Light this Bread by the cross of the silver or the like which is no great matter I hope so long as I swore not by God nor by my Saviour Messenger That is your gross ignorance of the Scriptures for God expresly forbids it and that upon pain of damnation James 5.12 First our Saviour Christ in his own person forbids it Mat. 5.34 35 36 37. I say unto you Swear not at all neither by Heaven for it is Gods Throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool nor by Jerusalem for it is the City of the great King neither shalt thou swear by thine head because thou canst not make one hair white or black but let your communication be Yea Yea Nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil And then by his Apostle Above all things my brethren swear not neither by Heaven nor by Earth nor by any other Oath but let your Yea be Yea and your Nay Nay left ye fall into condemnation Jam. 5.12 Where mark the Emphasis in the first words Above all things swear not and the great danger of it in the last word condemnation If the matter be light and vain we must not swear at all if so weighty that we may lawfully swear as before a Magistrate being called to it then we must only use the glorious Name of our God in a holy and religious manner as you may see Deut. 6.13 Isa 45.23 65.16 Josh 23.7 Exod. 23.13 Jer. 5.7 And the reasons of it are weighty if we look into them for in swearing by any Creature whatsoever we do invocate that Creature and ascribe to it divine worship a lawfull Oath being a kind of Invocation and a part of Gods worship Yea whatsoever we swear by that we invocate both as our witness surety and judg Heb. 6.16 and by consequence deifie it by ascribing and communicating unto it Gods incommunicable Attributes as his Omnipresence and Omnisciencie of being every where present and knowing the secret thoughts and intentions of the heart and likewise an omnipotency as being Almighty in patronizing protecting defending and rewarding us for speaking the truth or punishing us if we speak falsly all which are so peculiar to God as that they can no way be communicated or ascribed to another So that in sweating by any of those things thou committest an high degree of gross Idolatry thou spoilest and robbest God of his glory the most impious kind of theft and in a manner dethronest Him and placest an Idol in his room And as to swear by the Creature makes the sin far more hainous so the more mean and vile the thing is which you swear by be it by my fey by cock and py hares foot by this cheese and such like childish Oaths which are so much in use with the ignorant and superstitious swarm the greater is your sin in swearing such an Oath because you ascribe that unto these basest of Creatures which is only proper to God namely to know your heart and to be a discerner of secret things why else should you call that Creature as a witness unto your conscience that you speak the truth and lie not which only belongeth to God And therefore the Lord calls it a forsaking of him as mark well what he saith Jer. 5.7 How shall I spare thee for this thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods And do you make it a small matter to forsake God and make a God of the creature Will you believe the Prophet Amos. If you will he saith speaking of them that swore by the sin of Samaria That they shall fall and never rise again Amos 8.14 A terrible place to vain swearers Neither are we to joyn any other with God in our Oathes for in so doing we make base Idols and filthy Creatures Corrivals in honour and Competitors in the Throne of Justice with the Lord who is Creator of Heaven and earth and the supream Judg sole Monarch of all the world Or in case we do our doom shall be remediless for the Lord threatneth by the Prophet Zephany That he will cut off them that swear by the Lord and by Malcham which Malcham was their king or as some think their Idol Zeph. 1.4 5. But admit the sin were small as you would have it to be yet the circumstances make it most heinous for even the least sin in its own nature is not only mortall but rests unpardonable so long as it is willingly committed and excused or defended Swearer But all do swear except some few singular ones and they also will lie which is as bad Messenger You must not measure all others by your own bushell for although ill Dispositions cause ill suspicions even as the eye that is bloudshed sees all things red or as they that have the Jaundice see all things yellow yet know that there be thousands who can say truly through Gods mercy that they had rather chuse to have their souls pass from their bodies than a wilfull premeditated lie or a wicked Oath from their mouthes wherefore when you want experience think the best as Charity bids you and leave what you know not to the Searcher of hearts As for the number of Swearers it cannot be denied but the sin is almost universall and this is it which hath incensed Gods wrath and almost brought an universall destruction upon our whole Nation But is not this excuse That others do so a most reasonless plea and only becoming a fool when our Saviour Christ hath plainly told us that the greatest number go the broad way to destruction and but a few the narrow way which leadeth unto life Matth. 7.13 14. And St John that the whole world lieth in wickedness 1 Joh. 5.19 And that the number of those whom Satan shall deceive is as the sand of the sea Rev. 20.8 13.16 Isa 10.22 Rom. 9.27 And tell me Were it a good plea to commit a Felony and say that others do so or Wilt thou leap into Hell and cast away thy soul because others do so A sorry comfort it will be to have a numerous multitude accompany us into that lake of fire that never shall be quenched Besides it is Gods express charge Exod. 23.2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil and St Pauls everlasting rule Rom. 12.1 2. Fashion not your selves like unto this world Swearer But I may lawfully swear so I affirm nothing but the truth Messenger If you be lawfully called to it as before a Magistrate or when some urgent matter constraineth for the confirming of a necessary truth which can by no other lawfull means be cleared and for the ending of all contentions and controversies and clearing our own or our neighbours good name person or estate and to put an end to all strife aiming at Gods glory and our own or our neighbours good which is the only use and end of an Oath in which case a man is rather a
A hopefull way to Cure that horrid Sinne of Swearing Or an help to save Swearers if willing to be saved Being an Offer or Message from HIM whom they so daringly and audaciously provoke Also a Curb against Cursing By R. Younge Before you lay it by at least read the Postscript at the end Messenger SIr Me thinks you Swear and Curse as if he that made the ear could not hear or as if he were neither to be feared nor cared for who for sin cast the Angels out of Heaven Adam out of Paradise drowned the old world rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom commanded the earth to open her mouth and swallow down quick Korah and his company he who smote Egypt with so many plagues overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea destroyed great and mighty Kings giving their land for an inheritance to his people and can as easily with a word of his mouth strike you dead while you are blaspheming him and cast you body and soul into Hell for your odious unthankfullness yea it is a mercy beyond expression that he hath spared you so long What because you are displeased with others will you flie in your Makers face and tear your Saviours Name in pieces This is worse then frenzie this is to send challenges into Heaven and make love to destruction consider of it lest you swear away your part in that Bloud which must save you if ever you be saved yea take heed lest you be plagued with a witness and that both here and hereafter for God who cannot lie hath threatned that his curse shall never depart from the house of the Swearer as it is Zach. 5.1 to 5 And I doubt not but you are already cursed though you know it not That either he hath cursed you in your body by sending some foul Disease or in your estate by suddenly consuming it or in your name by blemishing and blasting it or in your seed by not prospering it or in your mind by darkening it or in your heart by hardening it or in your conscience by terrifying it or will in your soul by everlastingly damning it if you repent not Wherefore take heed what you do before it prove too late Yea my brethren bethink your selves what God and Christ hath done for you It is his maintenance we take and live on The air we breath the earth we tread on the fire that warms us the water that cools and cleanseth us the cloathes that cover us the food that does nourish us the delights that cheer us the beasts that serve us the Angels that attend us even all are his That we are not at this present in Hell there to fry in flames never to he freed That we have the free offer of grace here and everlasting glory in Heaven hereafter we are only beholding to him And shall we deny this Lord that hath bought us shall we most spightfully and maliciously fight on Satans side against him with all our might and that against knowledg and conscience I wish that you would a little think of it Or if you regard not your self nor your own souls good yet for the Nations good leave your swearing for the Lord as now we find to our smart hath a great controversie with the inhabitants of the Land because of swearing Hosea 4.1 2. Yea because of oaths the whole Land even the three Nations now moutneth as you may see Jer. 23.10 Neither object that ye are so accustomed to Swearing that you cannot leave it for this defence is worse than the offence as take an instance Shall a thief or murtherer at the Bar alleage for his defence that it hath been his use and custom of a long time to rob and kill and therefore he must continue it or if he do will not the Judg so much the rather send him to the gallows Besides the objection is false and frivolous for were you forced to pay three shillings four pence for every Oath you swear as the Law enjoyns or if you were sure to have your tongue cut out which is too light a punishment for this sin damnation being the due penalty thereof as the Apostle sets it down Jam. 5.12 you both could and would leâ—ve it Wherefore I beseech you by the mercies of God who hath removed so many evils and conferred so many good things upon you that they are beyond thought or imagination to leave it especially after this warning which in case you do not will be a sore witness and rise up in judgment against you another day Swearer Did I swear or curse Messenger Very often as all here present can witness and Satan also who stands by to take notice reckon up and set on your score every Oath you utter keeping them upon Record against the great day of Assise at which time every Oath will prove as a daggers point stabbing your soul to the heart or as so many weights pressing you down to Hell Rev. 20.13 22.12 As also the searcher of hearts who himself will one day be a swife witness against Swearers Mal. 3.5 For of all other sinners the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain as the third Commandement tolls you Exed 20.7 But wo is me it fares with common Swearers as with persons desperately diseased whose excrements and filth comes from them at unawares for as by much labour the hand is so hardened that it hath no sense of labour so their much swearing causeth such a brawny skin of senslesness to overspread the heart memory and conscience that the swearer sweareth unwittingly and having sworn hath no remembrance of his Oath much less repentance for his sin Swearer Alas though I did swear yet I thought no harm Messenger O fool What Prince hearing himself abused to his face by the reproachfull words of his base and impotent Subject would admit of such an excuse that whatsoever he spake with his mouth yet he thought no ill in his heart And shall God take this for a good answer having told us beforehand Deut. 28.58 59. that if we do not fear and dread his glorious and fearfull Name the Lord our God he will make our plagues wonderfull and of long continuance and the plagues of our posterity Besides how frequently doest thou pollute and prophane Gods Name and thy Saviours the Jews grievously sinned in crucifying the Lord of life but once and that of ignorance but the times are innumerable that thou doest it every day in the year every hour in the day although thy conscience and the holy Spirit of grace hath checkt thee for it a thousand and a thousand times Doest thou expect to have Christ thy Redeemer and Advocate when thy conscience tells thee that thou hast seldom remembred Him but to blaspheme Him and more often named Him in thy Oaths and Curses than in thy Prayers Swearer Surely if I did swear it was but Faith and Troth by our Lady the Mass the Rood the
patient than a voluntary agent you may swear otherwise not Neither must we swear at all in our ordinary communication if we will obey Gods word as you may see Matth. 5.34 35 36 37. Jam. 5.12 Swearer Except I swear men will not believe me Messenger Theâ— hadst as good say I have so often made shipwrack of my credit by accustomary lying that I can gain no belief unto my words without an Oath for it argues a guilty conscience of the want of credit and that our word alone is worth no respect when it will not be taken without a pawn or surety Neither will any but base bankrupts pawn so precious a jewel as their Faith or offer better security for every small trifle Besides he that often sweareth not seldom forsweareth And so I have informed you from Gods Word what the danger is of vain and wicked swearing Now if you either believe the Scriptures or desire to escape that direfull sentence Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 No longer excuse nor defend it but repent of it and forsake it and so much the rather for that of all other sins this sin of swearing is the most inexcusable First because it is a sin from which of all other sins we have most power of abstinence as I shewed you before and the easier the thing commanded is the greater guilt in the breach of it and the lighter the injunction the heavier the transgression as Austin speaks and Adam his eating the forbidden fruit sufficiently proves Secondly because it is a sin to which of all other sins we have the fewest temptations for all thou canst expect by it is the suspicion of a common Lyar by being a common swearer or that thou shalt vex others and they shall hate thee for it bringeth not so much as any appearance of good unto us to induce us for whereas other sins have their severall baits to allure us some the bait of profit some of honour some of pleasure this sin is destitute of them all and only bringeth much loss here namely of credit and a good conscience and the loss of Gods favour and the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter which is of more value than ten thousand worlds which shews that thou lovest this sin only because it is a great sin and swearest out of meer malice to and contempt of God which is most fearfull and as a man would think should make it unpardonable I am sure the Psalmist hath a terrible word for all such if they would take notice of it Let them be confounded that transgress without a cause Psal 25 3. And no marvell that this fearfull imprecation should fall from the Prophets mouth for that man is bottomlesly ill who loves vice meerly because it is a vice and because God most strictly forbids it He is a desperate prodigious damnable wretch who rather then not die will anger God on set purpose But as if Swearing alone would not press thee deep enough into Hell thou addest Cursing to it a sin of an higher nature which none use frequently but such as are desperately wicked it being their peculiar brand in Scripture as how doth the Holy Ghost stigmatize such an one His mouth is full of cursing Psal 10.7 Rom. 3.14 or he loveth cursing Psal 109. 17. and indeed whom can you observe to love this sin or to have their mouthes full of cursing but Ruffians and sons of Belial such as have shaken out of their hearts the fear of God the shame of men the love of Heaven the dread of Hell not once caring what is thought or spoken of them here or what becomes of them hereafter yea observe them well and you will find that they are mockers of all that march not under the pay of the Devil And whence do these monsters of the earth these hellish miscreants these bodily and visible Devils learn this their damnable Cursing and Swearing Are not their tongues fired and edged from Hell as St James hath it Jam. 3.6 yea it is the very language of the damned as you may see Rev. 16.11 21. Onely they learn it here before they come thither and are such proficients therein that the Devil counts them his best scholars and sets them in his highest form Psal 1.1 And well they deserve it with whom the language of Hell is so familiar that blasphemy is become their mother tongue Besides it is the very depth of sin roring and drinking is the horse way to Hell whoring and cheating the foot way but Swearing and Cursing follows Korah Dathan and Abiram And certainly if the infernal Tophet be not for those men it can challenge no guests But see how witless graceless and shameless even the best are that use to curse for I pass over such as call for a Curse on themselves saying God damn me Confound me The Devil take me and the like which would make a rationall man tremble to name because I were as good knock at a dead mans grave as speak to them Thou art crossed by some one perhaps thy wife childe or servant or else thy horse the weather the dice bowls or some other of the creatures displease thee and thou fallest a cursing and blaspheming them wishing them the plague of God or Gods vengeance to light on them or some such hellish speech falls from thy foul mouth And so upon every foolish trifle or every time thou art angry God must be at thy beck and come down from Heaven in all hast and become thy officer to revenge thy quarrell and serve thy malicious humour O monstrous impiety O shameless impudency to be abhorred of all that hear it not once taking notice what he commands in his Word as Bless them that persecuteyou bless I say and curse not Rom. 12.14 And again Bless them that curse you and pray for them which hurt you Luk. 6.28 which is the practice of all true Christians 1 Cor. 4.12 But this is not one half of thine offence for whom doest thou curse Alas the Creatures that displease thee are but Instruments thy sin is the cause and God is the Author 2 Sam. 16.11 Psal 39.9 10. Gen. 45.8 Job 1.21 from whom thou hast deserved it and ten thousand times a greater cross but instead of looking up from the stone to the hand which threw it or from the effect to the cause as Gods people do thou like a Mastiff Dog settest upon the stone or weapon that hut is thee But in this case who are you angry withall Does your Horse the Dice the rain or any other creature displease you Alas they are but servants and if their Master bid smite they must not forbear they may say truly what Rabshakeh usurped Isa 36.10 Are we come without the Lord and all that hear thee may say as the Prophet did to Senacherib 2 King 19.22 Whom hast thou blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy self even against the