Object.Fourthly, They object, That to swear by the Name of God is a moral Precept of continual Duration, because it is marked with his essential and moral Worship, Deut. vi. 13. and x. 20. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him alone: Thou shalt cleave to him, and swear by his Name.
Answ.I answer, This proves not that it is a moral and eternal Precept; for Moses adds that to all the Precepts and Ceremonies in several Places; as Deut. x. 12, 13. saying, And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his Ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy Heart, and with all thy Soul; to keep the Commandments in the Lord, and his Statutes, which I command thee this Day? And Chap. xiv. 23. the Fear of the Lord is mentioned together with the Tithes. And so also Levit. xix. 2, 3. 6. the Sabbaths and Regard to Parents are mentioned with Swearing.
Object.Fifthly, They object, That solemn Oaths, which God commanded, cannot be here forbidden by Christ; for he saith, That they come from Evil: But these did not come from Evil; for God never commanded any Thing that was Evil, or came from Evil.
Answ.I answer, There are Things which are Good because commanded, and Evil because forbidden; other Things are commanded because Good, and forbidden because Evil. Oaths are Evil, because forbidden.As Circumcision and Oaths, which were Good, when and because they were commanded, and in no other Respect; and again, when and because prohibited under the Gospel, they are Evil.
And in all these Jewish Constitutions, however ceremonial, there was something of Good, to wit, in their Season, as prefiguring some Good: As by Circumcision, the Purifications, and other Things, the Holiness of God was typified, and that the Israelites ought to be holy, as their God was holy. In the like Manner Oaths, under the Shadows and Ceremonies, signified the Verity of God, his Faithfulness and Certainty; and therefore that we ought in all Things to speak and witness the Truth. Truth was before all Oaths.But the Witness of Truth was before all Oaths, and remains when all Oaths are abolished; and this is the Morality of all Oaths; and so long as Men abide therein, there is no Necessity nor Place for Oaths, as Polybius witnessed, who said, “The Use of Oaths in Judgment was rare among the Ancients; but by the growing of Perfidiousness, so grew also the Use of Oaths.” Oaths supply presupposed Defects of Men’s Inconstancy.To which agreeth Grotius, saying, “An Oath is only to be used as a Medicine, in Case of Necessity: A solemn Oath is not used but to supply Defect. The Lightness of Men, and their Inconstancy, begot Diffidence; for which Swearing was sought out as a Remedy.” Basil the Great saith, “That Swearing is the Effect of Sin.” And Ambrose, “That Oaths are only a Condescendency for Defect.” Chrysostom saith, “That an Oath entered when Evil grew, when Men exercised their Frauds, when all Foundations were overturned: That Oaths took their Beginning from the Want of Truth.” These and the Like are witnessed by many others with the fore-mentioned Authors. But what Need of Testimonies, where the Evidence of Things speaks itself? For who will force another to swear, of whom he is certainly persuaded that he abhors to lie in his Words? And again, as Chrysostom and others say, “For what End wilt thou force him to swear, whom thou believest not that he will speak the Truth?”
§. XII.
Object.Sixthly, They object, That God swore, therefore to swear is good.
Answ.Athan. in pass. & cruc. Dom. I answer with Athanasius; “Seeing it is certain it is proper in Swearing to swear by another, thence it appears, that God, to speak properly, did never swear but only improperly: Whence, speaking to Men, he is said to swear, because those Things which he speaks, because of the Certainty and Immutability of his Will, are to be esteemed for Oaths.” Compare Psalm cx. 4. where it is said, The Lord did swear, and it did not repent him, &c. God swears not by another, but by himself.And I swore (saith he) by myself: “And this is not an Oath; for he did not swear by another, which is the Property of an Oath, but by himself. Therefore God swears not according to the Manner of Men, neither can we be induced from thence to swear. But let us so do and say, and shew ourselves such by speaking and acting, that we need not an Oath with those who hear us; and let our Words of themselves have the Testimony of Truth: For so we shall plainly imitate God.”
Object.Seventhly, They object, Christ did swear, and we ought to imitate him.