PLEA V.

Nor will it avail the Oath∣monger to reply, But I do not take God's Name in vain; for I swear not by God, or by Christ, or other Oaths of the like nature, but only by the Creatures, as by this Light, by this Bread, by Hea∣ven, Page  29 and the like; and the Crea∣tures name I hope it is no sin to take in vain.

Answ. For sure if we will allow our Saviour to be the best Interpre∣ter of his Father's Command∣ments, he will teach us a very dif∣fering Lesson, in those (already* twice alledged) words of St. Mat∣thew; for doubtless he that forbids to swear by Heaven, the noblest, or by Earth, the meanest Ingre∣dients of this vast Fabrick of the World, intended that Prohibition should reach all other Creatures; which is as clear as light, in the ensuing words of the 37th. verse of the same Chapter; where Christ's express Injunction is, But let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil.

Page  30Besides, either by the thing you swear by, you mean God, or no; if the former, your Guilt is evident in the Breach of God's Commandment; and if the lat∣ter, remember what the Spirit says in Jeremy, How shall I pardon thee for* this? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods. And in effect, 'tis questionable in Divinity, whether be the greater Sin, to swear falsly by the Crea∣tor, or with truth by the Crea∣tures; for as the former is an act of high Impiety, so is the latter of Idolatry: Because swearing by any thing being a part of Divine* Worship, (as the Passages the Margin leads to, will evidence) implies in us an acknowledgment of some Divinity in the thing we swear by; which without Om∣niscience, is uncapable to discern Page  31 the inward Truth or Falshood of our Oaths; and without Omni∣potence, unable to reward the one, or punish the other. A con∣sideration so prevalent with many of the Primitive Martyrs, that they chose rather to expire in Tor∣ments, than swear by the Genius of the Emperor. Nor is an Oath only an Act or Species of Divine Worship, Isa. 48. 1. and 45. 23. but by a Synechdoche is taken for the whole Worship that men pay their Maker, in the 63d. Psalm, and the last, and in Jer. 4. 2.