Destruction Prov. 10. 19. And Death and Life are in the Power of the Tongue Prov. 18. 21. T. 4. Heaven and Earth are at a huge Distance God and this Rebel-world are of most contrary Minds For my Text declares that God cannot bear the Talks which they cannot leave No but addict themselves to and affect and prize as the Melody of their lives His Soul hateth their Foolish Talks and their Souls loath this Text and all its Parallels Who then can please Men and be the Servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. Without becoming a Fool in the World's Repute who can become Wise in God's Esteem 1 Cor. 3. 18. Holy Lips are a Thread of Scarlet Cant. 4. 3. This Thread in God's Sight is a rich Ornament in the World's Eye it 's only fit for a Fool 's Coat In short we cannot have God's Approbation but we must bear the World's Blame The World thinks every Man's Folly wonderful when he forsakes what God pronounceth abominable Luk. 16. 15. 1 Pet. 4. 4. T. 5. Diamonds have their Clouds The truest Israelites have somewhat of the Botch of Egypt Horrid Spots are ever and anon found on very Nazarites Lips For foolish Talks and Jests are detestable and yet there is not a just Man on Earth that is perfectly free from them Though every Saint be pressing on toward Perfection there is not any one hath already attained it Phil. 3. 12 14. There is not one upon Earth that never offendeth in word O by what Grace is it that an Vsher an Owen a Baxter is saved T. 6. The Horses in Pharaoh's Chariots need Bridles in their Months The Phrase that I use is Christ's own Cant. 1. 9. Believers are so called for Spiritual Strength and Beauty Egyptian Horses were the best of the World and doubtless Pharaoh's were the best of Egypt for Spirit and Shape Believers are compared to these and yet have they no Tongue but needs Discipline For so much is demonstrated by the Ephesian Saints being thus cautioned Cautioned in the Text and Context against the detestable Sins of the Tongue A Principle of Grace in the Heart excuses not a Bridle in the Mouth Without which a very Moses will speak unadvisedly with his Lips a Job will curse his Birth-day a David's Fire will burn and break out a Jeremy will abdicate himself from his Ministry Jer. 20. 9. T. 7. Wisdom is a valuable Commodity For it seems that there is not a word that can be safely spoke without it Foolish ones be Treason and Poyson and without a Stock of Wisdom in our Hearts all we speak must be Foolish That is traiterous against God and poisonous to our Selves and our Neighbours Silence we would not be willingly condemned to there are few but would rather be deprived of the Motion of their Hands and Feet than of their Tongues Nor indeed can a holy Manor Angel chuse to be Dumb. All the Creatures beside are Mutes and but tuned instruments They are Angles and Men that are to make the Musick They are the Orators of the University of the Creation Miserable are they whose Mouths must necessarily speak and yet their Hearts cannot prudently indite T. 8. Thoughts be not free For if the Words of the Mouth are not why should the Words of the Heart be so If Foolish Talk with Men be detestable Sin why not Foolish Talk with our selves also Thoughts be nothing but unfledged Words Words not yet taking wing and flying forth What we commonly name a Word is a Thought flown abroad a Spark ascended from the fire of the Heart's Coal True Foolish Oral-Talks and Jests do sin against our Neighbours which mental ones do not But the Fox is an unclean Beast while it hides in its Hole as well as when it cometh forth for its Prey And secret Sins are certain Sins as any The old Law pronounced the Swan Unclean though Feathers of Snow hid its black Skin The Viper is not more detestable than the Cockatrices-Egg Evil Thoughts grieved God to his Heart Evil Thoughts made him repent that he had made Man T. 9. Foolish Actions be gross Shames For if Foolish Words be Detestable Works much more Because in them Sin is obeyed and served by the whole Man And if I may so speak the Devil is denied nothing you can grant him Also in them is the most Wilful of all Sin for as our Words are much more easily restrained than our Thoughts so our Actions are much more easily restrained than our Words Besides in them is the most Laborious Sin In wicked Thoughts and Words Men offer Satan what costs them next to nothing Minds being volatile as Air and Tongues as active as Fire But the Work of the Hands ordinarily requireth some Sweat of the Brows Again in Sins of Action is commonly a powerful Contagion no Language is so perswasive to Good or Evil as the Language of Practice Evil Communication much corrupteth good Manners but I think not more than Evil Manners corrupt good Communication T. 10. It 's little Wonder that Peace is grown so scarce For if Foolish Talks and Jests be what hath been said the wonder is that any Peace at all is left among us Because every where these are eaten as Men eat Bread no Conscience is made of them And it were a Marvel if such Poisons made no stirs in our Souls if such Enemies of all righteousness raised no Wars in our Consciences and no Variances with one another Surely we must less grieve the holy Comforter before he very much comfort us with Peace in our selves and with each other T. 11. It is not True that All Men say For generally All do say that this Talk which God pronounces Abominable is very Innocent and Useful And its daily Practice is very consistent with true Godliness God declares it to be a Plague of Leprosy and he is a rare and singular Man that will not take it for very Comeliness and Beauty If any Spot a Beauty-Spot T. 12. Rods are for the back of Fools Severe Reproofs are due to Foolish Talkers For it seems their Sin is detestable as well as Drunkards and Whoremongers And it should be considered by Ministers and Parents that neither of them ought to Whisper and but Mutter against that which God doth Thunder Or to tempt their Pupils to believe that Folly of Words is None or but Small by making their Reproofs of it Such T. 13. Hony may be Poisoned For what more grateful than Jesting yet what more Mortal than Foolish Jests The Natural Historian tells us of an Hony in Africa lusciously sweet but perpetually distracting all that eat of it being by the Bees gathered from poisonous Flowers Just like it is the Foolish Jocularity so much admired in our day the Haut-goust of all Discourses the Comedy of every Playful Chat. So valued that it 's proverbially said They will rather lose their Friend and Soul also than their Jest Most poisonous are the Weeds whence this Hony is gathered
without Sincerity He that considers both shall think it to be wisely and kindly that God banisheth dissembling Lips And as cruelly and foolishly that any Man recals and uses them Where dwells the Man that desires not in his heart to have all the Town take his Word Hypocrites are undone when they are Unbelieved and yet no Man that knows them can Believe them Wise Men are they not to Desire perfect Impossibilities i. e. the Eternal concealment of Lies or inward belief of revealed ones It is not the way of the Wise to sail East when they would land in the West To directly-oppose their own Desires as they notoriously do whose Tongues run in Dissimulation while their Hearts lust after the repute of Veracity In short Men of the falsest Tongues would have nothing but very Truth put into their own ears But doth Wisdom either reject ought but Evil or embrace the practice of ought but Good Hypocritical Talk is Innocent or Harmful if Innocent why Angry with other Men for it if Injurious what makes the use of it Yours Every Man that uses it is Self-condemned No doubt but Saul was so when he pressed David to fight the Lord's Battels to the end that he might be slain by one or other of his Enemies Jacob's Sons were so when they expressed Zeal for Religion vaunted that none but Men of their Faith should be taken into their Family but designed only to make way for the Swords wherewith they cut the knot of the Controversie about their Sister's Marriage Jezabel was so when she called for a Fast for an After-meal of Naboth's Estate and Life Judas was so and so was his Successor Julian when he Preached what the Historian calls his Play of Christianity Plainly so are we all as oft as our Speech is with Dissimulation As oft as our Tongues deliver false Copies of our Minds Yea though they truly enough do represent the Things we speak of As oft as we speak for God deceitfully and contend for our holy Faith unfaithfully Designing to win but the Praise of Men or the Peace of our own Minds which are madly got when stollen by Lies Briefly A Lie is the utmost Corruption of Speech Deviation from its principal Service Violation of the Original and principal Law laid upon it The Tongue 's part being not so much to deliver what things really are whereof it is no Judg as to declare what the Speaker verily thinks of them in his Mind whereof it is a Witness And the most perfect Truth is a Lie in a Hypocrite's Mouth when neither Believing it himself nor concerned to have others Believe it he sets it forth with a false Profession of both Which Falsity his own Heart tells him is of so great a Malignity So great that it turneth Words of Hony into Gall of Wine into Poison of Holiness into Profaneness An aweful Thought and worthy thy to be considered Naturalists reckon Elephants and Camels among Wild Beasts though they do the Service of Tame ones because their Nature is Wild. Casuists determine Hypocrites to be Liars though they fill their Mouths with choicest Truths because there is no Truth in their Inward-Parts Remove from me the way of Lying and grant me thy Law graciously is Wise Mens Common Prayer 3. Rash Talk is Foolish That is Rash wherein the Tongue out-runs the Wit Or if Wit doth indeed Sail yet Judgment doth not Steer Though of our whole Man except but only the Heart it is the Tongue that most of all wants Government So vast are the Benefits or Mischiefs that it is apt to Produce With so much greater Ease and Speed than our Hands and Feet it doth hasten to produce them and so much more Indefatigably So very difficultly is it brought to Good-Behaviour and so palpable a mistake is our Proverb that Good words cost nothing Lions being as soon made to draw Chariots quietly as our Tongues to speak inoffensively So very difficultly also are they restrained from Evil no Bears or Tygers more needing to be kept within Rails and in Chains Perpetually is the Tongue presented with Temptations which sute its inward Propensions All Persons are Tempters If High to Flatter them if Low to Insult over them if Kind to Idolize them if Cross to Rage against them And all Things are Temptations Prosperity to Boast Adversity to Murmur Grateful things to be Lavish in their Praises Grievous ones to be as Prodigal of harsh Censures And what are they the Wise in Heart that let such a Creature go without a Guard The Creature which if any of the Subjects of God's Kingdom needeth his Supream and our Subordinate Government Unnatural it is the Natural Use is changed when the Tongue leaps before the Mind looks Brute Creatures will not so rebel against their Natures they open their Eyes e're they stir their Feet or Wings Wiser than we are whose Tongues gallop with the Eye-lids of our Minds shut Unless Wisdom it be and Reason to put off Nature If it be any it 's one full of Impiety and contrary to the Author and Lord of Nature He that Speaks as he Spits what comes next and Talks without the use of his Understanding he Talks without the Fear of his God And as truly against Law as Nature Nor is any Thank owing unto his Care if all the Commands of the first Table be not broken by his haste The Rash Talker puts it to the adventure and interpretatively says He will lose his God rather than his Word How mad a Choice But Neither is Unadvised Talk more against Piety than against Justice and Charity An ever-flowing Fountain of Iniquity it is For seldom is it other than Injurious as either False robbing Auditors of Truth or Contumelious robbing them of the Honour due to them or downright Felonious robbing them of Money or Slanderous robbing them of their good Name or someway Tedious robbing them of their Patience at the least Vain and robbing them of invaluable Time A wretched Folly thus to Plunder and Devour Men rashly without any End or if any the worst that can be proposed It would be farther considered also That The Rash Talker is not any manner of Felon more than de se His Sin doth most mercilesly of all rob himself While it Scratches other Men it Stabs him Much from them it Steals but himself out-right it Kills His Rash Licentious Talk murders all Wise Mens respect unto his Name Destroys their Credit to his very Deliberate Words Mortally wounds the Peace of his Conscience Cuts the very Throat of all his just Comfort Perfectly slays his Friendship with Men of Worth and Repute Makes his Tongue worse than none in the Apostle's Phrase Dead while it Lives Gives Death to his Understanding the Guide of Life which no longer lives in us than it leads us finally It is a Mortal Self-Pollution of his blind Will and Affections which take an infamous Rot when Judgment ceaseth to restrain and regulate them as in
§. 3. What makes Foolish-Talking and Foolish-Jesting so Detestable as our Doctrine speaks A Needless Question this were but that if any where here Wicked Love like Sacred will Believe no Evil. Against these their Darling Sins and Dalilahs Men will not believe their Eyes These Plagues of Leprosy have been all along proved as well as pronounced such Nor have the Arguments been too short for the Censures but the Discoveries have justified the Invectives Nevertheless Measure pressed down and running over shall be given I may be Vile in some Eyes for having laid so much already but I shall say more and I will yet be more Vile if by any means I may gain some And bring them to a wiser Heart and purer Language In Foolish Talking and Jesting Sins of common occurrence to all Men and of daily occurrence to every one it shall be briefly said what in general All Men do and in special What Good Men do 1. All Men Sin In the fore-described Talks and Jests they really and may I not say confessedly Sin And consequently in the same they do the worst that Creatures can do Sin is Man's Worst done against God They Contemn the Supream King's Authority and deny him to be Lord over their Tongue They Vsurp his Government and Deposing God set up themselves to Reign in His stead Subjecting their Lips to their own Lusts instead of the Divine Laws And should Dust and Ashes so set up themselves They Deny God's Propriety in them constructively saying their Tongues and therefore their Whole Persons are their own The Clay is its own and what hath the Potter to do with it Hellish Conceit They Believe not his VVisdom but say in Effect they have found out a better Language than the Holy Tongue which he hath taught Thus wiser is Darkness than Light and thus do things of Yesterday take themselves for more Prudent than the Ancient of Days They Disown his Goodness constructively saying they be Cruel Laws he hath laid on their Lips As if Reason and Religion bloodily galled their Mouths And as though our heavenly Law-giver loved us so very little as we love our selves They Confess not his Mercies and Benefits but deny themselves to be so much in his Debt as to owe him the rule of their Mouth Alas what have they that they have considered themselves to have received of God And do they owe any Debt of Gratitude Is Life and the Means of Eternal Bliss such a Matter as that for them one 's Lips should be still praising the Giver They believe it not They Despise Divine Promises and Threats and interpretatively tell the World that Earth out-bids Heaven Makes firmer or greater Promises for Vain words than the Gospel makes unto Savoury ones And thunders more fearful Threats against Edifying Discourse than the Gospel doth against Corrupt Communication For alas is Hell such a Little-Ease And is Heaven so great a Preferment No not in their sight They Reject God's very Intreaties and say in a manner Though he doth Pray and Beseech them to Speak Wisely they will not grant him No that wondrous Condescention shall not move them that miraculous Good shall not overcome their Evil. For why if All-mightiness will court Worms must they presently be won Nay they are not To turn Grace into Wantonness they are Wise but for Grace to turn from Wantonness they have no Knowledg They give the Lie to Eternal Truth Virtually saying that the Fountain of Truth is the Father of a Lie when he faith that an unbridled Tongue can have but a Vain Religion What cannot they with the same Mouth bless and curse Cannot their Fountain send forth sweet Water and bitter They will not believe themselves to be Leopards because of these Spots of their Lips They put the Son of God to open Shame Telling him in the Rhetorick of Practice that they cannot think the Blood shed of his Heart to have deserved his Lording it over their Mouth No and if he expect to command the Doors thereof he shall fail of it What is Redemption such a Kindness that the Redeemed must never speak but as the Redeemer pleases They have other Thoughts They do Despite to the Spirit of Grace Telling him that though they hear of his Divine Essence and Wonderful Office yet if his Striving with them be to circumcisetheir Lips they shall strive against him and not so easily part with those Fore-Skins Indeed his Coming to fit us for Heaven was friendly done but he exacts too much they think if he look to have so perpetual Acknowledgments They Reproach the Divine VVord and the Seals of it They make them ill spoken of and cause Men to ask To what End is your Reading the Word and so much Hearing of it Of what Use is your Baptism and who is ever the better for the Lord's Supper The Mouth utters the Heart and who among you is any cleaner than Infidels in the Mouth They Imitate Satan and Please him As he so they are Evil-Speakers A Likeness to him which cannot but highly please him it doth so extraordinarily serve his Interest and manifest his Empire They Murder their own Souls For Sin 's Wages is Death Tongues set on Fire of Hell must bear Fire in Hell And they who will not here with holy Waters cleanse them shall not there have a Drop of Water to cool them They endanger the Lives of all that come into their Companies For Poison may be drank in at the Ears and these fill the Ears of their Companions with it They Rob and Steal perpetually Rob God of his Glory themselves of the Reward that there is in using our Tongues to glorify him and their Friends of innumerable good things These they rob one while of their Purity imparting to them a Filth which costs many a Prayer and Tear to scour it out other-whiles of their Patience which is their Souls very Mansion-house but always of their Golden Hours and convertible unto glorious Uses They bear false VVitness against Holiness For they take forbidden Words and Jests into their Mouths purely to please themselves Nor stick they to say that this is the main Pleasure that they know under the Sun Which is plainly enough to say God's Commandments are very grievous and Christ's Yoke is an uneasy one and it is in Breaking of his Commands that we can find any Comforts They wage a wilful VVar against God and Men and themselves Sin fights against all and it 's wilfully that Men do Sin Without God Tempting without Satan Compelling without any Creature Forcing The worst Flattery and all Force used with them is their own In Foolish Talks and Jests it is most freely that Fools shoot their Bolts and at no fewer Marks or lesser But it remains to be said that in these twain 2. Godly Men do most aggravatedly sin They incurring these Guilts do present us with the most prodigious Sights They committing these Sins are as follows in these Particulars
They are Persons chosen to Glory Rejecting him who Elected them thereunto Putting God out of the Throne who of most free Grace hath appointed unto them a Kingdom In foolish Talk they turn to the foolish God of this World and forsake him who is God and their God They are Redeemed-Captives slighting him who died not for the VVorld as he died for them Refusing to let him give Law to so much as their Lips They are Creatures raised from the Dead despising him that Quickned them As not vouchsafing to obey him in very Words and as far as very Scribes and Pharisees do They are Pardoned Malefactors dishonouring the most Gracious King that hath Forgiven them Ten thousand Sins Yea Ten thousand times Ten thousand sinful Thoughts Words and Works They are Adopted Heirs Provoking to wrath their Adoptive Father Uttering in his Presence and in Mens Hearing also Words that he cannot away with They are Cleansed-Lepers making themselves unclean again Defiling anew the Temple of God and in that which is named the very Glory of it The Tongue is so called They are such as being Night and Day accused in the Court of Heaven have but one Intercessor and yet are Incensing him against them Walking contrarily unto him in whose Lips no Guile was found and the Grace of whose Lips all Men admired They are Comforted Souls grieving their holy Comforter Making him by their offensive Breath to keep far off from them and to carry it as kindest Friends use to do when our Words much displease them They are Men that live by Hope and yet sin against the only VVord whereon they do or dare to hope Their Possession is nothing to their Reversion it is in Hope that they rejoice Hope of the Glory promised in that Covenant which promiseth none at all but to them that obey the Gospel in Word and Deed. They are Sworn-Men breaking their Oaths and Vows unto God Their Vows Sacramental and less solemn ones many to speak as well as act by God's Rule and for his Glory They are Seers and Children of Light sinning against Light and Knowledg Against Light more Heavenly and of a nobler kind than any unregenerate Men are endued with They are strong Men and invincible by VVorld and Devil throwing themselves down under Divine VVrath The Grace first infused into every Convert makes him certainly able to walk acceptably with God according to the Grace of the New-Covenant O what a Sight is it when not a Child falls of Weakness but a Giant throws himself down a Precipice They are Professors of Purity wallowing in Mire What Protestant-Christian professeth not to take Christ's Word for the Rule of his Words as well as Thoughts and Actions Or who doth doubt but foolish Talks and Jests are hereto most repugnant They are Petitioners unto Heaven Men that give themselves unto Prayer no more able to live without Praying than without Breathing and yet do by contrary words chase away the Spirit deaden the Grace and lessen the Gift of Prayer Extream Madness to disable themselves for that by which they fetch from Heaven all they want They are Men often Reproved kicking against the Pricks thereof They have a hundred Rebukes for every one that an unregenerate Man hath The Holy Ghost their Conscience their Pastor their Pious Companions must be supposed ever and anon checking them They are such as have been enriched by Diamonds and yet prefer Bits of Glass Where is any Godly Man but he has sometimes heard and sometimes spoke a good Word which for all the World he would not but have spoke and heard After this to take up Foolish Talks is after Gold tried to prefer Counters They are Children that have been Burnt and yet fear not the Fire I take it for granted that Foolish Talks and Jests have cost all good Men dear at one time or other Have blotted their Evidences expell'd their Comforts raisedtheir Fears torn their Hearts And what will they sin more that worse things may come They are such as Revive what they have took abundance of pains to Kill Sure there is no sincere Convert but what has laboured hard among his other Spiritual Enemies to mortify those flying Serpents that proceed from the Lips and to spoil the breed of them They are Men that most of all deceive Expectation They have a good Treasure and all People look that their Tongues should bring forth good things From Dogs we expect but Barking and from Monkeys nothing wiser than Laughing In the Mouth of a Saint it 's expected there should be the Tongue of an Angel It is at least monstrous if Doves gaggle as Geese or Sheep bark as Dogs They are finally Lambs that murder more than VVolves Indeed Sin especially Sin of the Tongue is a catching Disease But from none is it so very deeply and dangerously taken as from Men of real or reputed Religion Their Sins are the most deadly Examples as it were so many Warrants for other Mens Sins If they sin audaciously many conclude they may then sin by Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. Hecub There be those whom the Foolish Talk of another's Mouth shall not hurt but if it come out of yours it shall debauch Do we not daily find it Some Mens Names are Swords and Bucklers for other Mens Sins But to conclude §. 4. What are the Truths to be inferred and what the Duties to be pressed from this Doctrine Of the Truths that I hence infer these are all I shall offer having already trespassed against the Brevity intended Tr. 1. Our Tongues are not our own No but our Lips are under Law as well as our Hearts and Hands For if God be not Lord over them how comes he to give the Law in my Text unto them And in the Day of Judgment to Justify and to Condemn according to our Words Mat. 12. 37. It is not more sure that God hath made Man's Mouth than it is that he hath made a Law for it T. 2. Metals are known by their Sounds Hearts are discovered by Talks to be Silver or Brass For God the Judg of them declareth that he doth hereby judg them And accounteth foolish Talkers and Jesters to be Men of impure Hearts as truly as Fornicators and the Covetous which are Idolaters If Mouths speak of Wisdom and Tongues talk of Judgment it argues that the Law of God is in the Heart Psal 37. 30. But if the Tongue be not bridled it is sure the Heart is not sanctified and the varnished Religion is vain Jam. 1. 26. In Nature and Morality it 's a sure Rule Stinking Breath is from foul Stomachs T. 3. Words be Treasonable By the Gospel-Law they are so For my Text makes all foolish Ones to be Mortal Sins i. e. To be worthy of Death Mens Proverb saith VVords are but VVind but the Divine Proverb saith They do blow Life or Death He that keepeth his Mouth keepeth his Life but he that openeth wide his Lips shall have