caution and care: to
brandish it wantonly, to lay about with it blindly and furiously, to
slash and smite therewith any that happeneth to come in our way,
doth argue malice or madness.

7. It is an ordinary way of proceeding to calumniate, for men,
reflecting upon some bad disposition in themselves (although
resulting from their own particular temper, from their bad
principles, or from their ill custom), to charge it presently upon
others; presuming others to be like themselves: like the wicked
person in the psalm, "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an
one as thyself." This is to slander mankind first in the gross;
then in retail, as occasion serveth, to asperse any man; this is the
way of half-witted Machiavellians, and of desperate reprobates in
wickedness, who having prostituted their consciences to vice, for
their own defence and solace, would shroud themselves from blame
under the shelter of common pravity and infirmity; accusing all men
of that whereof they know themselves guilty. But surely there can
be no greater iniquity than this, that one man should undergo blame
for the ill conscience of another.

These seem to be the chief kinds of slander, and most common ways of
practising it. In which description, the folly thereof doth, I
suppose, so clearly shine, that no man can look thereon without
loathing and despising it, as not only a very ugly, but a most
foolish practice. No man surely can be wise who will suffer himself
to be defiled therewith. But to render its folly more apparent, we
shall display it; declaring it to be extremely foolish upon several
accounts. But the doing of this, in regard to your patience, we
shall forbear at present.

THE FOLLY OF SLANDER.

Part 2.

"He that uttereth slander is a fool."--Prov. x. 18.

I have formerly in this place, discoursing upon this text, explained
the nature of the sin here condemned, with its several kinds and
ways of practising.

II. I shall now proceed to declare the folly of it; and to make
good by divers reasons the assertion of the wise man, that "He who
uttereth slander is a fool."

1. Slandering is foolish, as sinful and wicked.

All sin is foolish upon many accounts; as proceeding from ignorance,
error, inconsiderateness, vanity; as implying weak judgment, and
irrational choice; as thwarting the dictates of reason, and best
rules of wisdom; as producing very mischievous effects to