A61391:432
The husbandmans calling showing the excellencies, temptations, graces, duties &c. of the Christian husbandmanThe husbandmans calling shewing the excellencies, temptations, graces, duties &c. of the Christian husbandman
The husbandmans calling showing the excellencies, temptations, graces, duties &c. of the Christian husbandman : being the substance of XII sermons preached to a country congregation / by Richard Steele.The husbandmans calling shewing the excellencies, temptations, graces, duties &c. of the Christian husbandman : being the substance of XII sermons preached to a country congregation / by Richard Steele.
London: printed by M.S., 1668
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Perhaps you'll say, without oaths you cannot be believed: but experience tells the contrary, that many a man that cannot swear, can obtain more belief, than he that swears every word; and reason tells us, that he who dare be profane against God, can easily venture to be deceitful towards man. And where an Oath is said to be for an end to all strife, it's not meant of that Oath, which is the Corruption of Man, but that Oath which is the Ordinance of God. Any man will judge us of small credit, if not quite bank-rupt, that will pawn our Faith and Truth, our best Jewels, •or every small trifle. And it's better to want ⟨p. 217⟩credit with men, I trow, than favour with God; better to undergo mans unjust suspicion, than Gods just Condemnation.
Perhaps you'l say, without oaths you cannot be believed: but experience tells the contrary, that many a man that cannot swear, can obtain more belief, than he that swears every word; and reason tells us, that he who dare be prophane against God, can easily venture to be deceitful towards man. And where an Oath is said to be for an end to all strife, it's not meant of that Oath, which is the Corruption of Man, but that Oath which is the Ordinance of God. Any man will judge us of small credit, if not quite bank-rupt, that will pawn our Faith and Truth, our best Jewels, •or every small trifle. And it's better to want ⟨p. 217⟩•redit with men, I trow, than favour with God; better to undergo mans unjust suspition, than Gods just Condemnation.
If you excuse it, and say, you use but small Oaths, and do not fill your mouths with the more bloody ones; You show hereby your ignorance of the nature of an Oath, which as it ought to be in truth and judgement, so it is necessary (if you will not swear as Pagans) that nothing be sworn by, but that God, which knows the sincerity, and can avenge the falseness of the heart; which prerogative, by your common Oaths, you give to the creatre, and so place it in the room of God, which instead of lessening, doth greaten your fault, and make your sin the more sinful,