possibly now in England be not only destructive to many thousands but very disadvantagious to the King and Kingdome to the Trade and Commerce of the Nation by opening a little Wicket of Royal Clemency only to some few and shutting the great Gate to many whose tender and unsatisfied or scrupulous Consciences do as much expect need and deserve it as those that have it in petty matters while all others scruples are driven to discontent and despair by denial of all indulgence to them in greater scruples There are but these four wayes of treating any party that dissents from the publick establishment of Religion and its Lawes in any Church and Kingdom 1. Either to impoverish imprison banish and destroy all Dissenters as the King of Castile did the Moores of Granada which is a very rough barbarous unwelcome and unchristian way disallowed by all wise men of all perswasions Or Secondly by rational convincing them of their errors which is a work of time and dexterity not to be done on the sudden no more then bodily cures without a miracle though very worthy to bear a part in the Discipline of the Church which should require of every one a reason why they differ from or forsake the established Religion and treat them according as their perswasion passion or pertinacy shall appeare to the Conservators of Religion Or Thirdly by changing established Laws for their sake which is not for the Piety Prudence Honour and Safety of a Nation and Church when it judgeth its Constitutions to be religious righteous and convenient Or Fourthly by way of discreet connivance and charitable indulgence so farre as the civil peace of the Nation will bear until Reason and Religion of whose prevalency wise and good men never despair have by calme and charitable methods recovered people from the error of their wayes by the sacred Doctrine and good examples of those who conforme to the established Lawes in Church and State This being first done will render Dissenters unexcusable and justifie any severity which shall be inflicted upon the extravagancies of those opinions and actions which do any way perturb the publick peace or affront the established Religion And in this particular case of the Quakers who refuse all legal Oathes upon scruples of Conscience and so threaten either to subvert our Laws or to obstruct all judicial proceedings pleading for their disobedience to mans Laws the express command of Christ and his Apostle Saint James no sober man can think by meer penalties to reduce them to a conformity with our Laws or to stop the spreading of their Opinions untill it be plainly shewed that it is not true Religion but onely Superstition in them a fear where no fear is a being righteous over-much by a mistake of Christs meaning a wresting of those Scriptures by their own unlearnedness and unstableness to their own destruction as well as to the publick perturbation Noble Sir this great work for so it is to convince weak and wilful men of the error of their wayes I have undertaken in this little Treatise by Gods blessing not unseasonably I hope as to our times nor unsuitably as to my profession If I may be happy to do any of them good who possibly may erre in this with no evil mind by redeeming them from their mistakes and so from the penalties of the Law I shall more rejoyce in that success then those Souldiers did who among the Ancients were rewarded with Civick Garlands for preserving any of their Countrey-men and fellow-Citizens which Honour you know the Roman valour esteemed more then any victorious Laurels for destroying their Enemies And in this charitable endeavour prospered by Gods grace I shall the more seriously triumph because I believe it most agreable as to my Saviours preoept and primitive examples of Christian Bishops so to your generous Soule whereby this piece may probably be fortified with the approbation of so pieus and judicious a person whose single suffrage is to me more valuable then the sequacious and vulgar votes of thousands whose empty brains and clamorous mouths like hollow places where Echo hides her self do commonly receive and report things not as the Truth is in them but as the noise and cry is lowdest I know you are as much above plebeian censures as titular Honours traditional Philosophy and popular Religion being every way judiciously devoted to God and his Truth full of Loyalty to the King and Laws also of sober Conformity to the established Religion of this Church whose royal Law is that of Charity the bond of perfection and centre of Peace In all which respects you deserve and have the love and honour of all worthy Persons and particularly of him who may without vanity own this as an instance of some worth in him that he is SIR Your most affectionate Friend and humble Servant JOH EXON March 20 1661. A DISCOURSE Concerning Publick Oaths and the Lawfulness of Swearing in Judicial Proceedings c. FInding lately in the most Honourable House of Peers that a Law was likely to pass in order to punish with great Penalties those English Subjects who under the name of Quakers shall refuse to take as other legal Oaths so those which are usually required in Judicial proceedings thereby to prevent either the alteration of the good Laws and Customs of England according to private mens fancies or the obstructions and violations of publick Justice the free course of which as that of the Blood and Spirits to the Natural is the preservation of the Life and Health the Peace and Honour the Happiness and very Being of the Body Politick which by the Laws and ancient Customs of this Kingdom of England cannot be duly administred but by those forms of solemn and religious Oaths in the Name of the true God which are the highest Obligations to Truth and Justice upon them that swear also the greatest satisfactions or assurances that can be given to others for the belief of what is so attested and for acquiescency in what is so decided I was hereupon bold thus far humbly to intercede with that Honourable House in the behalf of those poor people who are likely to fall under the Penalties of that Law That however I might consent to the passing of that Bill out of that justice and charity which I owe to the publick peace and welfare to which all private Parties Interests and Charities must submit yet I craved so far a respite for some time as to the execution of those Penalties upon any of them as Offenders until some such rational and religious course were taken as might best inform those men of the lawfulness by God's as well as Man's Law of imposing and taking such publick Oaths That so answering first their Scruples and fairly removing their difficulties either they might be brought to a chearful Obedience in that particular or else be left without excuse before God and man while the truth of the Law was justified against
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
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