Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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A23601
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The swearer's doom; or, A discourse setting forth the great sinfulness and danger of rash and vain swearing. By John Rost M.A. rector of Offwell and Gittisham in Devon
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Rost, John, d. 1713.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing R1987A; ESTC R203434
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36,689
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74
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the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing my Brethren these things ought not to be so As if he had said Is it not a most absurd and unreasonable thing that things so opposite and contrary should proceed out of the same mouth Do you ever pray to God do you praise him and give thanks to him and do you not thereby account that you honour his Name and dare you with the same mouth to dishonour and blaspheme it with wanton Oaths and spiteful Curses Again do you accustom your selves to say the Lord's Prayer which is not only a form and pattern to compose all others by but it is in its self the best and most excellent of all prayers Do you use it reverently seriously and devoutly and did you never observe and consider this one thing that the very first Petition of all is this Hallowed be thy Name And do you pray there that the Name of God may be honoured sanctified and reverenced by your selves and others that you may have an awful and reverent esteem of it and regard to it and dare you not only to take this glorious and fearful Name in vain but profane it by unhallowed Oaths and that with the very same mouth by which you pray it may be sanctified and reverenced This is a great wickedness indeed and ought to be looked upon by you that are Christians as strange and monstrous as it would be for a Fountain at the same place to send forth sweet Water and bitter v. 11. This most gross and absurd abuse of the Tongue doth therefore discover the filthiness and impiety of the heart Whoever truly loves or fears God whoever doth accustom himself sincerely to pray to him or to praise him will seldom I had almost said never abuse his Name by rash Swearing He that is accustomed to use it reverently will never abuse it presumptuously or irreverently He that hath the fear of God in his heart will ever take heed to his ways that he offend not by his Tongue Psal 39.1 For 't is certain no man doth less remember or seldomer think upon God than he that useth his Name most by Oaths and Curses Our Saviour tells us Mat. 12.34 That out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things If the heart of a man be piously and religiously disposed it will cause him to set God always before him and to have awful and reverent thoughts of him it will make him very cautious and tender in every thing in which his honour is concern'd he will be so far from being a common Swearer that he will dread the very thoughts of it Whereas if a man's heart is impiously inclined if it want the fear and love of God God will not be in all his thoughts tho' his name be frequently in his mouth as his mind is atheistical and profane so will his words and discourse be he will make nothing to curse or swear by the holy and dreadful Name of God yea he will hardly know or perceive when he is guilty of it Yea I kâ—ow no one sin in the World that is so great and so certain a sign of an impious and irreligious heart as customary Swearing 't is so utterly inconsistent with Piety that those that are guilty of it seem never to have any the least impressions of it They are all of them as St. Paul said of Simon Magus Acts 8.23 in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity it is a most infallible sign of hardness of heart and searedness of conscience And where this wicked and ungodly custom prevails it will draw Men into many other sins by hardning of their hearts and doth very often make them become guilty of that sin which all Mankind who pretend to honesty honour or conscience confess to be most vile heinous and abominable I mean the sin of Perjury There are many men that pride themselves in Swearing as a Gentile Accomplishment who will be ready to stab any man that shall give them the Lye and those that think Swearing a Grace and Ornament of speech acknowledge it a shameful thing to be or to be counted a Lyar. And yet there is no doubt but that the most common Swearers are generally the greatest Lyars 't is no wonder for those cannot pretend to forbear the latter out of conscience who make no conscience to be guilty of the former And if Oaths do flow from a man's mouth suddenly and insensibly as they always do where Swearing is become habitual and customary why may they not Lye after the same manner and then they become guilty of Perjury before they are aware of it for what is Perjury but a Lye confirm'd and bound with an Oath And if we should appeal to the Conscience of a common Swearer whether he hath not often done thus i.e. sworn to what is false as well as to what is true in common discourse I believe he cannot deny it if he seriously consider it For 't is certain that such men do often in their passion oblige themselves by Oaths swearing they will do such things as they do not in the least intend or if they did intend them when they came to themselves they were quite of another mind and forbore to do them And tho' some men have very exactly kept and punctually perform'd the things that they have hastily and unadvisedly sworn to yet they have seen great cause to be troubled yea have been much perplexed that they have thus foolishly and hastily insnared and intangled themselves by such Oaths Thus when the Princes and Heads of the Israelites made a League with the Gibeonites without asking Counsel of God tho' they doubtless sinned in so doing and tho' they did it upon a false Information and tho' all the Congregation murmured at it Josh 9.18 yet having confirm'd that League with the Oath of God they durst not break it though doubtless they were very much troubled and displeased with themselves for making it So when Jepthah went out to war against the Ammonites he vowed a Vow That if God would give him Victory he would offer to the Lord whatever should come forth of his house for a Burnt-Offering Judg 11.31 It is much disputed among Learned men what the matter of Jepthah's vow was and whether he did really offer up his Daughter in Sacrifice or only Consecrated her to God and confined her to perpetual virginity And whether if he Sacrificed her he did not greatly sin in so doing and whether it had not been better and much more acceptable to God if he had broken his vow then thus to fulfil it But this all are agreed in that tho' he was a good man and his vow proceeded from Zeal and Piety yet it was rash and Inconsiderate and tho' God accepted the Pious and good
intention of his heart yet his Wisdom saw fit to punish the rashness and Indiscretion of his vow for it brought him into a very great streight as is apparent from v. 38. For he rent his cloths and said Alas my Daughter thou hast brought me very Low and thou art one of them that trouble me for I have opened my mouth to the Lord and I cannot go back I say God probably punish'd the rashness and Inconsiderateness of that we might might be a warning to others that we might not be rash with our Mouths nor hasty with our Lips to utter any thing before the Lord As Solomon Adviseth Eccles 5.2 for as he says Pro. 20.25 It is a snare to a man after vows to make inquiry i. e. for a man rashly and inconsiderately to swear he will do such or such a thing and afterward to consider whether it be lawful or unlawful Convenient or Inconvenient to do as he hath sworn or to swear he will not do such a thing and afterward to consider whether it be not expedient to do it We have a famous example of this in Herod Mat. 14.6 where its ' said That the Daughter of Herodias Dancing before him on his birth day and pleasing him he promised with an Oath that he would give her whatsoever she should ask who being before Instructed of her mother desired him to give her the head of John the Baptist in a Charger which request of hers when the King heard it 's said v. 9. that he was sorry he repented him of his rash and unadvised Oath nevertheless for his Oath 's sake and them that sat with him at meat he commanded it to be given her St. Mark who relates this story most largely tells us Chap. 6.26 that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exceeding sorry he was mightily troubled that she should ask such a thing as he never thought of and which had he foreseen he would certainly have excepted out of his large and extravagant promise Of this his sorrow several motives have been Assigned Some suppose that Herod having cast John into prison would have been glad enough to hear of his death might be willing enough to put him to death at another time but he was very loath to do it then because it was his Birth day and a great Festival and it was the custom of the Romans never to shed Blood at such a time In which they bestowed Favours and Largesses and used to release Criminals who were not guilty of Capital offences Yea and some that were But the great reason mentioned by the Evangelists why he did not put John to death as well as imprison him was because he feared the multitude because they accounted him as a Prophet He was afraid of some Popular Tumult or Insurrection Mat. 14.5 Nevertheless for his Oath 's sake and of them that sat at Meat with him he caused it to be done Whether Herod made any conscience of an Oath or not we know not 't is certain he made no conscience of the greatest sins in other cases he lived in Adultery with his Brother Philips Wife whom he procured to be banished as some write that he might the more freely enjoy her And doubtless had it not been for fear of the multitude he would no more have scrupled the Murthering John the Baptist then his Father did to Murther the holy Innocents But many who indeed and in truth make little or no conscience of violating an Oath Yet will keep it when they have by it bound themselves to any evil thing only to maintain their honour and Reputation And this was plainly Herod's case he had promised to give the Daughter of Herodias whatever she should ask even to the Half of his Kingdom And this promise he had solemnly confirmed by Oath in presence of his Lords high Captains and Chief Estates of Galilee And therefore that he might not seem guilty of any Levity Temerity or Inconstancy by being worse then his word he was resolved that he would do as he had sworn what ever became of it They must be very foolish and ignorant who think that an Oath doth oblige them to do any wicked thing and yet 't is a common thing for some who make light of violating their Oaths when it obliges them to do good to think them selves bound in honour to keep them when they have Sworn to do that which is evil which is a great Error But these Instances sufficiently show into what streight perplexities and troubles men bring themselves by vain rash and inconsiderate Swearing Thus Saul would needs put Jonathan to death in pursuance of his rash Oath had not the people hindred him from it 1 Sam. 14.44 Again Consider how great a scandal and reproach such as are customary Swearers do bring upon the Christian Religion in general and upon that Church or Society of Christians whereof they profess and declare themselves Members in particular which consideration it self ought to work upon all that own themselves Christians and doth always sway very much wiâ—h sober and serious men If common Swearing were only a foolish and vain custom that some have gotten yet if it gives offence we ought to avoid it how much more when there is nothing more offensive and odious to good men St. Paul exhorts us Phil. 1.27 that our conversation should be such as becometh the Gospel of Christ that thereby we may invite and win others to that Religion which we our selves profess by rendring it lovely and amiable in the eyes of all men and chap. 4.8 that we should not only mind and practise those things that are honest just and pure but such as are lovely and of good report We ought to deny our selves and abridge our selves of our liberty by avoiding even such things as are lawful when they may scandalize and offend such as are weak how much more ought we to avoid such things as are apparently wicked as all Christians acknowledge vain Swearing to be when by it we may encourage wicked men and grieve and discourage such as are sober pious and religious You know that the Scripture makes this one of the greatest aggravations of sin viz. the fatal consequences and dangerous effects that it hath upon others by encouraging them in wickedness or discouraging them from Piety and such effects hath vain Swearing usually for says St. Paul 1 Cor. 15.33 Be not deceived evil communications corrupt good manners and Eph. 4.29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may administer grace to the hearers But what grace or edification can there be in that which is too bad in its self but worse in its consequences for as it grieves and displeaseth all pious and sober men so it hardens and emboldens the wicked and profane which is a great aggravation of it The sins of Ely's Sons were very great and heinous in themselves but that which made