care; whatever may leffen it, discountenanced, whatever may augment it, encouraged: else, befides lofing all the direction and the comfort, which religion gives to well disposed persons ; all the restraint, which it lays on others, will be loft too: and the dread of an Almighty avenger being taken away, the most facred of obligations will become no better, than a more effectual means of committing injustice. Human laws will foon prove too weak, when those of heaven are cast off: every one will do what is right in his own eyes *, and every man's hand be against his brother. Therefore diligently preferve the reverence of God strong upon your own hearts, and the hearts of all who belong to you: for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have they, that do thereafter: the praise of it endureth for ever †

* Judges xvii. 6. xxi. 25.

† Pfalm exi. 10.

SER

SERMON XXXII.

ON OATHS.

EXOD. XX. 7.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his name in

vain.

HAVING already fhewn, that the Chriftian religion hath

not forbidden the ufe of all oaths: it is natural to confider distinctly, in the next place, thofe kinds of oaths which are forbidden. And I have chofen to speak of this matter from the third commandment: which would have been of very fmall fignificancy under the gofpel, as it only prohibits fwearing in vain, if our Saviour, by a fubfequent law, had prohibited fwearing at all. But as you have now seen that he doth not, it still continues to be of the fame force and weight, as when it was delivered at first from the mouth of God himself, with that awful folemnity, which you may read in the chapter before the text: when the Lord defcended upon mount Sinai in fire; with thunders and lightnings, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud; and the smoke thereof afcended as the fmoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly*. And the Lord Spake with a great voice, unto all the afSembly out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud and of the thick darkness, thefe words t, which I have laid before you.

Precepts, delivered in fuch a manner, we may be fure God will expect us to obey with more than ordinary care and therefore we are deeply concerned to acquaint ourselves with VOL. I. Z z

the

1

the import and extent of them. Now the words of this commandment are very comprehenfive. For, as vanity fignifies in fcripture language, both what hath no being, and what is of no importance, and therefore is confidered as if it had no being; fo applying the name of God to vanity, (which is the moft literal tranflation of the words rendered taking it in vain) fignifies of confequence giving teftimony upon oath, either to what is not, or to what in comparifon is nothing: that is, either to falfehoods, or to trifles. Undoubtedly fwearing to falfehoods is the chief thing forbidden here; and by fome hath been thought the only one. But as the words of the prohibition fairly comprehend fwearing to trifles àlfo; and as the oldeft tranflations, and most learned of the Jewish writers have understood them to comprehend it; and especially, as our Saviour hath established this latitude of the phrafe by his own interpretation of it; we are certainly to confider them as taking in both fenfes. I fhall therefore treat of this commandment, first as forbidding falfe oaths; and afterwards, as forbidding needlefs and common ones.

Now oaths are of two forts: either fuch as affirm or deny fomewhat concerning past or prefent matters, and are called affertory or fuch as engage and give affurance concerning time to come, and are called promiffory. To begin with the former.

If ever we affert any thing upon oath, which we know or believe to be false if we deny any thing, which we know or believe to be true: if we either affirm, or deny, in matters of which we know nothing or if, in matters of which we do know fomething, we fpeak beyond our knowledge; declaring ourselves to be certain of what we only believe; or to believe firmly what we only fufpect and guefs: every one of these things, in its different degree, is profaning the name of God to atteft a falfehood. And farther, if, when we are fworn to tell the whole truth, we conceal defignedly any part of it, which we think may be of moment, here again we are guilty of breaking our oath. Nay indeed, though we are not fworn to tell the whole, yet we fhould obferve, that the only reafon of giving evidence at all is, that right may be done; and suppreffing a truth, may fometimes as intirely mislead and deceive, as telling the groffeft falfehood. In fhort then, if we ufe any method whatever, be it aggravating, or be it palliating, to dif

guile

guife the real ftate of the cafe: if we relate it in any other manner whatever, than the fairest and plainest we can, after diligently recollecting and confidering well; every fuch artifice amounts to a violation of this great law of God.

And if witneffes ought to obferve fuch impartiality; you will easily apprehend, that jurymen and judges are at least equally bound to it for they are not only upon oath too, but appointed, and intrufted by public authority: and if any thing influences them but a steady regard to truth; what should be the fecurity of justice, becomes an inftrument of oppreffion : Judgment, as the fcripture expreffes it, is turned into gall; and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock *. Indeed, whoever hath fworn to fpeak and determine uprightly, and permits himself to be any way biaffed; though he fhould happen to do right, yet fince he was difpofed to have done the fame thing, though it had been wrong, is perjured in his intention, though in the particular fact he may not.

And greatly akin to the guilt of being perjured ourselves, pay, often as bad, and sometimes worse, if poffible, is that of inducing others to be perjured a fin which is committed, not only by direct hiring of them to fwear falfehoods; but by awing and intimidating; by courting and flattering; by intimating advantages to them, if they can truly fwear fo and fo; by talking them into a perfuafion of what they were not fully perfuaded of before; and thus making them ftrain hard to believe, that they know or remember more or less than they do. Another way, and a very wicked one, of making witneffes forfwear themselves, is, when artful men contrive that they hall ufe forms of words, of which they do not thoroughly understand the import: or difconcert them fo, on their appearance in a court of justice, by improper treatment of them; and 2stonish and confound them in fuch a manner, by a multiplicity of captious questions; that they hinder them from speaking the truth which they intended, or drive them into faying falfehoods which they did not intend.

And if it be finful, by any fuch methods, to make witneffes bear falfe teftimony: it cannot be innocent, by unfair fuggeftions, and falfe colours put on facts or laws, to procure a wrong verdict or fentence. Let any one fuppofe himself a fufferer by unjuft reprefentations of a cafe, and he will strong

Z z 2

* Amos vi, 12.

ly feel how bad they are. Surely then he cannot indeed think them allowable, merely because he is a gainer by them.

It is very true, that in all these matters which I have mentioned, fometimes intereft, fometimes prepoffeffion, blinds pecple to a strange degree. But therefore it is their duty, and fhould be their bufinefs, to watch themselves: for no inducement whatever can justify speaking or acting against truth. Be it affection ever fo well grounded, be it refentment ever fo just, be it zeal for a party, civil or religious, which we think it ever fo needful to fupport; be it refpect for the great and powerful, compaffion for the poor and diftreffed; be it in a word, what it will, that turns men afide in judgment from justice and equity; he who testifies or determines on such motives, teftifies or determines against his oath. And because men are often influenced by these things, without feeing it distinctly; whoever is called upon to bear any part in judicial affairs, ought to examine himself before-hand with due care; and purify his heart from whatever difpofitions may corrupt his integrity.

But there are some occafions on which doing fo is peculiarly requifite. If, for inftance, a case, depending at prefent, may be likely to prove our own cafe hereafter, or even appears to have any connection with it: we are ftrongly tempted to incline a little, perhaps more than a little, to the fide that makes for us; and imagine there cannot be much harm in that: whilst yet we hold those in the utmost abhorrence, who are but equally partial on the other fide. And if we have any motive, that looks of a more generous kind; if it may promote a good caufe, if it may ferve a friend, or a a friend, or a neighbour, if it may relieve in what feems a hard cafe; then we are apt to think it meritorious to tranfgrefs. But indeed no caufe is fo good, as that of a constant adherence to truth and right: and if we depart from it, for what we imagine a valuable end; we teach and provoke others to depart from it, for what they imagine fuch and God knows then who may prove the greatest fufferers at laft. As for the plea of good nature on these occafions, it is never a true good nature. For, in all trials of property, fhewing any undue favour to one fide, is doing just fo much hardship to the oppofite and in all trials for crimes, whatever is unfairly done for the advantage of the person accafed, is done equally to the disadvantage of public order and

:

Lafety.