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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44363	The Spirit of Christ, and the spirit of the Apostles and the spirit of the martyrs is arisen, which beareth testimony against swearing and oaths, for which the martyrs suffered in the time of the ten persecutions and some since, which we also, the people of God called Quakers, do suffer for, as many thousands have done, for keeping the commands of Christ who saith, swear not at all and also, here you may see such martyrs as could not put off their hat or bonnet to the Pope, nor his legate, and as example of one martyr that could not give sureties, being innocent, so that you may see in this book following, to swear not at all, nor to take oaths, nor to deny putting off the hat or bonnet, nor to deny giving sureties being innocent is no new thing, which is proved out of the Scriptures and book of martyrs / published by Ellis Hooks.	Hookes, Ellis, d. 1681.	1661 (1661)	Wing H2662; ESTC R4402	20,779	30

should be required or exacted of any head or chief Bishop for any cause or by any power Anno 255. Bishop Cranmer refused to swear to Lady Anne Great Vol. pag. 1698. and also he saith That he was Judge of no mans Conscience but his own and that every man should give an account of his own and not of another man's Anno 1556. The Arch-Bishop said Great Vol. pag. 696. There 's no Master of Divinity in England so great if he hold this Opinion before me but I 'le punish him as I 'le do thee except thou wilt swear as I will charge thee The Clerk said Wilt thou submit to the Ordinance and lay thy hand on the Book Thorp said I heard a Master of Divinity say That in such a case it is all one to touch a Book and to swear by a Book And Chrysostom proves him worthy of great blame that bringeth a Book to swear upon And it must needs follow that he is more to ●●●●e that sweareth upon that Book Dr. Martin said Vol. 3. pag. 910 911. That Elizabeth Young refused to swear upon the four Evangelists before a Judge for I my self M. Hussy have had her before us four times could not bring her to swear Dr. Martin Thou Rebel and traitorly Whore thou shalt be wrackt handled thou shalt be made an Example to all traitorly Whore-Hereticks and thou shalt be made to swear by the four Evangelists Eliz. I will not swear I know my duty by God's Word Vol. 3. pag. 753. to God and to the Queen Also Thomas Rowland said If he did curse and swear then he was worthy to be beaten Bish Vol. 3. pag. 401. Bonner swore By my Faith to the Lord Mayor upon Robert Smith's Examination the last time Rob. Smith at this word which the Bishop coupled with an Oath came in and taking him in the manner said It is written Ye must not swear Then Bish Bonner pointed to the Mayor and called him Master Controller and threatned him In the dayes of Edward the Fourth Vol. 1. pag. ●56 three men were condemned to death for denying the Pope's Supremacy Men that make Oaths contrary to the Command of Christ who is the Son of God whom God sent into the World to give a Law to the People who is the Law-giver Them that transgress his Commands by making Oaths which break them again at their pleasure As instance the Pope absolved the French King from his Oath which he had made to the Emperour Blandina a woman Vol. 2. pag. 24. and Ponticus a youth of fifteen years old Martyrs could not be forced to swear with all the wicked Cruelty of the Tormentors Vol. 1. p. 62. neither sparing the age of the Childe nor the sect of the Woman but put them to all the punishment and pain they could devise and often-times would have forced them to swear yet were not able to compel them as instance some as followeth After her cruel Whippings she was brought to the common Scaffold and there thrown down to be torn with wild beasts in the face of the People Being brought the seco●●●ime to the Scaffold suffered all kind of Torments as though hitherto they had suffered nothing at all they striving for the Crown suffered again more Scourgings the trying of Wild-beasts and what else ever the frantick people cryed for and willed above all the rest they brought the Iron Chair in which their bodies being set they were so scorched as on a Grid-iron fryed on the coals which savoured with the savour of the frying among the people and yet for all that the Tormentors ceased not but worked more fierce and mad to overcome the patience of the Saints being made all the whole day a spectacle unto the world in place and stead of Games and Sights which was wont to be exhibed to the people And Blandina being brought forth again was fastened to a stake and cast to the ravenous beasts to be devoured and whilst she seems to hang as it were upon a Cross by the fervency of her Prayer might comfort the rest of the Saints in which Agony she suffered all for the Glory of Christ and when they saw no Wild-beasts would come nigh her thus hanging she was taken down and cast again into Prison Then Blandina and Ponticus the Child were brought out every day to see the punishment of their fellows that they might be compelled thereby to swear and delivered then to Wild-beasts and Torments upon Grid-irons at length she was put into a Net and thrown to a Wild Bull and when she had been sufficiently gored and wounded with the Horns of the same beast felt nothing of all that chanced to her for the great hope and consolation she had in Christ and heavenly things and was thus slain insomuch that the very Heathen men themselves confessed that there was never Woman put to death of them that suffered so much as this Woman did And after that Ponticus the young youth had suffered all the Torments and Pains he gave up the ghost who could never be compelled to swear by all the Torments and Inventions of the Heathen Oh! what have our Christians lost that compel Oaths to Christians seeing that so many suffered so many cruel Tortures and Torments before they would swear and throw away the Command of Christ our Saviour which saith they should not swear So refusing to swear is no new thing Concerning the Hat BIrry was committed by the High Commissioners and removed by Habeas Corpus into the Kings-Bench They returned the Writ with a Certificate That they did commit him for certain Causes Ecclesiastical which general Cause the Court did disallow They certified another time That it was for Irreverent Carriage and Saucy Speeches to Dr. Newman The Court also disallowed of that Cause Birry put in Bail to appear de die in diem and was discharged It was then holden That if Birry did not put off his Hat to him or give him the Wall that the same were not sufficient Causes to commit him Mich. 3. Jac. B. R. Birries Case Hughes Repr fol. 147. In Henry the Eight's dayes Vol. 2. pag. 569. Hen. 8ths dayes the Burning and Martyrdom of Kerby As they had him out of Prison to burn him he went on foot and as he went he met with them going Processioning but he would not bow his Cap nor Knee and the Officers being much offended at him one took a stick of a Faggot when he was tied to the Stake and struck him that he sunk down Dr. Ridley Acts Monuments Vol. 2. pag. 1595. in Q. Maries days when he was examined before the Bishop of Lincoln when he heard the Cardinal named and the Pope's Holiness put on his Cap before the Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop said That neither he nor the Lords in respect of their own persons did look for Cap or Knee but that they did represent such Persons the Cardinals Grace Legate to

custom of the Romans at that time and of divers Heathen Emperors And now would not all people say for obeying Christ's Doctrine that they disobey the Command of the Rulers which commanded that which their Master forbad for the sake of which many did deny their Lives and Estates for the keeping of his Commands And that also that people may now see it is no new thing to deny Swearing and Oaths take a few Examples of the Faithful in Ages past G. F. Swearing denyed by the Martyrs POlicarpus who was as it is said John's Disciple Vol. 1st fol. 55. and had been a Disciple eighty nine years when he came to suffer Martyrdom the Proconsul required him to swear by the Emperors good Fortune and by Caesars Prosperity which was the custom of the Romans at that time And divers Heathen Emperors set up their own Images to be worshipped and their Persons to be sworn by but Policarpus denied and said he was a Christian and would shew forth the Doctrine of Christianity if he desired the same if the Proconsul would appoint a day and hear it For Policarpus refused to swear but kept Christ's Doctrine so he was led away to be burned being an old ancient man confessing himself to be a Christian So at that time it seems Christians did not Swear as afterwards they did in the Apostacy See Acts and Monuments And Basilides a Soldier and afterwards a Martyr being required to swear affirmed plainly That it was not lawful for him to swear for that he was a Christian. So that it seems that it was the mark of a Christian not to swear See Eusebius lib. 6. chap. 4. pag. 98. And Justinian the Emperor appointed first that men should swear By the Gospel and lay their hands thereupon and kisse it saying So help me God And here Christendom may see who are in the Apostacy and who were the first Inventors of this Swearing and the manner thereof which the Teachers of these latter Ages do ignorantly press for an Ordinance of God since the Apostles dayes See the old manner of the Papists Oath Acts and Monum Vol. 1. pag. 854. which they use to require of People as the quality and fact required by a Corporal Oath taken upon the Evangelists or upon the Reliques of Saints or upon the Image of the Crucifix c. Another manner of the Papists Oath They caused them to swear by the Evangelists with their three middle fingers stretched out and laid upon the Book as a sign of the Trinity and Catholick Faith Hen. 8ths dayes and the other two the thumb and little finger put down under the Book in token of damnation of Body and Soul if they did not depose the Truth in the matter Also in the dayes of Nero and Domitian both Heathen Emperors and Cruel Tyrants was very great and sore Persecutions of the Christians and they had a form of an Oath for men to swear by the Inquisitor of their Inquisition put the Christians whom they persecuted to swear by their form of Oath whether that they were Christians or no but the Christians refused to swear confessing and saying That they were Christians and could not deny Christ nor his Doctrine and then according to the Heathens Law Sentence of Death was pronounced against the Christians by the Proconsul and forthwith the Sentence was put in Execution by wicked blood-thirsty-men who put the Christians to death some after one manner and some after another according to the wills of these cruel Tyrants the Emperors And the Waldenses or Leonists whose Names are so famous in the Reformed Churches and who are said immediately to succeed the Apostles De Succes cap. 6. and were the most antient and true Protestants professed it to be no way lawful for a Christian to swear In the Defence of whom in the very thing Bishop Usher late Bishop of Armath Primat of Ireland pleadeth their Cause against the Papists and Jesuites who are the Swearers and breakers of Oaths and yet pleads for Swearing The Plowman in his Complaint saith Vol. 1. pag 527. Thou givest us a Commandment of Truth in bidding us say Yea yea Nay nay and swear for nothing Thou givest us also a Commandment of Meekness and another of Poorness but Lord he that calleth himself thy Vicar on Earth hath both these Commandments broken for he maketh a Law to compel men to swear and by his Law he teacheth that for a man to save his life may forswear and lye and so Lord through the comfort of him and his Laws the People draweth out to swear and to lye nay oft-times to forswear them Lord here is little truth Further he saith Whether thou ordainest an Order of Fighters to turn men to the Belief other ordain that Knights should swear to fight for thy Words And it is one of John Wickliff's Articles Vol. 1. pag. 586. Rich. 2ds daye whose Works were as much esteemed of by the Protestants in England and Bohemia as despised by the Papists and their Clergy having his Bones taken up and burned forty one years after his decease and his Books were also burned and this Article with many other was condemned by the Council of Constance That all Oaths which be made for any Contract or Civil Bargain betwixt man and man be unlawful John Hus and Jerome of Prague were condemed for holding Wickliff's Opinions And Walter Brute Vol. 1. fol. 653. Rich. 2d's days a Teacher among the People of God in the Age of Scorners called the Devil's servant or Lollard against whom the Pope and King Richard the Second and then the ungodly Bishops made such ado to have the name of Truth extinguished and the Professors thereof cut off this is Walter 's Testimony as concerning Oaths I believe and obey the Doctrine of Almighty God and my Master Christ Jesus which teacheth that Christian men in the Affirmation of Truth should pass the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees of the Old Testament or else he excludeth them from the Kingdom of Heaven for he saith Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And as concerning Oaths he saith It hath been said of old time Thou shalt not for swear thy self but shalt perform those things unto the Lord thou knowest But I say unto you Thou shalt not swear at all neither by the Heaven nor by the Earth c. But let your communications be yea yea and nay nay for whatsoever shall be more than this proceedeth of evil Therefore as the perfection of the ancient men of the Old Testament was not to forswear themselves so the perfection of a Christian man is not to swear at all because they are commanded of Christ whose Command in no case must be broken although the City of Rome is contrary to the Doctrine of Christ c. A good Testimony of a blessed Martyr Hear it appears that the Swearing which

Henry 8ths dayes That every man swearing by our Lady or any other Saint or Creature giveth more honour to the Saints than to the holy Trinity and so he saith they be Idolaters In the second of the Ten Persecutions ●reat Vol. ●ag 34. An. 69 70. the cruel Laws and Condemnations of the Heathen Emperours against the Christians who had many Accusers for Lucre's sake to have the Possessions of the Christians so incensed the mind of the Emperour and were ready to accuse them to have the spoyl of their Goods and that the Christians should swear to declare the Truth that was the Form whether they were in very deed Christians or not and if they confessed then by their Law Sentence of Death proceeded The kinds of death which they suffered were divers and horrible whatsoever the cruelty of mens inventions could devise for the punishment of man's body who were of the Christian Party as I have mentioned before first Imprisonment Stripes Scourging Drawing Tearings Stonings Plates of Iron and Brass laid unto them burning hot deep Dungeons Rackings Stranglings Imprisonments the Teeth of Wild Beasts This way in the time of the Ten Persecutions before ther was a Pope who afterwards also compelled to swear Grid-irons Gibbets Gallows tossing upon the Horns of Bulls and when their bodies were thus killed they laid them in heaps and Dogs left to keep them that no man might come to bury them for when they were thus slain crucified cast to Wild-beasts and into Fires and cast to Tormentors yet they kept their Confession and would not go from it but kept the Faith of Christ Jesus and could not be compelled to Swear but kept the Doctrines of Christ and the Apostles who saith they should not swear and the more came to the Faith of Christ As a man cuts a Vine-tree the more it grows so did the Christians grow This was before there was a Pope which afterwards brought up Swearing against Christ's Doctrine and his Apostles and so is the Antichrist for the Pope compelling to swear made void as much as in him lay the Testimony of the Martyrs in the Ten Persecutions In Clark's Book titled A General Martyrologie Vol. 1. p. 97. Pag. 103 104. Hunrick the King in the seventh year of his Raign having caused all the Bishops in Africa on a certain day to meet at Carthage among whom many refused to swear at all who having suffered very much whereupon their just Complaints were very grievous unto the King Hunrick who afterwards commanded the said suffering Bishops to meet him at the Temple of Memory and when they came thither they had this Writing delivered to them Our Lord King Hunrick lamenting your obstinacy in refusing to obey his Will and to imbrace his Religion yet intends to deal graciously with you and if you will take this Oath he will send you back to your Churches and Houses Then they all said with one consent We are all Christians and Bishops and hold the Apostolical and only true Faith Mark they that hold the true Faith deny to swear at all and thereupon they made a brief Confession of their Faith But the King's Commissioners urged them without any further delay to take the Oath contained in that Paper Whereupon they answered Do you think us brutish beasts that we should so easily swear to a Writing wherein we know not what is contained Then the Oath was read unto them which was this You shall swear that after the death of the Lord our King his son Hilderick shall succeed him in the Kingdom and that none of you shall send a Letter beyond the Seas If you take this Oath he will restore you to your Churches Then some of them were willing to take it but others that saw further into the subtilty of it refused it Then were those which would take it commanded to separate themselves from the other which being done a Notary presently took their Names and of what City they were he did so likewise by the Refusers and so both Parties were committed to Ward and shortly after the King sent them word first To those that would have taken the Oath Because that you contrary to the Rule of the Gospel which saith Thou shalt not swear at all would have sworn The King's will is that you shall never see your Churches more but shall be banished into the Wilderness and never perform any Ministerial Office again and there you shall till the Ground And was not this a just reward upon such as denyed their Religion and broke Christ's Command And those that would not take the Oath he banished also into the Isle of Corse to hew Timber for Ships which was 427 years after Christ which was two hundred twenty three years before there was a Pope who afterwards compelled Christians to swear The Persecution of tho Waldenses began in the year of CHRIST 1160. In the dayes of Pope Alexander the third Vol. 2. pag. a 30. 26. some Christians called Waldenses refused to take any Oath whereby they should be inforced to accuse themselves or their Friends Blandina and Ponticus suffered about the year 170 in the fourth Persecution of the ten before there was a Pope because they would not swear Basilides a Captain went with a fair Virgin to Execution and he shewed her some favour and she took it kindly and said she would pray for him Not long after it hapened that Basilides was required to give an Oath from the Emperour but he plainly affirmed that he was a Christian and at the first he was thought dissemblingly to jest but afterwards he constantly and in earnest did affirm the same and they had him before the Judge and committed him to Ward the Christians marvelled thereat enquired of him the cause of his sudden Conversion To whom he answered and said that Polimiena had prayed for him to the Lord and so he saw a Crown upon his head adding moreover that it should not be long before he should be received and so the next day was beheaded because he would not swear and give the Oath but confest himself a Christian This was before there was a Pope that set up Swearing in the first Persecution of the ten about the year 197. Eusebius lib. 6. cap. 5. In Q. Maries dayes they would have had Dr. Sands have entered into Bonds with two Sureties when he was to be set at liberty but he said he came a free-man into Prison and he would not go forth a bond-man and so he passed out free In Henry the 8th's dayes there were some spoke against Vowes And Seven were burned because in their Occupations they would not use any Oath nor could abide it in them that occupied with them In the Germans Complaint they say Vol. 1. p. 8. That those that chuse Bishops and make them by an Oath are plainly wicked and unlawful Cornelius writing to the Bishop of the East Churches Great Vol. pag. 59. ordained that no Oath