Page:Admonition against Profane and Common Swearing.djvu/12

Theſe are plain and poſitive Precepts, which ought to be well conſidered and underſtood by the Vain-Swearers; as directly forbidding that, which they (in Contempt of the Authority of our Bleſſed Saviour and his Apoſtle) make their daily and hourly Practice. And the Things which they ought to know and obſerve concerning them, are chiefly theſe. 1. That they were occaſioned by a miſtaken Opinion among the Jews, that if they did not ſwear directly by God, it was no Sin to ſwear by his Creatures. And conſidering how common it is among Chriſtians, to ſwear by the Heavens, by their Life, by their Soul, and by other Creatures of God, one would think they were of the ſame Opinion of the Jews, and had never heard of thoſe clear and direct Precepts of the Goſpel againſt it. 2. They are to obſerve the Reaſons, why our Saviour and his Apoſtle forbid this Sort of Swearing; both becauſe the Creatures of God are not in our Power to be uſed by us otherwiſe than he has appointed, and becauſe the immediate Relation which they bear to God as their Crea-

tor,