Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	earth_n	great_a	king_n	5,865	4	4.0614	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48734	A sermon preached in Lent-assizes, holden for the county of Bucks, at Alesbury, March 8th 1671/2 being Ash-Wednesday by Ad. Littleton ...	Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.	1671 (1671)	Wing L2570; ESTC R21353	20,489	39

when any Noble Faculty as yours is designed for the Good of Mankind is made to serve the Practicioners private Advantage more then the Benefit of Society To you the Plaintiffs and Parties concerned that you would study to be quiet not to trouble Law with every trifle I know the Apostle 1. Cor. vi speaks of Heathen Judicatures that he would not have Christians repair to for Justice I know the Law in it self and its own purposes is good and was appointed to determine controversies and to put an end to differences But 't is such Differences as cannot be otherwise ended To bring every small matter before the Judge that might have been taken up at home is to abuse Law and Gospel both as being a great disturbance to Government and as great a breach of Christian Charity The Apostles reproof I am afraid may be applyed to too too many in the 7th ver of that Chap. There is utterly a fault among you because you go to Law with one another Why do you not rather take wrong Why do you not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded Nay you do wrong and defraud and that your brethren There are some it seems who as we use to say will neither do right nor take wrong In the last place to you Witnesses that you set the God of Truth before you and assure your selves that your souls will go along with your depositions He that attests a falshood knowingly wounds God in his dearest Attribute and where he does not know he ought not to say Especially you Jurors remember you are sworn men It must be a Verdict a true saying upon your Oaths you are to give in It is a shame to consider how cheap Oaths are grown amongst us how the reputation of English Faith and honesty is lost in this point An Oath the Author to the Hebrews says is the end of all controversie Justice cannot be effected nor Government secured without it There are two sorts of men peccant upon this account Let me beg the favour of your patience to speak a word with both of them 1. Those that refuse to take Oaths at all 2. Those that will take them hand overhead and not care how nor what they swear 1. There is a sort of men that will not take Oaths I have a charity for them but I wish it be not upon this ground because they have formerly broken their Oaths or because they are resolved afore-hand not to keep them that they will not take them now Let me tell them this stubborn refusal if so is in it self interpretative perjury for they are born-subjects whether they swear or no. But we will suppose it is out of Conscience of an Oath as 't is an Oath They object that Christ and his Apostle James have expresly forbidden it Swear not at all say they Right but examine the Context it stands thus It hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self But I say unto you swear not at all First then from the opposition I ask them whether Christ in this place has cancelled that Prohibition of forswearing ones self or no for so the opposition stands It has been said thou shalt not forswear thy self But I say swear not at all If they say he has there will follow this absurdity that Christ though he bids us not swear at all yet he allows us to forswear our selves But this prohibition without doubt stands good still for 't is brought in with the same form of words as the 6 th and 7 th Commandments are Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit Adultery and I hope they will not say Christ has repeal'd those commandments If the prohibition then stand good it follows that if a man must not forswear himself he may lawfully swear for else how can he possibly forswear himself And it were a foolish idle impertinent precept which forbids a sin that 't is impossible for a man to commit to forbid perjury and not allow an Oath 2. From the particular instances Swear not at all neither by Heaven nor by the Earth nor by Jerusalem nor by thy Head It is evident our Saviour meant only frivolous Oaths by any of the Creatures or by any other thing then God and so Saint James enlarges it for leaving out Jerusalem and ones head he adds nor any other Oath that is as it must be understood any other such Oath and this is further confirm'd by the reason given to each instance which refers not to the act of swearing as it should have done had Christ intended as they say but to the nature of the thing sworn by Not by Heaven for it is Gods Throne not by the Earth for it is his Foot-stool not by Jerusalem for it is the City of the great King not by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black And so as Saint James not by any other thing qd These and the like are all Gods Creatures and therefore swearing being a Religious act they are not to be sworn by Now in that he forbids swearing by Heaven and Earth c. because Creatures can we therefore infer we may not upon just cause swear by God himself the Creator Rather it follows that seeing we are forbidden to swear by these things because Creatures therefore we may and must when there is occasion swear by God 3. From our Saviours design We must observe Christ's scope and purpose in all that 5. Chap. of Saint Mat. It was to clear and vindicate the Moral Law from those abuses and corruptions which the Pharisees false Glosses had put upon it This appears by those other two They held so a man did not kill his brother it was well enough he might be angry with him he might call him Fool and not be guilty of the breach of that command so he did not actually lye with a woman he might look on her and lust after her without any offence Our Saviour contrariwise condemns Murther in the Heart and Adultery in the Eye So here the Pharisees Tenet was that so a man did not forswear himself did not swear falsely he might swear as he pleased and by what he pleased as idly as he would Wherefore 't is only such idle impertinent unnecessary swearing that is here forbidden as well as swearing false 4. From the close or latter opposition Swear not at all But let your Communication be yea yea nay nay 'T is plain that swearing is here forbidden only in ordinary discourse in our Communication not upon extraordinary occasion before the Magistrate or in a place of Judicature where an Oath is to be the end of strife 5. Lastly and I will leave it with them from Saint James himself Yea Yea Nay Nay Where will they find that Christ himself and his Apostles or any of the New Testament Saints used these forms of speech so as they do even to a ridiculous superstition What do you think of St. Paul who in his Epistles which are reckoned familiar discourses where he is to vouch any weighty Truth fears not to use such forms as these Before God I lye not I protest by your rejoycing and the like Would he do you think had he been called into a Christian Court solemnly to bear witness to the Truth have scrupled an Oath would he have answered to an Interrogatory Yea or Nay No that was not the meaning Saint James will tell them what Christ meant Swear not at all says he but let your Yea be Yea and your Nay Nay i. e. in your conversation be honest men and stand to your word in your dealings in your assertions in your promises let your word be your word your yea yea and your nay nay and then you need not swear your word will be taken without an Oath For 't is commonly seen that those find least credit who bind all they say with Oaths and that those who swear most are least believed And this brings us to Those who make light of Oaths are very ready to take them and more ready to break them But such must know that the violation of an Oath is the highest violation of Conscience that can be and that God is Witness and Judge both and that 't is dangerous to call him to be Witness of a lye who will be sure to be an Avenger of it and that though Perjury perhaps is got into that practice that it has lost the Infamy which does of right belong to it amongst men yet it will not miss of divine Vengeance even in this life that 't is the boldest affront can be offered to Gods Omniscience to his Veracity to his Justice to his Wisdom to his Power to intitle him to falshood and cover it with his holy and blessed Name and that though they may elude a Humane Judicature and escape in this life yet in the next when they appear as we all must before the judgment seat of God their injured consciences will stand out and witness and draw uplarge declarations against them to their eternal confusion and condemnation Now may God the righteous Judge of all the Earth so direct you all in what you go about that you may have the Blessing that the Country may have the Benefit and that God himself may have the Glory Amen FINIS