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 MEMB. 1. 1. Messenger NOt to admonish our brother is to hate him as the Holy Ghost witnesseth Levit. 19. 17. But to scorn our brother should admonish us is more to hate our selves That little which Cresus learned of Solon saved his life And had Pilate taken that fair warning his wife gave him it might have saved his soul which once lost cannot be redeemed with ten thousand worlds no not with the enduring of ten thousand thousand years torments in Hell When a Dog flies in his masters face that keeps him we conclude he is mad are they then rationall men that being never so little crost will fly in their Makers face and teare their Saviours name in peeces with oaths and execrations which is worse then Frenzie Yea this is to send challenges into Heaven and make love to destruction And certainly it is Gods unspeakable mercy that every such oath blasphemy proves not a Benoni the death of the mother Gen. 35. 18. 2. Think me not too bold or over harsh for I speak to you both for and from my Maker and Redeemer Yea be perswaded to hearken a while unto me as you would have God another day hearken unto you Are you Christians as you call your selves if you be you have at least heard what God and Christ hath done for us How when we were in a sad condition when by sin we had forfeited our selves and all we had and wilfully plunged our souls and bodyes into eternall torments When neither heaven earth nor hell could have yeelded any satisfactory thing besides Christ that could have satisfied Gods justice and merited heaven for us then O then The eternall God would dye viz. so far as was possible or necessary that we might not dye eternally Iohn 3. 16. A mercy bestowed and a way found out that may astonish all the sons of men on earth and Angels in heaven And all this even against our wils when we were his enemies mortally hating him and to our utmost fighting against him and taking part with his only enemies Sin and Satan as now you doe not having the least thought or desire of reconcilement but a perverse and obstinate will to resist all means tending thereunto 3. O my brethren bethink your selves 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 cloaths 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 be 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 knowledge and conscience I wish you would a little think of it 4. For favours bestowed and deliverances from danger bind to gratitude or else the more bonds of duty the more plagues for neglect The contribution of blessings requires retribution of thanks or will bring distribution of judgments And certainly if a friend had given us but a thousand part of what God hath we should heartily love him all our lives and think no thanks sufficient And in reason Hath God done so much for us and shall we denye him any thing he requireth of us though it were our lives yea our souls much more our sins most of all this sottish and damnable sin in which there is neither profit nor pleasure nor credit nor any thing else to provoke or intice us unto it as in other sins for all you can expect by it is the suspicion of common Lyers by being common Swearers Or that you shall vex others and they shal hate you Whereas if we could give Christ our Bodyes and Souls they should be saved by it but he were never the better for them Yea swearing and cursing are sins from which of all other sins we have the most power to abstain For were you forced to pay three shillings four pence for every oath and curse you utter as the Law enjoins 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 Iames 5. 12. you both could and would leave it which alone makes it altogether inexcusable And this know that 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 Adams eating the forbidden fruit sufficiently proves So that it is evident you love this sin meerly because it is a great sin and blaspheme 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 transgresse without a cause Psal. 25. 3. And no marvell that this fearfull imprecation should fall from the Pâ—ophets 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 Wherefore looke to it and think of it you cursing and cursed Swearers You swear away your salvation curse away your blessing Howling and Cursing shall be your chief ease in Hell to whom blasphemy was an especiall recreation on Earth 5. Argue with all the world and they will conclude there is no vice like ingratitude And meer ingratitude returns nothing for good but you return evill yea the greatest and most malicious evill for the greatest and most admired love It was horrible ingratitude for the Iewes to scourge and crucifie Christ who did them good every way for he healed their diseases fed their bodies inlightned their mindes of God became Man and lived miserably among them many years that he might save their souls though in killing him they did their utmost to sinke the only ship that could save them but you are more ingratefull to God and Christ then they were or can be exprest by the best Oratour alive For which read more in a Treatise intituled Gods goodnesse and Englands unthankfulnesse from Chapter 4. to Chapter 7. 6. O that you would but consider that the Lord Iehovah who is â— God great and terrible of most glorious majesty and infinite purity hears and beholds you in all places and in every thing you
think speak or do who is a just Judge and will not let this cursed sin go unpunished then would you keep a narrower watch over your thoughts then any other can do over your actions yea you would assoon stab a dagger to your hearts as let such oaths and execrations drop from your mouths whereas now 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 Sodome commanded the earth to open her mouth and swallow down quick Corah and his companie 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 unthankfulnesse yea it is a mercie beyond expression that he hath spared you so long Consider of it I beseech you 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 witnesse 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 bodie by sending some foul disease or in your estate by suddainly consuming it or in your name by blemishing and blasting it or in your seed by not prospering it or in your minde by darkning it or in your heart by hardning 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 7. Or if you regard not your self or your own souls good yet for the Nations good leave your swearing for the Lord as now we finde to our smart hath a great controversie with the Inhabitants of the Land because of swearing Hos 4. 1 2. Yea because of oaths the whole land even the three Naâ—ions now mourneth as you may see Ier. 23. 10. Neither object that ye are so accustomed to swearing that you cannot leave it for this deâ—ence is worse then the offence as take an instance Shall a Thief or Murtherer at the Bar alledge 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 Judge so much the rather send him to the Gallows 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 doe not will be a sore witnesse and rise up in judgment against you anoâ—her day MEMB. 2. Swearer Did I swear or curse 1. Messenger Very often as all here present can witnesse 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 Assises 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. and 22 12. As also the searcher of hearts who himself will one day be a swift witnesse against Swearers Mal. 3. 5. For of all other sinners the Lord will not hâ—ld him guilâ—lesse that taketh his Name in vain as the third Commandement tels you Exod. 20. 7. 2. But wo is me it fares with common Swearers as with persons desperately disâ—ased 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 senslessenesse to overspread the heart memorie and conscience that the swearer sweareth unwittingly and having sworne hath no remembrance of his Oath much lesse repentance for his Sin Swearer Alas though I did swear yet I thought no harm 3. 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 before hand Deut. 38. 58 59. That if we do not fear dread his 〈◊〉 and â—earful Name the Lord our God he wil make our plagues wonderful and of long continuance and the plagues of our posterity Besides how frequently doest thou pollute and prophane Gods Name and thy Saviours The Iews 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 〈◊〉 thee that thou hast seldome remembred him but to blaspheme him and more often named him in thy Oaths and Curses then in thy prayers Swearer Surely If I did swear it was but Faith and Troth by our Lady the Masse the Rood the Light this Bread by the Crosse of the silver or the like which is no great matter I hope so long as I swore not by God nor by my Savior 4. Messenger That is your grosse ignorance of the Scriptures for God expresly forbids it and that upon pain of damnation Iam. 5. 12. First our Saviour Christ in his own person forbids it Mat. 5 34 35 36 37. I say unto you Swearâ— not at all neither by heaven for it is Gods Throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool nor by Ierusalem 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 then these cometh of evill 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 lest you fall into condemnation James 5 12. where mark the Emphasis in the first words Above all things swear noâ—â— and the great danger of it in the last word condemnation 5 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. 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