IDLE TALK.

Let no man think it a light matter that he spends his precious time in idle words; let no man be so weary of what flies away too fast, and cannot be recalled, as to use arts and devices to pass the time away in vanity, which might be rarely spent in the interests of eternity. Time is given us to repent in, to appease the divine anger, to prepare for and hasten to the society of angels, to stir up our slackened wills, and enkindle our cold devotions, to weep for our daily iniquities, and to sigh after, and work for, the restitution of our lost inheritance; and the reward is very inconsiderable that exchanges all this for the pleasure of a voluble tongue: and indeed this is an evil that cannot be avoided by any excuse that can be made for words, that are in any sense idle, though in all senses of their own nature and proper relations they be innocent. They are a throwing away something of that which is to be expended for eternity, and put on degrees of folly according as they are tedious and expensive of time to no good purposes.

Great knowledge, if it be without vanity, is the most severe bridle of the tongue. For so have I heard that all the noises and prating of

the pool, the croaking of frogs and toads, is hushed and appeased upon the instant of bringing upon them the light of a candle or torch. Every beam of reason and ray of knowledge checks the dissolutions of the tongue. But, every man as he is a fool and contemptible, so his tongue is hanged loose, being like a bell, in which there is nothing but tongue and noise.

No prudence is a sufficient guard, or can always stand "in excubiis," still watching, when a man is in perpetual floods of talk: for prudence attends after the manner of an angel's ministry; it is despatched on messages from God, and drives away enemies, and places guards, and calls upon the man to awake, and bids him send out spies and observers, and then goes about his own ministries above: but an angel does not sit by a man, as a nurse by the baby's cradle, watching every motion, and the lighting of a fly upon the child's lip. And so is prudence; it gives rules, and proportions out our measures, and prescribes us cautions, and by general influences orders our particulars: but he that is given to talk, cannot be secured by all this; the emissions of his tongue are beyond the general figures and lines of rule; and he can no more be wise in every period of a long and running talk, than a lutanist can deliberate and make every motion of his hand by

the division of his notes, to be chosen and distinctly voluntary. And hence it comes, that at every corner of the mouth a folly peeps out, or a mischief creeps in. A little pride and a great deal of vanity will soon escape, while the man minds the sequel of his talk, and not that ugliness of humor which the severe man that stood by did observe, and was ashamed of. Do not many men talk themselves into anger, screwing up themselves with dialogues of fancy, till they forget the company and themselves? And some men hate to be contradicted, or interrupted, or to be discovered in their folly; and some men being a little conscious, and not striving to amend by silence, they make it worse by discourse. A long story of themselves, a tedious praise of another collaterally to do themselves advantage, a declamation against a sin to undo the person, or oppress the reputation of their neighbour, unseasonable repetition of that, which neither profits nor delights, trifling contentions about a goat's beard, or the blood of an oyster, anger and animosity, spite and rage, scorn and reproach, begun upon questions, which concern neither of the litigants, fierce disputations, strivings for what is past, and for what shall never be ;-these are the events of the loose and unwary tongue; which are like flies and gnats upon the margin of a

pool, they do not sting like an asp, or bite deep as a bear, yet they can vex a man into a fever and impatience, and make him incapable of rest and counsel.

JESTING.

Ecclesiastical History reports that many jests passed between St. Anthony, the father of the Hermits, and his scholar St. Paul; and St. Hilarion is reported to have been very pleasant, and of facetious, sweet, and more lively conversation; and indeed plaisance, and joy, and a lively spirit, and a pleasant conversation, and the innocent caresses of a charitable humanity, is not forbidden; and here in my text our conversation is commanded to be such, that it may minister grace, that is, favor, complacence, cheerfulness, and be acceptable and pleasant to the hearer: and so must be our conversation; it must be as far from sullenness, as it ought to be from lightness, and a cheerful spirit is the best convoy for religion; and though sadness does in some cases become a Christian, as being an index of a pious mind, of compassion, and a wise, proper resentment of things,

yet it serves but one end, being useful in the only instance of repentance; and hath done its greatest works, not when it weeps and sighs, but when it hates and grows careful against sin. But cheerfulness and a festival spirit fills the soul full of harmony, it composes music for churches and hearts, it makes and publishes glorifications of God, it produces thankfulness and serves the end of charity; and when the oil of gladness runs over, it makes bright and tall emissions of light and holy fires, reaching up to a cloud, and making joy round about. And therefore, since it is so innocent, and may be so pious and full of holy advantage, whatsoever can innocently minister to this holy joy, does set forward the work of religion and charity. And indeed charity itself, which is the vertical top of all religion, is nothing else but a union of joys, concentred in the heart, and reflected from all the angles of our life and intercourse. It is a rejoicing in God, a gladness in our neighbour's good, a pleasure in doing good, a rejoicing with him; and without love we cannot have any joy at all. It is this that makes children to be a pleasure, and friendship to be so noble and divine a thing; and upon this account it is certain that all that which can innocently make a man cheerful, does also make him charitable; for grief, and age, and