A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics

by Richard Baxter

I. Object. It savoureth of the Romish superstition. Answ. I. Not at all; prove that if you can. 2. Superstition is the feigning of things to be pleasing or displeasing to God which are not, and using or disusing them accordingly; whatever be the etymology of the word, Superstitum cultus, or supra statutum, &c. it is certain that the common use of it among heathens (as Plutarch at large) and christians was, for an erroneous, undue fear of God, thinking this or that was displeasing or pleasing to him, to be done or to be avoided, which was not so, but was the conceit of a frightened, mistaking mind. Therefore to say that God is displeased with this signification of the mind, when it is not so, nor can be proved, is superstition. And this is not the solitary instance of Satan's introducing superstition under pretence of avoiding superstition. 3. The sense of the law is to be judged of by the law, and by the notorious doctrine and profession of the law-makers and of the land; which here renounceth the superstitious use of it. But I confess I was more afraid that the papists had too much derogated from the Scripture, than given too much to it. And they profess that they swear not by a creature. Vid. Perer. ubi sup. in Gen. xxiv. 2.

Object. But Paræus, &c. in Gen. xxiv. 2, saith, Non absque superstitione fit cum super crucifixum aut codicem Evangelii digitis impositis juratur, ut fit in Papatu. Answ. 1. But that same act which in Papatu is superstitious because of superstitious conceits and ends, is not so in all others that have none such. 2. It is no new thing to be quick in accusing our adversaries: but Paræus addeth not a syllable of proof; and if he had, it must have been such as touched not us, or else invalid.

Object. Some good men have scrupled it. Answ. 1. Ten thousand to one such have not scrupled it. 2. They are not our gods nor law. 3. The quakers and the old anabaptists (and they say Origen) scrupled, yea, condemned all swearing, or all imposed oaths. And if we avoid all as sin which some good men have scrupled, we shall make superstition a great part of our religion: and when on the same grounds we have but practised all as duty, which some good men have taken for duty, we shall quite out-go the papists. He that readeth Beda, Boniface, and abundance such pious writers, will soon see, that godly or fanatical religious persons, dreams, visions, strict opinions, confident assertions, and credulous believing one another, with the hope of improving such things against pagans and Jews, for christianity, brought in almost all the legends and superstitions of the papists.

II. Object. Our common-law commissions, that give authority to examine persons, direct it to be done supra sacramenta sua per sancta Dei evangelia fideliter præstanda: and in the form of administrations in ecclesiastical courts the words are, Ad sancta Dei evangelia rite et legitime jurati: whether these forms do not infer that in their first use, (at least,) persons either swore by the evangelists or offended in that mode of swearing; and our common-law calls it a corporal oath, from touching the book.

Answ. 1. To know the sense of our present law it is not necessary that we know the sense of the first users of the form. For the law is not now the king's law that first made it, (he hath no law that hath no government,) but the king's law that now reigneth, and beareth his sense. 2. To justify our obedience to a law, it is not necessary that we prove every phrase in that law to be fitly expressed. 3. But examine it well, and try whether it be not also fit and laudable.

1. There are three things conjoined in the oaths in question: 1. A testimony assertory, or a promise. 2. An oath. 3. An imprecation. The assertory testimony here is the first thing intended; and the oath and imprecation are but as a means to make that testimony or promise valid. 2. The published doctrine of England, in the thirty-nine articles, the book of ordination, &c. is, that the holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation, as being God's law or rule of our faith and life. All our duty to God is there commanded; all the promises on which we hope are there contained; all the punishments which the perjured or any sinner must feel and should fear, are there threatened. Therefore, 3. The laying on the hand and kissing the book, is an action directly related to the imprecation, and not to the oath, but only by consequence, as the imprecation is subservient to the oath, as the oath is to the assertion. So that this is the plain paraphrase of the whole: I do believe that God the Ruler of all the world, is the Judge of secrets which are above man's judgment, the Searcher of hearts, and the hater and avenger of perjury, according to this his holy word by which he governeth us; and to this God I appeal as to the truth of this my testimony, consenting myself, to lose all the benefit of his promises to be just, and to bear all the punishment here threatened to the perjured, if I lie.

And what could be said more fitly, 1. To own the protestant doctrine that the Scripture is God's perfect word; that the evil to be feared, and the good to be hoped for, is all there contained, and is all the fulfilling of that word? 2. And to put the word in its due subordination to God? And our ordinary form of swearing showeth this, So help you God, and the contents of this book. Whether you will call this swearing upon or by the gospel, or call it a corporal oath, or a spiritual oath, is only de nomine, and is nothing to the matter thus truly described. Sacramentum signifieth the oath itself, and Ad sancta evangelia is a fit phrase: or if super sacramenta signify the two sacraments of the gospel, it can mean no more than, As one that by the reception of the sacrament, doth profess to believe this gospel to be true, I do renounce the benefits of it, if I lie; and in this sense it hath been some men's custom to receive the sacrament when they would solemnly swear.

III. Object. Some seem to object against kissing the book, as having the greater appearance of giving too much to it, or putting some adoration on it; and because this ceremony of kissing is held to be of later date than laying on the hand.

Answ. The ceremony signifieth that I love and approve the gospel, and place the hope of my salvation in it. And the public doctrine of the kingdom before cited, showeth us a full exposition what we ascribe to it. But as some scrupulous brethren in Scotland gratify the papists by rejecting the oath of supremacy, which is the most thorny hedge against them, and this while they cry out against popery; so others would gratify the papists, by suggesting that we give too much to the Bible, and adore it; when the very sum of England's protestantism, is their just ascribing to the holy Scriptures its sufficiency as to all things necessary to salvation. Thus Satan undoeth still by overdoing.