therefore they are so ready to offer the sacrifice of fools As there are certain forms of words at the using whereof evill spirits by vertue of diabolicall institution present themselves so all forms of invoking God either by Oath or prayer exhibit the divine presence to us of which presence if they had regard the one would not think it nothing to swear nor the other to pray unadvisedly neither of them would be so hasty with their mouths so hasty to utter quicquid in buccam if they did consider they were before God My ranking them together will displease them both but let them wreak their spleen upon Solomon who hath coupled them as brethren in iniquity as alike-guilty of Athiestical prophanesse and hath prescribed the same method of cure for them both if they have wit or grace to apply themselves to the observation of his rules Eccles 5.1 2. And it is as manifest from the Instances of Christ and Saint Paul that more then these sometimes and in some cases proceeds from good from a divine principle from an honest and gracious heart to wit when strong asseverations even by oath are used 1. Reverentially as a solemn invocation of Gods name as the celebration of the highest and most august act of divine worship and adoration that can possiblie be tendred to the divine majesty 2. Deliberately with due consideration and preponderation of the weight of the thing the importance of our Neighbours beleeving it the probability that he will be prevail'd to beleeve us upon the interposition and assurance of the oath c. Et ideo non invenitur jurasse nisi scribens ubi consideratio cautior non habet linguam praecipitem We do not finde saith S. Austin de mend c. 15. that S. Paul did swear but when he was writing because the pen is not so great a blabb as the tongue men are more circumspect of the words that fall from their quill then of them that drop from their lipps 3. Sincerely with a purpose to lay as great an Obligation upon thy self 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 in 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 conceived 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 free after such oaths as if they had never made them Such kinde of additions to our yea and nay are of themselves evil and theresore 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 Evangolical 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 earth 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 Insidells 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
THE CASE OF THE QUAKERS RELATING TO OATHS STATED Wherein they are Discovered To oppose Propheticall To pervert Evangelicall To falsifie Ecclesiasticall and To contradict their own Doctrine By J.S. Feb. 17. 1673. Imprimatur Auto Saunders Ex Aedibus Lambothauis LONDON Printed for H. Brome at the Signe of Gun at the West End of S. Pauls 1674. THE PREFACE THe Envious man finding the whole Fabrick of our Church too heavy a burthen to bear away at once divided the work of her ruine to the heads and shoulders of many Instruments committing to one Sect the study to pull up her hedge to another the atempt to overthrow her doctrine to another the care to undermin her worship And because their respective tasks still proved too difficult for any one of these Parties to compasse alone he subdivided these Provinces to subordinate Vice-gerents allotting to one the defacing of her Ceremonies to another the vilifying of the substance of her common and stated Devotions to another the opposing of her extraordinary and most august acts of Sacred Worship amongst which the Invocation of Gods Name in Solemn and Religious Swearing fell to the Quakers Lot who being a Generation of men that stick in the bark of the letter admitting neither coherence of Texts nor analogy of faith and stumbling upon two Texts that abstracted from both these seem to favour their Opinion have with raised out-crys attempted to explode that Catholick Custome of the Vniversal Church of giving God the honour of appeal to his Omnisciency for the Vmpirage of such controversies as by his Ordinance cannot be determined without an Oath For the Redemption of these sacred spoils out of their Sacrilegious hands I have undertaken this expedition and entred upon this Race wherein the Prizes I run for are First The maintenance of this Ancient Truth diametrically opposite to their new Errour so farre as by their canting I 〈◊〉 discern their minds viz That Christians of the highest rank as greatest proficiency may lawfully in sone cases confirm the 〈◊〉 Oath Secondly The Vindication of the Evangelical Writings frim false glosses Thirdly The Demonstration of their a faithfulnesse on their Quotations of Ecclesiastical Testimonies in favour of their Cause SECTION I. Christians of the highest rank and greatest Proficiency may lawfully in some cases confirm the Truth with an Oath Arg. 1. SAint Paul both knew the minde of Christ 2 Cor. 1.23 And served God in the spirit in the Gospel of his Son Rom. 1.9 yet he was so far from pleading that of the Essenns mentioned by Josephus Bell. Jud. lib. 2. c. 7. who profess'd that quicquid dixerint validius esse omni juramento supervacuum esse ipsis jurare their word was stronger then the oath of other men and therefore it was superfluous for them to swear◠Or that of the Scythians who told Alexander as Quintus Curtius reports that their love of veracity was so eminent as their affirming a thing was in stead of an Oath Or the custome of the Heroick Age wherein as Homer relates the shaking of their Sceptre or shaking by the hand did more oblige men to speak the truth and perform promises then the most sacred Oaths could oblige succeeding degenerate Ages So far I say was S. Paul from pleading such examples or his own exemption from his performance of this office of charity to common humane infirmity which in many cases requires the interpositon of an oath in order to the procuring an indubitable perswasion of the truth as he frequently confirms what he asserts in such like forms of sacred oaths as these God is my witnesse Rom. 1.9 I say the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience also bearing me witnesse in the holy Ghost Rom 9.1 I call God for a record upon my soul that c 2 Cor. 1.23 The God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ knows that I ly not 2 Cor. 11.37 As God is true our word towards you was not yea and nay 2 Cor. 1.18 Before God I ly not Gal. 1.20 God is my record Phil. 1.8 Ye are witnesses and God also 1 Thes 2.10 upon which St. Austin Juravit autem ipse Apostolus in Epistolis suis sic ostendit quomodo accipiendum quod dictum est Non Jurate omnino Augustine de mend cap. 15. for the Apostle himself did swear in his Epistles and thereby demonstrate how that is to be understood where it is said swear not at all That these forms of speech are sacred oaths is manifest from Genesis 31.50.53 where Laban and Jacob are said to swear in these forms of words So God is witnesse betwixt men and thee and the God of Abram the God of Nahor the God of their fathers judge betwixt us and Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaack that is by God whom his father worshipt And to spare the labour of making more quotations from the definition of an oath which in Philo's phrase de legibus particularibus and in the common notion of mankinde is nothing else but a calling of God to witnesse to the truth of what we say From which if eminency of Holinesse would excuse any man it would have excused S. Paul who before the writing of those Epistles had given greater testimony of his sincerity veracity and love to truth then any man living can either in truth or with Christian modesty lay claim to Who can have the face to say That he hath delivered the truth with greater demonstration of the spirit and of power in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth 1 Cor. 2.4.13 That he hath by manifestation of the truth commended himself to every mans conscience in the sight of God 2 Cor. 4.2 more then this chosen vessel did which of them that tell us we may take their word and spare their oath dares vie with him in the perills pains hardships labours losses which he sustain'd for the truths sake If then S. Paul notwithstanding Christs prohibition and that he could pleade more for mens taking his bare yea and nay then any man now living can pleade did yet frequently confirm his sayings with an oath what more then Essaean then Scythian then Luciferian pride possesseth those monsters of men who have the impudence to pleade their own eminency in grace as that which exempts them from calling God for a record against their soul when the considerableness of the thing requires it From exhibiting to the divine Majesty that part of incommunicable honour due to his sacred and dreadfull name Away with that smoakie pride out of Gods house let it not be so much as named amongst Saints whose character is humility Ang. 2. Without the interposition of an oath 't is impossible in many cases that Justice can be administred according to the rule of the Gospell To instance in one for all Exod. 22.10 11. If a man deliver unto his neighbour an oxe or ass or sheep to keep and it die or be hurt or driven away no man seeing it
then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both that he hath not put his hand to his neighbours goods and the owner of it shall accept thereof and he shall not make it good It is the righteous Gods will that Justice be administred in this and the like cases now under the Gospell as well as formerly under the law but in such like cases it cannot be determined according to the Evangelical rule who shall bear the losse without the interposition of an oath For if the mans bare word be taken for the proof of his innocency the controversy will be decided by one onely witnesse directly against Christs precept Mat. 18.16 That in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be establisht And therefore the guiltlesse party in such cases as this where no man but himself is privy to his innocency must in vindication thereof take in God to witness with him that so the matter may be decided by two witnesses at least to wit by him that makes oath and by God whom he calls to witnesse with him Breifly we must either make Christ by this prohibition swear not to patronize such injustice under the Gospell as God would not patronize under the law or proceed to the determination of controversies contrary to Christs rule or else put an end to such like strife by the interposure of an oath And therefore swearing in such cases is so far from being a sin as it is a necessary duty not to be neglected without manifest injustice to the preventing whereof and the doing of right betwixt man and man nothing is more contributary then Evangelicall grace so far is sanctity from exempting its possessors from the discharge of those offices of charity which they owe to themselves and their neighbour in such cases Arg. 3. That which the spirit of Christ in the old Testament Prophets 1 Peter 1.11 did commend as that which should be 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 commend 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 1â— And ye shall leave your naine for a curse to my chosen that is The peoople 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 made a vagabond upon erath parllel 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 disserenc'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 priviledged 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 belesse themselves in his name and swear by him as the God of truth as the God who by choosing gentile-beleevers to be his people keeps faith with Abraham See Calvin S. Jerom in 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 righteousncesse and shall not return shall never be repeal'd that unto me every knee shall how every tongue shall swear From which Text that I may manifest the indubitable truth of each branch of my assmption Let it e 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 he 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