Jefus, that Divine teacher, whofe doctrine breathed no other fpirit than piety towards God, and good-will towards men, was reproached as a blafphemer of God, and a perverter of the people.

Thus generally prevalent is that moral abuse of words which confifts in calling evil good, and good evil. How mischievous it is in its effects, must have in part appeared from the preceding detail, and will be ftill further evident to every one who reflects upon the fascinating power of words on the imagination and paffions. Confer upon vice the name of pleasure, its deformity, its criminality, its fatal confequences, will disappear; and it will come before the mind affociated with all that is captivating and delightful. Ou the contrary, let virtue in general, or any of its branches be denominated by terms expreffive of labour and mortification, or adapted to excite contempt or averfion, the ideas and feelings commonly affociated with these terms are most injuri

oufly

ously transferred to the qualities and characters to which the terms are applied. By this artifice men are continually deceiving themselves, and impofing upon others; bestowing upon bad characters the praise which is due only to the good; and bringing ridicule and difgrace upon characters which are entitled to refpect and esteem. What difficulties and dif couragements are hereby caft in the way of the well-difpofed; what protection and countenance is given to abfurd follies and destructive vices, may be easily conceived. Much, then, does it concern every one, who wishes either to preserve in his own mind a just abhorrence of vice and a becoming reverence for virtue, or to check the encroachments of the one, and promote the interefts of the other, in the world around him, to avoid the pernicious practice of calling evil good, and good evil. Scarcely less have those good men to answer for, who through culpable timidity or falfe politeness, bestow soft

and

and palliating appellations upon heinous immoralities, than those bad men, who, in order to fcreen their own vices, are continually endeavouring to bring the ftrict and confcientious practice of virtue into difcredit by loading it with oppro

brious names.

The true and only remedy for this great and growing evil is, to pay more regard to things than to words; and to imprefs upon the mind a strong and habitual conviction, that independently of the caprice of language, and the tyranny of fashion, the nature of things must for ever remain unalterably the fame; that good will still be good, and evil will still be evil, by whatever names they may be called; and that as long as human nature fhall exift, virtue will continue to be wifdom and happinefs, and vice to be folly and mifery.

Against

Against thinking ill of the World.

PSALM CXvi. II.

I faid in my hafte, All men are liars.

A PRUDENT man will always decide upon characters with caution. A benevolent man will not cenfure at random, or admit an opinion injurious to the reputation of another without reluctance. Charity hopeth all things."

66

It was in an evil and unguarded hour that the unlimited cenfure of the text was uttered. The Pfalmift had been greatly afflicted. Perhaps he had recently felt fome of thofe injuries of which he fo pathetically complains in other pfalms. Perhaps his fenfibility had been wounded,

wounded, not by open hoftility from an avowed enemy, from whom he could have expected no kindness, but from the fecret treachery of fome falfe friend, in whom he had implicitly and affectionately confided. Unable to endure the pain of fuch a wound, he fought relief from his vexation, not in particular refentment against the person who had injured him, but in a general invective against mankind; he charged the whole species with the bafe depravity and criminality of a wilful and deliberate violation of truth; he faid, "All men are liars."

David feems to have been fenfible of the injuftice of his cenfure, for he ascribes it to that precipitate judgment which is the effect of paffion : "I faid in my hafte, all men are liars ;" herein expreffing difapprobation of the affertion, and a wish to retract it. Suppofing him to have done fo, let us not, then, fet down the uncharitable cenfure as an indelible blot upon his character; efpecially as it was

uttered