nuiffimus rical poet they were termed bladders of vanity: but they SERM. at least did catch at praise from praiseworthy knowledge; XIV. they were puffed up with a wind which blowed fome Kivñs eines good to mankind; they fought glory from that which noi. Timon. deserved glory, if they had not fought it; it was a subftantial and folid credit which they did affect, resulting from fuccessful enterprises of strong reason and ftout industry: but these animalcula gloriæ, these flies, these in- Rifus-tesects of glory, these, not bladders, but bubbles of vanity, ingenii fruwould be admired and praised for that which is nowife &tus. Cic. de admirable or laudable; for the cafual hits and emergencies of roving fancy; for ftumbling on an odd conceit or phrase, which signifieth nothing, and is as superficial as the fmile, as hollow as the noise it caufeth. Nothing certainly in nature is more ridiculous than a felf-conceited wit, who deemeth himself somebody, and greatly pretendeth to commendation from so pitiful and worthless a thing as a knack of trifling. Orat, ii. 7. Laftly, it is our duty never so far to engage ourfelves in this way, as thereby to lofe or to impair that habitual seriousness, modesty, and sobriety of mind, that steady composedness, gravity and conftancy of demeanour, which become Christians. We fhould continually keep our minds intent upon our high calling, and grand interests; ever well tuned, and ready for the performance of holy devotions, and the practice of most serious duties with earnest attention and fervent affection: wherefore we should never suffer them to be diffolved into levity, or difordered into a wanton frame, indifpofing us for religious thoughts and actions. We ought always in our behaviour to maintain not only Tò pérov, a fitting decency, Phil. iv. 8. but also rò σeuvov, a stately gravity, a kind of venerable 1Tim. iii. 8. majefty, suitable to that high rank which we bear of God's friends and children; adorning our holy profeffion, Tit. ii. 10. and guarding us from all impreffions of finful vanity. tius aliWherefore we should not let ourselves be tranfported into quando any exceffive pitch of lightness, inconfiftent with, or pre-quam mijudicial to, our Christian state and business. Gravity and nuet automodesty are the fences of piety, which being once flighted, Quint. vi. 3. Dictum po perdet, ritatem. SERM. fin will easily attempt and encroach upon us. So the old XIV. Spanish gentleman may be interpreted to have been wise, who, when his fon upon a voyage to the Indies took his Strad. In- leave of him, gave him this odd advice; My Son, in the first place keep thy gravity, in the next place fear God: intimating, that a man must first be serious before he can be pious. fam. Fami ani. Heb. xiii. 20,21. To conclude, as we need not be demure, so must we not be impudent; as we should not be four, so ought we not to be fond; as we may be free, so we should not be vain; as we may well ftoop to friendly complaisance, so we should take heed of falling into contemptible levity. If without wronging others, or derogating from ourselves, we can be facetious; if we can use our wits in jefting innocently and conveniently; we may fometimes do it: but let us, in compliance with St. Paul's direction, beware of foolish talking and jefting, which are not convenient. Now the God of grace and peace make us perfect in every good work to do his will, working in us that which is well pleafing in his fight, through Jefus Chrift; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON XV. AGAINST RASH AND VAIN SWEARING. JAMES V. 12. But above all things, my brethren, fwear not. AMONG other precepts of good life (directing the SERM. practice of virtue and abftinence from fin) St. James doth XV. infert this about fwearing, couched in expreffion denoting his great earnestness, and apt to excite our special attention. Therein he doth not mean universally to interdict the use of oaths; (for that in some cases is not only lawful, but very expedient, yea needful, and required from us as a duty;) but that fwearing which our Lord had expressly prohibited to his difciples, and which thence, queftionlefs, the brethren to whom St. James did write did well understand themselves obliged to forbear, having learnt fo in the firft catechifms of Chriftian inftitution; that is, needlefs and heedlefs fwearing in ordinary conversation: a practice then frequented in the world, both among Jews and Gentiles; the which alfo, to the shame of our age, is now fo much in fashion, and with fome men in vogue; the invoking God's name, appealing to his teftimony, and provoking his judgment, upon any flight occafion, in common talk, with vain incogitancy, or profane boldness. From fuch practice the holy Apostle dehorteth in terms importing his great concernedness, and implying the matter to be of highest importance : XV. SERM. for, Пgò wávrov, faith he, Before all things, my brethren, do not fwear; as if he did apprehend this fin of all other to be one of the most heinous and pernicious. Could he have faid more? would he have faid fo much, if he had not conceived the matter to be of exceeding weight and confequence? And that it is fo, I mean now, by God's help, to fhew you, by propofing fome confiderations, whereby the heinous wickedness, together with the monftrous folly, of fuch rafh and vain swearing will appear; the which being laid to heart will, I hope, effectually diffuade and deter from it. I. Let us confider the nature of an oath, and what we do when we adventure to fwear. It is (as it is phrased in the Decalogue, and otherwhere Exod. xx. 7. in holy Scripture) an affuming the name of our God, and Prov. xxx. applying it to our purpose, to countenance and confirm what we faya. 9. Gen. xxxi. 50. It is an invocation of God as a most faithful witness, concerning the truth of our words, or the fincerity of our 1 Sam. xii, meaning. Judg.xi.10. 5. Jer. xlii. 5. It is an appeal to God as a moft upright Judge, wheJob xvi. 19. ther we do prevaricate in afferting what we do not beMal. iii. 5. lieve true, or in promifing what we are not firmly reGen. xxxi. folved to perform. 1 Joh. v. 9. 53. 1 Sam. It is a formal engagement of God to be the Avenger xxiv. 15. of our trefpaffing in violation of truth or faith. 1 Kings It is a binding our fouls with a moft ftrict and folemn ii. 23. xix. obligation, to answer before God, and to undergo the 2. xx. 10. iffue of his judgment about what we affirm or undertake. Neh. v. 12, 13. 31. 2 Sam. iii. 9. 35. xix. 13. 1 Sam. xiv. 44. iii. 17. XX. 13. Such an oath is represented to us in holy Scripture. Whence we may collect, that fwearing doth require great modefty and composedness of spirit, very serious confideration and folicitous care, that we be not rude and faucy with God, in taking up his name, and prostituting = Plurima firmantur jurejurando—diis immortalibus interpofitis tum judicibus, tum teftibus. Cic. de Leg. ii. p. 326. 6 Num. xxx. 2. Пãs ögnos sie xarágav reλsurā tās śmioguías, Plut, in Capit. Rom. p. 491. it to vile or mean uses; that we do not abuse or debafe SERM. his authority, by citing it to aver falfehoods or imperti- XV. nences; that we do not flight his venerable juftice, by rafhly provoking it against us; that we do not precipitantly throw our fouls into moft dangerous fnares and intricacies. 3. cxi. 9. xxviii. 58. For, let us reflect and confider: what a prefumption is it without due regard and reverence to lay hold on God's name; with unhallowed breath to vent and toss that great and glorious, that most holy, that reverend, that Pfal. xcix. fearful and terrible name of the Lord our God, the great cxlviii. 13. Creator, the mighty Sovereign, the dreadful Judge of all Deut. the world; that name which all heaven with profoundest fubmiffion doth adore, which the angelical powers, the brightest and pureft feraphim, without hiding their faces, Ifa. vi. 2. and reverential horror, cannot utter or hear; the very Chryf. thought whereof should strike awe through our hearts, the mention whereof would make any fober man to tremble; Пaç yaàg oux άтожоv, For how, faith St. Chryfo- Id. 'Adg. 3. ftom, is it not abfurd, that a fervant should not dare to P. 514. call his master by name, or bluntly and ordinarily to mention him; yet that we flightly and contemptuously should in our mouth tofs about the Lord of angels? How is it not abfurd, if we have a garment better than Id.'Avdg. I'. the reft, that we forbear to use it continually; but in the P. 525. moft flight and common way do wear the name of God? How grievous indecency is it, at every turn to fummon our Maker, and call down Almighty God from heaven, to attend our leisure, to vouch our idle prattle, to fecond our giddy paffions, to concern his truth, his juftice, his power in our trivial affairs? 11. What a wildness is it, to dally with that judgment upon which the eternal doom of all creatures dependeth, at which the pillars of heaven are afionished, which hurled Job xxvi. down legions of angels from the top of heaven and happiness into the bottomlefs dungeon; the which, as grievous finners, of all things we have most reafon to dread; and about which no fober man can otherwise think, than did that great king, the holy Pfalmift, who faid, |