_The refusing to swear and subscribe the many unlawful imposed oaths,
for which many have suffered great cruelties; chiefly that of_
Abjuration _which was the cause of several their suffering to death_,
vindicated.
Another great head of grievous sufferings, in this fatal period, hath
been, this stated war between Christ and his enemies in Scotland, he
hath not wanted witnesses, who in their wrestlings for the word of God
and the testimony which they held, thought it their duty to refuse all
illegally imposed and wickedly required transactions with his declared
enemies, and tampering any manner of way with them, in taking or
subscribing any of their conscience couzening impositions of deceitful
and destructive bonds and oaths, obtruded by men who have cast off all
sense of a Deity, or regard to humanity, upon the consciences of poor
people, to debauch them and cast them down from the only excellency or
integrity that was left them: whereby (though they have missed of their
design as to some, who through grace have escaped the snares of these
fowlers, and in resisting have overcome through the blood of the Lamb)
they have prevailed to inveigle the generality, even of the professors
of this generation, into such a degree of defection and wretched
compliance with all their snares, that as it prognosticates universal
desolation ineluctable, (if it be not prevented as universal as the
compliance hath been,) so it proclaims the infamy of the compliers
perjury as indelible as their perfidy with whom they have complied. The
consideration of which woful apostasy, in its various steps by which it
hath been propagated and promoted, ought to deter and demur all the
fearers of God, that would not partake of its threatned punishment, from
venturing any more to come near the brink, or border of such precipices,
and paths of the destroyer, when so many have stumbled, and fallen, and
been hooked, and taken; yea not so much as to look near them, lest they
be left to follow their look, but to stand aloof from every appearance
of transacting with these man catchers, yea conscience-catchers, who are
so cunning to ensnare and destroy; as their predecessors, to whose sins
and judgments also they serve themselves heirs, are described by the
Holy Ghost, Jer. v. 26-29. They lay wait as he that setteth snares, they
set a trap, they catch men,----their houses are full of deceit,
therefore they are become great and waxen rich.----Shall I not visit for
these things saith the Lord? Many and manifold have been the snares,
traps and gins, laid in the way of the professors of this generation and
nation, by these mischief hatchers, these keen and cunning persecutors,
the party now regnant or rather raging, in madness and malice against
Christ and all that are loyal and zealous for his interest against their
encroachings thereon, whereby they have caught and cozened many out of
their consciences, and have broken the neck of some, the peace of
others, and the hearts of not a few. Yea no nation can be instanced,
wherein so many oaths and bonds have been imposed on peoples
consciences, so nauseating for naughtiness and number, as well as
noxious in their nature, in an age, as have been in Scotland within
these 27 years past; on design to waste all remainder of conscience, or
sense of religion among people, that so having worn out the awful
impression of it, they may introduce what they would, upon a people
involved in the same apostasy with themselves and either to incorporate
all with themselves in the same combination against the Lord, or to
extirpate all dissenters, who should discover any tenderness of
conscience, in not going along with them in the same excess of riot. And
to the end they might have the greater concurrence and countenance, with
the help of hell's policy, they contrived them in such terms as might
engage many to take them, and load the recusants with odious obloquies,
either as silly scruplers, or seditious schismaticks, or rebels. For
this hath been all along their grand project, to level their designs
against religion, not directly and formally under that notion, but
obliquely to the destruction of the lovers and professors of it under
the nickname of fanatical enemies to government. Of these ensnaring
engines levelled to these ends, some have been more patent and open,
others more latent and hidden; both have made a pray of people, the
last chiefly. For a snare the more latent and hidden it be and the more
varnished over with the vermillion of pretended honesty and innocence,
it is the more dangerous; and will be so accounted by all the
circumspect and cautious, as in its design more destructive, and in its
effects, when discovered, more dolorous, than that which is more open
and manifest. A hook, the braver that it is busked, and the better that
it is baited, the surer and more successful it is to catch the simple
fish; if it want its busking, they will not so readily bite at it.
In vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird; yet though this is a
truth, such silly birds have the bulk of us been, such silly doves
without a heart, and so senselessly stupefied, as to suffer ourselves to
be blindfolded and hood-winked into snares, of such a manifest baseness,
as none could be readily supposed might fall into, who did not brutishly
abandon all common sense of reason, besides religion; as a test, and
oaths of arbitrary allegiance, bonds of conformity, and irregular
regulation, &c. Some again, and these, alas! too many, have been
ensnared with snares of a more smooth, and subtile complexion, and
poisoned with gilded arrows, coloured over with the specious pretexts of
the enemies relenting condescendency and tenderness, stooping now to
universal and general terms, obviously thought capable of a very good
construction, and daubed over with the untempered mortar of the
frequency of the most universally unscrupled supscription of very good
and conscientious men and the rarity of recusants lying under the
reproach of some few, wild, fantastical fools. These well busked hooks
have caught many; of which sort have been many banded indemnities, and
easily swallowed oaths thereunto appended. Though the present indeed is
contrived without gins of this sort, and now all these snares of oaths
and bands are as illegally taken away as they were before imposed; upon
the same design, to catch silly fish by other methods; not with hooks,
as before, but with a large spread net, to hale the whole school to
antichrist's shore; and to put to proof and practice the vastness of
that leviathan prerogative of absolute power, to dispense with all
oaths; especially because, in all of them, even the most monstrous,
people might think there was some tye obliging them to maintain the
protestant religion, therefore to obliterate that, and bury it in
oblivion, all now are taken away; but the guilt of them still remains
upon the land, and the grievous cry of suffering for refusing them still
continues; and therefore the iniquity of them must be looked unto and
lamented, and that with an eye to the account and reckoning must be
rendered for them, to a greater judgment than that of creatures. But
among all these destructive and diabolical devices, there have been none
more charming and cheating, than that cunningly contrived oath of
abjuration, as it is called, enjoined to be taken by all within the
kingdom, by a proclamation about it, representing a late declaration
emmitted by that party, whose sufferings I am vindicating (as a
manifesto of their enemies) under the most odious character, that the
malice of men helped with hell's hatred could devise; and requiring all
to abjure it in the most peremptory manner, and under the severest
penalty that ever was heard. This oath, I say, was contrived with such
cunning, and followed with such keenness, that it hath involved more
under its obligation, and engaged more to subscribe it, than any other
that went before it: because it hath been painted over with such
pretexts, as never any before was capable of. The pressing of it hath
been so impartial, upon travelling to the country, &c. And their
acceptance of the pass annexed to it thought so necessary, as without it
no business could be gone about. Its subscription so universally
unscrupled, even by the generality of great professors and ministers
too; the thing abjured represented so odious, as no honest man could
refuse to renounce; and the matter renounced, under its best aspect and
construction, esteemed only a paper declaration of a party very
despicable, wherein the principles, profession, or confession of the
church seems no way concerned; and if any way concerned, yet the concern
appearing so finall, as few or none durst state their sufferings upon
that head. Yet I believe, if either such as have taken it, or others
that may have the tentation of the like hereafter, will impartially
ponder it; so much iniquity may be discovered in it, as may oblige the
one to mourn in the sense of its fulness, and the other to beware of its
danger. And so much rather would I offer this to consideration, that I
know one who was wofully wheedled into it, that found the bitter effects
of this poisoned pill in his wounded conscience, after reflections on
the deed, in such a measure that he despaired of ever recovering peace.
And this man had as much, and more to say, to justify his deed, than any
that ever took it; having it with all the advantages that ever it could
be tendered with: for, being urged thereunto before the justiciary, he
expresly refused to disown that declaration, and the principles
whereupon it was founded, and told them that it was misrepresented in
the proclamation: and when they yielded to an abstract disowning of it
in so far as the proclamation represents it, or, if so be, it might be
so represented, he gave in a sense in writ, wherein he would take it;
shewing that, upon supposition, the declaration did assert such things
as was represented, he would disown it: and after the sense was accepted
as satisfactory, he refused to swear after the ordinary manner,
following the clerks, blind manuduction, but behoved to have it written
down: and when it was written, with express specification of that
apologetical declaration, he refused to swear it, till it was altered
and corrected, and the word pretended put in the stead of it: which
done, before he subscribed it, he protested it might be constructed in
no other sense, than the genuine meaning of the words he delivered in,
and that it might not be reckoned a compliance for fear of his life:
yet, notwithstanding of all this, he lost the jewel of inward peace, and
knew the terror of the Lord for many days. Therefore I shall chiefly
insist on discovering the iniquities of this last oath, called the
abjuration oath, both because it is the smoothest, and more generally
taken than any other, and approven by many that condemn the rest, and
refusing it hath been punished by death, and most illegally pressed upon
all, under the penalty thereof, as none of the rest was; and because as
all other oaths successively imposed, were so contrived that the last
did always imply and involve the substance of the former, so it will
appear that the iniquity of none of the preceeding oaths was altogether
wanting in this. But to the end, both the complication of the iniquities
of this oath may be evinced, and the continued strain of all the oaths
(which have also been heads of suffering, though not to this degree) may
be discovered; I shall touch somewhat of all the sorts of them, and shew
that their iniquity cleaves to this last oath: and then come to canvass
this oath itself, after I have premitted some general concessions.
First, In a few words some general concessory propositions may be
premitted,
1. That oaths both assertory and promissory are lawful, will not be
denied but by Quakers, &c. It is clear, swearing is a moral duty, and so
material, that oftentimes it is used for the whole worship of God, Deut.
vi. 13. "Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shalt serve him, and
swear by his name," Deut. x. 20.----"To him shalt thou cleave and swear
by his name." The reason is, because by whomsoever we swear, him we
profess to be our God, and invocate him as witness of our heart's
uprightness, and honest meaning in the thing sworn, according as it is
understood by both parties, and as avenger if we prove false. Hence,
every oath, which doth not bind us faster to serve and cleave to him,
is but a breach of the third command. Again, it is not only commanded as
a duty, but qualified how it should be performed, Jer. iv. 1, 2. Where
it is required of a people returning to the Lord, to swear in truth, in
judgment, and in righteousness. Hence, every oath which is not so
qualified, and does not consist with a penitent frame, is sin. It is
likewise promised in the covenant, that believers shall speak the
language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord, Isa. xix. 18. every oath then
that is not in the language of Canaan, is unsuitable to believers, that
is to say, consentaneous to the word of God, and confession of our
faith. Again, he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of
truth, Isa. lxv. 16. and therefore that oath which is not according to
truth, is dishonourable to the God of truth. If all the oaths imposed
upon Scotland these many years, were examined by these touch-stones,
they would be found all naught. So giving bands for security, which for
obligation are equivalent to promissory oaths, are also lawful
materially; but with the same qualifications, otherwise they are sinful.
2. This duty when suitably discharged, truly, judiciously, righteously,
in the fear of God, according to his will, is in many cases very
necessary. Not only in vows, in which God is the party, in matters
morally necessary, to keep the righteous judgments of God, Psal. cxix.
106. Nor only in national covenants for reformation, and promoting the
interest of Christ, whereof we find many instances in scripture, in
Moses, Joshua, Asa, Hezekiah, Josiah, Ezrah, Nehemiah, their making and
renewing such covenants by oath, coming under the dreadful curse of it
if they should break it. And this may make our hearts meditate terror,
for the universal unparalelled breach of solemn covenants with God, that
exposes the nation to the curse of it; but also in human transactions,
whereunto God is invocated as a witness, as in national transactions, at
choosing and inaugurating their magistrates, for security of religion
and liberties, as we have many examples in scripture. Seldom indeed do
such bonds hold tyrants, but it is this generation's indelible brand and
bane, that without this they have come under the yoke of ineluctable
slavery, and have entailed it upon posterity. As likewise in contracts
and mutual compacts of friendship, or stricter association, when
edification, or other satisfaction, or security calls for it, as Jacob
sware to Laban, David to Jonathan, &c. In which the matter must be
clear, and mutually understood, and honestly meant, without equivocation
and mental reservation, and all ambiguity, as also possible, and likely
to continue so: for otherwise, it were but a mocking of God and man, to
swear a thing we either cannot, or will not perform, according to the
meaning of him in whose favours the oath is given. But withal we ought
to be sparing in such things except where the matter of the oath or bond
is weighty and necessary, and not multiply them needlesly upon formality
or custom; for if there were suitable confidence in one another, there
would not be need for so many of these securities. And specially in
relative stipulations betwixt man and wife, &c. Where an indissolvable
relation is entered into. And, in a particular manner, even in things
civil, when we are called thereunto by a lawful magistrate, for deciding
of controversies, or our own vindication, or to confirm our obligation
to some duty, an oath for confirmation is an end of all strife, Heb. vi.
16. But always in this the matter must be lawful, according to the will
of God, and true, and certainly known, and also necessary, weighty,
useful, worthy of such confirmation, for the glory of God, and the good
of our neighbour, that his holy name be not taken in vain; for otherwise
if the matter be false, God is made witness of a lie; if uncertain,
conscience condemns us that we know not, nor care not, what we call God
witness to; if unlawful, then God is called to approve what he hath
condemned, and so to contradict himself, which is horrid blasphemy.
With all which cases, and hell devised impositions on consciences in
these days, obtruded to debauch and ensnare them, not one of them,
levelling all at one design, how smoothly soever conceived, can be taken
without a wound and wramp to the conscience.
3. Of all these cases, only two are applicable to our imposed
transactions with our wicked rulers, viz. in the matter of friendly
contracts, or in the matter of judicial appearances before them, and
swearing and banding before, and to them. In both which, there must be a
sort of confederation, with them. In contracts with them it will not be
doubted; and in judicial submitting to their authoritative impositions
of such securities, it is evident, there must be also a confederation
with them, not only in acknowledging their authority, but in coming
under mutual exacted stipulations; wherein, by taking these oaths and
bands, we give them security of orderly subjection, as members of the
community whereof they are judges, and get their security of
acquittance, and that we shall not be molested nor prosecuted among the
recusants. Now concerning this confederation, I shall concede in two
cases, it may be owned, and consequentially oaths and bonds may be given
to men of their stamp, 1. A confederation which is more discretive, or
discriminative may be allowed to them; that is, such bargains wherein
they and we are kept still divided as two parties, and not under one
incorporation, as in contracts of co-habitation, living under them as
tenants, buying and selling, and the like. But we cannot enter into a
confederation unitive with them, which may make us one body or party. 2.
A confederation which is necessary and unavoidable; when either an
unavoidable strife or contention doth arise between them and us,
whereupon we are compelled to answer in law, and can no otherwise be
decided but by our oath of confirmation, which is an end of all strife;
or when we are falsely accused of some odious and heinous crime, as of
murder or adultery: it is then lawful and necessary to vindicate
ourselves, by giving all these legal confirmations that we are free of
these things; for otherwise to ly under the imputation of such
enormities, were shamefully scandalous to religion. But we cannot allow
any transactions of this sort, which are elective and voluntary, to make
or pursue either peace or pleas with them, when our own interest or
benefit draweth us thereunto; but ere we go to law, or give oaths and
bonds to, and before the unjust and perfidious, and such also as we
cannot own as magistrates, we would rather take wrong, and suffer
ourselves to be defrauded as the apostle adviseth, 1 Cor. vi. 1, 7. It
was not unlawful, as expositors shew from that place, for the
Corinthians to answer in law for their own vindication, being pursued by
a heathen; but it was utterly a fault to go voluntarily one with
another. And if to pursue a brother was a fault, then much more to go to
law with an apostate, with whom there should be less meddling. And if to
go before the unjust magistrates, as these heathen judges were at
Corinth, who yet were magistrates, was utterly a fault, then much more
to go before such as have neither rightful nor righteous authority at
all: which yet must be acknowledged, if we take oaths and bands before
them: for none can exact these but acknowledged magistrates. Hence it is
apparent, it would be an elective confederation with these wicked
usurping judges, when brought before them to take their tendered oaths
and bonds, not as parties pursued before them, but as transacting with
them, with whom, as well as before whom, we must give these confirming
securities: and so not only must we acknowledge them to be gods, among
whom the Lord sitteth, whose holy name is interposed in such solemn
transactions; but also we must swear and enter in bonds to them as they
require. This indeed is necessary when called before them against our
will, and accused of horrid crimes, as was always in the imposition of
the oath of abjuration audaciously imputed to the refusers, that they
asserted murdering principles, and owned it lawful to kill all that
served the king; in such a case, to declare with the most solemn
asseverations, for vindication of truth, that we disown not only all
such assertions, but all such thoughts as that it is lawful to kill all
that serve the king, or any that serve him because they serve him, or
because they have injured us any manner of way, and to declare our
abhorrence of all murder and assassinations. But to swear such things to
them, when we are altogether innocent, would be a granting that we were
legally suspected, by offering a legal purgation. And so all the
subjects of Scotland should take upon them to purge themselves from a
suspicion of murder, which were odious. And to abjure a declaration, as
asserting such things, when it asserts no such thing, is a swearing to a
lie.
4. All solemn securities of oaths or bonds, that are sacred promises,
are by strictness of law, of most strict and indispensible obligation,
as Mr. Durham on the third command, shews in many cases: No man's loss,
or private prejudice, can make it void, (though we swear to our own
hurt, we must not change, Psal. xv. 4) nor indifferency in the matter,
if once engaged in, for then our souls are bound, Numb. xxx. 2. nor
deceit of others, if the deceit be circumstantial only, as in the
Gibeonites case; nor the extortion of it by fear or violence, if the
matter be lawful; nor rashness and sin in the manner, if lawful in the
matter, as with the Gibeonites; nor another meaning afterwards devised,
not according to the imposer's mind, nor our own at first who took it,
(that is but a swearing deceitfully, Psal. xxiv. 4.) nor any good
meaning or design in reversing the oath (Saul was punished for breaking
his oath with the Gibeonites, out of zeal, 2 Sam. xxi. 2.) nor though
the oath be conceived by creatures, (as by the altar or temple, &c. Mat.
xxxiii. 20,--22.) nor when the thing becomes impossible, if that
possibility could have been foreseen or prevented; nor any other sacred
meaning, by equivocation or mental reservation, which are abominable;
nor any dispensation from pope or king; nor any other posterior oath.
None of these things can make an oath void; but if we have bound
ourselves, God will require it: "For whoso despises an oath, by breaking
the covenant, when lo he hath given his hand, he shall not escape, God
shall recompense it," Ezek. xvii. 18, 19. They are null indeed and of no
force, when they become bonds of iniquity, tying to things unlawful or
impossible; or when the thing sworn is not in our own power, Numb. xxx.
5. Or when there is deceit in it, not in circumstantials only, but in
essentials; or when it hinders a greater good, when the case materially
altereth; or when the party sworn to relaxeth us. All these do condemn
the horrid breach of the sacred and solemn league and covenant, and
confutes the perverting and wresting the words of it in the third
article, as if it did oblige to allegiance of tyrants; for, in that
case, the obligation is unlawful, and there is a case in essentials, and
the case materially altereth, (for in the covenant we are bound to the
king, not to a tyrant) and the party sworn to have relaxed us long ago,
by annulling the covenant; yet all these things prove, that the covenant
is still in force, and that all the oaths and bonds contradictory to it,
are sinful: and yet though it be sinful to take them, and sinful to keep
them, it is nevertheless perjury to break them, especially to them whose
erroneous conscience is bound by them, under a notion of their
lawfulness.
And in a special manner it is here conspicuous, how deceitful a juggle
that sinful shift of many hath been, that they could subscribe an
unlawful bond under a penalty: as for example, to answer to their
courts, or to go to church, or separate from the persecuted meetings of
the Lord's people, under such a penalty, which they thought to pay the
penalty would clear them off, as if it were only an alternative bond.
The iniquity of this juggle will appear, if we consider, such bonds
cannot be alternative: for alternatives are always disjunctive, binding
equally either to this or that; and the one alternative is no more
determinately enjoined by the imposer, than the other. And so, if these
bonds were alternative, it should be in the binder's choice, whether to
answer the court, go to church, to separate meetings, or pay so much
money. But it is not so, for the stipulation and promise is determinate
to the obligation, for which the bond is required, and the penalty is
annexed, as a punishment of the breach of that obligation. And that
fancy of eluding the bond by paying the penalty, would quite enervate
all security among men, in their mutual compacts of that nature; and
under that pretence, they might give a satisfactory compliance to the
most wicked imposed obligation imaginable, to subscribe the Turk's
Alcoran, with a reserved attention only to pay the imposed penalty.
Which reservation is so far from being suitable to that christian
simplicity the gospel requires, that it does not answer that moral
honesty that our concern, in the good of human society, calls for. It is
incumbent on all that expect to dwell on God's holy hill, to have this
requisite qualification for one, though they swear to their own hurt
they will not change it, and they must be far from swearing deceitfully;
and consequently, if they bind themselves by a promise, which a
Christian should be no less tender of than his oath, they must keep it.
And besides, to condescend that that penalty or fine should be paid, by
ourselves, or friends in our behalf, were to condescend that these
enemies should be enriched by our own or the spoil of our friends, upon
the account of the forfeiture of our promise; which seems such a
dishonest and dishonourable thing, that an honest heart would disdain
it. And though this should be flouted as foolish preciseness, to chuse
rather to ly still and suffer in such a case; yet it may be considered
that Christ's cross, even with reproaches, is always a better choice
than the world's ease, purchased at any price which is a hire for
Christ's enemies.
5. All divines and casuists do grant, that an oath must be taken in his
sense and meaning who tenders it, and in whose favours it is conceived:
because oaths and bonds are for security, and therefore whosoever would
deal honestly and christianly in taking an oath, must take it in the
sense that it is understood by such as impose it; otherwise the holy
name of God should be taken in vain, and the swearers and promisers
shall deal deceitfully, in frustrating the end of the oath or bond, and
the design of the tenderers thereof. And therefore, as reason and
religion requires, that all oaths or bonds be so conceived and
enunciated, that all concerned may understand them, and if there be any
doubt how far they bind, the imposers should explain the same, as
Abraham did to his servant: So conscience requires, that they be always
taken in the imposer's sense, and as they discover their sense and
sentiments of them, and not according to the meaning that we may think
the words capable of; nor yet according to the wheedling explications,
that they may give or allow, which are as deceitful and ensnaring as the
things themselves. Nor is it to be looked upon as a favour to get a
liberty to put a sense upon them, contrary to their known meaning; for
that is but a liberty to mock God, to mock others, and ourselves too,
and nothing but a snare to the conscience. And to put a gloss upon
printed oaths or bonds, which in strict construction they will not bear,
and then to subscribe them in the terms as offered, is not only an
intangling ourselves into the bond of sinful oaths and bands, but to
stumble the godly, and harden the wicked in the present, and to mock
posterity in future ages; who shall see the oaths in the terms
subscribed, but not the sense they were taken in. See Apolog. Relat.
Sect. 14. It is known by manifold experiences that it is dangerous to
hearken to their overtures who study to ensnare us, but far more
hurtful and hateful to propound overtures to them. For they interpret it
a ceding and giving ground, and when they see a man beginning to yield,
then they will seem to be very condescending, even to accept of little
at first, that they may draw him on to more: like cunning anglers
sometimes recoiling and drawing back the well baited and busked hook, to
invite the poor unwary fish to pursue, and sometimes letting it run away
with the hook when it bites kindly: So when they find a man offering and
ready to accept of accommodations, they will be very yielding and easy,
but with a design to hook him. But conscience can find no safety at
present, nor satisfaction afterwards in accommodations with them. For it
is plain to all that are not blinded with ignorance, or partiality, or a
judicial stroke, that our imposers are such sons of Belial as cannot be
taken with hands, or by the hand; and if we reflect upon the matters
upon which these accommodations are to be offered or accepted, they are
not things upon which we may come and go, upon our discretion, as we do
with our own particulars, or with problems to be disputed, or ambiguous
propositions capable of different senses; but matters so and so
circumstantiate, as do require the positive determinate judgment of the
conscience, concerns of truth and falsehood, duty and sin, which cannot
admit of accommodation, or dispensation, or reservation, or any other
sense than the imposers and they that state their inquisition about such
things do own, and are observedly known to have and maintain about them.
Otherwise, all other forged accommodations are but tampering tricks,
juggling with jugglers, deceiving the deceivers, in such a way as does
not well consist with the simplicity of the gospel, or the doves
innocency; for what is that but a swearing or promising deceitfully!
Psal. xxiv. 4. "a conceiving and uttering from the heart words of
falsehood," Isa. lix. 13. "a false oath," Zech. viii. 17. "which are
hateful to God who will be a swift witness against false swearers," Mal.
iii. 5. Neither will they be so easily deceived, for they will readily
yield to accommodations, or any tolerable sense that we can put upon
their snares; for they reckon that a yielding in part, and are glad to
find us so far justifying their acts and impositions, as by our offer
practically to declare they bear a good sense, and they will come many
ways to our hand to get us hooked so.
Secondly, These things being premitted, I shall offer reasons why it was
necessary, in point of conscience, to refuse all the oaths hitherto
tendered; and consequently conscientious sufferers upon this account
will be vindicated. And first, some general reasons against all of them
together, and then a word to each sort of them.
1. There is one general argument, that will condemn coming in any terms
of oaths or bonds with that party, that have broken the covenant,
overturned the reformation, and destroyed the people of the Lord:
because such transactions with them (as hinted above) are a sort of
confederacy with the known enemies of truth and godliness, importing a
voluntary subjection to them, compliance and incorporation with them, as
members of the same community, whereof they are acknowledged to be the
head. Now all such sort of confederacy with such malignant enemies of
God and of the church, is unlawful, as Mr. Gillespie demonstrates in his
useful case of conscience, concerning associations and confederacies
with idolaters, or any known enemies of truth and godliness. Though
civil compacts for common commerce may be allowed, as Abraham was
confederate with Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, Gen. xiv. 13. Jacob covenanted
with Laban by way of lawborrows, Gen xxxi. 14. But sacred confederations
of this sort are unlawful from these arguments, 1. The law of God
condemns them, Exod. xxiii. 32. "Thou shalt make no covenant with them,
nor with their gods, they shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make
thee sin against me,"----Where not only religious covenants are
discharged in a toleration of the idolatry, but familiar conversation
also, they shall not dwell in thy land. If then we must not suffer them,
if in capacity, sure we must far less be imposed upon by them; if we are
not to be familiar with heathens, far less with apostates, that call
themselves Christians; for the apostle lays much more restraint from
communion with them, than with Pagans, 1 Cor. v. 10, 11. The reason of
the law, lest they make thee sin: as long therefore as there is that
hazard of sinning, the law obliges to that caution. So Exod. xxxiv.
12,--16. "Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the
inhabitants of the land--lest it be a snare--but ye shall destroy their
altars--lest thou make a covenant with them--and they go a whoring after
their gods, and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons"--Here again
all sacred transactions are discharged, upon a moral and perpetually
binding ground, and all toleration is prohibited, and conjugal affinity.
Such compliance brought on the first desolating judgment, the flood on
the old world (Gen. vi. 1, 2, 3.) when the godly conformed and
incorporated themselves, and joined in affinity with that ungodly crew,
from whom they should have separated themselves. Likewise Deut. vii. 2,
3, 4, 5.--"Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto
them, neither shalt thou make marriages with them--for they will turn
away thy son from following me--so shall the anger of the Lord be
kindled against you--but thus shall ye deal with them, ye shall destroy
their altars." Where all transactions with a people devoted to
destruction are discharged, even that of toleration of malignant
enemies, according to which precept, "David resolved to destroy early all
the wicked of the land, and cut off all wicked doers, from the city of
the Lord," Psal. ci. 8. Mark this, all, of what degree or quality
soever, without respect of persons. And lest it should be thought this
is meant only of these seven nations there enumerate, the law is
interpreted by the spirit of God or many other nations; where Solomon is
condemned for joining in affinity with other wicked people, besides
these, 1 Kings, xi. 1, 2. So that it is to be understood generally,
against confederacies with all, to whom the moral ground is applicable,
and the danger of insnaring the people of God. It is clear likewise, we
must have nothing to do with the wicked, but to treat them and with them
as enemies, Psal. cxxxix. 21, 22. with whom, as such, there can be no
confederation; for that supposes always the enmity is laid aside, but
that can never be between the professors of religion and the professed
enemies thereof: but that must always be the language of their practice,
"Depart from me ye workers of iniquity, for the Lord hath heard me,"
Psal. vi. 8. The command is peremptory and perpetual, "Forsake the
foolish," Prov ix. 6. "Make no friendship with them," Prov. xxii. 24.
"Say not a confederacy to them." Isa. viii. 12. where it is clear from
the opposition in that text, betwixt confederating with the wicked and
the fear of God, that the one is not consistent with the other. There is
an express discharge to yoke or have any fellowship with them, 2 Cor.
vi. 14. to the end--"for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness?--what concord hath Christ with Belial?--wherefore come
out from among them, and be separate."--2. Many sad and sharp reproofs
for such transactions and confederations do conclude the same thing,
Judg. ii. 1, 2, 3--"I said,--ye shall make no league with the
inhabitants of this land, you shall throw down their altars: but you
have not obeyed my voice, Why have you done this? Wherefore--I will not
drive them out from before you--." It cannot be expected, the Lord will
drive out these enemies, if we swear subjection and allegiance, and
come under confederations with them; for thereby we contribute actively
to their settlement and establishment, and bring ourselves not only
under the misery, but the guilt of strengthening the hands of evil
doers. So Jer. ii. the people of God are reproved, for making themselves
home-born slaves. How? by outlandish confederacies, verse 18. "Now what
hast thou to do in the way of Assyria?--The Chaldee paraphrase hath it,
What have you to do to associate with Pharaoh king of Egypt? and what
have you to do to make a covenant with the Assyrian?" So may we say,
what have we to do to take their oaths and bonds, that are as great
enemies as they were? Ephraim is reproved for mixing himself among the
people, Hos. vii. 8. by making confederacies with them. What follows? He
is a cake not turned, hot in the nether side, zealous for earthly
things, but cold and raw in the upper side, remiss in the things of
Christ. And this we have seen in our experience to be the fruit of such
bargains, or bonds, or oaths, that they that were engaged in them, have
always in some measure fallen from their former fervour for Christ. Nay
we shall find, that such transactions are seldom or never recorded in
the book of God without a reproof, or some greater marks of God's
displeasure put upon them? which doubtless is set purposely as beacons,
that we may beware of them. And therefore, 3. We may take notice of many
disallowed and condemned examples, on which the Lord set marks of wrath,
as Ahab's covenant with Benhadad, 1 Kings xx. 32. to the end. Asa's
covenant with Benhadad, which the prophet calls a foolish deed, 2 Chron.
xvi. from beginning to verse 10. proceeding from an evil heart of
unbelief, as all such transactions are overawed compliances.
Jehoshaphat's with Ahab hath the same censure, though he kept himself
free of Ahab's idolatry, and Ahab seemed to have been penitent before
he joined with him, and his relation to him was very near, the enemy of
both was an infidel, the cause was good, to recover a city of refuge,
the manner of his proceeding was pious, consulting the prophets, and his
end good; yet all this did not justify that wickedness, related 2 Chron.
xviii. and reproved 2 Chron. xix. 2. Jehu the prophet is sent to him,
"Shouldst thou love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon
thee from before the Lord." After this, when he joined himself with
Ahaziah, who did very wickedly, the Lord brake his works, 2 Chron. xx.
35. to the end: which made him afterwards mend his fault, for he would
not again join with him, when he sought the like association, 1 Kings
xxii. 49. So Amaziah's bargain with the Israelites, when the Lord was
not with them, is condemned by the prophet, admonishing him to disjoin
himself from them, 2 Chron. xxv. 7,--20. and Ahaz's bargain with Tilgath
Pilneser the Assyrian, 2 Chron. xviii. 16 &c. is plainly disallowed. 4.
The complaints, confessions, and lamentations of the Lord's people,
mourning over this sin, demonstrate the evil of it, Ezra ix. 14. "Should
we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of
these abominations? Wouldst not thou be angry with us, till thou hadst
consumed us, so that there shouldst be no remnant nor escaping?" Psal.
cvi. 35. "They were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works."
All these commands, reproofs, examples and complaints, are written for
our learning; and being seriously laid to heart, will sufficiently sear
all the fearers of God to join, but stand aloof from all compliances,
conjurations, or confederacies with the enemies of God, directly or
indirectly, formally or interpretatively, for fear of partaking of their
sins, and receiving of their plagues. I insist the more largely on this
argument, both because it will conclude that for which those proofs are
adduced, to condemn all bonding or bargaining with malignant enemies;
and because it will vindicate the aversion of this poor persecuted
remnant, from associating in expeditions of war, with promiscuous
subverters and perverters of the cause, on which it were not proper to
my purpose to dilate any discourse in a distinct head, while I must
confine myself only to the heads of sufferings; only because it may be
objected, and it will be profitable to consider it, that these
scriptures disprove only voluntary and elective confederations with the
wicked, but cannot condemn necessitated subscriptions of lawful
obligations, when the matter is not sinful; nor come they home to the
case of prisoners, who are constrained to transact and treat, and have
do with the men in power, otherwise, if all bonds were unlawful, then
prisoners might not procure liberty for longer or shorter time, upon
bond and bail, to answer again when called; which yet is generally
approven, and practised without scruple, and see us not want a precedent
in scripture, in that Jason gave such security, Acts xvii. 9. I shall
therefore subjoin here some considerations, by way of answer to this. 1.
These scriptures disprove all covenants, Exod. xxiii. 32. All
confederacies, Isa. viii. 12. All concord or agreement with the men of
Belial, 1 Cor. vi. 15. and, without distinction of voluntary or overawed
transactions, all unitive agreements of whatsoever sort are discharged,
and can no more be restricted to the particulars there specified, as if
any other covenant, confederacy, or concord might be lawful, that there
was not a joining in marriage, an associating in war, or communion in
communion in worship with them, than the moral grounds of these
prohibitions can be so restricted: for the hazard of sins and snares,
the hurt of faithless fears from whence they flow, and the hatefulness
of such unequal conjunctions, which are the grounds and reasons of these
laws, as may be seen in these forecited places, cannot be restricted to
the particulars specified. But now all the tendered oaths and bonds of
our adversaries, when subscribed as they require; yea, even those
transactions of prisoners for procuring their liberty, on terms of
engaging to re-enter themselves according to agreement with their
persecutors, are unitive covenants, or conditional agreements, giving
solemn securities for their respective obligations, upon terms wherein
both parties accord; for these bonds are given to them, and not only
before them, as was said. They are confederacies of the subjected,
seeking the peace and favours of their superiors, which when overawed
are sinful to be made with wicked enemies of religion, as well as when
unconstrained, for Ahaz's transaction with the Assyrian, was forced out
of fear, and yet it is called a sinful confederacy, not to be
homologated by any of the fearers of the Lord, Isa. viii. 12. They are
concords and agreements with the unrighteous sons of Belial, and not
about common matters, but matters wherein religion and righteousness are
nearly concerned: can any think that these commands are given with
exception of prisoners? and that if any Israelite was prisoner to these
nations, he might make a covenant with them for his liberty, upon an
engagement to render himself prisoner to them again? Then he might give
bond to God's devoted enemies, to bind up his hands from prosecuting the
war with them, which all Israel was obliged to do: for if they might
covenant subjection to them, then it would have been their sin to rebel,
as it was Zedekiah's sin to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, because it was
breach of covenant: and so there might be a case, wherein the
Israelites, notwithstanding of all these prohibitions, would be obliged
not to destroy, nor break down their altars, to wit, if they made such a
bargain with them for their liberty, to surrender themselves as their
subjects. Now we read, many times they were brought under subjection,
and that as a punishment of their leaguing with them: and yet they broke
the yoke, when they cried unto the Lord, and never submitted any longer
than they were able to deliver themselves. Whence it is plain, that they
never bound themselves to such subjection by oath, bond, or promise, for
that would have been no mercy which was purchased by treachery. 2. It is
a voluntary compact with the men in power to procure liberty upon bond
to answer again, and cannot be called necessitated; or if it be, it is
but a necessitated sin. It must be voluntary, because it is an act of
the will, and the will cannot be forced; it is the consent of the will,
and the consent cannot but be voluntary, in so far as it is a consent;
and by this, whereas, before their so procured liberty, they were
prisoners by constraint, now when they must return to prison, they are
prisoners by consent: It is the prisoner's choice, whether he will come
out upon these terms, or not; and every choice, in so far as it is a
choice, is elective and voluntary: it is put to the man's choice,
whether he will continue under the cross, and continue his testimony for
the cause, or surcease from it for a time, the latter in the case is
chosen. It is the prisoner's desire and petition, to transact with them
in these terms for liberty, without which no benefit of any such bond
can be procured, and every desire is voluntary. Yea, it is a formal
compact and capitulation with them, binding and obliging these bonders
by their own word and writ, at least to be at their call and command,
not by compulsion and force now, but by the moral obligation of their
own compact: now, every such compact is voluntary. And therefore, if all
voluntary covenants, confederacies, and agreements, be discharged in
scripture, then this bond of compearance also must be discharged. The
judgment of the famous Mr. Rutherford, or a draught of a petition to
have been presented to the committee of estates, by those ministers who
were prisoners in the castle of Edinburgh, will confirm what is said: we
find it in the third part of his letters, Numb. 93. where are these
words, 'I am straitned as another suffering man, but dare not petition
this committee, 1. Because it draws us to capitulate with such as have
the advantage of the mount, the Lord so disposing for the present, and
to bring the matters of Christ to yea and no (you being prisoners, and
they the powers) is a hazard.' 3. This agreement with the enemies for
liberty upon these terms, is sinful. For it is not only an
acknowledgement of a wicked power, in owning and transacting with them
as judges, who can free them and bind them as prisoners by law, which is
disproved above; but it is a binding themselves over to a packed,
perverse, and law-perverting judicatory, not as prisoners by forcible
constraint, but a willing consent, acknowledging the legality of their
imprisonment, and obliging themselves to observe it when demanded: yea,
it is a covenanted and bonded obedience to a wicked law; for it is a
wicked law, to exact from a sufferer for truth his re-entry to prison,
for no crime but his duty. As also it is a justifying of a wicked
sentence; for it is a wicked sentence, that an innocent man shall return
to prison when they please; which is justified when they bind themselves
to obey it. This is no ways like a man's going to the gibbet on his own
feet; for the man does not bind himself to do that, neither is it
exacted of him as an obedience to a law, nor is it given forth as a part
of his sentence, only he chooseth it for his own ease: but if all these
did concur, it were unlawful for a martyr for righteousness to obey such
a law, or voluntarily to submit to such a wicked sentence. Neither is it
of any pertinency to urge, that it is lawful for a man to submit so far
to a robber, as to bind himself to return to him against such a day with
another purse to him: for this is a necessitated bargain, to give what a
man hath, and promise more to save his life, and is like a man's casting
his goods out at sea to save the ship; the other is not so, but
elective: this is only a choice of the least of two evils of suffering,
but the other is a choice of one of two evils, which is sin, which
cannot come under a Christian's election at all; this is a compact with
the robber, which is still discretive, and no ways unitive of the robber
and him, in any bargain of concord, or confederacy, or acknowledged
subjection, only a passive surrender to his greater force as an enemy;
but the other is unitive, as between rulers and ruled: this is not any
obedience to a law, nor is the man's purse required to be given, or
promised under that notion, as the other is. I shall here also subjoin
some more of that foresaid letter of Mr. Rutherford's, in the second
place, says he, 'A speaking to them in writ, and passing in silence the
sworn covenant, and the cause of God, which is the very present
controversy, is contrary to the practice of Christ and the apostles, who
being accused, or not accused, avouched Christ to be the Son of God, and
the Messias, and that the dead must rise again, even when the adversary
initiated the question.' Now plain it is, that neither in the bonds nor
petitions, is there any word of the cause or testimony suffered for. 4.
As it is sinful, so it is very scandalous in several respects; in that
at least it hath the appearance of evil, which Christians should abstain
from, 1 Thes. v. 22. and seems to be a voluntary subjecting themselves
to their impositions (at least of that to return to prison again) a
willing acknowledgment of their unjust usurpations; a spontaneous
consenting to their mischiefs framed into a law, and exacted under the
notion of a law; a gratifying of the enemies of religion, and pleasing
them more than any thing a prisoner can do, except he should wholly deny
the cause: and therefore chiefly always this overture is most acceptable
from those that durst give any testimony, because they look upon it as
some indication of their fainting or falling from it, or of their
wearying of the cross of Christ, of which they are very glad; and an
offending and making sad the hearts, and condemning the practice, of
some truly tender and zealous confessors of Christ, who have had strong
tentations to make such transactions, and durst not yield so far for a
world; yea it is certainly an argument of faithless fear, and impatient
wearying of the cross, because of the fury of the oppressor, which the
Lord taxeth, when the captive hastneth that he may be loosed, and that
he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail; which is a
dishonour to him who hath promised to bear their charges, and hath given
them many encouragements to trust, that he will open a door in his own
time and way. See Isa. li. 13, 14. Of this Rutherford addeth in that
forecited letter: 'Silence of the cause of God which adversaries
persecute, seems a tacit deserting of the cause, when the state of the
question is known to beholders, and I know the brethren intend not to
leave the cause. And a little after, says he, the draught of that
petition which you sent me, speaks not one word of the covenant of God,
for the adhering to which you now suffer, and which is the object of
men's hatred, and the destruction whereof is the great work of the
times; and your silence, in this nick of time, appears to be a not
confessing of Christ before men, and you want nothing to beget an
uncleanly deliverance, but the profession of silence:' which is
professed by all that petition for such a bond, when their address and
transaction speaks no more in favours of the cause, than if they denied
it. It is plainly a coming out of prison without a testimony, which
cannot consist with faithful and zealous suffering for Christ, and is
far from the choice of Christ's witnesses, who overcame by the blood of
the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, recorded, Heb. xi. 35.----Who
were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a
better resurrection. 5. As it is a scandalous, so it is very
inconvenient and unsuitable for the confessors of Christ. In that not
only they may be ignorant, and much troubled to know what underhand
dealings their friends may use sometimes to procure that liberty,
without acquainting them, and how odiously their act of deliverance may
be worded and registred to the prejudice of the cause, which they dare
not testify against afterwards when they do know it, for fear of many
inconveniences. But also it cannot be vindicated from being a
dishonourable shifting, and putting off, or casting off the call of a
testimony; and confessing either an inconstancy, or impatience, or
unreadiness, or want of resolution, to confess or profess the testimony
for Christ, without some respite to gather new defences for it: whereas
Christ's witnesses should be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them, 1 Pet. iii. 15.
And besides, they involve themselves into the incumbrances of a doubtful
suspence about the event, whereas if they keep their first resolution
and condition with cheerfulness, aloof from such bargains, they know the
utmost they have to fear or hope from men. But now, as it is hard for
them to come off without some sinful engagement, and to continue any
measure of faithfulness when they are out, for fear of being soon called
again; so they bring themselves into many sad difficulties how to
behave, and cast themselves into many tentations unavoidably. However,
except of late, a precedent of this practice can hardly be instanced
among the sufferers of Christ in former times, but, on the contrary,
many have refused such offers. I shall only name one; in the persecution
of queen Mary of England, Dr. Sands, prisoner at London, had the offer
of liberty, upon the term of such a bond, finding bail to appear when he
should be called, but refused it absolutely; and when a gentleman,
without his knowledge, having procured it by giving 1000 l. bond for
him, brought him forth and required his consent and observance of the
obligation, he would not consent to give any security, and denied his
resolution to observe it in the least; whereupon the gentleman very
courteously told him, he would stand to his hazard. This was far more
like the innocency of the dove, but this new prudence resembles more
wisdom of the serpent. Finally, as for Jason's business, which is so
much harped upon by these bonders. (1.) These were rulers that he had to
deal withal, and not raging tyrants. (2.) They were indifferent arbiters
between Jason and the lewd fellows that troubled him, and not both judge
and party; he gave no security to his persecutors, as these bonders do,
but to the true judges of the cause, who impartially took cognizance of
it, from whom Jason might and did expect right. (3.) This was before he
was prisoner, being as free as his accusers, and having the law as free
for him as it was for them; whereby he could vindicate himself and abide
the law, and be absolved by it: which does not answer the case of
prisoners actually engaged in and called to a testimony for Christ, when
there is no law but what is established in opposition to Christ. (4.) In
the original it is, when they got satisfaction from him; that is, when
he so cleared himself, that they could not fasten any transgression upon
him, then they absolved him.
2. All these oaths and solemn securities that have been imposed in these
times, are dreadful and heinous breaches of the third command, by taking
his name in vain in the worst sort, whereby the takers cannot be holden
guiltless. For it is impossible such oaths and bonds, however they be
constructed, can ever be taken with these requisite qualifications
necessary to be observed in all oaths (and consequently in all solemn
promises or bonds) that are mentioned once for all, Jer. iv. 2. where
one that sweareth, must do it in truth, in judgment, and in
righteousness. 1. They cannot be taken in truth, which is a necessary
qualification in all oaths, according to the definition of a true oath,
which is a solemn invocation of God, for confirmation of some true,
lawful, grave, and weighty, useful and worthy business, wherein he is
attested and appealed unto, that he, as the only searcher of hearts,
may give his testimony to the truth of the thing, and punish the
swearers, if he swear not in truth. And this swearing in truth does
import and require both sincerity of the heart, filled with reverence
and the awful apprehension of a present God; and simplicity of the mind,
well informed of the genuine meaning of the oath, that we have clear
uptaking of it, and take it not implicitly, but with our own
understanding; and also singleness and honesty of the intention, that it
be not to deceive, by putting any other sense than the imposer hath, or
will allow when he understands it: so the meaning must be clear, and
such as may be obviously gathered from the words, and according as they
are supposed to be understood by others, especially them that exact the
oath; for if they mean one thing and we another, God's name is profaned,
and the end of the oath frustrated, and so all equivocations and mental
reservations are condemned; as all divines treating on oaths teach, and
worthy Mr. Durham particularly on the third command, who asserts, 'that
though we could devise some other meaning, that might seem to make for
us; yet if that was not meant at first tendering, but otherwise
understood by him that did take it, it will not absolve from the guilt
of perjury; for an oath of strict law, and will not admit, on any
respect or account, of interpretations prejudicial to the native truth
of it, lest it should be found to be' (according to Psal. xxiv. 4.) 'a
swearing deceitfully.' And he afterwards says, 'much less will it exempt
a man from guilt, that in swearing he had a meaning of the words,
contrary to what in common sense they bear, and in the construction of
all indifferent persons, without oath, or beyond it; but it should be
plain, single, and clear.' And Paraeus saith, in Catech. Urs. part 2.
quest. 102. An oath hath the divine sanction, that it might be a bond of
verity among men, and a testimony that God is the author and defender
of truth. Now, none of these oaths and bonds can be taken in truth; for
if they may be safely taken in any sense, it must be such as the oath in
the design of the imposers cannot bear, and which the imposers never
intended, nor would they ever have allowed, if they had understood it;
which industriously the takers have a care they should not understand,
and so they must take it in that sense with a mind to deceive, which
cannot be in truth, but most derogatory both to the truth and simplicity
of the gospel. And they are all unclear and ambiguous which cannot be
taken in truth, because they have no truth in them, as Dr. Sanderson
saith, de jure. promiss. oblig. prael. 6. Sect. 10. 'A proposition of an
ambiguous and indefinite sense, before the matter be distinguished, is
not a true proposition; yea, nor a proposition at all: for a
proposition, as its definition cleareth, should signify either a truth
or a falsehood, without any ambiguity; and therefore, says he; such
oaths should be suspected that there is some deceit lurking, and every
pious and prudent man should refuse them offered under such terms,'
cited by apol. relat. sect. 10. pag. 118. and sect. 15. pag. 267. In
fine, none of them can be taken in truth, since they are all a denying
the truth, as will be evident by the induction of all of them: which,
how it can consist with the fear of God, or sincerity of the heart,
cannot be imagined; and if conscience be called into judgment, it will
condemn the taking them. 2. They cannot be taken in judgment, is that,
with knowledge and deliberation, minding and understanding what it is we
swear or subscribe, as Mr. Durham explains it in the place above cited.
For, first, they cannot be taken in judgment, because they are all
ambiguous, the terms of them being capable of divers senses, not
explained by the imposers. And if they were explained in their sense,
then they could not be taken in righteousness; and so at best they are
uncertain: and that is dreadful to invoke the majesty of God to be a
witness to uncertainties; for that is to swear with an evil conscience
and contempt of God to dare to call him in as a witness of that which is
in suspense, whether it be truth or a lie; and such a swearer must make
it a matter indifferent, whether he make God a witness of a truth or of
a lie in the case. Vide Paraeum. loc. sup. cit. pag. 754. sect. 4. Dr.
Sanderson as before, gives these reasons further against all ambiguous
oaths. 'Because of him who tendereth the oath. For the proper end of an
oath is, that he in whose favours it is taken should have some certainty
of that whereof he doubted before; but there can be no certainty out of
the words which have no certain sense. Next, because of him who
sweareth, who, if he take such an oath in these terms, either stumbleth
his neighbour, or spreadeth a net for his own feet; for to what else
should such collusion tend, but either that by our example others may be
induced to take it, whereby they are stumbled; or, that afterwards, by
virtue of that oath, something may be required of us, which is either
unlawful or hurtful, and this is to lay a snare for ourselves! Therefore
let every prudent man beware of suffering himself to be deceived by
these wiles, and of thinking so much either of the favour of the ill
will of any other, as to swallow the bait under which he is sure there
is a hook: it is expedient, that, in the matter of oaths, all things be
done aright, and that the sense be clear to all, and that is, to swear
with a clear conscience,' apol. relat. pag. 267. But next, they cannot
be taken in judgment; because they are all imposed and extorted under a
severe penalty, and some of them of death, and so must be taken out of
fear. Such oaths are by many famous divines judged unlawful, especially
public oaths imposed by authority, and under colour of law; these are
worse than a man's private oath given to a robber, for fear of death, if
the matter be unlawful: for, without the matter be lawful or unlawful,
such oaths coacted, exacted, and imposed by law, cannot be taken in
judgment; for if they be taken out of respect to the law; then it is the
person's suffrage to the equity of that law, and an approbation of the
imposition; which, in the present case, cannot be done, by any man of
conscience; for, whether the oaths be lawful or not, the authority
imposing them is nought, and the law wicked, and can never be approven;
and if they be extorted out of fear, then they cannot be taken with
deliberation, or voluntary and unviolented choice, unconstrained light
or liberty, which are all the ingredients of judgment. 3. They cannot be
taken in righteousness, that is, according to the law of equity as well
as piety, neither wronging God nor others by our oaths. Lawful oaths
should be in themselves ties of equity, as well as truth. And Paraeus
faith, in the place before cited, lawful oaths are only these which are
engaged into about things true, certainly known, lawful, possible,
weighty, necessary, useful and worthy. And if that be true, then are all
the oaths and bonds taken these many years but fetterings into bonds of
iniquity; which, when the consciences of the takers will reflect on
them, will become galls of bitterness, and found to have none of these
qualifications; but on the contrary, to be about matters false,
uncertain, unlawful, impossible, frivolous, fruitless, useless, and
unworthy, to the worst degree of baseness; and, which is worst of all,
dreadfully sinful, and horrid to be thought on to interpose the name of
God upon, making him the approver of what his soul hates, and a witness
of that which he will be an avenger of, as will appear by the particular
consideration of all of them.
2. Let it be considered, that though (as the pleaders for these
transactions do impertinently) alledge the same words in other cases
might be subscribed in a more abstract sense, as being capable of a good
construction; yet complexly considered in the form and frame of all the
oaths and bonds we have been troubled with, they cannot be subscribed
in any sense; and if in any, that must be the imposer's sense, which in
them all is always pernicious. 1. They cannot be taken in any sense
though never so good, if we consider the absolute illegality of their
arbitrary imposition. It will be confessed that oaths should be very
tenderly imposed upon consciences, not only lest the name of God be
prostitute to profanation, in matters light and trivial, or dubious and
uncertain; but lest a tyrannical jurisdiction be exercised over the
souls of men, which are not subject to any power that mortals can claim:
so it cannot be denied, but that the constitution of our government
requires, and reason as well as religion says it is necessary, that no
ruler hath right to enjoin an oath which is not first enacted into a
law; and it was always accounted a good plea for refusing oaths, when
there was no law for them; and some have been charged with treason, for
exacting oaths without a statute ordaining them: which might be brought
in as a charge against all the imposers of our oaths, the most part of
which have been enacted and extorted without any colour of law; some of
them being never ordained by any act of parliament, and others of them
before they could obtain such a mischief framed into an act for them,
and all of them neither ever legally administred nor righteously
enacted, by such who had power to make acts; for as for the packed
parliaments that made them, no conscientious man could ever own such a
company of perjured traitors, to be their parliamentary representatives.
Yet abstracting from that, I say, the oaths that have been imposed
without and against law could never be taken in any sense, without
consenting to their treasonable breach of law, for which they have
forfeited their lives to justice, whenever there shall be a judicatory
to revise their administrations: and these that have been imposed by a
pretended law, could never be taken without justifying of that law that
ordained them, which hath been nothing but a mischief framed into a law
by a throne of iniquity. 2. They cannot be taken in a good sense, with a
safe conscience, considering either what is plain in them, or what is
more ambiguous. What is plain and capable but of one sense, that is
always either restraining to a clear sin, to renounce some part of the
covenanted reformation, in profession or practice; or constraining from
a clear duty, that we should not do that which we may or ought to do.
There is nothing in all of them plain but what obliges to one of these
two. Again, what is ambiguous in them, as it ought to be refused for its
ambiguity; so, when it is explained according to the imposer's mind and
meaning, the sense will be found always pernicious, though the words may
be plausible. As when they require an obligation to allegiance, or
loyalty, or peaceableness, or orderliness, and other smooth words,
signifying excellent things in an abstract notion, these will be found
to carry quite another sense, if we enquire into the imposer's meaning,
in which only oaths and bonds must be taken. The only way to find out
their meaning, is to consider either their acts or actings, or their
designs and intentions, as they are discoverable by any man of prudence
or consideration. If we consult their acts or actings practically, and
not only legally explaining them for a commentary, then by allegiance,
we can understand nothing else but an owning of their absolute tyranny:
by loyalty, nothing but an absolute and implicit obedience of their
absolute commands, without reserve (as the late proclamation for the
toleration expounds it) by peaceableness, nothing but a stupid
subjection to them, letting them do what they please without resistance
or controul; and by orderliness nothing but a disorderly compliance and
conformity with them, in going along with the corruptions and defections
of the time; for their acts and actings expound them so. If we consider
their designs and intentions, according to which they are all uniformly
calculate and equally levelled; he is blind who hath not seen they have
been driving all this time at these designs (to which all these oaths
and bonds have been adapted and successfully subservient, and by which
they have been promoted to the present pass) to overturn gradually all
the degrees of our covenanted reformation, to establish tyranny, and
advance it unto greater degrees of absoluteness, and to introduce popery
and slavery: so that by allegiance and loyalty can be meant nothing else
but an obligation to own and obey, and never to oppose the design of
advancing tyranny; and by peaceableness and orderliness, nothing else
can be intended, than an obligation never to oppose either the present
settlement, or future establishment of popery and arbitrary power, upon
the ruins of the reformation, and our civil and religious rights and
liberties. Whence, they that can take these oaths and bonds in any other
sense, and plead for the inoffensiveness of the terms, in a more
abstract notion, and sense alledged more legal, without regard to that
of the imposers, practically explained by their administrations, and so
looking more to the briberies of their blinded reason and worldly
interest, than to the dictates of conscience, please themselves with
such notions and quibbling evasions, do but mock God, deceive the world,
elude the enemies, and delude themselves. And all these debatings for
accommodations and expositions in another sense, are but foul fairdings
of conscience-beguiling compoundings in, and pitiful priggings for, a
base compliance. But it is usual for a guilty son of Adam to sew
fig-leaves.
4. Let it be considered, that all these oaths and bonds that the land
hath been debauched with these 27 years, are all condemned by, and
contradictory to anterior binding orders, the acts of the general
assemblies requiring no oaths in the common cause to be taken, without
the church's consent, as was cleared in the historical part, upon the
fifth period, page 97. And that especially they are condemned as being
contradictory to, and violatory of prior oaths, of continuing
indispensible obligation; being designed, pressed, and imposed, on
purpose to delete the same out of the minds and memories of the present
generation; I mean the national and solemn league and covenants, and
other former nationally binding public engagements. Which, because they
are not only broken and burnt, but declared criminal to be owned, and
because the owning of their obligation is ordinarily inserted in the
indictments of our martyrs, I must touch upon them more particularly. It
was cleared above, Head I. arg. 11. from the form, the object, and from
the ends of the covenant, which are all moral, and of indispensible
obligation, that it is of perpetual and unalterably binding force,
obliging the present and all future generations, as well as that which
did first come under the bond of it. And to confirm this, I shall add
more particularly these many considertions. 1. The national engagements
are national promises, plighting and pledging the nation's public faith,
for the preservation and propagation of religion and liberty, to
succeeding posterity; which if succeeding generations may reverse, then
the faith of men, and the faith of nations, can be of no force above a
century of years; nay nor after the decease of them that personally made
the promise: and so every new ruler, every new parliament, yea every
person coming up to succeed the father in any capacity, might be free
not to stand to it, which were very absurd. Certainly that promise of
the jewish nobles and rulers, not to exact usury of their brethren, but
to restore, and not require it of them, did not only oblige themselves
but would bring their posterity under the curse, if they should exact
the same debt there remitted, Neh. v. 12, 13. And does not a national
promise of preserving the reformation, bind as much to the curse of the
breach of it? 2. They are national vows, avowing and avouching, and
devoting themselves and their posterity to be the Lord's people, and to
keep his statutes, and promote his interests, which do bind the
posterity. Jacob's vow at Bethel, that the Lord should be his God, Gen.
xxviii. 21. did oblige all that his posterity, virtually comprehended in
him; he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us, saith the
prophet many hundred years after, Hos. xii. 4. The Israelites vow to
destroy the Canaanites, did oblige all their posterity, Numb. xxi. 2.
Not only by virtue of the Lord's command, but by virtue of their vow; as
we are obliged to preserve the reformation, not only by virtue of the
Lord's command, but by virtue of our covenants. Vows are bonds to the
soul, which must stand, Numb. xx. 2, 4. And whereas it is said, that as
a woman's father or husband might disannul her vow, and so the
magistrate might abrogate the covenant: besides the impertinency of this
comparison, as might be easy to demonstrate, it may be, by giving and
not granting that he might do so; yet if the father and husband shall
hold their peace, then all her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith
she bound her soul shall stand, ver. iv. 7. but so it was, that the
supreme magistrate did give his consent to the national covenant, and
the successor did swear the solemn league and covenant, and received the
crown on the terms thereof, to preserve and promote religion and
liberty; and therefore his vows must stand, they cannot be made void
afterwards; for, it is a snare to devour that which is holy, and after
vows to make enquiry, Prov. xx. 25. So we find the Rechabites were
obliged to observe the vow of their forefathers Jonadab, Jer. xxxv. 6.
14. And if the father's vow obliges the children, shall not the nation's
vow oblige the posterity? 3. They are national oaths which do oblige
posterity: Esau's oath to Jacob, resigning his birth-right, did oblige
his posterity never to recover it, Gen. xxv. 33. Joseph took an oath of
the children of Israel to carry up his bones into Canaan, Gen. 1. xxv.
which the posterity, going forth of Egypt in after ages, found
themselves straitly sworn to observe, Exod. xii. 19. and accordingly
buried them in Shechem, Josh. xxiv. 32. The spies swore to preserve
Rahab alive and her house, Josh. ii. 12, &c. which was without the
consent of the magistrate, and yet Joshua found himself obliged to
observe it, Josh. vi. 22. Moses swore unto Caleb to ensure him an
inheritance, Josh. xiv. 9. and upon this ground he demands it as his
right, ver. 12. which he could not do, if successors might reverse their
predecessors lawful oaths.