[SERM. probable, that he was fpeaking only of thofe vain, rafh Converfation Oaths; q. d. you have been taught, that there is nothing prohibited in the Third Commandment but Perjury, and you make nothing of Swearing in common Converfation, fo it be not by the Name of God himself, but by the Creatures; but all this Practice I utterly forbid, as dishonourable to Almighty God.

4. The Antithefis here; but let your Converfation be yea, yea; nay, nay; fhews plainly, that the Difcourfe related only to thofe Converfation Oaths; for if it had related to all Oaths in general, the Antithefis must have gone further than to Converfation or Communication, even to all Judicial Proceedings likewise.

5. Grave Judicial Oaths are every where in the Holy Scriptures honourably spoke of; and there is never any the leaft Intimation, that either they were allowed because of the Hardness of their Hearts, or that they were Types and Shadows of Things to come; which are the only Reasons I know, why any thing allowed by the Law of Mofes, is abolished by our Saviour. (1.) First, I say, they are every where honourably spoke of: It is challenged, as a particular Honour to God, that Oaths be taken in his Name; Deut. vi. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and ferve him, and fhalt fwear by his Name. And Deut. x. 20. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, him shalt thou Serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and fwear by bis Name. They are particularly forbid to give this Honour to any falfe Gods. It is part of fofhuah's Exhortation before his Death, Joh. xxiii. 7. That they should not make mention of the Name of thefe falfe Gods, nor cause to fwear by them, nor

Serve them, nor bow themselves unto them. So that it is plain, it is reckoned a part of the Honour and Worship particularly due to Almighty God. (2.) We find too the best Men, on Occafions of great Weight and Importance, have always made ufe of Oaths. Abraham exacted an Oath of his faithful Servant Eliezer, in a Bufinefs of great Truft, the providing a Wife for his Son out of his own Kindred, who lived very remote. JoJeph took an Oath of his Brethren, concerning the Transportation of his Bones into the promised Land. Jonathan took an Oath of his Friend David, concerning his Kindness to his Pofterity. (3.) As to the Evangelical Times, it was prophefied concerning the Propagation of the Gofpel; Ifa. xlv. 23. Unto me every Knee shall bow, every Tongue shall fwear. Our Saviour himself, when adjured by the High-Priest in the Name of the Living God, Matt. xxvi. 63. which was the Manner of a Judicial Oath among the Jews, answered upon that Oath, and confeffed the Truth. And Heb. vi. 16. the Apoftle fays, an Oath for Confirmation, is an End of all Strife. And why there should not be an End of Strife under the Gofpel, as well as under the Law, I cannot imagine. So much for our first Affertion, that Jadiciary Oaths are not prohibited by thefe Words of our Saviour; for this is to be remembred as a Rule in the Interpretation of all Scripture, and indeed of all other Authors, that if Expreffions are ever fo general, they are not to be interpreted in that general Senfe, if there is any thing in the Context, or the Scope and Purport of the Difcourse, that limits the feemingly general Expreffions, to any particular Species that the Difcourfe

was

was about: e. g. when St Paul fays, that he be came all things to all Men; that to the Jews be became as a few; to them that were under the Law, as under the Law; to them that are with out Law, as without Law. This, to look no further than thefe Words, founds like a fawning, flattering, time-ferving Temper; but if we examine the Context, 1 Cor. ix. 19, &c. we fhall find all this Complaifance is to be reftrained to things indifferent, and that all this time the Apoftle limited it within the Laws of God and Christ, ver. 21. then there is no Difficulty in the whole Matter. This very thing has occafioned the Error of the Quakers and Anabaptifts in this Place, that they have run away with the general Sound of the Words, fwear not at all, without confidering the Occafion or the Context, or even the particular Subject Matter our Saviour was upon; and far less the other Scriptures of the Old and New Teftament, with which their Doctrine is irreconcileable.

But now, because there is one Text more which feems to favour this Notion of theirs, concerning the Unlawfulness of Oaths, which they have miftook the very fame way, for want of confidering the Context, I fhall give you a brief Solution to that Difficulty too, and fo have done with this of Judiciary Oaths: The Text is, Jam. v. 12. which founds very full to their Purpofe; But above all things, my Brethren, fwear not, neither by Heaven, neither by the Earth, neither by any other Oath: but let your yea, be yea; and your nay, nay; left ye fall into Condemnation. In the Context, the Apostle St James had been exhorting to Patience, and for that End recommends the Pro

phets

phets as great Examples of that Virtue, particularly he recommends the great Patience of Job under his fharp Affliction: then immediately follow these Words which I quoted, But above all things, my Brethren, fwear not, q. d. But though ye cannot presently arrive at fuch a high Degree of Patience, as that of Job was, yet fome lower Degrees of it, at least, may be expected from you; particularly, that you should fo far curb your Paffion and Refentment, as to abstain from all manner of Oaths, according to our Saviour's Advice in that Particular, left ye fall under the Judgment of God denounced against profane Swearers. This feems to me to be the most natural Senfe of the Words; and if it is, it is only rafh, impatient, paffionate Oaths the Apostle is there treating of; and it seems not in the leaft to be his Intent to speak of Judiciary Oaths. I have infifted fo much the longer on this, because as we have some that venture boldly and profanely on all Oaths, fo we have others that make all Oaths unlawful, though adminiftred by lawful Authority, and ever fo innocent as to the Matter of them; which tends mightily to the Obstruction of Justice, the Encouragement of Knavery, and Disturbance of Government,

2. Our fecond Affertion was, That voluntary

Oaths taken in a grave ferious manner, and upon weighty Occafions, in which the due Conditions. of an Oath are obferved, are not forbid in this Text. Some grave Authors indeed, and that are not led away by the Enthusiasms of the former, are of Opinion, that all voluntary Oaths are prohibited, and no other lawful but fuch as are enjoined by Authority. But from the Context,

which we have had under our Confideration, it is only the rash Oaths in Converfation, which, over and above the falfe ones, our Saviour here prohibits. For upon grave and weighty Occafions, we find St Paul often takes God to witness, which is the formal Definition of an Oath: Thus Rom. i. 9. God is my Witness, that without ceafing, I make mention of you in my Prayers. To the Galatians, after an Account of his Converfion and Apoftleship, he confirms it with an Oath, thus, Gal. i. 20. Now the things which I write unto you, behold before God I lie not. And fo having given the Corinthians an Account of his great Sufferings, he concludes thus, (a) The God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, knoweth that I lie not. Several other Inftances might be brought of the like Nature, where, without any external Compulfion, only for Confirmation of the Truth of what he fays, that Apostle backs it gravely with an Oath.

So much for the negative Part, what is not prohibited in thefe Words: I come next to the pofitive Part, what is prohibited in thefe Words of our Saviour; and that, in fhort, is all rash cuftomary Swearing in Converfation, particularly all Oaths which are ufed only for idle Additions in Speech, all Oaths about fuch Things in which there is no Neceffity to call in God, to atteft the Truth of what is afferted or promised; where the End would be as well anfwered, and the Thing as well believed,, by a bare Affirmation or Negation. I shall not again trouble you with the Rea

(a) 2 Cor. xi. 31.

fons