Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	signify_v	word_n	1,913	5	4.1167	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66094	A brief discour[se] concerning the ceremon[y] of laying the hand on the Bible in swearing. By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England.	Willard, Samuel, 1640-1707.	1689 (1689)	Wing W2268; ESTC R222777	6,252	12

so given there is a double respect to be had 1. To the use of it which is Civil it being appointed for the putting of an end to Controversies between Men for the confirmation of Truth and obligation of Men most firmly unto fidelity in all the trust that is reposed in them so far as humane Prudence can reach 2. To the Form of it and that is purely Religious because in Swearing I do after the most solemn manner address my self to God who is the searcher of Hearts and knows if I lye or dissemble and call him to witness upon my Soul Yea so essential a piece of Religion is Swearing that it is in Scripture Metonymically put for all Religion Psal 63.11 Isa 19.18 It is indeed a solemn Prayer and so an act of Worship 3. That Ceremonies which are or may be used in Swearing come under a twofold consideration 1. Such as may be meerly Civil viz. Such as are the Notices by which it may be known who is the Person swearing and may be expressive of his consent to and being engaged in the Oath which is administred concerning which Ceremonies I make no doubt but that whatsoever Civil Authority shall enjoyn to be an Indication of the Person and a witness of his voluntary accepting the Oath and acknowledging himself under the Obligation of it may be lawfully submitted to and needs not to be disputed by him who is called to swear always provided there be no Profaneness in the Case 2. Such as are Religious viz. that are used to strengthen or confirm the Oath to add more solemnity to it to oblige the Person that takes it unto greater care and caution or to strengthen the credit of Testimony the more Concerning all which it must be asserted that they are undoubted Appendages to Religious Worship and must therefore be tryed by the Propositions laid down the respect being not Civil but purely Religious for whatsoever is used as a religious mean to make me more serious in a Religious action must needs be so and hence it must be either Natural or Instituted 4. That an Oath being a solemn Prayer and Appeal it hence ought to be made to God alone That Men are to swear by God only is a Truth so fully clear in Scripture that no Man that is a Christian can call it in question if therefore in Swearing I appeal to any but God I am guilty of false Worship Deut. 6.13 Jer. 5.7 and great reason for there is none else can detect us and punish us if we be found forsworn 5. That whatsoever is sworn by is not a meer Medium but an Object of Worship If I appeal to the God who is the Author of this Bible I then make it a Ceremony and am only questionable about the lawfulness of using such a stated Medium but if I appeal to God and the Bible then I make it a divine Object of my Adoration Hence Swearing by any thing is understood in Scripture for making the thing we swear by our Object Jer. 5 7 Matth. 5.34 c. and then the Question is Whether this be the true God or an Idol Upon these Premises there will now need nothing more to be enquired after but only Whether the laying the Hand upon the Book in Swearing may be accounted a Civil sign meerly and such as may be used by Men or Whether it be not certainly a part of religious Worship according to Law Usage and Custom And if it appears to be the latter no Nonconformist can ever consent to it 'till first he depart from his own Principles To prove therefore that it is and must be so is sufficient to my present purpose for the confirmation whereof I offer these Arguments 1. It is so by the true proper and unquestionable intent of the Law by which it is required And hence it must needs be so interpretatively of every one that useth it in complyance with that Law. It is a Truth beyond suspicion that a Man's actions are not interpretable according to his own private sense and pretended meaning but according to the common usage in which such actions are taken and for Men to pretend to another meaning is practical Equivocation The Primitive Christians knew that to cast Frankincense into the Fire upon an Idol's Altar would be Interpretative sacrificing to that Idol let their reserved meaning be what it would and therefore they refused to do it He therefore that complies with any thing required in the Law is truly reputed by all Men to comply with the Law in the true and plain meaning of it Now that this is the indisputable sence of the Law is evident for what else is Swearing by the Book but such If we consult the Statute-Law possibly there is no clearer mention of this appeal there than what is in the Oath of Supremacy which in so many words joyns the Invocation of God and swearing by the Contents of the Book If we look to the Common Law let all old Presidents speak which tell us that it is done Per sacra Dei Evangelia by the Holy Gospels and this cannot intend only a signification of the Persons swearing and their consent but expresly declares an appeal to the Book which was never appointed by God to be a Ceremony much less an Object of my Appeal And if we look to the Canon Law whence it borrows its Original none need to be ignorant that it was intended to put a religious respect on the Book by the Authors of it whose very Principles plead the justification of a Religious Worship due to some Creatures 2. It is so by the Confession of those that have used it and plead for it What else is intended when in their Self-Justification they tell us it is done to put the more Solemnity upon the Oath and that their meaning is that they do hereby significantly renounce all the benefits promised to Christians in this Book and invoke the Curses of it upon themselves if they lye and this must of necessity be more than the bare Indigitation of the Person and nothing less than a Religious Application which hath not the Authority of God for it being neither a Natural nor Instituted Medium 3. It is so by the very thing that is chosen and appointed to be made use of viz. the Holy Bible or Gospels For were it only to signifie the Person and his Consent why might not any other thing do as well Yea why might not lifting up the Hand be better approved which is in Civil Law used as a Civil Sign by which a Man is called to signifie that he is the Person arraigned and consents to his being tried by the Authority of the Court where he stands to be Judged and is also a natural Sign accompanying of Prayer or an outward signification of Mens appealing to God in Prayer This Book therefore must needs have bin made choice of with a Religious respect 4. It can be no Salvo to Mens Consciences for

this or that particular Judge or any Men in subordinate Authority to say That they intend nothing else by it when they impose it but only the Notification of the Person and signifying that he doth now take the Oath for the Sence of the Law is always one and the same And though it must be granted necessary that Judges are in case of difficulty and dubiousness to interpret the meaning of the Law to Men concerned to Act according to it yet if they should give a sence evidently other than the Law will bear it can hardly be thought obliging to be sure where the sence of the Law is clear and plain their interpreting it otherwise cannot satisfie one that knows it is not the meaning For if so what force can there be in a Law or what safety can the Subject pretend to himself in measuring his Actions by it because that which is the sence of it to day may be repugnant to it to morrow 5. It doth no whit mend the matter that of late those words and the Contents of this Book are omitted in the giving or administring of the Oath it being only a Snare laid before Men and no real favour to them as not in Truth affording any abatement upon the Consciences of such as are judicious and that is because the same thing is intended in the Law and is every whit as much signified by the Act of Laying on the Hand it being the sence of the Law in Obedience whereunto it is done And Actions do speak as forcibly as Words Except therefore the Law it self could cease or lose its sence the omission of a word explicatory mitigates it not because all that know the meaning of the Law know what the Action signifies according to it 6. Hence in the Consciences of all saner serious and considering Men he that lays his Hand upon the Book whatever his reserved meaning to himself be is necessarily under such an Interpretation as this and it thereby become a matter of scandal to such as count it unlawful so to swear and though he Swears with never so many secret reserves to himself he cannot possibly avoid this Censure 7. It is also to be observed That whereas the Nature of Swearing is principally contained in the Solemnity of the Appeal which men make there is no other solemn Caution and Religious obligation laid upon Men to make them afraid of Perjury in the accustomed way of administring an Oath but only in the act of Laying the Hand on the Book and that one word So help you God which calls for a serious Observation and speaks the design of the Ceremony 8. Besides it makes the Conclusion I have asserted further evident if we consider that some Men say That no Man can be legally indicted for Perjury except he have Sworn upon the Book which if legally true tells us that the Law makes it Essential to the Oath it self and a part of the Religious Act of Swearing 9. He that invokes such a thing as his Helper in his Prayer doth certainly make it of the Object which he prays unto And he who lays his Hand on the Book whether he do it intentionally or no doth it interpretatively And whether this be not to make it more than a meer Ceremony and greaten the blame of him who doth so swear let any judicious Men determine Much more might be said concerning this Subject but this may help sufficiently to settle the Judgments and satisfie the Consciences of any that are Scrupulous which is my farthest aim in this Script as being not desirous to offer any Provocation to one or other but only studious to discharge a Moral Duty lying upon me to satisfie as far as I may the Consciences of them that ask it of me in such matters as properly and immediately concern God and Religion FINIS