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my rejoicing be only in thee. Propose to mine eyes the evilness of my days, and make me careful to redeem my time. Wean me from the pleasure of vain society, and let my companions be such as fear thee. Forgive all such as have been partners in my sin, and turn their hearts to the obedience of thy laws. Open their ears to the reproofs of the wise, and make them powerful in reformation. Allay that lust which my intemperance hath inflamed, and cleanse my affections with the grace of thy good Spirit; make me thankful for the strength of my body, that I may for the time to come return it to the advantage of thy glory.

D

34

THE SWEARER.

His Apology.

WILL Boanarges never cease? and will these plague-denouncers never leave to thunder judgments in my trembling ear? Nothing but plagues! nothing but judgments! nothing but damnation! What have I done to make my case desperate? and what have they not done to make my soul despair? Have I set up false gods like the Egyptians? or have I bowed before them like the Israelites? Have I violated the Sabbath like the libertines? or, like cursed Ham, have I discovered my father's nakedness? Have I embrued

my

hands in blood like Barabbas? or like Absalom defiled my father's bed? Have I like Jacob supplanted my elder brother? or like Ahab intruded into Nabal's vineyard? Have I borne false witness like the wanton elders? or like

David coveted Uriah's wife? Have I not given tithes of all I have? or hath my purse been hidebound to my hungry brother? Hath not my life been blameless before men? And my demeanour unreprovable before the world? Have I not hated vice with a perfect hatred? and countenanced virtue with a due respect? What mean these strict observers of my life, to ransack every action, to carp at every word, and with their sharp censorious tongues to sentence every frailty with damnation? Is there no allowance to humanity? no grains to flesh and blood? Are we all angels? Has mortality no privilege tò supersede it from the utmost punishment of a little necessary frailty? Come, come, my soul, let not these judgment-thunderers fright thee: let not these qualms of their exuberant zeal disturb thee. Thou hast not cursed like Shimei, nor railed like Rabshekah, nor lied like Ananias, nor slan

dered like thy accusers. They that censure thy gnats, swallow their own camels. What if the luxuriant style of thy discourse do chance to strike upon an obvious oath, art thou straight hurried into the bosom of a plague? What if the custom of a harmless oath should captivate thy heedless tongue, can nothing under sudden judgment seize upon thee? What if another's diffidence should force thy earnest lips into a hasty oath, in confirmation of a suffering truth, must thou be straightways branded with damnation? Was Joseph marked for everlasting death for swearing by the life. of Egypt's king? Was Peter, when he só denied his master, straight damned for swearing?

Oh, flatter not thyself, my soul! nor turn thou advocate to so high a sin: make not the slips of saints a precedent for thee to fall.

If the rebukes of flesh may not prevail, hear then the threatening of the Spirit, which saith

The plague shall not depart from the house of the swearer.

Exod. xx. 7.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Zach. v. 3.

And every one that sweareth shall be cut off.

Matth. v. 34.

Swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; but let your communication be Yea, yea-Nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Jer. xxiii. 10.

Because of swearing the land mourneth.

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