A Bridle for the Tongue: Or, A Curb to Evil discourse: Published to Regulate the great Abuses in Coffee-Houses, Taverns, Ale-Houses, &c. With Permission (London, for N. T., 1678), 5pp. BL: 12316.f.23.(3).

A religious tract attacking blasphemy and unregulated discourse in coffee-houses. In the early 1670s coffee-house debates on affairs of politics attracted the attention of the authorities, who considered these discussions seditious, and proposed various mechanisms for their control or suppression. By contrast, A Bridle for the Tongue argues that what was dangerous about coffee-house discussion was its licentious nature, its tendency to ‘scoff at religion’ and ‘repeat prophane, debauch’d or scurrilous Language’. Th is blasphemy not only threatened to corrupt and poison the morals of young people, but was itself a kind of treason against the King of Heaven – and as such, a more serious fault than treason against Charles II. In response the writer calls for men to join together to ‘reform this sinful Nation’ by forming themselves into ‘reforming Societies’, prefiguring the societies for the reformation of manners formed by Anglicans and Nonconformists that were active in the 1690s.