2. It is the glory of the tongue to serve God in this kind. It is the most excellent member in the body when it is well used for the glory of God and edification of others ; therefore called our glory often in the psalms : ' Awake, my glory ; ' that is, my tongue ; and what is glory in the Old Testament is rendered tongue in the New, Acts ii. Our tongue is our glory. Why ? Because we have this advantage by it, we may speak for God: ' Therewith bless we God,' James iii. 9. The benefit of speech is our privilege above angels and beasts. Angels they have reason, but no tongues ; and beasts they have tongues, but no reason to guide them and act them. But now we have tongues and reason both, that we may declare our maker's praise. iSurely this member and instrument was not given us to savour meats and drinks — that is not the highest use of it — but to express the sense and affections of the mind ; not to utter vain, frothy, frivolous things — what an abuse is that ! — but to comfort and instruct one another in the things of God. It is our glory.
3. Every creature hath a voice like itself, and therefore so^ should the new creature have. The ox bellows, the ass brayeth, goats and sheep may be known by their bleat, and so is a man by the tenor of his discourse. As the constitution of the mind is, so are the words. A wicked man hath a vain heart, and therefore his discourse is idle and frivolous : Pro v. x. 20, ' The tongue of the just is as choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is little worth.' The antithesis shows it should have been said, ' The tongue of the wicked is little worth ; ' but he would point at the cause of it, ' the heart of the wicked.' There is a quick intercourse between the tongue and the heart. Now, because the heart of the wicked is nothing Avorth, all his thoughts and musings are vain ; he goes grinding chalf in his mind all the day ; his mind, like a mill, is always at work, not upon corn, that it might be bread for his
124 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XIV.
soul, but upon chaff; therefore, because his heart is nothing worth, his tongue is nothing worth. The tongue of the just is as choice silver, it brings in a great deal of treasure. But take a wicked man, all the workings of his heart, his thoughts and discourses, when summed up together, the product and total sum at night is nothing but vanity : ' The Lord seeth all their thoughts are but vain.' A vain heart will have vain speeches, and so a cankered sinner will have cankered dis- course, as a putrid breath discovereth rotten lungs. Every man's speech is as his humour is. Come to a covetous person, he will be discoursing of farms, oxen, bargains, wares, and such like. Come to an epicurean gallant, to a volu[)tuary, and he will be telling you of horses, games, dogs, meats, drinks, merry company. Go to the ambitious, they will be talking of honours, offices, and the like. As they are of the flesh, so their talk savours of fleshly things. Every man hath a voice like himself, he speaks according to the constitution of his mind. Go to the discontented man, he will be talking of his adversaries, telling of affronts, wrongs, and public offences received. But a godly man hath a voice too like himself ; he will be declaring the judgments of God's mouth ; he will be speaking out of the word of God, of things within his sphere, and suitable to his kind : Mat. xii. 35, ' A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things.' Still the tap runs according to the liquor with which the vessel is filled, and a man's speech bewrays him of what kind he is ; and therefore, since every creature hath a voice like him- self, so should the new creature have.
4. I shall argue from the nature of good, which is communicative, and loves to propagate itself — omne honum sui diffasivum : Luke xxii. 32, ' Thou being converted, strengthen thy brethren.' He had had experience of a changeable heart ; now go strengthen others. Eire turneth all things about it into fire ; leaven pierceth through the whole lump. So grace seeks to propagate and diffuse itself. Therefore, when the work of God is written upon a man's mind and laid up in his heart, he will be declaring and speaking of it to others. Naturalists observe that mules and creatures which are of a mongrel race do not
.procreate after their kind ; so the false Christians are not for propa- gating and enlarging Christ's interest ; they are not so warm, spiritual, and heavenly in their discourses. Andrew, when acquainted with Christ, calls Peter, and both call Nathanael : John i. 41-45, * We have found the Messiah.' John calls his disciples. As a hen, when she hath found a worm or a barleycorn, clucks for her chickens that they may come and partake of it with her, so a man acquainted with Christ, who hath tasted that the Lord is gracious, he cannot hold ; he will be calling upon his friends and relations to come and share with him of the same grace. As they have more of God, they will improve it for the comfort of others, and are willing to take hold of all opportunities to this end.