Earth, as the Saints and Angels do in Heaven; ſo he who accuſtoms it to Oaths and Curſes, is daily preparing it for the Language of Hell. And the Time is coming, (if he repent not) when he will have Cauſe to wiſh a Thouſand Times over, that he had been born as dumb as the Beaſts that periſh, or, ſince he was not, that he had periſhed like them.
When you have read and conſidered this ſhort Account of the Sinfulneſs of Common-Swearing, go on and reflect ſeriouſly, in the next Place,
II. Upon the great Folly of it. Conſider how Men fall at firſt into the Cuſtom of Swearing; that it is never taken up (as all wife Deſigns are) with Conſideration, or upon a Foreſight of any Benefit that is like to ariſe from it; but is uſually owing to profane Company, and ſuffered to grow into a Habit through a ſupine careleſs Humour, for want of thinking what is right or wrong, lawful or unlawful, wiſe or fooliſh. And no Practice can be more unreaſonable, than that which
