which infinite wisdom cannot devise a more obliging oath that the Gentile-Church as well as the Jewish synagogue should by swearing to the Lord make confession with the mouth unto salvation that by two immutable things he might more abundantly shew unto the heirs of the promise the immutabilitie of this his Councill and predetermination that Christians should homage him with this kinde of divine service and give them as full assurance as 't is possible for God to give of the acceptableness of this part of sacred worship And if this be not sufficient to put an end to all controversie touching this question whether a Christian may lawfully take an oath I shall despair of ever prevailing with such obstinate and reprobate-minded men by the plainest demonstrations I can lay before them for how can I hope to convince him with the strongest reasoning who dare reason against Gods oath Howbeit That the matter to which God here swears to wit that under the Gospell men shall in token of their conversion to the living God swear to him may be more plain I shall give a further proof thereof out of Isaiah 19.18 c. In that day shall five Cityes in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan and swear 〈◊〉 the Lord of hosts There shall be an altar to the Lord in the midest of the land of Egipt and a pillar to the Lord at the border thereof And it shall be for a signe and for a Witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egipt For they shall cry unto the Lord and he shall send them a Saviour And the Lord shall be known to Egipt and the Egiptians shall know the Lord in that day and shall do sacrifice and oblation yea they shall Vow a Vow unto the Lord and perform it and he shall be entreated of them and shall heal them Upon which text I note 1. That this prophesie concerns Gospell-times Onias indeed that mock-high-priest alledged this prophesie to Prolomy Philometer and applied the accomplishment of it to that mock-temple which he built at Heliopolis in imitation of that at Jerusalem Joseph Antiq. l. 13. c. 6. and that discreet and sober Jewish priest Josephus himself in his Jewish wars l. 7 c. 30. seems to approve of that interpretation But how wide such Expositors were of the mark of truth and how unapplicable this Prophesie is to any time but that when Egypt was called by the preaching of the Gospell to the acknowledgement of the true God hath abundantly been demonstrated by Eusebius in his Demonstratio Evangelica and the rest of the antient Christian Apologists upon these reasons 1. Onias erected an altar in Egypt out of a factious opposition to the true high priest Simeon and the Jerusalem-Jewes of his communion and occasioned a schism from the Judean Church as Josephus confesseth Bell. Jud. l. 7. c. 30. But the effect of erecting the altar mentioned in this prophesie was the uniting the Egyptians and Jewes into one Church verse 23. In that day when this altar shall be erected to the Lord in the midest of Egypt there shall be an highway out of Egipt to Assyria and the Assyrians shall come into Egypt and the Egiptians into Assyria and the Egiptians shall serve the Lord with the Assyrians In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the land whom the Lord of hâ—sts shall bless saying blessed be Egipt my people and Assyria the work of my hand and Israel mine inheritance Nunc Christo regnante totus nundus uno altari contentus est Oecolampad now under Christs kingdom the whole world is content with one altar 2. After God had chosen out Jerusalem for the place where he would be worshipt the Jewes were prohibited by the Mosaicall law to sacrifice any where but there And therefore all the sacrifices that were offered upon the altar that Onias erected in Egipt were an abomination to the Lord. But God promiseth in this text to have respect unto the oblations offered upon this altar whether by Jew or Gentile and therefore the acceptable sacrifice and oblations here mentioned can be no other then that pure oblation which after the coming of Christ should every where be offered when Gods name should be great amongst the Gentiles Mal. 1.11 Nor the altar here specified any other then that which S. Paul mentions Heb. 13.10 We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle that is Chriâ—ts Table-throne of grace whereon we offer to God his Creatures of bread and wine and in the Sacramental use of them celebrate the commemoration of Christs one oblation of himself once made for all and our selves unto God as a living sacrifice together with our contributions of charity a sacrifice wherewith God is well-pleased Respondeant Judaei lege praeceptum est ut altare non fiat nisi in loco quem elegerit Deus hostiae tantum a sacerdotibus Levitici generis immolentur Ecce Esaias aperte dâ—cet quod Aegiptii colent Deum hostias mumera offerant St Aegiptii Sacerdotium habeant impletur in illis Pauli testimonium dicentis translato Sacerdotio necesse est ut leg is translatio fiat Hieronymus in locum Let the Jew if he can answer this saith S. Jerome In the Law there was a precept that no altar should be set up but in the place that God should choose and that the beasts should be sacrificed only by the Priests of Levies stock But lo Esaias saith plainly that the Egyptians shall offer sacrifices and oblations If the Egyptians have a Priesthood that Testimony of S. Paul is fullfilled in them saying If the Priesthood be changed there must of necessity be a change also of the Law 3. Not the Egyptians but the Jews sacrificed on that altar which Onias erected but upon the altar to be erected according to the tenure of this prophesie in Egipt the Egiptians were to do sacrifice and make oblation unto the Lord. 4. During the continuance of the Mosaical law and the standing of Onias his temple and altar in Egipt and before the erecting of the Christian altar and the standard of Christ in Egipt the Egiptians cried for salvation unto their Idols not unto the Lord made vows to them sware by them they spake the language of the heathen not of Canaah neither had they a Saviour sent unto them till God sent Chrâ—â—â— to blesse them Nor did Israel Egipt Assyria and other gentiles serve God together in the communion of one Catholick Church Nor did God blesse the Gentiles as he promiseth here he would blesse the Egiptians and Assyrians by the name of his people till Christ took down the partition-wall made of twain Jew and Gentile one bodie and called them a people that were not formerly the people of God It is manifest out of S. Jerom upon this text who converst with the Palestine Jewes that their Expositors
the practise of the choise servants of God in the Christian Church called from amongst the Gentiles after his rejection of the Jewes may lawfully be done by the holiest Christian But the spirit of Christ in the old Testament-Prophets did command swearing by the God of truth as that which was to be the practise of Gods elect servants in the Christian Church after his rejection of the Jewes and choosing the Gentiles Therefore the holiest Christian may lawfully swear by the God of truth The major is undeniable the Assumption I prove from Isaiah 65.15 And ye shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen that is The people that I shall choose from amongst the gentiles shall use your name the name of a Jew in execrations when they have a minde to denounce a curse they shall do it in this or the like form the Lord make thee like a Jew whom he hath cast off and mâ—de a vagabond upon earth parallel to that Jeremy 29.22 of them shall be taken up a curse that is the form of a curse by all the captivity of Judah saying the Lord make the like Ahab and Zedekiah two false prophets whom the king of Babylon rosted in the fire For the Lord God shall slay thee and call his servants by another name that is God will dissolve the Judaick Church Common-wealth so that his people shall no longer be discriminated from the rest of the world by the name Jew but by another new name that which was given at Antioch where the disciples were first called Christian by which name ever since the people of the God of Abram have been called and differenc't from all other people upon the face of the earth That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall blesse himself in the God of truth and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth The sum of this whole Paragraph is breifly this You Jewes boast of your priviledges of my electing you out of all Nations to be my peculiar people and you please your selves with these conceits that if I cast you off I shall have none to worship me in the whole world I shall break my promise made to Abraham But know ye that Abraham hath another seed then carnal Jews and when I cast you off I will take the spirituall seed of Abraham his children by faith to be my people who shall be known from others by the name Christian by these I will be secured not as I am now by you in a corner of the world Judaea but in the earth for the uttermost parts of the earth shall be my possession and whosoever through the wide world under the Christian name shall call upon the name of the true God shall blesse themselves in his name and swear by him as the God of truth as that God who by choosing gentile-beleevers to be his people keeps faith with Abraham See Calvin S. Jerom iâ— locum Oecolampadii hypomnemata c. Arg. 4. That which the spirit of Christ that was in the prophets foretold should be done in the time of the Gospel by the Lords people as an evidence of their conversion unto the Lord may lawfully be done by Christians But the spirit of Christ which was in the prophets foretold that in the time of the Gospel the Lords people should swear by his name as an evidence of their conversion unto the Lord. Therefore a Christian may lawfully swear by the Lords Name The major is beyond all possibility of doubt if it be considered how it is limited for I do not say that whatsoever the prophets foretold should come to passe may lawfully be done for I know they foretold the treason of Judas the Jewes rejecting of Christ c. but that whatsoever they foretold should be done as a signe of grace as an evidence of their conversion that do it may be done without sin For sin cannot be an evidence of grace works of darknesse cannot demonstrate him that does them to be a childe of light The truth of the minor is clear from Jsaiah 45.23 I have sworn by my self the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousnesse and shall not return shall never be repeal'd that unto me every knee shall bow every tongue shall swear From which Text that I may manifest the indubitable truth of each branch of my assumption Let it be observed 1. That this prophesie is to receive its accomplishment in gospel-times For God speaks here to the ends of the earth bids them look to him and be saved promiseth salvation to the Gentiles calleth the dispersed of the nations to come near and sweareth that every knee shall bow unto him Now the ends of the earth the nations dispersed did not look to God were not brought nigh till Gospel-times till then not the gentile world but onely the Jewish people did bow the knee and swear to the God of Israel to the Lord Jehovah Before the coming of Christ and the gentiles embracing the Gospel they were without God aliens and strangers to the common-wealth of Israel and the Covenants of promise afar off c. Ephes 2.11 c. 2. That swearing to the Lord is here prophesied of as that divine service and homage by the performing whereof gentile-converts were to declare their owning of and conversion to the true God St. Paul quotes this very Text to prove that all men Gentiles as well as Jewes owe service to Christ Rom. 14.9 10. He is Lord of all that is all nations are to do him homage for it is written As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God It were blasphemy against the Holy Ghost to say that thâ— Apostle perverts the prophets words but he knowing the minde of the Lord in this text renders that word in the prophet every tongue shall swear which denotes an eminent act of saving confession by a word which comprehends the whole service of God thereby implying that swearing by the Lord is one part of divine worship and so eminent a part of confession to God as it virtually contains all other acts of such confession and that we confesse our beleif in and subjection to the true God as well by swearing by his name as by any other act of divine worship we perform to him Breifly the plain sense of the prophet as S. Paul expounds this text is this That as the Gentiles till Christ that light that lightens the gentiles served dumb idols confessing them to be Gods by bowing the knee by swearing to them so after Christs calling the gentiles to the Obedience of the true God man should turn from idols acknowledge the living God to be what his names and attributes import infinitely knowing just powerful c. by transferring unto him those divine honours of bowing the knee and swearing which before their conversion they confer'd upon false Gods 3. That God himself swears by himself then
applyed this text to the dayes of the Messias but when our Apologists upon that concession proved the blessed Jesus to be the Christ some of them applied it to the end of the world at what time they conceive their Messias will come upon the very same mistaken scripture-texts upon which our Millenaries ground their expectation of Christs personal reign 2 I note from thisprophesie that swearing to the Lord is here commended as a signe witnesse and argument of Egipts conversion to the Lord of hosts And it shall be for a signe and for a witnesse to the Lord in the land of Egipt that is it shall be a witnesse that the land of Egipt is become the Lords inheritance that the Egiptians have dedicated themselves to the Lord that he is their God and they his people It shall be for a signe this hath relation to the whole clause afore-going not onely to the pillar erected which is mentiond immediatly before as if the sense were this pillar shall be a signe for the altar in the midst of Egipt the Egiptian Cityes speaking the language of Canaan and their swearing to the Lord are as much signes as that Nor doth the prophet speak in the plural number they shall be signes as if he meant the two last particulars joyn'd by a conjunction copulative the altar and the pillar but in the singular It shall be a signe that is the whole series of those divine dispensations when the Egiptian cityes shall speak the holy language when they shall swear to the Lord erect an altar and pillar to the lord this shall be a signe of Egipts submitting to Christs scepter Niâ—â—l alud vult quam mutatum cultum idolorum translatum in honerem Dei Oecolam in locum the meaning of all this is that divine honour and worship which they had given to their idols they should alter the propertie thereof and transfer it to the true God Is any thing more obvious then that Egypts swearing erecting altars and pillars to Idols was a signe of her owning those Idol Gods or that Egipts speaking the language of Gods people setting up an altar and pillar to the Lord her making vowes and paying them her offering sacrifice and oblations to the Lord were trophyes of Christs victory over Egipt and signes of Egypts submission to Christ with what show of reason then can we except swearing to the Lord out of the catologue of those signes seeing that is spoken with the same breath belongs to the same thing and therefore must be put in the same case and be interpreted Monumentum professio publica quam Egiptii statuent ad testandam fidem communionem suam cum Deo Ecclesiae ejus Junius in locum as well as any of the rest A monument and publick profession which the Egiptians were to erect to testify their faith and their communion with God and his Church 2. Swearing to the Lord is in this Text made a branch of speaking the language of Canaan They shall speak the language of Canaan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swearing by the name of the Lord as the authentick Translation of the Septuagint renders it which Christ and the Apostles perpetually used in all their quotations of â—he Old Testament as that which had been current through the world for above 200. years before Christs Incarnation without contradiction of the Jewes and not so obnoxious to adulteration afterwards as the Hebrew Copies were who were in the custody of the Jewes alone and in a language which none understood but themselves and therefore as apt to be corrupted as the Jewes out of an odium to Christian Religion were apt to corrupt them as it is manifest they have done in most of those Texts which concern the Messias though this by good providence hath escap't their lime-twigg-fingers for the Hebrew now extant retains the participle jurantes So that to swear by the Lord of hosts is to speak the language of Canaan that pure language which God promised to restore to all Nations at the coming of Christ That pure and undefiled Religion which was at first reveal'd man in Paradise for before Christ all Nations but the Jews the inhabitants of Canaan sware by other Gods and to swear by the Lord of hosts was the proper idiom of Jury where that God was well known I know Jerom hath a conceit that Nebuchadnezzar after his conquest of Egipt sent a colonie of syrians Arabians into certain Egiptian cities who introduc't the use of their tongue into those Cityes But he learnt this of the Jewish tradition-mongers of whom he was too great an admirer and through his credulitie received oftentimes false aimes who put this Exposition upon this clause on purpose to divert it from bearing witnesse to the truth of the Gospell And he must be a very great stranger to the propriety of prophetick language that knows not that the language of Canaan imports in their dialect the speaking after the mode and form of Gods people and that therefore Egipts foregoing her native gentile-tongue and using the speech of that people over whom God had a peculiar Soveraignty in swearing to him after their form was a signe of Gods conquest of the Egiptians of his translating them from his dominion of Satan into the Kingdom of his dear Son so farr is swearing by the Lord of hosts or in the name of the true God in cases of importance from being a sin as it is an evedence of the Christian worlds conversion to and recognition of that God Arg. 5. The holiest Christian may lawfully and laudably do that which the spirit of Christ that spake by the prophets hath made the doings of in Gospell-times the condition of Gods accepting men for his people But the spirit of Christ in the Prophets hath made mens learning to swear by his name such a condition as upon the fulfilling thereof he will number men amongst his disciples account them his people that do and root out and utterly destroy them that do not learn to swear by his name Therefore the holiest Christian may lawfully swear by Gods name The major is plain for it is impossible that God should tempt men to sin by making the committing thereof the condition of the grand and comprehensive promise such as this is of being his people which includes all the benefits and priviledges of that relation This were to allure us to fin by stronger motives then Satan can possibly lay before us The minor I prove from Jeremy 12.16 And it shall come to pass that if they will diligently learn the ways of my people to swear by my name in this or the like form the Lord liveth as they taught my people to swear by Baal then shall they be built in the midst of my people but if they will not obey I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation saith the Lord. It is beyond all possibility of rational doubt that this Prophesie relates to the time of
the Gospel for it is directed to the Gentiles of whom Gods people had learnt to swear by Baal called by God his evil neighbours vers 14. that is Nations bordering upon Judea his own inheritance his own land whom he blames for touching the inheritance which he had caused his people of Israel to inherit that is for turning the Jews out and taking to their own possession the Holy Land as did the Assyrians and their confederates in the Jewish Wars the Samaritans Phoenicians Ammonites Edomites c. whom he threatens to pluck out of their own land as they had driven the Jews out of theirs and to pluck out the house of Judah from amongst them this God perform'd at their restauration from the Babilonian captivity To these Gentile-borderers I say God directs this threat vers 14. Thus saith the Lord against all my evil neighbours that have touched c. and this promise vers 15. And it shall come to passe after that I have plucked them out I will return and have compassion upon them and bring every man to his heritage and his own land After the mention of which restauration of those Gentile-borderers doth immediately follow this promise and if they will learn the ways of my people to swear by my name c. This promise then concerns that time when God would return to and have compassion on the Gentiles when he would call her beloved that was not beloved and them a people that was not a people and is made to them that had withdrawn Israel from the worship of the true God to their Idols in whom they had perswaded them to put confidence by whom they had taught them to swear in such forms as Baal liveth by the life of Baal c. and manifestly imports this sense If as you Gentiles have taught my people the Jews to swear by your Gods you will learn of them when the law shall go out of Sion into all the world by the ministry of the Apostles to swear by my name then you shall be built up amongst my people Yea the matter of this promise being the ingrafting of the gentiles into the Church the laying of them as living-stones in Gods spiritual temple the building of them upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets in the midst of Gods people it could not possibly take effect while the partition-wall stood nor have its accomplishment till Christ by the blood of his Crosse had removed the enmity and making peace had reconciled both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body Ephes 2.16 2. A dilligent learning to swear by Gods name is here made the condition of Gods promise of grafting the gentiles into the stock of Abraham of his accounting them his spirituall seed of his building them up amongst his people of his giving them a name and a place in his house as being that which is the way of Gods people nay the ways of Gods people the Old Testament-way and the New Testament way of their protesting what God they serve in contradistinction to the ways of all other people each of which swear by the name of that false God whom they respectively served and in distinction from all other ways of confessing the true God men may confess God in prayer in thanks-giving in attendance upon the Word and Sacraments and yet not glorifie him sufficiently in order to Gods accepting of them as true worshippers in order to his reputing them living-stones fit to be laid in the walls of his house the Church except to those forementioned and all other wayes of expressing their homage they adde this of swearing by his name except withal they dilligently learn to acknowledge his omnisciency omnipotencie justice and divine vengeanee by appealing to those dreadful attributes by swearing by his fear ul name when they are lawfully thereunto called where this most solemn invocation of the divine majesty is denied him he esteems all other acts of invocation not serious enough to oblige him that tenders them to a sincere confession Men may possibly dissemble in their bare word-professions of God and his attributes and therefore he puts Christians here to the utmost trial of their sincerity by this most awful address to him He that swears by his Name calls God for a witness against his soul dares him to his face challengeth the divine vengeance to do its worst in case he swear falsly and therefore God esteems this as the highest and most august act of Divine worship that the creature can possibly exhibite to him and as that which eminently contains all others and comprehends the whole condition of the Gospel all the ways of Gods people confessing to him Hence S. Austin in Psal 63.12 interprets qui jurant in eo by qui fit Christianus he that swears by him that is saith he every profest Christian Nam juramentum sumitur pro toto cultu ut in Esai 45.23 jurabit omnis lingua for swearing by God implies the whole worship of God as in Isaiah Every tongue shall swear to me which is the reason why he singles out this lesson as that which whoso learns diligently shall have the benefit of the book be numbred with Saints be written amongst the living in Jerusalem be built up as a lively stone in the midst of Gods people or if you will have it in Davids phrase Psa 63.12 Every one that sweareth by him shall glory or as the Septuagint is rendred in our Liturgy shall be commended as precious stones opposed to refuse stones But I overdo my undertaking in giving reasons why God makes the learning of this lesson the condition of this promise It is sufficient to justifie swearing by Gods Name from the imputation of sin that it hath pleased him to make the learning thus to swear the condition of his accepting us as sincere disciples of his ingrafting us into his Evangelical Church 3. The not learning those ways of Gods Old and New-Testament people to swear by his Name the non-acceptance of this gracious proposal the non-attending to those terms the not-observing of this condition the not-obeying God in observing the command here implied of diligently attending to learn the way of confessing to God renders men obnoxious to the dint of this fearful doom I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation saith the Lord whatever Nation or generation of men be they Familists Anabaptists Catharists Quakers will not learn diligently to swear by the name of God to swear the Lord liveth and the like Christian forms they may perhaps bolster one another up with vain hopes of Gods accepting them with groundless presumptions that they are the people of God but God doth here reject them and dismounts all their proud confidences those Babel-builders architects of confusion may strengthen one anothers hands in carrying up their castles in the air in planting their Sodom-vines but when their backslidings from the common faith are multiplied to the full sum when their measure of
controversies that came before them should be determined by the oaths of witnesses Had Christ therefore at this time prohibited the taking of oaths in this case it would have been an obstruction to all legal proceedings according to that form of processe instituted by his Father It had been the proclaiming of indemnity to thieves murderers blasphemers and all sorts of wicked and injurious persons and a turning of hell loose in that Kingdom of God for by the standing and yet unrepealed laws of that Kingdom questions of that nature could not be brought to a determination nor malefactors to condign punishment without oath It had been a pragmatical and precocious dissolution of the whole frame of the divine polity before the time appointed by God and assigned by his prophets a turning God out of possession of his Kingdom of Judea before he had erected his Kingdom in the gentile world and by consequence an unpeopling all the visible dominion he had on earth and leaving him destitute of subjects For the veil of the temple was not yet rent with the force of Christs expiring breath the hand-writing of Ordinances was not yet cancell'd by the blood of the crosse the law either ceremoniall or municipall had not yet lost its obliging force upon all them that were born under it as our Saviour was till by his death he had purchast exemption from it and dominion over it and therefore had Christ or any of his Disciples been called before the Judicatures to bear witnesse in a case wherein the civil law of Moses required an oath they would have thought themselvs obliged in conscience to have given oath If he had been made a Judge for the dividing of the inheritance betwixt the two contending brothers he would in obedience to the law have taken the oaths of witnesses if there had been occasion for it If he would have undertaken to have determined the case of the woman taken in adultery as he askt for the accusers Woman where are thy accusers so he would have askt for their witnesses and have called the witnesses to their oaths Briefly as they that expound Christs prohibition of solemn Oaths do by their refusing to learn to swear by the Lord declare themselves to be none of Gods people none of Christs Disciples but unchristen themselves so by fastning this sense upon our Saviours words they un-Christ the blessed Jesus and make him a sinner in stead of a Saviour ranking him with those false Christs who under pretence of greater purity sought the dissolution of the civil polity whose stories you may see in Josephus 3. After this prohibition we finde S. Paul who received his Gospel not from man but God approving of and appealing to the evidence of witnesses in such Courts as he knew no evidence would be taken but by Oath which certainly he would not have done if he had conceived Christ to have forbidden the use of solemn oaths when he pleaded his cause before Lysias he appealed to the testimony of the then high-priest Simon the son of his quondam mastâ—â— Gamaliel and the whole Sanbedrin Josephus in the history of his 〈◊〉 life to bear witnesse that he had been educated a Pharisee and had been a zealous persecuter of the Church in going with the high-priests orders letters at that time that Christ appear'd to him of all which the high priest and all the estate of the Elders can boar me witness Act. 22.5 In his apology before Felix he challengeth his accusers to prove the matters of fact they charged him with Act. 24 13. Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me he blames them for not bringing up witnesses the Jews of Asia who found him in the temple to alledge if they had ought against him and challengeth all that were then in the Court to say if they found any evil-doing in him while he stood before the Council vers 19.20 In his answer before Agrippa he appeals to the testimony of those that knew him from his youth Act. 26.5 who knew me from the beginning if they would testifie S. Paul knew very well that in a matter of life or death as this was no evidence would passe in Court without oath and therefore if he had thought solemn swearing to have been made unlawful by this prohibition of Christ he would rather have undergone a thousand deaths then tempt so many to make shipwrack of their immortal souls by calling them to that unlawful act 4. None of those forms of swearing mentioned here by Christ nor any of like nature would passe for current or legal before a Jewish Magistrate but only such forms as wherein the Name of God was invok't expresly The Law was so clear Thou shalt swear by the Lord thy God as whoever should in any Court of Judicature render any other form of oath that form might have been excepted against by him against whom it was given as insufficient to end the controversie depending as void in their Judaical law which being of divine institution it was not within the verge of humane power either to dispence with or alter the forms of proceeding therein exprest From this custom of the Jews in open Court to swear by no other name but that of God the maker of heaven and earth and 〈◊〉 Appion accused the Jews of singularity as hereby discriminating themselves from all other Nations who did not so strictly tie up themselves to that form of swearing in their Judicatories Joseph l. 2. in Appion Philo Judaus in his Allegories of the Law lib. 2. pronounceth all them accursed that say they swear by God but 't is usual for the wisest Jewish Scribes to run beyond their wits in allegorizing the Law because they do not look to Christ the end of it Howbeit he recovers himself in his treatise of the Decalogue where speaking of solemn swearing before a Judge in a case of controversy he defines it a citation of God to bear witness in doubtful cases and aggravates the sin of perjury in that case from the infamy which it casts upon his name And in his Treatise of speciall laws where he adviseth that when the necessity of the thing required an oath men would not presently have recourse to God himself but use some other form and rather call in some of Gods creatures to be a witnesse doth give sufficient hints that he speaks there of elective oaths onely which men use in private and not such as men are called to take in the course of law and therefore puts in this proviso Salvis legibus when the law allows thee another form that is in thy ordinary communication manifestly implying that no form was good in law but that wherein God himself was named for a witnesse And indeed both Judge and litigants must have been out of their wits if they had laid the decision of controversy upon such oaths as were prae-declared to be of no validity as these forms were which Christ prohibits
them that drop from their lipps 3. Sincerely with a purpose to lay as great an Obligation upon thyself to keep thy promise and swear truly as thy making oath imports to thy neighbour when thy minde and words are both of a colour and the impressions of thy soul correspond with the expressions of thy mouth when thy conscience can tell thee that thou speakest before God in thy heart what thou utterest to thy neighbour a words All these conditions concur'd in our Saviours and S. Pauls asseverations and therefore though they were more then these yet they proceeded not of evill but from a good and honest heart and were all wanting in those Pharisaicall oaths which our Saviour condemns wherein they had neither reverentiall thoughts of God for they conceited they did by those forms swear by God nor weighed the matter and ponderated circumstances but upon every slieght upon no occasion bolted out fruitless oaths nor did they intend to binde themselves to a performance of their word for they accounted themselves as sree after such oaths as if thoy had never made them Such kinde of additions to our yea and day are of themselves evil and therefore forbidden But the ground and reason of Christs prohibition does not reach the other sort of additions 9. That I may make the two Testaments kisse one another at partting and bring the ends of my discourse together Let it be considered from the prophesies before-quoted That to interpret those Evangelical texts as prohibitions to Christians to swear in any case draws after it these blasphemous consequences 1. That Christ who came to accomplish and seal prophesies to fullfill what was spoken by the mouth of the prophets which have been since the world began did contradict by his precepts and prohibit the accomplishment of those prophesies that foretold that under the Gospel when Gods name should be great in all the earth his elect and chosen servants should swear by the God of truth as an evidence of their conversion to him from idols 2. That S. James was by the Holy Ghost which Christ promised should leade his Apostles into all truth to forbid that viz. to learn to swear after the way of Gods people the Lord liveth under pain of falling into condemnation or at least into hypocrisy which the Spirit of Christ in the holy Prophets perswades Christians to do under pain of utter destruction in case of neglect and by the promise of being built up in the midsts of Gods people in case they would dilligently learn to swear by his name which the same spirit commends to Christians as a signe of their sincere and cordiall acceptance of the true God for their God 3. That if the Christian Church does not perform homage to the God of truth by swearing as well as blessing in his name If their tongue does not as well swear as their knees bow to him then the Christian people are not the people of the Messias the Messias is not yet come but still to be expected then the blessed Jesus is not that Christ of whom the prophets speak but as the Jews at his arraignment and their posterity blasphemously stile him a deceiver and a counterfeit For by the prophets it was foretold that at his exhibition and vocation of the gentiles to the knowledge of the true God the gentiles called by his name should swear by the God of truth throughout the carth c. Yield but this much to a Jew or Pagan that the Christian law forbids worshipping of God by swearing by his name forbids any other confirmation of what we affirm but yea yea nay nay and you do not only deprive the Christian Cause and Church of one of her strongest bulwarks of one of those demonstrations of the spirit the spirit of prophesy in the holy men of old whereby the Champions of the Christian faith have inrefragably proved against all assailants that Jesus is the prophets Christ viz. because since his calling of us gentiles by his gospell we have worshipt the true God by swearing by his name but also administer to Infidells an unanswerable argument for them to prove that that Jesus whom we Christians worship for the Christ is not indeed the very Christ viz. because he hath forbid that worship to be exhibited which the prophets foretold men should learn to tender the God of truth at the coming of that Christ whom they speak of It is not possible to imagine any thing more unlike or opposite to one another then that Christ and his disciples which the prophets describe are to what this glosse of the Quakers presents Jesus Christ and his disciples to be In the reign of the Prophets Christ Gods chosen ones of the Gentiles are to do him homage to acknowledge their subjection to him dependance on him awe of him and his dreadfull attributes by swearing by his name But in the reign of the Quakers Christ the world indeed may take its own course but they whom God hath called and chosen out of the world are not to swear at all The people of the Prophets Christ at what time he should publish his royall law and men should be taught of God were to learn to swear the Lord â—â—veth and to be made to ply this lesson with a promise to be built up of they learn'd it diligently with a threat to be plucked up if they did not But the people of the Quakers Christ are taught of God that they must not learn this lesson and are terrified from their book with demouns against it as evill as leading to destruction c. For the opposition is so palpable as I need not illustrate it with more Instances It can now therefore be a matter of no great difficulty to determine whether exposition and practise grounded upon these expostions is more justifiable That of the Christian Church in all ages which so expounds Christs words as not prohibiting her to give to God the honour that 's due to him by a reverentiall invocating of his great name in sacred and solemn oaths to the end that the sayings of the prophets may be fulfill'd our Jesus demonstrated to be the Christ or that of the Quakers whose glosse defrauds God of his due homage robs the King of Saints of one of the prime Jewells of his crown presents the ever-blessed Jesus in the form of an Impostor and false Christ leads directly to the gulf of grossest infidelity and denial of Christ and sets the Old and New-Testaments the Prophets and Evangelists at greater odds then the Manichaeans did making the Gospel to contradict those holy Prophets to whose testimony our Saviour constantly appe al'd for the decision of that great question whether he was that Christ that was to come putting it to this issue that he would forego the claim and give them leave to call him deceiver if he did not exactly answer that model which the Prophets had drawn of him that was to come if they could discern