SLANDER

General declamations against vice and sin are indeed excellently

useful, as rousing men to consider and look about them; but they do

often want effect, because they only raise confused apprehensions of

things, and indeterminate propensions to action, which usually,

before men thoroughly perceive or resolve what they should practice,

do decay and vanish. As he that cries out "Fire!" doth stir up

people, and inspireth them with a kind of hovering tendency every

way, yet no man thence to purpose moveth until he be distinctly

informed where the mischief is; then do they, who apprehend

themselves concerned, run hastily to oppose it: so, till we

particularly discern where our offenses lie (till we distinctly know

the heinous nature and the mischievous consequences of them), we

scarce will effectually apply ourselves to correct them. Whence it

is requisite that men should be particularly acquainted with their

sins, and by proper arguments be dissuaded from them.

In order whereto I have now selected one sin to describe, and

dissuade from, being in nature as vile, and in practice as common,

as any other whatever that hath prevailed among men. It is slander,

a sin which in all times and places hath been epidemical and rife,

but which especially doth seem to reign and rage in our age and

country.

There are principles innate to men, which ever have, and ever will,

incline them to this offense. Eager appetites to secular and sensual

goods; violent passions, urging the prosecution of what men affect;

wrath and displeasure against those who stand in the way of

compassing their desires; emulation and envy towards those who

happen to succeed better, or to attain a greater share in such

things; excessive self-love; unaccountable malignity and vanity are

in some degrees connatural to all men, and ever prompt them to this

dealing, as appearing the most efficacious, compendious, and easy

way of satisfying such appetites, of promoting such designs, of

discharging such passions. Slander thence hath always been a

principal engine whereby covetous, ambitious, envious, ill-natured,

and vain persons have striven to supplant their competitors and

advance themselves; meaning thereby to procure, what they chiefly

prize and like, wealth, or dignity, or reputation, favor and power

in the court, respect and interest with the people.

But from especial causes our age peculiarly doth abound in this

practice; for, besides the common dispositions inclining thereto,

there are conceits newly coined, and greedily entertained by many,

which seem purposely leveled at the disparagement of piety, charity,

and justice, substituting interest in the room of conscience,

authorizing and commending for good and wise, all ways serving to

private advantage. There are implacable dissensions, fierce

animosities, and bitter zeals sprung up; there is an extreme

curiosity, niceness, and delicacy of judgment; there is a mighty

affectation of seeming wise and witty by any means; there is a great

unsettlement of mind, and corruption of manners, generally diffused

over people; from which sources it is no wonder that this flood hath

so overflown, that no banks can restrain it, no fences are able to

resist it; so that ordinary conversation is full of it, and no

demeanor can be secure from it.

If we do mark what is done in many (might I not say, in most?)

companies, what is it but one telling malicious stories of, or

fastening odious characters upon, another? What do men commonly

please themselves in so much as in carping and harshly censuring, in

defaming and abusing their neighbors? Is it not the sport and

divertisement of many to cast dirt in the faces of all they meet

with? to bespatter any man with foul imputations? Doth not in every

corner a Momus lurk, from the venom of whose spiteful or petulant

tongue no eminency of rank, dignity of place, or sacredness of

office, no innocence or integrity of life, no wisdom or

circumspection in behavior, no good-nature or benignity in dealing

and carriage, can protect any person? Do not men assume to

themselves a liberty of telling romances, and framing characters

concerning their neighbors, as freely as a poet doth about Hector or

Turnus, Thersites or Draucus? Do they not usurp a power of playing

with, or tossing about, of tearing in pieces their neighbor's good

name, as if it were the veriest toy in the world? Do not many having

a form of godliness (some of them demurely, others confidently, both

without any sense of, or remorse for, what they do) backbite their

brethren? Is it not grown so common a thing to asperse causelessly

that no man wonders at it, that few dislike, that scarce any detest

it? that most notorious calumniators are heard, not only with

patience, but with pleasure; yea, are even held in vogue and

reverence as men of a notable talent, and very serviceable to their

party? so that slander seemeth to have lost its nature and not to

be now an odious sin, but a fashionable humor, a way of pleasing

entertainment, a fine knack, or curious feat of policy; so that no

man at least taketh himself or others to be accountable for what is

said in this way? Is not, in fine, the case become such, that

whoever hath in him any love of truth, any sense of justice or

honesty, any spark of charity towards his brethren, shall hardly be

able to satisfy himself in the conversations he meeteth; but will be

tempted, with the holy prophet, to wish himself sequestered from

society, and cast into solitude; repeating those words of his, "Oh,

that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that

I might leave my people, and go from them: for they are ... an

assembly of treacherous men, and they bend their tongues like their

bow for lies"? This he wished in an age so resembling ours, that I

fear the description with equal patness may suit both: "Take ye

heed" (said he then, and may we not advise the like now?) "every one

of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother

will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with

slanders. They will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not

speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and

weary themselves to commit iniquity."

Such being the state of things, obvious to experience, no discourse

may seem more needful, or more useful, than that which serveth to

correct or check this practice: which I shall endeavor to do (1) by

describing the nature, (2) by declaring the folly of it: or showing

it to be very true which the wise man here asserteth, "He that

uttereth slander is a fool." Which particulars I hope so to

prosecute, that any man shall be able easily to discern, and ready

heartily to detest this practice.

1. For explication of its nature, we may describe slander to be the

uttering false (or equivalent to false, morally false) speech

against our neighbor, in prejudice to his fame, his safety, his

welfare, or concernment in any kind, out of malignity, vanity,

rashness, ill-nature, or bad design. That which is in Holy

Scripture forbidden and reproved under several names and notions:

of bearing false witness, false accusation, railing censure,

sycophantry, talebearing, whispering, backbiting, supplanting,

taking up reproach: which terms some of them do signify the nature,

others denote the special kinds, others imply the manners, others

suggest the ends of this practice. But it seemeth most fully

intelligible by observing the several kinds and degrees thereof;

as also by reflecting on the divers ways and manners of practicing

it.