The Government of the Tongue, Chapter 12
CAP. XII An exhortation to keepe the tongue.
THVS have I in parte set downe howe the tongue is to be governed: and I heartily desire, that … Christians woulde put these rules in practise. Reasons. I. If any man seeme to bee religious, and restraine not his tongue, Iam. 1.26.he deceiveth himselfe, and his religion is in vaine. II. The man of an euill tongue, is a beast in the forme of a man; for his tongue is the tongue of a serpent▪ under which lyeth nothing but venime and poison: nay, hee is worse then a serpent: for it can not hurt, unlesse it be present to see a man,Psal. 140.3. or to bite him, or to strike him with his taile: but he which hath not the rule of his tongue, hurteth men as well absent as present, neither sea nor land, nor any thing can hinder him. And againe, his throate is like a graue that hath a vent in some parte, and therefore sendeth foorth nothing but stinke and corruption. III. As the holy men of God when they preached,Isa. 6.6 had their tongues, as it were, touched with a cole from the altar of God:Matt. 3.11. and as godly men when they speake gratiously, hauehave their tongues inflamed with the fire of Gods spirite: so, contrariwise, when thou speakest euill, thy tongue is kindled by the fire of hell, and Sathan comes from thence with a cole to touch thy lippes,Iames 3.6. and to set them on fire to all manner of mischiefe. Chrysostome saith, that when men speake good things,Chrys. hō. 79. in Mat. their tongue is the tongue of Christ: but all manner of ungodly and cursed speaking is the deuils language. IIII. The moderating of the tongue is a matter of great difficultie. S. Iames saith,Iames 3.7, 8. The whole nature of beasts and of birdes, and of creeping things, &c. but the tongue can no man tame: it is an unruly evill. Pambus, one without learning, came to a certaine man to be taught a Psalme: who when hee had hearde the first verse of the 38. Psalme, I said, that I will keepe my wayes that I offend not in my tongue, Histor. Tripar. l. 8. c. 1.would not suffer the next verse to be read, saying, this verse is ynough, if I coulde practise it. And when his teacher blamed him, because he sawe him not of sixe moneths …, he answered, that hee had not yet done the verse. And one that knewe him many yeres after, asked him whether he had yet learned the verse▪ I am fourtie yeeres olde (sayeth hee) and have not yet learned to fulfill it. Now then, the harder it is to rule the tongue, the more care is to be had therein. V. The straunge judgements of God,Gods Judgement for the abuse of the tōgue▪ Euseb. lib. 6. cap. 8. for the abuse of the tongue especially in blasphemies and perjuries are many and fearefull. Three men conspired together against Narcissus Bishoppe of Hierusalem, a man that ledde a godly and blamelesse life, and they charged him with a most heynous crime, all three confirme their accusation by othe: the first wisheth, if it were not so that he were burnt. The second, that hee might die of the jaundise: the third, that he might loose his eyes. Afterward in processe of time, the first had his house set on fire in the night, and hee with all his family was burnt. The second had the jaundise from the head to the sole of the foote and died thereof. The third seeing what was befallen these twaine, repented, and confessed the conspiracie against Narcissus, and yet for all that hee lost his eyes. Againe, In the dayes of Q. Mary as Iames Abbes was ledde by the sheriffe to execution,Foxe Act. Mon. diuers poore people stoode in the way and asked their almes: he then having no money to give them, did pull off all his apparell saue his shirte, and gave it unto them, to some one thing, to some another in the giving whereof hee exhorted them to be strong in the Lorde, and to stande steadfaste to the trueth of the Gospell. While he was thus instructing the people, a seruant of the sheriffes going by, cryed out alowde and blasphemously saide: Beleeue him not good people, he is an heretique, and a mad man out of his witte: beleeue him not, for it is heresie that hee saieth: And as the other continued in his godly admonitions, so did this wicked wretch blowe foorth his blasphemous exclamations, untill they came unto the stake where he shoulde suffer. But immediatly after this martyr was bounde to the stake and fire put to him, such was the fearefull stroke of Gods justice upon this blasphemous railer, that hee was there presently in the sight of all the people stricken with a frensie, wherewith hee had before railingly charged that good martyr of God: who in this furious rage and madnesse, casting off his shoes and the rest of his clothes, cryed out unto the people and saide: thus did Iames Abbes the true servant of God, who is saved, but I am damned: And thus ranne hee rounde about the towne of Burie, still crying, that Iames Abbes was a good man, and saved, but I am damned.
Act. Mon. Fox.Againe, Children sitting in companie together, fell into communication of God, and to reason what God was. And some saide one thing, some another▪ among the rest, one saide, He is a good olde father, to which another named Dennis Benfielde replyed with a most outragious blasphemie: What, he (said shee) is an old doting foole. But shortly after this young gyrle was so stricken, that all the one side of her was blacke, and shee became speechlesse, and died.
Jdem.Againe, One Leav… a ploughman, railing, said, that he saw the … favoured knaue Latimer, when he was burned: and also in despite, saide, that hee had teeth like an horse. At which time and houre, as neere as could be gathered, the sonne of the saide Leaver most wickedly hanged himselfe.
Againe, in the time of K. Edwarde, Idem.a young gentleman of Cornwall being in companie with other moe gentlemen togither with their servants, beeing about the number of twentie horse-men, among whome this lustie yonker entred into talke, and began withal to sweare, and use ribauld speech: being gently reprooved, the young gentleman tooke snuffe, and said to the reproover, why takest thou thought for me? take thought for thy winding sheete: well, quoth the other, amend, for death giveth no warning: for he soone commeth a lambs skinne to the market, as an old sheepes skinne. Gods wounds, (saith he) care not thou for me: raging still in this maner worse and worse in wordes, till at length passing on their journey, they came riding ouer a great bridge, standing ouer a piece of an arme of the sea, upon which bridge this gentleman swearer spurred his horse in such sorte as hee spring cleane over with the man on his backe, who as he was going, cried, saying, Horse and man, and all to the devill.
P. Stubbes book printed 1581.Againe, there was a serving man in Lincolnshire, who had still in his mouth an use to sweare, Gods pretious blood, and that for very trifles: being often warned by his friendes to leave the taking of the Lords blood in vaine, did notwithstanding still persist in his wickednesse, untill at the last it pleased God to acite him first with sicknesse, and then with death: during which time of the Lordes visitation, no perswasion could moue him to repent his foresaid blaspheming, but hearing the bell to towle, did most hardly in the … anguish of his death, start up in his bed, and sware by Gods blood this bell towled for me. Whereupon immediatly the blood abundantly from all the joynts of his body, as it were in streames, did issue out most fearfully from mouth, nose, wrestes, knees, heeles, and toes, with all other joyntes, not one left free, and so dyed. These and such like judgements must be as warnings from heauen to admonish us, and to make us afraid of the abuse of the Tongue: especially when it tendeth to the dishonour of God. And we are to imitate the example of Policarpe the Martyr, who, when hee was bidden to take his othe, and curse Christ, answered, Fourescore and sixe yeeres hauehave I beene his seruant, yet in all this time hath he not so much as once hurt me: how then may I speake euill of my King and Soueraigne Lorde, which hath thus preserued me? VI. Lastly, God hath honoured thy tongue with the gifte of speech and utterance: and the great excellencie of this gift thou shouldest perceiue, if thou werest stricken dumme for a time. Therefore let thy tongue be applyed to the honouring of God, and to the good of thy neighbour.
FINIS.
Errata sic corrigenda.
Pag. 29. in marg. Act. 11.26. foreign. sic Rom. 11.4. pag. 34 in marg. August. for Arist.
End of the text · William Perkins, The Government of the Tongue (1593)