The trades-man's calling being a discourse concerning the nature, necessity, choice, &c. of a…

1. It consists in performing all your lawful Promises. You should be careful before you promise any thing, you should be cautious in them; that what you promise be lawful and possible, or else you sin in the very making such Promises. Moreover you should consider the Equity and Convenience thereof before-hand; but when your word is past, tho it be difficult to fulfil it, tho it be prejudicial; you are snared by the words of your ⟨p. 100⟩Mouth, and ought, yea tho there be no witness in the case, to make it good. And a Promise or Contract made by your Servant, whom you have used to intrust, binds you equally to Performance, as if made by your self: For he whose Contract you would adhere unto, if it should turn to your Advantage; you ought not to recede from, when it turns to your Prejudice. It it given as a mark of one, that shall dwell in the holy Hill of God. Psal. 15. 4. He is one that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. And a Promise binds an honest Man, as truly as his Oath. These are the Bonds of human Society, which being dissolved, no Man can trust, nor rely, nor trade with another. No Man can firmly proceed in his own Affairs, when they do depend in any wise upon such unfaithful Men, who make no Conscience of performing what they have promised. It is true, if a Man have been cozened, and so engaged by a fraudulent Bargain into a Promise: if the Fraud be in the substance of the thing bargained for, as Copper Lace for Gold, or the like, the Contract is void ipso facto: for there was no consent which is necessary in a Bargain, the one sold one thing, and the other bought another: But if the Fraud was only in some undiscerned Circumstances, or faulty qualities, tho the Seller ought to compensate the Injury, yet in case he release you not, you are obliged; unless the Defects be so considerable, as do render the Commodity useless; in which case you may seek your remedy, and caveat emptor the next time.

1. It consists in performing all your lawful Promises. You should be careful before you promise any thing, you should be cautious in them; that what you promise be lawful and possible, or else you sin in the very making such Promises. Moreover you should consider the Equity and Convenience thereof before-hand; but when your word is past, tho it be difficult to fulfil it, tho it be prejudicial; you are snared by the words of your ⟨p. 100⟩