receive and submit unto the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures manifest that this pretended Light within them which is directly opposite to the Light which hitherto hath enlightened all the World which did not extinguish it by Atheism or wink against it with wilful folly is of God we cannot but conclude that the use of Oaths is still as warrantable from the very Nature and benefit of them as ever it was And as the superstitions which though contrary to the common Notions of a God and to the natural principles of Piety yet by Satans malicious subtilty and the vanity of Mans mind are ingrafted upon the stock of natural Religion do not extirpate the root of natural Religion which will maintain true Piety to Gods Glory when by good husbandry the corrupt grafts are cut off and the root and branch are cultivated aright for the service of the true God so the various abuses of Oaths frequent in all Ages with prophane despisers of God and by vicious custom too general with Professors of Religion do not in themselves directly and should not by consequence eliminate the religious practice of Swearing For the banishment of a Sacrament as the Latines call an Oath out of humane Society is a step to supersede all Worship of God and to remove an Oath out of all procedures of Judicature is no little artifice to extinguish the fear of God in the World SECT V. Concerning the summe and end of the Gospel THat we may yet draw nearer to an end and hit our Mark close and deep it will be fit to consider the intimate and peculiar quality of the Gospel to which these pretenders to Evangelical perfection say that an Oath is irreconcileable The Gospel as it stands in opposition to the Law of Works Rom. 3. â— 28 â— 5 â— whereby Man was to seek Righteousness and Life by his own perfect obedience is called by St. Paul the Law of Faith whereby Man being by the general corruption of humane nature and by his singular sinfulness obnoxious to Gods wrath which is the Messenger of Death obtains Righteousness Luk. 1. â—9 〈◊〉 Cor. 5. â—8 19 〈…〉 3.9 and Life by Faith on Christs Blood The Gospel then is a way of peace a word of reconciliation a ministery of Righteousness Peace and Life which are purchased by the Death of Christ and by the Blood of his Cross The primary ends of the Gospel are these two inseparable benefits which our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ hath compassed by his Death and works by the power of the Gospel upon the Consciences of Believers Reconciliation and Reformation of Man who was in a state of enmity with God both active and passive by his Sin Rom. 5. â—0 Col. 1. â—1 22 〈◊〉 Pet. 3. â—8 2. â—3 Tit. 2.11 â—2 In one word this is the Reduction of the lost sheep or the fugitive servant unto God in the way of Peace and Holiness The saving Grace therefore of the Gospel teaches all mankind which is enlightened with its beams to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and piously in this present World We are moreover to observe that from the first foundation of a Church which immediately was after Mans Sin and Sentence began to be built upon the promised Messiah who is the Rock of Salvation common to all Ages God did set up a way of Worship which had relation to Christ the Lamb of God 〈◊〉 Pet. 1. â—9 20. fore-designed by God and manifested in Gods own season This instituted Religion in several shadows drawn out by Gods hand in such proportions as he thought fit conteined the Salvation by Christ and the Doctrine of Faith and Repentance of which the Law given to Man in his state of integrity made no words and gave no hopes of Salvation that way The Gospel therefore first in the cloudy Pillar which was the guide of Patriarchs and Prophets and then in the brightness of its Revelation by Christ since all is accomplished and preached to the Nations superadds to the Law Rom. â—â— 17 the Righteousness of God from Faith to Faith but it pares off nothing of the Religion and Righteousness which Man owes to God and to his Neighbour by that natural dependence upon God and that order to his neighbour Act. â—â— 26 which God established by Creation of Mankind after his own Image and of one blood to bind them together This indeed is that which we call the Law of Nature which God unfolded and taught the Patriarchs the first Fathers of Families and founders of humane Society And the grace of the Gospel is so far from loosening the Bond of this Law that on the contrary by addition of the inestimable benefit of Redemption to our deep engagement by Creation it ties more strictly the Redeemed of the Lord who are enlarged from the bondage under Sin and made the Servants of Righteousness to yield up all their Members once abused to the service of uncleanness and iniquity Rom â—â— 19 to become now the servants and instruments of Righteousness unto sanctification This then being the end and efficacy of the Gospel to clear the light of the Law of Nature and to strengthen the holy bonds of Love to God and Man how is it imaginable that the Tongue is restrained now by the Gospel from being still made an instrument of Religion and Righteousness Since the Evangelical Prayer of our Saviours framing for our use is that Gods name should be hallowed in all the World can we think that silence and total abstinence from taking up the name of God in an Oath with reverence upon just occasions sanctifies or magnifies the Name of God Mal. â—â— 11 Or is it consonant to that enlargement of Gods honour which is the effect of the Gospel in regard of persons and to the maintenance of it by all acts of Piety which our Saviour professes to have been his work and care that Heathens and Infidels should still by the Law of Nature be bound to acknowledge and honour the Name of God by Swearing in a due manner and Christians should have their hands tied from lifting up to Heaven 2 Cor 14. and their Tongues from calling upon his Name and giving him the Glory due unto it Indeed the Apostle says what participation is there between righteousness and the transgression of the Law what communion of Light with Darkness or what agreement of Christ with Belial Let it therefore first be proved that an Oath is the transgression of the Law Maâ—â— 33 before it be cast out of the Kingdom of God as inconsistent with the Righteousness thereof â—â—h 5. â— which Christ commands us to seek Let an Oath which is indeed a Light according to the Apostles sentence because it doth discover and manifest somtime Truth and somtime many shameful things which are done in secret be proved to be an unprofitable deed of Darkness or else let
given as due Do they not dissolve or weaken those bonds of civil societies which Christ by his Gospel hath tied streighter than the Law of Nature did Do they not violate Christian Charity by Damning all that are not of their combination To say nothing of their reviling all Ministers of the Gospel Hath this Precept of not Swearing swallowed up the whole Body of their Christian Religion Or shall the observance of it pass current for universal and uniform obedience to the compleat Law of Liberty Jam. 1.25 Is not then something else in the bottome besides the tenderness of the Reputation of Christianity Let this be well thought on But another thing is yet more remarkable Who would not think but that these hot Zealots for Christs Doctrine of the Gospel who suffer such hard things rather than break Christs Commandment did make the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament which Christ and his Apostles have by practice and precept commended to our study for the confirming of our Faith and the regulating our Lives and those of the New Testament superadded to them joyntly to be the Foundation on which we are built up to be that Temple Eph. 2.19 whereof Jesus Christ is the chief corner stone or the compleat Rule of Faith and Manners For indeed without the Scriptures now who can assuredly know what is the good and acceptable and perfect Will of God And how came these Men to be acquainted with this very Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles but by the Scriptures But after all this you will find your self much mistaken if you imagine that these Men make the written Oracles of God their principle of Religion or Rule of Life For the heads of them in several Books set up the Light of God within them for the only infallible Rule and they disparage the Holy Scriptures which they allow to be at the best but a shadow of Gods will Again their dissimulation of what they dare not deny to be the Word and Will of God concerning Swearing together with their impious despising of the same Holy Word is apparently visible in their Sophistical conclusion thus exprest with all the subtilty that the old Serpent could inspire into them So though it viz. Swearing was allowed in the Law viz. of Moses which is opposed by them in the precedent sentence and here to the Gospel Christ and his Apostles forbid it in his Gospel Here is a double fallacy in the first Member of the conclusion They would induce a conceit that as Divorce was by God and Moses permitted to the Jews to pass unpunished Mat. 19.8 Mal. 2.16 for the hardness of their hearts which yet was not approved by God as good in it self and therefore it is regulated by a Law for the security of the Woman which Law doth but permit the divorce but enjoyn the giving a Bill so Swearing was but allowed barely with prescription of forms for Solemnity and not commanded Deut. 6.13 10.12.20 Whereas Swearing by the Name of God was commanded which is devoted by the Fear of God in Scripture as a solemn part of his Holy Worship whereby Man gives God the Glory of his Sovereignity Providence Omnipresence Omniscience Omnipotence Veracity Justice and Equity The Prophets also who reached to the depth of the Law which was * Rom. 7.14 Jer. 4.2 12.16 Spiritual commanded Swearing under the Old Testament and * Esa 19.18 45.23 65.16 foretold in their Evangelical Sermons that way of serving God and Christ under the dispensation of the New Covenant when the Gentiles turn to the Lord mark the words of Esaiah which according to the Hebrew run thus He that blesseth himself in the Earth shall bless himself in God Amen as we render it not amiss but not to the full importance of the word Esa 11.9 the God of Truth and he that Sweareth in the Earth when it shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea in the new state of the Church when God calls his Servants by another Name Esa 65 16 17. And what is that new and blessed name but Christians Shall Swear by God Amen Christ himself expounds the word when in his Heavenly Epistle to the Church of Laodicea Apoc. 3.14 he takes to himself that glorious Title Amen The true and faithful witness who is invoked as a Witness and Judge of the Heart in every Oath made by his Name It is not to be omitted that the Oaths which God commanded to be used in judicial proceedings are enjoyned as fit means in their own nature for the discovery of truth Heb. 6.6 and decision of controversies which benefit and effect is common to all Nations in all Ages who are imbrued with an apprehension and fear of God as Judge of the World It is therefore an Imposture of these Wolves in Sheep-skins to attempt the persuasion that Swearing was only allowed and not as expresly commanded in the Law as these Dreamers Dream it to be forbidden in the Gospel Their second piece of juggling is this that by their taking no notice of the practice of all Nations not debauched into direct Atheisme and of the constant practice of Gods best servants who used Oaths for firm binding themselves and others in publick Confederacies and private transactions which were made between Gods servants on both sides and also between the people of Gado on one side and Idolatrous people on the other part of which proceedings the Sacred History of the World before the Law given by Moses Rom. 15.4 2 Tim. 3.15 1 Cor. 10.11 Heb. 10.1 Col. 2.17 yields a full Harvest of Precedents they divert us from looking after those things which as St. Paul says were before written for the instruction conviction reformation teaching and admonition of us upon whom the ends of the World are come Therefore though Jesus Christ brought that Grace and Truth whereof Moses in the Ceremonial Law by Gods wise contrivance gave the Jews a Shadow and that Shadow vanished when the Body of the Son of Righteousness appeared above the Horizon of the Church yet Christ in his Gospel did not diminish any thing of that natural Religion the seeds whereof God had once sown in the Hearts of all Mankind for the keeping up the Faith of his Providence and the fear of his Judgment which are the two Pillars of Justice without which no civil society can firmly subsist I now proceed to animadvert the false Doctrine either insinuated secretly by supposition or expressed openly by profession First It is falsly supposed that the Law of Moses doth not in any part of it concern or oblige us Christians I shall hereafter shew that Christs prohibition of Swearing in familiar Discourse and St. James's restraint of the Tongues outrage in passionate heates is no forbidding of what the Law commands But if the Law of Swearing oblige Christians or be but a precedent to direct them we must observe
it or at least may warrantably imitate it The Ceremonial part of the Law which concerned the Typical Service and Sacrifices of the Temple ceased as to the design and Virtue of it when Christ by his Gospel published the accomplishment of our Redemption wrought by his Death and Resurrection The Political Law of Moses which was peculiarly accommodated in many particulars to the seed of Jacob called Israel as they were by Covenant made God's Tenants of Canaan ceased when they ceased to be the Politick People of God Both were openly abrogated as to their exercise and practice by the utter devastation of the Holy City with the Temple it self by the dissolution of the Policy by the ejectment of the Nation out of their Land and dispersion over the face of the Earth in which state of exile Hos 3.4 accompanied with bondage they yet remain without King Prince Sacrifice Image Ephod and Teraphim that is without any setled Form of Government and without any means to serve or to consult God as formerly they had done But for the Law of Moses so far as it prescribes Offices and exercises of Piety Charity Justice Humanity and Prudence it obliges Christians not upon the same account it did the Jews to wit as it was a part of the Covenant made in Horeb but as it is a clear explication and improvement of the Law of Nature by deduction of particular Precepts from general Principals of Religion and Righteousness Therefore St. Rom. 13.8 Eph. 6.1.2 Paul charges Christians with obedience to the Law the second Table whereof he ingrafts into the Gospel And which is yet more considerable to manifest our concernment in the Law he establishes the liberal maintenance of the Ministers not only upon the Ordinance of Christ but also upon two Laws of Moses 1 Cor 9.8.14 according to the Spiritual meaning of the one and the Reason and Analogy of the other And when we hear him speak thus ver 9. Doth not also the Law say these things We must remember that as St. Paul says elsewhere Rom. 3.19 We know whatsoever things the Law speaks either for conviction or for direction It speaks unto them that are under the Law We therefore who have and hear by God's bounty Moses and the Prophets as well as the Apostles are under the Law Luk 16.29 not as a Covenant of Righteousness and Life by Works for in this respect We are not under the Law Rom. 6.14 but under the grace of the Gospel but as an obligatory Rule of obedience to the Will of God declared therein therefore St. James calls the Law recorded by Moses a Perfect Law of Liberty the doing whereof must be added to the hearing if we desire to be happy St. James also calls it The Royal Law one Commandement whereof being broken the whole Golden Chain is broken by which we must order our lives Jam. 1.25 2.8.12 and shall be judged Now St. James knew that the third Commandment running in the Negative Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain did include the Affirmative Precept of Swearing reverently and keeping legitimate Oaths which were Duties known well by the light of Nature but reinforced upon the Jews by the Law Now is it imaginable that St. James the Apostle of the Circumcision writing to the Jews should so far forget himself as after this high commendation of their Law expresly prohibit what the Law enjoyned and by a total abolition of swearing cancel the Third Commandment as a thing that hath no further any place or use under the Gospel This intolerable inconvenience is easily avoided if according to the scope of the Apostles discourse easily gathered from the Context and considering that impatience is the Parent of rash Oaths we say that St. James did very wisely joyn his inhibition of Swearing in heat and haste upon the Sallies of Passion to his exhortation unto patience Jam. 5.8.12 and yet he did not abolish the Third Commandment nor banish Oaths out of Christendom I confess I have unawares transgressed mine own limits and expounded St. James before the method I prescribed to my self did require it but I shall have the less to say hereafter Indeed being ingaged to shew how St. James and indeed all the Apostles do oblige Christians to their observance of and obedience to the Law in those Precepts which concern all Nations who are by Christ set at liberty from the Judaical Yoke of Ceremonies and carnal Ordinances amongst which none was so mad yet as to rank an Oath I could not but observe the incongruity of the Apostles prohibition as it is over-stretched by the Quakers with his own honouring of the Law and to prevent any scruple which might arise through misunderstanding of the Apostles restraint of us from swearing by this distinction of imprudent and passionate Oaths belched out in rage from deliberate swearing upon weighty Causes either arbitrarily or out of obedience to Authority but always with due reverence to God I have open'd a way to reconcile St. James to himself and the Law to the Gospel And now I proceed Secondly To refute the dangerous errors of the Quakers which they lay for a foundation of their abstinence from swearing They affirm the Righteousness of the Gospel exceeds that of the Law This Affertion they maintain by the example of one Walter Brute who as Mr. Fox relates in his Martyrology defended his refusal of an Oath because his Master Christ taught Christian Men that in affirmation of a Truth they should pass the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees of the Old Testament or else he excludes them out of Heaven Matth. 5.20 To the words recited out of Matth. 5.33.37 Walter Brute subjoyned Therefore as the perfection of the antient Men of the Old Testament was not to forswear themselves so the perfection of Christian Men is not to swear at all because they are so commanded of Christ But though Walter Brute was mistaken in the sense of Christs Commandment yet his words mount not to such an height of Error as this position of the Quakers For W. B. doth well note that our Saviour says our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees but not that of the Law of Moses And to the right understanding of Christs Sermon in the Mount we must take notice that Christ doth not unfold to his novice Disciples the Mysteries of the Gospel but first corrects the Jewish vulgar error of Happiness consisting in the full enjoyment of the Temporal Blessings promised in the Law and prepares them for the Cross to be suffered for Righteousness and that they might not be deceived by a counterfeit or defective Righteousness he establishes the Law and the Prophets to be the Rule of Righteousness and then proceeds to clear and vindicate the Law of Moses from the corrupt Glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees whose new Model of Righteousness was so defective
Christ loosened no bonds of the Law of Nature nor of the Laws of Nations which were agreeable to natural Justice and humanity but binds Christians by new bonds of peace in obedience to Magistrates Parents and Masters although they be harsh and froward And now I come to mine Argument which I shall frame out of these Propositions 1. The Soveraign Magistrate and those who are sent by him according to the Evangelical Doctrine have received in their Divine Ordination a power to use all means that either by Gods appointment are or in common prudence seem to the Wisdom of the State directly conducible to the preservation of the Peace and promotion of Righteousness and for punishment of Offenders all which indeed is the publick good and for the procuring whereof God hath armed his Deputies with a Sword or a coercive power that the fear or the feeling of it may constrain Men to obedience All this is written with a Sun-beam in the New Testament See Joh. 19.11 Rom. 13.1 c. And it is further confirmed by what I have already produced to shew that the Gospel takes no flower out of the Crowns of Kings though they were infidels much less if they be faithful For if St. Pauls Logick be good that Servants being made Christians ought the rather to serve their Masters being converted because they are believers and beloved 1 Tim. 6.2 we may by proportion conclude that the Magistrates embracement of the Christian Faith doth not impair his Authority and ought not to diminish the Subjects inclination to serve and obey and is an indeerment of the King to his People 2. An Oath seasonably administred and duely taken is a fit means to preserve Peace by a firm obligation of Subjects to their Soveraign whereof we have an example 2 Kings 11.17 and to secure and promote Justice and to carry on judicial proceedings in discovery of right and wrong and in conviction of Offenders To prove this I need say no more than advise any doubter to look upon the judgment and practice of all polished Nations under the Sun since the Foundations of Kingdomes and Republicks in the World And if all that be counted but a general corruption of reason like the general Idolatry of the Nations estranged from God let him remember that the use and force of Oaths is founded upon no other basis but the hearty Faith and sincere fear of Gods power and vengeance But I shall drive the Nail to the Head by Gods own Sentence who established Swearing in his own government as a means proper to produce the effects aforesaid and tells the Jews for their credit that their political Laws did exceed those of all Nations for Wisdom and Righteousness Deut. 4.5.8 Now the use of Oaths is an ingredient of very many Laws in the Government 3. The Magistrate who stands accomptable to Christ Apoc. 19.16 who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords for the exercise of his power in order to the ends of Governement may and ought to require Oaths of the Subject as the occasions viz. of secuting the Kings Life and Honour the preservation of the publick Weal and Peace the ending of Controversies and the execution of Justice or the like do require Otherwise he will hardly be able to clear himself of imprudence or of remisness in refusing the choice and use of such means as God himself hath approved and appointed in the course of Government I think I may now upon these premises safely and rationally infer Ergo the Magistrate according to the Gospel may put his Subject of what Religion soever to his Oath to Swear by the true God I wave the Question of requiring Jews and Infidels to Swear upon the Gospel that it is by Jesus Christ whom we confess to be the true God but they do not own as such I have now suffciently proved as I think and hope that all who are both rational and impartial will apprehend that the Gospel of Christ doth not infringe but confirm that power that Magistrates in joy'd by the Law of Nature that is to say by Gods general ordination of humane Society throughout the World and the Kings of Gods special anoyntment and appointment over his people were endowed with by his Statutes to tender Oaths to their Subjects and to require their obedience in taking them supposing still that the use of them be referr'd to their proper ends See an example of an Oath imposed by Solomon 1 King 2.42 Rom. 13.4 I have now but little to do farther for the proof that the same Gospel binds Christians to take such Oathes as are administred to them by their lawful Superiours For God both in the way of Nature and also in the course of Grace doth nothing in vain and as St. Paul says expresly Gods Minister doth not carry a Sword in vain and is as much bound to draw it for the defence of Gods honour which is concerned in Swearing as the servants of Secular Kings are obliged to fight for the Life or Honour of their Master which rule of Worldly State Christ hath consecrated by his Sentence Joh. 18.36 But the Magistrates power is rendered vain and ineffectual if the subject can clude his Authority and resolve his commands into such wind as shakes no Corn by his obstinate refusal to swear I shall therefore urge but one Argument to satisfie the Subjects Conscience in this case The Gospel of Christ Rom. 13 1-7 Tit. 3.1 1 Pet. 2.13.14.17 taught by the Apostles to all Nations lays upon all Christians a necessity of submission and obedience with a readiness to every good work unto the supereminent powers and principalities of the World and to the Administrators of Government commissioned by them not only for Wrath and yet that terror arising from the apprehension of the Sword that gliters in the Magistrates hand is justified by St. Paul but also out of Conscience Quakers mark that to wit Conscience binds to no things but obedience in this case rightly stated or reverence of Christ by whom Kings Reign and Princes Decree Justice Prov. 8.15 Eph. 6.1 And this universal obedience like that which Children owe to their Parents is limited but by one Rule obey in all things in the Lord. It reaches to things indifferent as the obedience of the Rechabites did Jer. 35.8.9.10.18.19 which God commended and rewarded with a Blessing But Obedience to our Superiours in those things which are so far from being evidently repugnant to the Will and Command of the Lord that they are consonant to the express Word of God and agreeable to his Ordinances is an Evangelical Duty unavoidable upon any pretence whatsoever where there is a possibility of performance If you consult the Allegations out of St. Paul and St. Peter and confer them together the perspicuity of the words will not permit you to doubt of the truth of this Proposition But Swearing in the manner aforesaid when it is