Foolish Talking and Jesting Described and Condemned, Title page – Dedication
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.
LONDON, Printed for Andrew Bell and Jonas Luntley, at the Peſtle and Mortar, over againſt the Horſe-ſhoe-Tavern in Chancery-Lane, 1694.
TO ROBERT GROVE Eſq; Of Fernes in VViltſhire; AND TO Madam TRYPHENA His Conſort.
My Honoured Friends,
I Do not ſet here your Names, deſigning to Celebrate your rare Chriſtian Vertues. Theſe have long ſhone brightly in your Country; and their Fame hath rung very loudly in this City. You have good report of all Men, and of the Truth it ſelf. So that it would be no News if it ſhould be here told what your Praiſe is in the Churches.
Wherefore, I Meditate what is more Expedient; what doth better Become me, and will leſs Diſpleaſe you. Intending no more, than to make you a ſmall Preſent of theſe Pages, as an Acknowledgment of your Favours.
Their Subject is, unto Moſt, a Hard-Saying; with too Many, an Obſolete one; and whereof, not a few will ſay, Who can bear it? Nor ſhould I have thought it an Argument grateful to your own Palats, but that I do very well know under what Shadow you Sit, and whoſe Fruit it is that is ſweet to your Taſte Whereby I am certified, that you will as much more Value this Diſcourſe, as you leſs Need it, than others do for the Regulation of your own Speech.
I ſhall Congratulate my Self the good Nature of my Readers, if it be he who really Needs it not, that Caſts the firſt Stone at it. But, I will reverence the Doctrine that I Preach; and Talk no more to you in this Porch.
With a ſpecial, Flame my Prayer aſcends, for your Selves, and your bleſſed Branches. The good Lord continue ſtill, to teach you the Way that you are to Chuſe; and to make your Souls dwell at Eaſe in Grace, till they ſhall triumph in Glory! May your Seed after you inherit the Earth; and be ſuch Blesſings unto their Country as your Holy Anceſtors have been, and as you your ſelves are this Day! Thus, pray, very many; but none more ſincerely, than
Your true Honourer, Daniel Burgeſs. Bridges-Street, near Covent-Garden, Jan. 22. 1693-94.
FOOLISH Talking and Jeſting Deſcribed and Condemned.
Epheſ. 5. 4.
Neither Fooliſh Talking, nor Jeſting, which are not convenient.foreign. Nec Sermones Stultitiae, Syriac. Stultiloquia, Aethiopic. & Arabic.
THE Foot of the foregoing Chapter, is the Head of this. The ſame Precepts which there conclude, do here begin. Being of extraordinary moment, they are reſumed and farther preſſed. Few Words may ſuffice for Mint and Aniſe; but the weightier Things of Religion, as they are more oppoſed, muſt be more urged.
Weighty indeed are theſe Precepts; great be the Duties required, and great the Sins forbidden.
The Duties, are Imitation of God in our Love unto Offending Men. And, Conformity to our Redeemer in the Kindneſs of our Behaviour towards them. The Heavenly Father multiplies to pardon; and ſo muſt we, if we will be his Children. It is ſaid of him, Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity? And it ſhould be ſaid of us, What People are like unto you that forgive one another, as God forgiveth you? Our bleſſed Redeemer laid down his Life for us; and looks that, at his Call, we give our Lives for each other, I John 3. 16. His Love paſſeth all Ʋnderſtanding; and ours is not right, till it ſet the World marvelling at it. This is the Goſpel, where-ever be the Chriſtians.
The Sins forbidden, are the mighty ones following; Fornication and all Ʋncleanneſs; the Hecticks than conſume, and carry apace from the deep Ditch into the bottomleſs Pit. Covetouſneſs, the Wen and Wolf in the Heart, more painful and mortal than any in the Fleſh. Filthineſs, or filthy Speaking; the Ileos, the Miſerere mei, the Diſeaſe which brings up the worſt of Excrements through the Mouth; which vomits. the Ordure of Ribaldry. Fooliſh Talking; the Rupture of Speech from Reaſon: Language, like to that of Balaam's Aſs, without Reaſon; and much worſe, becauſe againſt it alſo, Laſtly, Fooliſh Jeſting; the falling Sickneſs of Wit; it's Phrenzy, and Sportiveneſs in Games of pernicious Folly. Theſe, all, are of the ſame baſe Blood; all, with the ſame rare Emphaſis, and ſelf-ſame Arguments prohibited.
Theſe we are commanded, Not once to name; that is, to abhor unto extremity; utterly to deteſt. So the Royal Pſalmiſt, and ſo our Apoſtle elſewhere, is known to have uſed this pungent Phraſe of Not naming, Pſal. 16. 4. 1 Cor. 5. 1. Of theſe we are told, They become not Saints; that is, they are not only in themſelves, unrighteous Things; but are, in all Eyes, as unſeemly ones for Saints, as Feeding on Carrion and Lodging in Kennels would be for Kings Children. It is added, They are Inconvenient; that is, Intolerable; though the Men of Athens ſaw nothing very culpable in ſome of them, and fancied there was a Spirit very commendable in others. In ſhort, They are peſtilent Vices, and inconſiſtent with Chriſtian Graces. Indeed Pagan Moraliſts made ſome of them to be egregious Vertues, and the reſt to be but very ſmall Faults. But the Goſpel of Chriſt makes them ſuch Vices, as not only ſtrip us of every Ornament, but of our very Raiment. And leave us nothing but Shame and Nakedneſs of our unſanctified Natures.
Hugely do Men differ from Swine in their Natures and Dignities; but no leſs do Saints differ from unſanctified Men in their Qualities and Relations. A Saint hath paſſed a ſecond Birth. After Redemption by infinite Price, he is regenerated by infinite Power: Made Partaker of the Divine Nature, and adopted into the Favour and Family of Heaven. In a word; He is one dearly cleanſed, and richly adorned. More than Heaven and Earth is worth, hath been laid out to Juſtify and Sanctify him. Wherefore, if he be ſick to ſee, what ſenſual Creatures are ſick of Luſt to enjoy; if he be aſhamed of their Glory; if their Meat be his Poiſon; it is no more matter of wonder, than that Doves will die rather than fetch Meat from the Dung and Filth, in which unclean Birds delight.
It is the Filth of the two laſt named Vices, Fooliſh Talking and Jeſting, that I eſſay to diſcover. The Snakes which lay in the Dunghils of the other, are more in ſight; and are of leſs ſpecious Colours. Inſomuch, that until they do get them Cloven-feet, Men attain not unto obſcene Tongues. Much leſs do they further violate the Seventh Commandment. But, ſadly it muſt be ſaid; the Sins which I ſet me to detect and ſhame, are gotten into univerſal Uſe, and almoſt Catholick Credit alſo. Their Dunghil is covered with the Snow, which I ſhall labour to remove. Their Serpents paſs for Fiſh, even in Religious Mens Markets.
To give the worſt its due; Our Age it ſelf doth not, by a general Vote, abrogate all the Ten Commandments. It runs not down every Divine Teſtimony, with a Nemine Contradicente. There are Laws made void by many looſe Profeſſors, which are valiantly (that is, practically) propugnated by their Betters. But 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 the Ʋſe 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.