The Tongue's Flame

Et inflammat rotam nativitatis nostrae inflammata a gehenna. A gehenna dicit a diabolo et angelis ejus, propter quos gehenna facta est, et qui ubicunque vel in aere volitant, vel in terris aut sub terris vagantur, sive detinentur, suarum secum ferunt semper tormenta flammarum, instar febricitantis, qui et si in lectis eburneis, et si in locis ponatur apricis, fervorem tamen vel frigus insiti sibi languoris evitare non potest. Sic ergo daemones et si in templis colantur auratis, et si per aerea discurrant, igne semper ardent gehennali, et ex ipsa sua poena commoniti , deceptis quoque hominibus fomitem vitiorum, unde ipsi pereant, invidendo suggerunt. Cui contra sancta Dei civitas nova Jerusalem de coelo a Deo descendere dicitur, quia nimirum quidquid coeleste in terris agimus, hoc profecto ut ageremus coelesti munere accepimus. Rotam autem dicit nativitatis nostrae incessabilem vitae temporalis procursum, quo a die nativitatis usque ad mortem velut semper currente rota curriculi incessanter agimur. Unde bene Salomon cum diceret: Memento Creatoris tui in diebus juventituis tuae, antequem veniat dies afflictionis, paulo post addidit: Et confringatur rota super cisternam et reveratur pulvis in terram suam unde erat. Inflammat ergo lingua rotam nativitatis nostrae, cum statum omnem nostrae conversationis prava loquendo contaminat. Item rotam nativitatis nostrae dicit, quia merito primae praevaricationis ab interna stabilitate projecti, huc atque illuc mente vaga raptamur, et incertis per cuncta discursibus, ubi periculum, ubi salus, ignoramus. Inflammatur autem haec rota nostrae nativitatis igne linguae maculantis, cum vitium nativae perturbationis ineptis etiam ac noxiis sermonibus accumulatur. Sanctus Beda, Super Divi Jacobi Epistolam, Caput III Source: Migne PL 93 35b-c

And the tongue inflames the wheel of our birth, set aflame by hell. 1 By hell he means by the devil and his angels, on account of whom hell was made, and who fly about everywhere in the air, or wander on the earth, or beneath the earth, or are bound, carrying with themselves their own torment of flame, just like a fever, they who even if placed on an ivory couch or in a sunny place, yet by fever or chill within would not be able to be free of sickness. Therefore, even if demons dwell in golden temples, even if they race through the air, the fire of hell always burns them, and impressed by this same punishment, by envy they counsel deluded men to kindle vice, by which they perish. Against which the holy city of God, the new Jerusalem, is said to descend from heaven by the will of God, because whatever we do on earth that is heavenly, certainly for what we have done, we receive the heavenly reward. And he speaks of the wheel of our birth as the unceasing rush of temporal life, by which, from the day of birth until death, we are as a wheel rolling down its track without pause. Whence well Solomon says: 'Be mindful of your Creator in the days of your youth, before the day of affliction comes,' and after a little he adds: 'the wheel broken on the cistern and dust returns to the earth from whence it came.' 2 Thus the tongue inflames the wheel of our birth when it pollutes our conduct with depraved speech. And again he speaks of the wheel of our birth, because rightly by the first trespass we were cast down from internal stability and struck with a mind that wanders here and there, and is uncertain in every way, not knowing where danger is and where is safety. The wheel of our birth is set on fire by the flame of the defiling tongue, when it has been heaped up with foolish and noxious words for the stirring up of vice within. Saint Bede, Commentary on the Letter of Saint James, Chapter 3 1 Jam 3.6 2 Eccle 12.1, 6-7