Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
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A30279
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Foolish talking and jesting described and condemned In a discourse on Ephes. 5.4. neither foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient. By Daniel Burgess.
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Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing B5706; ESTC R214159
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35,920
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118
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Talk of Thousands 〈…〉 Keep a strict Hand upon the 〈…〉 of the Tongue Upon 〈…〉 I mean Love and Hate 〈…〉 What you ought and as Much 〈…〉 Joy and Grieve 〈…〉 Fear none but right Matters 〈…〉 due Measures This will make 〈…〉 to your Mind to School your 〈…〉 But Diseases of the 〈…〉 be very Mortal to our Underâ—tandings Their Fumes put out the Eye of its Judgment and Kill the Heart of its Attention to our Acts. So that in what we call a Passion the Tongue is as an Horse in a Chafe not to be curbed as a Ship in a Tempest not to be managed D. 6. Set up full Purposes against Vicious Talks Full ones are such as the Understanding approves the Conscience commands the Will chuses the Memory prompts all Powers conspire unto You are Christians and have such Purposes against Sin in general But many I fear are incautelous Christians and have not such Purposes against foolish 〈…〉 and Jests in particular These 〈◊〉 ones do honour God and 〈…〉 will honour them They be the 〈…〉 ward Votes and Laws of our 〈…〉 Souls and they will stand up 〈◊〉 what is their own And 〈…〉 Provision for their Execution as 〈◊〉 doth not ordinarily suffer to be fruitless Great is the Power of a Hoyâ— Purpose D. 7. Follow Resolutions with Prayers When the black Ignorance is dispelled and base Reluctance of our Hearts is conquered the Falseness and Inconstance remains to be feared And as neither Hearts nor Tongues are to be safe kept but by Divine Power the Custody of neither is to be expected without Holy Prayer D. 8. Give your Selves the Joy of every Victory Let him that hears your Prayer have the Praise which is entirely his own but take you the Comfort which he allows and requires when through his Grace you 〈…〉 speak This Day being 〈…〉 I Reviled not I Suffered 〈…〉 not Being tempted 〈…〉 Wits unto Levity I 〈…〉 argued them into 〈…〉 c. When thus you 〈…〉 the Grace of your Lord 〈…〉 in the Lord and in his 〈◊〉 Joyfully Praise the Giver 〈…〉 and Worker and Triumph 〈◊〉 his Goodness This exquisite Pleasure will cherish Care and sweeten Endeavours and Prayers for more such Victories D. 9. Let nothing Supersede the Watch of your Lips Prayer engageth to Watchfulness and not excuseth it Spiritual Conquests also excuse not Care but together encourage and engage unto them For after them Satan most rages and Christians Souls like as their Bodies when in highest places are most liable to Tempests In short no Beasts are at all times more apt to Stray and to do Injury than our Lips No Fire more easily breaks out and 〈…〉 hurt than the Tongue It is 〈…〉 and Iniquity at any time to 〈◊〉 over watching so wild Cattel and 〈◊〉 let them go without Yokes and 〈…〉 To give over looking to 〈◊〉 Fire of which all know we can 〈…〉 be too Careful D. 10. Exercise an Holy Revenge on your selves For the Sin of your Tongues sharply Reprove and Shame your Selves Let Repentance have its Perfect Work Humble your Souls deeply and give not over hastily Spare not the Rod and give not over for the crying of Flesh and Blood Unto them this Work is grievous but by this Sorrow of the Countenance Heart and Tongue are made better And sooner shall faulty Oxen go better without the Goad and wildest Children be reclaimed without the Rod than an Extravagant Tongue without this Rebuke D. 11. Associate with none but Men of a pure Language Who knows not 〈…〉 most-Omnipotency of chosen 〈…〉 any It is certain that in 〈…〉 Company God deserts 〈…〉 and Satan is let loose on them 〈…〉 that they have is very much 〈…〉 tower They are as it were 〈…〉 and Satan the Potter 〈…〉 them into any sort of 〈…〉 unto Dishonour Hypocrites can 〈…〉 Endure but the Heart of a 〈…〉 doth Prefer the Lip and Language of Canaan And they are Wisely Good who willingly go near none from whom they cannot come Wiser and Better Prov. 14. 7. D. 12. Make your Friends your Monitors Give them your Leave yea Intreaty to tell you when you speak amiss Raise their Posse for your Defence It will be no contemptible one unless when you have engaged them against your Sins you side and take part with your Sins against them A wonder it is there should be any need to urge this Practice We make other Admonition the Condition of Friendship and cannot 〈…〉 Friend see our Feet in a wrong 〈◊〉 and doth not haste to give us notice We should reckon his Silence of our Error a Proclamation of his Unfaithfulness and Guile D. 13. Remember into what an Ear every Word of yours droppeth The Divine aweful One hears all you say as plain as if there were no Tongue in the World stirring but yours And when the Thoughts hereof are stirring in your Mind Experience can tell you how they facilitate the Rule of your Tongue In the hearing of a wise Man no Fool will prate foolishly but a drunken One. Especially if as the wise Man is endued with VVisdom to despise him he be also armed with Authority to punish him What Mouths should we have if we duly minded how open God's Ear is now unto us and how quickly his Mouth will be opened to judg us D. 14. Esteem it glorious Martyrdom to bear Reproach for the Purity of your 〈…〉 Language of one 〈…〉 to the Natives of 〈…〉 you are born from Heaven 〈…〉 Citizens of that 〈…〉 and speak its Language 〈…〉 no avoiding of cruel Mockings 〈◊〉 the People of this Earth These 〈…〉 enough to endure no but you 〈…〉 as a Treasure And 〈…〉 that you are dignified with them counting them to have more 〈◊〉 the Crown than the Cross in them The Zeal of Socrates made him speak 〈◊〉 hot as to scald his vicious Hearers the Wildfire of their Scoffs cast on him moved him not Famous is his Saying That if VVild-Asses kicked him he would never commence a Suit against them And shall the Saints do no more than Socrates D. 15. Be Salt to all on Earth in whom you have any interest Smartly Reprove the Vices of their Speech Put forth your utmost Authority and Power to purge them away Give your best Counsels with Intreaties for holy Language Follow with swee 〈…〉 Encouragements as many as 〈…〉 the favour to be reformed by you 〈…〉 many as receive the Divine Law from your Mouth What a Charity is it to cure such a Leprosy as that of Foolish Talking and Jesting A Labour of Love that God will not forget A Service in which you will find unknown Reward The Blessing of many Souls will come upon you and your 〈…〉 will prosper God will cast more Salt into your Heart and put more good Words into your Mouth For to faithful Sowers he will minister Seed Liberal Souls he will make Fat Sweetly will he amend us all when all do dutifully correct one another Would you be made Clean cleanse your Company D. 16. Finally Bless God for your Truth while you are short of the Perfection that you seek He that seeks not Perfection is not sincere but he that indeed is sincere through the Grace of the Gospel he is a perfect Creature 〈…〉 Man in Christ and 〈…〉 he hath no 〈…〉 on him the Lord 〈…〉 unto him but honours 〈…〉 stiles him a Perfect Man 〈…〉 in him as a Jewel and an Apple 〈…〉 Eye Deals with him most 〈…〉 withholding no good thing 〈…〉 and making every thing 〈…〉 or good to him as though no 〈…〉 were found in him while much 〈…〉 finds and knows there is vastly 〈◊〉 than he can find in himself and his daily Cry is Who shall deliver me from this Body of Sin and Death So that as the Husband-man may with Joy look on his Corn-fields and bless God for the Riches thereof though there be thousands and Ten thousands of offensive Weeds therein no less may you joyfully praise God for his rich Saving-Grace having the Testimony of your Consciences that in Simplicity and Godly Sincerity not slothfully but with all diligence given you obey my Text. Although full often the Good that you 〈…〉 speak you do not and the 〈…〉 you would not that you do speak 〈◊〉 rather Not you but Sin that 〈…〉 in you speaketh it O bless the 〈…〉 that you are not under the Law 〈…〉 Grace Not under the 〈…〉 of personal perfect and 〈…〉 but under the Law 〈…〉 of Repentance Faith and 〈…〉 Obedience That you have a 〈◊〉 Righteousness of Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 to you and shall not be rejected for the Imperfection of the Righteousness inherent in you It is not the least use to be made of my Doctrine to bless God for our blessed Pair of Advocates For his Holy Spirit who works in us Evangelical Perfection and his Holy Son who hath redeemed us from Damnation for want of Legal Perfection and of Absolute Inoffensiveness in our Talks He makes an ill Use of it indeed who scares himself into Desperation either 〈…〉 Attainableness of sincere 〈…〉 to it or of the Acceptableness 〈…〉 to our Supream Judg. Against 〈…〉 I give Warning in my 〈…〉 Words as supposing them 〈…〉 keliest to pass unregarded 〈…〉 already published Directions 〈…〉 to Holy Discourse I 〈…〉 no more added than the 〈…〉 Alarms Whosoever shall keep 〈…〉 Law and yet offend in the one 〈◊〉 of my Text he is guilty of 〈◊〉 And if any Man seem to be Religious and bridleth not his Tongue but deceiveth his own Heart this Man's Religion is vain FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec Sermones Stultitiae Syriac Stultiloquia Aethiopic Arabic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat l. 3. See Dr. Barrow in Loc. See Dr. Barrow on Prov. 10. 18. A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dura Lex in speciem sed ex cujus rigore liqet qantopere Deo placet Verecundia qantum abominatur Impudentiam Calv.
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