AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST Swearing.  
To which is annexed an Appendix concerning an Assertory and Promissory Oath in reference to the Statures of the two now flourishing Sister Universities.  
Also a short Catalogue of some remarkable Judgements from God upon Blasphemers, etc.  
By R. BOREMAN, D. D. and Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
Et optimum est homini ut non omnino juret. Maimon.  
LONDON, Printed for R. Royston, Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty, at the Angel in Ivy-Lane, MDCLXII.   

To the Right Honourable, THE Lords and Commons, Assembled under our most Religious and Gracious King in the High Court of Parliament.  
Right Honourable,  
IT was ever a grand masterpiece of prudence in Patriots and State-Governours, whilst they were to encounter in an hostile way with foreign enemies, to secure all homebred dissensions, as knowing that a bosom or domestic enemy is most dangerous.  

Lib. 4. de Bel. Jud.  It is recorded by Josephus, that the intestine broils amongst the Jews, especially those of the Zelots, were so great, that Vespasian on purpose deferred the siege of Jerusalem, being informed that they promiscuously murdered one another, so that the less work was left for the Sword of the Conqueror.  
Thus those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as he calls them) Seditionists, subdued themselves before their City was besieged, and entered by Vespasian. Moreover, I have read of an old prophetic saying, That our glorious and now flourishing City of London should be destroyed by itself. Sin and Faction within the walls of it may (which God divert) effect that which was prophesied: and may it please God so to enlighten the eyes of all that inhabit it, and other parts of his Majesty's Dominions, as to be persuaded of this Truth, that if there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, if crying sins that strike at Heaven, outbrave God, to the shame of men, if such be suffered to go unpunished in this Kingdom, then, though our walls were as high and strong as those of Babylon, though our Hosts or Armies were as numerous as those of Sennacherib, 2 King. 18. or that Persian King Xerxes, whose Soldiers, when they shot their Arrows in the face of their enemies, are said by the Historian to have turned the day into night, and darkened the Sun, all the like, or greater, forces and bulwarks, cannot hinder God's vengeance or revengeful Justice from breaking in upon our Nation to waste and destroy it, if sin or sins of a deep stain, or high provoking nature reign among us; especially after the receiving of great blessings, and enjoying many undeserved mercies by a special design, or ordination of the Divine Providence: of which our most gracious Sovereign being very sensible (to an high degree of gratitude to God his Defender and Restorer) was pleased, for the prevention of future calamities in his three Kingdoms, to direct an Order to the truly Noble the now Duke of Ormond, the Lord Steward of His Majesty's Household, for the rectifying of all manner of disorders; and, by the assistance of his Officers of the Green-cloath, to suppress all kind of debauchery and vice in any person of what Degree or Quality soever. Besides this, his Sacred Majesty hath by a late Proclamation, dated the thirtieth of May, 1660. declared his holy and just displeasure against dissolute and profane men, hoping (they are his own words) that all persons of Honour, or that are in Authority, will assist His Majesty in discountenancing such men's vices, and punishing them according to the established Laws for their enormities. To His Majesty's hopes and pious desires in that Proclamation, give me leave to subjoin my most humble Supplication to your Honours, that, because (as the Roman Orator styles all Magistrates) you are designed by your high place and calling to be the Commonwealths Physicians, Hedges against profaneness, and the firm Banks to keep us from an inundation of trouble and confusion, which may arise from Sects, Schisms, and Heresies, you would be pleased to crown your renowned, matchless, and most loyal actings, for the good and welfare of our most glorious King and Church, with this religious resolution, to issue forth a strict and special Order against that Epidemical, Soul murdering, and State-confounding sin of Swearing, which is the Captain, Leading-General sin of this Nation; for which (if it be not speedily checked, and stifled by the powerful hand of Justice) we shall grow as infamous now and in after-ages, as the asiatics were for Pride, the Carthaginians for Treachery, and the Scythians for Drunkenness.  
The heinousness of this Sin I shall discover in the ensuing Treatise, as being most injurious to God, scandalous to our Neighbour, and hurtful to our Selves: it carries with it a contempt of God's person as well as of his precept, and that in a public manner▪ which three aggravations are not to be found in every sin. To which if we add a fourth, which is the frequency and commonness of it, it will appear then to be the master-sin of this Nation, as it is set in the front of other horrid sins, Hos. 4.2. Men break the Sabbath but once in a week, but Swear and blaspheme they do every day, every hour, (I wish I could not say almost) every moment: It is so commonly practised, that, through daily custom and imitation, it hath crept into the mouths of young Boys and Children, which is to be bewailed with a jeremies' Lamentation.  
Now for the better Remedy of so great a Malady, which has distempered our Kingdoms great Body, though I dare not prescribe to your greater Wisdom, yet let me request you to call to mind that grave and wise Counsel of Carolus Caraffa in the Council (or rather Conventicle) of Trent, who said there (and that most truly) that when the Civil Magistrates & Gods Ministers do accord, and draw in one yoke, then is the Church and State best governed. So then, if all the Ministers of God's word were enjoined, as his Majesty ordered by a Proclamation, Aug. 13. 1660. to turn the edge of their Spirits, & declaim (at the least once a month) in their Sermons against this Goliath, this monster-sin, and if the Magistrates in all places would stir up themselves to a more lively and active execution of the Statute against those who shall in this sort presume to blaspheme, by taking Gods most holy Name in vain, if this course were once strictly undertaken, and all Informers against such foul-mouthed blasphemers encouraged for their pains, by receiving a part of the mulct drawn out of the others purses; if this course were once undertaken, and constantly in all places followed, we should find, to God's glory and our great comfort, that the fear of shame and punishment (which with most men is more prevalent than the love of God) would chase away all profaneness from their mouths. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Chrys. 
Horeil. 14.  Through fear of punishment a long and inveterate custom of sin hath ofttimes been omitted, that strong band hath been broken, and the sinner converted.  
Under the old Law, he that blasphemed the name of the Lord was stoned to death, Levit. 24.16. The severity of foreign Christian Kings and Princes against such Blasphemers is set down in the midst of my Treatise: Some were burnt in their Lips with hot Irons, some ordered to be drowned, others were beheaded, and punished with the confiscation of their goods, and loss of their lives: thus dealt an Earl of Flanders, by name Philip, with profane Swearers. To all which I must add (as a most exemplary piece of Justice, which I wish were observed and practised in His Majesty's Royal Family) that famous Decree of that good King Henry the fifth, the whip of France and the scourge of Vice, in whom Piety and Valour did (as they do in our renowned King) meet together: he decreed by a Special Order relating chief to his Court, which might I suppose have an Influence upon the whole Kingdom, That every Duke for each Oath should pay forty shillings, a Baron twenty, Knights and Esquires ten, every Yeoman three shillings and four pence, ordinary Servants two pence, (which was accounted a great mulct in those days) the younger sort of Boys and Pages were well whipped for this offence: and this Law was so well executed, that, all the Nation over, very few were heard to swear an Oath.  
This I intimate, wishing that the same or the like strictness of Severity might meet with the looseness of this Age's Impiety, and hoping that persons of worth and preeminency (whose reputations, in the scale of Honour, weigh down the rate or weight of punishment) will reform without it, and scorn to have their Nobility blotted, and their mouths defiled with that unprofitable, cursed, crying sin, which is the badge of debauched Ruffians, the cognisance of accursed miscreants, who are branded by the Prophet David with this black mark of being God's enemies, 
Ps. 139.20.  and the continual practice of the Devils in Hell, and damned Spirits, who Curse, Swear, and Blaspheme God in the midst of their Torments. This is the sole Language of those Infernal Inhabitants: the which that it may no longer rest or nest in the Tongues of profane Rabshakehs, who are the 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Chrys.  worst of the worst Subjects, the most pernicious enemies to the State and Church, for that in a manner by their sharp Tongues they clip the wings of Mercy, hindering it from flying to us with blessings, and quicken the pace of justice, to proceed in a speedy execution of curses and heavy judgements upon us; that their mouths may be stopped, and by execution of the Statutes (which is their life) this common sin of Swearing receive its death's wound, that there may be no more blaspheming in our Streets, nor within our private Walls, that this glorious Reformation may be throughly wrought and effected in our Land, I shall to these my weak endeavours in Print add the assistance and strength of my Prayers to the great God of Heaven the Lord of Lords, for a continuance and multiplication of blessings upon all your public designs and godly undertake; that from your Honoured Persons, who (next to His Sacred Majesty, who is the Upper) are the Nether Springs of justice, 
Amos 5.24.  judgement may run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream, to the bearing down of all profaneness, whereby God is dishonoured, and to the advance of Piety and Religion, that his holy Name may be glorified by us. This is, and shall be ever a part of the daily Devotions of him who is a wellwisher to the Peace and flourishing happiness of this Kingdom, and  
Your Honour's most humble and devoted Servant in Christ Jesus, R. BOREMAN. Dec. 9 1661.   

AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST SWEARING. The ground or main Ingredients whereof are those words of our Saviour, MAT. 5.34. 
I say unto you, Swear not at all.   
I Remember a saying of Vincentius Lyrinensis, 
Lib. de Haeres. c. 37. Nullam esse ad fallendum faciliorem viam quàm ut ubi nefari● erroris subinducitur fraudulenti●, ibi divinorum verborum praetendatur autoritas.  which as it meets with many bold practices in our times, so it nearly concerns my present purpose, Nullam esse ad fallendum faciliorem viam, etc. There is no way so easy (says he) to deceive a multitude (or the common people, who both love, and are easy to be deceived) and to invite them to sin, as when we endeavour by fraudulent means to sow the seed of error in their hearts, to pretend the Divine Authority of God's word. It seems the Scribes and Pharisees, like many in our days, had learned this art of spreading and maintaining their false Doctrine by corrupting the Text. For, whereas God commanding us to have in due Reverence his holy Name, forbade the Jews, and in them us, to take the same in vain, Exod. 20.7. i e. to use it idly, or to no purpose, without any warrant from necessity, and without respect to the advance of his Glory, the Scribes expounding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falsely, i. e. To back and confirm a lie (which word we find Levit. 19.12. Thou shalt not swear by my Name falsely) they hereby confounded two distinct precepts. For by the latter in Leviticus is forbidden perjury, which is the confirmation of a lie by an Oath; by the former precept in Exodus all vain Oaths, which are so, when they are commonly used to confirm or ratify the Truth in our private negotiations, contracts, bargainings and discourse.  
From this false gloss of the Scribes interpreting the third Commandment, as if only perjury were by it forbidden, and this too only in the abuse of God's sacred Name; from this corrupt Spring issued these three perverse Doctrines, which in our Saviour's time were settled in the minds and hearts of the deluded Jews.  
First, to swear by the Creature, and to forswear, they affirmed to be no sin.  
Secondly, they counted it no breach of the third Commandment, if they used in their ordinary discourse the Name of God, so long as they did what they promised, and affirmed what was true. With the Scribes and Pharisees in this second opinion agree both Maldonat the Jesuit on Levit. 19 and Socinus, 
Vid. Rivet. in explicatione 3. Praecepti Decalogi. In hác corruptelâ eadem cum Pharisaeis sentit impurus iste Socinus, &c  with his followers, who maintain that only perjury is forbidden by that Commandment.  
Thirdly and lastly, from this latter stream issued another as corrupt and unsound, viZ. That whatsoever they had bound themselves to by an Oath in the Name of God, they maintained that they were bound to do it, were the thing never so unjust and bad.  
Our blessed Saviour, as it became so wise a Teacher who came from God, (as Nicodemus witnessed of him, John 3.2.) endeavoured in his first Sermon Ad Populum on the mount, to root out of the people's minds this false Doctrine of the Scribes, and to prevent all dangerous Consequents which might issue from it, he propounds here in the Text (which I have prefixed to my Treatise) for our better instruction the true meaning and intent of the Law, ushering it in with divine Authority, the Authority, of his own person, who is God and man by an hypostatical union, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, But I say unto you, Swear not, that is, not 

False,  
Temerè,  
Iniquè,   not Falsely, Rashly, nor unjustly, by the awful and dreadful Name of God, not without great cause and necessity, and: Swear not at all by the creatures, for to swear by any of them is no less sin than Idolatry. And this, with the consent of the best and most judicious Expositors, I take to be the full scope and meaning of the words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Swear not at all.  
Not to stick in prostibulo in the porch or preface of the text, I say unto you, from which in reference to the Context or the preceding 
* V 33. It hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, etc.  verse, I might deduce this Inference, That, Antiquity pleaded for a corrupt opinion or Custom contrary to the Truth revealed in God's word, is but a vizard under which error and much danger lieth hid, and therefore not to be admitted, but rejected. This Inference by way of Doctrine might be drawn from the Preface, and proved against those patrons of superstitious practices and opinions, the great pleaders and proctors for Antiquity in the Church of Rome, to whom I could retort and assert, that the written word of God is the only true Antiquity, to be the rule of our faith, and that Antiquity without truth is like those dissembling Gibeonites Josh. 9.12. who deceived Joshuah with their old shoes, and torn bags, 
Josh. 9.12.  sour drink, and mouldy bread: I could likewise tell them that that is to be supposed to be the language of all the ancient Fathers, which one of them modestly said of himself and in the name of all, 
St. Ambr.  Nolo nobis credatur, recitetur Scriptura, I will not desire any to rely only upon my words, let the Scripture be recited, and let that be the Judge of controversies. Were I in the pulpit (for which this Treatise was first intended) I might prosecute the former Thesis, and enlarge my meditations in the proof of it: but because this point is not agreeable to my prime Intent, passing by the preface, I shall insist upon the prohibition, together with its extension, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, at all, Swear not, and Swear not at all.  
But what, some may say, 
The I. General part. The explication of the prohibition, swear not.  is Christ's kingdom divided against itself? is the Gospel against the law? Have we not an injunction or command to the contrary Deut. 6.13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him, and shalt swear by his name; Find we not the same precept Deut. 10.12, 20. Him shalt thou serve, to Him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his Name? Doth not the Prophet Isaiah insinuate the same in his 65. ch. 16. v. He that blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of Truth, and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of Truth? Nay further, have we not Christ's own example and practice to confirm the lawfulness of an oath in some cases? His Amen, Amen, so oft by Him used, intimates as much. God is the God of Truth, nay Truth itself, and Amen in the Hebrew and Syriack signifying Fidelity and truth, Christ in his Amen dico vobis, Verily I say unto you, said thus in effect, as the best expositors assert, Per Deum qui est Amen (i. e. veritas) dico vobis, I call God, who is most true, to witness what I say and affirm unto you. Dares then any anabaptistical Schismatic open his impure mouth against this evident truth, that it is in some cases lawful to use an Oath? They that deny this, maintaining it in no case lawful to swear by the Name of God, (of which sort was that Basilides mentioned in Eusebius) such men's ignorance I pity, 
Lib. 6. c. 5.  as being enthralled to the slavery of a Scrupulous conscience, which makes the way to heaven narrower than indeed it is, and proposes to itself a straighter passage than Christ in his word hath revealed unto us. But to omit the refutation of this error of the Anabaptists, and to reconcile Moses to Christ, the Law to the Gospel, or those forenamed places or Texts in Deuteronomie to the words of my Text. First, let me lay this down for a certain ground or thesis (and it is our Saviour's own assertion) Christ came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it: 
Mat. 5.17.  and Secondly, let me premise this for an undeniable maxim or position, that the precepts of the Gospel are not repugnant or contrary to the Commands of the Law; 
Praecepta Evangelii non contrariantur praeceptis legit. Aug.  This Thesis is defended and proved at large by St. Augustine in his 19 book against Faustus the Heretic c. 16.  
First then, our Lord and Saviour Christ, in whom dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead (i.e. who is perfect God) and in whom there is a fullness without any defect of wisdom, and all heavenly graces, He fulfilled the law two manner of ways, 
Aqui. 1.2.101. Qu. 2. Art.  Opere et Ore, or Doctrinâ, by his works and doctrinal words. First by his works or deeds, in that, to leave us an example of a meek heart and sound Obedience, he submitted himself to the Ceremonial law, being circumcised the 8. day, etc. so likewise to satisfy the rigour of God's Justice he fully performed the moral law by his Active Obedience, doing what the law required of us to be done, thereby to bring us to Heaven, and by his passive, suffering for our sins to redeem us from the pains or torments of Hell. Thus Christ fulfilled the law Opere, by doing. Secondly, He fulfilled the law o'er seu doctrinâ, by his word or Doctrine, and that two manner of ways. First, verum legis sensum exprimendo, 
Aquin.  by explaining the full scope, the intent or meaning of the law, as in those two cases of Murder and Adultery, 
Mat. 5.21, 27, etc.  when he declared that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause, and bears malice against him, in his heart, is a murderer; and that he who looks on a woman to lust after her, is in the sight or esteem of God an Adulterer. Secondly, He fulfilled the law praecepta legis ordinando ut tutiùs observaretur quod lex vetuerat, by ordaining lessons, or prescribing rules for the better observing of the laws prohibitions and precepts. To pass by many Instances which I might produce and to adhere only to my Text, Because the law forbids perjury, where it is said, 
Leu. 6.5.  Thou shalt not swear by my Name falsely,  
That we may the better observe and keep this prohibition, 

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Chrys.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Id. Hom. 14.   and be freed from the danger of so great a sin (in regard that men accustomed to swearing, do commonly account perjury but a light and frivolous thing) Christ therefore here in the words of the Text gives us an wholesome admonition to abstain altogether from swearing, nisi in causâ necessitatis, except in cases of necessity, 
Hier. Zanch.  viz. Vbi gloria Domini vindicanda, aut Fratris aedificatio promovenda, when and where the glory of God is to be vindicated by an open defence of the Truth opposed, or mine own and my Neighbour's welfare and good may thereby be promoted.  
So then, say the Anabaptists (who derive their opinion from the Manichees) say they what they please, Christ does not altogether forbidden Swearing, but restrains it to certain circumstances of Time and Case.  
For in some cases a man may swear: 

The II. Gen. part. In what cases, and when a man may swear.  
Deut. 1.16. Psal. 82.6.   as First, when an Oath is (for the deciding of a controversy) ministered by the subordinate Magistrates under the Supreme, to whom God in this respect hath bequeathed his Sovereign Power, and committed that Authority, that when any one of them demands it in a matter of great importance or consequence, we may lawfully swear or take a solemn Oath. Secondly, when an Oath serveth to maintain, procure, or win unto God any part of his glory, or to preserve the same from disgrace or ignominy against the contumelious rage and malice of his enemies.  
Thus if a man should converse with Papists and Infidels, and he alleging for the confirmation of truth the Authority of God's word, if any one of them should stiffly deny what he produces to be a part of the Scriptures, he in this case may safely and justly use an Oath to defend it. An example hereof we have in St. Paul, who being moved with a Godly and Religious zeal for the Truth, made use of an Oath to confirm his Doctrine, that the Churches to whom he writ might be established in the truth, and God Almighty thereby glorified. The Oath which he used is expressed, and that clearly, Gal. 1.20. Before God I lie not, 
Vid. Rom. 1.9. 2 Cor. 11.31.  which is a Confirmation of his former assertion in the 
* 17.18. ver.  foregoing part of the Chapter, viz. That he had preached the Gospel in Arabia and Damascus, that he went from those parts to Jerusalem, that he did not learn the Gospel there of Peter and James, or of any other Apostle. Now because some of the false Apostles might perhaps retort and say (to attach him of falsity, and so diminish his Authority) that these avouchments of his were false and fabulous, he therefore justifies his Narration or Assertions by a kind of Oath, saying, Before God I lie not. It may be demanded how these words can be a form or kind of Swearing, or in what sense they fall under the nature of an Oath. I answer, that in an Oath there be four things employed, though not always expressed.  
The first is an Asseveration of the Truth.  
The second a faithful Confession or open Profession, whereby the party that is to Swear acknowledgeth from his heart with a firm belief the power and presence, the omnisciency and wisdom of God, that he is the only searcher of the heart, a discerner of the inward Spirit, and that he is both a Witness and a Judge of all our thoughts, words and works.  
The third is a solemn Invocation of God, that he would be a witness with and to us, that we speak the truth with our Tongues from our hearts.  
The fourth and last is a sad Imprecation, that God would be a judge to take revenge, and to inflict a sore judgement on us if we lie. Now than a formal Oath is a certain frame or composition of words, in which not always all, but some of the principal parts of it are expressed; the other being concealed, and yet to be supposed and understood. Jer. 4.2. The Lord liveth, etc. There is the form or essence of an oath only in Confession of the life or being of God; which includes his essential Attributes, viz. his Omnisciency and Omnipresence, etc. His Attributes are his very essence, quicquid est in Deo est ipse Deus, it is a rule and maxim in the schools. The form of swearing, 2. Cor. 1.23. I call God for a record upon my soul, expresseth the third particular, namely, Invocation. That passage in Ruth chap. 1.17. The Lord do thus and thus to me, is an Imprecation. And the form in that forecited place Gal. 1.20. is directly a plain Confession that God is present as a witness and Judge of our say, and will if we speak not the truth severely punish us.  
Thirdly, a man may use an Oath when it serveth to maintain or promote his own or his Neighbour's safety in body, goods, or good name. So to save his life, a man may swear to a Thief to give him a piece of money at a set appointed time, which Oath he is bound to keep, and if afterwards in respect to the common good he discover him to the Magistrate, he is no way guilty of falsity, in that he performs what is every man's private duty, i. e. to preserve the welfare of the King and State, and to promote the bonum communitatis, the common good, which cannot consist with a common thief's impunity. Therefore I add, that in case a man for fear of losing his life with his money, being urged and pressed to it, swears to a Thief that he will not betray him, that man is bound to be silent, nor to reveal him in that which concerns himself, as having been rob by him: But if he find and is assured that his silence may be prejudicial to the public good, for that he perceives the licentiousness of the offender proceeds (and is like so to do) to the like damage and mischief of others; he is bound in duty (though not to accuse the Delinquent for the fact done unto himself) yet to give warning or notice to some in Authority, to have a vigilant eye upon so lewd a person, for the preventing of any further Villainy. So the late most pious and learned Bishop of Norwich determines this case, 
Bishop Hall in his Cases of Conscience resolve. Dec. 1. c. 8.  and annexes this saying to his determination (to deter all men from perjury or breaking their Oaths) When once we have interessed God in any business, it is dangerous not to be punctual in the performance.  
Now that it is lawful in this case to swear to an Highway Rogue to save our life, none will doubt, who shall consider the many inconveniencies and evils which would ensue, if the true man in this straight take not an Oath.  
The first is the loss of his own life.  
Secondly, the loss of the others soul, being guilty of Murder in shedding that man's blood: these dangers may be prevented by a promise & an Oath of silence. But as it is lawful for a man in such a straight to Swear, so it is unlawful for him to break his Oath: for if any one having so solemnly promised by an oath not to discover the Thief (as to that fact of robbing him) should afterwards make his fact known to the magistrate, this mischief would follow upon his discovery, all honest men for his sake might justly be suspected as if they would do the like, though they have solemnly promised or sworn to the contrary, and so it might cost many a good man his life, when Thiefs are put in fear of losing theirs, being persuaded that though an Oath be taken, they may be betrayed and given up to the hands of Justice. Of the same opinion with the forenamed Bishop is the right reverend Father in God the Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. Sanderson, 
Lib. de Juramenti Obligatione.  that, if a man falling into the hands of thiefs, be forced to promise, and that by an Oath, not to detect or reveal their robbery of him, and this to preserve himself from being murdered by them, as he may without offence to God take such an oath, so the same being taken by him must be religiously kept.  
But I desire that this assertion may be admitted for a truth with the former qualification. I shall only add this for a Close of this Question, (and it is the sum or abridgement of what 
* His advice is this, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Hierocles.  Hierocles delivers more at large by way of advice or counsel) That nothing but necessity and the command of lawful Authority should force or draw an oath from us.  
Fourthly, A man may swear or take an oath to confirm and establish peace between him and another at variance with him: thus did Abraham swear to Abimelech, Gen. 21.24. that he would not deal falsely with him nor with his Son, nor with his Sons Son. Thus two several Kings may swear one to another upon an agreement or ratification of peace, not to invade one another's territories for so long a space of time. Thus a King takes an oath 
* At his Coronation.  to his Subjects to maintain their ancient laws and liberties; and they reciprocally oblige themselves by a solemn oath to preserve his honour, to defend his person, and maintain his Royal rights and prerogative, to be obedient to his just commands, to be observant of his laws: all this, and more, is implied in the Oath of Allegiance, which Oath cannot stand or consist with the Subjects taking up of Arms against their Sovereign Lord the King (under what specious pretences soever) without the high guilt of Treason and Rebellion.  
To conclude this point concerning the Legality or lawfulness of taking an Oath in private and public Cases, the meaning of our Saviour's prohibition, 
Mat. 5.  Swear not at all, is this, which before hath been touched in few words, Swear not at all in your common talk and familiar discourse, but as Christ commands v. 37. Let your communication be Yea Yea, Nay Nay, i. e. use only a bare affirmation of what you know to be true, and a simple Negation of what you are assured is false, without interposing the sacred and dreadful Name of God. Let your Yea be Yea, etc. As the doubling of Pharaohs dream was an infallible demonstration of the certainty of its event; 
Gen. 41.2, 5.  so the repetition of these our Saviour's words is remarkable, and not to be passed over without due regard and a special observation. Upon this Text Vgo has this ingenuous gloss. 
Ipsa geminatio p●ndus habet, quasi diceret, quod dicis verbo dic opere, & quoth negar verbo noli confirmare facto. Ugo.  The very gemination or doubling of the words (says he) is weighty, and deserves our attentive consideration: it is as if Christ should have said, Let not thy actions give thy words the lie; what thou hast affirmed with thy tongue, maintain and make good the same by thy actions, and confirm not that by thy deeds what thou hast denied in thy words. Let your Yea be Yea, and your Nay Nay: whatsoever is more than these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, cometh of evil, i. e. as St. Augustine expounds the words, 
Aug. lib. 10. de Serm. Dom. c. 30.  ex malo infirmitatis, from the Sin of infirmity; which I take to be another's incredulity, when a man for want of a good or commendable opinion of his Brother (which betrays a weakness in him or a want of charity) shall suspect the truth of his narration or report, and so require of him an oath to confirm it. E. g. If a man should accuse thee of perfidiousness or slander, as having with the black tooth of calumny wounded his reputation, or wronged him in his goods, if thou, to purge and cleanse thyself from this foul aspersion, shalt deny the fact by a simple and bare protestation of thy innocency in this particular, and he still suspecting thee to the contrary 
* 
To do this in the judgement of Isidore Pelusiota is a sin, and that a great one.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Lib. 1. Ep. 155.   shall require an oath of thee to confirm his belief of what thou deniest, in such a case to vindicate thy credit, and to work out of his mind that injurious suspicion, thou mayest use an Attestation by invocating or calling God to witness the Truth, which Attestation by interposing the name of God is an Oath. And that, in such or the like case (to settle in another a persuasion of our Integrity,) an oath between private persons is no Sin, we have the example of God's Saints in the Holy Scriptures to warrant it; as that of Abraham, who upon this occasion swore to Abimelech (as was before recited Gen. 21.24.) The like passed between Jacob and Laban, Gen. 31.53. and from Boaz to Ruth. Add to these two examples the testimony of St. Augustine: 

Ruth. 3.13. As the Lord liveth, said he to her, etc.  
Aug. loco praedicto in lib. de Serm. Dom.  
Christus non dixit, quod amplius malum est, sed ex malo, i. e. ex malo infirmitatis, etc.   When Christ (says he) enjoined us to use in our common discourse Yea Yea, Nay Nay, He said not, whatsoever is more than this is evil or a sin, but, cometh of evil, i. e. from the evil of Infirmity, viz. the weakness or want of Faith in him who compels thee to Swear. Tu enim non male facis qui bene uteris juratione, ut alteri persuadeas quod utiliter persuades; sed à malo est illius cujus infirmitate jurare cogeris. For thou dost not ill who usest an oath well, i. e. to a good end, that thou mayest beget in another a firm belief of the Truth, and a persuasion of thy Integrity: He rather does ill, whose diffidence or distrust enforces thee to use an Oath. Swear than we may, and an Oath may be used in our private conference, when the Incredulity of him with whom we deal or converse forces it from us, either to beget in him a persuasion of our fidelity in the performance of our lawful promises, or to wipe out of his mind a blot who suspects our honesty and uprightness. In such a case, when an Oath is required of us to maintain our reputation or credit, then to forbear to Swear is neither to obey the intent of Christ in the Gospel, nor to obey the voice of God in the Law. For in such a case to swear is so far from taking God's name in vain, that he who refuses to do it runs upon the rock of a dangerous guilt, and that is the breach of the sixth Commandment; by which as vitae conservatio, 
Thou sha' t do no murder.  the preservation of our Brothers and our own life, so likewise injuriae propulsatio, the use of all lawful means to redeem him, and chief ourselves, from all injuries is commanded. What greater injury can there be, what more grievous wound then that of Infamy, and loss of reputation? which when thou mayest plaster up, if thou refuse to do it, thou joinest by thy assent with thine enemy in wounding of thy good name or credit. Qui famam negligit homicida est, who so neglects his fame or credit, destroys in a part his being, in that when he lies under the burden of Infamy and disgrace, he ceases in the esteem of the world to be that man he was once voiced or noised to be.  
An Oath than we may use not 
* This is implied by the Heb. word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being of a passive signification, signifies rather to be sworn then to swear, intimating thus much unto us, that a man should not swear but when an oath is forced upon him, and enjoined by lawful authority.  voluntarily, but being compelled to it by him who suspects our credit. Thus or then to swear in vindication of our reputation is not repugnant to Christ's precept, or prohibition, Swear not. And unless you will say that the Prophets borrowed not their light from Christ the everlasting Sun of righteousness, most resplendent in all graces, who likewise being the eternal word of God, spoke to the ancient Prophets by his Spirit, unless you will say that these were not true Stars, but slimy meteors, coloured with pretences of truth, and that their Doctrine is false, unless you will assert this (which is an horrid crime but to think) than you must set your seal to this truth, that in some cases it is not unlawful to use an Oath. Witness that of the Prophet jeremiah in his exhortation to revolted Israel, 
Jer. 4.2. Judicio caret Juramentum incautum, Veritate juramentum mendax, Justitiâ juramentum iniquum & illicitum. Aqui.  Thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in Truth, in Judgement, & in Righteousness. These three cautions or circumstances if they accompany thine Oath, thou fulfilest Christ's prohibition, Swear not.  
Swear not. First, non falsè, not falsely, so our blessed Saviour intends; but in veritate, in Truth, so the prophet Jer. expressly, i. e. for the confirmation of the Truth when thou art urged to it by some private person, or enjoined by a lawful magistrate, as hath formerly been demonstrated. 
Promissorium est de futuro seu de re faciendâ.  But to enlarge this point a little more; There is a twofold Oath, a Promissory, and that which we call an Assertory. 
Assertorium de praterito sive de re factà.  By the former we engage ourselves for the time to come to do that which is lawful and just: By the latter we assert or solemnly affirm to be certain and true, what we know to have been done and said either by ourselves or others. Agreeable to these two kinds of oaths there is a twofold truth, 

First, Logical,  
Second, Moral.   The first implies the truth of the thing, the second the truth of the mind. The first is when we speak or affirm nothing but what bears a correspondency with the nature of what is affirmed, or as the thing is, not asserting, that white is black, or black white. The second, i e. the moral truth, is when we speak as we think, and think as we speak. Both these kinds of truth are required in an Assertory Oath. First, there must not be any jarring or disagreement between the Tongue and the Thing asserted, that must go according to this; and that not upon bare conjectures, or what Aristotle in his Topics calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, seeming probabilities, but upon a well-grounded knowledge of the truth of the thing or fact. 
* In an Assertory Oath we may be guilty of perjury two manner of ways.  For not only he is guilty of perjury who in an Assertory Oath swears a known untruth (as 
* Mat. 26.72, 74, 75,  Peter did, and afterwards repent of it) but he also who swears an unknown or uncertain truth, which is when we swear that to be a truth of which for the present we doubt, and imagine to be a falsehood.  
Secondly, in an Assertory oath our mind or meaning must not descent from our Tongue; we must beware that we mean not one thing when we swear another: which that deceitful Johanan and the Captains of the Host did, 
Jer. 42.5.  who called God to witness that which they never intended to perform. Thus the Papists juggle in their Equivocations, and when they take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, they have a Tongue for the Prince and an Heart for the Pope. Thus did that Franciscan Monk aequivocate, who being asked which way a murderer fled that passed by him, & being willing to conceal him, he answered, putting his hand into his sleeve, that he passed not that way, meaning that he passed not through his Sleeve. Of this stamp was he in Euripides, who being attached of perjury, replied, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. I did swear with my Tongue, but not with my Mind. Thus I fear too many have done in these sinful times, who having taken the Oath of Allegiance to their King, entered into a solemn League with his traitorous enemies. Those I exhort speedily to make their peace with God by an hearty repentance, lest, to their endless woe and misery, they feel the weight of his heavy wrath, which never suffered the perjured to escape unpunished. Beware then of Swearing falsely, or of taking a false Oath; let your Tongue agree with the thing you express by it, and let not your heart or meaning descent from your tongue. Use no Aequivocation, but when you are constrained to take an oath, take it according to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the literal sense or plain meaning of the words, and according to the intention of him who propounds it; and be clearly persuaded in thy Conscience or Judgement of the Truth and equity of the thing you swear. 
Two Corollaries; the first concerning an Assertory Oath.  If in an Assertory Oath we affirm to be true what we know to be false, we in effect make God the Patron of a Lie, or think that he may be deluded and deceived; whereby we discover a kind of Atheistical profane Impiety, whilst we deal with God as if he regarded not things here below, and place him in a lower condition than we would do any plain honest man, quem fallere volens non auderet quis in Societatem falsi vocare, whom no man, 
Phil. Jud. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  being about to defraud or deceive his Neighbour or Friend, will dare call or invite to be a partaker with him in his Sin. To do this then to God, how great and horrid a crime must it needs be? He doth it that calls God to witness a lie. 
The second Corolla y concerning a Promissory Oath   
Lastly, to close this point concerning a false Oath, when we promise by Oath to do what we never mean to perform, we are guilty in an high degree of perjury; so is he who having meant at the Oaths taking, and fully purposed to do as he promised, yet afterwards, when the thing is possible, and not unjust, but only difficult and disadvantageous to him, changes his resolution and purpose, contrary to that Just man described by the Prophet David, Psal. 15.5. who Swears to his Neighbour and disappoints him not, though it be to his own hurt. And thus much of the first restriction of Christ's prohibition, Swear not, i. e. non falsè, not falsely.  
Secondly, Swear not, non levitèr & temerè, not lightly or rashly, for no cause, but cum Judicio, in Judgement, i. e. only when the cause is weighty, and when there are no other witnesses but God and thine own Conscience, so that thou art compelled to Swear by a constraint of Necessity.  
Thirdly, Swear not contra jus & iniquè, not unjustly, but in Justitiâ, in Justice, as the same Prophet, Jer. 4.2. advises. The Matter or Subject of thy Oath must be what in itself is lawful, just and good, and not repugnant to the words or intent of any former Oath, which if lawfully taken, and the matter of it be just, is in no wise, neither for any threats or promises, to be violated, but faithfully kept. From what hath been said we may collect and deduce a Negative Rule, which is one of five set down or delivered by Rivetus in his most judicious and learned Explication of the Decalogue. The Rule is this, 
Com. 6. p. 90. Where he teaches when & in what Cases an Oath binds.  Non est servandum Juramentum cujus Executio cum Salute publicâ, cum honestate, & bonis moribus pugnaret, i. e. That Oath which is against the good of the Commonwealth, against the rules of honesty and good manners (or that duty which we own in things that are lawful to our Superiors) such an Oath which is repugnant to these three particulars, to all of them, or any of them, is not to be kept. For he that promises by an Oath to do what is unlawful and unjust, as he sinned in Swearing, so would he aggravate his sin if he should keep it. Such was David's Oath when he threatened Nabals' ruin, which he revoked, 
1 Sam. 25. Juravit David temere, sed non implevit juramentum majori impietate. Aug.  to teach us that all such Oaths are better broken then kept. Definitio incauta laudabilitèr solvenda est, nec est haec praevaricatio, sed temeritatis emendatio, An hasty and unlawful promise may be broken with Commendation, neither is he that breaks such a promise to be condemned as prevaricating with the Truth, but to be thought well of, for correcting his error, whilst he performs not what he rashly undertook. 
Mar. 6.26.  If Herod Antipas had observed this Rule delivered in that famous Council of Eliberis, he (although his Oath had seemingly bound him to it) would not have beheaded John the Baptist: and as hereby he might have freed himself from the guilt of murdering so holy a man, so should he not have felt from the hand of God that heavy punishment which Euse●●●● and Josephus record that he suffered. 
Euseb. l. 2. c. 4 Joseph. l. 18. c. 14.  He was banished (as they tell us) by Caligula into Lions in France, where with his wife Herodias, that incestuous Harlot, he ended his life in extreme misery and want. From the former explication of our Saviour's prohibition, we may infer that as 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Epiph.  between the Law and the Gospel there is no discord, so between Christ's words and the say of the Prophets there is no jarring, nor disagreeing difference, but a sweet harmony and consent: whence we may likewise conclude that one and the same God was the Author of the Old and New Testament, which the Manichees denied: The same harmonious concord or agreement between them is a strong and sufficient argument of the Deity of the Son of God Christ Jesus, 
John 1.1.  the Word. This we affirm and maintain against the Arrians, in that He was the Prophet's instructor and Teacher by his Spirit, or by divine inspiration, and withal a God of Unity, Peace, and Concord. What they assert he affirms, what they forbidden he prohibits. His prohibitions imply their commands, their commands include his prohibitions. Him (i.e. God) only shalt thou serve, 
Mat. 4.10.  says our Saviour▪ Thou shalt not worship other Gods, this is the common tenor of the Doctrine of the Prophets. So (as hath been proved) Christ's prohibitions point at their commanding precepts. Swear not, says Christ; 
Jer. 4.2. Isa. 65.16.  Thou shalt Swear, says the Prophet Jeremy: which dissents not from the words of Christ in my Text, Swear not, which forbids only the use of all False, Rash, and  Oaths, and enjoins us, when there is need of an Oath, to advance God's glory in the Vindication of his Truth, or to promote our own or our Neighbours good, then only to use it. And this is the meaning of the third Commandment, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; But shalt Swear in Truth, in Judgement, and Righteousness. Thus much of our Saviour's prohibition, from which I pass to the extent of it, denoted by the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (which follows) at all, Swear not at all, i.e. not at all by the Creatures.  
Non est tam absurdum delir●mentum quod defensorem non inveniat, says Varro: 
The III. Gen. part. We must not swear by the Creatures.  there was never any opinion so absurd, no Heresy so impious, but at some time or other found patrons and defenders, even against the light of reason and Holy Scriptures. Examples to prove this we find many in Church-histories. What more impious then to depose God (as it were) from his throne of Sovereignty, to rob him of his honour, and to give it to the inferior creatures? And if a man should rack his thoughts to the height of absurdities, no one thing would be found more absurd than that practice of the Romanists, who as they pray to Saints and Angels (attributing to them thereby God's power, and omnisciency, who only knows our several wants, and can help us in all our needs) so to back this absurdity they have broached a new Impiety, maintaining it lawful, as in prayer, so in Swearing, to invocate the creature; As to swear by the Holy Evangelists, by any Saint or Angel, and the like. Whereby they break the first Commandment in setting up a new Deity, and so prove guilty of a Sin which they make light of, and that is no less than blasphemy: which Sin is committed, First, when we attribute or ascribe to God what he is not, 
Aqui. 2.2.13.2. 1. Art. Three degrees of blasphemy.  Secondly, when we detract from him what he is▪ and Thirdly, when we ascribe or give what is due to him to the creatures; and this we do when we swear by them, as I shall prove after I have discovered the fountain or Original, and withal the foulness of the Papists error herein. This profane practice of the Romanists, besides that it has no ground nor warrant from the Holy Scriptures (which in matters of Religion must be the rule of our actions) and besides that it is scandalous to the hearer, who, by our blasphemous and Idolatrous custom in this Sin, may be induced to imitate and use the same form in swearing; besides these and many other the like reasons, which I could allege, we must know (to lay open this Sin, and to make it more odious) that it owes its beginning to certain heretics called Osseni, 
Lib. contra Nic. Serràrium.  whom Scaliger will have to be all one or the same with the Esseni. Of these (as Epiphanius records li. 1. c. 19) one Elxai was notorious, who lived in the time of Trajan, and spread abroad the poison of this corrupt doctrine, teaching that men ought to swear by Salt and Water, by the Earth, by Bread, and by the Heaven, by the Air, and by the Wind, etc. which Heretical opinion is refuted at large in the forecited place by Epiphanius. Like unto these were the Manichees, whose Ringleader and Capt. was Manes or Manicheus, whom Cyril justly calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Master and Contriver of Iniquity, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Cyril. Hier. Catech. 7.  a magazine of Impiety, the common Inn or Storehouse of all filthy absurdities and obscenities, whose heresy contained a mass, a venomous composition of old extinguished heresies. This Manes with his Followers taught, what they of the Church of Rome maintain, that it was lawful to swear by the creatures, as appears by those words of St. Augustine, 
Lib. 19 Cant. Faust. c. 22.  Jurabant saepissime nulloque mentis scrupulo per creaturas, They, says he, used to swear by the creatures frequently. Hereby we may see what grounds, and how good Authors our adversaries in the Church of Rome have for their pernicious and dangerous practice: yet to set a gloss upon it, they have invented a pretty distinction, as vain as they are vicious. First, they divide the creatures into two Classes or ranks, Rational, and Irrational: by the former they assert we may swear Absolutè, absolutely, without any restriction: Such are the Angels and Saints in Heaven. 
Aquin. 2.2. Qc. 89.  (They might as well have added men on Earth) By the latter only Relatiuè, Relatively, In quantum divina veritas in iis manifestatur, so far or forasmuch as the divine truth is manifestly revealed in them; As when we swear by the Gospel, it is (say they) by that God whose truth is manifested in the Gospel. I say again, this Assertion is vain and frivolous, invented only to countenance and maintain their Invocation or prayers to Saints and Angels. Omitting the former part of that fond distinction as unworthy of a refutation, let us examine the second part of it, which is to swear Relatiuè in relation to God. This the Romanists affirm we may do, which we absolutely deny, and prove it thus. To swear by the creature in relation to God is to invocate or call upon the creature religiously with reference to God: this latter is expressly forbidden in God's word, as in the forenamed place, Levit. 6.13. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, Him only shalt thou serve, and swear by his Name. So Isaiah 45.53. Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall swear to me. Which Text St. Paul citing Rom. 14.11. and following the Septuagints Translation, fearing lest if he should do otherwise, an offence thereby might be given to the Gentiles or Greeks, who adhered to that translation, useth these words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, To me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God, i.e. Swear by his name; Est enim Jusjurandum vera ac aperta ejus Dei professio quem ut testem et perjurii vindicem appellamus, 
Beza.  For an Oath is a true and open profession of that God whom as a witness of our say and a Revenger of perjury we invocate. This honour▪ none can or may affix to the creature. Therefore swear not at all by it, but (in those cases premised) by the Creator. But I meet with a seemingly-strong Objection from the Romanists, which deserves a solution. It is borrowed from the 42. of Gen. v. 15. where we read that Joseph swore to his Brethren that he would not let them go back to their Father, unless they would send for their younger Brother Benjamin, and he seems there to swear by a creature, namely by the King, where he says, By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go hence, except your younger Brother come hither. It is not (say they) to be imagined that Joseph, so good a Saint, and so wise a man, would have sworn by his King, unless he had been fully persuaded in his soul (and that by the spirit of God, by whom he was always governed) that to swear by the creature was not a sin, nor derogated any whit from God's glory, at which he ever aimed. A plausible objection. To which I answer first with the learned Zanchie, Ab exemplo unius quamvis Sancti viri argumentum duci non posse contra apertum Verbum Dei, 
Zanch. in Miscellan.  From the example of one particular man, though for his piety never so much famed, we may not draw a pattern for our practice against the express word of God. Ex fide personas, non ex personis fidem probamus, 
Tertul.  We must prove or try men's persons by the Faith, or Doctrine of the word, and not the Faith by men's persons; i e. Because God hath said or commanded it, and not because such a one did it, is a thing lawful and good. Supposing then that Joseph swore by Pharaoh, his action must not be a rule or pattern for thy imitation. The law of God, as it is the way wherein we must walk, so it is the Rule whereby in our passage to heaven we must be guided. And although it be probable that Joseph used such an Oath that he might comply with the Egyptians in that form which, perhaps, was by them used, and might also do it, as being unwilling to be discovered by his Brethren not to be an Egyptian; yet my second answer will better clear the doubt and refute the objection. I say then in the second place, that it was not properly nor simply an oath, but rather an Obtestation, a kind of desire or wish, as if he should have said, So may the king prosper as what I have averred is true, viz. That you shall not go forth hence except your youngest Brother come hither, etc. This then is not to swear by Pharaoh, it is rather, as I said, a desire and wish added to an asseveration of a truth. Examples of the like manner of Obtestations we find in the holy Scriptures. 1 Sam. 17.55. There Abner says to Saul, As thy Soul liveth, O King, I cannot tell, so our English translation renders it; but the words must be expounded in the same sense as those of Joseph before, because that the phrase in Hebrew is the same. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  The effect then of Abners answer to saul's quaere may be this, As I wish thee, O King, long life and happiness even as this is real and true, so what I affirm is not false, etc. The like kind of asseveration, whereby they of old ratified and confirmed the truth of what they affirmed, we find 1 Sam. 1.26. 2 Sam. 14.19. 2 Kin. 2.2. 1 Sam 25.26. So then admit of which of the two answers you please, it is clear that from the example or practice of Joseph we may not conclude it lawful to use the name of any creature in an Oath. But this we willingly grant, having God's word for our warrant, that the names of some creatures may be used when we swear: yet with this limitation, and in that sense only which I have premised, viz. Not to swear by them absolutely and simply, i. e. to invocate or call upon them to witness the verity or Truth of our assertion, but only so, that we wish their good and welfare if we speak the truth; if otherwise, i.e. if we lie, their mischief and destruction. St. Paul's asseveration 2 Cor. 1.23. I call God for a record on my Soul, is a sufficient argument to prove this doctrine, 
Vid. Calvin. in loc.  whereby he wished in effect that he might perish, or that his life might be taken from him, if that were false which he affirmed to be true to the Corinthians. The like interpretation is to be made of the words of joseph, though in another sense: for St. Paul's was an implicit Imprecation, which is to be used solemnly and with a great caution, only then when the thing (to maintain which we wish to ourselves or others any hurt) is very material and weighty; for otherwise, i.e. to imprecate or use a form of Cursing for a slight matter or for no cause, is a great and heinous Sin, and they who are guilty of it are ranked in God's word amongst the Reprobate and Ungodly men. 
Rom. 3.14.  Psal. 10.7. David there describing a wicked man, says, His mouth is full of cursing, etc. Neither shall such a man escape God's curse and malediction, Psal. 109.17. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him, etc. But to return from this short digression, and to show the difference between St. Paul's and josephs' using the names of the Creatures in their asseverations: as St. Paul's was an Imprecation or Curse, so josephs' words imply a Precation, Option or wish for the King's prosperity and happiness; from which his Brethren might infer this, that his words were most certainly true, not void of sincerity, because his wish for Pharaohs health (whom he much honoured) was not hypocritical, not feigned, but hearty. Having thus shaken the foundation of the Romanists pretended reasons for their Idolatrous Swearing by the Creatures, I pass now to the proposal of some better and sounder reasons to the contrary, to show the unlawfulness of their practice, and withal their Impiety therein, which is great and heinous. To conclude this point then, 
Reasons why we must not swear by the Creatures.  Swear not at all by the creatures, First, because an Oath solemnly taken is a great part of Divine Worship, as appears by Isa. 19.18. where the prophet foretelling that Egypt should be redeemed from the darkness of Idolatrous Worship, and brought to the light of the knowledge of the true God, whom they should invocate or worship in Sincerity and Truth, among other duties which he reckons up as parts of God's worship there he says, that five cities in the Land of Egypt shall swear by the Lord of Hosts. Not unlike to this of the Prophet Isaiah is that of Jeremy c. 5.7. Thy Sons (so God by him bespeaks the rebellious Nation of the Jews) have forsaken me, and sworn by them which are no Gods. By this latter part of the verse he declares or expounds what he had asserted in the former, how the Jews had forsaken the Lord, and he says in express terms, that they swore not by the Name of God, but by them which are no Gods. And hence I infer, that since to Swear by the Sacred name of God is a piece of religious and divine worship, and a thing so acceptable to God (when there is great need of it) as that for doing the contrary he denounced against the Jews his indignation and wrath; it must then of necessity be no less than Idolatry to transfer that honour to the Creatures which is proper and due only to God the Creator: and this sin we commit when we use their names in any Solemn protestation or Oath. For (which is my second argument to prove the heinousness of this sin) when we swear by any one, we call him to witness the truth of what we speak, as being a Discerner of the heart and searcher of the Spirit, and in effect we acknowledge that he is not only omniscient, but also omnipotent, as having power to punish us with destruction both of body and Soul if we wilfully lie and assert an untruth. They therefore that swear by Saint or Angel, or any other Creature, ascribe to them this honour of knowing our hearts, and discerning our intentions, and withal seem to acknowledge and profess that they have a Lordlike and all-commanding power and command over their persons, their goods, and lives (which honour and power belongs only to God) and what is this but to deify the Creatures? For this cause alone that good Bishop of Smyrna, Polycarpus (as it is recorded by Eusebius) choose rather to die by the faggot in hot flames, 
Euseb. l. 4. c. 15.  than he would swear per fortunam Caesaris, by Caesar's fortune, which he esteemed a robbing God of his glory, and giving that which is not due to the Creature. Undoubtedly he then remembered the words of our Saviour, Luk. 20.25. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are Gods; i. e. Give the Lord the honour due unto his Name, Ps. 29.2. The honour due unto his Name is to swear by it, when we have a necessary and just occasion. Therefore to swear by any creature, as it is a piece of blasphemy (because thereby we derogate and detract from God, whilst we ascribe to the Creature his incommunicable attributes, his Omnipresence, his Omnisciency, and Allmightinesse) so it is wholly forbidden by the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all in the Text: although the Schoolmen relying upon the Authority of some modern writers, and to patronage their superstitious practice of invocating Saints and Angels, have darkened this place with a false gloss: Swear not at all, i. e. saith Estius upon the Mr. of the Sentences, nisi justâ causâ et necessariâ apparent, unless you have a just and necessary cause. This gloss might have been admitted if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all had been left out. Swear not at all; and how is that? Hear what follows from Christ's own mouth, the Mr. of truth, the best Commentator upon his own words, Neither by Heaven, nor by Earth, i. e. not at all by any Creature; and so St. Hierome with others expound the Text. Vbi justa subest causa in nomine Dei jurandu●… neque enim Coelum Deus est, neque Terra, etc. Neque teipsum fecisti: per nullam igitur creaturam jurandum. So Ferus upon the sixth of Mat. i.e. When and where there is a just cause offered, we must swear only by the dreadful Name of God: For neither to the Heavens, nor to the Earth, can or must we ascribe that glorious Name, without the guilt of blasphemous Idolatry. Thou didst not make or create thyself, much less can they be said to be thy Creator; therefore you must not swear by any Creature. And when there is no just cause of an Oath, we must likewise forbear to swear by the sacred name of God.  
For a close of this point, I shall clear a doubt, and answer a question. The first is concerning that custom of the Primitive Christians in Tertullia's days, who used to swear Per Salutem Imperatoris (as we find it recorded in him) i. e. by the health of the Emperor: 
In Apolog. c. 32.  the Question which arises hence is this, whether they sinned in so doing? To this I answer, that by this term Salutem, health, they understood either God himself, the Author of health, and the fountain of Salvation, so might effectiuè be called the health of the Emperor, being the principal or sole cause of it: or we are to conceive that this kind of expression was rather an Obtestation than an Oath properly so called, and that by way of comparison, or taken comparatively; as if one should say, I protest before God that I speak and love the Truth no less with my heart than I wish my Sovereign Lord the Emperor to live in health. Such kinds of speech, by the life of the King, by the fortune and health of the Emperor, used in the Primitive times, were rather Obtestations than Oaths, as is attested by St. Basil on the 19 Psalms, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. Basil.  etc. There be some kinds of speech which have a show or shadow of Oaths, and are not such indeed, but only confirmations of an asserted Truth. There is another doubt concerning that usual form of speech which is too too familiar in men's mouths, and that is, By my Faith; The Question is, whether it may be lawfully used? The learned and most pious Bishop Andrews delivers his Judgement or opinion thus concerning it, out of St. Augustine, Beware, says he, of that which is not a perfect or complete Oath, 
Serm. 30. de verbis Apost.  but a manuduction, way, or inlet to it, as to say, By my Faith: For when a man asserts a Truth in this form, By my Faith, it is a solemn execration, which is an Appendix, or an additional part of an Oath, and he that says so speaks thus in effect, If what I say be not true, I wish that God would deprive me of the saving gift of Faith; and God may take the same away at that hour or moment, and benight thy Soul with the darkness of distrust or doubt. Be therefore very sparing in the use of it.  
As therefore we are to abstain from this Form, because it hath in it an appearance of evil, being scandalous in regard of the particle Per or By (which is annexed to it, and prefixed ever to an Oath, 
Amesius C. de Juramento.  whereby we invocate or call immediately on God to be a Judge and Witness of what we speak) as for this reason it is scandalous, in that it may give an offence to the religious; so likewise it is very dangerous to use it upon every slight or light occasion in matters of no moment, for it is a kind of vain and rash tempting of Almighty God, who may suddenly frown upon us in his wrath, and in justice punish us with a loss of our Faith, without which we cannot be saved. 
Luke 8.12. Act. 16.31.  Our Faith (says a devout man) is the most precious Jewel that we have. Now there is none but a Bankrupt that will lay the best Jewel which is in his house to pawn for every small trifle: so when we pawn our Faith for every word we speak, it argueth that we are Bankrupts in Truth, and that we are of a broken or small credit, otherwise we would not produce this precious Jewel of our Faith upon every needless occasion, and endanger the loss of it, without which (as I said before) there is no Salvation.  
From all that hath been premised concerning the extent of Christ's prohibition, Swear not at all, we may deduce this undeniable and certain conclusion, That, as by Swearing by the creature God is dishonoured, so by using his Name in a lawful Oath he is much glorified: Because when we call on Him to witness the Truth of what we affirm, we do openly confess that he is an Ear and Eye-witness of our Thoughts, Words, and Deeds, that he knows our hearts, that he is a lover of Truth, and a severe Revenger of a lie, that he both can and will punish us for it? then which profession (and this we profess when we Swear) what can conduce more to God's honour, and advance his glory? In the 45. of Isaiah, God speaks thus of himself, 
Isa. 45.22.  I am God, and there is none else, i. e. none besides me to be honoured with Divine Worship; so he explains his own words verse 23. Unto me every knee shall bow, and to me every tongue shall Swear: To me, i. e. By me; By me exclusively, and not at all by any Inferior Creature. Christ's words then, or his Prohibition in my Text, are but a Comment or Illustration on those of the Prophet Isaiah: and St. James (as the Epistles are Comments upon the Gospels) in his fifth Chap. seems to have taken the words of our Saviour in that sense which we have maintained and followed; whence he says ver. 12. But above all things, my Brethren, swear not, neither by Heaven, nor by Earth, nor by, any other Oath, i. e. besides the name of God, when you are lawfully called to it: But in your private conference, contracts, and bargainings, let your yea be yea, and your nay nay, i. barely affirm what you speak without any other addition, lest you fall into condemnation. And this caution of the Apostle (whereby is intimated a severe Judgement or punishment from God which shall fall upon rash swearers) the same leads me to the fourth General part, viz. The Reasons or Motives employed in the prohibition, Swear not, viz. why we should fear an Oath, or abstain from all rash and vain swearing. Having illustrated this particular, I shall propose a few Rules, by the observation whereof, he that is accustomed to swearing may (by God's grace assisting him) abstain from this foul crying sin of profaning Gods holy and dreadful Name.  
Although I cannot wholly allow of the superstitious niceties of the Jews in the affairs of God, or in matters of Religion; 
The iv Gen. part. Reasons of the prohibition, Swear not.  yet I find in their practice many things that deserve our praise and imitation, and such as may justly put our profane carelessness to the blush. When I read of their curious scruples concerning the dreadful Name of God, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Jehovah, which they call Schem hammeporasch, Nomen separatum, a separate Name, because it is incommunicable to any Creature, it being the name of God's Essence, signifying or denoting Him that is, that was, and ever shall be; which Name too they held in so great Reverence, that they termed it Haschem, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  The name, by way of Eminence, and Schem hannicbad, Nomen gloriosum, a glorious Name, it containing the Mystery of the Trinity, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These three distinct letters denote the Trinity. The doubling or Repetition of the middle letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the two Natures in Christ.  and the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ: when I likewise read how they bore such an awful respect to it, that they deemed it a crime worthy of death for any but sacred Lips (I mean those of the High Priest) to express or name it, and that on set times, and in certain places, as on the Feast of Expiation, and in the Temple, and in that solemn benediction, Num. 6.24, 25, 26. when I meet with these and the like curiosities of the Jews in their writings, 
Vid. Alsted. in Paratilis Theol. p. 153.  who did at first abstain from pronouncing of that most sacred Name only out of a godly fear (or reverence) lest it should grow vile and contemptible by its familiar and frequent use (as all other things do that are daily and hourly used) I cannot (when I read this in the Jewish Records) but infer thus much, that from their superstition we Christians may well learn this lesson, Not rashly, lightly, or regardlessly to take the dreadful Name of God into our mouths, but to hear and utter it with due fear and reverence.  
It is a true and remarkable saying of St. Augustine, Falsa juratio exitiosa est, 
Serm. 28. de Verbis Dom.  vera juratio periculosa, nulla juratio secura, To swear falsely is damnable, to swear truly without God's warrant, i. e. without necessity, dangerous, but not to swear at all is the surest and best way to secure the good and welfare of our souls.  
This foul sin of Swearing is so heinous, if we respect our good God thereby offended, and so dangerous, if we respect ourselves who shall be most severely punished for it, that St. Chrysostom (as we may collect out of many of his 
* Hom. 14. & 15. ad Pop. Antioch.  Homilies) seldom or never came into the Pulpit without some bitter invective against it.  
Swear not then, 
The first reason why we should forbear Swearing.  first because this deadly and soul-murdering sin is most injurious to God, in that it carrieth with it a contempt of God's person, and a contempt of his precept, which are not to be found in every sin. First, it implies a contempt of his person, when that we use his glorious Name (so called, Deut. 28.58.) in our common talk and familiar discourse, to back our reports, and to bolster out our Stories of every idle thing. It is (as one says well) to set less by God then by an earthly Judge, whom we count it a disgrace to trouble about a Trifle. Nay it is to deal worse by him then by a good suit of Apparel, which we will not wear every day, but lay it up for special days and occasions. And yet the sacred Name of God, how is it torn and worn every day of the week, every hour of the day? I had almost said every minute of the hour, and in so saying, I had said the Truth.  
Would not a man of any note, worth, or fashion, take it as a contempt thrown upon his person, if one should to his face, and in his hearing, use his name bluntly without any the least show of respect, without any title or preface of Honour prefixed to it? Nay, which is more, would not that party burn with anger and disdain, if any one going about some absurd act should call upon him by Name to be a witness of it, as if it should be done with his liking and consent? Such for quality, though greater for quantity or extent, is the indignity we cast upon our gracious God, when our Tongues in a sudden unmannerliness presume to blurt out his sacred Name, when we swear by it upon every vain and idle occasion, thereby calling him to witness what we wickedly either do or speak, as if he did approve or allow of that Sin, which is an horrid impiety and blasphemous wickedness but to think or imagine, (God as he delights not in the death of a Sinner, so he delights not in any man's sins.) To do that thing then, i. e. to call God to witness our vanity and lying, as if he were pleased with it, is a fearful crime; and of this we make ourselves guilty when we swear vainly and rashly by his Name. Besides this, as the Sin of swearing implies a contempt of God's person, so in the Second place, thereby we contemn and slight his precept, the third Commandment (which immediately concerns his person) therefore it is no small Sin; nay greater than the neglect and breach of those which concern men, by how much these are inferior to God the Lord of Heaven: Quanto praeceptum de meliori datur, tanto est ejus inobedientia gravior. It is an useful Rule commended to us by Aquinas, 
Aqui. 2. 2. 105. Q. 2. Art.  The breach of that Commandment which relates to a greater person is more heinous than the breach of that which respects a less; and the greater the offence is, the sharper will be the punishment. Vain and idle Swearing being then a breach of that Commandment (which enjoins us a reverential and awful esteem of the Name of God, never to use it but in our prayers and thanksgivings for mercies, and then too with fear and an awful reverence, as it denotes an Incomprehensible Essence, terrible in his Judgements, and filling Heaven and Earth with his unbounded infinite presence) I say, the sin of swearing being so directly against, and so injurious to so great a Majesty, must needs be repaid with punishment, and that in the greatest and highest degree of vexing sorrow, and tormenting pain. For this the land mourns, Hos. 4.3. For this, i. e. for swearing vainly and falsely, as it is expressed v. 2. This sin as it is the leader in the Prophets muster of heinous sins there, so it is, I am persuaded, the Captain, the Chief sin of the inhabitants of this Island, and the chief provoking cause of God's heavy judgements of War and Sedition, of Plague and Pestilence, of Sickness and Diseases, which have been and are still within our Walls, and reign among us. These calamities will stick close to and lie hard upon us, until by our prayers and hearty repentance we have cast out this Devil (I mean the Sin of Swearing) out of our tongues, and the contempt of God out of our hearts, and instead of it settle in them a reverential fear of his divine Majesty, which will so bridle the unruliness of our licentious lose tongues, that we shall seldom or never profane his holy Name. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. For where the fear of the Lord is, 
Naz. Ora. 3●.  there is (says Nazianzen) a dutiful observance of his will and commands; and in whom this observance is, that man keeps his soul clean and pure from the pollutions of sin, and from the corruptions of the Flesh: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So that learned Father in his 39 Oration.  
Secondly, 
The second Reason.  as the sin of swearing is most injurious to God, so it is most dangerous in respect of ourselves. The Jews have a saying which I find in Elias the This by't, Transgressio trahit transgressionem, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  one sin draws on another. Sin is of a spreading and fruitful nature, the first begets a second, this a third, etc. God in his punitive and permissive Justice so ordering and disposing of the ways or actions of men, that because they (as the Apostle speaks) knowing God to be omnipotent, most just and good, 
Rom. 1.21.  glorify him not as God, but magnify and exalt themselves above God, therefore by themselves shall they be debased, upon their own heads shall they heap coals, prove their own executioners, in that being given over by God to reprobate minds, they shall add uncleanness to profaneness, drawing Sin as it were with a Cart-rope, increasing daily in impiety, 
Isa. 5.18.  and hereby aggravating their guilt and punishment. Thus in David murder followed upon his Adultery: 
2 Sam. 11.  and in his Son Solomon the excessive love of women brought forth Idolatry, 
1 Kings 11.3, 4.  his Wives turned away his heart after other Gods. In like manner lying doth evermore accompany idle and rash Swearing.  
The Prophet intimates as much, Hos. 4.2. where he couples these two foul and ugly Sins, giving the precedency to Swearing, By swearing and lying, etc. They met together in St. Peter, 
Mat. 26.72.  who affirmed with an oath that he knew not Christ his Master: And he that accustoms his tongue to swearing will be bold with a lie, a base sin, which as it proceeds from a cowardly fear, so it tends to cozening and fraud; he that dares dishonour God will deceive his Neighbour. We read of Almanzor that famous Turkish Emperor (whose life is accurately penned by Sir W. Raleigh) that as he himself was never known to make a lie, 
Sir W. R. in his Hist. of Mahomet, p. 146.  or speak an untruth, so he termed and accounted Liars Disciples of the Devil, the plagues of the world, betrayers of the Truth, Destroyer's of civil and Christian conversation, and the right hand of Satan. No man that ever told a lie unto him escaped unpunished, but received his punishment answerable to the quality or weight of his lie. The lest was public disgrace; but lies of an higher strain, of a deeper stain, which concerned the Commonwealth, he chastised with whipping, cutting of tongues, banishment, disabling to be a witness, and in some cases they were repaied with the loss of life: which rigour begat terror in wicked dispositions, restrained false informations, and gave a stop to unnecessary suits. And when he was once sick, in an admonitory letter to his Son, he advised him that he should at no time make, or bear with, a lie: for Liars (said he) are Devils in flesh enemies to truth, Subverters of Justice, firebrands of Sedition, Causers of Rebellion, betrayers of kingdoms, and to themselves thus much harmful and injurious, that when they speak truth they are not believed nor credited. If the practice of Almanzor and this Counsel to his Son were observed in our Christian Kingdom, we should be more free from bloody strifes and Sedition. As lying is a pernicious sin, dangerous and hurtful to the Commonwealth or State we live in, so it is a base and infamous Sin. The ancient Germans used to say, If a man loses his gold, it is a great loss; if his fame or good name, a greater; if his faith or credit, the greatest of all. And this loss a liar sustains, whom no man will trust though he ushers his assertions with a thousand Oaths; Et saepe quo plus jurat, minus fidem facit, and it ofttimes so falls out, that the more he sweareth the less he is believed. As lying is a Sin branded with infamy among men, so it is also to God most abominable and odious. Prov. 12.21. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. And Prov. 6.17. A lying tongue is reckoned amongst those six things which the Lord hateth: and the reason of it is this, Because as we commonly hate those things which are repugnant and contrary to our humour or dispositions, so God hates a lie as most adverse and contrary to his revealed will (as where it is said, Thou shalt not bear false witness, etc.) and likewise most opposite to his divine Nature, which is most true, God is not a man that he should lie, Num. 23.19. Nay he is Truth itself, and that three manner of ways: First, because he is most truly that which he sees himself, and from everlasting knew himself to be, and that is a most perfect Essence, without any the least spot of error or stain of sin; wherefore he is most truly good, truly omnipotent, truly wise, truly merciful and just. Secondly, he is Truth in his works, because all his works are true, 
Ps. 111.7, 8. Dan. 4.37.  being conformable to his divine will, and answerable to his prescience, determining by an everlasting decree either to act by himself, or to ●mit by others things to be done in the ●ry order and manner as we now see they are wrought and effected. Thirdly, he is Truth itself, i. e. most true and faithful in his words, for what he has promised shall surely come to pass. Let God be true (says St. Paul) i. e. God will be true, 
Rom. 3.4.  though every man be a liar. For as God is light, in whom there is no darkness either of Sin or misery; so he is Truth, in whom there can be no Falsity either Actively or Passively, for that he can neither deceive, nor be deceived by any, though never so closely shut up in the mantle of Hypocrisy or reserved Policy. To return then to the purpose. Seeing the sin of lying is so discordant to the nature of God, who is the original of all Truth, nay Truth itself in the abstract, i.e. most true in Himself, in his words, and works, this sin therefore must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, exceeding sinful and heinous beyond all expression, it being set in so great an opposition to God's essence, as that is most cold which is farthest off from the fountain of heat, the Sun, and that most dark which is remotest from it, Gods greater light, set up in Heaven to guide us by day, as the Moon by night. 
Ps. 163.8, 9  If lying then be a sin so heinous, so odious to God, what may we think of Swearing, the procatarctick or prime cause of that foul sin? I say, that is the parent of this: For he that dares cast contempt upon the glorious name of God by taking it too familiarly in his mouth, the same will not stick to outbrave God, and outface Man with a lie for his private gain, or to maintain his Credit, because he promises to himself belief from the hearer, whose simple honesty and open credulity moves him to think no man so daringly impious, as to call the Almighty to witness a sin, I mean perjury; which he will severely punish with destruction both of body and soul, with poverty and disgrace, and sickness here, 
* 
Ah miser! eisi quis primo perjuria celat, Sera tamen tacitis poena venit pedibus. Tibul.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Chrys.  
Implacabilis est Deus contemptis juramentis.   and hereafter with everlasting torments in hell fire.  
The sin of perjury is a crying sin, it roars so loud in the Conscience, that it evermore disquiets the souls inward peace. Nay more, it begets hell in it, and (as I may so say) awakens the Divine Justice, which sometimes winks and connives at other sins. It forces God to lay aside his Mercy, in which he most delights, and to become most severe in his punishments, which have evermore fallen heavy upon perjured persons, as appears Gen. 14.4. where, to affright and scare us from the guilt of this sin, God by his servant Moses hath left us the examples of five Kings, who having served Chedorlaomer King of Elam twelve years, contrary to their promise confirmed by an Oath, rebelled against him; for which Rebellion vengeance so pursued them, that he with three Kings more made them to fly their petty Kingdoms. The like examples we have 2 Kings 17.4. of Hosea King of Israel, and of Zedekiah King of Judah, 2 Kings 25.17. The former of these having promised obedience and service to Salmanezer, the King of Assyria, for his perjury lost his freedom, being till his death shut up in prison. The latter for the same crime against Nabuchadnezzar King of Babylon lost his eyes, having first seen the butchering of his Sons; and now being led into Captivity, his legs fast bound in fetters of brass, he had only the use of his ears left to hear the reproaches of his Enemies, and of his perjured tongue to entreat for mercy and pity in the midst of his pain and misery. To these stories which I have borrowed out of the sacred Record of God's word, I will add two or three more as most remarkable and true.  
The first shall be of Earl Godwyn, who lived in the time of Edward the Confessor. This Earl was he who with his ambitious Sons by his cruelty so irritated and discontented the Nobility, that it was a main help and furtherance in the issue to the Conquest of this Nation by the Norman. He wishing at the King's Table, that the bread might choke him if he were guilty of alfred's death, whom he had slain a little before, was presently choked and fell down dead, to the great terror of those that sat with him at meat.  

Lib. 6. c. 8.  Eusebius likewise tells us of three lewd fellows that charged Narcissus, Bishop of Jerusalem, with a grievous accusation, and to beget a belief of it in the minds of the Judges, confirmed it with horrid Execrations and Oaths. The first wished if it were not true, that he might be burnt to ashes; the second, that he might be tormented with some cruel disease; the third, that he might be smitten with blindness. Narcissus relying only upon his Innocency, and unable to resist their malice, and master their matchless Villainy, removed and hid himself in desert places for many years. But mark the heavy Judgements of God which in the mean time fell upon those perjured persons. The first, by the fall of a spark of fire in the night, was with his house and family consumed to ashes: The second tormented in his whole body with that disease which he wished. The third beholding these fearful Judgements inflicted on his two associates in wickedness, and fearing to be made the like example of God's revenging Justice, confessed his sin, and for it mourned and wept till he lost both his eyes. A lamentable spectacle for false witnesses and perjured wretches.  
A third story not to be paralleled I learned of a knowing Gentleman in Hartfordshire, it is of one Everell, who many years since lived and died in St. Albans. He being accused before the Bishop's Official for an act of uncleanness with a Maid, to purge himself of this suspected crime, wished in open Court, that he might never speak more if he were guilty of that fact. The word was no sooner out of his mouth but vengeance stepped in, for he was presently struck dumb, and never spoke again; and afterwards by the Maids own confession it was proved that he had defiled himself with her.  
By these dreadful examples, 
Vid. Dr. Beard in his Theatre of God's judgements c. 27.  and many others which I could allege out of our own Records and other profane Authors, we may collect that God will not (as he threatens in his word) hold them guiltless, but afflict them with sore Judgements, who shall dare even against the check of their own Consciences to confirm a lie with an Oath, as if it were true; 
Four degrees of Perjury.  or maintain that which is true to be false, knowing it to be true; or lastly, promise with an Oath what they mean not to perform; or what they have lawfully promised, then intending a performance of it when they made the promise, yet afterwards, even when the thing is possible, and in their power to do, perform it not, but wickedly fall from their word. These are the four degrees or parts of perjury in the proper and strict acception of the word. There is another degree or kind of it, which I find in St. Chrysostom, 
How. 14. ad Popul. Antioch.  who concludes excellently in an Homily to the people of Antioch, That not only those who themselves take a false Oath are guilty of perjury, but they also who occasion the like sin in others, and that two manner of ways. First, by forcing them through fear of death, loss of goods, imprisonment or the like, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Chrys. ibid.  to take a false Oath against their consciences. Secondly, by swearing the contrary to that which another has sworn to do, and so opposing the same man by force and might, that he cannot effect what he has tied himself to by Oath. As if a Schoolmaster (it is St. Chrysostoms' instance) should swear that his Scholar should not eat a bit of bread until he had fully obeyed his commands by performing what he had enjoined him for his good: Now if the Father of that child, knowing that his Master had taken such an Oath, should rashly swear the contrary, and fond (there being no fear of danger for want of food) feed the young Scholar having not performed his Task; the Father of the child would be guilty as well as the Master. And such men who cause others to sin, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  do as boys that contend for a long rotten rope, some tugging at one end of it, and some at the other; so that the rope at length breaks asunder, by which means they fall all to the ground in a confused manner, & bruise their bodies in some one part or other. And this last kind of perjury, when we are the cause that others are perjured, we may call Perjurium occasionale, occasional Perjury; as there is Homicidium occasionale, occasional Murder, which is committed by thee when thou illegally actest & contrivest that which occasions a poor man either to lose his own life, or to kill his Brother. But to return to my purpose, and to discover more fully the heinousness of this crying sin of perjury: It is a compounded sin, a sin (as hath been said) made up of an Oath and a Lie, a Monster amongst sins, ugly and odious to God and man, the Devil's snare, so called by St. Chrysostom in his eleventh Homily on the Acts, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whereby he catches poor sinful, deceived souls, and hurries them to infernal darkness. Falsa juratio (says St. Austin) non est leve peccatum; 
Serm. 10. in Decollat. Johan. Bap.  imo tam magnum est peccatum, jurare falsum, ut propter reatum falsae jurationis Dominus prohibuerit omnem jurationem, i. e. Perjury is no light nor trivial sin; nay it is so great and horrid a crime, that to prevent the guilt and danger of it, Christ forbade the use of all Oaths (he means such as are vain and idle ones) when he said, Swear not at all. Hast thou seen a stone (says 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Nazianzen) thrown down a steep hill or precipice, never ceasing from its precipitate hasty motion until it arrived at the hills foot or bottom? Of such a speedy nature or quality is every sin, chief that of Swearing, to which the tongue that is accustomed in its unruly motion will at last fall into that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as he calls it) that profound gulf of perjury. 

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Naz.  
Perjury▪ the greatest down-fall, and most dangerous precipice.   A gulf indeed; for whoso is plunged in it, i.e. whose soul is loaded with the weight of so great and heavy a guilt, that man, without a special hand of mercy, will hardly ever raise himself by repentance to recover God's grace, but will sink deeper and deeper, wax worse and worse, add sin unto sin, and thereby provoke God to punish him both outwardly in his body, goods, and good name, with sicknesses, poverty and disgrace, and inwardly in his Soul with horror and perplexing grief, with disconsolate sadness, etc. until at the last despair sink him into the bottomless pit.  
I will conclude this point with that of St. Bernard, Si pejerare times, 
Serm. de modo bene vivendi 32.  nunquam juraveris; si nunquam juraveris, nunquam pejerabis, If the fear of perjury does possess and trouble thee, never swear; if thou never swearest, thou shalt never be forsworn. And perjury he can hardly avoid, who hath an unbridled tongue accustomed to take God's name in vain. Qui saepe jurat, saepe oportet pejeret.  
To this good counsel of St. Bernard I shall only add that of St. chrysostom to his Auditors the Antiochians, whom he bespoke thus in his forenamed 14 Homily. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. I beseech and exhort you to represent to your thoughts the Head of St. John the Baptist bleeding in a Charger, and suppose or imagine that you hear this voice or exhortation uttered from his Tongue, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Hate and abhor an Oath which was my murderer. Herod's rash Oath (of which he should have repent, and not kept it) was the cause of the Baptists death. And he that is given to much swearing murders his own Soul, deprives it of God's grace, which is the Souls life, and, being guilty of many other sins which accompany rash swearing, as lying, etc. he entitles it to everlasting death, the wages of unrepented sins: and if to forsake our sins be truly to repent, and the only mark of a sound and unfeigned repentance, we may safely say that few Swearers can be named that ever truly repent. Therefore cast out this poison out of thy mouth, banish this sin speedily from thy tongue, before it be habituated in thee, and so get the mastery or dominion over thee, that it never leave thee, but die and lie down in the grave with thee.  

The third Reason.  Thirdly, as the sin of Swearing is most injurious to God, most dangerous and hurtful in respect of ourselves (in that it is the parent or cause of other crying sins, as lying and perjury, and likewise the productive and provoking cause of God's just and heavy Judgements or punishments upon our souls and bodies) so it is a most scandalous sin in respect of our Neighbours or Brethren, 
Quanta est notitia & reputatio de Deo in hominibus, tantum nominatur per vocem exteriús. Raym.  with whom we have daily Conversation and Commerce.  
Raymundus in his Natural Theology, Tit. 193. says truly, that, according to the measure of knowledge or estimation of God in our hearts, such commonly are the vocal expressions of our Tongues. The Anatomists likewise observe, that the Heart and Tongue are knit and conjoined by one continued Nerve, whence there is such a coherence and sympathy between them, that the Physicians look upon the Tongue, when they intent to find out and discover the affection or malady of the Heart. So it is a Truth or maxim undeniable in morality and Divinity, that Lingua est index cordis, the tongue is the best and surest Indicatour of the heart. Take the Heart for the will and affections, or for the inward conceptions of the understanding, the Tongue betrays and discovers all. They therefore that dishonour God with their Tongues, declare that there is a want of fear and reverence of Him in their Souls. And this want proceeds from a lack of 
* Hos. 4.6. Isa. 1.3.  knowledge of God's incomprehensible greatness, and a true apprehension of his goodness: For, did they who profane Gods holy Name by cursing and Swearing, did they but know and verily believe that he is Almighty, and has power to strike them with sudden death, and to take from them in a moment their breath, which they should spend or use only in setting forth his glory and praise; were they persuaded that he is able to stop their profane mouths with perpetual silence, so that they shall never breathe out a Peccavimus, never beg of God a pardon for their sins; did they certainly know and believe this (and this Judgement has fallen upon many desperate sinners) they in fear of his power and greatness would undoubtedly abstain from so dangerous a sin. And again, had they an inward feeling and taste of God's bounty and merciful goodness by which they are enriched daily with many and great benefits, this would incite them to love him, and this love, which is an obediential Grace, would prompt them to a strict observance of his Commands. 
John 14.15.  If ye love me (says our blessed Saviour) keep my Commandments. They that do unfeignedly love him, will endeavour to keep them. They therefore that wilfully and presumptuously transgress God's precepts, betray a want of fear of his Majesty, as if he were like the Epicures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a sleepy, drowsy, unactive Deity, not Just at all, but all Mercy; and thereby they beget in others the like conceit of God, whose person they learn to undervalue, whilst they hear his Name slighted and abused by profane tongues: And harbouring in their wretched thoughts so light or slight an esteem of our Almighty God, they prove like Jesurun, they kick against God, i. e. reject his word, and slight his commands, they forsake God that made them, and lightly regard the rock of their salvation. Ex reverentia praecipientis procedit reverentia pracepti (says Aquinas truly) The reverence and respect we bear to the Commander begets respect and reverence to the Command. 
Aqu. 2. 2. 105. 2. Art. 2.  That then thou give not an offence to thy Neighbour, prove not to him an occasion of sinning by begetting in him a mean and undervaluing esteem of God, 
Mat. 18.7.  (Woe be to that man by whom such an offence comes:) that thou mayest escape this woe, and Gods heavy curse, never take his glorious and great Name into thy mouth, unless it be devoutly with reverence in thy prayers, or solemnly, when thou art forced to use it for God's glory to advance it, or to thine own and thy Neighbours good and benefit. Having thus explained and given a few Reasons of the Prohibition, Swear not, I shall proceed to the next general part, which is the Preparative to the Cure or remedy of this crying and most destructive sin of Swearing.  
As the esteem of a good Physician consists in this, that he cannot only discourse according to Art of the nature of any disease or inward malady, but also out of his experience prescribe first preparative Physic to segregate or sever the humours in the body, and after that a dose for a Remedy; so a Divine would betray the duty of his calling, should he make invectives the aim of his endeavours, should he declaim only against men's Sins, discover the nature of them, rip up their foulness, and not withal by prescribing of heavenly and Spiritual physic labour to drive them out of men's souls. And in this case the Divine must follow the method of a wise Empirick, who in the cure of a disease has recourse by his skilful search to the Cause, not regarding so much the Pars recipiens as the Parson mittens (to use Sennertus his phrase) not so much the part affected as the source from which the malady springs: So to cure the flushing in the face, he gins with the obstructed liver as the prime cause of that distemper, and to mitigate the pain in the head (the head, as one says, of all pain) he applies his Physic to the stomach. In like manner when we find an exorbitancy in the Tongue, we must conceive that this poison flows into it from the Spring of the Heart; i.e. the Soul consisting of these parts, understanding, will, and memory, and attended with a quaternion of Passions as so many Servants or Handmaids, they are Joy, and Sorrow, 
Aquin. 1.2. Qu. 23.  Hope, and Fear; so the Stoics divide them, the Peripatetics branching them into eleven Heads, which to rehearse makes not for my present purpose. Hast thou then, O sinful man, by a long and inveterate use contracted this poison of Asps under thy lips, 
Rom. 3.13.  a Custom of Swearing, a sin as hard to be cured as is the poison of an Asp which is incurable (if we may believe Pliny and Aristotle, 
Plin. l. 29. c. 4. Aspides percussos torpore et somno necant, omnium Serpentum minimè sanabiles.  Lib. de Hist. Animal. 9 c. 29.) Notwithstanding this, despair not of a cure, but know and believe that the same God, even our Lord Jesus, who went about in humane flesh curing all the Diseases of the body, can by his overruling most powerful grace kill that poison, subdue the Lording power of the strongest corruption, the greatest sin that has got a quiet possession, and reigns in thy soul.  
First then (which is the Preparative to the cure of this foul sin) call to mind that saying of Eusebius Emissenus, 
The V Gen. part. The Preparative for the Cure or Remedy of the sin of Swearing: it consists in Repentance and Prayer for the pardon of it, and other sins.  Difficile est ut ad bonum assurgas, nisi à malo ante diverteris: quamdiu nova delicta adjiciuntur, vetera non curantur; that is, unless by an holy and just hatred of sin thou declinest from evil, thou canst never do good, hardly attain to a sincere and commendable, constant practice of well-doing: and so long as new sins are added to the heap of thy impieties, God will not pardon thy old ones, not pass by thy former transgressions.  
Secondly, compare thy great unthankfulness with thy Maker's bounty and goodness; this may beget in thee a detestation or loathing of thy former sins and lewdness, whereby thou didst reject God's commands (who if thou servest Him will save thee) and obeyedst the Devil's suggestions, who will for thy service everlastingly torment thee. When thou hast attained to this, the first and best ingredient of Repentance, a Detestation of thy former impieties, as Cursing, Swearing, Lying, and the like; then draw near to the Throne of Grace meekly upon thy bended knees, with tears in thine eyes, and sorrow in thy heart, saying with blind Bartimaeus in the Gospel, 
Mark 10.48  Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me, forgive me all my sins past, whereby thy holy name has been dishonoured, thy word ill spoken of, and my Neighbour injured. When thou hast thus made thy approach to God with hearty sorrow for thy sins, doubt not but that he will draw near to thee with mercy and forgiveness; 
Jam. 4.8.  doubt not of a pardon, since Truth itself has made the promise, 
Ezek. 18.27, 28.  Ezek. 18. When the wicked turneth away from his wickedness, etc. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his wickedness which he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die; (he means the death of the Soul, which is an eternal separation of it from God, the fountain of joy and happiness; which in the Word are employed under the name of life.) He shall surely live, he shall not die: a sweet and gracious promise; distrust not God's performance of it if thou truly repentest. Daturus est, non fallet, quia veritas promisit; ask and thou shalt receive, 
Aug.  for he that is most true will perform what he has promised, because he will not, he cannot deceive nor be deceived. And thus relying upon his gracious promise of hearing and granting our devout Prayers and Petitions, our humble requests for his pardoning and purifying grace, in the third place, beg earnestly of him the assistance of the same grace, which is likewise preventing and strengthening, to keep thy tongue from all profaneness: cry with holy David, Psal. 141 3. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and keep the door of my lips. From which humble request of the Prophet we may collect this, that as our lips in that they open and shut are the Souls gate, through which our inward thoughts break forth apparelled in the dress of outward words; so, as a gate is for the most part shut, our lips should never open but to the glory of God and our Neighbours good. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Naz.  This by the way, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is a learned Rabbis gloss on the Text. Now if you demand what kind of watch it is which David desires God to set before his lips, the acute Eusebius Emissenus shall answer this Quaere, 
Euseb. Homil. count. diversa vitia. p. 138.  and clear this doubt: Si cordi statueris adhibere custodiam, ori non laborâris imponere disciplinam, i.e. set a watch to guard thy heart, and there will be no need to fence thy mouth: Illud siquidem voce depromitur quod prius in officinâ cordis formatur. The heart is as it were the Master of the Mint, which first sets a stamp upon thy words, which are current, if they bear God's image, if they carry in their sound the note or mark of Piety and goodness; if otherwise, i.e. if they be profane and impious, they are not allowed of by God, being condemned in the holy Scriptures. The Tongue is the Heart's servant, 
Mat. 12.36, 37.  which, like that Centurion, says to the Tongue by a kind of command, Speak this, and it speaks it; Run in the Praises of God, and it runneth; Swear, and it sweareth; Say nothing, and it is silent. The Tongue is but as the hammer in the Clock, which strikes not of itself, but keeps time, and moves according to the motion of the wheels within.  

The VI Gen. part. The method which is to be used in the Cure.  To cure then the unbridled motion of the Tongue, begin with the Heart; the which if it be (as david's was) fixed upon God, Psal. 108.1. the tongue will cease to lash out into Cursing and Swearing, but will (as it follows there in the same verse) sing and give praise to God for his manifold mercies and blessings which we have received. By the heart as hath been explained) is to be understood the whole Soul, which is fixed and settled upon God, when it seriously considers his Almighty wonderworking Power and Greatness, who created out of nothing this great Universe (consisting of Heaven and Earth) by his powerful word, and sustains all things in being by his providence. This Meditation is an act of the Intellect, and may beget in us an awful fear of his Majesty, which ought to be feared. The will is fixed upon God, when considering and weighing his many and great benefits we devote ourselves wholly to his service, submitting our wills to him in all things, & loving him without wavering, praise him without ceasing for his mercy & goodness. And lastly, the Affections are fixed upon God, when they wander not through lose desires of fading earthly vanities, but are chief taken up and possessed with an holy delight in God and his Saints on Earth, and fed with a firm hope of enjoying God's presence, of seeing Him one day face to face in his Celestial Paradise. This Hope is not a barren grace, but begets in a man a religious Care not to offend God, and to abstain from any the least Sin to which his Nature is most prone, because it may lead him into other sins, and separate him from the love of God, and at last procure his everlasting banishment from those joys which he believes are unspeakable, and hopes to enjoy in the glorious presence of the blessed Trinity, together with the blessed Angels and company of the elect Saints, to all eternity. Which most happy and joyful Fellowship rather than he would lose, a good Christian, if he were put to his disposal, would choose to suffer all the most exquisite torments that ever have been invented by the bloody wit of Tyrants; nay, he would rather sustain for many thousand years even Hell's pains.  
Let fire and wild beasts, racks and strappadoes, yea, and all the torments of Hell seize upon me, and torment me, so I may win Christ: it is the triumphant saying of Ignatius the martyr, recorded by Eusebius. This holy martyrs breast burnt with a love of God, and a desire of Heaven's happiness. That love caused him to fear nothing but God's displeasure (which follows upon our sins) by means whereof he might be deprived of everlasting joys, and debarred from the enjoyment of Gods most glorious presence. In a word, the soul that hopes to attain Heaven, and desires to reign there for ever with God, will fear to offend him and provoke him to wrath, lest he fail of his desire and hope, being cast out of God's sight and favour, in whose presence there is fullness of joy, as in the absence of his grace here sorrow and heaviness, with darkness and anguish of spirit. A filial Fear (whose proper object is the displeasure of Almighty God our most gracious and loving Father) it is the only and best curb to keep and restrain us from sin; and now that I am to proceed to the Cure of that foul sin of Swearing, 
The I. Remedy against swearing.  I shall commend it in the first place as the prime remedy against it.  
There be three sorts of men (says Nazianzen) that may and do attain Salvation; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Naz. Or. 40  the first is in the condition of Servants, the second of Hirelings, the third of Sons. A servant is moved to do his duty for fear of punishment; an hireling serves for hope of a reward; but a Son, who is of the best order or rank, reuerences his heavenly Father, is zealous of good works, because it is a thing that is just and honest, and likewise commendable for him to obey his Father's precepts, 

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ibid.  
Haec est satú ●impla merces, quod gratum erit Patrin faecer●, etc.   although he should obtain no reward for his Obedience, which is with God and man a most grateful sacrifice. Although there be few of this happy and rare temper, as to serve God for his own sake, not expecting the reward to come, but his present and past goodness (whereby he has bestowed and does daily heap on us many great and singular blessings) yet I cannot but commend their Christian endeavours who abstain from the acting of many foul sins even for fear of punishment; which Fear may consist with the love of God (as Aquinas asserts) so long as we dread not the punishment as the only evil contrary to our natural good, 
Aqui. 2.2.19.2.6. Art.  (i. e. Pleasure, Ease, and Profit,) but rather dread it as that whereby we shall be separated from the presence of God in Heaven, who is our chief joy and sole delight. And this kind of fear being oft times more active than love, which slowly moves by the apprehension of good, whilst the other forces and drives us to our duty by the foresight of danger, this fear (I say) is a great help and remedy against the sin of Swearing; witness that of St. Augustine, who it seems before his conversion was guilty of this sin. He in his tenth Sermon concerning the beheading of St. John, reports this of himself, Timendo Deum ab ore nostro abstulimus omnem jurationem, etc. The fear of God freed me from the Custom of Swearing: and then he appeals in these words to his Auditors, Ecce vobiscum vivimus; quis nos audivit aliquando jurantes, etc. Behold I have daily commerce and fellowship with you, who ever heard an Oath to pass from me? was I not wont to swear as familiarly and frequently as I spoke? At ubi legi & timui, luctatus sum contra consuetudinem meam, but so soon as I began to search the Scriptures, and by reading of them to fear the great and terrible God of heaven, than forthwith I entered into the lists to contend with and strive against my vicious custom, 
In ipsâ lustatione invoeavi Dominum adjutorem; praestitit mihi Dominus adjutorium non jurandi, nihil jam mihi facilius est quam non jurare. Aug.  and in this contention I called earnestly upon the Almighty to assist and strengthen me in the combat, and the Lord was my helper and deliverer, by whose aid and assistance I became a Conqueror, I subdued that sin, so that now there is nothing so easy to me as altogether to abstain from Swearing. Here by the way note in this wholesome admonition of St. Augustine, Legi et timui joined together, I read and feared, says he, reading produced in him a godly fear. It seems God's word, in which he was always conversant, terrified and reclaimed him: perhaps it was that signal Text in Exodus 20.7. The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain, i. e. He will revenge the disgraceful injury that is done to his Name and person with severe punishments and judgements on his body and Soul, with sickness and diseases, with crosses and calamities, with spiritual desertions (the sorest of all afflictions) here, and with everlasting torments hereafter. And believe this for a truth, that as God is faithful in the performance of his promises, so he is most just in repaying of vengeance, and inflicting his threatened judgements on obstinate & obdurate Sinners, who shall not escape them unless they be prevented by a speedy and hearty repentance of their Sins. The forenamed place in Exodus is confirmed and explained by another in Ecclesiasticus (which I doubt not but that St. Augustine read) it is c. 23. v. 10, 11, 12. Accustom not thyself to swearing, neither use thyself to the naming of the Holy one: for as a servant that is continually beaten shall not be without a mark; so he that sweareth, and nameth God continually, shall not be faultless. A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity, v. 11. That is, he shall add sin unto sin, Lying unto Swearing, stealing unto lying, according to that common saying, ostend mihi mendacem, et ego ostendam tibi furem, show me a liar, and I will show thee a Thief: and thus adding sin unto sin, he shall at length fill up the measure of his iniquity and transgressions with perjury: from such a man's house the plague shall never departed, but his house shall be full of Calamities, (so the wise man threatens and denounceth against him in the close of the 11 v.) i. e. as he loved not blessing, but cursing and swearing, so, Cursed shall he be in all that he undertakes; Cursed shall he be in the City, and cursed in the field; Cursed shall he be in his estate, in his Children, and reputation. God shall send upon him all those curses and plagues which are threatened and thundered out against all those who rebel against God, and will not hearken to the voice of his word, to observe and do all his commandments, 
Vid. Levit. 26.  as you may read at large Deut. 28.15, 16. He that believes God's word to be infallibly true, and considers oft with himself what his faith prompts him to believe, that so many and so grievous punishments shall be assuredly inflicted on him and his, cannot choose but fear and dread the wrath of so severe a judge, who searches him out (as the Prophet David speaks) and knows him, 
Psal. 1●9. 1, 2, 3.  who is about his path, and about his bed, who spies out all his ways, and registers all his words: he that truly believes this will tremble with fear to offend so great an Allseeing God. Now Fear that is religious works in the soul these three effects: First, expulsionem peccati; 
Hug●.  Secondly, executionem boni; Thirdly, conservationem boni propositi. i e. It drives out of the soul, and keeps out sin; it stirs us up to the practice of piety and Godliness; and lastly, it causeth us to maintain and cherish our good purposes of serving God in holiness and righteousness. It is therefore called by Parisiensis, 
Lib. de. moribus, c. 2.  Janitor cordis, the doorkeeper of the heart, Ipsum Infernum pro nodosâ clauâ vibrans, holding ever (as it were) a ragged Staff in its hand to knock down and kill the very first motions of sin in the Soul; and that Club or Staff is Hell, or, the frequent consideration and remembrance of those everlasting torments which are prepared for the Devil and his associates, who combine with him in wickedness, for profane Rabshakehs, and cursing Shimeys, for Whoremongers, for Adulterers, for Liars, and common Swearers; between whom and Hells everlasting torments there is but a small partition, nothing but a weak and slender thread of a 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Naz.  brittle, frail, and momentany life: the which when God shall cut with the Sword of his incensed Justice, they shall drop into Topheth, that bottomless pit of Hell, where the everlasting wheel of their unsufferable torments shall run continually turning about, without ceasing, from ten thousand years to an hundred thousand; after which shall succeed so many millions as there be sands upon the Seashore, or have fallen drops of Rain since the beginning of the World; after all which ten hundred thousand thousands of years expired, the damned Souls in Hell would think themselves happy, if they than might have a release from their pains and torments. But there is an irrevocable sentence of Almighty God, and a For ever and ever annexed to that Decree, which shuts out all hopes of Ease and Comfort. O I could wish that men would in time often meditate on the grievousness and everlasting continuance of those torments, that so they might prevent them by their seasonable and unfeigned repentance. To suffer pains and torments, and that too everlastingly, is a thing to humane nature (which delights in ease and pleasure) so horrible and grievous, that if there were but one among all the Sons and Daughters of Adam that should suffer this-wise in Hell, it were enough to make us all quake and tremble; and to say within ourselves (as Christ's Disciples did, when he told them that one of them should betray Him) Is it I, Is it I? And let me say to thee as Nathan said to David, 
Mat. 26.22.  2 Sam. 12.7. Thou art the man, thou art he that shall suffer thus to all Eternity, whoever thou art that persistest in any sin without remorse of Conscience, without any sense or feeling of thy sins committed against so great and terrible a God, whom the glorious Angels do worship with an awful Reverence, chanting out evermore this joyful and triumphant Hymn, Blessing, Glory, Wisdom, 
Rev. 7.12.  and Thanksgiving, and Honour, and Power, and Might be unto our God for ever and ever. And that thou mayest after death have a part or communion in this Celestial, Angelical Choir; and not howl and cry in the Devil's Chapel beneath, amidst that Infernal and black Chorus of dark Fiends and Reprobates; labour betimes by an holy meditation of God's infinite Power, Majesty, and Greatness, together with his great Mercy and Goodness, to settle the Fear of Him in thy Heart and Conscience. 
2 King. 12. 2 Chr. 24. ver. 2.  As Joash prospered so long as Jehoiada lived and was his Counsellor; in like manner, so long as the Fear of God resides in thy trembling Soul, thou shalt go on and prosper in the ways of Godliness, and be freed from the perpetration or committing of many foul enormous sins. To conclude this particular, love and delight in God as a most indulgent loving Father, dread Him as a most just & terrible Judge, whose Power is irresistible, and his Justice implacable against impenitent obdurate Malefactors. If thy heart be thus sweetly tempered and tuned with Love and Fear, there will be no unpleasant, no jarring discord in thy Tongue; but, instead of profaning and blaspheming Gods most holy name, it will ever be sounding forth his praises in Prayer and Thanksgiving. This is the first and best remedy against Swearing.  
A second may be collected out of the forecited words of St. Austin. 
The II. Reme●y, A firm purpose and resolution against it.  Legi & timui (says he) & luctatus sum contra consuetudinem meam, & in ipsâ luctatione invo●avi Dominum, i. e. I wrestled or contended with my bad custom of Swearing, and in my earnest contention and strife against it, 
Gen. 32.24.  I strove like Jacob with God in prayer, I called upon the name of the Lord. Now what may we suppose to have been the matter or substance of his devout prayer, but that which was the Prophet david's, Psal. 116.4? O Lord, I beseech thee deliver my soul from the power of sin and my imbred corruptions; keep my soul, O God, from the guilt of presumption, that I offend not wilfully with my tongue: Renew my will and affections, that I may hate and abhor this odious sin of swearing, that I may delight wholly in what thou hast promised, and love to do what thou commandest, etc. A man that can pray thus to God in Faith, not doubting to be heard, but believing that his Petitions shall be granted, that man by God's grace shall find a change in his heart: the eye of his Understanding shall be enlightened to apprehend fully the infinite and awful Majesty of the Almighty; his Will shall be inclined to that which is good, and inflamed with a fervent desire to serve his God, for whose only service he was created, 
Eph. 2.10.  and for which he shall be most mercifully and richly rewarded. This Velle, this fervent desire of serving God, is the Remedy which St. Chrysostom prescribed to his Auditors to subdue and beat down in them any Lording sin, 
Hom. 11. in Act. Apost.  especially that of accustomed Swearing. There is (says he) no need of great cost for this main business; there is not required much labour or great pains, nor length of time. If there be only a willing mind, an ardent desire to forsake this sin, the work is well-nigh done. Pars sanitatis est velle sanari, says the Physician, He is half cured that is willing and endeavours to be healed: 
Erasm. in Enchir. d.  Magna pars Christianismi est velle fieri Christianum, this is the language of the Divine, He is almost a Christian, or arrived to a good degree of Christianity, that is willing and desirous to be informed in the knowledge of God's Law, which must be the Rule of our Christian profession. Put on then a willing or strong resolution of forsaking thy habituated sin of Swearing, so mayst thou put off by degrees and lose this vicious custom. A firm & well-grounded, settled resolution is the souls Coat of Mail, to arm it against the powerful commands of a long continued habit or custom in sin. Art thou then another Apitius, a man given to excess in meats and drinks, to surfeiting and drunkenness? resolve to eat and drink sparingly, and that only at meals, for thy necessity; and by God's grace assisting and strengthening thy resolution, 
Aquin.  ut bonum quod velis efficaciter opereris, that thou mayest efficaciously put into act what thou resolvest, thou shalt by degrees get a contrary habit of sobriety and temperance. That thy resolution against swearing may be likewise effectual in thee, observe that Rule of St. Chrysostom, 
Chrys. Hom. 28.  prefix to thyself a certain number of days, whether eight, ten, or twelve, more or less, wherein thou must resolve never to swear an Oath (first beseeching God in prayer to strengthen thee by his grace, that thou mayest perform what thou resolvest.) If after this time expired or run out thou chancest to fall into the snare again, and be entangled in the guilt of thy former sin, what is then to be done by thee? 
Chrys. Hom. 5. ad Baptis.  Fellow the Counsel of the forenamed learned Father, punish thy tongue with an whole day's thirst, thy body with a long fast; that the sense of this torment of hunger and thirst may beget in thee a sense or fear of Hell's everlasting torments, 
Rom. 6. 23●  the wages of this and other unrepented sins. If the fear of present pain in enduring a day's thirst, or of future, I mean, that which is everlasting with the Devil and his black Angels in Hell, cannot bridle thy tongue, and deter thee from this sin; then try another way, take another course, perhaps the love of gain and reputation will do it. Resolve therefore as oft as thou profanest God's name with an Oath, to give so many pieces of silver to the poorest of Christ's Members. Their prayers to God for thee, together with the shame of thy often infirmities in committing so foul and unprofitable a sin, whereby thou betrayest thyself to be God's 
* Ps. 139.20. Thine enemies take thy name in vain.  enemy; their prayers, I say, on thy behalf to God, and the shame in being noted or branded for God's enemy (as fight against his will by a constant rebellion to his word and opposing his Commandment) these may prevail so far as to redeem thee from thy custom of swearing, unless thy Conscience be cauterised and hardened in thy sin.  

The III. Remedy, A consideration of the great indignity offered by it to God.  Now if none of these Remedies can work a cure of thy malady, but after thy settled resolution and many trials to subdue thy evil custom, thou be'st again foiled in the fight, and sin gets the Conquest; then consider with thyself what an indignity and disgrace is cast thereby on thy Almighty God: Let this supposal which I shall now propound to thy Conscience sink into thy heart; and ponder it seriously. Suppose the same Law were now in force which Lodowick (or Lewis) that famous King of France enacted in his time, which was, 
Vid. Caught v. Ser. de 2. praecepto.  that the lips of all swearers should be seared, and their tongues bored through with an hot iron; or imagine that all blasphemers were to be drowned, which another King of France, King Philip, ordained; or that they should be beheaded, which the Emperor Maximilian decreed; or punished with Confiscation of goods, besides the loss of their Lives: if these Laws were now in force among us, wouldst not thou make a Covenant with thy lips and a League with thy tongue, never to speak of God, nor use his Name, but with a reverend and awful devotion, and that either in Prayer or Thanksgiving? I presume thou wouldst. Sith than God hath severely threatened, as a punishment of this sin of swearing, the everlasting burn in the bottomless pit of Hell, and we notwithstanding slight his threats and reject his commands, do we not thereby 
* O miser & praepost. ra fidei homuncio! homini plu● credit quàm Deo qui creator est hominis: poenam perpetuam minatur Deus, & negligis; poenam temporalem minatur jude● terrenus, & contremis●u. Viexmont. Instit. ad Penitent. p. 1. c. 1.  undervalue the Divine Majesty? do we not degrade him in our thoughts below man, and thrust him (as much as in us lieth) beneath the Creature? in that we deny him that Reverence, yield not that Obedience to his Laws, which we would afford to the Proclamation of an Earthly King, or command of a Father. St. Paul was sensible of this indignity offered unto God by our bold rebellion & disobedience, where he says, 
Heb. 12.9.  We had Fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them Reverence; shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? 
Mal. 1.6.  Heb. 12. Agreeable to this is that complaint of God by his Prophet Malachy, c. 1. A Son honoureth his Father, and a Servant his Master: if I then be your Master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of Hosts unto you that despise my name.  
The Lord of Hosts! methinks this one appellation, when thou readest it, should strike thy heart with fear, considering his universal power and general Command over the Creature, the Heavens, the Earth, and all things in them contained: All which, like an Army set in battel-aray, and sweetly ordered in their several ranks, are ever in a readiness to obey their Maker's commands. 
Heb. 1.14.  The Angels, those Ministering Spirits, do fly where and when God sends and appoints them; 
Josh. 10.13.  the Sun and Moon stand still when he speaks the word, as in the days of Joshuah. A cloud will drop from the middle Region, 
Exod. 14.20  leave its proper place, and forsake its diurnal revolution, to be a guide to Israel, at its Maker's command: so the waters will stand on an heap, and cease from their natural motion, that God's people may be secured from their pursuing enemies, whilst they walk through the Sea, as if it were dry land. 
verse 29.  More of this we may read in the 16. of Wisdom, where we have many examples of the Creatures subjection to God their Creator. Thus the inanimate and senseless Creatures are willing and ready to obey their Maker; and shall man alone (who only amongst them is honoured with so rare a privilege, endowed with so high a prerogative as to have reason and understanding given him, to know, to love, and so the better to serve his God) shall he alone be wanting in his duty, deny obedience to his Maker, for whose service he was created, as the Creatures were for his? The greater and lesser Luminaries of Heaven, all sheep and oxen, the beasts of the field, the fouls of the air, and the fishes of the Sea, and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the Seas; all these, recited by the Prophet David, 
Ps. 8.3, 6, 7, 8.  with many more not mentioned by him, were made to serve us; and all do in a manner thus call upon and bespeak every one of us, God made us for thee, 
Coelum & terra & omnia in illis creata 〈◊〉 ut amem te, Domine & servia● tibi. Maub. Exercit. ●iet.  that thou shouldst serve and glorify him who made us and thee. O then let the consideration of thy unthankfulness to God thy Creator put thee to a blushing shame, and let the memory of his mercies and blessings spur or incite thee to an active obedience, and quicken thy dead or drowsy spirit to walk cheerfully and constantly in the ways of his Commandments; do not dishonour nor disgrace him by a constant and wilful breach of them by a frequent and rash taking of his name in vain. Swear not.  

The iv Remedy, by way of motive, drawn from the irrational Creatures.  If all the forenamed Motives will not startle thy obdurate Conscience, and drive thee to obedience of God's Commands; consider then the brute Beasts, who wanting Reason, which thou enjoyest, and Speech (which God gave thee to set forth his praises, 
* Homo immed●atè est propter Deum, & omnia qu●liabet, habet propter Deum. Raymund.  to advance and publish the glories of his Attributes) yet they led only by the guidance of Nature's Law, offer no indignities, no injuries to their Masters, from whom they receive food and sustenance; nay, they have ever showed themselves thankful to strangers, from whom they received the least benefits or courtesies: (All which may serve to check thy ingratitude in dishonouring God by Rebelling against his precepts. 
Lib. 7. c. 4●. Nat. H st. ) The story in Aelian of Androcles and a Lion is remarkable; he pulled a thorn out of the Lion's foot; the Lion afterwards repaid this courtesy, by saving his life when he fell among thiefs and cried out for help. 
Ael. l. 8. c. 22.  A parallel story to this we find in the same Historian of the Tarentine Woman and a Stork: she cured one of the Storks young ones, which had by a casualty broke its leg; the Stork not long after in requital of her goodness, dropped a rich Jewel into her lap, as she sat in a solitary place bemoaning the death of her dear Husband a little before that time deceased. The truth of these Stories I cannot warrant. Let then the Scriptures to our shame be witness of man's ingratitude to God, and of the brute Creatures thankful respect to their Masters and Benefactors. Man, for his sensuality and beastly lusts, 
Ps. 49.12, 20  may be fitly ranked with and compared to the beasts that perish; but they are above him, admit him not as their equal, if you respect their grateful dispositions. The Ox knoweth his owner, Isa. 1.3. i e. will submit his neck to the yoke, to toil and labour in the field, when and so long as his Master pleases; so the Ass knoweth his Master's crib (or Manger) i. e. willingly and readily stoops to any burden, sustains any blow, because that is imposed, and this comes from his hand by whom he is fed: But Israel doth not know (what great things I have done for them) my people doth not consider, how that, for their Saviour's sake or merits, I have provided Heaven for them, which shall be the reward of their service, and where they shall rest everlastingly from their labours. O Man, think of God's complaint here by his Prophet, think of it with shame; with an inward blushing confusion of spirit, and for shame let not the brute beasts outstrip thee in thankfulness; submit thy neck to God's yoke, which is easy and light, obey his Commands, and Swear not.  

The V Remedy, A third consideration.  In the fifth place, consider seriously in thy most recollected thoughts (which may be a great remedy against Swearing) what recompense God requires of us for all his benefits unto us. It is Honour and Praise. 
Praemium Dei est honor operis, lau●, & gloria: praemium creatura est utilitas. Raymund.  And this duty we discharge, when we declare and publish with joyful hearts and thankful tongues the Magnalia Dei, those great things which he out of his great mercy hath done for us in our Creation, Redemption, Vocation, together with the manifold and wonderful acts of his Providence over us. For the least of which his mercies we could not be sufficiently thankful to God, although we should live a thousand years ten hundred times told, and spend every day and hour in that long period of time only in Prayer and Thanksgiving. Oh then let us wash our hearts from filthiness, and our tongues from all obscene pollutions: Let our mouths be ever filled with God's praises, and let us cheerfully redeem the time to this blessed work of thankfulness; which because it is too large or too great to be done in this span-long life, 
Sit illud meditatio frequens in hoc seculo, quod perpetuum opus erit in futuro. Aug. in Psal. 148.  it shall be ever doing in that which shall succeed hereafter, and is everlasting. For Thanks is the chief, if not the whole, work of the glorified Saints and Angels in Heaven, who vent and spend (as one says well) all their burning fire of love in the flame of God's praise.  
The erect posture wherewith God has endowed man above his fellow-Creatures should put him in mind of his duty to God by way of thankfulness. For, as if the earth were not a fit object for our Contemplation, our faces are set upward, and our Souls too by so many foot carried up toward Heaven as our Bodies are erected to it. By which frame of our Bodies we are taught this lesson, to have our hearts always fixed upon God in Prayer and Thanksgiving. He that shall endeavour to follow Saint Paul's wholesome admonition, Pray continually, In all things give thanks; 
1 Thes. 5.17, 18.  that man will seldom or never swear, nor defile his Soul with the guilt or stains of idle and sinful discourses, but being here on earth will live an Angelical life, live like to an Angel and Saint in Heaven, where there is only continual chanting out cheerful Hymns which contain Gods praises: and he that intends to bear a part in that Celestial Choir, must lay aside his Cursing and Swearing, and practise here betimes, before death surprise him, to sing that new Song which Saint John heard in his Revelation, Chap. 5.9, 10. and ever join with Saint Paul in his joyful and thankful Doxology (1 Tim. 1.17.) saying, Unto the King immortal, invisible, and only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever.  
Again, to incite us to use our Tongues to the praise, or to exercise them in the praises of God, let us consider to what end He gave us speech and utterance, which he has denied to the other inferior Creatures; was it not that we should exceed them, and praise the Lord both for himself, and for them whom he created for our service, and for the glory of his Name? Shall the Birds sing to God, and not he for whose benefit he created them? So said once a pious man, a great Master of Meditation. It was a devout speech of another, If God had made me a Nightingale, I would have sung as a Nightingale: but now in that he hath made me a man, I will sing and publish the praises of God with my tongue as a Christian; whose spirit being enlarged by the powerful work of divine grace, because it discerns or foresees the eternity of God's love, it therefore endeavours (as far as it can) to maintain an eternity of God's praise. They will be ever giving of Thanks, 
Psal. 84.4.  says the Prophet David in his Description or Character of God's true Saints. And were it not for these, a few gracious Souls, what honour should God have from a generation of proud & perverse worldlings, who tread his favours under their feet like Swine, and are never mindful of that everlasting Spring of his goodness from which the streams of his blessings are derived unto us? And this their unthankfulness who dishonour God by their tongue, 
* Which David calls his glory, Psalm 16.10. My glory rejoiceth. Gloria mea, i. e. lingua mea, quod membrum conditum est praesertim ut gloriam Dei celebret. Sim. de Miris, in loc.  which was given them to glorify Him, this, I say, should stir us up the more to be Trumpeters of God's praises in the midst of his enemies; because this noble and gracious act hath in some sort a Prerogative above our praising God in Heaven, for that he hath there no enemies to dishonour him, and we meet with no opposition.  
Lastly, to deter you from this disgraceful and ungracious sin of Swearing and Blaspheming the holy Name of God, and to stir you up to this Heavenly work of praising him with your tongue; consider what reward shall be given thee, if thou performest this holy service and duty. God hath so linked and joined his glory and our happiness together, that if we refer all that we have or do to his glory, if we employ the whole stock of his graces in us to his honour and praise, he will re-pay us with everlasting happiness. To him that hath shall be given; 
Mar. 4.25.  i. e. to him that hath a thankful heart and a thankful tongue, to him shall be given an increase of grace and goodness, with an access or addition of outward blessings, which shall be seconded and crowned in the World to come hereafter with transcendent joys. Where do men delight to sow but in fertile soils, where they reap most fruit? where do Musicians delight to sound their Instruments, but where the Echo multiplies their Notes in speedy and quick returns? So God delights to scatter and shed his grace and favours in the hearts and upon the heads of those that are humble and fruitful in love and thankfulness. We may collect from hence how great the benefit is which shall redound to those whose tongues are ever exercised in sounding forth God's praise. As first, their mouths shall never be polluted with vain Oaths; and secondly, they shall find by a joyful experience that the reward of this their service will be everlasting joy and happiness. 
* Id quod damus Deo non est ei utile, sed nobis; quia quod Deo redditur, reddenti additur. Aug.  There was never an● that was a loser by God's service▪ God is the best paymaster. Never any that trusted in Him (thereby glorifying his Truth, Power, and Providence) and was confounded, they never failed of their hope or expected reward; He is a most faithful rewarder and bountiful benefactor. So much for the fifth Remedy; the sixth follows, of which very briefly.  
Bona vis habere & malus vis esse, 
The VI Rem●●y to beware of idle words, or to utter nothing but what is necessary & profitable.  so said St. Austin once to an ungodly man who deferred his conversion to God; Thou desirest, vain man, and expectest good things from God, and in the mean time wilt not cease to be wicked: It is all one as if he should have said in plainer terms, In vain dost thou expect any good from God above, so long as thou servest the Devil here beneath. And believe me, thou canst not do the Devil greater service than by profaning Gods sacred Name, whereby thou begettest a light esteem of his Majesty and Person in the hearts of those that hear thee blaspheme. Familiarity, we say, breeds contempt: And the common Swearer▪ makes himself equal with Almighty God, whose great and glorious Name he, so familiarly or frequently takes into his mouth without any the least show of Reverence or Respect. To prevent then a great mischief, even the Corruption of those with whom thou conversest and thine own destruction, entertain a Religious and high esteem of God in thy heart, and then thy whole body, all the parts of it, will strive to testify by outward expressions thy inward Veneration of his Majesty, 
Religio est quadam protestatio fidei per aliqua signa v●●eriora. Aqui.  (which to do, in the judgement of Aquinas and other Schoolmen, is a main point or part of Religion.) The knees will then bend, the eyes and hands will be oft lift up to God in prayer, neither will he want then the sacrifice of a joyful tongue, 
Luke 6.45.  which is the Souls best interpreter. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. If the heart abound with sinful lustful thoughts, the tongue will froth and lash out into blasphemy and unchaste Speeches; if it be garnished with the fear of God and Heavenly Meditations, the tongue will utter nothing but what is necessary to be spoken, and profitable to be heard. And these are the two words which (as Bonaventure asserts) we are permitted in our ordinary discourse only to utter: 
Bonav. l. 2. de profect. Relig. c. 10.  the first is, Quod necessarium est tibi vel alteri; the second is, Quod utile est tibi vel alteri: i. e. in all our discourses with men we should aim or drive only at this, to speak nothing but what is necessary to be said, and profitable to be heard, both in respect of ourselves and others. As when we stand up in the defence of the Truth as undaunted Champions of it, boldly opposing those that be enemies to it; and secondly, when we only speak and utter that which may conduce to our Neighbour's edification and comfort, by instructing the ignorant in the knowledge of Divine Truths, or of such things as are stamped with the mark of goodness, and by reforming those who err and go astray from God: to reduce such by our counsel into the right way, and to comfort others who are mourners in Zion, who are under any outward cross, or inwardly troubled in Spirit; this is a befiting duty and work of one that is truly sanctified.  
And those two forenamed Rules of Bonaventure, being rightly and duly observed, may prove likewise, by God's blessing, a great Remedy against vain and idle Swearing.  
The seventh Remedy consists in the moderation of our unbridled Passions, chief that of Anger, the common makebate of the world, the cause of so much blood spilling, and of so many quarrels and dissensions among Christians; whose very name, in which they all agree, may put them in mind of that mutual love and amity which is due from Brother to Brother, 
Christianus nomen est charitatis, justitia, sobrietatis, patientiae, & pietatis, etc. Carthusianus. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, id est, Dignos nos exhibeamus cognomento quod accepimus. Ignat.  bearing one name of Christian, and having one heavenly Father. But why is this amity so rare amongst us? How comes it to pass that strife is so often heard in our streets, and discord so abounds, as appears by those many Suits and Processes in common Courts of Justice? From whence come wars and fight amongst us? (to speak in S. James his language, c. 4. v. 1.) and, that I may come nearer to my present purpose, from whence proceed such horrid blasphemies as we daily hear? from what source so much cursing and so many execrable oaths? Proceed they not from our passions that domineer and reign in us? proceed they not chief from Anger, whose material cause is an ebullition or boiling of the blood about the heart, which being thus affected sends up such a steam and fog into the head, that the Brain (which is the seat of Reason) is immediately stifled and choked, 
Nihil rationis est ubi semel affectus inductus est, jusque illi aliquod voluntate nostrá datum est, Senec. de Irâ c. 8.  so that the light of Reason is for a while extinguished and put out? And hence it comes to pass that the Tongue, wanting the guidance of the Understanding, like an unruly Mastiff that has slipped his Collar or Chain, breaks forth into contumelious speeches against man, nay lashes out into blasphemies, flies even in the face of the Almighty with bitter oaths and execrations. May we not rightly say of a man in this distempered case, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ira furor brevis est. Philo.  that he is troubled with a short fit of madness, that for the time in which his distemper lasteth, he is (as we use to say) out of his wits, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, being under the command of Anger, a sharp and cruel Mistress? Should we appeal to Seneca in this point, we might find that he asserts as much and no less. In his first Book De Irâ, c. 1. Ut autem scias (says he most excellently) non esse sanos quos ira possedit, ipsum illorum habitum intuere, etc. Compare the carriage and behaviour of an angry man with one that is mad, and you will find that there is a very small difference in their tempers, there being so great a likeness in their outward deportment and demeanours; 
Furentium certa indicia sunt auda: & minax vultus, tristis frons, torva facies, citatus gradus, inquietae manus, colour versus, crebra et vehementius acta suspiria: Ita irascentium eadem signa sunt. Senec. lib. 1. cap. 1. De Irâ.  both of them having a menacing or threatening aspect, a sour look, a distorted face, a ruddy blushing countenance, caused by the fervour of their blood boiling in the veins, a furious hasty pace, a disorderly managing of each part of their bodies, as the hands, feet, and eyes, with the rest. But to omit the further illustration of this Comparison between Anger and Madness, and to leave the description of the Malady, that I may proceed to the Cure or Remedy of it; let me first propound this as a ground or basis on which I shall build the fabric of my short discourse, which I confess a Stoic would entertain with scorn and derision, for that he condemns all Passions as being of themselves or in their own nature vicious; whereas they are good and bad according as the several Objects are on which they are set and fastened. My ground which I shall first lay or propose is this, Temperare iram, non tollere; 
Cum rectam rationem sequantur affectiones, et quando et ubi oportet adhibeantur, quis eas tunc morbidas et vitiosas passiones audeat dicere? Aug.  we must labour to temper this passion, to reduce it to some moderation, not take it quite away, not wholly abolish and extirpate it: Eoque detracto quod exundat, ad salutarem modum cogere, id vero retinere sine quo languebit actio, & vis & vigour animi resolvetur; So that by paring away what is superfluous in it, and bringing it to a mediocrity, we may retain and keep that spark alive in us, without which we should want zeal and vigour in the performance of our Christian duties. This spark of Anger had glowed in our Saviour's breast into a flame of Zeal, 
Mat. 21.12.  when he whipped the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, and overthrew the Tables of the money-changers, and of them that sold Doves. Angry than we may be, but take care we must that we sin not, Eph. 4.26. And sin we shall, if our Anger offend either in the matter or measure of it; i. e. if the ground or cause of Anger be unjust (as when we are angry with a friend that reproves us for doing amiss,) or (when we are unjustly wronged) if we retain our Anger (which is an inordinate desire of revenge) too long, until that desire break forth into act, to the hurt or ruin of our Neighbour, and hurt of our own selves: for as envy slayeth the silly one, (Job. 5.2.) so wrath killeth the foolish man. Upon which Text Aquinas hath this gloss, 
Stulti per iracundiam spiritualiter occiduntur, in quantum scilicet non refranando per rationem motum, dilabuntur in aliqua peccata mortalia, puta in blasphemiam Dei vel injuriam proximi. Aquin.  Stulti per iracundiam Spiritualiter occiduntur, etc. Foolish men void of understanding are spiritually slain by Anger and Wrath: for that by not restraining with the curb of reason the eruption or breaking forth of this unruly Passion, they fall into some deadly sins, as Blasphemy against God, and wronging their Neighbours, when they either shed their blood, or wound them by opprobrious terms in their reputation and credit. My exhortation then shall be that of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, c. 4.31. Let all bitterness and Anger be put away; and that in his Epistle to the Colossians, c. 3.8. Put off these, Anger, Wrath, Malice, and Blasphemy. We may collect hence, that Blasphemy is an individual companion and an attendant of Anger and wrath. But how may these be put off, or rather prevented before they come on, before they take hold of us, and so get the mastery of our Souls? (For as wise Princes are wont in the calm of Peace to provide against the storms of War; so must we in the calmest state of our Souls, prepare and provide Antidotes against this inward turbulence of our minds.) To prevent then the sudden Commotions of this unruly Passion, or to allay it when it hath broken the bounds of Reason or Discretion, 
Si passio Domini ad me●●riam revocetur, nihil adeo duram quod non aquo animo toleretur. Greg.  Consider in the first place Christ's bitter Death and Passion, what or how great pains and torments he hath suffered, how much he hath sustained for thee. Trace him in thy meditations from the Garden to Golgotha: and as Pilate said once out of pity to the Jews, Joh. 19.5. Behold the man, so say I to thee, Behold thy Saviour, who was and is God and Man in one Person; behold him sweeting great drops of Blood in his Agony in the Garden, sustaining whip and scoffings, spittings and buffet in the face, and last of all a most shameful and painful death on the Cross for thee, to redeem thee from Hell, and to bring thee to Heaven, into which it was impossible for thee to climb, being clogged with the weight and burden of thy many and grievous sins, whose pardon he hath purchased by the merit of his death and sufferings. When thou hast seriously pondered and considered these things, than (even when for some distasteful word thou feelest the heat of passion begin to inflame thy blood) then bespeak thyself in the words of Saint Basil in his Morals, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; What dost thou, O Man? art thou better than thy Master? Hath Christ my Lord suffered such unsufferable pains, so many reproaches for me, and shall I, who am a Worm, a poor contemptible Creature, shall I, who am a Cage of Uncleanness, a Dunghill of Impurity, fret and fume for some conceived spot of disgrace or ignominy thrown upon my name? Shall not I suffer this and more for him, for the profession of his Truth, and glory of his Name? (for they who profess Christ, they that live godly, must look to suffer persecution, at least that of the Tongue. 
Mitescat savitia, mansuescat Iracundia, remitta●t sibi omnes culpas invicem suas, nec exactor sit vindicta qui petitor est veniae. Aug. ) Shall I by seeking revenge for some injury done me, snatch the Sceptre out of God's hand, or (which is worse) deny his Providence and Sovereignty, as if he did sit still or sleeping in Heaven, not regarding what is done here beneath on Earth? God is the Lord to whom vengeance belongeth, Psal. 94.1. and, Vengeance is mine, 
Deut. 32.35  I'll repay it, saith the Lord. Meditate often on this, and on thy Saviour's sufferings, the thought whereof will teach or move thee to be gentle and kind to others, 
Eph. 4.32.  forgiving them, as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven thee. And thus by this means having gotten the mastery of thy Passion, thou wilt have the better command over thy Tongue, and free it as from bitterness and clamour and evil-speaking, so from blaspheming Gods Name by Cursing and Swearing.  
In the second place, that thou mayst curb this unbrided Passion of Anger, a Capital sin, for that it is (as I have showed) the cause of many other sins, and most commonly that of Swearing, Consider with thyself in private, how oft thou hast offended God, 
Psal. 19.12.  (but who can tell how oft he offendeth?) and how oft he hath pardoned thee. This consideration of thy many infirmities, this knowledge of thy filthy sins will move thee to a mean esteem of thyself; and he that out of a deep apprehension of his sins and a sight or sense of his infirmities has learned to contemn himself, that man will not be easily provoked by a small injury and contempt from others.  
Thirdly, when thou art moved to Anger, labour to suppress this flame that it break not forth, suppress it by silence. For, as fire under green wood, if not blown, will go out; so anger in the breast, kept in by the silence of the tongue, will waste and spend itself to nothing. An example of this we have in David, Psal. 39 
Ps. 39.2.  He kept silence, he kept his mouth as it were with a bridle, whilst the ungodly (who did provoke him) was in his sight. He spoke nothing, but refrained his tongue, abstaining even from good words, 
ver. 3  which was a pain and grief unto him. If we speak any thing at all when we are moved to anger by our Persecuting, Reviling Enemies, let it be in the phrase of our meekest Saviour upon the Cross, Father, 
Luke 23.34  forgive them, for they know not what they do; or in the Language of that Protomartyr Saint Stephen, Acts 7.60. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Yet, if thou be'st a public person, and thy Injury great and notorious, 
Qui illatam sibi sustinet injuriam & contumeliam, conviciantis nutrit audaciam. Vid. Aqui. 2. 2. 72. Qu.  then to prevent scandal, lest by silence thou givest men an occasion to suspect the integrity of thy Conscience, thou mayest vindicate thy Innocency by a just complaint to the Magistrate, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil.  and from the Decree of Justice seek a Redress of thy Injury; and in so doing thou committest thy cause unto the Lord, in that thou Revengest not thyself, but referrest thy cause to the public Magistrate, God's Minister of Peace, whose Office it is to see that they be righted who suffer wrong; as also to encourage Virtue, to punish Vice, and suppress the growth of sin.  
Fourthly and lastly, to incite or move thee further to abstain from immoderate Anger, let the examples and practice of the 
* De his ita Nazianzenus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. i e. Anticipant fidem moribus, i. Justitiâ & Temperantiâ, & indigent tantum Christianorum nomine, quod Christum profitentes decet operibus id suis exhibentes.  Heathen ever run in your thoughts, who by the dim light of nature have gone further in the way of Piety than we Christians, who live in the Sunshine of the Gospel of Peace. To repeat the Stories of them renowned for their patience, would be both impertinent and tedious: I will commend to your Meditation but one, and that of a true Roman, I mean Cato, who used to say, That he could and did forgive all offenders but himself. So be thou angry with the Malice, but love (i. e. wish well to) the Person of thy Enemy that has offended thee; forgive him by not studying an hasty Revenge of thy Injury, and testify thy hearty forgiveness of it by thy prayers to God to forgive him his sins, and to heal him of his malice. And thus if thou imitatest God, who is good to his very Enemies, thou wilt show thyself to be a genuine Son of thy 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ignat. Ep. ad Antioch.  Heavenly Father. If thou imitatest him not, but sufferest thy heart to burn with Anger and Malice, I pronounce against thee, thou art a Bastard and no true Son. That then thou mayest truly retain the 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ignat. Ep. ad Magnes.  name, and maintain by thy practice the duty of a good Christian, follow the Prophet David's advice, Psal. 37.8. Cease from Anger, and forsake Wrath, else shalt thou be moved to do evil; thou wilt wrong thy Neighbour, and injure thy good God by breaking his Commandments, chief the third, which concerns the hallowing of his Name, which (if thou be'st a man of an angry and hasty disposition) thou wilt often do, when by Cursing and Swearing thou takest the same in vain. Therefore in a devout imitation of thy Father which is in Heaven, be thou, as he is, full of Compassion and Mercy, slow to anger, 
Psal. 103.8.  and of great goodness; and if thou be'st addicted or given to much Swearing, (besides the prevention of many other sins) thou shalt by curbing thy angry Passion so bridle and restrain thy Tongue, that it shall not so often as formerly, nay, seldom or never, profane Gods holy Name.  

The VIII. Remedy, To beware of intemperance, especially in Drink.  The eighth Remedy is to beware of Drunkenness, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as St. Basil calls it, that common strumpet, that bewitches men's hearts, and besots their brains: That hateful Night-bird which was wont to wait for the Twilight, to seek nooks and corners, to avoid the houting and wonderment of Girls and Boys; but now is grown audacious, and, as if it were some Eaglet that dares the bright Sun, it flies abroad at highnoon in every Street, and displays its filthy Nakedness in open places, without all fear or shame. It is observed by Clemens Alexandrinus, 
Clem. Alex. in Strom.  that it took first footing in the most barbarous Nations, the Scythians, who were such lovers of it, that it grew into their name; and to Scythianize was all one and the same with this, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idem quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inebrior. Suid  to be drunk. I pray God that stain or reproach be not hereafter thrown upon us, as it was upon those sottish Nations. If His Majesty's late 
* The 30. day of May 1660.  Proclamation for the repressing of this foul sin were duly and strictly observed and put into execution, it would not be so common among us. But in that it is so frequent, I wonder not that Oaths are so familiar in men's mouths. Quod in cord Sobrii est in linguâ Ebrii, That which lodges with security in the Heart of a man that is sober, discovers itself in his Tongue when he is drunk. Hence is that saying of a wise and learned Author, He that would Anatomize the Soul, (i. e. detect its inward and most benighted thoughts and intentions) may do it best, when wine and strong drink has benumbed the senses. The reason of this is given by Seneca, 
Ep. 83.  Non est animus in suâ potestate Ebrietate devinctus, etc. again, Omne vitium Ebrietas incendit & detegit, i. e. Reason is not at its own Command: so long as it is bound up by Drunkenness, and fettered (as it were) with excess of Meats and Drinks. To confirm this (besides our daily experience) we have the express Warrant and Testimony of God's word, Whoredom, Wine, 
Hos. 4.11.  and new Wine take away the heart, i. e. deprive a man of the use of Reason: Nay, which is more, excess of Wine, or Drunkenness, robs a man of God's grace and assistance, and banishes or drives his holy Spirit from us, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Basil. in Moral.  even as smoke does chase and drive away Bees, as St. Basil observes. Now, what sin is there so horrid, what abomination so prodigious and heinous, which a Drunkard is not ready to act, he being deserted by God's holy Spirit, void of Reason and Sense, and left to the Ruling power of the Devil, and the rage of his native lust, which is well termed by Parisiensis origo & seminarium omnium vitiorum, the root, source and seminary of all sin?  
A man in such a desperate forlorn case or condition is like Samson, 
Judg. 10.19.  when the locks of his hair were cut off, and his eyes put out. The Text says, that not only his strength went from him, but that also the Lord had departed from him. And as the Philistines did by Samson, so doth the Devil by a Drunken man; he leads him in a string where he pleases, makes him grind in the Mill of all kind of Sins and Vices, and like a Mill-horse leads him in a round from sin to sin, from one wickedness to another, from Lying to Swearing, from this to Stealing, and from that to Perjury or Forswearing. The Devil having moistened and steeped him in liquor, shapes him like soft Clay into what mould he pleaseth. Having shaken off his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or, as a Father calls it, 
Basil.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, his Rudder and Pilot, his Stay and Prop, which is his Reason, the Tempter hurries him into the gulf of all licentiousness and uncleanness, dashes his Soul upon what Rocks and Sands he listeth, and that with as much facility as a man may push down the moistened burden of his body tottering upon its unstable Porters, his feeble legs.  
A man who has thus unmanned or unmade himself, devested of Reason, which by Plato is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a little Deity in the Soul of Man, sitting there (as it were) in a Throne of Judicature, prescribing what is good, and forbidding what is bad, A man, I say, (if I may call him so that is drowned in drink) wanting the eye of Reason and the light of God's Spirit, (both which he hath put out by his excessive liquor taken in) such a one is the fittest agent for the Devil to work by; he is now ready to act and attempt any sin or wickedness, be it the sin of Cain or Absalon, the kill of a Brother, Father, or Mother: now he Swears and Blasphemes, who in his right wits and sober mood seems to be more Modest, Chaste, and Devoute. And ofttimes it so falls out, by the just Judgement of God withdrawing his grace from those who are accustomed to this Vice, that the Oaths which fell from their tongues when they were drunk, stick in their teeth when they are sober. Thus one sin becomes the cause of another; thus Swearing for the most part accompanies and follows Drunkenness. They are two Sister-Vices, whose Mother is our own corrupt nature, the Devil their Father. They, like Hypocrates his twins, are born, and live, and die together; they go (as we say) hand in hand, and seldom part asunder. Beware therefore of Drunkenness, 
Eph. 5.1. 1 Pet. 2.21.  and show thyself always a follower of Christ and his Saints by thy constant practice of Sobriety and Temrance. Think seriously of the sad Curses which God in his word denounceth against Drunkards: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (woe) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. Chrys.  as Prov. 23.29, etc. Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? etc. they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine, etc. Read likewise Isa. 5.11. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink, that continue until night, till wine inflame them. Isa. 28.3. The Crown of Pride, the Drunkards of Ephraim shall be trod●n under feet. What is here threatened against the Drunkards of Ephraim, shall certainly without repentance befall the Drunkards of England, whose Poverty, Shame, and utter ruin is intimated by the treading under the feet, and employed in the woe which in the first ver. of that 28. Chap. is denounced against such brutish sinners. Peruse likewise 1 Cor. 6.10. where Drunkenness is reckoned amongst mortal sins, which exclude men from the Kingdom of Heaven. Meditate often on this, how great will be this loss to be thrown into Hell, and banished from God's glorious presence in Heaven. Think too on that saying of Cyrus in Xenophon, who refusing to drink Wine, told Astyages, he thought it to be poison, for that he saw it metamorphosed men into beasts. I beseech you fasten your serious, sober, morning thoughts upon these say and threats of Judgements out of the holy Scriptures; ever use your Meat and Drink as Physic, the which St. Austin (as appears by one of his Confessions) used to do. 
Lib. 10. Confess.  He that surfeits himself with Physic, we may well count him sick of a frenzy or mad. As great a madness, nay, a greater, doth possess the Drunkard, whose wine is the wine of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose God is his belly, which he serves, 
Deut. 32.32.  and offers daily to it with drink-offerings, whose glory is his shame, 
Phil. 3.19.  and whose end will be damnation. Seldom shall you see or hear of a man who proved a true convert by a sound and constant recovery from this sin; the Bawd of lust, the Furnace of concupiscence, and the Forge or Anvil which the Devil frames and fashions all other sins upon. It is a deep ditch or pit that is miry and full of nasty dirt, like the Dungeon into which Jeremy the Prophet of the Lord was put. 
Jer. 38.6.   
And although it may please God to let down the cords of his Divine Mercy, and cause the Drunkard to lay hold thereon, that so he may escape the snares of Death and Destruction; yet the safest advice that I can give, or a man follow, is, not to play with his hand upon the hole of this Cockatrice, to avoid all occasions that may entangle him in the guilt of this foul sin, to shun the conversation of debauched companions, to avoid all excess in Meats and Drinks: so may he escape uncleanness, 
Nunquam ego ebrium castum putabo.  which is the spume or froth of drunkenness (Charity never lodged in the Drunkard's bed) so too will that man seldom be lavish in his Speech, which lavishness or excess in words flows from excess in Drink; so likewise will he be free from excess of passion, which being caused by the heat of wine sends up such a steam into the brain, that it drowns reason, and is the cause, as of other sins, so more frequently that of profane Swearing. 
1 Pet. 4.7.  Be ye therefore Sober, and watch unto prayer. Watch, First, horam mortis indies expectando, by a daily expectation of death, and providing for it. Secondly, watch, Diem judicii semper meditando, by a continual Meditation of the day of Judgement. Thirdly, watch, precibus instando, by being instant and frequent in Prayer. Thus watch and be sober, so shalt thou seldom or never Swear, to which Drunkenness is a great incentive, inducement, and spur.  

The IX. Remedy.  The ninth Remedy is to avoid the Company of those whose ordinary discourses are filled and interlaced with oaths. Converse not with an angry man (such for the most part is a common Swearer) neither keep company with a furious man, lest thou learn his ways, and bring destruction to thy Soul. Prov. 22.24. Ill company is like pitch, which defiles only by the touch. It is another Dalilah, which binds, betrays, 
Judg. 16.  blinds, and undoes at once. There is no enemy like unto it. Saint Augustine inveighing against it cries out thus, 
Lib. 2. Conf. c. 9  O inimica amicitia, seductio mentis, etc. It kills with friendly smiles, and destroys with kind embraces. It is like a Spanish poison mixed with a sweet perfume, which insensibly and violently insinuates itself, and works upon the spirits by the smell, and infects the brain; the which being infected conveys its poison to the heart, the Fountain of Life and Motion. So in like manner the Soul may be infected by a secret poison taken in at the Eare. And although we affirm against the Pelagians, 
Morbus profundatus & diffusus in totam hominem. Pa●is.  that Original sin (which is a general Vicious quality in the Soul corrupting the whole man) is not derived to us only by imitation; yet as sinful acts proceed from vicious habits, so these from bad inclinations and dispositions, and these ill dispositions are engendered in us and increased by our daily conversation with railing Shimeys and profane Rabshakehs, men that are enemies to God and Godliness. In regard of this great danger by bad 
* See a Story to prove his in Euseb. l. 3. c. 23.  Company, the Holy Ghost ofttimes dissuades us in the Holy 
* Vid. Josh. 23.12, 13. 2 Chron. 19.2. Job 31.3. Ps. 36.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Prov. 1.10. & 4.14.  Scriptures from having fellowship with the ungodly and wicked doers, as Levit. 7.21. Numb. 16.26, etc. Now seeing this sin of swearing is very contagious (for the plague itself, as one says, is not more infectious) let me exhort all men in the words of Saint Paul, 
Eph. 5.7, 8, 9  Eph. 5. Be not therefore companions with Swearers. For ye were once darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord, walk as Children of light. And if by chance thou fallest into the company of such foul-mouthed Ismaelites, 
Ver. 11.  have no fellowship with their unfruitful works of Darkness, but rather reprove them, if there be hope of better fruit or amendment. However, although they be for the most part incorrigible, yet are they sometimes to be reproved with all meekness and lenity, with love and pity, and with reverence or some respect, if they be thy betters or superiors; 
Vid. Job. 31.13.  and that in regard of others, thy equals or inferiors, whose danger and infection may hereby be prevented, whilst they hear another reproved.  
As than you desire to contract neither guilt nor spot from other men's sins, observe these two Rules.  
First, converse not familiarly with Swearers. And,  
Secondly, 
* In hoc te non commaculat malus, si non consentias, si redarguas. Aug.  Partake not with them in their sins by a patiented and silent forbearance, when thou dost hear them profane Gods most holy and sacred Name, but rebuke them friendly and lovingly, with a gentle meekeness. To do which is a precept of the Natural and Moral Law, a general duty of Neighbour towards Neighbour, and a special deed of Charity.  
Lastly, 
The X. Remedy. To consider the heavy judgements of God on Blasphemers.  That this abominable and dangerous sin may fall into a final and total consumption, that it may receive its death's wound, and be wholly abolished in thee, Consider the fearful judgements which in all ages have fallen upon Swearers, and withal the great and many mischiefs which such Blasphemers bring upon the State and Families where they live.  
It is well observed by Hugo upon that of the Psalmist, God spoke once, etc. 
Hugo de Sancto Victore in Ps. 62.11.  That God speaks once to us in this life four manner of ways, Praecipiendo, Prohibendo, Promittendo, Comminando; by commanding, by forbidding, by promising, by threatening: And once more will he speak to us hereafter, when he comes to judge the quick and the dead according to the works they have done in the flesh. Every Judgement which he inflicts now upon particular sinners is a threatening warning-piece to affright and scare others from sinning. And can the blaspheming Swearer, who shares in th● sin, expect not to share with others in 〈◊〉 suffering? 
See many the like examples in Mr. Perkins his small Treatise called The Government of the tongue.  Two Gentlemen of Kent (whom I knew, and forbear to name) being too much addicted to this horrid sin of Swearing, were strucken with Apoplexies, so that for many years they lived (which was but a dying life) and continued Speechless. In whom we cannot but magnify God's Justice in depriving them of the use of their Tongues which they only employed to vent Curse and Oaths. We read of some whose Tongues being before set on fire from Hell (as Saint James speaks) have been inflamed with a strange fire from Heaven; 
Jam. 8.6.  their mouths being scorched with a continual burning heat, which is one of God's fiery Judgements threatened against Swearers, Deut. 28.22. which Chapter he that reads and feareth not an Oath, 
Vid. v. 58, 59, 60.  I may conclude that his heart is hardened. Some have been struck dead with an oath in their mouths; others have been bereft of their senses, and run mad: the former wanting time, the other reason and grace to repent, they are now lamenting themselves, and blaspheming in everlasting torments. 
Et lerumque justo Dei judicio moriens obliviscitur sui, qui dum vixerit fuerit oblitus Dei, Viexmont. lib. De Penitent.  And ofttimes it comes to pass by the just judgement of God, that those men who forget God in their lives, when they come to die, are punished with a stupid kind of oblivion, so that they forget themselves, and for want of repentance, or a deep sight and sense of their transgressions, perish in their sins.  
If the forenamed examples, and many other which might be produced, will not drive thee to Piety or Holiness, from thy lose profaneness, (and methinks they should, for whatever did befall one may befall another) then let the consideration of the State or Family wherein thou dwellest invite or move thee to forsake thy Swearing by a timely care and speedy conversion.  
When I read of the brave Spirits that rested in the ancient Roman breasts, 
Such were the Horatij, Decii, Curtius, etc.  who frequently devoted themselves to death for the good of their Country and Commonweal, I cannot but with pity wonder at the uncharitable thoughts, and most unworthy acts of our common profane Swearers, who do what they can in effect to undo a Kingdom wherein they were born and bred, and withal procure an inevitable ruin and destruction to their own particular Families and Kindred. For if it be most certainly true, that because of Oaths the Land mourneth, Jer. 23.10. as it oft hath done by reason of those two dreadful Judgements, the Sword and Pestilence; then they who are the chief cause of the Lands mourning can be no good subjects, because they sin against the whole Kingdom, rob this Garden of its best Flower, that is, Peace, and bring down upon it showers of Blood. May we not then truly avouch that Swearers are the worst of, Traitors? They commit Treason not only against the K. of Heaven (in that they abuse his most sacred Name, and violate his Person) but also against the King and State, who may truly object to Swearers what Jacob said once to his two Sons, 
Gen. 34. ●0.  Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me; you are those for whose multiplied sins the whole Island is torn with Schisms and Divisions; you are the men that have chief incensed Gods wrath against the Magistrates of this Land, who should have drawn out the sword of Justice against your sins: but because they connived at them and suffered them to go unpunished, 
Vid. Wisd. 6.4, 5, 6. which Texts I wish that all who are in Authority would oft ponder in their thoughts.  therefore they themselves were severely punished; some banished, others imprisoned, and impoverished, being devested of all their means, and degraded from their Authority which they abused, and did not use to God's glory.  
If then there be in you any bowels of pity to the Church & Kingdom wherein you live, any true loyalty to your most gracious King, if you desire (as all good men do) that your Families and Posterity after you be not blasted with a curse; then cleanse your hearts from hypocrisy, and wash your mouths clean from the filthy pollution of his defiling and State-murdering sin: Neither wilfully nor customarily, not falsely nor vainly, not deceitfully nor rashly, but Reverently, and never but when you are forced to it by necessity, use Gods holy and most reverend Name. And let your tongues be evermore the instruments of sounding and setting forth God's praises (by whom you were made, and from whom all the blessings and good things you enjoy are derived:) so may you prevent future Judgements, which do but sleep for the present, and may be awakened by your sins; so may the Sword which is now put into the scabbard rest and be still, 
jer. 47.6.  and be no more drenched or bathed in the blood of this nation; so may you likewise entail a blessing to yourselves and posterity, & after this short life partake of a better, which is everlasting, with God and his holy Angels for ever in glory.  
That the former prescribed Remedies may be the better observed, and for as much as a recidivation or relapse into sin (as into a disease) is both easy and dangerous, to prevent this danger, I shall now prescribe a Diet for the Tongue, when, by God's sanctifying Grace concurring with your sedulous practice of the  Precepts or Remedies, it is cured of the contagious poison of that sin.  

A Diet for the Tongue which hath been accustomed to Swearing.  Being then willing, or altogether cured of that deadly poison of the Tongue (I mean a corrupt and vicious custom of Swearing) beware of a Relapse, which in this case (as in bodily diseases) is very dangerous; for when a man hath tasted the sweetness of God's Mercy in pardoning his sins, and restoring him to health, he must expect, if he returns to his vomit again, and falls into his former sin, to feel the severity of his Justice in punishing him for his daring presumption. For a prevention of this great danger, in your daily conference and conversation with men, put into practice that wholesome admonition of Saint James, Be slow to speak: 
Jam. 1.19.  Never open thy mouth, but shut up thy tongue in silence, unless by thy speech thou mayest benefit thy Neighbour, prevent thine own hurt, and advance God's honour.  

Num. 19.15  The Vessel which wanted a cover, under the Old Law was counted unclean. For either the dust fell into it, which bred Worms and such like Creatures that defiled it; or else if there were put into it any precious or sweet ointment, it presently lost its savour, and was corrupted. In like manner, he that sets not a watch before his lips, by silencing his Tongue so, that it never speaks but to some good purpose, that man (as Saint James attesteth) although he seemeth Religious, 
jam. 1.26.  or makes a profession of Christianity, because he bridleth not his Tongue, he deceives himself, or he hath a deceitful false heart, his Religion is vain, i. e. Nomen sine re, a bare and empty Title without reality. For how can he be thought to be religious, who fears not God with an holy and devout reverence? Neither can he justly be said to fear God, 
Psal. 5.10.  whose Throat is an open Sepulchre, sending forth out of it the noisome stench of cursing, corrupt and filthy communication, lies, and fearful oaths. The guilt of which crying sin that you may avoid, and withal not i'll the fervour of devotion, but preserve it in thy soul, Keep thy mouth with all diligence, remembering that saying of Bonaventure, Si dignum quicquam relatione non habes, 
Bonavent. Spec. Relig. c. 20.  tace; Tutius & humilius audis quam loqueris: i. e. Keep silence if thou canst utter nothing worthy to be heard by the judicious and pious Christian; If it be so, thou mayest with more safety and a greater esteem for thy humility listen to another's discourse, then vent any thing of thine own which is light and frivolous▪ Remember also that dreadful admonition of our Saviour, Mat. 12.36. Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof at the day of judgement. Now▪ that is an idle word in the opinion of Saint Hierom, which is spoken sine utilitate loquentis aut audientis, which redounds neither to the good of the Speaker, nor profit of the Hearer; much more is that which tends to the hurt of either. Therefore be not hasty to utter any thing with thy Tongue, so shalt thou free thyself from the guilt of many a sin, chief that of Swearing.  

Nescit poenitenda loqui qui proferenda justo prius tradidit examini. Casaiod. l. 10.  Secondly, be circumspect in speaking. Nescit poenitenda loqui, etc. says Cassiodore, That man will never repent of what he hath said, who weighs his words in the balance of Discretion before they be uttered. Evermore consider, what thou speakest, and before whom, ordering thy words so with Wisdom and Prudence, that thou offend not God (who is an earwitness of thy words) either by contradicting the Truth, or persuading others to a belief of what is false. Often call to mind that saying of S. 
Cyril. 11. Caetheches.  Cyril, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. God hath a Book of Remembrance, he sits and writes down in it thy oaths, thy perjuries, thy blasphemous and idle words, for which he will call thee to a severe account at the great day of Judgement. Therefore (as I before exhorted) consider always as what, so before whom thou speakest, even in the sight and audience of God, who will one day be your Judge; 
Dr. Parisiensis.  Cujus praesentia est impraevisibilis, potentia infallibilis, Justitia inflexibilis, & iracurdia implacabilis, who may surprise thee unawares (even in the very act of sinning) by his grim Bailiff Death, whose Power too is infallible, for none can escape it; his Justice inflexible, for it may not be corrupted; as his Anger against the ungodly sinners is implacable, and hardly to be appeased.  
He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life, 
Prov. 13.3.  and he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction. But he that never openeth his mouth but to the glory of God, either by praising, or praying unto him (whereby he declares his belief in the excellency of God's Omnipotency, Goodness, Truth, and Omnisciency) or for his Neighbour's edification and good, (as Saint Paul exhorts us to, Eph. 4.29.) that man shall lift up his head with cheerfulness in the day of Judgement before the dreadful Tribunal of God, and by his words he shall be justified: i. e. For that he glorified God with his Tongue in his life, he shall be pronounced just and righteous in the audience of the Saints and Angels, and for the merits of Christ (for whose sake his good works are accepted, and his imperfections pardoned) he shall receive the reward of the righteous, and be glorified both in body and soul. The Body with all the parts of it shall be beautified with Clearness, Impassibility, Subtlety, and Agi●y: for it being most transparently bright and glorious, it shall move wheresoever the Soul (than wholly guided by God's Spirit) shall command it; it shall move as nimbly as a small Fish in the water, without any resistance or hindrance, nay, with far greater agility. The Soul shall be adorned and beautified with more excellent perfections than our first Parents were before their fall in Paradise. For the Understanding shall be freed from all error, in it shall be light without any the least mist of darkness, it shall be filled with wisdom and knowledge in an high degree without any spot of ignorance: The Memory purged from all possibility of forgetfulness: The Will redeemed from its natural pravity and perverseness, whilst it is only fixed by Love upon God Almighty's goodness. If every part of man expects to be thus glorified by God, it is good reason that 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Naz.  every part should glorify Him. For this is the tribute they own to their Creator, as every good Subject oweth Loyalty to his King. This is the service they must pay for their Redemption. God made all the parts of the body, Christ Redeemed all, I mean, every part and faculty both of Soul and Body: therefore God must be served by all. The Heart or Soul must not say to the Hands, Serve ye Him, for the Heart must be like that of the blessed Virgin, Luke 1.46. it must by thanksgiving magnify the Lord, and rejoice (with faith and love) in God its Saviour. Neither must the Hands say to the Eyes, Serve ye Him, for the hands must be ever stretched out to God in Prayer (as David witnesseth his were, Psal. 88.9.) and extended often by a liberal contribution to the poor. Neither must the Eyes say unto the Feet, Serve ye Him, for they must be ever looking towards the Lord, as the Prophet david's were, Psal. 25.15. 
Psal. 121.1.123.1, 2.141.8.  Neither must the Ears say unto the Tongue, Serve thou Him, for they must be presented or offered unto God in Sacrifice; and they are then offered by thee, when thou canst say with Samuel, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth; 
1 Sam. 3.9.  thereby testifying thy willing obedience and cheerful attention to his holy Word, either read in private, or publicly preached. (As the Lord looks down from Heaven, 
Speculator adest desuper Qui nos diebus omnibus Actusque nostros prospicit, A luce primâ ad vesperam. Prudent.  Psal. 14.2. and his eyes are over the Righteous, the eye of his Mercy, and the eye of his Providence, to protect their persons, and to help them in their distress; and as his Ears are open to their Prayers: so the eyes of the Righteous must ever look up to Heaven, and their ears never be stopped, but always open to God's Commands in his Word published by the voice of his Ministers.) Neither, lastly, must the Feet say to the rest of the Members, God has no need of us, for these too must be offered up to God as a lively Sacrifice, 
Psal. 1.1.  by not standing in the way of sinners, i. e. by not frequenting of scandalous and base houses, but carrying thee to Church, to the Congregation of God's Saints, so oft as thou art able and the Laws of the Church require. Then mayest thou truly say with the Prophet David, Psal. 26.12. My foot standeth right (i. e. I have not wilfully swerved from the path of God's Commandments) in the Congregation I will praise the Lord. This is done by the Tongue, which amidst the other Members of the body must not be defective or wanting to its service and duty, being the only and chief Instrument ordained by God to celebrate his Name, to set forth his Glory, and to proclaim his Praise. And it discharges this Office when it expresseth and publisheth with joyful lips the goodness and greatness of its Maker, for Spiritual and Corporal, for Temporal and Eternal, (all undeserved) Mercies.  
When the Tongue ceases to do this, it is then peccant and deficient in its proper and prime Office: Et infans sit necesse est qui divina proloqui non potest, 
Lactant. l. 4 c. 26.  isque verè elinguis & mutus est habendus, ut sit omnium disertissimus. And he is to be reputed a mere infant in Religion, whose chief discourse is not of God, and of his glorious works of Creation and Providence, and may be said to be Dumb and Speechless, although in a Worldly respect he hath a most Eloquent Tongue, and polite language.  
That then thou mayest praise God with thy Tongue, and abstain wholly from profaning his glorious Name, this shall be my last prescript for thy Tongue's Diet, wherewith I shall conclude, and whereby thou mayest, if thou strictly observest it, put an end to thy inveterate and foul Custom of Swearing. It is only this, Speak not much, use not many words in thy daily and ordinary discourse. 
Hippocr. Aphor. 8. Sect. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  I remember that Hypocrates in his Aphorisms reckons this amongst his many fatal or infallible signs of Death, if the sick party having lost his hearing and understanding prattleth and talketh he knows not what. And truly we may conclude that man to be void of the life of grace, i. e. to want the knowledge and fear of God, who, like to those, Psal. 12.4. assumes to himself a bold Liberty of speaking when he lists, and what he pleases, behaving himself in the mean time like one that is deaf, when he should modestly yield turns of Speech to those that are wiser, and more able for discourse. Let me bespeak such a Battus or Babbler in the words of a wise Counsellor, famous for his Christianlike Resolves, Go to the Crane, thou Prater, read her Story, and let her inform thee, who flying out of Sicily, puts little stones in her mouth or beak, lest by her own obstreperousness she bewray herself, and become a prey to the Eagles of mount Taurus, the which by this kind of policy she flies over with safety. 
* Hence is that saying of the Jews, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si locutio argentum, silentium Aurum, Buxtorf.  Silence every where or in all places is a man's safeguard, and a sure fence, not to be broke through either by envy or malice.  
As to speak too much argues folly, and too little an unperceiving or dull stupidity; so it is Wisdoms proper Character in discourse to be free from babbling garrulity; A worthy act hath he done who hath learned to bridle his Tongue; and surely much evil and mischief hath he prevented who knows rightly where to speak and where to be silent. 
Lib. 2. c. 20.  Ruffinus records of Apollinaris Bishop of Laodicea (who gloried in the quickness of his wit, and delighted to contradict every thing that he heard) that at last through much contention of strife of words he turned Heretic, Ex contentione haeresin generavit. True is that of the Wise man, Prov. 10.19. In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise. For, a wise man will hold his tongue till he see an opportunity, Ecclus. 20.7. and when he opens his mouth, it shall be to some purpose, and sparingly. If we talk with fools, many words are too much; if with a wise man, a few are enough. Verbum Sapienti, it is a common rule. Non multis opus est verbis, sed paucis & efficacibus, it is Seneca's advice in one of his Epistles. There is no use of many words, 
Lib. 5. Epist. 38. Ep.  but of those rather which are few and efficacious, which are good (as the Apostle speaks) to the use of edifying, 
Eph. 4.25.  and may minister grace to the hearers, or conduce to their progress or increase in Piety and Goodness. The heart of fools is in their mouth, 
Ecclus 21.26.  but the mouth of the wise is in their heart (says that wise son of Sirach.) Fool's when they open their mouths to speak, they pour out all that is hid in the inward corners or remote recesses of their hearts: But a wise man utters nothing from his mouth, but what out of a mature Judgement he hath concluded and determined fit to be spoke. The 
* Hom. Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Poet tell us of one Thersites, that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a prating fellow, and withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a very knave, Dedecus & Carcinoma Graeci exercitus, and likewise hateful to Achilles and Ulysses, who did detest and abhor him: whence Plutarch infers, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ibid.  it argues an height of villainy or wickedness when one is hated by good men. From this remarkable passage of the Poet, the Prince of Poets, we may infer this, that he that talks much, as he makes himself odious to men, so he must needs be burdened with the weight and guilt of many a sin, of many a lie; neither can he, if he be a frequent Swearer, escape the danger of Perjury. Therefore, let thy words be few, Eccles. 5.2. We commonly say, that words are but wind: Be not deceived, they are such a wind, that (if they be not well ordered) may blow your Souls to Hell, that fiery Haven of the wicked. Therefore make not light of thy words: be as sparing of them as an Earthworm, a covetous Euchlio, a Miser is of his Gold, which he keeps under lock and key, suffers not the light to peep into his Coffers, fearing lest it should show a way to another to enter into them, and never spends a penny unless he be pinched with extremity, and forced to it by the commanding Law of Necessity, which sometimes he basely breaks, robbing his own back of clothing, and starving his pined belly. Even so keep thou the treasure of thy heart, thy thoughts and intentions, which are shut up and stored in it; seldom vent them by thy speech, unless it be to the praise of God, or thy neighbours good.  
Thus if thou dost fence and guard thy mouth with the wall of silence, Muro silentii (as Saint Gregory expresseth it) I mean moderation and deliberation in thy speech, thou shalt procure to thyself reputation, Nec pateblt inimici jaculis civitas mentis (as he says) Thy 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Chrysost. Hom. 14. ad Pop. Antioch.  Soul also within thee shall be as an impregnable Fort or City secured from the shot and invasion of its enemies: It shall (as hath been formerly said) be kept and preserved from the stain and pollution of many crying sins, which defile and waste the consciences of those that are given to much idle talking; such are Swearing, Lying, Blasphemy, and corrupt communication, which we must with disdain eject and spit out of our mouths in an holy scorn and indignation, as not becoming God's Saints, his Sons and Servants. We are his Sons by the grace of Adoption, let us then out of a filial love observe his commands; Swear not: we are his Servants, and he our Lord, let us therefore serve him with an awful fear and reverence, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life, giving him the honour due unto his Name, as holy David exhorts, Psal. 29.2. which we may do by worshipping him with an holy worship, as it is expressed in the subsequent or following words of that Text, when we humbly submit our Souls and Bodies to God in prayer, acknowledging our Spiritual wants, also confessing our sins, and unworthiness to receive any of the least of his blessings and benefits, and rendering him most hearty thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom, with God the Father, and the Holy Ghost, three Persons, yet but one Almighty, most merciful, and everlasting God, be ascribed by all people, in these and other parts of the world, Thanksgiving and Praise, all Honour and Dominion for ever and ever. Amen.  
For a close of all that hath been said, and for the better observation of our Saviour's injunction or precept, I shall commend to all profane Swearers that good & profitable advice of S. Chrysostom, who, when the City of Antioch where he lived was visited with the Plague, did frequently and bitterly inveigh against this horrid sin of Swearing, as being the productive cause, as of other Judgements, so of that heavy and fearful Visitation. Amidst his many and sharp Invectives against it, we find this useful admonition Homil. 14. add Pop. Antiochen.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Which for the more delight and profit of the unlearned, I have translated into Verse, retaining the full sense and meaning of the words.  
In the morning,  
When sleep is parted from thine eyes,  
And thou from bed beginnest to rise,  
Let no thought enter thy heart's room  
Till Christ into it first be come.  
Before thou goest out of thy door  
Meditate oft, and give not o'er  
To ruminate on Christ's command,  
Swear not at all. This may stand  
To thee in stead of a Sermon.  
If thou Swearest not, my work is done.  

A Prayer to the Holy, Blessed, and Undivided Trinity for a Blessing on it.  
MOst Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God, who in the Unity of a most glorious Trinity art for ever to be worshipped and glorified, whose mercy is infinite, and whose power illimited, (who canst ordain even the mouths of Babes to be Instruments of setting forth thy praise, Grant, I humbly beseech Thee, that as this work was begun, continued, and ended by thy Grace, so it may tend to thy Glory, by the conversion of some poor sinful Souls unto Thee, who livest and reignest in the highest Heavens, and governest all things both in Heaven and Earth. O do thou so rule the hearts of all the people of this Land, that they may truly fear Thee, and honour their most gracious King, paying Him that Tribute of Loyalty and Subjection which is due unto Him, and live amongst themselves like brethren knit together in the bond of Love, Unity and Concord, jointly praising Thee, and glorifying Thy Name. Grant this, O Heavenly Father, for thy mercy's sake, and for the merits of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, our only Advocates, and sole Redeemer. Amen.    

A Brief APPENDIX Concerning The nature of a Promissory and Assertory Oath in reference to the Statutes to which we are sworn in both the UNIVERSITIES.  
ALthough the words of a Promissory Oath are for the most part to be strictly taken, as they import, not admitting those larger explications which ofttimes take place in Deeds and Contracts; yet let me add a few considerations for the satisfaction of the tender Consciences of those that have sworn, or shall hereafter swear to observe the Statutes of any College in either of the two famous Universities.  
First, by reason that the matter of a Promissory Oath (viz. something to be done by us de futuro, or for the time to come) is, in regard of the uncertainty of event, subject to mutation and variety, hence it comes to pass that the Obligation (which follows upon such an Oath by which the Jurer has bound himself for the future to perform what he hath promised) is mutable and separable from that Oath: and this is called by the Casuists Solutio vinculi, the loosening of the bond wherewith we were once tied. He is a perjured man, who intends not, in taking of an Oath, to perform what he hath promised by it; but he is not always perjured that performs not what he has bound himself to by a solemn promise. Non omnis qui aliter facit quam promisit in dolo jurat, Aqui. 2.2. Qu. 2.  
Secondly, consider that in an Oath there are to be understood those 
* Juramenta quae vel explicitam vel subintellectam habent conditionem non obligantubi conditio deest, quia juramentum ex conditione pendet, Rivet. in explicat. Decal. p. 90.  conditions, which (through the received use and custom that sway and prevail with men) are presumed to be conceived and understood of those whom the Oath concerns.  
As first, in all Promissory Oaths this condition is ever to be understood, Si placuerit Deo, i. e. if it be not against the express Word, or hidden will of God, which afterwards, before the Oath can be performed, may manifest and discover itself in some unexpected event. In this case a man that hath promised by Oath to do such or such a thing upon such a day, if he be prevented by sickness, or death, which is God's messenger, 
Illud pro facto reputat Deus quod quidem homo vere voluit, sed non valuit, adimplere. Bern.  and brings with it Gods non placet for the performance of the Deed; in such a case, I say, a man is not forsworn. Neither is he who having sworn to do a thing, doth it not, finding it afterwards to be against the written word of God. Because his intent and purpose was at first bend upon the performance, which had been fully executed, if God had not forbid, and so prevented the fact. Verba juramenti promittentis in futurum tempus concepta veritatem suam aut falsitatem non habent ex eventu, qui est incertus, sed ex animo Jurantis. Grot. in 5. Mat. v. 33.  
Thirdly, he that swears to keep the Statutes of any Incorporation, Society, or College, is to be understood to oblige himself by Oath upon no other condition but this, To observe those Statutes which are approved of by the frequent custom and use of others (the most and best) and according to that interpretation which the judgement of his Superiors or Governors hath set upon some Statutes, which are obscure, and admit of a double meaning or sense.  
He that shall do otherwise, i. e. He that shall punctually observe old Statutes worn out of use by Time or Age, may discover a fond love of Antiquity and too much Preciseness. And he that in doubtful cases will not submit to the grave judgements of his Superiors, 
Cum enim Inferiores suis Superioribus multa debeant exhibere, hoc est unum principal, quod teneantur eorum praceptis obedire. Aqui. 2.2.104. Q.  may fall upon another Rock of Novelty and Disobedience, and break the peace of a well-setled government in a College.  
Lastly, because many of the University and College Statutes (which tend to Order and Peace) have a penalty annexed unto them in case of Neglect or Disobedience, I cannot omit to add or subjoin this for the better maintaining of Discipline and a peaceable order in Societies, That a wilful and constant breach of a penal Law or Statute will not quit a man from the guilt of Perjury, although he submit to the mulct or punishment. For, Obedience was first or primarily intended by the Lawgiver or Statute-maker, our Active Obedience, which we ought with all care and circumspective diligence to perform and yield to our Statutes. The mulct or punishment was annexed to them as a Spur to quicken our Obedience, and to fright us from sloth and a supine Negligence. As the flaming Sword was placed by God in the Eastern part of Paradise, 
Gen. 3.24. Vid Aquin. 1.2. Q. 95. Art. 1.  to guard the way or passage to the Tree of life, that none should eat of it; so the Mulct is set or affixed to the Statute that it may be the Better kept.  
However, if through any frailty or weakness of body, if through incogitancy, want of due care, drowsiness, ignorance, or the like accidental infirmities, one chance to omit his duty, if then he willingly submit to the penalty, he satisfies the Threatening, though not the Commanding will of the Lawgiver, or maker of the Statute, & is free from perjury; from the dreadful guilt whereof a constant and wilful neglect or disobedience (although you are punished) will not quit thee.  
The former Conclusion or Thesis, viz. That although a man submit to the mulct he is perjured, if he lives in a constant and wilful breach of a penal Law or Statute, may be proved and strengthened by many undeniable Arguments.  
As first, from the nature of a Law or Statute, whose end is bonum communitatis, 
Aquin. 1.2. Q. 92. Art. 1. Proprius legis effectus est homines vel secundum quid vel simpliciter bonos efficere.  the good of a Commonwealth, or the advancement of a Society in order, peace, and piety. Now if our submitting to the mulct were a fulfilling of the Statute, few or none (except those who are more gracious) would obey, but rather suffer in their (or rather their Friends) purses: By which means these great and sad inconveniences would follow. As first, innocent persons would then ofttimes suffer, the Parent for the Son's default (he being forced to defray the mulct.) This is inconsistent with the nature of Justice, which is the soul of a Law, and the life of all Statutes.  
Secondly, this ill would not redound only to Scholars Friends (some of whom may be poor and necessitous) but a greater mischief also would befall the College wherein they live, and have their breeding and maintenance. Ordo est Vniversi bonum, Order is that Basis on which depends the good of the whole Universe, the World; and it is Order that maintains the well-being of the University, and in it of each particular College or Society. Now what Order would there be (nay rather what Confusion) if Students might act their own wills, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. Chrys.  do what they list, and obey the Dictates of their vicious fancies? And I fear there are too many (such is the corruption of our depraved natures) who would rather live at ease, hid their heads, and fail in the performance of their courses in all Exercises and other duties, 
Infirmitas pucrorum est, & ferocitas juvenum— Cic. de Senect.  and rather suffer in the purse, then expose themselves to the censure of judicious Auditors, and macerate their bodies with labour and pains. This would many do, and this disorder, together with impiety and looseness, would slain the beauty of our now flourishing and well-ordered Universities, if the sustaining of the mulct alone were the fulfilling of the Statutes. But can we imagine that sloth and profaneness were intended by the Founders of our Colleges? Therefore our Active Obedience to the Statutes is principally enjoined; This (as I said before) is primarily intended, and to this in taking of Oaths we are chief obliged.  
Secondly, The former Thesis may be proved from the nature or quality of most or many of our penal Statutes, which require a doubling and trebling of the mulct, until the duty be actually performed.  
Thirdly, though there be a disjunction in the words of a penal Statute, yet there is none in the Oath. For we swear absolutely without a distinction or disjunction to observe and keep (to the utmost of our power) the Statutes according to their chief intent and purpose, and that is an Active Obedience, and real performance; this is chief by and in them intended. We promise by Oath to endeavour (laying aside all subterfuges) to do what the Statutes command, and for example sake, in terrorem cateris, that others may avoid the like offence, to suffer willingly, in case we fail through any unwilful neglect in the performance of our duty which is commanded.  
Fourthly, to maintain that the wilful and constant breach of a Statute, and the submitting to the imposed mulct is a fulfilling of it, is in my opinion (which I humbly submit to better judgements) as absurd, as to say, that the Reprobate and wicked miscreants in Hell fulfil God's Law by suffering eternal pains as a punishment for their disobedience: Or that a Thief is a good subject for stealing, and then for submitting to the condemning power of the Law, by suffering death upon a Gibbet. The truth therefore of my forenamed Thesis being built or grounded upon these four Reasons will, I hope, appear unquestionable to the judicious.  
To conclude, because it is a dangerous and fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, into the hands of his incensed Justice, and because the concomitant of a strict obedience is a quiet Conscience; that we may escape the wrath of an angry Deity, and enjoy that blessing of all blessings, viZ. Peace of Conscience; which surpasses all the riches in the world, and passeth all understanding (as is implied in our Churches Liturgical Benediction) let me in the name and fear of God exhort all Academics to weigh with their most serious thoughts these two particulars of great moment and consequence, conducing to the preservation of that blessed peace.  
First, let them consider that they have promised de futuro sub juramento to keep such and such Statutes, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Pythag. in aur. Carm.  to perform such and such duties which are intimated in several Scripts or Papers read to several Graduates, to which they oblige themselves under a Curse. Sicut me Deus adjuvet, etc. (which is the close of the Oath implies as much.  
Secondly, out of a great love and tenderness to their Souls peace I hearty advise them to consider what they then at the taking of their degrees assert de praeterito, and that too sub juramento. They assert, that they have performed all duties required before the taking of their Degrees: which if they have done in Tanto, though not in Toto, to the utmost of their power and ability faithfully, though not fully (for which defect they have a gracious dispensation from the University) they then fall not under the heavy weight of Perjury. For the guilt of which in respect of our Promissory and Assertory Oaths, which have been I fear too much neglected and slighted, for this the two Sister-Vniversities have been in their mourning weeds, Destruction and Desolation having entered into our Walls, (which by God's wonderful mercy and providence in restoring our most gracious King unto us are repaied with the restauration of Learning and Gods public Service.) And for dallying with these Oaths many a poor Soul hath (I am persuaded) many a year after the violating of them, been tortured upon the rack of a wounded Conscience. However the Oaths themselves are not to be condemned for this, as some have formerly out of the Pulpit fond declared, (discovering herein an Anabaptistical Spirit) but rather the Jurers careless negligence, who wilfully and contemptuously slighting our Statutes, seldom or never prove good Christians and Subjects, but live and die with perplexed Spirits, and in a Schismatical disobedience, ever rebelling against the Laws and Constitutions of their Superiors.  
The Lord keep us all in Love and Unity, in Peace and Concord, in Obedience to our most Religious King and the Church's Laws, and let us ever be mindful of our Oaths, Vows, and Promises. So shall we be at peace with God, and have peace in ourselves, the peace of a quiet Conscience, which brings Heaven down into the Soul, and is (as Hugo calls it) Hortus deliciarum, 
Lib. de Anima.  a Garden of delightful pleasures, the only Paradise.   

A SYNOPSIS, OR Sum of what is contained in the former Treatise, Comprising these ten Heads or Generals.  
1. AN Introduction, wherein is showed the ground of our Saviour's Pohibition, Swear not. The ground of it was the Pharisees corrupting of the third Commandment with their false Gloss.  
2. An explication of the Prohibition, Swear not, i. e. not 

Falsely.  
Rashly.  
Unjustly.   And therein a Demonstration when, how, and in what cases we may swear: wherein is contained a brief confutation of the Anabaptists.  
3. A Refutation of the Papists gross assertion, maintaining it lawful to Swear by the Creature: this drawn from the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, at all, Swear not at all. Herein likewise is discovered both the Original and Absurdity of their Opinion.  
4. Reasons of the Prohibition, Swear not, which are three: because to swear in the forenamed manner is, 

1. Injurious to God, and that because it implies a contempt of his 

Person &  
Precept.    
2. Hurtful to ourselves.  
3. Scandalous to our Neighbours.    
5. A Preparative to the Cure or Remedy of this great sin of Swearing. It consists in Repentance or an hearty Sorrow for it, and other sins past, by which the Conscience is defiled.  
6. The method to be used in the Cure of it; we must begin with the heart: and herein is explained what is meant by the Heart, and how it may be cured.  
7. The Cure itself, or Remedies against Swearing, which are ten.  

1. The fear of God. Herein is showed what it is, and by what means engendered in the heart; chief by reading of God's Judgements denounced in his Word against Swearers.  
2. A Resolution or firm purpose by the assistance of Gods grace not to swear for certain days. This resolution to be obtained and strengthened by 

Prayer,  
Fasting, and  
Alms to the poor.    
3. The consideration of the great indignity is done to Almighty God, when we rashly and frequently take his name in vain.  
4. The consideration of the brute Beasts, whose gratitude to their owners and benefactors upbraids man's disobedience to his Maker's Laws, and his unthankfulness to God for his manifold benefits.  
5. The consideration of what God requires only of us for his blessings: it is 

Honour and  
Praise.    
6. To speak nothing but what is 

Necessary to be spoken.  
Profitable to be heard.    
7. To bridle our Passions, chief that of Anger, the cause of as many other sins, so especially that of Swearing.  
8. To avoid Drunkenness, and to be lovers of Temperance.  
9 To shun the Company and Society of those that are given to Swearing.  
10. To consider the manifold and great miseries such blasphemers bring upon the Kingdom, Places, and Families wherein they live.   
8. A Diet for the Tongue being cured, consisting in these three things: 

1. To be slow to speak.  
2. To be circumspect in speaking.  
3. To use few words when we speak.    
9 The benefit that will redound to us by observing this Religious Diet, which is twofold. If we respect, First, our bodily Estate, we procure to ourselves hereby reputation and peace. Secondly, if we respect our Souls health, hereby we shall free it from the guilt of many a sin.  
10. The Conclusion of all, comprising an exhortation to this duty of not Swearing, in regard that we are 

Gods Saints elected.  
His Sons adopted.  
His Servants redeemed by the blood of his Son Christ Jesus.    
Therefore in all and for all God is to be glorified by us, which is chief done by Invocation and Thanksgiving, the two parts of Prayer, and the Christians best Sacrifice.  

A Prayer To be used by one that is addicted to the Sin of Swearing.  
O Eternal, Omnipotent Lord God, who in thyself art the fullness and perfection of Glory and Happiness, who needest no Tongue to praise thee, no Pen to express thee, and no Work to magnify thy Greatness, before whose glorious Name (that is, 
* Vid. Psal. 20.1. Rom. 10.13  thyself, an infinitely Great and Glorious God) Angels and Arch-Angels bow with an humble, lowly, dejected reverence; to which thy blessed Spirits and Saints of thy Triumphant Church sing perpetual Hallelujahs, 
Rev. 19.1.  so that Heaven rings and resounds with their Hymns & Praises; I, a poor sprig of disobedient Adam, who am as vile as sin can make me, and deserve what curse thy wrath can lay upon me, do here presume to take thy holy Name into my defiled lips, that Name which I have dishonoured in my words, disparaged in my thoughts, and profaned in my actions: yet knowing that thou art a jealous God and a consuming fire, burning with love to a poor humble sinner, and believing that as thou art fearful in thy Judgements, so faithful in thy promises, I fly upon the wings of this Faith from mount Ebal to mount Gerizim, 
Deut. 11.29  from the dreadful Name Jehovah, which I have abused, to that gracious Name of Jesus, wherein thou art well pleased. In that most sweet and soul-refreshing Name, O God, I present my supplications unto thee, beseeching thee not to remember what I have said or done, but what my Saviour hath suffered for me in his Agony and bitter Passion. O let his bloody sweat anoint my bleeding wounds; and accept of his death as a full satisfaction to thy Justice for my sins. Cleanse thou my heart, O God, from the stain of this bosom-darling-sin; whose custom begun with a wanton imitation, and being continued with an habitual presumption, had almost taken out of my guilty Soul a sense of it, and of thy displeasure against it.  
O my God, now that I have begun to have a taste and sight of the foulness and danger of my crying sin, afford me, I beseech thee, that measure of thy Grace which may work in my heart a fear of thy displeasure, and beget in me an awful reverence of thy Name. Let all my communication be ordered as in thy presence; let thy Holy Spirit govern the words of my mouth; and so sanctify my thoughts with the continual meditation of thy Commandments, and of those fearful plagues which thy word denounceth against Swearers, that I may be ever hereafter of the number of those thy servants who sanctify the Lord in their Hearts, 
1 Pet. 5.15.  who love and fear thee above all things in Heaven and Earth, who delight with trust and affiance in thee above all worldly stays and comforts, and praise thee evermore with joyful lips.  
Lord, I desire to praise thee; O heighten these desires: I resolve (by thy assistance) no more to blaspheme thee; O strengthen this good resolution for the time to come, and avert those judgements from me which thy word hath threatened, and my sin, my black and filthy sin, hath deserved. And mortify all those unruly passions which provoke me to offend thy Goodness; especially that of Anger, which, if immoderate and carried on with precipitate rashness, benights the Soul, darkens Reason, and hurries a man to the acting of those things that displease thee. Therefore, dear God, kill this Fury in me, and leave only so much life in it as to be zealous for thy Glory.  
Quicken my Soul with faith in thy promises, inflame my affections with love of thee for thy mercies, fill my mouth with prayers to thee, and praises, and crown my weak desires of praising thee, with the all-sufficient power and strength of thy Grace; that glorifying thy Name with my Tongue, and by an holy conversation, I may escape that vengeance which thy Justice threatens against my sin here, and obtain that happiness which thy mercy hath promised hereafter.  
Lord, grant these my requests for the merits of thy Son Christ Jesus, in whose Name and Prayer, sanctified with his sacred lips, I beg these mercies, and whatsoever else thou knowest requisite for me and for thy Church, saying, Our Father, etc.   

A Prayer For the whole Kingdom.  
MOst glorious Lord God, who delightest not in the death of one single sinner, nor takest pleasure in the destruction of any Creature, thou great and mighty God, 
Jer. 32.18.  whose name is the Lord of Hosts, who rulest over all, and governest all things in Heaven and Earth, look down, I humbly pray thee, from the Throne of thy Glory, and behold this sinful Kingdom, wherein we live, with an eye of mercy and pity. Thy goodness and bounty, O Lord, have displayed themselves to us in many great and undeserved National mercies, by restoring to us our most gracious King, and Him to His Royal Dignities, and redeeming thy Church from that Disorder and Confusion, by means of proud and unquiet men, whicn threatened our utter ruin and vastation: for so great deliverances we are obliged to make returns unto thee of a thankful obedience, by reforming our sinful lives, and obeying thy commands. But we, as if we had forgot what thou hast done for us, have done nothing for thee, but rather much against thee, by rebelling against thy word, by resisting thy holy will, by abusing thy Creatures through our wanton excess, by profaning thy Sabbaths, and blaspheming thy most sacred Name, which ought to be ever hallowed and had in an awful reverence by us. These are our National, personal, crying sins, which, like so many infectious Vapours, have mounted up to Heaven, and, being condensed into a thick Cloud of Vengeance, are ready to fall down once more, and bring thy heavy judgements on us. But, O holy and most just God, spare and deliver us from the guilt and power of our sins and inbred corruptions. Let not, O let not thy Justice be magnified in our confusion; but let thy Mercy be glorified in our Salvation and deliverance. Remove thy judgements from us, continue thy mercies to us, increase thy graces in us, that this whole Nation may, with thankful lips, and by the holiness of their reformed lives, glorify Thee, our God, who hast so wonderfully redeemed us from the hands of unmerciful, bloody men, and rescued us out of all our wasting miseries. And so rule and govern the Hearts and Tongues of all profane Swearers, that they may (as it becometh Christians, who profess thy Name and Truth) both by their words and works advance thy glory, and publish thy praises. These blessings, O most gracious God, (with the preservation of our most Religious King and Queen, with the rest of the Royal Family) vouchsafe unto us for thy mercy's sake, and for the merits of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus. Amen.    

A Catalogue or List of God's Judgements upon Blasphemers and others, viz. Cursers and Perjured persons.  
ALthough God's Judgements are sometimes like the writing upon the wall, 
Dan. 5.25.  which was a Missive of his Anger upon Belshazzar, and came upon an errand of Revenge, which none could read and unriddle but a Prophet; although they be many times wrapped up in a Cloud of obscurity and darkness, in that he punisheth for ends and reasons oft unknown unto us: However we must assert and say with St. Augustine, Judicia Dei occulta sint, sed semper justa; Gods Judgements may be hid (as to the reason of them) to the dim eye of our narrow understanding, yet they are ever grounded upon the foundation of Equity, they are always just. 
Nch. 9.33.  They are his forked arrows feathered with Zele of his glory, and headed with his anger and love; for when they are shot out of the Bow of his Justice by the hand of provoked Mercy, that guides the string, they are ever directed against the face of Sin, either to prevent or cure it, to work in us humility, to make us go out of ourselves, and to rest in him the Centre of our felicity.  

Mich. 6 9 Hear the rod, etc.  They are his voice from Heaven, whereby he speaks unto us in a visible word; and we then understand well the meaning of it, when every such like voice leads us to repentance, and works in us a reformation of our lives.  
Many men have been brought to Heaven by the gates of Hell, and many have been scared from their sins, when they beheld the hand of God's incensed Justice fall heavy upon others stained with the guilt of the same impieties; which Hand, striking one, has ever a Finger stretched forth and pointing at another. This many in all Ages have beheld (as it were) and discerned by the help of Gods enlightening Grace, so that they have been raised to an holy life by other men's falls, and gained by their losses, being healed by the sight of their wounds, and built up to Heaven by their ruins. So powerful are Examples above Precepts. These usually lightly affect the ear, and by it seldom enter into the heart of the hearer; the other by a more violent force and energy work upon it through the eye, 
Judg. 4.21.  and are like Jael with her hammer and nail: as she by these killed Sisera in the head, (which they pierced;) so those strike sin at the very heart, begetting in men an awful dread and fear of God, by ●●…om they behold others severely punished, and hence conclude, that as God himself is, so his Justice is immutable, and will not be bribed to spare them, if they continue in those sins for which he hath inflicted some heavy Judgements on others.  
That the fear of God (with an amendment of their lives) may be thus engendered in men's hearts, who are profane and lose in their manners, I have thought it very convenient to add to my foregoing Precepts in my Treatise, more examples of Gods severe wrath against three sorts of heinous sinners, viz. 

Perjured persons,  
Cursers, and  
Blasphemers.    

3. Examples of Judgements upon Perjured persons, who have broken their Oaths by not keeping their promises which they have solemnly made to others.  
1. To omit the stories of perjured Kings in the Holy Scriptures, and their heavy punishments, of which I have given the Reader a short account in my Treatise; I'll begin with that famous story of Vladislaus King of Hungary, who, 
Vid. Bon●in. Hist. Hung.  contrary to the Articles of Peace agreed upon and sworn to between him and Amurathes the Turk, set upon the Turkish Army that was secure, and misdoubted nothing: upon which there grew a long and sharp Battle, till Amurathes perceiving his side to decline, and almost overcome, pulled out of his bosom the aforesaid Articles of agreement, and lifting up his eyes to Heaven uttered these words; O jesus Christ, if thou be'st a God, as they say thou art, revenge this injury which is done both to thee and me, and punish those Truce-breaking Varlets who call themselves by thy name, Christians. He had scarce ended his speech but the Christians courage began to rebate, the battle lost, Vladislaus was himself slain by the janissaries, his whole Army discomfited, and all his Soldiers put to the sword. A just and rigorous judgement of God for that vile Treachery and Perjury, which was by that Hungarian King committed.  
2. We read in that noted Book called The Theatre of God's Judgements, (which I wish were oft perused by wicked men next to the sacred Scriptures) we find there p. 12●. a story of a lewd Fellow, that hearing Perjury condemned in a Pulpit by a learned Preacher, and how it never escaped unpunished, said in a bravery, I have oft forsworn myself, and yet my right hand is not a whit shorter than my left Which words he had scarce uttered, when such an inflammation arose in that hand, that he was constrained to go to the Chirurgeon to cut it off, lest it should infect his whole body. And so his right hand became shorter than his left, in recompense of his perjury of which he lightly esteemed.  
3. Gregorius Turonicus, Bishop of Tours, makes mention in his Book de gloriâ Confessorum, of a wicked Villainy in France, among the people called Averni, that forswearing himself in an unjust cause, had his tongue so presently tied by the hand of divine Justice, that he could not speak a word, but only roaring make an hideous noise; and so continued a long time, till by the earnest prayers of devout men, and after his hearty sorrow for his heinous sin, the use of that unruly Member was restored to him again.   

3. Examples of God's Judgements upon Cursers.  
1. Luther in his Colloquies reports of a young Courtier at Mansfelt, whose customary asseveration, or rather imprecation, was (what I tremble to name) The Devil take me. The Devil when he was asleep took him in earnest, and threw him out of a window; by which disaster, though he was not slain, yet, by the bruises and breaking of his bones in that fall, he was so scared and affrighted with horror and fear, that he ever afterwards abstained from that horrid kind of imprecation.  
2. A certain Priest in Ruthnerwald wished if Luther's Doctrine against the Mass and Purgatory, etc. were true, that a Thunderbolt might destroy him: after 3. days a tempest with Lightning and Thunder so terrified him that he ran to the Church for Sanctuary, and at his forced devotion was struck down flat to the ground; who recovering, and led homewards by a friend, a flash of lightning burned him to death, so that his body was as black as hell itself. I hearty wish that all those who have oft a God damn me in their hellish mouths, would think of this fearful Judgement, and fear lest God (as he may in Justice do) take them at their word (or whilst that dreadful Curse is uttered by their impure Tongues) and, causing the Earth to open its mouth, throw them quick and alive into Hell, to be tormented (which is to be damned) in those everlasting flames.  
3. That famous story of Sir Gervase Elwais must not be omitted in this black Register, who suffered on Tower-hill for having an hand in the death of Sir Thomas Overbury. Before he suffered he was a picture of a true humble penitent, and acknowledged with tears the just hand of God upon him for his rash and unpreserved vow, which a great loss at Cards once occasioned, at which time he being very much troubled, clapping his hand upon his breast vowed seriously, and wished, that if ever he played again he might be hanged; and now being upon the ladder, he said, to the glory of God, God in Justice hath made me keep my imprecation, and to pay my vow which I once uttered with my tongue, by this just, though violent, death. And so wished all to take warning by his sad example, to forbear and to be afraid of self-cursing and swearing, and to abstain from that which is the usual cause of cursing and blaspheming, viz. Gaming.   

3. Examples of Judgements upon Blasphemers.  
1. In the Year 1645. one W. Knot of Dalston in Cumberland, being a common noted Swearer, when he was servant to an Alderman of York, fell into a Led full of boiling liquor, by which he within a few days after died. By this means his foul Tongue, which was set on fire of Hell, Jam. 3.6. was washed in scalding water, and felt a punishment fitted and proportioned to it. Blessed was his punishment if that wretch's Soul was thereby cleansed.  
2. One Hudson of the forenamed Town in Cumberland, who was a notorious Swearer, was struck dumb to his dying day; and though he lived many years, yet could speak nothing but swear by God, and with this Blasphemy in his mouth he rendered his impure Soul, I fear, to the Devil, and not to God.  
3. I received this Narrative from a Gentleman of the late E. of Oxford, of a Dutch Merchant, who in the year 1648. going to Loretto in a Wagon with four or five passengers more, (of whom the Reporter was one) did swear and blaspheme in that horrid manner, that he was a great offence to all the company, who rebuked him for it, though to no purpose, for he proceeded still in his swearing upon every light occasion; till at length (whilst they were in their passage) there broke into tne Wagon a black thing without any form or shape, which was the Devil in a dark Cloud, who by God's command and appointment stopped the Blasphemers throat: at which time he cried out as well as he could speak, and called upon his master the Devil, and said withal, Oh he will choke me, etc. Upon this all the Gentlemen being in darkness, (for there was a black stinking Mist in the Wagon) drew their swords, and leapt out of it, and immediately looking into it they found him dead, and his face with his whole body as black as a Coal; at which sight they were all much terrified. And I hope that all Blasphemers, who shall peruse this and the forenamed stories, will learn by them to forsake and abhor swearing, lest the same or worse Judgements fall upon them.  
Ex aliorum vulneribus medicamenta nostris faciamus. Aug.  
Let us from other men's sores and sufferings make a Plaster to heal our own wounds.   
FINIS.