation, and the third law which our apostle imposes on us in a seasoning of charity. I freely acknowledge, my brethren, that I cannot enter on this article without losing that moderation of temper, which is necessary to a preacher who would treat of the subject properly. Whether it be weakness of mind, or self-interest, or whether it be the enormous lengths to which you practise this vice in this place, too much practised, alas, every where! or whatever be the cause, I can scarcely retain my temper; for I feel myself at once ready to confound instruction with reproof. Is there any character among you so respectable, any intention so innocent, any conduct so irreproachable, any piety so conspicuous, as to escape the cruelty of your calumniating conversations?

What shall I say to you, my brethren? I wish I knew how to collect the substance of many sermons into this one article: I would endeavour to exhibit calumny in one small portrait, at which you might continually look, and which might perpetually inspire you with holy horror.

Some

1. Consider this vice in its source. times it proceeds from littleness of mind, for there are people who cannot converse, they neither understand religion nor government, arts nor sciences, and their conversation would languish and die away, were not the void filled up with a detail of the real imperfections of their neighbours, or of others, which the most cruel malignity ascribes to them, and the number of these always far surpasses that of real defects. Sometimes it comes from pride. People wish to be superior to their neighbours, and not having the noble courage to rise above

them by the practice of more virtue, they en- | bour, as well as not to attribute to him fanciful deavour to sink them by slanderous conversation. Sometimes envy is the source. They are persons who place their happiness in the misery of others. A neighbour's prosperity shocks them, his reputation wounds them, and his rest is their torment. Sometimes a guilty conscience generates slander. Bad men fear lest the public eye should discover and fix on their own crimes, and they try to prevent this misfortune by artfully turning the attention of spectators from themselves to the vices of their fellow-citizens.

2. Consider the fatal consequences of slander. Judge of the hearts of others by your own. What makes one man invent a calumny, induces another to receive and publish it. As soon as ever the voice of slander is heard, a thousand echoes repeat it, and publish vices which your want of charity, or excess of injustice, attributed to your neighbour. What renders this the more deplorable is the usual readiness of mankind to give credit to calumny; a readiness on the one part to utter calumny, and on the other to believe it, overwhelm a neighbour with all the misery of defamation.

3. Consider the duties which they who commit this crime bind themselves to perform; duties so hard, that some would rather die than perform them, and yet duties so indispensable, that no man can expect either favour or forgiveness who neglects the discharge of them. The first law we impose on a man who has unjustly acquired the property of a neighbour, is to restore it. The first law we impose on a man who has injured the reputation of another, is to repair it. There is a restitution of honour as well as of fortune. Which of you, now, who has dealt in slander, dare form the just and generous resolution of going from house to house to publish his retractions? Who is there among you, that by committing this sin does not hazard all his own reputation?

4. Consider how extremely opposite this sin is to the law of charity. You know the whole religion of Jesus Christ tends to love. The precepts he gave, the doctrines he taught, the worship he prescribed, the ordinances he instituted, the whole gospel is the breath of love. But what can be more incompatible with love than slander! consequently who deserves less the name of Christian than a slanderer?

ones. Another justifies his conduct by pretending he is animated not by hatred, but by equity; as if God had appointed every individual to exercise vengeance, and to be an executioner of his judgments; as if, supposing the allegation true, a man does not sin against his own principles (for he pretends equity) when he shows his neighbour in an unfavourable point of view, by publishing his imperfections and concealing his virtues. Another excuses himself by saying, that as the affair was public he might surely be permitted to mention it; as if charity was never violated except by discovering unknown vices; as if men were not forbidden to relish that malicious pleasure which arises from talking over the known imperfections of their neighbours.

7. Consider, into what an unhappy situation calumny puts an innocent person, who wishes to avoid it. What must a man do to preclude or to put down a calumny? Cherish good humour, paint pleasure in your face, endeavour by your pleasing deportment to communicate happiness to all about you; be, if I may speak so, the life and soul of society, and it will be said, you are not solid, you have the unworthy ambition of becoming the amusement of mankind. Put on an austere air, engrave on your countenance, if I may speak thus, the great truths that fill your soul, and you will be taxed with pharisaism and hypocrisy; it will be said, that you put on a fair outside to render yourself venerable, but that under all this appearance very likely you conceal an impious irreligious heart. Take a middle way, regulate your conduct by times and places, weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them that rejoice," and you will be accused of lukewarmness. Pick your company, confine yourself to a small circle, make it a law to speak freely only to a few select friends who will bear with your weaknesses, and who know your good qualities, and you will be accused of pride and arrogance; it will be said, that you think the rest of mankind unworthy of your company, and that you pretend wisdom and taste are excluded from all societies, except such as you deign to frequent. Go every where, and in a spirit of the utmost condescension converse with every individual of mankind, and it will be said you are unsteady, a city, a province cannot satisfy you, you lay all the universe under contribution, and oblige the whole world to try to satiate your unbounded love of pleasure.

5. Consider how many different forms calumny assumes. In general all the world agree it is one of the most hateful vices: yet it is curious to see how persons who declaim the In fine, consider what punishment the Holy most loudly against this crime, practise it them- Spirit has denounced against calumny, and in selves. All the world condemn it, and all the what class of mankind he has placed slanderers. world slide into the practice of it. The repu- You, who by a prejudice, which is too general tation of our neighbour is not only injured by a rule of judging, imagine you possess all virtales studied and set, but an air, a smile, atues, because you are free from one vice, to use look, an affected abruptness, even silence, are envenomed darts shot at the same mark, and it will be impossible for us to avoid falling into the temptation of committing this crime, unless we keep a perpetual watch.

the language of a modern author,* you, who poison the reputation of a neighbour in company, and endeavour thus to avenge yourself on him for the pain which his virtues give you, in what list has St. Paul put you? He has 6. Consider the various illusions, and num-classed you with misers, idolaters, debauchees, berless pretexts, of which people avail themselves, in order to conceal from themselves the turpitude of this crime. One pretends he said nothing but the truth; as if charity did not oblige us to conceal the real vices of a neighVOL. I.-52

and adulterers, "If any man be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, with such a one keep no company, no not to eat,"

* Flechier.