them. He is not religious: therefore he justly perishes. In the place of an unbridled tongue substitute the fin which you retain, and apply this reafoning to yourself. Deceive not your own heart. you only feem to be religious.

Beware left Beware left your religion be vain. If you prefer any one finful habit to the command of God; you are not his fervant. If you fuffer any one finful habit to ftand between you and heaven; you deserve to forfeit heaven. You confefs that God has authority to forbid every fin. You confefs that he has forbidden every fin. You hear his voice in the Scriptures. His warnings are urged upon you by his minifters. You are fatiffied that you can obtain falvation in no other path than that which he has traced. You are fully apprifed that, unless you labour to obey Him in all things, the severity of his wrath will abide upon you. With this conviction to awaken your confcience, do you fay unto the Moft High; "Thefe "things will I do for Thee: but this thing I "will not do for Thy fake. Thus far I will "obey Thee: but here I will be mafter?" Do you speak thus, and presume to affirm that you pay respect to the fovereignty of the Almighty? Do you act in this fpirit,

and

and hope to be accepted by Him? Is this to love holiness? Is this to feek firft the kingdom of God and his righteousness ? Is this to mortify your corruptions, and to live unto Christ who died for you? A good man may be overcome by a fudden temptation but he will be humbled in forrow to the duft, and will be led by remorse to encreased earnestness in watchfulness and prayer. He who has not been fully inftructed may long remain in blindness and guilt: yet let his heart become turned unto God, and the eyes of his understanding be opened, and he will abhor himself and repent. But the man who, with an unclouded knowledge of his duty, refufes to aim at univerfal holinefs, and perfifts in the referved indulgence of fome unchristian temper or practice; be that temper or practice what it may, fhall find its fruit to be everlasting condemnation.

SERMON XII.

On Sins of the Tongue.

PSALM CXli. 3.

Set a watch, O Lord! before my mouth : keep the door of my lips.

WORDS," exclaim the inconfiderate,

"are empty air; formlefs fhadows; tranfient pictures of the inclination of the 66 moment. Even when moft reprehen"fible, we have intended little by them. They were the offspring of furprise.

66

66

God

They were faults, if faults, which died " in their birth. The wind carried them away and they were forgotten. "looks to fubftantial deeds. We fhall be "recompenfed according to our works."

Death and life, replies the voice of the Moft High, are in the power of the tongue. By thy words thou shalt be justified; and by

thy

thy words thou shalt be condemned. For every idle word that men fhall speak they fhall give account in the day of judgement. If any man feem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue; that man's religion is vain (a). The tongue is the great inciter to holinefs and to fin. It is the hand that executes: but it is the tongue that perfuades. The tongue gives vent to the heart. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth Speaketh (b). There is no thought, evil or righteous, which the tongue may not be the inftrument of embodying in words: no purpose, finful or holy, which it may not be employed to encourage or to reprefs.

I propofe to explain the nature of fome of the principal fins of the tongue. Our attention fhall firft be directed to those which, when contpared with others, appear the lighteft; and fubfequently to those which are the moft heinous. Let me remind you however, that for any fin, however light it may appear, nothing but the blood of Chrift can atone; and that in proportion as fins appear comparatively light, they will probably be the more frequently re

(a) Prov. xviii. 21. Matth, xii. 36, 37. James, i. 26. (6) Luke, vi. 45.

peated,

peated, and repeated without being followed by repentance.

I. Let us advert to thofe offences of the tongue, which may be comprehended under St. Paul's expreffion, foolish talking (c).

To this description belongs all levity of difcourfe upon folemn or weighty fubjects. Some perfons are fo indifpofed to sobriety of thought, and have fo long accustomed themselves to regard seriousness as bordering upon ftupidity or gloom; that the graveft concerns lofe in their converfation every fympton of importance. Whatever be the topic under difcuffion, a flippancy of manner which they interpret to themfelves as gaiety, and a pertnefs of language which they fuppofe to be wit, are indif criminately exhibited. The wifeft reflections are encountered with unmeaning laughter and conclufions of the highest moment are repelled by a paltry effort at a jeft. Of another clafs, more numerous, and, if it be poffible, equally thoughtless, the converfation is altogether and uniformly idle. Day after day, at home and abroad, you hear nothing drop from their lips which

(c) Ephef. v. 4.

manifefts