Tit. 2. Special Directions against profane Swearing, and using God's name unreverently and in vain.
What an oath is.
I. To swear is an affirming or denying of a thing, with an appeal to some other thing or person, as a witness of the truth, or avenger of the untruth, who is not producible as witness or judge in human courts. An affirmation or negation is the matter of an oath: the peculiar appellation is the form. It is not every appeal or attestation that maketh an oath.[489] To appeal to such a witness as is credible and may be produced in the court, from a partial, incredible witness, is no oath. To appeal from an incompetent judge, or an inferior court, to a competent judge, or higher court, is no swearing. To say, I take the king for my witness, or I appeal to the king, is not to swear by the king; but to say, I take God to witness, or I appeal to God as the judge of the truth of what I say, is to swear by God. But to appeal to God as a righteous Judge, against the injustice or cruelty of men, without relation to his attesting or judging any affirmation or negation of our own, is no swearing by him, because there wanteth the matter of an oath. An oath is an appeal to some supernatural or higher and more terrible power, than that of the court or person we swear to, to make our testimony the more credible, when other evidences of certainty or credibility are wanting. So that a legal testimony or appeal are not swearing.
What is a lawful oath.
Swearing is either just and lawful, or sinful and abusive. To a just and lawful oath it is necessary, 1. That it be God alone ultimately that we swear by; because no witness and avenging judge above human courts can be appealed to but God: and therefore to swear by any creature properly and in the sense that God is sworn by, is to idolize it, and to ascribe to it the properties of God.[490] (Of which more anon.) 2. It is necessary to a just oath, that the matter be true as it is assertory or negative; and also if it be promissory, that the matter be, 1. Honest and lawful, 2. and possible. And where any one of these is wanting, it is unlawful. 3. It is needful that there be an honest end; for the end is a principal ingredient in all moral good and evil. 4. It is needful that it be done upon a sufficient call and honest motives, and not unnecessarily or without just reason. 5. And the manner and circumstances must be lawful.
An oath is an equivocal word, taken sometimes for that which is formally so, as before described; and sometimes for that which is but the matter and expressive form without any real intent of swearing. Or, an oath is taken either for the whole human act completely, containing the words signifying and the purpose signified; or else for the outward sign or words alone. (As the word prayer signifieth sometimes the bare form of words, and sometimes the words and desire signified by them. And as the word sacrament is sometimes taken for the external signs only, and sometimes for the signs with the mutual covenanting and actions signified.) Here it may be questioned,—
Quest. Whether it be swearing or not, which is frequently used by ignorant, careless people, who use the words or form of an oath, in mere custom, not knowing what an oath is, nor having any thought or purpose of appealing to God, or to the creature by which they swear. The reason of the doubt is, because it seemeth to be but the matter or external part of an oath; and it is the form that specifieth and denominateth. He that should ignorantly speak the words of an oath in Latin or Greek, while he understandeth not the language and intendeth no such thing, doth not swear.
How far the intent of the swearer (as of the baptizer or baptized to baptism) is necessary to the being of an oath.
Answ. 1. In the full and properest sense of the word, it is before God no oath if there be no intent of confirming your speech by an appeal to God, or to that which you swear by. As a ludicrous washing and using the words of baptism, is no true baptism, no more than a corpse is a man. (And thus it is true which the papists say, that the intention of the baptizer is necessary to the being of baptism; that is, it is necessary to the being of sacramental administration to the baptizer himself, before God, that he really intend to baptize; and it is necessary to the being of baptism before God in the person baptized, that he himself if at age, or those that have power to dedicate him to God if he be an infant, do really intend it; and it is necessary to the being of the external ordinance in foro ecclesiæ, before the church, that both the baptizer and baptized do profess or seem to intend it.) 2. But if you use such words as are the ordinary form of an oath in a language which you understand, so as the hearers may justly suppose you to understand it, it is an oath, coram hominibus, before men, and in the latter narrower sense of the word. And it shall be obligatory and pleadable against you in any court of justice by those you swear to; yea, and God himself doth take you thereby to be obliged thus to men: and if it be a profane, causeless swearing, men must call it an oath; for they see not the heart; even as they must take him to be baptized that professeth to intend it; and in foro humano, it is so indeed: and God himself will account you a sinner, even one that useth the external form of an oath, and that which before men is an oath, to the wrong of his name and honour, and to the scandal of others. And it will not excuse you that you knew not that it was an oath, or that you knew not the nature of an oath, or that you rashly used it, not considering that it was an oath; for you were bound to have known and to have considered; you should have done it, and might have done it if you would. But if they were words which you could not know to have been the form or expressions of an oath, but the hearers might perceive that you meant no such thing, but something else, then you are excusable, if you had just cause to use them.
How far swearing by creatures is a sin.