An invective against the most wicked [and] detestable vice of swearing, newly co[m]piledAn inuectyue agenst the moost wicked [and] detestable vyce of swearing, newly co[m]piled

Among serving men also above all other, what wicked and detestable oaths are there heard?¹ If there be any of that sort, which fear God & love his word, & therefore abstain from vain oaths, how doth his company lout him. Look what an ass is among a sort of apes, even the very same is he among his fellows. They think him not worthy to ⟨p. xxii⟩wear a sword & buckler, that can not face out the matter with plenty of oaths. He y• can swear best, & soonest give a blow, he is counted an hardy fellow, and fit to do a Gē till man service, when to say the trueth, of all men he is most wretch and coward, and most of all unapt to do such a Gentle man service as •oveth God and his holy laws. Yea such pestilent swearers and filthy blasphemers of God and his creatures ought all honest and virtuous Gentle men to put out of their houses, unless they bring the vengeance of God upon their whole family, wife, children, servants. &c If they know that any man have been in that place, where the plague reigneth, & would come into their houses, they spear the gates against him, they shut him ou•, by no means will they suffer him to enter. ⟨image 24⟩And why? Verily because they will not have y• plague brought in among them, unless they should be infected and so dye. Alas for pure pity, to dye we are all borne, and dye we must at one time or other, whither it be by the plague or otherwise, & therefore it may seem that the death of the body ought not so greatly to be feared why than rather do they not put out of their houses these pestiferous caitiffs, which through their abominable swearing infect all their family, not only their bodies, but their souls also, and provoke God to pour out his most fierce & grievous plagues upon them? Is not this the saying of the wise man, the man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity,² and the plague, y• is to say, the vengeance of GOD shall not go away from his house? Awake therefore, O ye gentle men,