345 / 514
aERM.
CHRISTIAN MORALITY;
&C.
337
In
all the discoveries
of
our
esteem
for other
nien,
let
us
speak
no
more than
we
in
our hearts
believe.
It
is
a
'character
of
a
very vicious time,
and
a
very
degenerate
and corrupt
age,
in
Ps.
xii.
2.
They speak
every one
with
his
neighbour, with
flattering
lips,
and
with a
double
heart
do
they
speak
;
but
the
Lord
shall
cut
off
all
flat-
tering
lips,
for
he
hates
them. ver.'3.
They speak
flat-
tery
with
their
tongue, while
at
the same time
their
throats are open sepulchres,
and
they,
it
may
be,
attempt
to
waste,
devour, and destroy.
This character
of
the
basest
of
men you
read
in
the
with
Psalm,
and
you
find
the same
hateful practice among the Jews
in
their deep-
est degeneracy
;
Jer.
ix. 5,
8.
They
will
deceive
every
one
his
neighbour,
and
will not
speak
the
truth.
One
speaketh
peaceably
to his
neighbour with
his mouth,
but
in
heart
he
layeth
wait
fbr
him,
But
this which
was so
abominable
in a
Jew,
surely a christian
ought
to
stand
at
the
greatest
distance from
at
all
times:
As in
discovery
of
our
esteem,
so in
the profession
of
our
love
and
good
-will
to
our
neighbour,
we
must ob-
serve
truth. When your heart
is
not
with
your
neigh-
bour, be not profuse
of
the language
of
friendship.
Let
love
be
without
dissimulation
;
Rom.
xii. 9.
Let
love
be
sincere to your
fellow
-
creatures, and
love to
your
fellow
-
Christians
he
upright and cordial.
Let
not
that
affection
appear
in
a
flourish
of
fine words,
if
it be
not
warm in
your
soul.
This
is
the
first
character
of truth, that our
words
agree
with
our
hearts.
IL
The next instance
of
the
truth required
in
my
text,
is,
when
our
deeds
are
comformable to
our
words
:
And this
is
called faithfulness,
as
the former
is
called ve-
racity or
sincerity.
Faithfulness or
truth,
in this sense,
has
respect
to
our
vows,
our
promises,
our
resolutions,
or our threatenings,
1.
Vows
are properly made
to
God
alone
:
And when
they
are
made,
if
the
matter
of
them be lawful,
they
ought,to
be
performed. When thou
vowest
a
vow,
defer
not
to
pay it.
Better it
is
thou shouldest
not,vow,
than
that
thou shouldest
vow,
and
not pay
;
Eccles.
v.
4, 5.
2.
Promises
of
things
lawful
made
to
our
fellow
-crea-
tures, must
also
be
fulfilled with
religious care.
As
for
things unlawful, they
ought
not
to
be
promised. We
VOL:
I.
z