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SERMON XX.

THE IMPORTANCE OF WORDS.

MATT. xii. 36, 37.

"But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words

thou shalt be condemned.'

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WORDS, it is very truly said, are actions. But though they constitute a mode of action, in which we are engaged almost perpetually, we have usually but very inadequate apprehensions of their importance. Great is their influence, and very serious are the consequences which they draw after them both to ourselves and others, and yet they are uttered commonly with the utmost carelessness, and are forgotten by us oftentimes, as soon as they have passed our lips.

It would be well, however, as I shall hope to show, if they were thought of more. And if anything might bring us to this, such a passage of scripture as I have just read might very well be expected to do it. Without further preface,

therefore, I will set my text before you; and I entreat your very earnest attention whilst, by God's help, I endeavour to discourse—

I. First, of the doctrine which it delivers. II. Secondly, of the duty which it demands. III. Lastly, of the means through which that duty may be discharged.

I. And first respecting the doctrine which the text delivers. "I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment; for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

1. There is a judgment to come, to every living soul; and this judgment is to be final. The decree then to pass upon every man shall be irreversible. The condemned, whosoever they may be, shall never recover from the consequences of the award which shall be made against them; nor the justified, whosoever they may be, fall from that estate of happiness which they shall obtain through grace.

2. The words of the text, we shall do well to observe next, are from the mouth of the Judge

himself: "I say unto you,"-the Lord Jesus Christ unto whom the judgment is committed, who is in person to sit upon the tribunal, who must best know what are to be his own rules of proceeding, and what he will make the subject of inquiry,and whose declaration, therefore, must in all reason demand our most serious attention;—He himself tells us what he will then do.

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3. He will call every man to account, he says, "for every idle word." idle word." Account will be taken, indeed, of every word good or bad. For in the next clause he says generally, by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words condemned;" but every idle word is, in the first place, emphatically particularized, both to conclude more forcibly against wilfully wicked words, and also to put us duly on our guard, and make us take notice that those words are not excepted, or to go unquestioned, which we, in our ignorance and presumption, might deem likely to be excepted. He does not say every deliberate word only, or every speech made with malice aforethought, or actual design of mischief, but all useless and vain words also; whatsoever hath come from us in most haste, and with least serious purpose of any sort, and least consideration, at the time, of what might be its character, effect, or tendency. Words of this sort we have been

uttering continually from the time that we could. utter words at all; and of those of them which we uttered but yesterday, a great part may very probably have so entirely passed away from our memory, that we should scarcely recollect having spoken them, were we even to be reminded of them; yet every one of them is noted in God's book, and shall be found registered there in that day, in which "the books shall be opened, and the dead judged out of the things which are written in the books." And then we who have spoken it must account for it; that is, though we weighed it not when we spake it, the Judge will weigh it, and determine whether it is simply unprofitable, or whether it is further blameable, as positively wicked and pernicious. Neither will this seem too strict to those who consider, as all ought to do, that anything is abused, when it is not used to the right end for which it was bestowed upon us. God hath not given man his faculty of speech, to fill the world with mere prating and impertinencies, but that by it we might first bless God by prayers and praises,

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talking of all his wondrous works." And secondly, that we might communicate our minds to men in their or our own concerns, and so be mutually helpful to one another; only observe here, "Discourse tending by innocent mirth to

exhilarate the spirits, is not idle discourse; as the time spent in necessary recreation is not idle time."*

4. But to proceed when every word shall have been brought fully into judgment, and all idle words particularly; then says Christ next, By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

This does not mean that nothing else shall be inquired about but words; much less that any shall be accounted righteous in the sight of God, for any proper merit of their pious discourses ;but only that our discourses shall furnish one chief test, by which our general dispositions shall be discovered. The character of our words having been ascertained, it will be ascertained thereby what we ourselves are, and consequently what is due to each of us, agreeably to the covenant or dispensation under which we live. The case stands thus:-It is "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh-a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things." When the daily talk of our whole lives is brought to light at once, so that it shall be fully seen what it is, it may be such as shall indicate that our hearts have been habitually full of faith and + Matt. xii. 34, 35.

* Doddridge.

VOL. III.

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