from being called to an account. "Swords," saith the psalmist of
such persons, "are in their lips: Who (say they) doth hear?" And,
"Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off," saith
David again, intimating the common manner of this practice. Calumny
is like "the plague, that walketh in darkness." Hence appositely
are the practisers thereof termed whisperers and backbiters: their
heart suffers them not openly to avow, their conscience tells them
they cannot fairly defend their practice. Again--

Seventhly, the consequence of this practice is commonly shameful
disgrace, with an obligation to retract and render satisfaction:
for seldom doth calumny pass long without being detected and
confuted. "He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely: but he that
perverteth his ways shall be known:" and, "The lip of truth shall be
established for ever; but a lying lip is but for a moment," saith
the great observer of things. And when the slander is disclosed,
the slanderer is obliged to excuse (that is, to palliate one lie
with another, if he can do it), or forced to recant, with much
disgrace and extreme displeasure to himself: he is also many times
constrained, with his loss and pain, to repair the mischief he hath
done.

Eighthly, to this in likelihood the concernments of men, and the
powers which guard justice, will forcibly bring him; and certainly
his conscience will bind him thereto; God will indispensably exact
it from him. He can never have any sound quiet in his mind, he can
never expect pardon from Heaven, without acknowledging his fault,
repairing the wrong he hath done, restoring that good name of which
he dispossessed his neighbour: for in this no less than in other
cases conscience cannot be satisfied, remission will not be granted,