hich disalloweth and
condemneth it; but it is very odious and offensive to any particular
society or company, at least wherein there is any sober person, any who
retaineth a sense of goodness, or is anywise concerned for God's honour;
for to any such person no language can be more disgustful. Nothing can
more grate his ears, or fret his heart, than to hear the sovereign
object of his love and esteem so mocked and slighted; to see the law of
his Prince so disloyally infringed, so contemptuously trampled on; to
find his best Friend and Benefactor so outrageously abused. To give him
the lie were a compliment, to spit in his face were an obligation, in
comparison to this usage.

"Wherefore it is a wonder that any person of rank, any that hath in him
a spark of ingenuity, or doth at all pretend to good manners, should
find in his heart, or deign to comply with so scurvy a fashion; a
fashion much more befitting the scum of the people than the flower of
the gentry; yea, rather much below any man endued with a scrap of
reason, or a grain of goodness. Would we bethink ourselves, modest,
sober, and pertinent discourse would appear far more generous and
masculine than such mad hectoring the Almighty, such boisterous
insulting over the received laws and general notions of mankind, such
ruffianly swaggering against sobriety and goodness. If gentlemen would
regard the virtues of their ancestors, the founders of their quality;
that gallant courage, that solid wisdom, that noble courtesy which
advanced their families, and severed them from the vulgar; this
degenerate wantonness and sordidness of language would return to the
dunghill, or rather, which God grant, be quite banished from the world."

4. _The positive scriptural commands against swearing._ "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." "Ye shall not swear by any
name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the
Lord." The Christian Lawgiver thus utters His voice, "Ye have heard that
it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself,
but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: but I say unto you, Swear
not at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne: nor by the earth,
for it is His footstool: neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the
great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not
make one hair white or black." S