A Golden Chain

Thus have I in part set down how the tongue is to be governed: and I heartily desire, that all Christians would put these rules in practise. Reasons. I. If any man seem to be religious, and restrain not his tongue, he deceiveth himself, and his religion is in vain. ¹II. The man of an evil tongue, is a beast in the form of a man; for his tongue is the tongue of a serpent, under which lieth nothing but venom and poison:² nay he is worse then a serpent: for it cannot hurt, unless it be present to see a man, or to bite him or to strike him with his tail: 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 again, his throat is like a grave that hath a vent in some part, and therefore sendeth forth nothing but stink and corruption. III. As the holy men of God when they preached,³ had their tongues, as it were, touched with a coal from the altar of God: and as godly men when they speak graciously, have their tongues inflamed with the fire of Gods spirit: so contrariwise, when thou speakest evil, thy tongue is kindled by the fire of hell: ⁴and Satan comes from ⟨p. 733⟩thence with a coal to touch thy lips, and to set them on fire to all manner of mischief. Chrysostom saith,