Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	due_a	father_n	great_a	92	3	2.0703	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42450	An examination of the case of the Quakers concerning oaths propounded by them, A.D. 1673, to the consideration of the King, and both Houses of Parliament : with a vindication of the power of the magistrate to impose oaths, and the liberty and duty of all Christians to swear by God reverently : humbly submitted to the judgment of His Most Sacred Majesty, and the two Houses of Parliament / by Charles Gataker ...	Gataker, Charles, 1614 or 15-1680.	1675 (1675)	Wing G305; ESTC R40267	35,338	42

Affections as well as to the Members of the Body opposes nothing but what the Pharisees indulged In like manner in dealing with the third Commandment Christ forbids not what the Law which he himself being the Word of God did give unto Moses and by his hand unto the People did Command and Establish but that sinful swearing in ordinary communication which being grown customary peradventure with the Leaders as well as the following people these Masters in Israel connived at who sought their own Glory and Profit and never seriously considered the honour of God which Christ sought to advance in all that he did and taught And now I hope I have evinced that Christ did not set up a new and more perfect rule of Righteousness than what of old was given by God and that he hath cleared it from the corruption and restored it to its integrity from the defalcation of the Scribes and Pharisees without addition or detraction and without crossing or abolishing his own Law concerning reverent swearing by the Name of God I do not think it needful to take notice now of the fond and senseless Traditions of the Pharisees concerning the binding force of Oaths which varied with them according to the several forms of them as they were expressive either of the Name of God the Creator or of the Creatures and in the names of several Creatures they deferred more Virtue to some than to others though the preference be ridiculous because unreasonable Mal. 23.16.22 as our Saviour hath related and censured them Our Saviour in this Prohibition of Swearing now under debate appears clearly to have had a reflexive Eye upon some of their frivolous niceties But these are besides the lines of the main matter in question and may without prejudice to the Cause be past over without any further handling It is high time now to conclude this Section SECTION IV. Concerning the Nature of an Oath AN Oath being the subject Matter of the Controversy the right understanding of it will conduce much to the stating clearing and determining the Question concerning the consistency thereof with Christianity I shall therefore explain the nature of an Oath by a more resplendent Light than that of the Natural Conscience which yet is a Divine Light and spark of Piety which God in his Wife and Holy Providence kept alive in the World for the preservation of Humane Society from our Universal Confusion The Holy Scripture informs us abundantly of the nature and use of Swearing which is common to God the Creator and the Creatures that bear the Image of God both Angels and Men. By the way hence we may collect the absurdity of all them who deny deliberate Swearing upon weighty motives as an Imperfection whereas indeed to swear in due manner upon just grounds Mat. 5. ●8 is to be perfect in Truth Sincerity and Constancy as our Heavenly Father is Perfect and to make Christians even before the Resurrection in some measure equal to Angels Now though there be a great difference between the Oath of the Creator Heb. 6. ●3 Jer. 22. ●● Deut. 32. ●0 41. Jer. 51. ●4 Psal 89. ●5 Amos. 4. ●● Heb. 6. ●7 who because he hath none Superior or Greater than himself swears by Himself by his Life hy his Holiness that is his incommunicable Majesty and the Oath of the Creature who swears by God in the way of an Appeal to a Sovereign Lord who is both a sharp-sighted witness of Truth and a severe avenger of falshood yet there is somewhat common to both for which in propriety of speech Swearing is by the Holy Ghost attributed to both I do therefore describe an Oath in general to be the binding ones self immutably to speak and act according to Truth and Faithfulness St. Paul leads me to this description by saying that God willing to shew more abundantly the unchangeableness of his Counsel to the Heirs of the Promise confirmed it by the interposition of an Oath Numb ●0 2 c. All swearing as Moses teaches us is binding the person with a Bond to be constant and true to his word that goes out of his mouth Now God is above the power of being bound by others but yet may and doth bind himself by himself and to himself primarily and secondarily by a gracious condescention to his Creatures But Man who is subject to the power of others may not onely bind himself of his own accord by an Oath but may also and sometimes ought to suffer this sacred Bond to be imposed on him and to put it on himself For persons under the Authority of Magistrates Parents Masters are bound by the express Law of God to take such Oaths which upon just grounds are exacted of them and those of equal quality may by God's Warrant bind themselves each to other by interchangeable Oaths It is superfluous now to recite at large all the examples of these obligations recorded in Scripture which frequently occur to the Reader and are set up by God as Pillars for the direction of Travellers Psal 1.105 or to use David's words are designed to be a Light to our Feet and a Lantern to our Paths But the Swearer whether by his own motion or at the command or intreaty of another ought to bind himself to nothing but what is agreeable to Goodness and Justice God the Fountain and Measure of Goodness and Justice can do no other And Man made at first in the likeness of God ought to do no other Therefore the two celebrated Axiomes of Divines which depend one on the other are true and fixed Rules of Conscience 1. An Oath ought not to be made the Bond of Iniquity 2. An Oath taken to that purpose binds to nothing but Repentance Now that by which a person binds himself in swearing is suitable to his own nature or quality and condition God who is an independent Being as his Name by which he revealed himself to Moses imports I am that I am or more concisely Exod. 14. I am binds himself by the very mention of and reflexion upon his own indeficient and invariable Life and Holiness Tit. 1. Heb. 6.18 2 Tim. 13. Mal. 3 6. Jam. 1 17. who can equally neither Lye nor Dye who is one and changes not and is incapable of variation and ingages himself by his immutability to constancy in his word But Man who is a Creature dependent and obnoxions to God his Sovereign Lord Lawgiver and Judge binds himself over to the vengeance of God if he fail in the Truth and Sincerity of his Swearing by an open or at least an imperfect invocation of God to be first a witness to his Assertion or Ingagement and then to be the Judge and Avenger if he fail of Truth and Honesty in either Furthermore it is necessary for us to the right understanding of God's Swearing to observe what very many do not take notice of or do not enough consider and therefore set up their rest