Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 5 · Verse 34
Verse 34. Swear not at all.]
Not at all by the creaturesDejurando … creaturas, contra …, & de juramenti …, … Anabap:: videbis. (which the Pharisees held no fault) nor yet by the name of God in common talk, lightly, rashly and …; for such vain oaths the land mourneth. Oaths (alas) are now become very interjections of speech to the Vulgar, and phrases of gallantry to the braver. He that cannot swear with a grace, wanteth his… in Iacob. 5. 12. pag. 228. & … tropes and his figures, befitting a Gentleman. Not to speak of those civilified complements of Faith: and Troth (which are counted light matters) Who hears not how ordinarily and openly ruffianly oaths and abhorred blasphemies are darted up withSunt qui altius … in …, quam …. hellish mouths, against God, and our Saviour, whom they can swear all over, and seldome name, but in an oath? … can these pray, Hallowed be that Name, that they so daily dishallow? Some cannot utter a sentence without an oath, yea, a fearfull one, an oath of sound, if enraged especially; O the tragedies, the blusters, the terrible thunder-cracks ot fierce and furious language, interlaced with oaths, enough to make the very stones crack under them! Yea to such an height and habituall practice hereof are some grown, that they swear and foame out a great deal of filth, and perceive it not. Had these men such distemper of body, as that their excrements came from them, when they knew not of it, it would trouble them. So it would, I dare say, did they believe the holy Scriptures, threatning so many woes to them, yea, telling them of a large roll, ten yards long, and five yards broad, full of curses against the swearer, yea, resting upon … house,Zech. 5 2, …. where he thinkes … most secure; Brimstone is scattered … Job 18. ….the house of …, saith Iob, as ready to take fire, if God but lighten upon it. They walk, as it …, upon a … of gunpowder: and it may be just in God they … be blown up, when their hearts are full of hell, and their mouths … big with hellish blasphemies. Surely … damnation …: … hathExod. …. vowed he will not … them …, … these … shall…. …. … enter into his rest. And for …, those that … but any ingenuity, abhor and shun their company. The very Turks have the Christians blaspheming of Christ in …, and will punish then prisoners sorely, when as through impatience or … they burst out into them. Yea the …, as their conversion is much hindered by the … or the … (who … oftner then swear) so in … speculations of the causes of the strange … of the affairs of the world, they assign the reason of the Turks prevailing so against the Christians, to be, their… his … of the …. oaths and blasphemies, which wound the ears of the very heavens. They can tell that swearing is one of those sins, for the which GodHos. 4. 2. hath a controversie with a land. And I can tell what a great Divine…. …. 10. hath observed, that the stones in the wall of Aphek shall sooner turn executioners, then a blasphemous Aramite shall scape …. So much doth a jealous God hate to be rob'd of hisD. Halls contempl. glory, or wronged in his Name, even by ignorant Pagans (how much more by … Christians?) whose tongues might seem no slander. Those that abuse earthly Princes in their name and titles, are imprisoned, banished, or hanged as traitours. And shall these goe altogether unpunished? Hell gapes for such miscreants, &c.
Neither by heaven]
As the Manichees and Pharisees did, and held it no sinne. But God only is the proper object of an oath, Isa 65. 16. Ier. 12. 6. The name of the creature (say some) may be inferred, the attestation referred to God alone. But they say better, that tell us, that the form of an oath is not at all to be indirect or oblique, in the name of the creature. Albeit I …, but he that … by …, sweareth by him that dwelleth in heaven, &c. And forasmuch as God clotheth himself with the creatures, Psal. 104. … fit for us to spit upon the … royall robes, especially when they are upon his back? But forasmuch1 Thess. 5. …. as we must shun, … be shy of the very shew and shadow of sinne, they doe best and safest, that abstain from all oaths of this nature; They doe very ill that swear by this light, bread, hand, fire (which they absurdly call Gods Angel) by S. Anne, S. George, by our Lady, &c. by the parts of Christ, which they substitute in the room of God. The barbarous souldiers would not break his bones, but these miscreants with their carrion mouths rent and tear (O cause of tears!) his heart, hands, head, feet, and all his members asunder. Let all such consider, that, as light a matter as they make of it, this swearing by the creature, is a forsaking of God, Jer. 5. 7. a provocation little lesse then unpardonable. ib. an exposing Gods honour to the spoil of the creatures, which was the Heathens sinne, Rom. 1. 23. An abasing themselves below … creatures, for men verily swear by the greater, Heb. 6, 16. And the viler the thing is they swear by, the greater is the oath,… 8. 14. because they ascribe thereto omniscience, power to punish, justice,Zeph. 1. 3, 4, 5. &c. Besides a heavy doom of unavoidable destruction denounced against such. They that speak in favour of this sin, alledge, 1 Cor. Ob.15. 31. But that is not an oath, but an obtestation, q. d. MySol. sorrows and sufferings for Christ would testifie, if they could speak, that I die daily. And that, Cant. 3. 5. where Christ seemethOb. Sol.to swear by the roes and hindes of the field. But that is not an oath neither, but an adjuration. For he chargeth them not to trouble his Church. Or if they doe, the roes and hindes shall testifie against them, because they doe, what those would not, had they reason as they have. In like sort Moses attesteth heaven andOb. earth, Deut. 32. 1. and so doth God himself, Isa. 1. 2. And for…. those phrases, As Pharaoh liveth, As thy soul liveth, &c. they… are rather earnest vouchings of things, then oaths. And yet that phrase of gallantry now so common, As true as I live, is judged to be no better then an oath by the creature, Numb. 14. 21. with Psal. 95. 11. And we may not swear in …, … in judgement, Ier. 4. 2.
For it is Gods throne.]
We must not conceive that God is… &c. ….commensurable by a place, as if he were partly here and partlyD … of Gods …. there, but he is every where all-present. The heavens have a large place, yet … they one part here, and another there, but the Lord is totally present wheresoever present. Heaven therefore is said to be his throne, and he said to inhabit it, Isa. 66 1. not as ifb 22 14. he were confined to it, as Aristotle and those Atheists in Iob conceited… Dei ad …, …. it, but because there he is pleased to manifest the most glorious and … signs of his presence; and there in a speciall manner he is enjoyed and worshipped by the crowned … and glorious Angels, &c. Here we see but as in a … obscurely, his toe, traine, back-parts, foot-stool. No man can … more and live: … …. 13.man need see more here, that he may live for ever. But there we …. 6. 1.shall see as we are seen, know as we are known, see him face toExod. 33. 13. face. Oh how should this fire up our dull hearts, with all earnestnesse…. 60 1. 1 Cor. ….and intention of indeared affection, to long, lust, pant, faint after the beatificall vision! How should we daily lift up our hearts and hands to God in the heavens, that he would … from heaven and save us: send his …, and … deliverance … of Sion: yea, that himself would … the heavens and come down, and fetch us home upon the clouds of …, as himself ascended; that when we awake we may be full of his image; and as we have born the image of the earthly, so we may bear the image of the heavenly? St Paul, after he had once seen God in … throne, being rapt up into the third heaven; (like the bird of paradise) he never left groaning out, Cupio dissolvi, I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is farre farre the better. And Pareus a little afore his death uttered this Swan-like… de Animalth Song,
Discupio solvi, tecum que , ô Christe, manere:foreign A …, … that, 3 Cor. 4. 17
Portio fac regni sim quotacun que ….
Oh that I Were in heaven! Oh that I might
Be ever With the Lord! ô blisse full plight!
Thus must our broken spirits even spend, and exhale themselves inMî fine … diem, vitam fine morte qui etam continuall sallies, as it were, and egressions of thoughts, wishings and longings after God, affecting not only a union, but a unity with him. St Austin wished that he might have seen three things, Romam in flore, Paulum in ore, & Christum in corpore: Rome Det … fine …, …, … Deus.flourishing, Paul discoursing, and Christ living upon the earth. But I had rather wish, with venerable Bede, My soul desirēth to see …Christ my King upon his throne, and in his majesty.