laid under the foundation of them, which, when justice shall set fire to, O what work will it make ! woe to the inhabitants thereof! Well then, break off this sin by repentance, unless you intend to ruin your families, and bring all the curses of God into your houses. If you have no pity for yourselves, yet pity your posterity ; have mercy for your wives and children ; do not ruin all for the indulgence of a lust.
Arg\ 4. But that is not all; it brings soul-judgments and spiritual plagues upon you : it brings hell along with it. And if thou be not afraid to sin, yet methinks, thou shouldst be afraid to burn : if the love of God can work nothing upon thy brawny heart, yet, methinks, the terrors of the Lord should startle and affright it. To this pur- pose, I beseech vou to weigh these scriptures ; and methinks, unless God hath lost all his authority with you, and hell all its terrors, it should startle you. The first is that dreadful scripture, James v. 12. " But above all things, my brethren, swear not ; neither by heaven, " neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your j^ea, " be yea ; and your nay, nay ; lest ye fall into [condemnation.'*''] O view this text seriously ! methinks it should be like the fingers that cameforth and wrote upon the wall that dreadful sentence that changed the countenance of a king, and that in the height of a frolic humour, and made his knees smite together. Mark, [above all thivgs'] a form of vehemency and earnestness, like that, Eph. vi. 16. ''But above all, taking the shield of faith." As faith hath a prelation there before all the graces, so swearing here before all other vices. [Swear wof,] i. e. vainly ^rashly, profanely ; for otherwise it is a lawful thing, and a part of God's worship, as I have shewed; but swear not vain oaths, by the creatures, heaven, or earth, &c. which is to advance the creature into the room of God : a sin to which the Jews were much addicted. But, *' let your yea, be yea ; and your nay, nay ;" i. e. accustom yourselves to short and plain afiirmations and negations, to a simple and candid expression of your minds. And the thundering argument that backs it, is this, [lestyejfall into condemnation f^ i. e. lest for these things the Judge of heaven and earth passasentence of condemnation to hell upon you. O sirs ! dare you touch with this hot iron ? Dare you from hence- forth commit that sin, that you know will bring you under the con- demnation and judgment of God ? Do you know what it is for a soul to be cast at God's bar .? Did you never see a poor malefactor tried at the assizes, and observe how his face gathers paleness, how his legs tremble, and death displays its colours in his cheeks, when sentence is given upon him ? But what is that to God's condemnation ? What is a gallows to hell ? Another text I would recommend to your con- sideration is that, Exod. xx. 7. " The Lord will not hold him guilt- " less that taketh his name in vain ;" where vain oaths are especially included. Now, what doth God mean, when he saith, he will not hold him guiltless ? The meaning is plain, his sins shall be reckoned and imputed to him ; they shall lie upon his soul ; he shall be bound
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over to answer to God for them. O terrible sentence ! what soul can bear it, or stand before it ! " Blessed is the man (saith David) to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity r"'^ Surely then, cursed is that man to whom God will impute them : and to the swearer they shall all be imputed, if he break not off his sin by repentance, and get a Christ the sooner. Oh, how darest thou think of going before the Lord with the guilt of all thy sins upon thee ? When Christ would administer the very spirit of joy into one sentence to a poor sinner. Mat. ix. 2. He said, " Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be " forgiven." And when God would contract the sum of all misery into one word, he saith, " His sins shall lie down with him in the '' dust,"" Job XX. 11. Ah, soul ! one of these days thou shalt be laid on thy death-bed, or see the waves that shall entomb thee, leap- ing and roaring upon every side ; and then thou wilt surely have other thoughts of the happiness that lies in remission of sin than thou hast now. Observe the most incorrigible sinner then ; hark, how he sighs and groans, and cries, Ah, Lord ! and must I die ? And then see how the tears trickle down his cheeks, and his heart ready to burst within him. Why, what is the matter ? Oh ! the Lord will not pardon him, he holds him guilty! If he were sure his sins were forgiven, then he could die : but, oh ! to appear before the Lord in them, appals him, daunts him, kills the very heart of him I he would fain cry for mercy, but conscience stops his mouth. O, saith conscience, how canst thou move that tongue to God in prayer for mercy, that hath so often rent and torn his glorious name, by oaths and curses ? Sirs, I pray you do not make light of these things ; they will look wishfully upon you one of these days, except ye pre- vent it by sound conversion.
Arg. 5. And then, lastly, to name no more, I pray you consider, that a custom of vain words and profane oaths, is as plain an indica- tion and discovery of an unregenerate soul, as any in the world : this is a sure sign thou art none of Christ's, nor hast any thing to do ■with the promises and privileges of his people ; for by this the scrip- ture distinguisheth the state of saints and sinners, Eccl. ix. 2. "There *' is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the clean " and to the unclean ; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sa- " crificeth not : as is the good, so is the sinner : and he that swear- *' eth, as he that feareth an oath."" Mark, he that sweareth, and he that feareth an oath, do as manifestly distinguish the children of God from wicked men, as clean and unclean, righteous and v.icked, sacrificing and not sacrificing. The fruit of the tongue plainly shews "what the tree is that bears it; Isa. ii. 6. " The vile person will speak " villany; and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.** Loquere^ ut videam., said one; Speak, that I may see what you are. Look, what is in the heart, that is vented by the tongue ; where the treasure of grace are in the heart, words ministering grace will be in the lips; Psal. xxxvii. 30. " The mouth of the righteous speaketh
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