subtle and nice an infusion, that it is not to be tasted. or discovered but by its effects.

How frequently is the honesty and integrity of a man disposed of by a smile or a shrug!-How many good and generous actions have been sunk into oblivion by a distrustful look!or stamped with the imputation of proceeding from bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper!

Look into companies of those whose gentle natures should disarm them,we shall find no better account. How large a portion of chastity is sent out of the world by distant hints, nodded away, and cruelly winked into suspicion by the envy of those who are past all temptation of it themselves! How often does the reputation of a helpless creature bleed by report, which the party who is pains to propagate it, beholds with much pity and fellow-feeling that she is heartily sorry for it,hopes in God it is not true however, as Archbishop Tillotson wittily observes upon it, is resolved, in the mean time, to give the report her pass, that at least it may have fair play to take its fortune in the world, to be believed or not, according to the charity of those into whose hands it shall happen to fall.

So fruitful is this vice in a variety of experiments, to satiate as well as disguise itself. But if these smoother weapons cut so sore,what shall we say, of open and unblushing scandal,-subjected to no caution, tied down to no restraints If the one, like an arrow shot in the dark, does nevertheless so much secret mischief, this, like the pestilence which rageth at noon-day, sweeps all before it, levelling without distinction the good and the bad; a

thousand fall beside it, and ten thousand on its right hand; they fall,-so rent and torn in this tender part of them, so unmercifully butchered, as sometimes never to recover either the wounds or the anguish of heart which they have occasioned.

But there is nothing so bad which will not admit of something to be said in its defence.

And here it may be asked,Whether the inconveniences and ill effects which the world feels from the licentiousness of this practice, are not sufficiently counterbalanced by the real influence it has upon mens lives and conduct? That if there was no evilspeaking in the world, thousands would be encour aged to do ill, and would rush into many indecorums, like a horse into the battle, were they sure to escape the tongues of men.

That if we take a general view of the world, we shall find that a great deal of virtue, at least of the outward appearance of it,-is not so much from any fixed principle, as the terror of what the world will say, and the liberty it will take upon the occasions. we shall give.

That, if we descend to particulars, numbers are every day taking more pains to be well spoken of than what would actually enable them to live so as to deserve it.

That there are many of both sexes who can support life well enough without honour and chastity, -who, without reputation (which is but the opinion which the world has of the matter) would hide their heads in shame, and sink down in utter despair of happiness. No doubt the tongue is a weapon which does chastise many indecorums, which the laws of men will not reach; and keeps many in awe,

whom conscience will not ;-and where the case is indisputably flagrant, the speaking of it in such words as it deserves, scarce comes within the prohibition. In many cases, 'tis hard to express ourselves so as to fix a distinction betwixt opposite characters; and sometimes it may be as much a debt we owe to virtue, and as great a piece of justice to expose a vitious character, and paint it in its proper colours, as it is to speak well of the deserving and describe his particular virtues.-And, indeed, when we inflict this punishment upon the bad, merely out of principle, and without indulgence to any private passion of our own,-'tis a case which happens so seldom, that one might venture to accept it.

However, to those who in this objection are really concerned for the cause of virtue, I cannot help recommending what would much more effectually serve her interest, and be a surer token of their zeal and attachment to her; and that is, in all such plain instances where it seems to be duty, to fix a distinction betwixt the good and the bad;-to let their actions speak it instead of their words, or at least to let them both speak one language. We all of us talk so loud against vitious characters, and are so unanimous in our cry against them,-that an unexperienced man, who only trusted his ears, would imagine the whole world was in an uproar about it, and that mankind were all associating together, to hunt vice utterly out of the world.-Shift the scene, -and let him behold the reception which vice meets with; he will see the conduct and behaviour of the world towards it, so opposite to their declarations :he willfind all he heard, so contradicted by what he saw, as to leave him in doubt which of his senses

he is to trust, or in which of the two cases mankind were really in earnest. Was there virtue enough in the world to make a general stand against this contradiction; that is, was every one who deserved to be ill spoken of,-sure to be ill looked on too ;—was it a certain consequence of the loss of a `man's character, to lose his friends,-to lose the advantages of his birth and fortune, and thenceforth be universally shunned, universally slighted ;

Was no quality a shelter against the indecorums of the other sex, but was every woman without distinction who had justly forfeited her reputation, from that moment was she sure to forfeit likewise all claim to civility and respect;

Or, in a word, could it be established as a law in our ceremonial,-that wherever characters in either sex were become notorious, it should be deemed infamous, either to pay or receive a visit from them, and the door were to be shut against them in all publick places, till they had satisfied the world by giving testimony of a better life,a few such plain and honest maxims faithfully put in practice, -would force us upon some degree of reformation. Till this is done,—it avails little that we have no mercy upon them with our tongues, since they escape without feeling any other inconvenience.

We all cry out that the world is corrupt ;—and I fear too justly-but we never reflect what we have to thank for it, and that our open countenance of vice, which gives the lie to our private censures of it, is its chief protection and encouragement.-To those however who still believe that evil-speaking is some terror to evil-doers, one may answer, as a great man has done upon the occasion, That after

all our exhortations against it,'tis not to be feared, but that there will be evil-speaking enough left in the world to chastise the guilty and we may safely trust them to an ill-natured world, that there will be no failure of justice upon this score. The passions of men are pretty severe executioners ; and to them let us leave this ungrateful task,-and rather ourselves endeavour to cultivate that more friendly one, recommended by the apostle,of letting all bitterness, and wrath, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from us ;-of being kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, forgave us. Amen.