SERM. My flesh trembleth for thee, and 1 am afraid of thy judg XV. Pfal. cxix. 120. ments? How prodigious a madness is it, without any constraint or needful cause to incur fo horrible danger, to rush upon a curfe; to defy that vengeance, the least touch or breath whereof can dafh us to nothing, or thruft us down into extreme and endless woe? Who can exprefs the wretchedness of that folly, which fo entangleth us with inextricable knots, and enchaineth our fouls fo rafhly with defperate obligations? Wherefore he that would but a little mind what he doeth when he dareth to swear, what it is to meddle with the adorable name, the venerable teftimony, the formidable judgment, the terrible vengeance of the Divine Majefty, into what a cafe he putteth himself, how extreme hazard he runneth thereby, would affuredly have little heart to fwear, without greatest reason, and most urgent need; hardly without trembling would he undertake the most neceffary and folemn oath; much cause would he fee oéberda ögxov, to adore, to fear an oath: which to do the divine Preacher maketh the character of a good man; Ecclef.ix.2. As, faith he, is the good, fo is the finner, and he that fweareth, as he that feareth an oath. In fine, even a heathen Philofopher, confidering the nature of an oath, did conclude the unlawfulness thereof in fuch cases. For, Seeing, faith he, an oath doth call God for witness, and propofeth him for umpire and voucher of the things it faith; therefore to induce God fo upon occafion of human affairs, or, which is all one, upon small and flight accounts, doth imply contempt of him: wherefore we ought wholly to fhun fwearing, except upon occafons of higheft neceffity c. II. We may confider, that fwearing (agreeably to its nature, or natural aptitude and tendency) is represented in holy Scripture as a special part of religious worship, or • Ὁ γὰρ ὅρκος μάρτυρα τὸν Θεὸν καλεῖ, καὶ μεσίτην αὐτὸν καὶ ἐγγυητὴν ἐφ ̓ οἷς λέγει προϊσχεται. τὸ γοῦν ἐπὶ ἀνθρωπίνοις πράγμασι (ταυτὸν δὲ εἰπεῖν μικροῖς καὶ εὐτελέσι) τὸν Θεὸν παράγειν, καταφρόνησίν τινα πρὸς αὐτὸν ὑπογράφει· διὸ χρὴ wagasrsiodas rèv ögxor, &c. Simpl. in Epia, cap. xliv. XV. devotion toward God; in the due performance whereof we SERM. do avow him for the true God and Governor of the world; we piously do acknowledge his principal attributes and special prerogatives; (his omnipresence and omniscience, extending itself to our moft inward thoughts, our fecreteft purposes, our clofeft retirements; his watchful providence over all our actions, affairs, and concerns; his faithful goodness, in favouring truth and protecting right; his exact justice, in patronizing fincerity, and chaftizing perfidiousness;) his being fupreme Lord over all perfons, and Judge paramount in all caufes; his readiness in our need, upon our humble imploration and reference, to undertake the arbitration of matters controverted, and the care of adminiftering justice, for the maintenance of truth and right, of loyalty and fidelity, of order and peace among men. Swearing doth alfo intimate a pious truft and confidence in God; as Aristotle obferveth d. Such things a ferious oath doth imply, to fuch purposes swearing naturally ferveth; and therefore to fignify or effectuate them, divine institution hath devoted it. God in goodness to fuch ends hath pleased to lend us his great name; allowing us to cite him for a witnefs, to have recourfe to his bar, to engage his justice and power, whenever the case deserveth and requireth it, or when we cannot by other means well affure the fincerity of our meaning, or fecure the conftancy of our refolutions. vi. 13. Yea in fuch exigences he doth exact this practice from us, as an instance of our religious confidence in him, and as a fervice conducible to his glory: for it is a precept in his law, of moral nature, and eternal obligation, Thou Deut. x. 20. fhalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou ferve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and fhalt fwear by his name. It is the character of a religious man to fwear with due reverence and upright confcience. For, The king, faith the Pf. Ixiii. 11. Pfalmift, Shall rejoice in God; every one that fweareth by 4 Εὐσεβὲς τὸ θέλειν τοῖς θεοῖς ἐπιτρέπειν. It is a pious thing willingly to commend our cafe or controversy to God. Arift, Rhet, i. 48. SERM, him fhall glory: but the mouth of them that Speak lies XV. fhall be stopped. It is a diftinctive mark of God's people, Jer. xii. 16, according to that of the Prophet Jeremy, And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to fwear by my name-then fhall they be built in the midst of my people. It is predicted concerning the Ifa. xlv. 23. evangelical times, Unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue fhall fwear: and, That he who bleffeth himself in the earth, fhall bless himself by the God of truth; and he that fweareth in the earth, shall swear by the God of truth. 1xv. 16. Matt. xv. 8. As therefore all other acts of devotion, wherein immediate application is made to the Divine Majesty, should never be performed without most hearty intention, most ferious confideration, moft lowly reverence; fo neither fhould this grand one, wherein God is so nearly touched, and his chief attributes fo much concerned: the which indeed doth involve both prayer and praise, doth require the most devotional acts of faith and fear. We therefore should so perform it as not to incur that Ifa. xxix. reproof; This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 13. When we seem most formally to avow God, to confess his omniscience, to confide in his juftice; we should not really disregard him, and in effect fignify, that we do not think he doth know what we say, or mind what we do. If we do prefume to offer this fervice, we should do it in the manner appointed by himself, according to the Jer. iv. 2. conditions prescribed in the Prophet, Thou shalt fwear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness: in truth, taking heed that our meaning be conformable to the fenfe of our words, and our words to the verity of things; in judgment, having with careful deliberation examined and weighed that which we affert or promise; in righteousness, being satisfied in confcience, that we do not therein infringe any rule of piety toward God, of equity toward men, of fobriety and discretion in regard to ourfelves. XV. The cause of our fwearing must be needful, or very ex- SERM. pedient; the defign of it must be honeft and useful to confiderable purposes; (tending to God's honour, our neighbour's benefit, our own welfare;) the matter of it fhould be not only juft and lawful, but worthy and weighty; the manner ought to be grave and folemn, our mind being framed to earnest attention, and endued with pious affections fuitable to the occafion. Otherwise, if we do venture to swear, without due advice and care, without much respect and awe, upon any flight or vain (not to fay bad or unlawful) occafion; we then defecrate fwearing, and are guilty of profaning a moft facred ordinance: the doing fo doth imply base hypocrify, or lewd mockery, or abominable wantonness Matt. xv. and folly; in boldly invading, and vainly trifling with 7, 8. the most auguft duties of religion. Such fwearing therefore is very difhonourable and injurious to God, very prejudicial to religion, very repugnant to piety. III. We may confider that the fwearing prohibited is very noxious to human society. The great prop of society (which upholdeth the fafety, peace, and welfare thereof, in obferving laws, dispensing justice, discharging trusts, keeping contracts, and holding good correspondence mutually) is confcience, or a sense of duty toward God, obliging to perform what is right and equal; quickened by hope of rewards, and fear of punishments from him: fecluding which principle, no worldly confideration is ftrong enough to hold men fast; or can farther dispose many to do right, or observe faith, or hold peace, than appetite, or intereft, or humour (things very flippery and uncertain) do sway them. That men fhould live honestly, quietly, and comfortably together, it is needful that they should live under a fenfe of God's will, and in awe of the divine power, hoping to please God, and fearing to offend him, by their behaviour respectively. That juftice fhould be administered between men, it is neceffary that teftimonies of fact be alleged; and that witneffes should apprehend themselves greatly obliged to SERM. discover the truth, according to their confcience, in dark XV. and doubtful cafes. That men should uprightly discharge offices ferviceable to public good, it doth behove that they be firmly engaged to perform the trufts repofed in them. That in affairs of very confiderable importance, men fhould deal with one another with fatisfaction of mind and mutual confidence, they must receive competent alfurances concerning the integrity, fidelity, and conftancy each of other. That the safety of governors may be preserved, and the obedience due to them maintained fecure from attempts to which they are liable, (by the treachery, levity, perverfeness, timorousness, ambition, all fuch lufts and ill humours of men,) it is expedient that men should be tied with the ftricteft bands of allegiance. That controverfies emergent about the interests of men fhould be determined, and an end put to ftrife by peremptory and fatisfactory means, is plainly neceffary for common quiet. Wherefore for the public interest and benefit of human fociety, it is requifite that the highest obligations poffible fhould be laid upon the confciences of men. And fuch are those of oaths, engaging them to fidelity and conftancy in all such cases, out of regard to Almighty God, as the infallible Patron of truth and right, the unavoidable Chastiser of perfidiousness and improbity. To fuch purposes therefore oaths have ever been ap plied, as the most effectual instruments of working them; not only among the followers of true and perfect religion, but even among all those who had any glimmering notions concerning a Divine power and providence; who have deemed an oath the fastest tie of conscience, and held the violation of it for the most deteftable impiety and iniquity. So that what Cicero faith of the Romans, that their ancestors had no band to constrain faith more • Nullum enim vinculum ad adftringendam fidem jurejurando majores arctius effe voluerunt. Cic. de Off. iii. |