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A28913 The dutie and danger of swearing opened in a sermon preached at York, February 3, 1655, the day of swearing the lord maior / by Edward Bowles ... Bowles, Edward, 1613-1662. 1655 (1655) Wing B3871; ESTC R31277 20,505 28

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in truth in righteousnesse and in judgement where we have the form and qualifications of a lawfull Oath the form The Lord liveth In every Oath there ought to be an interposing of the Name of God Deut. 6. 13. Thou shalt swear by his Name To swear is to confesse a Deitie as appears by comparing those two places Isa. 45. 23. To me shall every knee bow and every tongue swear with Phil. 2. 11. That every tongue should confesse that Iesus Christ is Lord And because we finde this expression frequent in Scripture The Lord liveth it deserves a little opening to which purpose we may take notice of that passage in Hebrews 6. 16. Men verily swear by the greater And when the Lord sweareth he doth it by that in himself which is the greatest his Life and his Holinesse which are more then single Attributes His Life is his fundamentall excellency and his holinesse is more then an Attribute for it is that complexion which runs thorow all his Attributes and makes them beautifull And this is the usuall forme in Scripture which Men and Angels have made use of Revel. 10. 6. because of the peculiar accommodation of the life of God unto an Oath for it imports that he sees and knows our appeal that he abides ready to confirm the truth or avenge the false-hood of him that swears And I see not how swearing by any Creature can be exempted from Idoltary if swearing be as it hath been proved a part of Worship God complains that the Children of Israel swore by them that were no gods Ierem. 5. 7. and to swear by Creatures turns them into Idols if they were not so before to worship an Image and swear by a Creature may be ranked together And though some would excuse that expression of Ioseph By the life of Pharaoh and tell us that the primitive Christians did sometimes swear per salutem Imperatoris yet the former language seems fitter for Aegypt then for Canaan and the later savours more of Courtship then Christianity There is indeed a passage of our Saviour Matth. 23. 21 22. where he seems to make it all one to swear by some Creatures as to swear by God himself for he saith that he that sweareth by the Temple sweareth by him that dwelleth therein and he that sweareth by Heaven the Throne of God sweareth by him that sitteth thereon but the scope of our Saviour must be attended who reproves the vain conceit of the Pharisees who thought God was not concerned in those Oaths where his Name was not expresly mentioned and tels them that because those Oaths were reducible unto God who accounted himself interessed in every Oath they could not be excused from perjury in the breach of them Pareus expresses it briefly and well that those Oaths were formaliter vitiosa sed finaliter obligatoria So that our Saviour doth not countenance those forms of swearing but discountenance their great vanitie and folly in the construction of them for an Oath taken by that which is no god if he that swears puts it in the room of God it will be found to oblige Thus much for the Form of an Oath from which howsoever it hath pleased men to vary yet it is good to have recourse to the first and purest use of Oathes which was to mention the Name of the Lord with lifting up the hand to Heaven so Abraham as fit for our pattern as any man else Genes 14. 22. I have lift up my hand to the Lord the Possessor of Heaven and Earth that I will not c. Thus much concerning the Form the Qualifications follow In truth in righteousnesse and in judgement Hierome gives this brief and clear interpretation of these words There must be veritas in re justitia in causa juditium in modo jucandi First he that swears must have a principall eye to Truth for the end of an essertory oath is to evidence truth and of a promissory oath to engage truth veritas entis must be looked to in the former veritas mentis in the latter and no room is left for equivocation which crosses the very end of an Oath It is certainly a most horrid impiety to call God to witness an untruth who delights to be stiled The God of truth it is an affront we should be ashamed to offer a Person of Honour to make him a partner in our iniquitie In brief he that swears a falshood doth insinuate that God doth either not know the truth or not regard it but his eyes are on the truth Ierem. 5 2 3. Let those that swear falsly well consider it lest a curse enter into their houses as the Lord threatneth Zech. 5. 3 4. 2. He that sweareth must do it in righteousnesse in a lawfull and just matter if the oath be promissory the thing sworn must be lawfull and good not such an oath as David swore against Nabal and his house 1 Sam. 25. 22. or Herod to Herodias Matth. 14. 7. If the oath be assertory let it be with righteous and just intentions to the furtherance of justice and charitie and upon no other account 3. In judgement that is wisely discerning the occasion and ordering the circumstances of his oath for instance he that swears in judgement will not swear in a triviall or sleight businesse the Name of the Lord is great wonderfull and holy and not to be made use of but in solemn and serious things An honest man will not swear in a false matter nor a wise man in a frivolous Oathes and Lots are of like nature in this particular both seriously to be used and in cases of necessitie Temere jurat qui aliter potest proximo consulere is a sober speech and to be regarded If by any other means we can provide for our neighbours good and safetie it is rashnesse to swear on his behalf To swear in judgement is to do it with deliberation and actuall consideration of the importance of an oath the Majesty Truth and Justice of him by whom or unto whom we swear Having thus confirmed and illustrated the Proposition a word of application will be needfull First by way of consutation to those who utterly deny the lawfulnesse of oathes in the times of the Gospell and that under the countenance of this Scripture which I am insisting on together with that of the Apostle Iames already mentioned which I hope are sufficiently vindicated from any such meaning in the judgement of the considerate Reader If men will run away with the sound of words instead of the sence of them and single out an expression of Scripture and urge it against the evidence of severall plain places speaking the contrary it argues an Hereticall disposition more addicted to opinion than to truth Calvin takes notice of such a temper in his Commentary upon this place his words are these Vna cum rixandi libidine crassam inscitiam produnt Anabaptistae dum vocem unam morose urgendo
which have been read unto you for my ground-work which whosoever would understand must diligently consider the scope of the place and the persons he had to deal with viz. the Jews leavened with Pharisaicall glosses and corrupt traditions Our Saviour was now in the exercise of his propheticall Office and preaching the Gospell of the Kingdom and finding the Sect and opinion of the Pharisees to be most opposite and prejudiciall to his intention he sets himself in this Sermon to pull down the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees that so he might bring in the righteousnesse which is of God by faith and therefore tells them plainly that except their righteousnesse did exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees they should in no case enter into the Kingdom of God Verse 20. Now because the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees was in better credit among the people then to be blasted with a bare assertion Christ shewes the vanitie and defectivenesse of it in that it fell exceeding short of its pretence which was to fulfill the Law of Moses which instead of fulfilling they destroyed For as it is the common practice of erroneous persons when they cannot bring their opinions to the Scripture they will wrest the Scripture to their opinions as the Father speaks of some who did pertrahere Evangelium ad sententiae suae praecipitium so the Pharisees seeing they could not raise their righteousnesse to the line of the Law they brought down the Law to the levell of their own righteousnesse in particular they restrained the Commamdements which in themselves are spirituall and exceeding broad reaching the thoughts and intents of the heart all kinds and degrees of evill to some outward actions which in the strength of morall principles they might forbear whose right Heirs are the Papists who resolved to establish a righteousnesse of works and possibility of fulfilling the Law will by no means grant that concupiscence is sin least thereby their legall righteousnesse should be tainted But to return to the Pharisees with whom Christ had to deal they restrained the seventh Commandement to the act of Adultery Christ extends it to the wandrings of the eye and heart they limited the sixt Commandment to actuall murther whereas Christ extends it to inordinate passion and ill language so dealt they in this particular whereof we treat They confined the third Commandement to prejurie whereas Christ extends it to the prohibition of rash vain swearing by the Creatures And so I come to the words onely I must first endeavour the determination of one Question whether Christ in this discourse intend an abrogation of the Law an addition to it or onely an interpretation of it Certainly not an abrogation of the morall Law which he professes he came not to destroy but to fulfill Verse 17. Some would have it to be an addition which opinion indeed hath the countenance of some of the Fathers but the Socinians are most earnest in this conception upon this ground they will not admit of the satisfaction of Christ o● justification by his death and for the wrong they do to his Priestly Office they pretend to make amends in his Propheticall and say that he came to improve and raise the Precepts of the old Testament and give a more exact Law then was given by Moses in the observation whereof our Gospell righteousness should consist But we beleeve that our Lord Jesus only intended a restauration of the Law from the corrupt glosses and traditions of the Elders with whom he deals in this discourse not with Moses who was faithfull in the House of God for he professes that he came not to destroy the Law which upon the matter he had done if he had shewed it to be a short or crooked rule but to fulfill it or as the word will bear to fill it up by true and full interpretations Christ fulfilled the Law both practically in obeying it and doctrinally in making up those gaps which the Pharisaicall glosses and traditions had made in it You have heard that it hath been said by them of old time {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or as some would have it to them of old time It may be here enquired what times and persons Christ hath reference to in this passage some may think that he hath respect unto Moses and the people of Israel to whom he spake things to this purpose Lev. 19 12 Ye shall not swear by my Name falsely c. But I beleeve that an antiquity of a much later date is meant by this expression even of those Elders mentioned Mat. 15. 2. whose traditions the Pharsees complained were broken by Christs Disciples for the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifies sometimes that which is not long past as Act. 15. 7. And here take notice that after the Law and the Prophets there rose up a generation of men who were not content with the written word but added the supplement of traditions which though in the esteem of the Pharisees were ancient yet very far short of true antiquity which was Moses and the Prophets the counterpart of this dealing we find in the Church of Rome who besides the verbum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will have a verbum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a traditionall word which they make equall to the Scripture in authority and esteem thus the Councill of Trent Traditiones ipsas tum ad fidem tum ad mores pertinentes pari pietatis affectu ac Scripturas suscipit veneratur Ecclesia Romana And they will pretend much of antiquity for their practises but it is a modern antiquity if I may so speak the true antiquity of Christ and his Apostles they have no minde to deal with not yet that of the first three hundred years after Christ unlesse it be some peeces which they may justly call theirs because they have either forged or corrupted them although we must acknowledge that some of their corruptions began early in the Church of which we have an intimation 2 Thessalonians 2. 7. 1 Iohn 2. 18. What is it that was said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self c. was it not well said yes doubtlesse it was the truth but not all the truth take the words in themselves and it was well said but take them with respect to the third Commandement which thereby they intended to interpret it was a misse for they contain not the sum and substance of that Commandement which reaches not onely to forswearing but to vain swearing swearing by the Creatures and other abuses of the name of God then frequent among the Jews who provided they did not swear by the name of God thought themselves excusable if they swore frequently in ordinary communication and that by the Creatures and that some of their Oathes by the Creatures were not obliging as we finde Matth. 23. 16. where the Gold and