nity. It is the best love you can express to your children, when you take care to season them with the best things. A husband is charged to love his wife. How shall he express this love? "Even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it," &c. (Eph. v. 25, 26). I suppose the degree is not only commended for a pattern, but the kind; it must be such a love as Christ bore to his Church: "He gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it." It must be such a love as tends to sanctification. It is a poor kind of love parents express to their children, in providing great estates and portions for them, or bringing them up in trades that they may thrive in the world; but when you train them up for Heaven, that is the best love. "For I was my father's son (he was the darling) teuder and only beloved in the sight of my mother" (Prov. iv. 3, 4). And wherein was that love expressed? "He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments and live." So for servants, it is not enough to provide bodily maintenance for them; so we do for the beasts if we would use their strength and service; but we are to instruct them according to our talents; and that is the best love we can show, to provide for their souls.

2. In our converses, speaking of God and of his word in all companies; instructing the ignorant, warning and quickening the negligent, encouraging the good, casting out some savoury discourse wherever we go. "The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment" (Psalm xxxvii. 30). A good man studieth in his speeches to glorify God, to edify those he speaks to: "I will declare thy judgments," saith David. Wise and gracious discourse drops from him. "Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honey-comb: honey and milk are under thy tongue" (Cant. iv. 11). The passages of that song are to be understood in a spiritual sense; now the lips and the tongue being instruments of speech, and milk and honey things by which the word is expressed. I suppose it is meant of a conference; and because the word of God is compared to milk and honey-comb, it shows that their conference should be gracious and edifying; this is that which drops from a sanctified mouth.

1. I shall argue from the interest which God hath in the lips and tongue, and therefore they must be used for God: he made them, bought them, and (if we belong to him) we gave them up with other things to him. We did not reserve our tongues; when we resigned and surrendered ourselves to the Lord's use, we did not make exception: the same argument which holds good for the whole body, why it should be possessed in sanctification and honour, holds good for every part of it: "Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your bodies, and in your spirits, which are God's" (1 Cor. vi. 12). Thy whole is God's, thy spirit, thy body, and every part; thy wit, strength, hand, tongue, is all God's; and therefore he expects to be glorified by thy tongue. They were rebels that said, "Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us?" (Psalm xii. 4.) There is nothing we have that is ours, but God's. Our hearts are not our own, to think what we will; nor our tongues our own, to speak what we will. God expects service from the tongue, otherwise we must be answerable for it when our sovereign Lord calls us to an account. Now it is strange God should have so clear a right to our speech and language, and yet so little a share therein: "Render thou unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto

God the things that are God's." Thy tongue and thy lips, whose are they? If thou couldst make thy tongue of thyself, then thou mightest use it for thyself; but since thou had it from God, thou must use it for God. But, alas! how little are men mindful of this? Follow thein all the day, you get not one word of God from them; they use their tongues as if they were their own, not God's.

2. It is the glory of the tongue to serve God in this kind. It is the most excellent member in the body, when it is well-used for the glory of God and the edification of others; therefore called our glory often in the Psalms, "Awake my glory;" that is, my tongue; and what is glory in the Old Testament, is rendered tongue in the New (Acts ii). Our tongue is our glory, why? because we have this advantage by it, we may speak for God, "Therewith bless we God," (James iii. 9). The benefit of speech it is our privilege above angels and beasts. Angels, they have reason, but no tongues; and beasts, they have tongues, but no reason to guide them and act them. But now we have tongues and reason both, that we may declare our Maker's praise. Surely this member and instrument was not given us to favour meats and drinks, that is not the highest use of it, but to express the senses and affections of the mind; not to utter vain, frothy, frivolous things (what an abuse is that?) but to comfort and instruct one another in the things of God. It is our glory.

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3. Every creature hath a voice like itself, and therefore so should the new creature have. The ox bellows, the ass brayeth, goats and sheep may be known by their bleat; and so is a man by the tenor of his discourse. As the constitution of the mind is, so are the words. A wicked man hath a vain heart, and therefore his discourse is idle and frivolous: "The tongue of the just is as choice silver: but the heart of the wicked is little worth" (Prov. x. 20). The antithesis shows it should have been said, "the tongue of the wicked is little worth;" but he would point at the cause of it, the heart of the wicked. There is a quick intercourse between the tongue and the heart. Now because the heart of the wicked is nothing worth, all his thoughts and musings are vain; he goes grinding chaff in his mind all the day; his mind, like a mill, is always at work; not upon corn, that it might be bread for his soul, but upon chaff; therefore because his heart is nothing worth, his tongue is nothing worth: The tongue of the just is as choice silver," it brings in a great deal of treasure. But take a wicked man, all the workings of his heart, his thoughts and discourses, when summed up together, the product and total sum at night is nothing but vanity. The Lord seeth all their thoughts are but vain. A vain ear will have vain speeches, and so a cankered sinner will have cankered discourse, as a putrid breath discovereth rotten lungs. Every man's speech is as his humour is; come to a covetous person, he will be discoursing of farms, oxen, bargains, wares, and such like. Come to an epicurean gallant, to a voluptuary, and he will be telling you of horses, games, dogs, meats, drinks, merry company. Go to the ambitious, they will be talking of honours, offices, and the like. As they are of the flesh, so their talk favours of fleshly things. Every man hath a voice like himself, he speaks according to the constitution of his mind. Go to the discontented man, he will be talking of his adversaries, telling of affronts, wrongs, and public offences received. But a godly man hath a voice too, like himself; he will be declaring "the judgments of God's mouth," he will be speaking out of the word of God, of things within his sphere, and suitable to his kind:

"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things" (Matt. xii. 35). Still the tap runs according to the liquor with which the vessel is filled; and a man's speech bewrays him of what kind he is; and therefore since every creature hath a voice like himself, so should the new creature have.

4. I shall argue from the nature of good, which is communicative, and loves to propagate itself. Omne bonum sui diffusivum. "Thou being converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke xxii. 32). He had had experience of a changeable heart; now go strengthen others. Fire turneth all things about it into fire. Leaven pierceth through the whole lump. So, grace seeks to propagate and diffuse itself. Therefore, when the work of God is written upon a man's mind, and laid up in his heart, he will be declaring and speaking of it to others. Naturalists observe, that mules and creatures which are of a mongrel race, do not procreate after their kind so the false Christians are not for propagating and enlarging Christ's interest; they are not so warm, spiritual, heavenly in their discourses. Andrew when acquainted with Christ, calls Peter, and both call Nathaniel: "We have found the Messiah" (John i. 41, 45). John calls his disciples. As a hen when she hath found a worm, or a barley-corn, clucks for her chickens that they may come and partake of it with her; so a man acquainted with Christ, who hath tasted that the Lord is gracious, he cannot hold, he will be calling upon his friends and relations to come and share with him of the same grace. As they have more of God, they will improve it for the comfort of others, and be willing to take hold of all opportunities to this end.

5. It discovereth plenty of knowledge, and a good esteem of the word. (1.). Plenty of knowledge, when it is so apt to break out. When these living waters run out of the belly, it is a sign of a good spring there: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another" (Col. iii. 16). It is a sign we have gotten the riches of understanding; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks: "The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips" (Prov. xvi. 23). When our speech hath weight and worth in it, and we are ready upon all occasions, it argueth a good stock of the word. You know a man that puts his hand in his pocket, and brings up gold at every draught, it is a sign he hath more plenty of it than silver. So, when we are ready to bring out gracious discourses, it argueth a treasure and stock within. (2.) It argueth a good esteem of the word. Things that are dear and precious to us, we use to discourse of them. What we love, admire, and effect, the tongue will be occupied about such things. "He that is of the earth, is earthly, and speaketh of the earth" (John iii. 31). They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world" (1 John iv. 5). I know it is spoken, in the first place, of ordinary teachers. All men whose original is of the earth, they savour of it in their speech; when they speak of divine things, there is some earthiness in it. The other scripture is meant of false teachers, they savour of the world, all their teaching doth savour of their affections. But both places give this general truth,-what a man's affections are upon, it is most ready in his mouth. Therefore, it argueth, we are affected with the word of God, when we are declaring it upon all occasions.

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6. It is for our benefit to be talking of good things to others. breasts that are not sucked, do soon grow dry; but the more they are

milked out and drawn, the greater is the increase: so in spiritual things, we gain by communicating. By discourse, truths are laid more in view. We find in any art of common learning, the more we confer about things with others, the more understanding we get ourselves: "The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself" (Prov. ii. 25). It is spoken of alms; it is true of spiritual alms, as plain experience shows, by watering and refreshing others, the more we are comforted and refreshed ourselves. The loaves were increased in the dividing. Solomon compares conference to the whetting iron upon iron; the more one iron is whet upon another, both are sharpened; so by conference our gifts are increased. Earthly goods, the more they are given out, we have the less in view and visible appearance, though God can increase them: but now in heavenly and spiritual things, in the very giving out to others, they are increased upon our hands.

USE I. To shame us for our unprofitableness in our relations and converses (for these are two things wherein a Christian should take occasion to declare the judgments of God's mouth).

1. In our relations, that we do no good there, in declaring the judgments of God's mouth to one another. Surely every relation is a talent, and you will be accountable for it, if you do not improve it for your Master's use. The husband is to converse with his wife as a man of knowledge (1 Peter iii. 7); and the wife to gain upon the husband (1 Peter iii. 2); and both upon the children and servants. The members of every family should be helping one another in the way to heaven. With what busy diligence doth an idolatrous family carry on their way and their course! "The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire," &c. (Jer. vii. 18) saith the Lord. Every one will have his hand in the work, and are quickening and inflaming one another; fathers, children, husbands, wives, all find some employment or other about their idolatrous service. O that every one would be as forward, and zealous, and helpful in the work of God. O that we were as careful to train and set our families a-work in a course of godliness. Christians should reason thus: What honour hath God by making me a father, a master of a family? Every such a one hath a charge of souls, and he is to be responsible. It will be no grief of heart to you, when by your means they become acquainted with God: "Ye are my crown and my rejoicing," says the Apostle, of the Thessalonians converted by his ministry. It will be a crown of honour and rejoicing in the day of the Lord, when you have been instrumental not only for their prosperity in the world, but of their increasing in grace.

2. In our converses, how little do we edify one another! If Christ's question to the two disciples going to Emmaus, were put to us, 'What manner of conversation had you by the way?' what cause should we have to blush and be ashamed! Generally our discourse is either, (1.) Profane and sinful; there is too much of the rotten communication which the Apostle forbids, "Let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearer" (Eph. iv. 29). Rotten discourse argueth a rotten heart. Or, (2.) Idle and vain, as foolish tales. The Apostle bids Timothy, "To refuse profane and old wives' fables," or vain compliments, (1 Tim. iv. 7); for we are to give an account for idle words (Matt. xii. 36). Or else like the Athenians, we spend our time in hearing and telling news, (Acts xvii. 21). Or, we please and solace ourselves with frothy flashes of a

wanton wit, and jesting that is not convenient, which the Apostle forbids (Eph. v. 4). The praise of a Christian lieth not in the wittiness, but in the graciousness of his conversation. That which is Aristotle's virtue is made a sin with Paul, (foolish jesting). You should rather be refreshing one another with what experiences you have had of the Lord's grace; that is the comfort and solace of Christians when they meet together. But when men wholly give up themselves to move laughter, all this is idle and vain discourse. It is not enough to say it doth no hurt, but what good doth it do? doth it tend to the use of edifying? A Christian that hath God and Christ, and his wonderful and precious benefits to talk of, and so many occasions to give thanks, he cannot want matter to discourse of when he comes into company; therefore we should avoid vain discourse. Or, (3.) We talk of other men's matters or faults, as the Apostle speaks of those, that wandered from house to house; that not being idle only, but tatlers also, and busy bodies, speaking things which they ought not (1 Tim. v. 13). Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people. (Lev. xix. 16). The Hebrew word signifies a merchant, or one that goeth about with spices to sell; thence the word is used for one that wandereth from place to place, uttering slanders as wares. These pedlars will always be opening their packs. Men fill up time by tattling and meddling with others. Thus have I heard of such or such a one. (4). Or, our discourse is wholly of worldly business, not a word of God: " They are of the earth, and speak of the earth" (John iii. 31). The habituating ourselves to worldly discourse together, without interposing something of God, is a great disadvantage. (5). Or vain jangling; if we speak of anything that hath an aspect upon religion, we turn it into a mere dispute about opinion; we do not use conferences as helps to gracious affections. How many are there sick of questions, as the Apostle saith, and dote upon strife of words? (1 Tim. vi. 4.) Thus if we did put ourselves to question at night, What have I spoken? What good have I done? What good have I received from such company? It would make the word more sensible, and active upon our souls.

USE II. To press us to holy conference, both occasional and set.

1. Occasional. We are not left at random in our ordinary discourse to speak as we will; but at all times, and with all persons we should have an eye to the good of those with whom we speak: "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man" (Col. iv. 6). In visits, walks, journeys, let your speech be always with grace: we should ever be drawing to good discourse, as remembering we must give account: "So speak as those that shall be judged by the law of liberty" (James ii. 12). Certainly a gracious heart will thus do. He that doth not want a heart, will not want an occasion of interposing somewhat for God. This was Christ's manner, when he was eating bread in the Pharisee's house; he discourseth, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God" (Luke xiv. 15). There will be a feast in Heaven when we shall "sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God." So when Christ was at Jacob's well, he discourseth of the well of living waters which springeth up to eternal life (John. iv. 14); still he draweth towards some gracious improvement of the occasion. So when he was at the feast of tabernacles, and it was the custom there to fetch water from Siloa, and pour it out upon the altar of burnt-offerings, they were to make a flood of it; Christ improves it: If