A.D» 1191. LETTEB OF PETEB BLOTS TO THE BISHOP OF ELY. heart and to wicked lips, and to the sinner that goeth two ways.'4 4 The face of the hypocrite veiled the wickedness of the conscience within with a kind of pretence of friendship, and in secret you were inflicting upon an innocent man the injuries caused by a seditious and petulant tongue. Solomon says, ' Curse the whisperer and double-tongued : for such have destroyed many that were at peace.'45 All his inward thoughts did he pour forth into your bosom : you he looked upon as a second self, and yet you, to find a pretence for causing his fall, thought fit to ply him with the adulation of a betrayer. Oh detestable treachery ! Judas betrayed with a kiss, you with words ; without, you made a show of the regard of an attentive friend, and your tongue was planning treachery. As you sat, you spoke against your brother, and in the way of the son of your mother did you lay a stumbling-block. ' Woe to -that man by whom the offence cometh.'46 This guilty conduct, indeed, has branded you with the lasting stain of bad opinion, and if by the bounty of nature you had received any commendable points, this fault has done away with them for ever. In like manner, Joab acted valiantly on many occasions, but his treachery to Amasa and Abner, blackened in him all the glories of his valorous deeds. Oh lips of detraction ! Oh tongue of abuse and treachery ! What, Ο Lord shall be applied to this treacherous tongue ? Would that arrows might be applied thereto, that they might pierce it through and through, and that desolating coals of fire might consume it; would that thou, Seraph, who with the live coal from heaven47 didst purge the lips of the prophet, wouldst with the flames of hell, in purging his whole face and tongue, destroy the same, that so we might be able to sing and say, ' In cleansing him thou hast destroyed him.' Lips consecrated by the Gospel, are never ceasing to babble forth their lying words to the winds. That is entirely devoted to vanity which was due and owing to truth. But the man of froward tongue wiB not be guided on the earth ; wherefore,'let him that standeth take care lest he faB,' for before ruin the heart is exalted. Do you exult, unhappy man, and make it your boast that you have supplanted an innocent man ? But know beyond a doubt, that he has been thus laid low for both the downfall and the uprising of many, for the uprising of himself and of his people, 4 4 Ecclus. ii. 12. Our version has it, " Woe be to fearful hearts and faint hands." 4 3 Ecclus. xxvii. 31. * St. Matt, xviii. 7. « Alluding to Isaiah vi. 6, 7.