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A28981
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A free discourse against customary swearing ; and, A dissuasive from cursing by Robert Boyle ; published by John Williams.
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Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.; Williams, John, 1636?-1709.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing B3978; ESTC R27221
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44,234
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188
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people so it is but a very sorry goodness not to be as bad as the worst How strangely are our Affections misplac'd In transitory Goods which he rates justliest that prizes least we think we never have enough if any body else has more but in the Goods of the Mind which cannot be overvalued we think our selves sufficiently stor'd if others enjoy less We are discontented at another's Wealth and proud of his Vices and whereas his greater Poverty should exalt our Gratitude and his greater Piety create our Emulation his Riches make us envious and his Sinfulness secure PLEA IV. Well may you reply but I scorn to swear falsly and what know to be true why may I not safely swear Answ This weak Objection satisfies many Swearers so easily men believe what they desire but with as little Reason as they swear with need For that not False alone but Rash and Unnecessary Oaths are forbidden appears evidently by the expression made use of in the Third Commandment where Perjury is not alone condemn'd but it is flatly written Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain Which if needless and customary Swearing do not 't will be a strange Riddle to me what the Commandment means to prohibit But that this is the genuine Sense and Design of those words is clear'd by these express ones of our Saviour cited before in St. Matthew's Gospel Ye have heard that it hath been said of old time thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths But I say unto you Swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth c. And to this sense the annex'd affirmative Precept expounds the negative Law the word Communication in the former shewing the Interdict to be chiefly meant of Oaths employ'd in common Discourse and Conversation Nay God himself seems manifestly to determine all the Controversy by that clear distinction express'd in a passage of Leviticus whose words run thus And ye shall not swear by my name falsly neither shalt thou prophane the name of thy God I am the Lord. And certainly if we must answer at the Last Day for every Idle Word how much more will that Account be exacted of us for every Idle Oath The Jews at this day as I learn'd whilst I lately convers'd with them at Amsterdam have so profound a Reverence for that great Name of Jehovah commonly called Nomen Tetragrammaton and Ineffable so frequently recorded in the Scriptures that they hold it unlawful for Mortal Lips so much as to pronounce it But tho I esteem this fancy suitable enough to the rest of the Extravagancies of their Modern Tenents yet certainly their Superstition will condemn our Irreverence I remember an Expositor observes upon the 6th of Deuteronomy and the 13th verse That the word there which signifies Swear is put in the Hebrew in the Passive Sense to imply that our swearing ought to be a kind of necessitated act And a Father tells us of one Clinias a Pythagorean who being fin'd in a great Sum of Money which he might have escaped with an Oath chose rather to pay the Penalty impos'd than not to pay unto God the Reverence that he thought due unto his Name Besides he that makes no Conscience of swearing vainly will soon make but little of swearing falsly For he that in a lower degree so voluntarily breaks God's Commandment for nothing may soon be drawn to break it in a little higher degree for his Profit And tho many of our Gallants doubtless in a pure Complement to the Devil are pleased to condemn the breach of this Commandment only when the sinner wants the excuse of an advantage by it yet certainly he that uses to toss God's Sacred Name in his mouth without any Reverence and employs it about every trifle will easily be tempted not to care much what he does with it nor to what use he puts it And therefore holy David makes it a symptom of Hatred against God when in a Psalm he says Thine enemies take thy name in vain These Considerations may clearly teach us what to think of those usual forms of speech such as are God forgive me God help you and the like of those customary Exclamations such as are O God! O Jesus and those others that are usually employ'd to proclaim our wonders or supply the want of a Complement with an excess of Irreverence For tho these unregarded Trespasses be in most persons faults venial enough as the effects rather of Ignorance and Heedlesness than of Design yet are they fashions of speaking which besides that they are always needless and often scandalous do but inure our mouths to a very sawcy slighting of that Awful Name which eternally to praise shall be in Heaven both our Employment and our Happiness PLEA V. Nor will it avail the Oathmonger to reply But I do not take God's Name in vain for I swear not by God or by Christ or other Oaths of the like nature but only by the Creatures as by this Light by this Bread by Heaven and the like and the Creatures name I hope it is no sin to take in vain Answ For sure if we will allow our Saviour to be the best Interpreter of his Father's Commandments he will teach us a very differing Lesson in those already twice alledged words of St. Matthew for doubtless he that forbids to swear by Heaven the noblest or by Earth the meanest Ingredients of this vast Fabrick of the World intended that Prohibition should reach all other Creatures which is as clear as light in the ensuing words of the 37th verse of the same Chapter where Christ's express Injunction is But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil Besides either by the thing you swear by you mean God or no if the former your Guilt is evident in the Breach of God's Commandment and if the latter remember what the Spirit says in Jeremy How shall I pardon thee for this Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods And in effect 't is questionable in Divinity whether be the greater Sin to swear falsly by the Creator or with truth by the Creatures for as the former is an act of high Impiety so is the latter of Idolatry Because swearing by any thing being a part of Divine Worship as the Passages the Margin leads to will evidence implies in us an acknowledgment of some Divinity in the thing we swear by which without Omniscience is uncapable to discern the inward Truth or Falshood of our Oaths and without Omnipotence unable to reward the one or punish the other A consideration so prevalent with many of the Primitive Martyrs that they chose rather to expire in Torments than swear by the Genius of the Emperor Nor is an Oath only an Act or Species of Divine Worship Isa 48. 1. and 45.
A FREE DISCOURSE AGAINST Customary Swearing AND A DISSUASIVE FROM CURSING By the late Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Published by John Williams D. D. LONDON Printed by R. R. for Thomas Cockerill Sen r and Jun r at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against Stocks-Market MDCXCV IMPRIMATUR April 13. 1695. Guil. Lancaster To the Right Honourable RICHARD Earl of Burlington and Cork Lord High Treasurer of Ireland AND The HONOURABLE Sir Henry Ashhurst Baronet Executors to the Honourable Robert Boyle Esquire IT has been an Injury too often done to the Memory of Persons eminent for Knowledge Learning and Virtue to have after their Death such Works obtruded upon the World for theirs as have been deservedly suspected or if theirs yet were never intended by them in that squalid broken and imperfect condition to have been published But as for this Tract you were pleased to put into my hands to peruse it is not only certain that it was Wrote by the Honourable Person whose Name it bears but also that it was designed by him for the Press as some Passages in it do apparently shew And if this Noble and Learned Author thought it seasonable for those Times of Uncontroul'd Liberty and Confusion in which it was wrote it is as seasonable if not more at the present when that Vice against which it is directed has of late Years so far prevail'd to the great Dishonour of our Nation as well as our Religion that the Patriots of our Countrey assembled in Parliament have been thereby justly provok'd to prepare that late Bill which since has pass'd the Royal Assent for the better and more effectual Punishment and Suppression of it A Design becoming so August an Assembly and in the Prosecution of which your Honours must be esteemed to have done considerable Service especially by the Publication of this Treatise which has been so happily recovered and by a singular Providence reserved as it were for such a special Season and Service I am Most Honoured Your most Humble and Faithful Servant JOHN WILLIAMS THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER THESE Two Tracts against Customary Swearing and Cursing lately met with amongst the Papers of a Person of Quality and an intimate Acquaintance of the Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle Transcribed by his own Hand were found upon Perusal Perfect and Fitted for the Press except the Close of a Dedicatory Epistle to his Noble Sister the Countess of Kildare which as far as appears by the Copy he had but just begun The Year inserted on the Title Page as well as a passage or two in the former of these shews that it was Penned toward the latter end of the late Vnhappy Times when he was about Twenty Years Old by which time if I am not mistaken this was the Third Treatise he had prepared for the Publick the other Two being that of Seraphick Love afterwards Printed and An Essay of Mistaken Modesty referred to in this I cannot say though there is a sensible Conformity between the Style of these and others of his Books but that this Honourable Author if he had been to write upon this Argument in his Riper Years might have given it a finer Turn and added out of his vast store of Learning and Thought much to the weight and force of it But there is in the management of it such a strain of Modesty and unaffected Piety such an affectionate Zeal for the Honour of Almighty God and such a passionate concernment for the Well-doing and Happiness of those of his Acquaintance for whose use this seems more especially designed and in fine so much Truth Reason and Observation as the Pleas and Excuses here undertaken and answered shew that must above all recommend it to such as have his Name in Remembrance and Veneration A Name methinks better than that of Sons and of Daughters than that of Blood and Descent and that should provoke those of Eminent Extraction and Station to an Imitation of so Worthy and Glorious an Example What happy Instruments might they then be of Good to Mankind by their wise Conduct and their exemplary Vertues What a restraint would this lay above that of Laws on their Dependants and Inferiors For how would such dare to offend that are sure to find no Countenance or Protection And what Protection or Countenance could they expect from their Superiors whose Lives would be a continual Reproof and where they could find no more a President than they do a Law to encourage them in their wicked Oaths and Blasphemies To bring these Vices into disparagement and to represent the Folly as well as the Sin of them to the better-bred part of Mankind was the Generous and Pious Design of this Learned Author and of those Honourable Persons that from their Relation to him by Blood or Friendship have been concerned in the Publication Toward the utter Extermination of which amongst us there seems to be as human means nothing more necessary than the Vigilance of our Magistrates who are now as well and fully Empowered as obliged by the Law to see to the Punishment of it and for the due Execution of which they will most certainly have the good Wishes Assistance and Prayers of all Good men and which is more than all the Blessing and Rewards of Heaven I have only this to add That the Second Tract or Letter seems to proceed from the same Hand with the First being agreeable to it in the Stile as well as the Design of it and so the Naming Mr. Boyle in it is but a decent Cover for the Concealment of himself A DISCOURSE Against Customary SWEARING THOUGH I doubt not but that it is much more easy to make most Swearers Proselytes than Converts and a Task of less Difficulty to convince their Judgments than to reform their Practice yet that they may not have any colour to father upon Ignorance what is usually the Child of some much guiltier Parent it will be possibly no less useful than necessary briefly to direct them to those Texts of Scripture where all those that acknowledge God's Word may find the Condemnation of that Vice First then the Third Commandment flatly forbids unnecessary Oaths in terms that are ratified by these words of our Redeemer in St. Matthew's Gospel Ye have heard what hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thy oaths But I say unto you Swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth c. And a little under But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil The Sum of which Prohibition is thus repeated by St. James towards the close of his Catholick Epistle But above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth neither by any other oath but let your yea be yea and your nay nay lest you fall into condemnation And suitable to these clear