suitable to that high rank which we bear of God's friends and
children; adorning our holy profession, and guarding us from all
impressions of sinful vanity. Wherefore we should not let ourselves
be transported into any excessive pitch of lightness, inconsistent
with or prejudicial to our Christian state and business. Gravity
and modesty are the senses of piety, which being once slighted, sin
will easily attempt and encroach upon us. So the old Spanish
gentleman may be interpreted to have been wise who, when his son
upon a voyage to the Indies took his 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.

To conclude, as we need not be demure, so must we not be impudent;
as we should not be sour, so ought we not to be fond; as we may be
free, so we should not be vain; as we may well stoop 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 jesting innocently,
and conveniently, we may sometimes do it: but let us, in compliance
with St. Paul's direction, beware of "foolish talking and jesting
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 pleasing
in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and
ever. Amen."

AGAINST RASH AND VAIN SWEARING.

"But above all things, my brethren, swear not."
St. James v. 12.

Among other precepts of good life (directing the practice of virtue
and abstinence from sin) St. James doth insert this about swearing,
couched in expression 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 swearing which our Lord had expressly prohibited to
His disciples, and which thence, questionless, the brethren to whom
St. James did write did well understand themselves obliged to
forbear, having learned so in the first catechisms of Christian
institution; that is, needless and heedless swearing in ordinary
conversation, a practice then fre