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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	place_n	scripture_n	word_n	9,705	5	4.5641	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75017	The lively oracles given to us. Or the Christians birth-right and duty, in the custody and use of the Holy Scripture. By the author of the Whole duty of man, &c.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679, attributed name.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683, attributed name.; Fell, John, 1625-1686, attributed name.; Henchman, Humphrey, 1592-1675, attributed name.; Burghers, M., engraver.	1678 (1678)	Wing A1151B; ESTC R3556	108,574	250

advantage God closes with them upon their own terms and do's not so much injoin as buy those little services he asks from us 3. BUT because som mens natures are so disingenuous as to hate to be oblig'd no less then to be reform'd the Scripture has goads and scourges to drive such beasts as will not be led terrors and threatnings and those of most formidable sorts to affright those who will not be allur'd Nay lest incredulous men should question the reality of future rewards or punishments the Scripture gives as sensible evidence of them as we are capable of receiving in this world by registring such signal protections and judgments proportion'd to vertue and vice as sufficiently attests the Psalmists Axiom Doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth Psal 58.11 and leaves nothing to the impenitent sinner but a fearful expectation of that fiery indignation threatned hereafter Heb. 10.27 4. AND now methinks the Scripture seems to be that net our Savior speaks of that caught of every sort Mat. 13.47 it is of so vast a compass that it must one would think fetch in all kind of tempers and sure had we not mixt natures with fiends contracted som of their malice and obstinacy mere human pravity could not hold out 5. AND as the holy Scripture is thus fitly proportion'd to its end in respect of the subject matter so is it also in reference to its circumstances which all conspire to render it the power of God unto salvation Ro. 1.16 In the first rank of those we must place its divine original which stamps it with an uncontroulable autority and is an infallible security that the matter of it is perfectly true since it proceeds from that essential verity which cannot abuse us with fraudulent promises or threatnings and from that infinite power that cannot be impeded in the execution of what he purposes 6. YET to render this circumstance efficacious there needs another to wit that its being the word of God be sufficiently testifi'd to us and we have in the fore-going discourse evinced it to be so and that in the utmost degree that a matter of that kind is capable of beyond which no sober man will require evidence in any thing And certainly these two circumstances thus united have a mighty force to impress the dictats of Scripture on us And we must rebel against God and our own convictions too to hold out against it 7. A third circumstance relates to the frame and composure of this divine Book both as to method and stile concerning which I have already made som reflexions But now that I may speak more distinctly I observe it takes its rise from the first point of time wherein 't was possible for mankind to be concern'd and so gradually proceeds to its fall and renovation shews us first our need of a Redeemer and then points us out who it is by types and promises in the Old Testament and by way of history and completion in the New In the former it acquaints us with that pedagogy of the Law which God design'd as our Schole-master to bring us to Christ Gal. 3.25 and in the Gospel shews us yet a more excellent way presents us with those more sublime elevated doctrins which Christ came down from heaven to revele 8. AS for the stile that is full of grateful variety somtimes high and majestic as becomes that high and holy one that inhabiteth eternity Esai 57.15 and somtimes so humble and after the manner of men as agrees to the other part of his Character his dwelling is with him that is of an humble spirit Esay 57.15 I know profane wits are apt to brand this as an unevenness of stile but they may as well accuse the various notes of Music as destructive to harmony or blame an Orator for being able to tune his tongue to the most different strains 9. ANOTHER excellency of the stile is its propriety to the several subjects it treats of When it speaks of such things as God would not have men pry into it wraps them up in clouds and thick darkness by that means to deter inquisitive man as he did at Sinai from breaking into the mount Ex. 20. And that he gives any intimation at all of such seems design'd only to give us a just estimate how shallow our comprehensions are and excite us to adore and admire that Abyss of divine Wisdom which we can never fathom 10. THINGS of a middle nature which may be useful to som but are indispensibly necessary to all the Scripture leaves more accessible yet not so obvious as to be within every mans reach but makes them only the prize of industry praier and humble endevors And it is no small benefit that those who covet the knowledg of divine Truth are by it engag'd to take these vertues in the way Besides there is so much time requir'd to that study as renders it inconsistent with those secular businesses wherein the generality of men are immerst and consequently 't is necessary that those who addict themselves to the one have competent vacancy from the other And in this it hath a visible use by being very contributive to the maintaining that spiritual subordination of the people of the Pastors which God has establish'd Miriam and Corahs Partisans are a pregnant instance how much the opinion of equal knowledg unfits for subjection and we see by sad experience how much the bare pretence of it has disturb'd the Church and made those turn preachers who never were understanding hearers 11. BUT besides these more abstruse there are easier truths in which every man is concern'd the explicit knowledg whereof is necessary to all I mean the divine Rules for saving Faith and Manners And in those the Scripture stile is as plain as is possible condescends to the apprehensions of the rudest capacities so that none that can read the Scripture but will there find the way to bliss evidently chalk'd out to him That I may use the words of Saint Gregory the Lamb may wade in those waters of life as well as the Elephant may swim The Holy Ghost as St. Austin tells us lib. 2. of Christian doctrin cap. 6. has made in the plainer places of Scripture magnificent and healthful provision for our hunger and in the obscure against satiety For there are scarce any things drawn from obscure places which in others are not spoken most plainly And he farther adds that if any thing happen to be no where explain'd every man may there abound in his own sense 12. SO again in the same Book cap. 9. he saies that all those things which concern Faith and Manners are plainly to be met with in the Scripture and Saint Jerom in his Comment on Es 19. tells us that 't is the custom of the Scripture to close obscure sayings with those that are easy and what was first exprest darkly to propose in evident words which very thing is said likewise by Saint Chrysostom Hom.

those solemn and holy intentions which become the dignity of its Author Accordingly we find holy men have in all Ages bin affected with it and som to the inward reverence of the mind have join'd the outward of the body also and never read it but upon their knees an example that may both instruct and reproach our profaness who commonly read by chance and at a venture If a Bible happen in our way we take it up as we would do a Romance or Play-book only herein we differ that we dismiss it much sooner and retain less of its impressions 18. IT was a Law of Numa that no man should meddle with divine things or worship the Gods in passing or by accident but make it a set and solemn business And every one knows with how great ceremony and solemnity the heathen Oracles were consulted How great a shame is it then for Christians to defalk that reverence from the true God which heathens allow'd their false ones 19. NOW this proceeds somtimes from the want of that habitual reverence we should alwaies have to it as Gods word and somtimes from want of actual exciting it when we go to read for if the habit lie only dormant in us and be not awak'd by actual consideration it avails us as little in our reading as the habitual strength of a man do's towards labor when he will not exert it for that end 20. WE ought therefore as to make it our deliberat choice to read Gods word so when we do it to stir up our selves to those solemn apprehensions of its dignity and autority as may render us malleable and apt to receive its impressions for where there is no reverence 't is not to be expected there should be any genuine or lasting obedience 21. SAINT Austin in his Tract to Honoratus of the advantage of believing makes the first requisit to the knowledg of the Scriptures to be the love of them Believe me saies he every thing in the Scripture is sublime and divine its truth and doctrin are most accommodate to the refreshment and building up of our minds and in all respects so order'd that every one may draw thence what is sufficient for him provided he approach it with devotion piety and religion The proof of this may require much reasoning and discourse But this I am first to perswade that you do not hate the Authors and then that you love them Had we an ill opinion of Virgil nay if upon the account of the reputation he has gain'd with our Predecessors we did not greatly love before we understood him we should never patiently go thro all the difficult questions Grammarians raise about him Many employ themselves in commenting upon him we esteem him most whose exposition most commends the Book and shews that the Author not only was free from error but did excellently well where he is not understood And if such an account happen not to be given we impute it rather to the Interpreter then the Poet. 22. THUS the good Father whose words I have transcrib'd at large as being remarkable to the present purpose he also shews that the mind of no Author is to be learnt from one averse to his doctrin as that 't is vain to enquire of Aristotles Books from one of a different Sect Or of Archimedes from Epicurus the discourse will be as displeasing as the speaker and that shall be esteem'd absurd which comes from one that is envi'd or despis'd 23. A third preparative to our reading should be praier The Scripture as it was dictated at first by the holy Spirit so must still owe its effects and influence to its cooperation The things of God the Apostle tells us are spiritually discern'd 1 Cor. 2.14 And tho the natural man may well enough apprehend the letter and grammatical sense of the Word yet its power and energy that insinuative perswasive force whereby it works on hearts is peculiar to the spirit and therefore without his aids the Scripture whilst it lies open before our eies may still be as a Book that is seal'd Esai 29.11 be as ineffective as if the characters were illegible 24. BESIDES our Savior tells us the devil is still busy to steal away the seed as soon as it is sown Mat. 13.17 And unless we have som better guard then our own vigilance he is sure enough to prosper in his attemt Let it therefore be our care to invoke the divine Aid and when ever we take the Bible into our hands to dart up at least a hearty ejaculation that we may find its effects in our hearts Let us say with holy David open thou mine eies O Lord that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law Blessed art thou O Lord O teach me thy statutes Ps 119. Nay indeed 't wil be fit matter of a daily solemn devotion as our Church has made it an annual in the Collect on the second Sunday in Advent a praier so apt and fully expressive of what we should desire in this particular that if we transcribe not only the example but the very words I know not how we can form that part of our devotion more advantageously 25. IN the second place we are to consider what is requir'd of us at the time of reading the Scripture which consists principally in two things The first of these is attention which is so indispensably requisit that without it all Books are alike and all equally insignificant for he that adverts not to the sense of what he reads the wisest discourses signify no more to him then the most exquisit music do's to a man perfectly deaf The letters and syllables of the Bible are no more sacred then those of another Book 't is the sense and meaning only that is divinely inspir'd and he that considers only the former may as well entertain himself with a spelling-book 26. WE must therefore keep our minds fixt and attent to what we read 't is a folly and lightness not to do so in human Authors but 't is a sin and danger not to do so in this divine Book We know there can scarce be a greater instance of contemt and disvalue then to hear a man speak and not at all mind what he saies yet this vilest affront do all those put upon God who hear or read his Word and give it no attention Yet I fear the practice is not more impious then it is frequent for there are many that read the Bible who if at the end of each Chapter they should be call'd to account I doubt they could produce very slender collections and truly 't is a sad consideration that that sacred Book is read most attentively by those who read it as som preach the Gospel Phil. 1.15 out of envy and strife How curiously do men inspect nay ransac and embowel a Text to find a pretence for cavil and objection whilst men who profess to look there for life and salvation read with such a retchless

9. 2 Cor. 4.11 who in his first homily on Saint Mat. farther declares that the Scriptures are easy to be understood and expos'd to vulgar capacities 13. He saies again Hom upon Esay that th Scriptures are not mettals that require the help of Miners but afford a tresure easily to be bad to them that seek the riches contain'd in them It is enough only to stoop down and look upon them and depart replenish'd with wealth it is enough only to open them and behold the splendor of those Gems Again Hom. 3. on the second Ep. to the Thess 2. All things are evident and strait which are in the holy Scripture whatever is necessary is manifest So also Hom. 3. on Gen. 14. It cannot be that he who is studious in the holy Scripture should be rejected for tho the instruction of men be wanting the Lord from above will inlighten our minds shine in upon our reason revele what is secret and teach what we do not know So Hom. 1. on Jo. 11. Almighty God involves his doctrin with no mists and darkness as did the Philosophers his doctrin is brighter then the Sun-beams and more illustrious and therefore every where diffus'd and Hom. 6. on Jo. 11. His doctrin is so facile that not only the wise but even women and youths must comprehend it Hom. 13. on Gen. 2. Let us go to the Scripture as our Mark which is its own interpreter And soon after saies that the Scripture interprets it self and suffers not its Auditor to err To the same purpose saies Cyril in his third Book against Julian In the Scripture nothing is difficult to them who are conversant in them as they ought to be 14. It is therefore a groundless cavil which men make at the obscurity of the Scripture since it is not obscure in those things wherein 't is our common interest it should be plain which sufficiently justifies its propriety to that great end of making us wise unto salvation And for those things which seem less intelligible to us many of them become so not by the innate obscurity of the Text but by extrinsic circumstances of which perhaps the over-busy tampering of Paraphrasts pleased with new notions of their own may be reckon'd for one But this subject the Reader may find so well pursued in Mr. Boyls Tract concerning the stile of Scripture that I shall be kindest both to him and it to refer him thither as also for answer to those other querulous objections which men galled with the sense of the Scripture have made to its stile 15. A third circumstance in which the Scripture is fitted to attain its end is its being committed to writing as that is distinguish'd from oral delivery It is most true the word of God is of equal autority and efficacy which way soever it be deliver'd The Sermons of the Apostles were every jot as divine and powerful out of their mouths as they are now in their story All the advantage therefore that the written Word can pretend to is in order to its perpetuity as it is a securer way of derivation to posterity then that of oral Tradition To evince that it is so I shall first weigh the rational probabilities on either side Secondly I shall consider to which God himself appears in Scripture to give the deference 16. FOR the first of these I shall propose this consideration which I had occasion to intimate before that the Bible being writ for the universal use of the faithful 't was as universally disperst amongst them The Jews had the Law not only in their Synagogues but in their privat houses and as soon as the Evangelical Books were writ they were scatter'd into all places where the Christian Faith had obtain'd Now when there was such a vast multitude of copies and those so revered by the possessors that they thought it the highest pitch of sacrilege to expose them it must surely be next to impossible entirely to suppress that Book Besides it could never be attemted but by som eminent violence as it was by the heathen Persecutors which according to the common effect of opposition serv'd to enhance the Christians value of the Bible and consequently when the storm was past to excite their diligence for recruiting the number So that unless in after Ages all the Christians in the world should at once make a voluntary defection and conspire to eradicate their Religion the Scriptures could not be utterly extinguish'd 17. AND that which secures it from total suppression do's in a great degree do so from corruption and falsification For whilest so many genuine copies are extant in all parts of the world to be appeal'd to it would be a very difficult matter to impose a spurious one especially if the change were so material as to awaken mens jealousies And it must be only in a place and age of gross ignorance that any can be daring enough to attemt it And if it should happen to succeed in such a particular Church yet what is that to the universal And to think to have the forgery admitted there is as a learned man saies like attemting to poison the sea 18. ON the other side oral Tradition seems much more liable to hazards error may there insinuate it self much more insensibly And tho there be no universal conspiracy to admit it at first yet like a small eruption of waters it widens its own passage till it cause an inundation There is no impression so deep but time and intervening accidents may wear out of mens minds especially where the notions are many and are founded not in nature but positive institution as a great part of Christian Religion is And when we consider the various tempers of men 't will not be strange that succeeding Ages will not alwaies be determin'd by the Traditions of the former Som are pragmatic and think themselves fitter to prescribe to the belief of their posterity then to follow that of their Ancestors som have interests and designs which will be better serv'd by new Tenets and som are ignorant and mistaking and may unawares corrupt the doctrin they should barely deliver and of this last sort we may guess there may be many since it falls commonly to the mothers lot to imbue children with the first rudiments 19. NOW in all these cases how possible is it that primitive Tradition may be either lost or adulterated and consequently and in proportion to that possibility our confidence of it must be stagger'd I am sure according to the common estimate in seculars it must be so For I appeal to any man whether he be not apter to credit a relation which comes from an eie-witness then at the third or fourth much more at the hundredth rebound as in this case And daily experience tells us that a true and probable story by passing thro many hands often grows to an improbable lie This man thinks he could add one becoming circumstance that man another and whilst most

men take the liberty to do so the relation grows as monstrous as such a heap of incoherent phancies can make it 20. IF to this it be said that this happens only in trivial secular matters but that in the weighty concern of Religion mankind is certainly more serious and sincere I answer that 't is very improbable that they are since 't is obvious in the common practice of the world that the interests of Religion are postpon'd to every little worldly concern And therefore when a temporal advantage requires the bending and warping of Religion there will never be wanting som that will attemt it 21. BESIDES there is still left in human nature so much of the venom of the Serpents first temtation that tho men cannot be as God yet they love to be prescribing to him and to be their own Assessors as to that worship and homage they are to pay him 22. BUT above all 't is considerable that in this case Sathan has a more peculiar concern and can serve himself more by a falsification here then in temporal affairs For if he can but corrupt Religion it ceases to be his enemy and becomes one of his most useful engins as sufficiently appear'd in the rites of the heathen worship We have therefore no cause to think this an exemt case but to presume it may be influenc'd by the same pravity of human nature which prevailes in others and consequently are oblig'd to bless God that he has not left our spiritual concerns to such hazards but has lodg'd them in a more secure repository the written Word 23. BUT I fore-see 't will be objected that whilst I thus disparage Tradition I do vertually invalidate the Scripture it self which comes to us upon its credit To this I answer first that since God has with-drawn immediate revelation from the world Tradition is the only means to convey to us the first notice that this Book is the word of God and it being the only means he affords we have all reason to depend on his goodness that he will not suffer that to be evacuated to us and that how liable soever Tradition may be to err yet that it shall not actually err in this particular 24. BUT in the second place This Tradition seems not so liable to falsification as others It is so very short and simple a proposition such and such writings are the word of God that there is no great room for Sophistry or mistake to pervert the sense the only possible deception must be to change the subject and obtrude supposititious writings in room of the true under the title of the word of God But this has already appear'd to be unpracticable because of the multitude of copies which were disperst in the world by which such an attemt would soon have bin detected There appears more reason as well as more necessity to rely upon Tradition in this then in most other particulars 25. NEITHER yet do I so farr decry oral Tradition in any as to conclude it impossible it should derive any truth to posterity I only look on it as more casual and consequently a less fit conveiance of the most important and necessary verities then the writen Word In which I conceive my self justifi'd by the common sense of mankind who use to commit those things to writing which they are most solicitous to derive to posterity Do's any Nation trust their fundamental Laws only to the memory of the present Age and take no other course to transmit them to the future do's any man purchase an estate and leave no way for his children to lay claim to it but the Tradition the present witnesses shall leave of it Nay do's any considering man ordinarily make any important pact or bargain tho without relation to posterity without putting the Articles in writing And whence is all this caution but from a universal consent that writing is the surest way of transmitting 26. BUT we have yet a higher appeal in this matter then to the suffrage of men God himself seems to have determin'd it And what his decision is 't is our next business to inquire 27. AND first he has given the most real and comprehensive attestation to this way of writing by having himself chose it For he is too wise to be mistaken in his estimate of better and worse and too kind to chuse the worst for us and yet he has chosen to communicate himself to the latter Ages of the world by writing and has summ'd up all the Eternal concerns of mankind in the sacred Scriptures and left those sacred Records by which we are to be both inform'd and govern'd which if oral Tradition would infallibly have don had bin utterly needless and God sure is not so prodigal of his spirit as to inspire the Autors of Scripture to write that whose use was superseded by a former more certain expedient 28. NAY under the Mosaic oeconomy when he made use of other waies of reveling himself yet to perpetuate the memory even of those Revelations he chose to have them written At the delivery of the Law God spake then viva voce and with that pomp of dreadful solemnity as certainly was apt to make the deepest impressions yet God fore-saw that thro every succeeding Age that stamp would grow more dim and in a long revolution might at last be extinct And therefore how warm soever the Israelites apprehensions then were he would not trust to them for the perpetuating his Law but committed it to writing Ex. 31.18 nay wrote it twice himself 29. YET farther even the ceremonial Law tho not intended to be of perpetual obligation was not yet referr'd to the traditionary way but was wrote by Moses and deposited with the Priests Deut. 31.9 And after-event shew'd this was no needless caution For when under Manasses Idolatry had prevail'd in Jerusalem it was not by any dormant Tradition but by the Book of the Law found in the Temple that Josiah was both excited to reform Religion and instructed how to do it 2. Kings 22.10 And had not that or som other copy bin produc'd they had bin much in the dark as to the particulars of their reformation which that they had not bin convei'd by Tradition appears by the sudden startling of the King upon the reading of the Law which could not have bin had he bin before possest with the contents of it In like manner we find in Nehemiah that the observation of the Feast of Tabernacles was recover'd by consulting the Law the Tradition whereof was wholly worn out or else it had sure bin impossible that it could for so long a time have bin intermitted Neh. 8.18 And yet mens memories are commonly more retentive of an external visible rite then they are of speculative Propositions or moral Precepts 30. THESE instances shew how fallible an expedient mere oral Tradition is for transmission to posterity But admit no such instance could be given 't is argument enough that

heedlesness as if it could tell them nothing they were concern'd in and to such 't is no wonder if their reading bring no advantage God is not in this sense found of those that seek him not Esai 65.1 't is Satans part to serve himself of the bare words and characters of holy Writ for charms and amulets the vertue God has put there consists in the sense and meaning and can never be drawn out by drousy inadverting Readers 27. THIS unattentiveness fore-stalls all possibility of good How shall that convince the understanding or perswade the affections which do's not so much as enter the imagination So that in this case the seed seems more cast away then in any of those instances the parable gives Mat. 13. In those it still fell upon the soil but in this it never reaches that but is scatter'd and dissipated as with a mighty wind by those thoughts which have prepossess'd the mind Let no man therefore take this sacred Book into his hand till he have turn'd out all distracting phancies and have his faculties free and vacant for those better objects which will there present themselves And when he has so dispos'd himself for attention then let him contrive to improve that attention to the best advantage 28. TO which purpose it may be very conducive to put it into som order and method As for instance when he reads the doctrinal part of Scripture let him first and principally advert to those plain Texts which contain the necessary points of Faith that he may not owe his Creed only to his education the institution of his Parents or Tutors but may know the true foundation on which it is bottom'd viz. the word of God and may thence be able to justify his Faith and as Saint Peter exhorts be ready to give an answer to every man that asks him a reason of the hope that is in him 1 Pet. 3.15 For want of this it is that Religion sits so loose upon men that every wind of doctrin blows them into distinct and various forms till at last their Christianity it self vapors away and disappears 29. BUT let men be careful thus to secure the foundation and then 't will be commendable in them who are capable of it to aspire to higher degrees of speculation yet even in these it will be their safest course chiefly to pursue such as have the most immediat influence on practice and be more industrious to make observations of that sort then curious and critical remarks or bold conjectures upon those mysteries on which God has spread a veil 30. BUT besides a mans own particular collections it will be prudence in him to advantage himself of those of others and to consult the learned'st and best expositors and that not only upon a present emergency when he is to dispute a point as most do but in the constant course of his reading wherein he will most sedatly and dispassionatly judg of the notions they offer 31. AS to the choice of the portions of Scripture to be read in course tho I shall not condemn that of reading the whole Bible in order yet 't is apparent that som parts of it as that of the Levitical Law are not so aptly accommodated to our present state as others are and consequently not so edificatory to us and therefore I cannot see why any man should oblige himself to an equal frequency in reading them And to this our Church seems to give her suffrage by excluding such out of her public Lessons And if we govern our privat reading by her mesures it will well express our deference to her judgment who has selected som parts of Scripture not that she would keep her children in ignorance of any but because they tend most immediatly to practice 32. NEITHER will the daily reading the Scripture in the rubricks order hinder any man from acquainting himself with the rest For he may take in the other parts as supernumeraries to his constant task and read them as his leisure and inclination shall promt So that all the hurt that can accrue to him by this method is the being invited to read somtimes extraordinary proportions 33. IF it be objected that to those who daily hear the Church Service 't will be a kind of tautology first to read those Lessons in privat which soon after they shall hear read publicly I answer that whatever men may please to call it 't will really be an advantage For he that shall read a chapter by himself with due consideration and consulting of good Paraphrasts will have div'd so far into the sense of it that he will much better comprehend it when he hears it read as on the other side the hearing it read so imediatly after will serve to confirm and rivet the sense in his mind The one is as the conning the other the repeating the Lesson which every Schole-boy can tell us is best don at the nearest distance to each other But I shall not contend for this or any particular method let the Scriptures be read in proportion to every mans leisure and capacity and read with attention and we need not be scrupulous about circumstances when the main duty is secur'd 34. BUT as in the doctrinal so in the preceptive part there is a caution to be us'd in our attention For we are to distingish between those temporary precepts that were adapted to particular times and occasions and such as are of perpetual obligation He that do's not this may bring himself under the Jewish Law or believe a necessity of selling all and giving it to the poor because 't was Christs command to the rich man Mat. 19. or incur other considerable mischeifs 35. THUS frequently commands are put in comprehensive indefinite words but concern only the Generality to whom the Law is written and not those who are entrusted with the vindication of their contemt Accordingly 'tis said thou shalt not kill Mark 10.19 which concerns the private person but extends not to the Magistrate in the execution of his office who is a revenger appointed by God and bears not the sword in vain Rom. 13.4 So the injunction not to swear at all Mat. 5.34 refers to the common transactions of life but not those solemn occasions where an oath is to give glory to God and is the end of all strife Heb. 6.16 Yet these mistakes at this day prevail with Anabaptists and Quakers and bottom their denial of the Magistrates power to protect his Subjects by war and to determin differences in Peace by the oath of witnesses in judicial proceedings 36. THERE is another distinction we are to attend to and that is between absolute and primary commands and secundary ones the former we are to set a special remark upon as those upon whose observance or violation our eternal life or death inseparably depends And therefore our first and most solicitous care must be concerning them I mention this not to divert any from aspiring to