London's lamentation, or, A serious discourse concerning the late fiery dispensation that turned our…

O Sirs, the tongue is the nimble Interpreter of the heart. If there be piety or iniquity at the bottom of your hearts, ¹your tongues will discover it. The stream riseth not above the fountain. We know not what metal the Bell is made of by the Clapper. What is in the Well will be in the Bucket: What is in the Ware-house will be in the shop. So what is in the heart, will be in the mouth; if there be any thing of God, of Christ, of grace, of heaven, of hell, of sin, of the world, of self in the bottom of your souls, your tongues will discover it. Man (saith one) is like a Bell, and his tongue ²like the Clapper. So long as this standeth still, he may be thought to be without any flaw, craze or crack in him; but let it once stir, and then he discovers himself presently. No man can so change himself, but his heart may sometimes be seen at his tongues end. Men watch Interpreters. Oh that on the Lords day especially, you would make more conscience of watching your tongues: if the tongue be not watched, it will be sins Solicitor General; it will be a Bawd to all lusts: it will plead for sin, and defend sin, and lessen sin, and provoke to sin, and show the pleasure of the heart in sin. There are but five Virtues of the tongue reckoned up by Philosophers; but there are twenty several sins of the tongue reckoned up by Peraldus. The Arabians have a Proverb, ⟨p. 258⟩Take heed thy tongue cut not thy throat. Many a mans tongue ³has cut his throat; that is, it hath been his ruin. Our Chronicles make mention of one Burdet a Merchant, who living at the Sign of the Crown in Cheap-side (in the days of King Edward the fourth, in the year 1483.) jestingly said to his Son, that he would leave him heir of the Crown, meaning the Sign of the Crown where he lived: for which he was apprehended, and within four hours hanged, drawn and quartered. The tongue is often like a sharp Razor, that instead of shaving the hair, cuts the throat. If a man do not look well about him, he may every day be in danger of dying by his tongue. Life and death (saith Solomon) are in the power of the tongue. Gaping mouthed men, are noted for fools by Lucian: and a better and a wiser man than Lucian hath told us, That the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. Ah how good had it been for many that they had been born dumb.