apostâ—cie is filled up when God hath by these his scourges debated to his measure with his Church for her humiliation and purgation and has done his work his whole work upon mount Sion that he intends to make them instrumentall to he will pluck up all such plants pull down all such buildings and utterly destroy all such peole He who will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain will not let them escape unpunisht who will not learn to swear by it in judgement righteousnesse and truth They shall perish who run foul upon this Scylla as certainly as they who fall into that Caribdis A truly-sanctified conscience steers a middle course betwixt these extreams and while it fears an oath in vain and profane swearing after the guise of heathens fears also not to learn this way of Gods people to swear religiously by his name To this course we are directed by the compasse not onely of those texts that I have alledged but of those also which are urged by the Quakers and out of which they squeeze objections against this propheticall doctrine which the holy Men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost have thus plainly delivered which that I may make manifest it will be requisite that we take the measure of those Evangelical Scriptures which are forced to speak against the Prophets SECTION II. The Texts which they commonly urge are S. Mat. 5.34 But I say unto you swear not at all neither by heaven for it is Gods throne neither by Jerusalem c. But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more then these cometh of evill S. James 5.12 Above all things my brethren swear not at all neither by heaven nor earth nor any other oath lest ye fail into condemnation Sol. 1. IF I would argue ad hominem or in Solomons phrase answer a fool according to his folly I need give no other solution of their paralogisms grounded upon these texts then this They deal with those texts as the devil did with that which he quoted to Christ Mat. 4.6 out of Psa 91.11 He shall give his angels charge over thee c. For as he perverted that to a damnable sense by leaving out that essentiall part of it In all thy ways So these men wrest these portions of Scripture by making a stop at swear not at all and leaving out the words following neither by heaven c. which were spoken with the same breath and are an essential part of the sentence which entirely stands thus swear not at all neither by heaven nor earth c. and prohibits swearing at all by these or any other creatures But what makes this against swearing by the Lord here is nothing forbid but what was forbid in the law when swearing by the Lord was not only lawful but expresly commanded as the objectors confesse and is manifest from Deut. 6.13 and 10.29 yet then swearing by them that were not God was prohibited and therefore charged upon the Jews as a sin Jerem. 5.7 how shall I pardon thâ—â— for this thy children have forgotten me and sworn by them that are no Gods Heaven Earth Jerusalem c. are not God and therefore Christs forbidding us to swear by them or any other creature is consistent as well now as it was formerly with the command of swearing by the Lord. And whereas they urge that of S. James nor any other oath as if that made any kinde of oath unlawful there is nothing more obvious to him that piously searcheth the minde of God in sacred writ then this observation That there are many propositions laid down in general terms whose sentence must be limited to the matter in hand or else they manifestly contradict the light of nature and other sacred Texts As when Christ saith John 10.8 All that ever came before me were theives and robbers If we expound that saying without any limitation at all we must necessarily thence infer that Moses and the Prophets and John the Baptist were thieves for they came before Christ But if we confine it to the subject on which Christ discourseth viz. I am the door the way c. then the sense will be found as importing no more but this that all who came before Christ pretending that they were the door the way that is the Messias the Christ or that great shepherd c. were theives When St. Paul saith all thiâ—gs are lawful for me if by all things we understand all things wiâ—hout exception it will follow that it was lawful for him to steal lie murder blaspheme and what not when he saith I become all things to all men if we expound his words without limitation the consequence will be that he became a drunkard an Epicure an Atheist an Apostate to gain such kind of men But if we limit those sayings to the subject upon which he treateth in those places the sence will be such as becoms the Apostle of the holy Jesus viz. all things that God hath not prohibited such as I am now speaking of are lawful for me I am at liberty to do them or leave them undone as stands most with conveniencie so far as either Jew Grecian or Barbarian retain any true principles I am theirs and urge those principles as my own upon them in order to my drawing them to embrace the gospell So when S. James saith nor by any other oath this universal must be limited to the preceding words viz. swear not by heaven or earth and contains a prohibition to swear by any other oath of that sort which he had named but not any other sort of oath as that form of oath is which I urge the lawfullnesse of for it is apparent that S. James doth here epitomise the saying of Christ in S. Matt. and having mention'd swearing by heaven or earth he comprehends the remainder of Christs instances swearing by the temple by Jerusalem or the hair of our head in this abbreviation or any other oath as if he had said swear not at all by heaven earth or any other of those forms of swearing by the creature that Christ forbad the use of in his Sermon on the mount when he publisht his royall law or indeed by any form of that kinde From the bare letter therefore of these texts nothing can be inferred contradictory to my assertion for they prohibit swearing by any creature and I maintain the lawfulness of swearing by the Lord of all creatures and to them that stick in the bark of the words themselves as the Quakers do no other answer need be given to stop their mouths but this Sol. 2. But that I may satisfie persons of more sober mindes and speak the whole and naked truth ex animo I give this as the full and adequate answer to all fanatick reasonings from these Texts against solemn and reverential swearing that Christ and S. James are so far from prohibiting the reverential use of Gods name in solemn
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 command 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 65.15 And ye shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen that is The people 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 mâ—de a vagabond upon earth parallel 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 differenc'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 priviledges 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 blesse themselves in his name and swear by him as the God of truth as that God who by choosing gentile-beleevers to be his people keeps faith with Abraham See Calvin S. Jerom iâ— 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 righteousnesse and shall not return shall never be repeal'd that unto me every knee shall bow every tongue shall swear From which Text that I may manifest the indubitable truth of each branch of my assumption Let it be 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 be 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 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 men Gentiles as well as Jewes owe service to Christ 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 thâ— 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 dumb 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
controversies that came before them should be determined by the oaths of witnesses Had Christ therefore at this time prohibited the taking of oaths in this case it would have been an obstruction to all legal proceedings according to that form of processe instituted by his Father It had been the proclaiming of indemnity to thieves murderers blasphemers and all sorts of wicked and injurious persons and a turning of hell loose in that Kingdom of God for by the standing and yet unrepealed laws of that Kingdom questions of that nature could not be brought to a determination nor malefactors to condign punishment without oath It had been a pragmatical and precocious dissolution of the whole frame of the divine polity before the time appointed by God and assigned by his prophets a turning God out of possession of his Kingdom of Judea before he had erected his Kingdom in the gentile world and by consequence an unpeopling all the visible dominion he had on earth and leaving him destitute of subjects For the veil of the temple was not yet rent with the force of Christs expiring breath the hand-writing of Ordinances was not yet cancell'd by the blood of the crosse the law either ceremoniall or municipall had not yet lost its obliging force upon all them that were born under it as our Saviour was till by his death he had purchast exemption from it and dominion over it and therefore had Christ or any of his Disciples been called before the Judicatures to bear witnesse in a case wherein the civil law of Moses required an oath they would have thought themselvs obliged in conscience to have given oath If he had been made a Judge for the dividing of the inheritance betwixt the two contending brothers he would in obedience to the law have taken the oaths of witnesses if there had been occasion for it If he would have undertaken to have determined the case of the woman taken in adultery as he askt for the accusers Woman where are thy accusers so he would have askt for their witnesses and have called the witnesses to their oaths Briefly as they that expound Christs prohibition of solemn Oaths do by their refusing to learn to swear by the Lord declare themselves to be none of Gods people none of Christs Disciples but unchristen themselves so by fastning this sense upon our Saviours words they un-Christ the blessed Jesus and make him a sinner in stead of a Saviour ranking him with those false Christs who under pretence of greater purity sought the dissolution of the civil polity whose stories you may see in Josephus 3. After this prohibition we finde S. Paul who received his Gospel not from man but God approving of and appealing to the evidence of witnesses in such Courts as he knew no evidence would be taken but by Oath which certainly he would not have done if he had conceived Christ to have forbidden the use of solemn oaths when he pleaded his cause before Lysias he appealed to the testimony of the then high-priest Simon the son of his quondam mastâ—â— Gamaliel and the whole Sanbedrin Josephus in the history of his 〈◊〉 life to bear witnesse that he had been educated a Pharisee and had been a zealous persecuter of the Church in going with the high-priests orders letters at that time that Christ appear'd to him of all which the high priest and all the estate of the Elders can boar me witness Act. 22.5 In his apology before Felix he challengeth his accusers to prove the matters of fact they charged him with Act. 24 13. Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me he blames them for not bringing up witnesses the Jews of Asia who found him in the temple to alledge if they had ought against him and challengeth all that were then in the Court to say if they found any evil-doing in him while he stood before the Council vers 19.20 In his answer before Agrippa he appeals to the testimony of those that knew him from his youth Act. 26.5 who knew me from the beginning if they would testifie S. Paul knew very well that in a matter of life or death as this was no evidence would passe in Court without oath and therefore if he had thought solemn swearing to have been made unlawful by this prohibition of Christ he would rather have undergone a thousand deaths then tempt so many to make shipwrack of their immortal souls by calling them to that unlawful act 4. None of those forms of swearing mentioned here by Christ nor any of like nature would passe for current or legal before a Jewish Magistrate but only such forms as wherein the Name of God was invok't expresly The Law was so clear Thou shalt swear by the Lord thy God as whoever should in any Court of Judicature render any other form of oath that form might have been excepted against by him against whom it was given as insufficient to end the controversie depending as void in their Judaical law which being of divine institution it was not within the verge of humane power either to dispence with or alter the forms of proceeding therein exprest From this custom of the Jews in open Court to swear by no other name but that of God the maker of heaven and earth and 〈◊〉 Appion accused the Jews of singularity as hereby discriminating themselves from all other Nations who did not so strictly tie up themselves to that form of swearing in their Judicatories Joseph l. 2. in Appion Philo Judaus in his Allegories of the Law lib. 2. pronounceth all them accursed that say they swear by God but 't is usual for the wisest Jewish Scribes to run beyond their wits in allegorizing the Law because they do not look to Christ the end of it Howbeit he recovers himself in his treatise of the Decalogue where speaking of solemn swearing before a Judge in a case of controversy he defines it a citation of God to bear witness in doubtful cases and aggravates the sin of perjury in that case from the infamy which it casts upon his name And in his Treatise of speciall laws where he adviseth that when the necessity of the thing required an oath men would not presently have recourse to God himself but use some other form and rather call in some of Gods creatures to be a witnesse doth give sufficient hints that he speaks there of elective oaths onely which men use in private and not such as men are called to take in the course of law and therefore puts in this proviso Salvis legibus when the law allows thee another form that is in thy ordinary communication manifestly implying that no form was good in law but that wherein God himself was named for a witnesse And indeed both Judge and litigants must have been out of their wits if they had laid the decision of controversy upon such oaths as were prae-declared to be of no validity as these forms were which Christ prohibits