her be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a
railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one not to
eat." Ye see what company the railer hath in the text, and with
what a crew of people he is coupled; but no good company he is
allowed elsewhere; every good Christian should avoid him as a blot,
and a pest of conversation; and finally he is sure to be excluded
from the blessed society above in heaven; for "neither thieves, nor
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall
inherit the kingdom of God;" and "without" (without the heavenly
city) "are dogs," saith St. John in his Revelation; that is, those
chiefly who out of currish spite or malignity do frowardly bark at
their neighbours, or cruelly bite them with reproachful language.

4. If we look upon such language in its own nature, what is it but
a symptom of a foul, a weak, a disordered and a distempered mind?
'Tis the smoke of inward rage and malice: 'tis a stream that cannot
issue from a sweet spring; 'tis a storm that cannot bluster out of a
calm region. "The words of the pure are pleasant words," as the
wise man saith.

5. This practice doth plainly signify low spirit, ill-breeding, and
bad manners; and thence misbecometh any wise, any honest, any
honourable person. It agreeth to children, who are unapt and
unaccustomed to deal in matters considerable, to squabble; to women
of meanest rank (apt, by nature, or custom, to be transported with
passion) to scold. In our modern languages it is termed villainy,
as being proper for rustic boors, or men of coarsest education and
employment; who, having their minds debased by being conversant in
meanest affairs, do vent their sorry passions, and bicker about
their petty concernments, in such strains; who also, being not
capable of a fair reputation, or sensible of disgrace to themselves,
do little value the credit of others, or care for aspersing it. But
such language is unworthy of those persons, and cannot easily be
drawn from them, who are wont to exercise their thoughts about
nobler matters, who are versed in affairs manageable only by calm
deliberation and fair persuasion, not by impetuous and provocative
rudeness; which do never work otherwise upon masculine souls than so
as to procure disdain and resistance. Such persons, knowing the
benefit of a good name, being wont to possess a good repute, prizing
their own credit as a considerable