First, As to the Scope of our Saviour's Argument: It is evident that he defcends from the greater to the lefs Evils of Speech; from Blafphemy he comes to the other Evils which are generated in the Heart, and from thence derived to the Tongue; A good Man out of the good Treafure of his Heart bringeth forth good Things, and an evil Man out of the evil Treafure of bis Heart bringeth forth evil Things. What the evil Things are, which are bred in the Heart, our Saviour upon another Occafion tells us; Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts, Murders, Adulteries, Fornications, Thefts, falfe Witness, Blafphemies. These then are the evil Things intended. But, as a farther Obligation upon us to keep the Door of our Lips with all Care, our Saviour adds, But I fay unto you, that every idle Word that Men fhall fpeak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment. Now the Form with which thefe Words are introduced, looks, as if they were intended as an Addition and Improvement to the old Doctrines of the Law. The Jews knew that Perjuries and Blafphemies and false Witness, and the like Crimes, fhould certainly be punished; and therefore our Saviour only mentions them, without adding exprefsly,

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that they should be punished; for that was well known and believed upon the Authority of the Law: But then he adds, But I fay unto you; which Words are very emphatical, and denote the Doctrine delivered to be new, and founded upon our Saviour's own Authority, I fay unto you. The fame Form is used in the fifth of St. Matthew, where our Saviour, in virtue of his Commiffion received from God, evidently is explaining and enlarging the old Law: "Ye have heard it hath been "faid by them of old Time, Thou shalt "not kill: But I fay unto you, Whosoever "is angry with his Brother without a Cause, "fhall be in danger of the Judgment. Ye "have heard it was faid by them of old

Time, Thou shalt not commit Adultery: "But I fay unto you, Whofoever looketh on "a Woman to luft after her, hath com"mitted Adultery with her already in his "Heart." The fame is repeated in other Inftances; in all which you may observe, that our Saviour enlarges our Duty, and debars us from the leaft Approaches to Vice, and obliges his Disciples to the greatest Purity, to the ftricteft and feverest Virtue.

To the fame Purpose poffibly does he speak in the Text: "Evil Things, you know, pro

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"ceed from an evil Heart; and your Law " teaches you, they shall be rewarded accord

ingly: But I fay unto you, That not only "these evil Things, but every idle Word fhall "be brought into Judgment." The only Difference in this Cafe is, that in the Sermon on the Mount the enacting Words are more full, ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν, in the Text they are only λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν· which, though they mult be rendered alike in English, yet the former, according to the Idiom of the Greek Tongue, is an Expreffion of greater Weight and Authority: But the Difference is not fo great, but that we may suppose our Saviour to use both upon the fame Account, to distinguish the Doctrine delivered upon his own Authority from the old received Doctrines of the Law. Allowing this, it follows, that we have in the Text a Rule implied for the Government of Christian Conversation, which is of the greatest Purity, and restrains us not only from all Evil, but from all Appearance of Evil, in our Conversation; from every thing which is inconfiftent with the Gravity and serious Demeanour required in a Chriftian; from fuch Faults as bear no greater Proportion to the evil things before-mentioned, than Anger does to Murder, or a wanton Look to Adultery.

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The Text then thus understood leads us to inquire, What are the Faults and Levities of Speech, which are not great enough to be numbered with the evil things before-mentioned, and yet have fomething in them misbecoming a Difciple of the Gospel; fomething that is inconfiftent with that Temper and Frame of Mind, which are the Ornament of a Christian Spirit, and the Result of a juft Sense and Reverence of the high Calling wherewith we are called: For, though it is not our Duty always to be meditating upon the furprizing Mystery of Redemption wrought by Chrift, or converfing with Heaven through Prayer, and exalted Thoughts of the wonderful Things of God; yet fince this must neceffarily, as we are Chriftians, be great Part of our Employment, we should, even at other Times, when we are taken up in our worldly Affairs, or in friendly Converfation, preferve a Decorum, and maintain a Confistency in our Character; that though we are not talking directly of the Gofpel, yet our Converfation may be as becometh the Gospel of Chrift. For, confider that you are a Difciple of the Crofs, a Candidate for Heaven, an adopted Son of God, a Brother of Chrift, and an Heir of

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Glory; and then confider what fort of Behaviour and Conversation best become those, who fuftain fo great a Character. Should fuch an one spend his Time and Thoughts to utter foolish Jefts, to entertain idle Minds with idle Talk, till they are loft in a Forgetfulness both of God and themselves, and every thing else that concerns either their prefent or future Intereft? Should fuch an one be the Minifter of Idlenefs and Looseness, and serve to no better Purpose in the World, than to furnish Entertainment to the Indifpofition that loofe and profligate Men have to serious Thought and Reflection?

The Part of a common Wit or Jefter does not well become a Man; much lefs will it become a Chriftian: It is below the Dignity of Reason; ftill more fo, when Reafon is improved by Grace. And to this Purpose is St. Paul's Prohibition in his Epistle to the Ephefians; where, among other Things, he forbids them all foolifh Talking and Fefting, which are not convenient. What our Tranflation renders Jefting, the Original stiles εὐτραπελία, which Ariftotle reckons among his Virtues; and defines it to be the Habit of Jefting handsomely. So that what paffed in the Heathen World for a Virtue is forbidden