the Law against Foolish Talking and Jesting seems utterly repealed among us No Man stands by it All Men forsake it It is one Every where spoken against One that suffers in the House of its Friends yea by the Tongue of Men and Angels I mean by many consecrated Tongues of the Angels of the Churches Tongues commissioned and commanded to preach this Doctrine which well deserves to be every Christian's Observation Foolish Talking and Jesting must be detested as things ungodly unseemly and intolerable in Saints As truly so as Fornication arid Uncleanness as Covetousness and Filthiness of whose Company and Kindred they are proclaimed to be It shall be shown 1. What Foolish Talking is 2. What Foolish Jesting is 3. What their detestable Turpitude and Filth is and specially in Saints 4. What theVse of this Doctrine is O Lord God and Father of Jesus Christ I pray thee send me good speed this Day Giving me a Mouth and Wisdom which all my Adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist In Faith and Hope I proceed §. 1. What is Foolish Talk The Nature of it is not far to seek All the World will grant Folly is Sin and Sin is Inconformity to the Precept and Example of our Soveraign Prince and Pattern Unto us Christ Jesus is both and the Speech which he hath required and exemplified is such as honoureth God and profiteth Men. Thereby answering the unquestionable Ends of so rare a Gift unto our Mature Thereby serving the Uses for which Speech was framed and to which it is fitted So that Foolish Talk is all and only that which is not designed and adapted unto the foresaid Ends and Uses But thwarts the same contradicts our Saviour's Example and transgresseth his Law Of such Talk Nabal is the Name in Christ's School That Folly is with it his Disciples will attest Unthinking Creatures do fancy it to be harmless but none of these can hold it guiltless This Transgression of Talkative Men saith within their Hearts that there is not a just Fear of God before their Eyes The Kinds of this Foolish Talk are numerous and various Even as the Follies of Thought and Action whereto they run parallel A Sermon is too small a Map to hold their wide World But these Particulars will set in view the most principal 1. Profane Talk is foolish It is Profane whatever mentioneth Things sacred without Veneration expressed Whatever makes not its Honours and its highest ones unto their Majesty Who but a Fool will either not bow to the King or no lower than unto one of his Pages It is a senseless Babler that talks of holy Persons Things or Actions without hallowing their Names Without paying them their due Observance by some or other Emphasis If I speak of them as a Gallio I do make my self an Esau It is a Profaneness more gross when Scurrility is added to Sacrilege When Veneration is sacrilegiously withheld and Injury and Indignity is offered Indignity of wretched Tendence to subvert the Faith of Hearers and to impair their Reverence When uncircumcised Lips drop no Praises but pour out Slights upon Religion or its Votaries He is a more grown Esau that dares thus to do A Gallio is a younger Brother to such a Scorner And if such Talkers must pass for wise Men Senacherib must be canonized for a Saint and Antiochus be no more called Mad. Plato like as Moses adjudged to Death such Fools And the Turks stick not to kill the Man that presumes to speak contumeliously of Mahomet or the Alcoran The words of Bishop Wilkins are very Sun-beams A Devout Heathen is better than a Profane Christian Indeed there is a Pitch of Profaneness to which not one Esau of many hath used to grow One which I was minded therefore in silence to pass over But second thoughts allow it not the numbers of those profane Anakims and Giants being as we see in this day of ours Profane to the uttermost is that Talk which throws Stones as well as Dirt. Venteth Wrath as well as Contempt upon that which is Holy Breathes forth Threatnings against Divine Service with Scoffs at Divine Attributes and Statutes Words turned indeed into Swords and sent out for the Destruction not for the single Disgrace of God's Servants and Service He who thus Talks is the Goliah of the Profane Host the Prince of their Nation of Devils in Flesh the Beelzebub A more Profane Riot no Tongue can run Here it must stand having no further to go Unless it be in Glorying in this Shame in Boasting that the Conspiracy of Stupidity and Malice have carried it so far And left nothing save Hell more profoundly Devilish or bloodily fighting against Heaven Thou lovest all devouring words O thou Profane Tongue God shall likewise destroy thee for ever he shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy Dwelling place and root thee out of the Land of the Living 2. Hypocritical Talk is Foolish A Hypocrite is a Liar in a Cloud by his Ambition raised It is Hypocritical Talk that designedly misreports the Speaker's Heart That speaks better than he thinks of his State his Dispositions his Aims his Actions or any thing that is his If this be not Folly then Darkness excelleth Light the Sun is an annoyance to the World and Owls and Thieves are Wise for hating the Light of it For Truth is Light Falsehood is Darkness The Fountain of Truth hath taken the Name of Light and the Father of Lies is called the Prince of Darkness And is he a wise Speaker who is likest to the Devil and most unlike to God in his Words Likest to the Devil that hath no Truth in him and Unlikest to God that cannot lie and whose Word is the Word of Truth Were it a matter of choice who would not rather be transformed into the ugliest Serpent in Africa than into such a Monster Drunkenness corrupts not Reason more than Falseness corrupteth Speech both destroy God's Work as to its proper Use And where is the Wisdom of the one or other Confusion Tiplers make Beasts of Men Dissemblers do of Men make Devils In speaking unto our Maker Feigned Words are the worst Indignities and Affronts we can offer To bely our selves in Prayer is to blaspheme him to his Face With open Mouth to tell him our Hearts be not naked and open to him Now Men that are themselves use to beware of their Words unto earthly Kings As for Humane Converse hypocritical Talk is its Bane and Death Much it destroyeth all it corrupteth Who will converse with one whom he cannot credit or who will believe a Liar even when he speaks Truth The Mute and Dumb are more desireable Company than Men false and deceitful Which as other Snakes under their fairest Skins all People do hate even those whom they reach not to hurt And justly for it is the Nature of both to mischieve us if it be not in their Power What is Life without Converse and what is Converse
§. 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
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