T will remain, that we give our REASONS why we cannot take this liberty, and swear, as well as other men have done, and yet do.

I. The first is drawn from the Cause and Ground of Oaths, viz. Perfidiousness, Diftruft, and Falfhood: God's inftructions to avoid thofe hateful crimes: the ability he hath given man to answer his commands; and man's duty to make that use of God's gift. For if fwearing came in by perfidiousness, diftruft, diffimulation, and falfhood, it is a moft just confequence that it ought to go out with them; or that as the rise and increasing of thofe evils were the rise and increasing of oaths, fo the decreasing and extirpation of those evils, fhould be the decreafing and abolishing of oaths; otherwise there would be no truth in the rule of contraries, nor reason in that maxim, ceffante ratione legis, ceffat lex; that the ceafing of the Reafon of the law, is the ceffation of the Law.' Expedients are no longer useful than to obtain what they are defigned to: means are fwallowed up of their ends: Difeafed men only want remedies, and lame men crutches: Honesty needs neither whip nor spur; she is security for herself; and men of virtue will speak truth without extortings; for oaths are a fort of racks to the mind; altogether useless where integrity sways.

6

This, we prefume, no man of reason will deny, viz. That Swearing came in, and ought to go out, with perfidiousness;' and hope it will be as eafy to grant, at least it will be very easy to prove, that God hath frequently, both by prophets and apostles, reproved men for fuch impieties, and ftrictly required truth and righteousness; as, Ifa. lix. 3, 4. Jer. ix. 3, 5. Rom. xii. 19. Gal. v. 19, 20, 21. Col. iii. 8, 9, 10. Josh. xxiv. 14. 1 Sam. xii. 24. 1 Kings ii. 4. Eph. iv. 25. and by abundance of other places in holy fcripture. And that God fhould enjoin man any thing that he hath not impowered him to perform, is unworthy of any man acknowledging a God fo much as to conceive. It is true, that the unprofitable fervant in the parable is represented to entertain so blasphemous a thought of his

Maker,

Maker, that he was fo "hard a master, as to reap "where he did not fow;" but the fame parable alfo acquaints us of the dreadful confequence of that prefumption. The prophet Micah preached another doctrine, "The Lord hath fhewed thee, O man, what is "good: and what doth the Lord require of thee, but

to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with "thy God? For this end hath "the Grace of God "appeared unto all men," as fpeaks the apostle Paul to Titus, that they should be taught "to deny ungod"liness and worldly lufts;" which entering, and overrunning the world, made way, among other expedients, for that of oaths; fo that to live that life which needs no oath, man is both required and impowered: and as it is only his fault and condemnation, if he doth not; fo certainly there can be no obligation upon him, who liveth that life of truth and integrity, to perpetuate that which rofe, and therefore ought to fall, with falfhood and perfidiousness: the reafon of the thing itself excufes him: for he that fears untruth, needs not fwear, because he will not lie; to prevent which, men exact swearing: and he that doth not fear telling untruth, what is his oath worth? He that makes no confcience of that law that forbids lying, will he make any confcience of forfwearing? Veracity is the best security; and Truth-fpeaking the nobleft tie and firmeft testimony that can be given. This we declare to you to be both our judgment and attainment: we speak not boastingly, but with humility, before the great Lord of heaven and earth, to whofe alone Power we do unanimously ascribe the honour: he hath taught us to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as plainly and readily without an oath as with an oath, and to abhor lying as much as perjury; fo that for us to swear, were to take his holy name in vain. Nor are we therein fingular; for that not only Christian Fathers, Martyrs, and Doctors, but also Jews and

Mich, vi. 8.

Heathens,

Heathens, have had this sense of the rise of oaths, as will hereafter fully appear.

- II. Our fecond reason, why we refufe to comply with this custom, and our fuperiors ought not to impofe it, is this; It would gratify diftrusts, humour jealousies, and subject truth, and those that love it, to the fame checks, curbs, and preventions that have been invented against fraud; whereby the honour of a noble profeffion, the power of a veracious example, and the juft difference that ought to be made betwixt truftinefs and diffidence, integrity and perfidiousness, are utterly loft.

How is it poffible for men to recover that ancient confidence, that good men reposed in one another, if some do not lead the way, and hold forth to the world a principle and converfation beyond the neceffity of fuch extraordinary expedients? At prefent, people lie all on a heap; and the greatest truth finds no more favour than the greatest fraud: fidelity must wear the fhackles worldly prudence hath made against the evil' confequences of cozenage, and subject herself to the cuftoms brought up through fraud, or go to gaol. Be pleafed to confider, that truftiness did not all at once quit the world, nor will it return univerfally in the twinkling of an eye; things must be allowed their time for rife, progrefs, and perfection: and if ever you would fee the world planted with primitive fimplicity and faithfulness, rather cherish than make men fufferers for refufing to fwear, efpecially if they offer the fame caution to the law with him that will fwear. We dare not swear because we dare not lie, and that it may appear to the world that we can fpeak the truth upon eafier terms than an oath: for us then to be forced to swear, is to make us do a needless thing, or to fufpect our own honesty. The first we dare not, because, as we have faid, it is to take God's name in vain; and we have no reason to diftruft ourselves, being no ways conscious of fraudulent purposes. Why then fhould we fwear? But much rather, why fhould we be impofed upon? It is a faying afcribed to Solon, That a good man should

have that repute, as not to need an oath; that it is a diminution to his credit to be put to fwear*. It becomes not an evangelical man to fwear, was a primitive axiom; but more of that anon. In the mean while please to remember, you have a practice among you to exempt your lords in feveral cafes, placing the value of an oath in their bare avouchment upon their Honour, fuppofing that men of thofe titles fhould have fo much worth, as that their Word might be of equal force with a common man's Oath: And if you will please to understand Honour in the sense of the moit ancient and best philofophers, to wit, Virtue, your own cuftom gives authority to our reason, and makes you to fay with us, That virtue need not swear, much lefs to have oaths impofed upon her, to tell the truth,' the only use of oaths. It was evangelically spoken of Clemens Alexandrinus, that a good life was a firm

oath;' which was memorably verified by the judges of Athens, who, though Heathens, forbad the tendering of Xenocrates an oath, because of their great opinion of his integrity; which was three hundred years before Chrift came in the flesh.

III. Our third reafon for non-conformity to your cuftom is, the fear we have, left by complying we should be guilty of rebellion against the discoveries God hath made to our fouls, of his ancient holy way of truth; and confequently of concealing his goodness to us, and depriving him of that glory, and the world of that advantage, this honeft teftimony may bring to him and them. He has redeemed us from fraud; it is he only that hath begotten this confcientiousness in us, and we dare not put this light under a bufhel; neither can we deny his work, or him to have the honour of it. We intreat you, take this tenderness of ours into Chriftian confideration.

IV. Oaths have in great measure loft of the reason of their primitive inftitution, fince they have not that awful influence, which was, and only can be, a pretence

• Bishop Gauden of Oaths, p. 41:

for

for using them; on the contrary, they are become the familiar parts of difcourfe, and help to make up a great fhare of the a-la-mode converfation; and those who decline their company, or reprove their practice, are to go for a fort of nice and fqueamish-confcienced men. These fwear without fear or wit, yet would be thought witty in fwearing; fearless, they cannot. Some are curious in their impiety; old oaths are too dull for men of their invention, who almoft fhift oaths with their fashions: nay, the moft judicial oaths are commonly administered and taken with fo little reverence and devotion, (to fay nothing of the perjuries, that through ignorance or defign are fo frequently committed) that we cannot but cry out, O the great depravity that is in the world! How low is man fallen from the primitive rule of life! Well may the prophet's complaint be ours; for if ever land mourned because of oaths, with great fadness we fay it, this doth. And what more effectual remedy can any people propofe against the notorious abuse and evil confequence of Swearing, than Truthspeaking? For those that dare not Lie, need not Swear; and they that make no confcience of lying, do not much fear an oath, at leaft their confciences are very crazy in taking it. This only reason, were we deftitute of all other allegations, would be a ftrong diffuafive from fwearing; for we hold God's honour, and our profes fion, greatly concerned to prove to fo falfe an age, that there is a people who are fo far from vain and falfe fwearing, that they dare not swear the truth, but whofe Yea and Nay shall weigh against other mens Oaths, and that with a free offer of fuftaining double punishment in cafe of a miscarriage. Expedients may last a while, but Truth only fhall have the honour of conquering Falfhood, and Virtue will, and muft, be greater than an Oath.

V. The Omnipresence of God, rightly understood, fhews the useleffness of an oath, and is with us a good argument against Swearing: for what need is there of that man's being awed into a true evidence by fuch fort of atteftations and imprecations as make up the common VOL. II. form

A a