480 WHAT LIGHT MUST XIV. The genuine Christian hateth backbiting, and disgrace- ful reports of others, and yet can bear it from .others to himself. He hath learned to love all, and to speak evil of no man, nor to receive or vend ill reports of others. He knoweth that this is the work of the devil, the mortal enemy of love. He modestly re buketh the backbiting tongue, and, with an angry countenance, driveth it away ; Psalm xv. 3. Tit. iii. 2. Prov. xxv. 23. Backbiters tell us that they arehaters of men ; and the apostle,joins them with haters of God; Rom. i. 30. Debates, backbitings, whisperings envyings, are the scandalous Christian'swork ; 2 Cor. xii. 20. H,e that heareth themwill either distaste them, or catch the disease, ançl,be as bad as they. And he that heareth that he is calumniated or reproached by them behind his back is tempted to abhor both them and their profession. But to deal with men as faithful friends, and in plainness (but with prudence and love) to tell them secretly of their defects and faults, this' tendeth to good, and to reconcile the minds of men, at last, and to the honor of the Christian way; Matt. xviii. 15, 16. Levit. xix. 17. Prov. ix. 8. and xxiv. 25. and xxvii. 5. Eccl. vii. 5. Prov. xxviii. 23. But yet, whenwe are belied and reproachedof ourselves, though by Christians, or teachers, or superiors, it beseemeth us not to make too great a matter,of it, as being tender of our own reputa- tion, but only to be sorry for the slanderer'sor backbiter's sin and, misery. For men's corruption will have vent ; the angry, and ma- licious, and envious, will speak from the abundance oftheir hearts ; and the guilty 'will be tender ; and children will cry and quarrel; and proud contenders will be impatient. And how small a matter is it,, as to us, to be judged of man, who must all be shortly judged of .the Lord !' . XV. He is one that would keep open to the notice of all the great difference between the godly and the wicked ; and aspireth after the highest degrees of holiness, as knowing the corruptions and calamities of the weak, and how much of heaven is in holiness itself ; and yet hé loveth, honoreth, and cherisheth the least spark, of grace in the weakest Christian ; and is none of them that cen- soriously despise such, nor that tyrannically tread them down,- or cast them injuriously out of the church. 1. To make men believe, that there is little difference between the holy and profane, is to bringall religion into contempt, and; is a wickedness which God's laws throughout condemn, and -his judgment shall publicly confute ; Matt. iii. 18. 2 Thess. i. 6-11. Jade 15. Matt. xiii. 25. throughout. 2. To take up with a little goodness, which consisteth with scandalous corruptions, is to be a scandal in the church.
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