John Trapp on Proverbs 18:21

Verſ. 21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue] That beſt and worſt member of the body, as Bias told Amaſis King of Aegypt, Plutarch. an unruly evil ſet on fire of Hell, ſaith Saint James of an ill tongue (as contrarily a good one is fired with zeal by the Holy Ghoſt, Act. 2.) Fire wee know is a good ſervant, but an ill Lord; If it get above us once, there is no dealing with it. Hence it is, that as the careful houſholder laies a ſtrict charge upon his children and ſervants to look well to their fire: So doth Solomon give often warning to have a care of the tongue. For by thy words ſhalt thou bee juſtified, and by thy words thou ſhalt bee condemned, ſaith a greater than Solomon, Mat. 12.Cave ne f[illegible: 1 letter]riat lingua tua cellum tuum. Scalig. The Arabians have a Proverb, Take heed that thy tongue cut not thy throat. A word and a peſt grow upon the ſame root in the Hebrew; to ſhew, ſaith one, that an evil tongue hath the peſtilence in it: It ſpits up and down the room, as the Serpent Dipſas, or as a Candle, whoſe tallow is mixt with brine.