to Chriftian religion, and caft off the bleffed yoke of their felf-denying Lord, to fwim in the delicious liberty of the world: a time full of fuch circumftances as feemed to confpire the return of Oaths, that were not dead, but retired only for as men grew false and distrustful, Truth became burdenfome, and Yea and Nay no fecurity with them; and therefore they difclaimed, or rather exiled them their government ; old Judaifm or Gentilifim pleased them better. It was harder living that watchful life that was fufficient to credit a Yea or a Nay, than to take an Oath, that dependeth upon the faying of fo many words only: this was confiderable, and made fwearing then, and continues it grateful to our very times. But fad it is, that Oaths rode thus in ftate, while Integrity went barefoot, and evangelical Yea and Nay were turned off for non-fufficient, and that too not without fines, prisons, and a great deal of reproach. However, we must acknowledge, that the gravity and Chriftian care of this perfon, and other his contemporaries, appeared in not only diffuading, but deterring thofe ages from the Brink (for fo he calls "Swearing at all,") and turning their faces after the Woman, now on her flight into the Wilderness: during all which time, the witneffes, though feweft in number, and mystically clothed in fack-cloth, forbore not to prophesy, even in this particular.

And we hope, having no certain knowledge to the contrary, that most of them were at least men fearing God, and ferving him according to what they knew, and in that manner they were perfuaded was most acceptable to him. And as Irenæus faid of the Poets and Philofophers, These men, every one feeing that ' which was connatural, from part of the Divine-fown Reason, spoke excellently, and were right and con• fiftent with themfelves; they are ours.' Iren. lib. 5. cap. 18. So we fincerely declare of men differing from us, that as we defire the good of all, fo we can own the good in all, and the truth in all, and receive it from them, though

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though in other refpects our adversaries; and would have all to do the like with us and each other: and howbeit our adverfaries may have hard thoughts of fome of the perfons our matter leads us to inftance, as men interested in the doctrine and practices of those darker times they lived in, and of us for making use of fuch for authorities; yet we hope they would alfo judge it an hard and very cruel thing to repute them utter caft-aways. And though we know that men differ within themselves, and all of them more or lefs from the Truth, yet fince there may be fome Truth and Sincerity, we cannot but acknowledge and embrace it: and we hope, the reasons and authorities of others they bring, and the conceffions and confeffions of others they make, may, and indeed ought to be, of weight in that point, at least to fhew that it is no new, ftrange, or unreasonable thing for us to refufe Oaths. And though fome might, with a mixture of Superftition and Will-worship, undertake and maintain that ftrictness and precifenefs, which fome of the holy ancients by the Spirit of Truth were led to practise (the ancient hiftories of whom, from eye-witneffes, as the word fignifies, of fome of them, we in a great part believe); and fome later more enlightened and zealous men, taking offence thereat, but efpecially at the hypocrify and abomination palliated by fuch fair pretences, have ftrained much in oppofition to that evangelical doctrine; yet is the doctrine nevertheless a truth in itself*. Nor can we believe that all that were accounted Hereticks, were out of the Catholick or Univerfal Church; for the word CATHOLICK fignifies UNIVERSAL, Containing all that are in the Church (that is, in God, the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift) in all times; and those were not all of the fame mind in all things, as may be read in the Holy Scriptures, and also in Eufebius, and other ecclefiaftical Histories, where men are commended for holiness and virtue, yet at much difference in fome

Eufeb. Pam. Socr. Schol. Evagr. &c.

things.

things. Synefius, though he believed not the Refurrection, was chosen to minifter, and afterward was made a Bishop; the Charity of Christians was fo great in that age. And fome, accounted Hereticks, fuffered martyrdom, that are commended or excufed by Eufebius; one in particular that died with Polycarpus, and another called Afclepius, both Marcionites. See alfo the beginning of his eighth book concerning the divifions among them that afterward fuffered for the teftimony of the Univerfal or Catholic Truth: nor can we receive their judgment, that branded those with the name of Hereticks, Pelagians, &c. who denied Swearing in those declining ages, and fuppreffed their works under that name and afperfion only; not allowing them to speak for themselves to us of latter times .

We see how unjustly we ourselves are aspersed in almost every doctrine we hold, and that under pretence of ferving God; particularly, with feeking to work our falvation by our own Power; and when they have made us this belief, they beftow Pelagianifm upon it, (for fathers have right to name their own children); whereas, of all other people, we especially disclaim our own Ability, and wait to be renewed and guided by the Spirit of Chrift, and to be found in his righteoufnefs; and therefore, on the other hand, reputed Fanaticks, Enthusiasts, &c. and mocked for being moved by the Spirit, following the light, &c. But let their example or anthority be as it will, or however they were in other refpects, the doctrine of the ancient Primitive Fathers, and Practice of that Church, as alfo the doctrine of famous men among themselves, neither of which fort dare they condemn for Hereticks, do fufficiently defend them from the afperfion of Heresy in that particular and fo we fhall come to our remaining testimonies, it being not our business to maintain every

I Thef. i. 1. Phil. iii. 15. Soc. 1. 6. 13. Evagr. 1. 1. c. 11. Tufeb. Eccl. Hift. 1. 8. c. 28. 1. 4. c. 15. Pelagius, a Britain, 400, wrote notable books, faith Gonnadius, who lived foon

one of their principles we cite, but to prove this doctrine of "Swear not at all," to have had the voice of feveral ages to confirm it.

The ancient Waldenfes, reputed to have continued uncorrupted with the groffnefs of the apoftacy, ever fince the Apostles times, (fee their history in P. Perin, S. Moreland, and Bp. Ufher de Succef.) we have good caufe to fay, denied the taking of any oath in what fense the Primitive Christians and Fathers refused, and that was altogether. Sure it is, their enemies charged them with it for above three hundred years, and we cannot find they then denied the charge: we fuppofe none will attempt to prove they did; though one of our adverfaries joins with theirs, traducing them for Perjurers, and with them abuses that worthy and learned man Bp. Ufher, who defends them from that improbable and contradictory afperfion, of Lying and Forfwearing, and yet of Denying to fwear; who fays, < that they were as far from Lying and Forfwearing, as < their enemies were from modesty and truth, which did appear, in that they were charged by them, not to fwear at all*: Perufe that part of his book de Succeffione, where he treats of them; and where alfo you may read of their fucceffion, how that the Syrians and Armenians came out of the east into Thracia, thence in process of time into Bulgaria and Sclavonia, thence into Italy and Lombardy, and were called by feveral names, of feveral people, or at feveral times, as Manichees, Waldenfes, Albigenfes, Cathari or Puritans, Patrins, Publicans, Humiliati, &c. who were charged with denying fwearing; and how that feveral of the better fort of the Clergy, and of the nobler Laity (who refused the prefent use of the Baptifm and the Lord's Supper) were burnt, under the name of Manichees. Suarez alfo reckons up the Catharifts, Alba, Bagnald, and others, which Prateolus and Caftro relates, the Waldenfes, the Anabaptifts, &c. And

See Baronius, Ann. 1310.

which Janfenius alfo, out of Auguftin, Epift. 89. the Pelagians out of Hilary Syracufanus, Epift. 88. Bernard, Homil. 69, on Cant. The Fathers,' fays he, feem to favour this opinion, efpecially Bafil, Hom. in Pfalm xiv. Chryfoftom, Hom. 19, 78. ad popul. and xvii. on Mat. And Theophylact on Mat. v. Origen Tract. 35. Mat. Tertullian de Idololat. Clem. Rom. 1. 6. Conftitut. Apoft.' Maldonat, on Mat. v. 34. faith, The Anabaptifts, the Wickliffites, fome Syracufans, a kind of Pelagians, denied Swearing; and that Origen was not far off that opinion*.' Here the Hereticks, as accounted, and the Fathers, are reckoned up together, as holding the fame opinions? fure in this they were not Hereticks; for then the Fathers fhould be condemned with them, and called Hereticks too, as well as they; or else these men are partial and contradictory.

Auguftin, on Jam. v. of the words of the apostle, thus, Serm. 30. Perhaps it is meet for the Lord alone to fwear, who cannot forswear.' And fo he goes on to fhew how hard it is for men to avoid Perjury.

In ferm. 3. ad competentes: Let them not only abftain from Perjury, but from Swearing; because he doth not lie who faith,' " A man fwearing much, "shall not depart from iniquity, and the plague fhall "not depart from his house." Ecclef. xxiii.

But if it were an Auguft Act of the Worship of God, he would, on the contrary, have exhorted at leaft, if not commanded them, to fwear; which we never read any Command for, but in oppofition to Idols, even in the time of the Old Teftament Writings, as the teftimonies before alledged declare; and in the time of the New, no Command at all; but, on the contrary, a Prohibition by the Lord himself, and another by his apostle; nor any Example; for that of Paul's was but

* John Walden againft John Wickliff and the Waldenfes. Reiner, Rub. Capitan. W. Widford, Gui. Carmel. Voff. hiftor. Pelag. 1. 5. p. 2. Bp. Ufher, de Succeff. De Juramentis, 1. 1. c. 1, 2.