published in foreign countries; history records the man who had the extraordinary happiness to live to such an age, it writes his name with precision, and transmits his memory to the most distant posterity; it says, at such a time, in such a place, lived a man who attained his hundredth year. After this, he must die. Old age is an incurable malady, and we are old at fourscore. O! shadow of life, how vain art thou! O grass! how little a time dost thou flourish in our field! O wise and instructive principle of Barziliai, there is very little distance between old age and death! 'How long have I to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day fourscore years old, I pray thee let me return, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of my lather and my mother.' But if the principle of this good old man be well founded, the consequence derived from it is better founded, that is, that worldly affairs do not suit a man drawing near the end his of life; that when death is so near, a man should be wholly employed in preparing for it. If Barzillai had been a wise man through the whole course of his life, as we may suppose he had, he had not put off till now a preparation for this event, which is certainly the most serious and important of life. Even they who have lived the most regularly, and gone innocent through all the busy scenes of life, have long accounts to settle, and questions of the last importance to agitate, when they come to die. Every thing engages Barzillai to avoid disconcerting himself in his last moments, and to devote the few that remain to seriousness. Yes, every thing engages him to do so; and to confine myself to some reflections, the length of time he had lived, the cares of his mind at present, and the consolation arising from a meditation of death, all incline him to take leave of the king and the court, the pleasures and business of the world, tables richly served, and concerts well performed; all incline him to think of nothing but death. 1. The long time he had lived. If the account which God requires every man to give at death be terrible to all men, it should seem particularly so to old men. An old man is responsible for all the periods of his life, all the circumstances he has been in, and all the connexions he has formed. Then before a tribunal of impartial justice, will every instant of that long life, which is now at an end, be examined. Then will all the objects which time seems to have buried in eternal silence be recalled to view. Then sins of youth, which have left no trace on the mind, because the eagerness with which we proceed to the commission of new crimes, does not allow time to examine what we have committed, then will they all rise out of that sort of annihilation in which they seemed to be lost. Fourscore years spent in offending thee my God said a dying man. Too true in the * Mr. de Montausier. See the close of his fune. ral oration, by Flechier. mouth of him who said so! Too true in the mouths of most old men! A motive powerful enough to engage an old man to employ in penetential exercises every moment which the patience of God yet affords, and which, at his age, cannot be many. 2. The continual cares which exercised the mind of Barzillai, were a second spring of his action. We consider riches as protectors from care; but in general they are the direct contrary. A rich man is obliged, as it were, to give himself wholly up to discover and defeat a general plot laid to engross his fortune. He must resist such as would violently force it from him. He must unmask others, who, under colour of justice, and supported by law, involve him in lawsuits to establish illegitimate claims. He must penetrate through a thousand pretences of generosity, disinterestedness, and friendship, into the soul of a false friend who aims at nothing but gratifying his own avarice or ambition. He must watch night and day to fix his riches, wluch, having wings, are always ready to fly away. How difficult is it for a soul, distracted with so many cares, to devote as much time to work out salvation, as a labour so important requires! How necessary is it to make up, by retirement and recollection in the last stages of life, what has been, wanting in days of former hurry, and which are now no more! I recollect, and I apply to Barzillai, a saying of a captain, of whom historians have taken more care to record the wisdom than the name. It is said, that the saying struck the emperor Charles V., and confirmed him in his design of abdicating his crown, and retiring to a convent. The captain required the emperor to discharge him from service. Charles asked the reason. The prudent soldier repli. ed, Because there ought to be a pause between the hurry of life and the day of death. 3. In fine, if Barzillai seemed to anticipate the dying day, by continually meditating on the subject, it was because the meditation, full of horror to most men, was full of charms to this good old man. When death is considered as accompanied with condemnatory senten ces, formidable irreversible decrees, chains of darkness, insupportable tortures, smoke ascending up for ever and ever, blazing fires, remorse, despair, desperate exclamations, mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?' Rev. x. 11; and vi. 16, 17. When we consider death, as so many men, alas! ought to consider it, and as by their continual irregularities they prepare it for consideration, no wonder the thought is disagreeable, and must be put far away. But when death is considered, as some of you, my brethren, ought to consider it, you, whose faults have been washed with penitential teurs, and repaired by a real conversion, your view of death is more delightful, and affords you more pleasure than the tables of the great, the amusements of a court, and the most melodious concerts could procure. Then these CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION. expressions, in appearance so mortifying, let me return, let me die, are fraught with happiness. Let me die, that I may be freed from the many infirmities, and diseases, and pains, to which my frail body is exposed! Let me die, that I may get rid of the misfortunes, the treachery, the perfidy, the numerous plots and plans which are always in agitation against me, in a society of mankind! 429 munion of ideas, that conformity of sentiments, which render heaven so delightful. archs and the prophets who acquired in the Let me die, that I may behold the patriwhose heads God has already placed the church an everlasting reputation, and an crowns which he promised to their faith and obedience! Let me die, that I may hold communion Let me die, and let me no more see truth me, which none but he can fill; I feel dewith the happy God! I feel a void within persecuted and innocence sacrificed to ini-sires elevating me to his throne; I feel my quity! Let me die, let all my doubts and darkness flesh crying out,' when I think of presenting soul longing and fainting, my heart and my vanish, let me surmount all my difficulties, myself before him, Ps. lxxxiv. 2. and let all the clouds that hide interesting ob-heart say,Seek his face? Thy face O Lord Does my jects from me disappear! Let me go to know will I seek,' Ps. xxvii. 8. And, as in this as I am known, and let me put off this body vale of tears thou art always hidden, I will of sin! Let me leave a world in which, I can- seek thee in another economy! not live without offending God! Let me kindle the fire of my love at the altar of the love of God! Let me die, and leave this untoward company of men, who seem almost all to have taken counsel against the Lord, and against his anointed, to subvert his throne, and were it possible, to deprive him of the government of the world! Let me die, that I may form intimate connexions with happy spirits, and that I may enjoy that close union with them, that com charms unknown to the world; but to you, A meditation on death, such as this, has prospect of dying is better to Barzillai than my brethren, they are not unknown. The all the pleasures of a court. A tomb appears more desirable to him than a royal palace. Let me turn back, that I may die, and be buried by the grave of my father and my mo such a death! ther! May we all by a holy life prepare for so! To him be honour and glory for ever! God grant us grace to do Amen. SERMON XLIX. CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION. COLOSSIANS iv. 6. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt. conversation, Christianity must be laid aside, and each expression must have an air sordid and vicious. Nothing is so rare as a wise union of gravity and gentility, piety and sweetness of manners; a disposition that engages us to preserve inviolable the laws of religion without injuring the rights of society, and to do justice to society without violating religion. IT is a complaint, as old as the study of hu- this extreme, exceeding the bounds of refr man nature, that mankind are prone to excess,gion, and imagining that, in order to please in that they never observe a just mean; that in practising one virtue, they neglect another; that in avoiding one vice, they run into an opposite; in a word, men usually go into extremes. This general maxim, which is exemplified in alinost all the actions of men, is particularly remarkable in those familiar conversations, which religion allows, which society renders necessary, and for which God seems to have purposely formed us. Observe the conduct of men in this article, you will we are called, without which our conversaHowever, it is this just medium to which find every where excesses and extremes. the one hand, you will see rude and uncivil teaches us in the text: 'Let your speech be On tion must be criminal, and which St. Paul people putting on in the most innocent compa-alway with grace seasoned with salt.' 'Let nies austere looks, ever declaiming against your speech be seasoned with salt; here the the manners of the world, exclaiming against every body, affecting to be offended with every thing, and converting every company into a court of justice, resounding with sentences against the guilty. On the other hand, you will find people, under pretence of avoiding 31 rights of religion are preserved, this is the These (shall I call them men or brute beasts?) cannot be agitated with the least passion, without uttering the most execrable imprecations. Froward souls, who cannot endure the least control without attacking God himself, taxing him with cruelty and injustice, disput manners, which, far from opposing, he expressly enjoins us to acquire and practise. The title of my discourse then, shall be, The art of speaking; and on this subject we will treat: -The art of speaking, not according to the rules of grammar, not in the sense used in polite academies, according to rules of worldlying with him the government of the world, good breeding, an art too insignificant to be taught in this pulpit; but the art of speaking according to the laws of the gospel, according to the precepts of Jesus Christ, the Christian art of speaking. May God who has called us to treat of this important subject, enable us to treat of it properly! May he so direct us, that this discourse may serve us both for instruction an example! May our language be 'seasoned with salt and grace;' with salt, that it may be grave and agreeable to the majesty of this place, and to the purity of our ministry; and with grace, that we may acquire your attention, and insinuate into your hearts! Amen! and, not being able to subvert his throne, assaulting him with murmurings and blasphemies. Certainly nothing can be so opposite to this salt of conversation as this abominable excess. They who practise it ought to be secluded from Christian societies, yea to be banished even from worldly companies. Thus the Supreme Lawgiver, able to save and to destroy has determined. Read the twentyfourth of Leviticus, The son of an Israelitish woman blasphemed the name of the Lord,” ver. 11, &c. At this news all Israel trembled with horror. The prudent Moses paused, and consulted God himself what to do in this new and unheard of case. The oracle informed him in these words, bring forth him that hath Salt must be the first seasoning of our con cursed without the camp, and let all that heard versation. It is hardly necessary to observe, him lay their hands upon his head, and let ai. that this term is metaphorical, and put for pu the congregation stone him. And thou, Moses. rity, of which salt is a symbol. The reason shalt speak unto the children of Israel, sayof this metaphor is clear; it is taken from the ing, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his use of salt, which preserves the flesh of ani- sin, and he that blasphemeth the name of the mals from putrefaction. For this purpose it Lord shall surely be put to death, and all the was used in sacrifices, according to the words congregation shall certainly stone him.' Have of Jesus Christ, Every sacrifice shall be salt- you attended to this sentence? It not only reed with salt.' 'Let your speech be seasoned gards the blasphemer, it regards all that hear with salt,' that is never let your lips utter any him. If you be sincere members of the condiscourse which does not savour of the respect gregation of Israel, you ought, though not to you have for the God you adore, the religion stone the blasphemer, yet to declare your abyou profess, and the Christian name which you horrence of his conduct, and, if he remain inhave the honour to bear. This is, in sub-corrigible, to endeavour to rid society of such stance, the first law of conversation. Let us be more particular. The spirit of this maxim may be expressed in five rules. The apostle recommends a seasoning of piety, a seasoning of chastity, a seasoning of charity, a seasoning of severity, and a seasoning of solidity. Consequently he condemns five usual imperfections of conversation. 1. Oaths. 2. Obscene language. 3. Siander. 4. Extravagant complaisance. 5. Futility. Either I am deceived, my brethren, or every person in this auditory needs instruction in some one of these articles. 1. The first vice of conversation, which the apostle condemns, is swearing. The first seasoning, which he recommends to us, is the salt of piety. Sad necessity for a Christian preacher, preaching to a Christian audience! Sad necessity, indeed, obliged to prove that blasphemy ought to be banished from conversation! however, it is indispensably necessary to prove this, for nothing is so common among some called Christians as this detestable vice. It is the effect of two principles, the first is a brutal madness, and the other is a most false and fanciful idea of superior understanding and free and easy behaviour. It is brutal madness that puts some people on swearing. Our language seems too poor to express this disposition, and the words brutality and madness are too vague to describe the spirit of such as are guilty of this crime. a monster. Human legislators have treated such people with the utmost rigour. The emperor Justinian condemned blasphemers to death.* Some have bored their tongues.t Others have drowned them. Others have branded them with a red hot iron in the forehead, intending, by fixing this mark of infamy in a part so visible, to guard people against keep ing company with a blasphemer. It was Lewis the ninth, a king of France, who was the author of this law. I cannot help relat ing the worls of this prince in justification of the severity of the law. A man of rank in the kingdom having uttered blasphemy, great intercession was mad for his pardon; but the king's answer was this, I would submit,' said he, to be burnt in the foreheal myself, if by enduring the pain I could purify my kingdom from blasphemy.' We affirmed. farther, that some people hsbituated themselves to swearing from false notions of glory and freedom of conversation. A man sets up for a wit in conversation, he pretends to concil ate the esteem of his company, and affects to put on the air of a man a the world, free from the stiffness of pedants. (This is not an invention of mine, this is a as fully to expose it. A fine and delicate allusion, a lively and original tour of expression, an ingenious equivocation, a double meaning, an arch look, an affected gravity, these are the dangerous veils, these the instruments that wound us when we are off our guard. For what can you say to a man who behaves in this manner? If you suffer his airs to pass without censure, he will glory in your indulgence, and take your silence for approbation. If, on the other hand, you remonstrate, he will tax you only with his own crime; he will tell you that your ear is guilty, his language is in natural portrait, my brethren, and some of you gave me the original.) This man, I say, having taken into his head this design, and not being able to derive means of succeeding from his genius, or education, calls in the aid of oaths; of these he keeps various forms, and applies them instead of reasons, having the folly to imagine that an oath artfully placed at the end of a period renders it more expressive and polite; and, judging of the taste of his hearers by his own, inwardly applands himself, and wonders what heart can resist the power of his eloquence. An elocution mean and contemptible, and fitter for annocent; that immodesty is in your heart, not unbridled soldiery than for those that command them. An elocution directly opposite to the words of my text, Let your speech be seasoned with salt. Never let the name of God go out of your lips without exciting such sentiments of veneration in your minds as are ing of the tongue to the enemy of our salvadue to that sacred name. Never speak of the tion, certainly to lend an ear to such converattributes of God in conversation without re-sation, and by certain expressive smiles to collecting the Majesty of that Being to whom they belong. Accustom not thy mouth to swearing,' said the wise son of Sirach, neither use thyself to the naming of the Holy One; for he that nameth God continually shall not be faultless,' Eccl. xxii. 9. 10. The first vice of conversation to be avoided is swearing and blasphemy, the first seasoning of conversation is piety. 2. The apostle prescribes us a scasoning of chastity. Against this duty there are some direct and some oblique attacks. Direct violators of this law are those nauseous mouths, which cannot open without putting modesty to the blush, by uttering language too offensive to be repeated in this sacred assembly, yea, too filthy to be mentioned any where without breaking the laws of worldly decency. We are not surprised that people without taste, and without education, that a libertine who makes a trade of debauchery, and who usually haunts houses of infamy, should adopt this style; but that Christian women, who profess to respect virtue, that they should suffer their ears to be defiled with such discourse, that they should make parties at entertainments and at cards with such people, and so discover that they like to have their ears tickled with such conversation, is really astonishing. We repeat it again, decorum and worldly decency are sufficient to inspire us with horror for this practice. And shall the maxims of religion affect us less than human rules? Fornication and all uncleanness,' said St. Paul, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints,' Eph. v. 3. Baretaced immodest discourse is not the most dangerous, for it ought to be then least tolerated, because it is then most execrable when it is uttered equivocally. There is an art of disguising obscenity, and of conveying poison the most fatally, by communicating it in preparations the most subtle and refined Men in general choose rather to appear virtuous than to be so, and, to accommodate such people, there is an art of introducing vice upder coverings so thick as to seem to respe the modesty of the company, and yet so thin in his expressions; and that of two senses to which his language is applicable, you have adopted the immodest, when you ought to have taken the chaste meaning. If to talk in this manner be to make an offer promise a favourable attention to it, is to dedicate the ear to him. And do not deceive yourselves, you will never be able to persuade such as know the human heart, that you love virtue, while you take pleasure in hearing conversation injurious to virtue. You will be told, and with great reason, that you are a friend to nothing but the appearance of it. Were virtue itself the object of your esteem, you would not keep company with such as wound it. But by your indulgence of such people, you give us great reason to presume, that were not human laws and worldly decency in your way, you would give yourself up to the practice of vice; for, in spite of these, you take pleasure in beholding it when appearances are saved, and even disguise it yourself under specious pretexts. Farther, we include in our notion of immodest conversation, licentious songs, which lawless custom has rendered too familiar; songs which, under a pretence of gratifying a passion for vocal and instrumental music, disseminate a thousand loose, not to say lascivious maxims, excite a thousand irregular emotions, and cherish many criminal passions. Attend to this article of our discourse, ye parents, who idolize your children, children whom ye ought to dedicate to Jesus Christ, but whom ye lead into a licentiousness that is a disgrace to your families. Music is an art criminal or innocent according to the use made of it. Those pious men whom the holy Scriptures propose to us for models, did not deny themselves the enjoyment of it; but they applied it to proper subjects. St. Paul even recommends it. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord,' Col. iii 16. Thus also a prophet formerly applied both his voice and his instrument to celebrate the praises of his Creator. Awake up, my glory, awake psaltery and harp, I myself will awake early. I vill praise thee, O Lord, among the people; I will sing unto thee among the nations. Sing aloud unto God our strength; make a joyful ny, induces another to receive and publish it. As soon as ever the voice of slander is heard, a thousand echoes repeat it, and publish vices which your want of charity, or excess of injustice, attributed to your neighbour. What renders this the more deplorable is the usual readiness of mankind to give credit to calumny; a readiness on the one part to utter ealumny, and on the other to believe it, overwhelm a neighbour with all the misery of defamation. noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp, with the psaltery,' Ps, lvii. 3,9; and lxxxi. 1, 2, &c. Thus a christian musician ought to sing; but never, never should his mouth utter licentious verses. An unchaste tongue is a sad sign of a depraved heart. A woman who paints vice in colours so agreeable, proves, that she considers it in a very amiable light, and has no objection to the practice of it. For my port, I shall never be able to persuade myself that any consecrate their bodies to the temples of the Holy Ghost, who, to use an ex-mit this crime bind themselves to perform; pression of St. Paul, make their tongues' members of an harlot,' I Cor. vi. 15. Slander and calumny are a third defect of conversation, and the third law which our apostle imposes on us in a seasoning of charity. I freely acknowledge, my brethren, that I cannot enter on this article without losing that moderation of temper, which is necessary to a preacher who would treat of the subject properly. Whether it be weakness of mind, or self-interest, or whether it be the enormous lengths to which you practise this vice in this place, too much practised, alas, every where! or whatever be the cause, I can scarcely retain my temper; for I feel myself at once ready to confound instruction with reproof. Is there any character among you so respectable, any intention so innocent, any conduct so irreproachable, any piety so conspicuous, as to escape the cruelty of your calumniating conversations? What shall I say to you my brethren? I wish I knew how to collect the substance of many sermons into this one article: I would endeavour to exhibit calumny in one small portrait, at which you might continually look, and which might perpetually inspire you with holy horror. 3. Consider the duties which they who com duties so hard, that some would rather die than perform them, and yet duties so indispensable, that no man can expect either favour or forgiveness who neglects the discharge of them. The first law we impose on a man who has unjustly acquired the property of a neighbour, is to restore it. The first law we impose on a man who has injured the reputation of another, is to repair it. There is a restitution of honour as well as of fortune. Which of you, now, who has dealt in slander, dare form the just and generous resolution of going from house to house to publish his retractions? Who is there among you, that by committing this sin does not hazard all his own reputation? 4. Consider how extremely opposite this sin is to the law of charity. You know the whole religion of Jesus Christ tends to love. The precepts he gave, the doctrines he taught, the worship he prescribed, the ordinances he instituted, the whole gospel is the breath of love. But what can be more incompatible with love than slander! consequently who deserves less the name of Christian than a slanderer? mark, and it will be impossible for us to avoid falling into the temptation of committing this crime, unless we keep a perpetual watch. 5. Consider how many different forms calumny assumes. In general all the world 1. Consider this vice in its source. Some- agree it is one of the most hateful vices: yet it times it proceeds from littleness of mind, for is curious to see how persons who declaim the there are people who cannot converse, they most loudly against this crime, practise it neither understand religion nor government, themselves. All the world condemn it, and arts nor sciences, and their conversation would all the world slide into the practice of it. fanguish and die away, were not the void filled The reputation of our neighbour is not only up with a detail of the real imperfections of injured by tales studied and set, but an air, a their neighbours, or of others, which the most smile, a look, an affected abruptness, even sicruel malignity ascribes to them, and the num-lence, are envenomed darts shot at the same ber of these always far surpasses that of real defects. Sometimes it comes from pride. People wish to be superior to their neighbours, and not having the noble courage to rise above 6 Consider the various illusions, and numthem by the practice of more virtue, they en- berless pretexts, of which people avail themdeavour to sink them by slanderous conversa-selves, in order to conceal from themselves the tion. Sometimes envy is the source. They turpitude of this crime. One pretends he are persons who place their happiness in the said nothing but the truth; as if charity dul misery of others. A neighbour's prosperity not oblige us to conceal the real vices of a shocks them, his reputation wounds them, and neighbour, as well as not to attribute to him his rest is their torment. Sometimes a guilty fanciful ones. Another justifies his conduct conscience generates slander. Bad men fear by pretending he is animated not by hatred, lest the public eye should discover and fix on but by equity; as if God had appointed every their own crimes, and they try to prevent this individual to exercise vengeance, and to be misfortune by artfully turning the attention of an executioner of his judgments; as if, supposspectators from themselves to the vices of their ing the allegation true, a man does not sin fellow-citizens. against his own principles (for he pretends 2. Consider the fatal consequences of slan-equity) when he shows his neighbour in an der. Judge of the hearts of others by your unfavourable point of view, by publishing his own. What makes one man invent a calum-imperfections and concealing his virtues |