The Godly Man's Picture

How can they be termed godly, 1. Who are possessed with a dumb devil? They never have any good discourse; they are fluent and discursive enough in secular things; they can speak of their wares and drugs, they can tell what a good crop they have, but in matters of Religion they are as if their tongue did cleave to the roof of their mouth: There are many persons, if you come into their company, you cannot tell what to make of them, whether they are Turks or Atheists, for they never speak a word of Christ.

How can they be termed godly, 1. Who are possessed with a dumb devil? They never have any good discourse; they are fluent and discoursive enough in secular things; they can speak of their wares and drugs, they can tell what a good crop they have, but in matters of Religion they are as if their tongue did cleave to the roof of their mouth: There are many persons, if you come into their company, you cannot tell what to make of them, whether they are Turks or Atheists, for they never speak a word of Christ.

2. Whose tongues are set on fire of Hell: Their lips do not drop honey but poison, to the defiling of others. Plutarch saith, speech ⟨p. 144⟩ought to be like gold, which is then of most value, when it hath least dross in it: O the unclean malicious words that some persons utter! What an unsavoury stench comes from these dunghills; those lips had need have Davids ^*Bridle, that gallop so fast in sin: Can the body be healthful when the tongue is black? Can the heart be holy when the devil is in the lips? A godly man speaks the language of Canaan, Mal. 3. 16. They that feared the Lord, spake often one to another.

2. Whose tongues are set on fire of Hell: Their lips do not drop honey but poyson, to the defiling of others. Plutarch saith, speech ⟨p. 144⟩