A free discourse against customary swearing ; and, A dissuasive from cursing by Robert Boyle ; published by John Williams.

PLEA X.

Others there are that use to re∣present, That they swear not but when they are angry; and then (for all our Clamours and Exag∣gerations) they mean no harm at all.

A. But would you take it for a justification of your Wife's Adulte∣ries, if she should tell you, That she never prostitutes her self, but when her Fits of Lust tempt her to give that satisfaction to her appetite? Besides, this is but to excuse one fault with another; and with no greater justice, than his that should defend a Bastard's Crimes, by alledging that his Mo∣ther was a Whore; since the Na∣ture as well as the Duty of Virtue being the Moderation of our Pas∣sions,

it is evident that their ex∣cesses degenerate into sins; and therefore how that can be a good excuse that needs one, and how that anger which in it self is sin∣ful, can impart an innocence to productions in their own nature culpable, let those that are con∣cerned determine.

For my part, when I consider the Apostle's Command, Be ye angry, and sin not; I cannot but ap∣prehend, that when our Passions swell into excess, they are indeed contaminated by the Guiltiness of their Productions, but confer not upon them a meritoriousness which themselves want. But why, I pray, in every passionate mood, must you be transported to commit Sins that are as unprofi∣table as impious; and to deserve your Crosses, by a sawcy Provo∣cation

of your God, whom you then endeavour to make your Ene∣my, when you most need his fa∣vour to protect you from disqui∣ets? Why must your Tongue fly in your Maker's face, and vilify his Sacred Name, because your Dice turn up Size-ace rather than Quatre-trey? For either he is the Guider of those seeming Chances, or meddles not with their disposal: In, this last case you are palpably injurious, to make God the Object of your Choler, when he is not the Cause of it; and in the former case your folly is not inferior, in∣stead of propitiating, to incense that Deity, who is the sole Dispo∣ser of those Fortunes we either wish or fear.

But take heed he give you not too much pretence to be so, by displeasing you, (as discreet Mo∣thers

whip their froward Children that cry without cause) and pu∣nish in his anger these rash and culpable expressions of yours. As for the other branch of the ex∣cuse, I mean the harmlessness of your intent; to that I must reply, That our Actions may as well of∣fend as our Intents, if they be sub∣sequent to our knowledge of God's aversion to what we do. And usually men take it for a sufficient offence, to do what we are sure will disoblige them, tho with a differing design. Nor do we think our selves less injured by Rob∣bers when they strip us, because they offer us that violence, not with intent to anger us, but only to make a Booty of our Purses. 'Tis a received Maxim in Divini∣ty which Moralists prop with their full concurrence, That no Good∣ness

(much less bare Innocence) of the Intent can justify a formal sinful evil. If then the commit∣ting of this sin against the know∣ledge of the ill you act, be not crime enough to condemn you, you must not be deny'd my Abso∣lution. But withal, I must ac∣quit most sinners in the world up∣on the self-same score; and be∣lieve the threatned Flames of Hell as uninhabited as insupportable; since certainly such sinners (if any such there be) must be pro∣digious no less for their unequal'd rarity, than devilish perverseness, that are such Monsters as to offend their Maker, merely to offend him. For in Philosophy our Ma∣sters teach us, That Ill under that notion cannot be the object of our choice; (that being ever a real, or at least a seeming good);

and tho in our misguided electi∣ons we oftentimes embrace it, yet that is ever under a contrary notion, and rather by mistake than by design.

But oh! how industrious are sinners to deceive themselves; and how strangely does the Devil fascinate and blind deluded Mor∣tals, when (by such silly and im∣pertinent Excuses) he persuades them rather to expose their judg∣ments to a certain discredit, than let their Souls be ransom'd from an Ignoble Slavery, into a Glori∣ous Freedom; and rather suffer their Abilities to be believed weak, than permit their Lives to be made virtuous. Certainly, such people would make me as much astonish'd as themselves are faulty, if I did not consider this gallant property, of rather ma∣king

bad Apologies to defend their Sins, than good Resolutions to forsake them, as intail'd upon them by a kind of traduction from our first Parents, who hoped with Fig-leave Aprons, and the faint Shade of Trees, to hide both their Nakedness and their Disobedience from the Omniscient Eye of God himself.

I will not waste Ink upon their successless and impudent defence, that make their Drunkenness an Apology for their Swearing, and make that an excuse for their sin, which is it self a sin above excuse; but with as little justice, as the Keeper of the Lions in the Tower could excuse any particular Tra∣gedy they had acted, by alledg∣ing that he had voluntarily let them loose. But since the Tem∣pers that most dispose men to a

flux of Oaths, are Drunkenness and Choler, give me leave by the by, to take notice of the chief Midwives that are usually assistant to the birth of Oaths; and to observe, That as the Thunder falls not, but when Heaven is over-cast, so we are pronest to swear, when the Beastliness of our Passions hath either blinded or deposed our Reason.

Notes

• Eph. 4. 26.