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IT is good counsell, which Saint Iames doth giue; Be swift to heare, and slow to speake: GOD hath giuen a man two eares, but one tongue, thereby teaching vs to heare more, and to speake lesse. The eares Hee hath made open, without a couer, but Hee hath inclosed the tongue within a double fence, the lips and the teeth, thereby shewing that we should be quicke and swift to heare, and slow to speake. GOD hath giuen a tongue to euery
beast that is voide of reason, but the faculty of speaking onely vnto man, to whom Hee hath giuen an vnderstanding spirit, whereby Hee would instruct vs that reason should rule our wordes, and that our tongues should not runne before our wits: And Hee hath made our eares Erect, to heare heauenly things, and not hanging downe (like Blood-hounds) as if they had beene made to heare earth∣ly things, or lies and errours, which come out of hell it selfe. The eare serues to learne with, the tongue serues to teach with: a man learnes not with his tongue, nor teaches with his eares. There is a time (saith Salo∣mon) to keepe silence, and a time to speake: A fooles bolt is soone shot: but a wise man will consi∣der what he speakes, whereof,
when, where, why, how, and be∣fore whom: And his words vt∣tered in season are like Apples of Gold, with pictures of Siluer: their inside is better then their outside, but both good. Some speake very much, not because they haue the Art of speaking, but because they want the skill to hold their peace: He, that knowes not how to hold his tongue, knowes not how to vse his tongue: Hee is the onely skilfull man, that knowes when to speake, and when to hold his peace. Either a man should not speake, or speake to purpose: Either he should be silent, or his words should be better worth then silence. Three things are very commendable in a man, Wisedome in the minde, a cer∣taine Manly modesty in the coun∣tenance, and a well gouerned
silence in the speech: Simonides and Xenocrates were wont to say, that they neuer repented them of their silence, but that they were sorry sometimes for their speeches. If men did well con∣sider that life and death is in the power of the tongue, and that in many words there cannot want iniquity; and that an ac∣count must one day bee giuen of euery idle word, certainely they would not so abuse their tongues, as they doe, to swearing, and lying, to taunts, and slanders, to cursing, and rayling, to wantonnesse, and va∣nity; neither would they bee so vnreuerent in the House of GOD, as they vse, by babling & whispering; seeing they shold come thither to pray, and not to prate, to vse their eares, and not to abuse their tongues.
Nothing is ours longer then wee vse it well; Our tongues are not ours, if wee doe abuse them, but our enemies, for whom wee vse them, when wee do abuse them. An euill tongue comes from an euill heart. For were the heart good, the tongue could not bee naught. A messenger, which a man sends to his neighbour, may lie, or reuile, and speake euill, and deliuer a false errand, whether the man, that sent him, will, or no, or though hee thinke not of it, or meane cleane contra∣ry; but a mans owne tongue, which is the messenger, or interpreter of the heart, can say no other, then the heart doth bid it. Euill must bee min∣ted in the heart, before it bee vttered in the tongue. A good heart causeth a good tongue,
and a naughty heart a naughty tongue.