2.76 How Divine Wor/l.ip SE x M. too againfl the facr fce of fools, that is, un- X. thoughtful men, who confider not that they do evil. Again, be not rafh with thy mouth, nor let thy heart be hafly to utter any thing before God. And the direction is particular- ly applied to the making of vows, which by the author's manner of treating it, I think, referreth not to the main and effential duties of a good life, but things, in their nature more indifferent, and to which men were not under antecedent indifpenfable obliga- tions ; though they might voluntarily lay themfelves under, at leaft, a temporary re- flraint of their liberty, and become bound by promife to alienate fome part of their pro- perty : And fuch engagements, as they are countenanced by pofitive laws, then in force, fo if wifely formed, and flricily executed,,. they might ferve good purpofes. But the great error was, entering into them rafhly, in a fit of warm inconfiderate zeal, without duly weighing the grounds upon which they were made, the abilities and circumfiances of the maker, and the difficulties which would attend the performance. And the confe- quence was, that frequently they were re- pented of and retracted, not without the imputation of reproachful weaknefs, and like - wife profanenefs. From
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=