and strangers to the common-wealth of Israel and the Covenants of promise afar off c. Ephes 2.11 c. 2. That swearing to the Lord is here prophesied of as that divine service and homage by the performing whereof gentile-converts were to declare their owning of and conversion to the true God St. Paul quotes this very Text to prove that all inen Gentiles its well as Jewes owe service to Chirst Rom 14 9 10. He is Lord of all that is all nations are to do him homage for it is written As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God It were blasphemy against the Holy Ghost to say that the Apostle perverts the prophets words but he knowing the minde of the Lord in this text renders that word in the prophet every tongue shall swear which denotes an eminent act of saving confession by a word which comprehends the whole service of God thereby implying that swearing by the Lord is one part of divine worship and so eminent a part of confession to God as it virtually contains all other acts of such confession and that we confesse our beleif in and subjection to the true God as well by swearing by his name as by any other act of divine worship we perform to him Breifly the plain sense of the prophet as S. Paul expounds this text is this That as the Gentiles till Christ that light that lightens the gentiles served dunb idols confessing them to be Gods by bowing the knee by swearing to them so after Christs calling the gentiles to the Obedience of the true God man should turn from idols acknowledge the living God to be what his names and attributes import infinitely knowing just powerful c. by transferring unto him those divine honours of bowing the knee and swearing which before their conversion they confer'd upon false Gods 3. That God himself swears by himself then which infinite wisdom cannot devise a more obliging oath that the Gentile-Church as well as the Jewish synagogue should by swearing to the Lord maks confession with the mouth unto salvation that by two immutable things he might more abundantly shew unto the heirs of the promise the immutabilitie of this his Councill and predetermination that Christians should homage him with this kinde of divine service and give them as full assurance as 't is possible for God to give of the acceptableness of this part of sacred worship And if this be not sufficient to put an end to all controversie touching this question whether a Christian may lawfully take an oath I shall despair of ever prevailing with such obstinate and reprobate-minded men by the plainest demonstratious I can lay before them for how can I hope to convince him with the strongest reasoning who dare reason against Gods oath Howbeit That the matter to which God here swears to wit that under the Gospell mon shall in token of their conversion to the living God swear to him may be more plain I shall give a further proof there of out of Isaiah 19.18 c. In that day shall five Cityes in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of hosts There shall be an altar to the Lord in the midest of the land of Egipt and a pillar to the Lord at the border thereof And it shall be for a signe and for a Witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egipt For they shall cry unto the Lord and he shall send thens a Saviour And the Lord shall be known to Egipt and the Egiptians shall know the Lord in that day and shall do sacrifice and oblation yea they shall Vow a Vow unto the Lord and perform it and he shall be entreated of them and shall heal them Upon which text I note 1. That this prophesie concerns Gospell-times Onias indeed that mock-high-priest alledged this prophesie to Ptolomy Philometer and applied the accomplishment of it to that mock-temple which he built at Heliopolis in imitation of that at Jerusalem Joseph Antiq. l. 13. c. 6. and that discreet and sober Jewish priest Josephus himself in his Jewish wars l. 7 c. 30. seems to approve of that interpretation But how wide such Expositors were of the mark of truth and how unapplicable this Prophesie is to any time but that when Egypt was called by the preaching of the Gospell to the acknowledgement of the true God hath abundantly been demonstrated by Eusebins in his Demonstratio Evangelica and the rest of the antient Christian Apologists upon these reasons 1. Cnias erected an altar in Egypt out of a factious opposition to the true high priest Simeon and the Jerusalem Jewes of his communion and occasioned a schism from the Jadean Church as Josephus confesseth Bell. Jud. l. 7. c. 30. But the effect of erecting the altar mentioned in this prophesie was the uniting the Egyptians and Jewes into one Church verse 23. In that day when this altar shall be erected to the Lord in the midest of Egypt there shall be an high way out of Egipt to Assyria and the Assyrians shall come into Egypt and the Egiptians into Assyria and the Egiptians shall serve the Lord with the Assyrians In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the land whom the Lord of hosts shall bless saying blessed be Egipt my people and Assyria the work of my hand and Israel mine inheritance Nunc Christo regnante torus mundus uno altari contentus est Oecolampad now under Christs kingdom the whole world is content with one altar 2. After God had chosen out Jerusalem for the place where he would be worshipt the Jewes were prohibited by the Mosaicall law to sacrifice any where but there And therefore all the sacrifices that were offered upon the altar that Onias erected in Egipt were an abomination to the Lord. But God promiseth in this text to have respect unto the oblations offered upon this altar whether by Jew or Gentile and therefore the acceptable sacrifice and oblations here mentioned can be no other then that pure oblation which after the coming of Christ should every where be offered when Gods name should be great amongst the Gentiles Mal. 1.11 Nor the altar here specified any other then that which S. Paul mentions Heb. 13.10 We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle that is Christs Table-throne of grace whereon we offer to God his Creatures of bread and wine and in the Sacramental use of them celebrate the commemoration of Christs one oblation of himself once made for all and our selves unto God as a living sacrifice together with our contributions of charity a sacrifice wherewith God is well-pleased Respondeant Judaei lege praeceptum est ut altare non siat nisi in loco quem elegerit Dcus hostiae tantum a sacerdotibus Levitici generis immolentur Ecce Esaias aperte
decet qued Aegiptii colent Deum hostias mumera offerant Si Aegiptii Sacerdotium habeant impletur in illis Pauli testimonium dicentis translato Sacerdotio necesse est ut leg is translatio siat Hieronymus in locum Let the Jew if he can answer this saith S. Jerome In the Law there was a precept that no altar should be set up but in the place that God should choose and that the beasts should be sacrificed only by the Priests of Levies stock But lo Esaias saith plainly that the Egyptians shall offer sacrifices and oblations If the Egyptians have a Priesthood that Testimony of S. Paul is fullfilled in them saying If the Priesthood be changed there must of necessity be a change also of the Law 3. Not the Egyptians but the Jews sacrificed on that altar which Onias erected but upon the altar to be erected according to the tenure of this prophesie in Egipt the Egiptians were to do sacrifice and make oblation unto the Lord. 4. During the continuance of the Mosaical law and the standing of Onias his temple and altar in Egipt and before the erecting of the Christian altar and the standard of Christ in Egipt the Egiptians cried for salvation unto their Idols not unto the Lord made vows to them sware by them they spake the language of the heathen not of Canaan neither had they a Saviour sent unto them till God sent Christ to blesse them Nor did Israel Egipt Assyria and other gentiles serve God together in the communion of one Catholick Church Nor did God blesse the Gentiles as he promiseth here he would blesse the Egiptians and Assyrians by the name of his people till Christ took down the partition-wall made of twain Jew and Gentile one bodie and called them a people that were not formerly the people of God It is manifest out of S. Jerom upon this text who converst with the Palestine Jewes that their Expositors applyed this text to the dayes of the Messias but when our Apologists upon that concession proved the blessed Jesus to be the Christ some of them applied it to the end of the world at what time they conceive their Messias will come upon the very same mistaken scripture-texts upon which our Millenaries ground their expectation of Christs personal reign 2. I note from this prophesie that swearing to the Lord is here commended as a signe witnesse and argument of Egipts conversion to the Lord of hosts And it shall be for a signe and for a witnesse to the Lord in the land of Egipt that is it shall be à witnesse that the land of Egipt is become the Lords inheritance that the Egiptians have dedicated themselves to the Lord that he is their God and they his people It shall be for a signe this hath relation to the whole clause afore-going not onely to the pillar erected which is mentiond immediatly before as if the sense were this pillar shall be a signe for the altar in the midst of Egipt the Egiptian Cityes speaking the language of Canaan and their swearing to the Lord are as much signes as that Nor doth the prophet speak in the plural number they shall be signes as if he meant the two last particulars joyn'd by a conjunction copulative the altar and the pillar but in the singular It shall be a signe that is the whole series of those divine dispensations when the Egiptian cityes shall speak the holy language when they shall swear to the Lord erect an altar and pillar to the Lord this shall be a signe of Egipts submitting to Christs scepter Nihil alud vult quam mutatum cultum idolorum translatum in honorem Dei Oecolam in locum the meaning of all this is that divine honour and worship which they had given to their idols they should alter the propertie thereof and transfer it to the true God Is any thing more obvious then that Egypts swearing erecting altars and pillars to Idols was a signe of her owning those Idol Gods or that Egipts speaking the language of Gods people setting up an altar and pillar to the Lord her making vowes and paying them her offering sacrifice and oblations to the Lord were trophyes of Christs victory over Egipt and signes of Egypts submission to Christ with what show of reason then can we except swearing to the Lord out of the catologue of those signes seeing that is spoken with the same breath belongs to the same thing and therefore must be put in the same case and be interpreted Monumentum professio publica quam Egiptii statuent ad testandam fidem communionem suam cum Deo Ecclesia ejus Junius in locum as well as any of the rest A monument and publick profession which the Egiptians were to erect to restify their faith and their communion with God and his Church 2. Swearing to the Lord is in this Text made a branch of speaking the language of Canaan They shall speak the language of Canaan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swearing by the name of the Lord as the authentick Translation of the Septuagint renders it which Christ and the Apostles perpetually used in all their quotations of the Old Testament as that which had been current through the world for above 200. years before Christs Incarnation without contradiction of the Jewes and not so obnoxious to adulteration afterwards as the Hebrew Copies were who were in the custody of the Jewes alone and in a language which none understood but themselves and therefore as apt to be corrupted as the Jewes out of an odium to Christian Religion were apt to corrupt them as it is manifest they have done in most of those Texts which concern the Messias though this by good providence hath escap't their lime-twigg-fingers for the Hebrew now extant retains the participle jurantes So that to swear by the Lord of hosts is to speak the language of Canaan that pure language which God promised to restore to all Nations at the coming of Christ That pure and undefiled Religion which was at first reveal'd to man in Paradise for before Christ all Nations but the Jews the inhabitants of Canaan sware by other Gods and to swear by the Lord of hosts was the proper idiom of Jury where that God was well known I know Jerom hath a conceit that Nebuchadnezzar after his conquest of Egipt sent a colonie of syrians Arabians into certain Egiptian cities who introdue't the use of their tongue into those Cityes But he learnt this of the Jewish tradition-mongers of whom he was too great an admirer and through his credulitie received oftentimes false aimes who put this Exposition upon this clause on purpose to divert it from bearing witnesse to the truth of the Gospell And he must be a very great stranger to the propriety of prophetick language that knows not that the language of Canaan imports in their dialect the speaking after the mode and form of Gods people and that therefore
Egipts foregoing her native gentile-tongue and using the speech of that people over whom God had a peculiar Soveraignty in swearing to him after their form was a signe of Gods conquest of the Egiptians of his translating them from his dominion of Satan into the Kingdom of his dear Son so farr is swearing by the Lord of hosts or in the name of the true God in cases of importance from being a sin as it is an evedence of the Christian worlds conversion to and recognition of that God Arg. 5. The holiest Christian may lawfully and laudably do that which the spirit of Christ that spake by the prophets hath made the doings of in Gospell-times the condition of Gods accepting men for his people But the spirit of Christ in the Prophets hath made mens learning to swear by his name such a condition as upon the fulfilling thereof he will number men amongst his disciples account them his people that do and root out and utterly destroy them that do not learn to swear by his name Therefore the holiest Christian may lawfully swear by Gods name The major is plain for it is impossible that God should tempt men to sin by making the committing thereof the condition of the grand and comprehensiye promise such as this is of being his people which includes all the benesits and priviledges of that relation This were to allure us to sin by stronger motives then Satan can possibly lay before us The minor I prove from Jeremy 12.16 And it shall come to pass that if they will diligemly learn the ways of my people to swear by my name in this or the like form the Lond liveth as they taught my people to swear by Baal then shall they be built in the midst of my people but if they will not obey I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation saith the Lord. It is beyond all possibilty of rational doubt that this Prophesie relates to the time of the Gospel for it is directed to the Gentiles of whom Gods people had learnt to swear by Baal called by God his evil neighbours vers 14. that is Nations bordering upon Judea his own inheritance his own land whom he blames for touching the inheritance which he had caused his people of Israel to inherit that is for turning the Jews out and taking to their own possession the Holy Land as did the Assyrians and their confederates in the Jewish Wars the Samaritans Phoenicians Ammonites Edomites c. whom he threatens to pluck out of their own land as they had driven the Jews out of theirs and to pluck out the house of Judah from amongst them this God perform'd at their restauration from the Babilonian captivity To these Gentile-borderers I say God directs this threat vers 14. Thus saith the Lord against all my evil neighbours that have touched c. and this promise vers 15. And it shall come to passe after that I have plucked them out I will return and have compassion upon them and bring every man to his heritage and his own land After the mention of which restauration of those Gentile-borderers doth immediately follow this promise and if they will learn the ways of my people to swear by my name c. This promise then concerns that time when God would return to and have compassion on the Gentiles when he would call her beloved that was not beloved and them a people that was not a people and is made to them that had withdrawn Israel from the worship of the true God to their Idols in whom they had perswaded them to put confidence by whom they had taught them to swear in such forms as Baal liveth by the life of Baal c. and manifestly imports this sense If as you Gentiles have taught my people the Jews to swear by your Gods you will learn of them when the law shall go out of Sion into all the world by the ministry of the Apostles to swear by my name then you shall be built up amongst my people Yea the matter of this promise being the ingrafting of the gentiles into the Church the luying of them as living-stones in Gods spiritual temple the building of them upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets in the midst of Gods people it could not possibly take effect while the partition-wall stood nor have its accomplishment till Christ by the blood of his Crosse had removed the enmity and making peace had reconciled both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body Ephes 2.16 2. A dilligent learning to swear by Gods name is here made the condition of Gods promise of grafting the gentiles into the stock of Abraham of his accounting them his spirituall seed of his building them up amongst his people of his giving them a name and a place in his house as being that which is the way of Gods people nay the ways of Gods people the Old Testament-way and the New Testament way of their protesting what God they serve in contradistinction to the ways of all other people each of which swear by the name of that false God whom they respectively served and in distinction from all other ways of confessing the true God men may confess God in prayer in thanks-giving in attendance upon the Word and Sacraments and yet not glorifie him sufficiently in order to Gods accepting of them as true worshippers in order to his reputing them living-stones fit to be laid in the walls of his house the Church except to those forementioned and all other wayes of expressing their homage they adde this of swearing by his name except withal they dilligently learn to acknowledge his omnisciency omaipo encie justice and divine vengeance by appealing to those dreadful attributes by swearing by his fearful name when they are lawfully thereunto called where this most solemn invocation of the divine majesty is denied him he esteems all other acts of invocation not serious enough to oblige him that tenders them to a sincere confession Men may possibly dissemble in their bare word-professions of God and his attributes and therefore he puts Christians here to the utmost trial of their sincerity by this most awful address to him He that swears by his Name calls God for a witness against his soul dares him to his face challengeth the divine vengeance to do its worst in case he swear falsly and therefore God esteems this as the highest and most august act of Divine worship that the creature can possibly exhibite to him and as that which eminently contains all others and comprehends the whole condition of the Gospel all the ways of Gods people confessing to him Hence S. Austin in Psal 63.12 interprets qui jurant in eo by qui sit Christianus he that swears by him that is saith he every profest Christian Nam juramentum sumitur pro toto cultu ut in Esai 45.23 jurabit omnis lingua for swearing by God implies the whole worship of God as in Isaiah Every tongue