5. Let us consider the person and matter, for whom and for what this prayer is extorted. Either it is for the personal salvation of James the papist, or the royal preservation of James the tyrant. It will not satisfy to pray, that if it be possible, and if it were the Lord's will, he might be taken to heaven, that so we might be quit of him. Neither were it lawful to pray, that, except we prayed first, that he might repent of this his wickedness, if perhaps it might be forgiven him, as Peter directed Simon Magus to pray for himself, Acts viii. 22. for it is unlawful to pray for the salvation of a papist, except upon supposition of his repentance and relinquishing popery. We must pray nothing but according to the will of God; and it is not the will of God, that they that have and keep, and will not part with the mark of the beast, should be saved, for he is adjudged of God to drink of the wine of his wrath, Revel. xiv. 9, 10. So we cannot pray for him as a Christian, which he is not; nor as a papist, except that he may get repentance. Nor can we pray for him as a king, which he is not; nor as a tyrant, except that he may repent of and relinquish his tyranny and usurpation: for tyrants as such cannot be saved, no more than papists as such; for Tophet is ordained of old, yea for the king it is prepared,——Isa. xxx. 33. We cannot then pray for his salvation, except we pray for his repentance, and relinquishing all his sins, and so we must pray for him relinquishing his kingship, and that he may cease to be king; for that is his sin, that he hath made himself king without God, and against the laws of the land.
And now, while he continues such, we must complain in prayer, not for his misgovernment only, but for that he governs, and desire to be delivered from him. See Gee's magistrates original, pag. 258. But now considering what a man, and what a king he hath been, guilty of murder, adultery, idolatry, under sentence of the law both of God and man; we can pray no otherwise for him, than for a murderer, adulterer, or an idolater. We cannot pray for him as cloathed with authority, or that the Lord may bless his government, for that is his sin and our misery, that he is a governor: and his throne is a throne of iniquity, which we dare not pray may have fellowship with God. Can we pray that God would bless him on a throne of iniquity? Could we pray, that the Lord would bless a drunkard in his drunkenness, abusing his enjoyments? Or a thief in his stealing, though he used his purchase never so soberly? What if prevailing robbers by land, or pirates by sea, preying upon all passengers, should require this as the sign of subjection to them, and only condition whereupon such, as they apprehend and overcame, should be suffered to live, that they should pray for preservation and prosperity to them? Would not this be wickedness thus to pray for thieves and robbers? And are not tyrants the greatest of thieves, that rob and destroy twenty for one of private robberies? And do they not require this as such a sign on such a condition?
6. Lastly, Then the plea will be reduced to this, that it is exacted as a badge of loyalty, and sign, Tessera, Shibboleth of owning the authority. Which I have at this length endeavoured to prove, cannot be conscientiously owned by us, in these circumstances. And even by this argument: that authority which we cannot pray for we cannot own; but we cannot pray for this tyrannical authority: therefore.—The minor I trust is in some measure made manifest, by what is said above. And so I conclude this head, with that form of prayer, that I use for the king. O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thy self; lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth, render a reward to the proud. Lord, how long shall the wicked? how long shall the wicked triumph? Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, that frameth mischief by a law? The mighty and terrible God destroy all kings and people, that put to their hand to alter and destroy the house of God. Overturn, overturn, overturn this throne of tyranny, and let it be no more, until he come whose right it is.
The refusing to swear and subscribe the many unlawful imposed oaths, for which many have suffered great cruelties; chiefly that ofAbjurationwhich 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 Paræus 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. præl. 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 Paræum. 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 Paræus 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.
The Lord will in a special manner, resent and revenge the posterities breach of the oath of their father's covenant, Ezek. xvi. 59. "Thus saith the Lord God, I will even deal with thee, as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath, in breaking the covenant," which was the covenant of their fathers. 4. They are national covenants, wherein king, parliament, and people do covenant with each other, for the performance of the respective duties of their several stations, either as to the work of reformation, or as to the preservation of each others mutual rights and privileges: so that they are national covenants made by men with men; and these we find do oblige the posterity. Israel's covenant with the Gibeonites did oblige the posterity, Josh. ix. 15, 19. and for the breach of it many ages after, the posterity was plagued, 2 Sam. xxi. 1. Zedekiah was bound by his predecessor's covenant, though it was such as made the kingdom base, yet in keeping it, it was only to stand. "Shall he break the covenant, and be delivered? Thus saith the Lord, as I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised and my covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head," Ezek. xvii. 12, 14, 15, 19. The apostle says even of human covenants, "Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereunto," Gal. iii. 15. that is, cannot do so lawfully much less can one man disannul a nation's covenant. 5. They are national attestations of God as a witness, for the perpetuity, as well as fidelity of these sacred engagements. All such covenants, wherein the holy name of God is invocated as witness, are owned of God as his (hence the covenant betwixt David and Jonathan, is called the covenant of the Lord, 1 Sam. xx. 8.) and Zedekiah's fault was the breach of the Lord's covenant, Ezek. xvii. forecited. So likewise that covenant mentioned Jer. xxxiv. 8, 9, 10. wherein the princes and people did swear to let their Hebrew servants go free, is called God's covenant, verse 18. and upon this account sorer judgments are threatened, verse 19, 20. "And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me——into the hands of their enemies." Certainly this did oblige the posterity, at least not to recal these servants, and, it was always morally obliging. So our national covenant, sworn with hands lifted up to the most high God, being materially also binding, cannot be abrogated by the posterity except the Lord renounce his interest in them; as long as the witness liveth then, who claims them as his, they cannot be made void; especially considering. 6. They are national covenants made with God, as the other party contracting, in the matters of God, which none can dispense with, or grant remissions in; and therefore they must perpetually bind, until he loose them. And if even the posterity break them, the Lord will make them that hate them to reign over them, and he will bring a sword upon them to avenge the quarrel of his covenant, Levit. xxvi. 15, 17, 25. Such were all the national covenants of the Lord's people, renewed by Joshua, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, for the breaches of which the Lord plagued the posterity. It was for breach of their fathers covenant with God, that the ten tribes were carried away captive, 2 Kings xvii. 15, &c. We have already experienced the threatned judgments for covenant breaking, and may look for more. 7. They are for their matter national covenants, about things moral objectively, obliging to join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten, Jer. l. 5. I might easily demonstrate all the articles of the covenant to be morally binding, but they are demonstrated sufficiently above, Head 1. Arg. 11. therefore they are perpetually binding. 8. They are for their ends national covenants, inviolably obliging. Which cannot be made void, though they should be broken, because the ends of them are always to be pursued, as is proved above, Head 1. therefore they are perpetual. 9. They are for their formality national covenants, most solemnly sworn, and subscribed by all ranks, with uplifted hands, with bended knees, with solemn invocating the name of God, with solemn preaching, prayer and praise, rendering themselves and the posterity obnoxious to the curse, if they should break it. Now the solemnities of the oath do aggravate the heinousness of the breach of it, as is clear from Jer. xxxiv. 19. Ezek. xvii. 18. quoted above: the reason is, because of their greater deliberation in the action, and because of the greater scandal accompanying the violation thereof. Hence as they are national oaths and covenants so solemnized, they are national adjurations, under the pain of a national curse, not to break them nationally, which do make the posterity obnoxious to it; as Joshua adjured Israel, saying, "Cursed be the man that raiseth up, and buildeth this city Jericho," Josh. vi. 26. which was fulfilled many generations after, in the days of Ahab, upon Hiel the Bethelite, 1 Kings xvi. last verse. So the curse of introducing abjured prelacy and popery, if it be let in, will be impendent on the nation. All national covenants have a curse annexed, in case of a breach, whenever it shall be: so in Nehemiah's covenant, 'They clave to their brethren, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and to do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and statutes;' particularly not to enter into affinity with their malignant enemies, Neh. x. 29, 30. which certainly did oblige the posterity, because the thing was moral; so in our covenants we are bound to the same things, and nothing but these: and therefore the posterity is liable to the curse of perjury, for the breach thereof. 10. They are for their legality national laws, being solemnly ratified by the parliament and by the king, and made the foundation of their compact with him at his inauguration, whereby they became the fundamental laws of the government, and among the very laws and rules of governing, which, though they be rescinded by a wicked law, yet make the rescinders chargeable not only of perjury, in breaking a covenant, but of treason and tyranny, in breaking and altering the constitution of the government, and render them liable to the curse thereof: for they cannot rescind that, nor escape its vengeance: whereof we have a speaking pledge already, in that the rescinder of these covenants was so terribly rescinded, and cut off by the hands of unnatural violence; God thereby fulfilling that threatned judgment of covenant breakers, that he hath broken his covenant shall be brought to destruction, and bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; Psal. lv. 20. last verse. So Charles II. got not leave to live out half the days that he projected to himself. 11. They are national engagements of an hereditary nature, like that of Israel, Deut. xxix. 14, 15. which did oblige not only the present, but the absent, 'not only them that stood there that day before the Lord their God, but them that were not there that day.' Grotius de jur. bel. lib. 2. cap. 6. gives these marks of hereditary covenants, (1.) When the subject is of a permanent nature, and as long as the same body remains: therefore as long as Scotland is Scotland, whose people in their personal capacity, whose parliaments in their parliamentary capacity, whose king in his princely capacity, did all solemnly and sacredly engage in the covenant, it must be real and perpetually obliging. (2.) When there is such a clause in the covenant, as that it should be perpetual, there are many clauses in the solemn league to this purpose. In Art. 1. are these words, 'That we, and our posterity after us, may, as brethren, live in faith and love, and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us.' In the 5th Art. 'We shall each one of us, according to our place and interest, endeavour that the kingdoms may remain conjoined in a firm peace and union to all posterity.' (3.) When it is such as is made for the good of the kingdom, the covenant expresses its end, for the perpetual good of the kingdom, 'having before our eyes the glory of God, the advancement of the kingdom of——Christ, the honour and happiness of the king and his posterity, and the true public liberty, safety, and peace of the kingdoms; wherein every one's private condition is included.' And again it is added, 'for preservation of ourselves and our religion from utter ruin and destruction.' All this is a public national good. (4.) The matter is moral, about materially binding duties, and therefore it must be hereditary, and of perpetual obligation. 12. Lastly, They are national obligations, taking on public duties, by way of virtual representation of the posterity. And they that think it irrational, that the father should represent and involve the family, must resolve us how the religious and civil covenants of Israel and Judah, made in Moses', Joshua's, David's, Asa's, Joash's, Hezekiah's, Josiah's and Nehemiah's days, did comprehend and bind as well the absent as the present, and their posterity, yet unborn; as also, how the laws and contracts continually passed by some do take in others, not personally consenting; yea, how comes it to pass, that every succeeding generation is bound to the laws, and must be obedient to the kings, that they did not make themselves, no reason can be given, but because they are virtually represented by, and included in their fathers. Now, if these arguments prove our national covenants to be perpetually binding, and cannot be dispensed with, then must these posterior oaths that are made in a diametrical opposition to the covenants, and are condemned by the covenants, be false and unlawful oaths; but the first is proved: therefore these oaths so opposite to, and condemned by the covenants, are false and unlawful. That they are opposite to the covenant, will appear in the induction of all of them. And that, whatever they be imposed by this party, they are condemned by the covenants, wherein we are obliged to make no such transactions with them, will appear if we consider these and the like expressions, 'That we shall neither directly, nor indirectly, suffer ourselves to be divided by whatsoever suggestion, allurement, or terror, from this blessed conjunction, nor shall cast in any let or impediment that may stop or hinder any such resolution, as shall be found to conduce for so good ends.' Which are the words of the national covenant, clearly condemning oaths and bonds given to malignants, which are divisive of them that adhere to, and unitive with them that oppose the covenant, and impeditive of resolutions to prosecute the ends thereof. So, in the solemn league and covenant, Art. 4. 'We are obliged to oppose all such as make any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this league and covenant; but by these oaths and bonds, such factions are made,' &c. And by Art. 6. 'We are obliged to assist and defend all those that enter into this covenant (contradicted by all the latter oaths and bonds) and not to suffer ourselves directly, or indirectly, by whatsoever combination,——to be divided——from this blessed union,——whether to make defection to the contrary part, or to give ourselves to a detestable indifferency,' &c. Which we do, when we divide ourselves from these that refuse these oaths, and make defection unto the party that impose them. And in the solemn acknowledgment of sins, and engagement to duties, 'We are sworn, sect. 6. to be so far from conniving at, complying with, or countenancing of malignancy, injustice, &c. that we shall not only avoid and discountenance these things, &c. but take an effectual course to punish and suppress these evils.' All which we counteract and contradict, when we take any of these oaths or bonds.