a holy and religious manner as you may see Deut. 6. 13. Esay 45. 23. 65. 16. Iosh. 23. 7. Ieâ— 5. 7. Exod. 23. 13. 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 witnesse surety and judge Heb. 6. 16. and by consequence deifie it by ascribing and communicating unto it Gods incommunicable Attributes as his Omnipresence and Omniscience of being every where present and knowing the secret thoughts and intentions of the heart and likewise an Omnipotencie as being Almighty in patronising 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 swearing by any of those things thou committest an high degree of grosse Idolatry thou spoilest and robbest God of his Glory the most impious kind of theft and in a manner diâ—hronest him and placest an Idol in his room 6. And as to swear by the creature makes the sin far more heinous so the more mean and vile the thing is which you swear by be it by my fay by cock and pie hares foot by this cheâ—se 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 〈◊〉 as a witnesse unto your conscience that you speak the truth and 〈◊〉 not which only belongeth to God And therefore the Lord cals it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of him as mark well what he saith Ier. 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 â—rophet 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 join any other with God in our oaths for in so doing we make base Idols and filthy creatures Corrivals in honour and Competitiors in the Throne of Justice with the Lord who is Creatour of Heaven and Earth and the supreme Judge and sole Monarch of all the world Or in case we do our doom shall be remedilesse 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 mortal 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 lye which is as bad 7. Messeng You must not measure all others by your own bushell for although ill Dispositions cause ill Suspicions even as the eye that is bloudshood sees all things red or as they that have the Iaundies see all things yellow yet know that there be thousands who can say truly through Gods mercie that they had rather choose to have their souls pâ—sse from their bodies then a wilfull premeditated lie or a wicked oath from their mouths wherefore when you want experience think the best as charitie bids you and leave what you know not to the searcher of hearts 8 As for the number of Swearers it cannot be denyed but the sin is a most 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 reasonlesse plea and only becoming a fool when our Saviour Christ hath plainly told us that the greatest number go the broad way to destruct on and but a few the narrow way which leadeth unto life Mat. 7. 13 14. And S. Iohn that the whole world lyeth in wickednesse 1 John 5. 19. And that the number of those whom Satan shall 〈◊〉 is as the sand of the seâ— Rev. 20. 8. 13 16. Isa. 10 22. Rom. 9. â—7 And tell me Were it a good plea to commit a Felonie 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 accompanie us into thâ—t lake of fire that never shall be quenched Besides it is Gods expresse charge Exâ—d. 23. 2. Thou shalâ— not follow a multitude to doe evill and S Pauls everlasting rule Rom. 12. 2. Fâ—shion not your selves like unto this world Swearer But I may lawfully swear so I affirm 〈…〉 ◠〈◊〉 If you be lawfully called to it as before a Mâ—gistrâ—te 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 oâ—r own or our neighbours good which is the only use and end of an oath in which case a man is rather a patient then 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 Mat. 5. 34 35 36 37. Iaâ— 5. 12. Swearer Except I sâ—ear men will not believe me 10. Messenger Thou 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 Iewel as their Faith or offer better security for every small trifle Besides he that oâ—ten sweareth not seldome for sweareth And so I have informed you from Gods Word what the danger is of vain and wicked swearing MEMB. 3. 1. But as if Swearing alone would not presse thee deep enough into hell thou addest cursing to it a sin of an higher nature which none use frequently but such as like Goliah and Shimei 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
shall spy spots in his face and will not forthwith wipe them out A wise man will not have one sin twice repeated unto him And these may be resembled to wax which yeeldeth â—ooner to the sâ—al then steel to the stamp But 3. Secondly others are like Tullies strange soil much rain leaves them still as dry as dust Or the Wolfe in the emblem which though she suckt the Goat kept notwithstanding her wolvish nature still For speak what can be spoken to them it presently passes away like the sound of a Bell that is rung Let testimonies and examples never so much concern them they prove no other then as so many characters writ in the water which leave no impression behinde them Who may be resembled to an Hour-glasse or Conâ—uit that which in one hour runneth in the same in another hour runneth out again Or the Smiths Iron put it into the fire it is much sofâ—ned again put it into the water 't is harder then before Yea let them never so much smart for their sins they will return to them again untill they perish Resembling some silly flye which being beat from the candle an hundred times and oft singed therein yet will return to it again untill she be consumed Prov. 23. 35. All those Beasts which went into the Arke 〈…〉 4. Thirdly another sort will very orderly hear the Word and delight in it so long as the Minister shall rove in generalities preach little or nothing to the purpose But if once he touch them to the quick drive an application home to their consciences touching some one sin of theirs as John Baptist served Herod then they will turn their backs upon him and hear him no farther as those Jews served our Saviour Ioh. 6. 66. The Athenians Paul Acts 17. 16 to 34. and Ahab Micaiah 1 King 22. 8. 5. Sore eyes you know are much grieved to look upon the Sun Bankrupts cannot abide the fight of their counting books nor doe deformed saces love to looke themselves in a true Glasse For which read John 3. 19 20 21. But let such men know that to flye from the light and reject the means puts them out of all hope That sin is past cure which turnâ— from and refuseth the cure Deut. 17. 12. Prov. 29. 1. As what is light to them that will shut their eyes against it or reason to them that will stop their Ears from hearing it If those murtherers of the Lord of life Act. 2. 23. had refused to hear Peters searching Sermon in all probability they had never been prickt in their hearts never been saved ver. 37 38. And take this for a rule if ever you see a drowning man refuse help conclude him a wilfull murtherer 6. Fourthly and lastly for I passe by those blocks that goe to Church as dogs do only for company and can hear a powerfull Minister for twenty or thirty years together and minde no more what they hear then the seats they sit on or the stones they tread on There are a generation of Hearers who when a Minister does plainly reprove them for their sins and declare the judgments of God due unto the same to the end they may repent and beleeve that so they may be saved will carp and fret and spurn against the very Word of God for being so sharp and searching and thereupon persecuâ—e the Messenger as the Princes and false Prophets did Jeremiah Herodiâ—s John Baptist and the Pharisees Christ 7. And this God takes as done to himself What saith Paul 1 Cor. 7. 10. I have not spoken but the Lord and therefore as the Lord said unto Saul Acts 9. 4. that he persecuted him though in heaven so they which resist any truth delivered out of the Word do resist God himself and not his Messenger as evidently appears by these Scriptures Psal. 44. 22. and 74. 4. 10. 18. 22. 23. 83. 2 5 6. 89. 50 51. 139. 20. Prov. 19. 3. Rom. 1. 30. 9. 20. Mat. 10. 22. 25. 45. 1 Sam. 17. 45. Isai 37. 4 22 23 28. Acts 5. 39. 9. 4 5. Joh. 9. 4. 1 Thess. 4. 8. Joh. 15. 20 to 26. Numb. 16. 11. 1 Sam. 8. 7. Mark 9. 42. Psal. 79. 12. 2 King 2. 24. O that the Gospels enemies would but seriously consider these Scriptures and be warned by them For certainly it is neither wise good nor safe either resisting or angring him that can anger every vein of their hearts Yea God hath Messengers of wrath for them that despise the Messenger of his love 8. But hear why they so mortally hate the naked truth Because it is the Word by which they are condeâ—ned they loath as much to hear it as a prisoner doth abâ—or to hear his 〈…〉 the just Judgâ— And indeed if many as we know by experience love not to hear the worst of their temporall causes and cases nor yet of their bodily distempers with which their lives or estates be indangered How much more will wicked men decline from seeing their hainous abominations and themselves guilty of Hell and eternall damnation though thereof there be an absolute necessity if ever they be saved 9. Guilty sinners love application as dearly as a dog does a cudgell And no marvail for what Leaper will take pleasure in the searching of his sores Nor were Satan his Crafts-master if he did permit them For if they could clearly see the loathsomnesse of their impieties it were not possible not to abhor them not to abhor themselves for them but their blindnesse makes them love their own filthinesse as Ethiopians do their own swarthinesse Besides they love not to have their consciences awakened but would sleep quietly in their sins And he that desires to sleep will have the curtains drawn the light shut out and no noise made Whence as good meates are unwelcome to sick persons so is good counsell to obstinate and resolved sinners Tell them of their swearing drinking whoring câ—eating they will fiet and chafe and fume and swell and storm and be ready to burst again to hear it But let envy sweat swell and burst truth must be spoken And indeed why should not Gods servants take as free liberty in reproving as the Devils servants take liberty in offending Shall not the one be as loud for God as the other are for Baal and Belzebub 10. Yea admonish them never so mildly they will say we take too much upon us as Corah and his complices twitted Moses Numb. 16. 3. not knowing how strictly God commands and requires it Lev. 19. 17. 2 Tim. 2. 25. Ezek. 3. 18 to 22. 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. Whence as the Chief Priests answered Iudâ—s What is that to us so they will blaspheme God tear Christ in pieces and more then betray even shed his innocent bloud digging into his side with oaths and say when told of it What is that to us when they might as well say Wâ—at is Christ to us what is heaven to us or what
they are so crusted in their villanie that custome is become a second or new nature God that he may punish their hardnesse and excesse in sin with further obduration not only delivers them up to Satan the God of this world who so blindes their mindes and deludes their understandings that the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ shall not shine unto them 2. Cor. 4. 3 4. Eph. 2. 2. 2 Thess. 2. 9. But he gives them up even to a râ—probate judgment to the hardnesse of their hearts and to walk in their owne connsels Psal. 81. 11. 12. Rom. 1. 21 to 32. And betteâ— be given up to Satan as the incestuous Corinthian was then thus to be given up For he was thereby converted and saved as God used the matter making the Scorpion a medicine against the sting of the Scorpion the Horseleeâ—h a means to abate the vicious and superfluous bloud so ordering Satans craft and malice to ends which himself intended not Whereas these are given over as a desperate Patient is given over by his Physitian when there is no hope of his recovery As thus Because they will not receive the truth in love that they might be saved for this cause God gives them up to strong delusions that they should beleeve lyes that all they might be damned who beleeve not the truth but take pleasure in unrighteousnesse they are the very words of the holy Ghost 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. If any would see more touching the wofull condition of a deluded worldling and how Satan guls wicked men with a world of misprisions that he may the better cheat them of their souls Let them read The Drunkards Character and the Cure of Misprision for in this I study all possible brevity being loath either to surfeit or cloy the Swearer who is commonly short breath'd in well-doing and lest adding more should hinder him from hearing this for Satan and his corrupt heart will not condescend he shall hold out to hear his beloved sin so spoken against MEMB. 5. 1. Only I will insert a few notions aphorisms or conclusions touching the former point of Gods forbearing to punish the most flagitious sinners when they so horribly provoke him together with some pregnant examples of some that he hath executed Martiall Law upon even in this life Cornelius Gallus not to mention many nor any that every Author sets down dyed in the very act of his filthinesse as Plutarch well notes Nitingall Parson of Crondall in Kent was struck dead in the Pulpit as he was belching out his spleen agâ—inst religion and zealous professors of the Gospel It was the usual imprecation of Henry Earl of Schuartzbourg Let me be drowned in a Iakes if it be not so and such was his end You may remember one Lieutenant of the Tower was hanged it had wont to be his usuall imprecation as he confessed at his death Earl Godwin wiâ—hing at the Kings Table that the bread he eat might choke him if he were guilty of Alphrâ—ds death whom he had before slain was presently choked and fell down dead Yea his lands also sunk into the Sea and are called Godwins sands where thousands since have made shipwrack It was usuall with Iohn Peter mentioned in the book of Martyres to say if it be not tâ—ue I pray God I may rot ere I dye and God saying Amen to it he rotted away indeed A Serving-man in Lincoln-shire for every trifle used to swear Gods precious bloud and would not be warned by his friends to leave it insomuch that hearing the bell tole in the very anguish of death he started up in his bed and sware by the former oath that bell toled for him whereupon immediately the bloud most fearfully issued as it were in streams from all parts of his body not one place left free and so dyed Popiel King of Poland had ever this wish in his mouth If it be not true I would the Rats might eat me and so it came to passe for he was so assailed by them at a banquet that neither his guards nor fire nor water could deâ—end him from them as Munster mentions The Iews said Let his bloud be upon us and upon our children and what followed sixteen hundred years are now past since they wished themselves thus wretched and have they not ever since been the hate and scorne of the world Did they not many of them live to see their Câ—ty buried in ashes and drowned in bloud to see themselves no Nation Was there ever any people under heaven that was made so faâ—ous a spectacle of misery and desolation they have had what they câ—iled for to the â—ull and it 's just that they who long for a curse should 〈…〉 yet how many among us do familiarly curse their wives children c. Nor is it seldome that God payes them in their own coin men prophane Gods name and he makes their names to stinke When the pestilence rageth in our streets blasphemy and execration must confesse that they have their due wages Blasphemers live swearing and dye raving it is but their wages 2. He punisheth some in the Suburbs of hell that they might never come into the City it self The evill he now suffers uncorrected he refers to be condemned Sin knows the doom it must smart here or hereafter Outward plagues are but favour in comparison of spirituall judgments and spirituall judgments but light to eternall torments God does not punish all flagitious sinners here that he may allow some space to repent and that none may doubt his promise of a Generall Iudgment nor does he forbear all here lest the world should deny his providence and question his justice MEMB. 6. 1. But what do I urge reason to men of a reprobate judgment to admonish them is to no more purpose then if one should speak to life-lesse stones or sense-lesse plants or wit-lesse beasts for they will never fear any thing till they be in Hell fire wherefore God leaves them to be confuted with fire and brimstone since nothing else wil doe it If there be any here that beleeve a Resurrection as I hope better things of some of you all such I would beseech by the mercies of God before mentioned that they would not be so desperately wicked as to mock their admonisher scoff at the means to be saved and make themselves merry with their owne damnations but that they would entertain this messuage as if it were an Epistle sent from God himself to invite and call them to repentance Yea consider seriously what I have said and do not Oh do not mock at Gods Word nor sport away your souls into those pains which are easelesse endlesse and remedilesse Shal we give an account at the day of judgement for every idle word we speak Mat. 12. 36. and never give a reckoning for our wicked swearing and cursing we shall be judged by our words v 37. Are you willing to be saved if you are Break off your sins by repentance Dan. 4. 27. Cease to do evill learn to doe well Isai. 1. 16. 17. Seriously grieve and bewail for the millions of times that you have blasphemed God and pierced your Saviour and never more commit the like impiety Yea doe not only leave your swearing but fear an Oath and make conscience of it resolve not to take the glorious name of God in vain nor place any other câ—eature in his roome though the Devill should say unto you as once he did to Christ All this will I give thee For it is not enough that we abstaine from evill unlesse we hate it also and doe the contrary good Sanctifie the Lord God in your heart 1 Pet 3. 15. Make a covenant with your mouth as Job did with his eyes and set a watch before the door of your lips that you thus offend not with your tongue Psal. 1413. 2. Which if you doe rightly the like care to avoid all other sins will necessarily follow because he that fears to commit one sin out of conscience and because God forbids it will upon the same ground fear all that his law forbids and as heartily and unfainedly desire that he may never The Printer to the Reader IT being observed that many meeting with some of this Authors Collections do earnestly enquire after the rest I think it not amisse to satisfie their desire and save them further labour by setting down the severals which are these The Cause and Cure of Ignorance Errour Enmity c. The Cure of Misprision or Mistake The Victory of Patience The Drunkards character with an addition The Character or Touch-stone of a true Beleever The Character of a formall Hypocrite or Civill Justiciarie Characters of the kindes of Preaching Compleat Armor against evill Societie Cordiall Counsell Gods goodnesse and Englands unthankfulnesse the second Edition that is divided into chapters and sections The first part of the Pastors Advocate An Abstract of the Drunkards Character already printed The second part of the Pastors Advocate The Arraignment and conviction of covetous cunning and cruel Governors Polititians Officers Judges Lawyers c. with the lovely and lively characters of Iustice Thankfulnesse Contentation Frugality Liberality c. The Laymans Library or the poor mans Paradise to be printed FINIS LONDON Printed by E. Cotes 1652.