Speratus the Martyr about the same time denied to swear so because he knew not what the Genius of the Emperor meant Tertullian tells us in the second Century That Christians would not swear by the Genius or Daemon or Fortune of Cesar but by the health or safety of the Emperor they did because they understood by that God and the Lord Christ And when other Christians did in publick cases swear being required by Authority yet the Bishops of the Church were not put to swear as Basilius a Bishop pleaded for his priviledge when in the Council of Chalcedon he was required to give Oath the sanctity of his Life and honour of his Order being assurance sufficient for his truth The Christian Souldiers as Vegetius tells us took Oath in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit to obey their Commanders not to desert their Colours and to dye for the common welfare which was called Sacramentum militare both before and after Christianity had prevailed in the Empire And hence the name Sacrament came to be applied to Christian Mysteries which are special and solemn dedications of them to the true God and Saviour In the Nicene Council Arrius with an Oath renounced his heretical Opinion So in the Ephesine Council it was ordered that Nestorius should abjure all heterodox and profane Doctrines In the Sixth Synod of Constantinople Gregorius the Librarian made Oath tactis Evangeliis upon the Bible that he left the Books in the Library such as he found them without any blotting out or inserting which Oath I wish the Romish Expurgators had taken and kept as to their Edition of ancient Church-Authors Fathers and others Athanasius who seems and is very zealous against profane and popular swearing yet in his Apology to Constantius purges himself by Oath from the calumnies cast upon him by impudent persons citing for his defence the example of S. Paul Nor is it any news to read of Christian Kings and Magistrates requiring and Subjects giving their Faith by Oath in matters civil sacred and solemn when the form of Oathes were such as consisted with the truth of Christian Religion and the honour of the true God Nor did any Canons of the Church ever forbid such Swearing Indeed while Christians lived in persecution without any protection from the civil Indicatories there can be no examples of their Swearing after the heathenish manner But when Christianity and Christians came to be wrapped up in the Imperial Laws and defended by the Supream powers and were enabled to vindicate their civil rights in judicial proceeding they did not think that unlawful which God had of old commanded which hath a moral that is an eternal good end in it as an act of trust and appeal of agnition and veneration toward God of justice and satisfaction to man also of private and publick charity as the School-men truly observe for the ending of controversies and taking away of jealousies Only due circumstances were strictly required according to the word of God in judgment righteousness and truth Yea we read of old some condemned by the orthodox part of the Church as S. Austin and others tell us for this error among others that they denied all swearing to be lawful So did the Samosatâ—nians and some Pelagians in Syracuse so the Massilians and Euchites so in S. Bernard's days some of the Albigenses and of later dayes some Anabaptists and now the Quakers whether out of policy and art or simplicity and ignorance God knows It were as needless as endless in respect of the Quakers satisfaction who do not value them to produce the consonant judgements of Modern Writers of the Reformed Churches or the Romanists and the most eminent Divines among them which may easily be seen in the Harmony of their Confessions or in their particular Tracts in this Subject Swearing All agreeing as in just severity against false idle and profane Oathes against all perjury intentional and eventual So they do all assent to the moral good in a judicious and solemn swearing with due circumstances upon just occasions by lawful Call of Authority in cases honest and true especially to end controversies to secure Princes and preserve the common wellfare in Iustice and Peace Nor do they think that by any positive Law of Christ all swearing is become now unlawful to Christians among whom the same end use necessity and sanctity of Oaths may be and still are to be had which was once lawful to the Jewes and used in all Nations but only that kind of evil swearing which then was become customary and thought either not sinful or venial This is and ever was forbidden as by the Law of God of old so by the renewed vigor and force of it which Christ restored after it had been so much depraved by the Pharisaical presumption and popular profaneness which imposed rigors where God had laid none and affected liberties where God had given none Agreeably all eminent Writers of the Greek and Roman Church among the learnedest Papists Lutherans and Calvinists Canonists and Casâ—ists as well as those in these British Churches do assert the Authority of lawful Magistrates to require and impose religious Oathes and the duty of Subjects to obey both God and them in taking them as becomes Christians with due reverence to the Majesty of God and with fitting obedience to these commands of Superiours who have their power from God and are to use it to his Glory Nor do they disallow even private and spontaneous attestations of God in weighty matters as to quench the fire of jealousie or to purge away an unjust infamy or to give some such security as justice and charity may require for our own and others goods as a sober Heathen tells us to the just condemnation of Christians who in trivial affairs venture to prostitute the sacredness of an Oath And thus I have with greater prolixity then I intended my wonted fault and Apology endeavoured to vindicate the Divine and true sense of our Saviours words First to remove the crying sin of Swearing vainly rashly irreverently profanely falsly in small or great matters Next to shew the moral end and religious use of Oathes lawful for matter and form and particularly those required in Judicial proceedings according to the Laws and Customes of England both Ecclesiastical and Civil or common agreeable to the word of God and the judgement of the best Christians in all Ages Having herein no design but to give Testimony to that Truth which I believe to justifie the sanctity of our Lawes to serve His Majesty and to do the duty of a good Subject a good Christian a good Minister of Christ and a good Bishop of this Church dispelling the needless scruples and superstitious fears of these poor people called Quakers shewing them their safe liberty to obey and how to escape the Penalties for disobeying the Laws and obstructing Justice by refusing
to choak that good seed of Religion which is sown by the publick Ministry and fenced by legal Authority As I would have that Religion only setled in its Doctrinals Devotionals Discipline and Government which is by publick consent according to the word of God and Catholick prudence judged to be the best for Truth Sanctity Order Decency which blessed be God is in England so I would have It and It only to enjoy all publick countenance and encouragements by the injunction and protection of the Laws by the favour and example of the Prince by publick maintenance and honour by the use of publick Churches and Oratories To the Preachers and professors of this publick Offices and Employments of honour and authority foraign and domestick ecclesiastical civil and military should be chiefly appropriated of these advantages dissenters should be generally deprived because they are the proper honoraries of those who most serve the publick Peace by their due observance of the Religion and Laws established from which whoso openly vaâ—ies and dissents layes the foundations as of distraction and division so of destruction and confusion With these outward advantages added to that internal power of truth holiness which are in the established Religion it may as I think not only be happily suppoâ—ted but easily prevaile in a short time by Gods blessing against all factious and feeble oppositions unless the scandal negligence levity and luxury of its Ministers Bishops Presbyters and Professors overthrow it by casting such immoral disgraces upon it as make people dissbelieve and abhorre both it and them as was in the case of Eli's Sons But I confesse I would not have this legal and avowed Religion of the Nation so rigorous sharp and severe as Sarah to Hagar by the suddain over-awing or violent overlaying of all other different perswasions in peaceable men as not to let them breath in the same common Air or not to enjoy their lives civil liberties and estates with their dissenting consciences in all modest privacy and safety I abhorre as much as I dread all racks and tortures of mens souls or those cruel no less then curious scrutinies of mens consciences which covet first like God to search mens hearts and then like the Devil delight to torment them in their Estates and Liberties only because they are not so wise or apprehensive as themselves but as honest perhaps and sincere in the sight of God True I think that some little pecuniary mulct as one or two Shillings to the poor for every Lords dayes absence from the publick Church or Assembly may be justly laid as a mark of publick dislike upon Dissenters and Separaters from the established Religion not for their private difference in judgment which possibly is not their fault but for their publick deformity in practise to the scandal of the established Religion and to the endangering of the publick welfare whose strength and stability consist in unity and this in uniformity to the setled rule and in conformity to outward practise yet still no Inquisition to be made into free mens Consciences nor any great penalty laid upon them for their perswasions further then their words and actions do discover their Principles Opinions Correspondencies and Adherencies to be contrary and dangerous to the publick Peace Order and Justice which all are founded in and flourish by our setled Laws and Religion Thus permitting sober men not a declared toleration or publick profession by way of open rivalry to the established Religion but only such an arbitrary connivence and conditional indulgence as gives them no trouble for their private and untroublesome Opinions while they are kept in their breasts and closets or in their private houses and families to which all dissenters ought in reason to be confined on the Lords day without any convention of strangers to them though perhaps on the week-day they may have their meetings allowed yet so as to be kept within parochial bounds or to such a number of persons and families as shall be thought safe But for Dissenters to have multitudinous Conventicles as it were musterings of their forces when where and as many as they please cannot be safe for thereby they not onely affront the established Religion but confirm each other in their opinions yea and as Charcoals in heaps they more kindle and enflame each other by their numbers to such proud animosities and rebellious confidences as may hope to set up their Faction supream not only in the repute of Religion but in civil power which is the ambitious aim of all parties except that which is purely Christian wholly resolved into suffering principles All others we see whether Papists or Presbyterians or Anabaptists or Independents affect summam Imperii as Diotrephes to have the preeminence as Lucifer and Antichrist to exalt themselves above all and therefore they must by wise and vigilant power as well as by good preaching living be kept as fire within the hearth of their private opinions and parties left they prevaile by popular Arts against the publick established Religion which is the Palladium or Conservator of civil peace and prosperity and never to be rashly changed or rudely contemned while it is authorised The great Charity to which includes even a charity to all those which differ from its present settlement who commonly are more miserable in the riotous mutations which their folly and rudeness affects then in those sober restrictions of which they are so impatient that from different perswasions they break out to petulant oppositions by Tongue and Pen thence they are betrayed to seditious projects and at last these must be brought forth in tumultuary and violent actions which are so intolerable that the very first sparks of their insolent and seditious Expressions especially in Pulpits and Presses ought by great penalties to be suppressed there being nothing more unreasonable then for any man rudely to blaspheme and reproach that Religion which his Prince and Countrey professe unless he be so impudent as many are to blaspheme that also which himselfe owneth as the true Religion with them This tenderness moderation and indulgence I bear only to humble modest and innocent dissenters upon the account of Christian Charity which ought in all things becoming humanity to exceed all other men as Tertullian well observes To which Christian Charity of mine towards sober dissenters besides the confidence I have of Truth and its prevalency perhaps my native temper and candor may contribute something which abhors after the genius of Primitive Christians all severity or rigors only upon the score of Religion farther then is necessary for the cure of offenders and the conservation of the publick Peace I know the roughness or smoothness of mens educations and complexions like Esaus and â—acob's have much influence upon their opinions and conversations yea and upon their consciences too If this may seem to some too great a facility and gentleness in me yet it is an error on the right hand
to them is because they are a Sect lately bred by a kind of equivocal generation as Vermine out of the putid matter and corruptions of former times in which so many Factions cast forth their spawn and filth to the deformity and confusion of all things Civil and Sacred in this Church and Kingdom They had their beginning from the very rabble and dregs of people uncatechised undisciplined and ungoverned in England No wonder to find these people fly to inspirations and new lights when they were hatched in dark times which sought to put out all the old light of Law and Gospel They might easily run to Rudeness toward their betters and Refractoriness against our Laws and Obstinacy in their Errors and Impatience of any just coercions when they had their first original and extraction out of that squalor mud and fedity of times which destroyed all fear of God and reverence of Man which denied the holy institution of Ministers the orderly presidency of Bishops the just authoritie of Magistrates the freedome and honour of Parliaments and the Sacred Majesty of Kings All these being troden under the feet of profane Levellers and cruel Vsurpers who can wonder that the impiety and scandal of those times should lead such silly people in those temptations which sought by some unwonted waies to make even their obscurity remarkable at least by the parallel boldness of their Opinions and the rudeness of their Actions 3. Lastly I pity them because to me it is no wonder if people of so plain breeding of unpolished manners and possibly of no evil minds compared to others of those times though easie and unwary as the Quakers for the most part are if I say they were scared from all Swearing by the frequent forfeited Oaths and repeated Perjuries of those Times in which the cruel Ambitions and disorderly Spirits of some men like the Demoniack in the Gospel brake all bonds of lawful Oaths by which they were bound to God and the King daily imposing as any new Partie or Interest prevailed the Superfoetations of new and illegal Oaths monstrous Vows factious Covenants desperate Engagements and damnable Abjurations Poor men the Quakers as well as others had cause to fear lest if they took an Oath to day they should to morrow be forced to renounce and abjure it not as to own a quiet submission and profession of passive obedience to Powers at present prevalent and protecting which is the way of temporary and reciprocal Oaths of Allegiance among those Subjects whose fortunes lying on the frontiers of Dominions expose them to the vicissitudes of Wars and change of Governours but to a formal comprobation of most unjust Actions yea to renounce and abjure the undoubted rights of others to attest even by Oath the Usurpations of those as lawful which were most diametrically contrary to the Laws of God and Man This great temptation under which these Quakers then lived makes me have much compassion for them it being not only easie and obvious but venial and almost commendable for them to be carried to an utter aversation from all Swearing whatsoever when they saw such desperate abuse and breaking of publick and solemn Oaths in those dismal days But as the abuse of things lawful and good must not take away the lawful use of them no more then some mens gluttony and drunkenness may deprive us of all eating and drinking soberly so neither may Christians therefore deny all Swearing because some men cared not what and how they did Swear and Forswear Here a little clearing of those superstitious fears and prejudices which first possessed these men against all Swearing may at once let them see the liberty they have for doing that which our Laws require and our Saviour in the Gospel no where absolutely forbids but onely regulates and restrains Nor do I only thus pity the Quakers but I praise them also in some respects being as no enemie to their persons so a friend to any thing that is good in them First for their chusing as they profess in those Papers given in that day to some of the Lords rather to suffer then sin against their Consciences and so against God whose holy will shining on the Soul in Reason and Religion either seeming or real is indeed the present rule of Conscience Nor may any man act contrary to these dictates which he judgeth to be Gods though he erre as to the Truth of the Rule yet his judgement binds so far as it represents though in a false Glass the supposed light of Gods will For he that will venture to act against Conscience though erroneous will also act against it though never so clear and perspicuous Here the first care must be that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgement be according to Truth and then to act accordingly Else however the integrity of intention may be commendable and so mitigate the fault yet the sin of the action may be great as to the enormity or aberration from the rule of eternal Truth and Justice As that of Paul was when he persecuted and blasphemed the Christian Religion being verily perswaded that he ought so to do against that way So others should think they did God good service while they killed Christs Disciples A Conscience thus erring falls into the snare or dilemma of the Devil if it act according to its error it sins materially against the intrinsecal Justice and Truth of God and his holy Will the conformity to which is the measure of moral good and holiness if it act contrary to its appearing Principles it sins formally and maliciously as wilfully rebelling against the supposed will of God So much it concerns every Christian to be fully informed of that Divine Truth and Light which alone shews the right and good way Else they will easily be brought to call evil good and good evil to call light darkness and darkness light to be over-righteous by adding to the commands of God or over-wicked by making or esteeming themselves sinners when indeed they are not so either negatively superstitious in abstaining from that as sin which is no sin or affirmatively superstitious in counting that a duty which is not so Both are injurious usurpations upon the soveraignty of God whose Scepter is infallible Truth as his Sword is just and irresistible Power So dangerous are erroneous fears where no fear is or presumptuous confidences where is no Divine permission Men must not set up the Idols of their own imaginations in Gods place nor may they be falsaries or forgers of that Coyne which as to duty is only then currant when it hath not only good metal but also the clear stamp of Gods express will on it The Mint of humane fancies either melancholy and timorous or pragmatick and adventurous is but an adulteration of Religion and a kind of stuprating of Conscience The will of God which is clear either in right
Reason or true Scripture-demonstration is sufficient to make the man of God perfect to every good word and work without any additions or detractions which are but as the Wens or witherings the excrescencies or deficiencies of mens extravagant minds and actions so far from advancing the peace of Conscience or the honour of true Religion that they debase and deforme both of them As no Laws of men contrary to Gods Word are to be actively obeyed so Laws of men which are not contrary to right Reason and Scripture must not be disobeyed but conscientiously observed for the Lords sake 1 Pet. 2. 13. Rom. 13. 5. in whose wisdom and authority such Laws are made and executed The contrary will not only trouble the publick Peace but that also of a mans own soul at least when after the vain flashes of light kindled from the sparks of their private fancies they shall lie down in darkness as to their comfort and reward from God whose judgment is according to righteousness and truth Secondly I cannot but commend the Quakers for their declared esteem in this of the authority of the holy Scripture as the rule of Faith and holy life For as by their instances alledged out of Scripture they profess a fear to sin against the commands there given by Christ against Swearing so I may charitably presume however they are by many suspected to slight the Scriptures and fly to Inspirations or Lights within them that they will be no less strict in doing what therein is required of them as to Truths to be believed Mysteries to be celebrated and Duties to be done to God and Man The only Caution that here must be given them is to take heed that they do not wrest the Scriptures 2 Pel. 3. 16. by their ignorant and unstable minds that they believe not every Spirit or seeming and partial Allegation of Scripture since the Devil oft feathers his temptations and fiery darts as against Christ Mat. 3. with Scriptural Citations partially and preposterously applied Not the Letter in its abruptness or nakedness of sense must be swallowed presently but the mind of God must be searched out in the scope and end also in the manner and emphasis of what is expressed Scripture is indeed sufficient for the substance of all necessary Truths to be believed and Duties to be done or left undone but it doth not stretch it selfe to the instances of every particular circumstance or ceremony which private Prudence or publick Laws may regulate according to order and decency to edification Nor is Scripture to be well understood in retaile that is by single places taken apart by themselves but in whole-sale by the proportion of Faith the analogous or concurrent sense which is made up or twisted from many places Many things in some Scriptures are expressed darkly metaphorically figuratively parabolically comparatively by way of allusion in Metonymies Synecdoches Ironies and Hyperboles in Vniversalities which are limited to the subject intended Many popular expressions have special regard to particular times places persons customs and usages and must be so taken as temporary and occasional These must have commodious interpretations consonant to that grand tenour of Gods word which as the life and spirit runs through all the parts of it but resides most eminently in some places as the Soul in the Brain or Heart which are as the essential vital integral and principal parts of Scripture the main standards and measure of all others and of true Religion both as to Morals and Evangelicals Mysteries to be believed and Duties to be performed Unless we observe these prudentials in searching the mind of God and taking the true meaning of the Scriptures we shall as Saint Austin observes draw poyson with Spiders from those sweet flowers which would afford us honey A depraved and private interpretation is the corruption wrack torture of Scripture whose every line is as the Sun-beams light and straight of it self but erroneous minds like Glasses of Refraction or false Mediums pervert them from their simplicity to their own destruction as S. Peter speaks It were endless to enumerate those places of Scripture which have either more or less or something other in their meaning and design then the Letter seems to hold forth in the bare words of it Extraordinary Commands as to Abraham for sacrificing his Son Isaac to the Israelites to rob by way of borrowing and recompense the Egyptians the heroick impulses and actions of others as Moses Phineas Elias and Sampson Commands to do things less comely and honest either in a reality or in a vision and representation as Hosea's marrying an Harlot the faults or failings of others which were holy men as to their integritie barely recorded but not there blamed as Rebecca's and Jacob's supplanting by a lye and fraud the officious lyes of the Midwives Rahab and others David's feigning himselfe mad the equivocations and dissimulations of others These and such like that have any thing in them which seems or is contrary to the constant rule of Morality Piety Sanctity Honesty and Veracity must be salved by such an interpretation and taken in such a sense as may no way bring them into an ordinary rule or imitable example contrary to the express and constant command of God in his Word which is never to be allayed by the mixtures of humane Passions Frailties and Infirmities So in things that are preceptive either enjoyning or forbidding by way of proverbial speaking the meaning must not be stretched on the tenter or rack of the Letter but as we gather some fruit that grow with thick shells only to gaine the small kernels in them so in these no more is to be collected from the Letter then what may have due regard to the design and scope of the speaker So in the fifth sixth and seventh Chapters of Saint Matthew Christs Sermon in the mount hath many such expressions as of anointing the Head Face in fasting pulling out the right Eye and cutting off the right Hand giving to them that ask to sell all and give to the poor to turn the other Cheek to the smiters These do not run Christians upon maiming and deforming their Bodies or expose them to poverty and stupidity but only they teach them to bear with patience repeated injuries rather then be put beyond the bounds of Christian patience and charity and to sustain any outward difficulties rather then inward enormities of lust or covetousness and the like So not to lay up treasure on earth to take no thought for their life or care for to morrow Labour not for the meat that perisheth c. Joh. 6. 27. to call no man Father or Master on Earth Mat. 23.9 not to salute any man by the way Luk. 10. 4. not to put on costly Rayment or Jewels c. 1 Pet. 3. 3. So Hosea 6. 6. I will have mercy and not sacrifice So Rent your Hearts and
a Christian may swear vainly and rashly by a spontaneous and occasional easiness either promising or asserting although it be a truth and by the true God but without reverence to God and in matters of so little yea no importance or difficulty as neither deserve nor need nor require an Oath To this we all agree with the Quakers Christs words condemning all such profane and trivial swearing much more if it be in fraud and falsitie which makes such Oaths as the Coyn of an Usurper which is false metal and stamp too a complicated sin and one of the strongest chains of darkness which the Devil and a mans own lusts hamper the Soule withal 2. Not is it any question whether Christians may swear in any case by any Creature as such not relating by it and through it to God above all who is the Alpha and Omega the center and circumference of all things from whom they have their being and in whom is the Idea or Prototype of all their perfections To terminate an Oath in a Creature is to put the stamp of Divinity on it to make it an Idol in Gods stead and to profane his holy name by swearing by it as by a false God The swearing by any Creature as such we all own to be a great sin according to those instances which our Lord Christ and Saint Iames from his mouth give us when they explain their meaning of Swear not at all c. 3. Nor is it a question whether an Oath made by the name of any Creature and in a thing lawful may yet be broken or whether it be a sin to swear falsly by them All agree that though the Oath be rash as by a Creature yet it binds in things lawful no less at least to truth and justice then any simple promise and it may be something more Here that is true Fieri non debuit factum valet Like Bastards they should not have been begot but they must be kept unless the matter be sinful as Herod's Oath was which beheaded Iohn Baptist Mat. 14. 9. 4. But the question is Whether those words of Christ and the Apostle do utterly forbid all Swearing in any case whatsoever to all Christians so that by the Law of Christ it is a sin to swear as in private so in publick transactions or any Courts of Judicature be the matter of the Oath never so just and true and the manner of it never so solemn and sacred and the Authority requiring them never so lawful in civil respects This the Quakers affirm led thereto as they profess meerly by the Conscience of that obedience they oweto Christ whose will they say is expresly declared in those words to all his Disciples Not to swear at all in no case at no time upon no mans command Nor do they argue any thing further by way of rational deduction moral grounds or religious principles either from the nature of an Oath or from the consent of other Scriptures or from the Divine Attributes and glory but barely insist upon the words and urge the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Letter as an absolute or universal Negative without any limitation or dispensation So feeding on the rinde or shell of the Letter and gnawing the bone of the bare words that they never come at the kernel and marrow or true meaning of them On the other side I do deny in the behalf of my own Conscience and the consentient sense of this Church and Kingdome yea of all Christian and Reformed Churches of any renown That all swearing is forbidden by those words of Christ and his Apostle But that our Saviours words are to be understood with such a limited sense and strict interpretation as suited to his scope and design which was to rectifie popular errors and remove common abuses in Swearing but not wholly to forbid the use of it in a religious and lawful way And because it is not sufficient in order to my design which is to justifie the legal proceedings of this Kingdoms Iustice by Oaths and to satisfie the scruples of the Quakers to oppose my Nay to their Yea or to offer the husk and chaff of words void of such Reasons as either slow from the nature of all things and all actions as good or evil morally or from the will of God revealed in the Scriptures which is a Treasury of right Reason as well as a Rule of true Religion I will endeavour to give those Reasons which induce me to believe that the Quakers as Christ said to the Saducees do erre not knowing or not right understanding the mind of Christ in those Scriptures which is not to forbid all Swearing nor such as the just and religious Laws of England do require of all under its subjection in some cases I will not seek to oppress or confound the Quakers with the shew of many Reasons as if I would carry the cause by number and not by weight but content my self with those few which are most pregnant plaine and easie to be understood by them 1. Reason From the occasion of Christs and the Apostles words and the scope or end of them to which his own instances by way of explication of his meaning do best direct us both as to what he forbids and enjoynes to some of which the Quakers themselves do consent 2. Reason From the moral and religious nature end and use of Oaths which God had instituted and approved without any repeal by Christ or his Apostles 3. Reason From other places of the New Testament which give light to these both by principles granted and suitable examples expressed To these Reasons I will add by way of full measure heaped up and running over the concurrent judgement of other Christians and Churches ancient and modern in their interpretation of these words with answer to the Allegations made from the sayings and manners of some Primitive Christians This done the conclusion will easily follow with great clearness and good authority to all that are truely wise and have their eyes opened and senses exercised to discerne good and evil The first Reason is from the occasion scope and end of our Saviours words and so of the Apostles For these as the biass of all speech do best discover the speakers mind there being no surer way to wrest and pervert Scriptures then to take them abruptly and absolutely when they have a relative comparative or limited sense in the aim and purpose of the speaker Our blessed Saviour in this Divine Sermon on the Mount of which Saint Matthew gives us so large an account makes it his main aim and scope first to set forth those spiritual heavenly and eternal blessings which beyond those sensible earthly and temporary ones which were so much of old set before the Jews to invite them to obedience of Gods Laws were now to be chiefly regarded by Christians as their peculiar comforts hopes and rewards under the Gospel
they excused from perjury or false-swearing in those cases if in assertory Oaths they sware falsly or in promissory either not intending to perform what they so sware or not after performing them so far as was in their power But the Yea and Nay the Affirmative or Negative of such swearing in word ought to be also Yea and Nay in the purpose and performance And although they ought not so to swear yet having so sworn they were obliged to the moral ends of an Oath which is to make it good in Truth and Faith Agreeable to the same end and scope and almost in the same words Saint Iames writes to the dispersed Christian Iewes who still retained that evil Custome of ordinary Swearing by the Creatures as Heaven and Earth and other such like Oathes without any conscience of the manner or matter or making good in effect such Oaths The meaning therefore of both places as the learned Grotius and others observe is no more then to take away the ordinary abuse of such swearing but not that right use which God had allowed and commanded in his word Nor is there more implied in these words as to the subject matter then in those where God complains that because of Swearing the land mourns Hos 4.2 3. that is by unlawful Oaths and the curse shall come into the house of the Swearer Zach. 5.4 that is such as use idle false and forbidden Swearing Zach. 8.17 Not those who swear as they might do by the name of the Lord in righteousness judgement and truth which God no where reproves As if one should inveigh against drinking and feasting and singing and danoing and dalliance there where the usual viot excess and wantonness of any people had generally run these things to an inordinacy which doth no way condemn the sober modest and seasonable use of them That this thus limited sense of Christs words against the abuse of Swearing so familiar among the Iewes was Christs meaning in the negative part of his words appears by the affirmative part of them which the Quakers themselves will I suppose confess must not be taken in an exclusive latitude or such a broad universality of command as enjoynes us to use no other words in any communication by way of affirming or denying any thing but only Yea Yea and Nay Nay Which words the Quakers so much affect to use as if they would fancy themselves literally or verbally tied to those Monosyllables and those to be repeated in all their assertions or promises yet none of them in case of more full declaring their assent or dissent upon any matter do seruple to use such paraphrases or enlargements of speech as the matter or the parties understanding or diffidence may require For if they would keep all their communication to those precise words Yea Yea Nay Nay they would be no less obstructive to civil and private conversation then they seek to be to judicial proceedings by their refusing at all to swear Doubtless our Saviours own larger expressing of himselfe in many cases by such periphrases or commentaries of words as amount to affirmations or negations besides and beyond the bare terms of Yea Yea and Nay Nay do abundantly justifie together with the practise of all the Apostles that these proverbial Phrases or Epitomes of speech here commanded under the words of Yea and Nay do only import that plainness or simplicity of Christians meaning and doing as may be consonant to their words in truth and honesty without fraud or falsity in common speech not at all forbidding either more ample expressions of their sense in private converses nor yet forbidding such religious and judicious use of Swearing in great and publick matters as are necessary to carry on humane affairs with iustice and Peace but only such false frivolous and fraudulent Oaths as for the matter manner and meaning are by the Law of God by all right Reason and Religion prohibited and which then were so familiarly used and abused by the Iewes upon those presumptions and dispensations which they had taken up As then the affirmative part of Christs words are not to be understood literally as a confining of all Christians communication to Yea and Nay but only to that truth and honesty of mind intent and action which Christ aimes at and beyond which whatever is of fraud and falsity is from evil in mens hearts so as to the negation of swearing not at all it cannot in Reason or Religion be extended further then that swearing which is from evil and tends to evil not that which is from good and tends to good namely the veneration of God and love of Truth and Iustice which are not from the evil one the Devil nor from evil principles in men nor for evil designs As for that absolute and universal Negative which they urge from the words of Christ of not swearing at all nothing is more clear and usual in Scripture then to confine the meaning of such Generals to the particular subject and scope intended as I formerly shewed in many instances out of the holy Scriptures but yet further to clear this truth from the most short and exact way of the Scripture-style which is in the commands of the Decalogue In the second Command we are forbidden to make to our selves any graven Image or similitude of Creatures in the way of Worship or Religion yet we read that Moses in the Tabernacle made the Cherubins so did Solomon several Images of Flowers and Beasts in the Temple and for his Throne and without sinne So in the fourth Command All manner of work is forbidden on the Sabbath day yet the intent is only against ordinary works of our civil callings not against works of Religion or decency or charity or necessity against which the Pharisaical rigor and severity had stretched the Letter of the Law beyond the meaning as our Saviour convinceth them Mat. 12. Mark 2. 27. Luk. 14. 3. In the sixth Command Thou shalt not kill the putting men to death in just and legal wayes or in self-defense is not forbidden but only as to private revenge and malice So the tenth Command Thou shalt not covet any thing that is thy Neighbours is to be understood only of an evil and injurious coveting of what is our Neighbours but not of such a desire as is commensurate to Justice and Charity which desires in honest wayes of buying or exchanging to get those things which our want requires and our Neighbours sufficiency willingly affords us Else we must always want but never wish or fairly endeavour for supply by those wayes of commutative justice which by mutual necessities invite men to society Such commodious Interpretations of Scriptures are as necessary to attain their true meaning as the contrary wrestings of them upon a bare Letter are pernicious to all Reason Justice and true Religion and indeed contrary to the very word
swear The Lord liveth in truth in judgement and in righteousness i. e. To what we know to be and just Nor doth the Lord ever by the Prophets condemn the Jewes for swearing simply and sincerely but only for vain false perfidious and perjurious swearing as he doth Zedekiah for despising the Oath he had given to King Nebuchadnezzar Answerably we read the unblamed practise of many holy men Abraham Jacob Joshua David and others who themselves sware and exacted Oathes and adjured others without any sin or offence in such serious and weighty cases which the Law of God right Reason Iustice and Charity did permit or require Among the Iewes all publick testimonies were ratified by an Oath as Buxtorse Drusius and others observe who write of the civil administrations of Iustice among them Yea we find as I formerly touched the Lord himself confirming this by his own great and most holy example swearing more then once by himselfe by his own life and great name to create credit and give confirmation to what he saith If then from all these premisses it be clear that some swearing is morally lawful as an act extraordinary of Religion a high glorifying of God by appeal to him agreeable to the express Law of God even in the third Commandment in which we are not only forbidden to profane the name of God but the affirmative is also included of sanctifying his name by all ways of praying praising vowing and swearing as he allowes us if in doing thus upon just occasion private or publick in a lawful manner we sin not against any moral Law of Prety Iustice or Charity it must undeniably follow that Christ did not by this procept Evangelical forbid or annul the old Law as to the sanctity and morality of an Oath but only take away the corruption and abuse It being no design of our Lord to do so as he expresly assures the Iewes to take off their jealousies and prejudices in this kind That he came not to destroy or diminish but fulfill the Law moral However he came in the way of fulfilling to abrogate the Ceremonial yea and the politick Laws too so far as they were peculiar to the Jewish polity in Church and State This speech of Christ being the Key which opens his meaning in all his following emendations of Iudaick pravities and in all the constitutions of Evangelical rectitudes it must needs be preposterous to contradict so clear and emphatick a Scripture in order to fix such an interpretation on these places at which the Quakers now stumble as is only conform to their own fancy but contrary to the evident tenour of both Law and Gospel in this particular of lawful swearing in lawful cases and manner which was a part of that moral Law which Christ signally tells them he did not come or ever intended to abolish but to maintain so far as the love of God and our Neighbour are great accomplishments of all Laws to both which religious swearing is most conform it being to Gods glory and our Neighbours good There is no danger then of doing hurt to our own consciences any more then in serious affirmations or negations an Oath having onely the attestation of God to it who is witness of all we say and doe 3. The third Reason for the limiting these words of Christ against some but not all kind of swearing under the Gospel is from those after-evidences in the Gospel which sufficiently clear the meaning of our Saviour First his own frequent asseverations Amen Amen are by many esteemed as a solemn form of assertion next degree to swearing by attestation of the truth of God upon the certainty of his words But if this amount not to so much in our Saviours form of averring what he uttered yet we read in the Apostle Saint Paul's writings more then once not only attestations but obtestations and adjurations of others as Saint Austin observes even to the very form of Swearing Rom. 1. 9. God is my witness c. Gal. 1. 20. Behold before God I lye not 1 Cor. 15. 31. I protest by your Rejoycing which hath the very form of common Oathes among the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per Iovem 2 Cor. 11. 31. The God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who is blessed for evermore knoweth that I lye not 2 Tim. 4. 1. I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ c. As a ground to justifie his own practise in things weighty and of great concern to Gods glory the vindicating of his own fidelity and the inducing others to beliefe in cases that cannot otherwise be so fully cleared decided and confirmed to them this great Apostle who well knew his Masters meaning tells us That an Oath not was but is among men for an end of all controversie or strife and therefore men swear by God as greater then themselves and all Creatures whatsoever intimating that the sanctity and validity of an Oath still remains in use under the Gospel as among all men where the matter form and ends required by the moral Law and immutable principles of Piety Iustice and Charity are duly observed Nor doth the Apostle there or any where intimate that this former liberty of Swearing by the Law of God among the Iewes was abrogated under the Gospel as if Christians might not Swear in any case which had been so necessary a lesson as none more in practicks considering that all those civilized Nations where he most preached and to whom he wrote so many Epistles would never have believed all swearing unlawful which the light of nature dictated and the law of God allowed with due regulation unless they had some special precept from the Apostle that he had so received it of the Lord which had he written he had contradicted himself as to his practise and made himself an offender But the reproof of Christ and so of the Apostle Saint James was peculiar to the corrupt custome among the Jewes to whom Christ spake and the Apostle Saint James wrote that Epistle especially in promissory Oaths to which the learned Groâ—ius thinks the words of Christ wholly and only relate To conclude this Reason we read the Angel in the Revelation by his example justifying the lawfulness of some swearing for he is brought in thus lifting up his hand to heaven and swearing by him that liveth for ever and ever c. after the same manner as the Angel in Daniel did swear lifting up both his hands to Heaven In which forms we cannot think the holy and good Angels would have so solemnly appeared on record in Old New Testament as exemplary to the Church and people of God if the great Angel of the Covenant our Lord Iesus Christ had precisely forbidden all Swearing either because in its nature morally and utterly unlawful which cannot be said without blasphemy and
contradiction to the Law of God of old or as now become evil and unlawful because absolutely forbidden by a positive Evangelical command without any moral reason either alledged or imaginable from any nature of sin Which false gloss of Christs words cannot be reconciled with the other principles places and examples evident and authoritative in the Gospel or with that express and signal Oracle of Christ which is a salvo for all that is morally good that he came not to destroy any part or tittle of the Law which had any moral internal and eternal holiness in it as being therefore expressed in his revealed will or word because it is conform to the glory of Gods nature and essence which all reasonable Creatures ought ever to fear reverence adore and admire above all things As those do who by religious swearing give glory to God as the supream Iudge of all men and things as the searcher of all hearts and as the infallible dispenser of Iustice Which sacred celebrations of the Divine Glory and Majesty in solemne Swearing being no way derogating from Gods honour but highly advancing it in the world and no way injurious to our selves or others but advantageous to Justice Truth Charity and Peace cannot be looked upon as abolished or forbidden by Christ to us Christians Fourthly having thus examined First the occasion and intention of our Saviours words Secondly the moral nature of an Oath Thirdly the Evangelical practise my Fourth and last work is to justifie this limited sense and Interpretation of our Saviours and the Apostles words which I have given consonant to the practise of the Church of England by the concurrent judgement of other Churches and learned Interpreters both ancient and modern Nor that I think any humane or Ecclesiastical authority swayes much if any thing with the Quakers who are most-what strangers to all Learning and not much to be moved by any such Engine but only to confute the more evidently their singularity and pertinacy also to satisfie others of my Countrey-men that this is no novel Interpretation put upon the words of Christ and his Apostle whose true meaning the ancient and later Churches might without any vanity be thought to understand as well as any of this new Generation And certainly we may with more modesty appeal to and acquiesce with conscience in their judgement of places dark and dubious then listen to any men in later times who superciliously dissent from them all Doubtless if the Catholick Church hath been a faithful preserver of the Scriptures it may not be suspected to have been an unfaithful Interpreter of them in any main points of Faith or of Morality and such as this of sober serious reverent and judicial Swearing The primitive Christians were not only very cautious of Swearing rashly vainly falsly but if they took any Oath they made such conscience of keeping it that they would sooner dye then break it wilfully or basely Indeed in private conversation Christians were then esteemed so strict exact and cautious of their words in asserting or promising that there was no need of an Oath among them yea they so kept up the sanctity and credit of their profession among unbelievers that it was security enough in all cases to say Christians sum I am a Christian If any urged them further to any Oath for matter or manner or authority unlawful they repeated this as the only satisfaction they could give There needed no more then the veracity of their bare word They thought it not lawful for them in such cases to Swear being in this emulators of the Esseni among the Jews of whom Iosephus tells us that their word was as sure as an Oath and that they avoided not only all forswearing but all swearing or that which brought their fidelity in question and lessened the reputation of their Sect. Thus Christians that they might not come short of the Esseni among the Iewes who would not swear but in Judicature or of any men in this pious severity especially in abstaining from all unlawful swearing did keep themselves from all kind of swearing especially Heathenish and Idolatrous their profession and reputation being test enough to their words Nor did they think any men under Heaven were so worthy as Christians to make good some of the ancient and soberest Heathens dictates in this kind Such as were that of Menander so to avoid evil Swearing as not to swear though in things just and true And that of Solon A good man should have that credit that no man should believe him the more for his swearing it being some diminution to his reputation to be put to swear or to need an Oath to gain credit Diogenes Laert. tells us that the Athenians would not suffer Xenocrates a man of great integrity and honour to take his Oath at the Altar as a thing unworthy of his reputation Nor did the Romans exact Oaths of their chief Priests Indignum credentes viro tanta sanctimoniae sine juramento non credere Hence we find some of the Ancient Fathers as Origen Chrysostome Theophylact Oecumenius Hilarie Athanasius S. Jerom Theodoret Lactantius and others frequently inveighing without any limitation or reserve against Christians swearing as to private conversation yea and Saint Austin himself in his Sermon on these words of Christ adviseth to abstain from cesie and ordinary swearing in cases never so true and honest lest by wontedness of swearing we get a proneness to swear even falsly S. Basil commends Clinias a famous Greek that he rather suffered a mulct of three Talents then he would save it by swearing to the loss of his honour which he thought caution sufficient for his honesty Not that Saint Austin held it unlawful for a Christian in any case of great and weighty concern solemnly to give Oath as a further ratification of Truth and Iustice yea he asserts it as lawful and proves it by those instances of the Apostle Pauls swearing or obtestation in his Epistles which I formerly produced Not as if faith he Saint Paul had forgot or were ignorant of the words of Christ but by his practise he shews us the meaning of them is only to forbid false and frivolous swearing As the graver and eminentest of the Iewes did not deny Oaths of Allegiance to Herod and their Governours as Iosephus tells us so neither did the Christians however the zeal of some of the Ancients in their Sermons or Homilies to the people wholly cry down all customary and vain swearing especially according to the wonted forms of Heathenish swearing as by their Gods or Emperors and the like So Polycarpus in the first Century answered the Prefect who promised to dismiss him if he would swear by the Fortune of Cesar but he refused affirming I am a Christian In like manner Basilides the Martyr when the Officers exacted an Oath of him replied It is not lawful for me being a a Christian to swear So