Search -
A Preservative Against Quakerism; Or, a Complication of Deism, Enthusiasm, and Divers Other Ancient and Modern Dangerous Errors and Heresies
A Preservative Against Quakerism Or a Complication of Deism Enthusiasm and Divers Other Ancient and Modern Dangerous Errors and Heresies Author:Patrick Smith General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1732 Original Publisher: Printed for C. Rivengton, at the Bible and crown in St. Paul's church-yard Subjects: Society of Friends Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the Genera... more »l Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: SECT. XII. Qucft. Is not all Swearing whatfoever now, even judicial Swearing betore a Magiftrate, a great and henious Sin, feeing Chrilt fays ex- prefly, fooear not at all, Matth. v. )f. and the Apoftle James, above all things Jwear not, James v. iz. jinf. No: For as to our Saviour's Words, fivear not at all, they relate only to thofe voluntary needlefs Oaths which Men took upon themfelves, and not to juditial Oaths that were bound upon them by the Authority of the Magiftrate) in which the Jews, to whom our Saviour fpoke, were wholly pafllve, and fo could not help their bemg put under an Oath. And if he had intended to forbid all Oaths, even judicial Oaths, he muft have forbid Magiftrates to put any under Oaths. But in this v/hole Sermon on the Mount, he only teaches the Duty of private Chriftians, and not of Magiftrates; and therefore cannot be fuppofed here to deprive the Magiftrate of the Power he had before, of putting Men, upon folemn Occafions, to anfwer upon Oath, nor to exempt the People from obeying them in fuch Cafes. And yet if our Saviour had faid, fiaear not at all, and ftopt there, there might have been fome Colour for taking it to be an univerfal Prohibition of all Swearing whatfoever: Efpecially if we could not have (hewn from other plain Texts of Scripture, that his Words muft be under- ftood with fome Limitation, as feveral other general Words in Sqripture are, as thoufoalt not kill, judge not, and the like. And theOc- cafion of the Quakers Error, has been thei...« less