except due restitution be performed; and of all restitutions this
surely is the most difficult, most laborious, and most troublesome.
'Tis nowise so hard to restore goods stolen or extorted, as to
recover a good opinion lost, to wipe off aspersions cast on a man's
name, to cure a wounded reputation: the most earnest and diligent
endeavour can hardly ever effect this, or spread the plaster so far
as the sore hath reached. The slanderer therefore doth engage
himself into great straits, incurring an obligation to repair an
almost irreparable mischief.

Ninthly, this practice doth also certainly revenge itself, imposing
on its actor a perfect retaliation; "a tooth for a tooth;" an
irrecoverable infamy to himself, for the infamy he causeth to
others. Who will regard his fame, who will be concerned to excuse
his faults, who so outrageously abuseth the reputation of others?
He suffereth justly, he is paid in his own coin, will any man think,
who doth hear him reproached.

Tenthly, in fine, the slanderer, if he doth not, by serious and sore
repentance retract his practice, doth banish himself from heaven and
happiness, doth expose himself to endless miseries and sorrows.
For, if none that "maketh a lie shall enter into the heavenly city;"
if without those mansions of joy and bliss "every one" must
eternally abide "that loveth or maketh a lie;" if [Greek], "to all
liars their portion" is assigned "in the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone;" then assuredly the capital liar, the slanderer,
who lieth most injuriously and mischievously, shall be far excluded
from felicity, and thrust down into the depth of that miserable
place. If, as St. Paul saith, no "railer," or evil-speaker, "shall
inherit the kingdom of God," how far thence shall they be removed