154 Dirttl.I• Direl/. 2· Dircl/. 3• Direl/. f• Dir.f.'. S• 'Dire[lion~ againft ®ackbiting. ~ell. 12• Art we bound to reprove tvtry back,..biter, in tbis age n•hm hontft people are grown to m•k.! little coH{citttce of it, b~tt tbi1tk,_ it their duty to divulge mens faults l An[w. Moll: of all ; that you may fiop the fiream of this cornn,on fin: Ordinarily when ever we can do it· without doing greater hurt, we lhou\d rebuke the tongue that rcporrerh evil of other men caufddly behind their b1cks : For our filence is their encouragement in fin• • Tit. 1. 1Ji,·e[lions againft !J3ackbiting, Slandering and Evil Speaking. Di(ect. I• MAintain the life of brotherly Lovt. Love yuur neighbour aJ your {elf. Dired:. 2· Watch n~rrowly left intertft or pilfJion jhould prevail upo1t you. For where thefe prevail, the tongue is fet on hrc of Bell, and will. fct on fire the courfe of nature, Jam. 2 • Selfifunefs and paflion will not only prompt you to JPeal(_ evil, but alfu ro juflifie it, and think you do well; yci, and to be angry with thofe that will not bearken to you and believe you. DinCl. 3· E[ptcially involve not your {tlvrs in any fatiion, Religiom or Secular. I do not mean that you Chould not love and imitate the: bell, and hold mofi intimate communion with them: Bu; that you ahhor unlawful divifions and fidings; and when err6r, or uncharira.blcnefs, or carnal inte– tcfi hath broken the Church into pieces where you live, and one is ofPaul, and another ofApollo, and anorher of CtphM; one of this parry, and another of that; take heed of cfpoufing the interefl of any pmy, ., it f14nds crofs to rhe interetl of the whole. lr would havt been hardly credible if fad cxp~rience had not proved it, how commonly and heinoufly almoR every Sect of Chrifiians: do fin in this point againfi each other? And how far the interdl of their Sect, whir;h they account the interdl of Chrifi, will prevail with multitudes even of zealous people, to belye, calumniate, backbite .and reproach thofc that arc againfi: their opinion and their party? Yea, how eafily will they proceed beyond reproaches, tobloody perfecurions. He that thinkerh that .he dorh God fctvicc by killing Chtit1 or his Difciplcs, will-think that he doth him fcrvice by calling him a deceivtr, and one that harh a Devil, a blafphemer, and an enemy to Cefar, and calling his Difciples pefiilent fellows, and movers of.Sedition among the people, and accounting them as the filth and off.f~;ouring of the world: That zeal which murdered and ddltoyed many hundred thoufand of rhe Waldenjis and Albigen[eJ, and thirty thoufand or forty thoufand in one French Maffjcre, and two hundred thoufand in one Irijh M~ffacre, and which kindled the Marian Bonefires in England, and made the Powder Mine, and burnt the City of London, and kccpeth up the Inquifition, 1fay, that zeal will certainly think it a fervice to the Church, (thou is, their Sed,) to write the mofi: odious lycs and flmders of Luther, Zuinglim, Calvin, Btza, and any fuch excellent fcrvants of the Lord. So ful1 of horrid impudent Iyes are the writings of ( not one but) many Sects again!\ thofe that were their chief oppofers, that I llill ad– monifu all poflcriry; to fee good evidence for it, before they believe rhc hard fayings of any facti– ous Hif'\orian or Divine, againfi thofe that arc: againfi his party: It is only men of eminent confci– ence, and c:mdour, and veracity, aad imp:utiality, who are to be believed in their bad rtport of otheu, except where notoriety or very good evidence doth command belief above their own autho– rity andveracity. A fiding factious zeal, which is hotter for any Stet or party, rhan for the com– mon Chri~ianity and Catholick Church. is alwayes a railing, a lying, and a flandering zeal, and is notably dlfetibed, JamrJ 3• as tarthly,[enfual and det'ilijh, cauling envy, ftrife, and confiifion, and wery evil wor~ . Dir<&. 4· Objirve wcU the Commonnefs of thiJ fin of bacll,.biting , tbat it may mak.f you the more a· fraid •f falling into that which fo few do [cape. I will nor fay, among high and low, rich and poor, Court and C~untrey, how common ~s this fin: but amm1g men profefiing the grcatdl zeal and Hridnefs in Religiori, how fc.w make confctence of it. Mark in aB companies that ycu come into, how common it is to take liberty to fay what they think of all men; yea, to report what they hear, though they dare not fay, that they bdieve it ? And how commonly the rclaring of other mens faults, and telling what this man or that man is, or did, or faid, is part of the chart to wafiC the hour in? And if it be but true, they think they fin not: Nay, nor if they did but bor that it is true. For my part 1 mull: profcfs, that my confcience having brought me to a cu£\ome of rebuking tuch backbiters, I am ordinarily ccnfured for it, either as one that loveth contradid-ion, or one that defcndeth fin and wickednefs, by taking part with wicked m~n : And all becaufe I would flop .the courfe ofrhis common vice, of evil-fpeaking and backbiting where men have no call. And I mull thankfully pwfcfs, that among all other fins in the world, the fins ~f SELFISHNESS E, p R I D E, and B AC K BIT I N G, I have been moll broughr to l>at~ and fear, by the obf<r· vat ion of the commonnc!S of them, even in pcrfons feeming godly : Nothing hath fixed an appre– henflon of their odioufnefs !i1 deeply in me, nor engaged my heart againfi them above all orher fins tO much, as this lamentable experience of their prc.valencc in the world, among the more Rtligious, ' and not only in the prophanc. Direct. 5• T•ll..• >lOt tbt honefly of the per[on, aJ fuflicitnt caufe to hear or bclicvt a bad r<port of other:. It is lamtntable to hear how far men oth<Iwtle hontll, do too often here offend. Sufpecr uil
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