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KING,

AND

Great Council of ENGLAND,

Affembled in PARLIAMENT.

The CASE of the People called QUAKERS, relating to OATHS, farther represented, and recommended to their Confideration, in order to a speedy and effectual Redress,

TH

HE common benefit of the Free People of England being undoubtedly both the first and greatest reason for the ancient, juft, and neceffary conftitution of Parliaments; and being alfo informed that it is your refolution to employ this feffion to the redress of public grievances; and fince we cannot but repute ourselves a Member of this Great Body you reprefent, by Birth and English Defcent, and are not only involved in the common calamities of the kingdom, but in particular very cruelly treated in our perfons and estates, because we cannot, for Pure Confcience, take any Oath at all (though we have again and again tendered our Solemn Yea or Nay, and are most willing to fuftain the fame penalty in cafe of Lying, that is ufually inflicted for Perjury); to the end we may not be interpreted to decline the cuftom out of mere humour or evafion (though our frequent and heavy fufferings, by fines and tedious imprisonments, fometimes to death itself, fhould fufficiently vindicate

us

us against fuch uncharitable cenfure) we do, with all due respect, present you with our reasons for that tenderness, and many teftimonies and precedents in their defence; and we intreat you to exprefs that care of a Member of your own Civil Body, which Nature and Chriftianity excite to. We mean, that it would pleafe you to confider how deeply we have already fuffered in perfon and eftate, the inconveniencies we have daily to encounter, and those injurious not only to ourselves, but others we commerce with, in that both they and we, because of our tenderness in this matter, are conftantly at the mercy of fuch as will fwear any thing to advantage theinfelves, where they are fure that a contrary evidence fhall be by law efteemed (however true) invalid; under which difficulty feveral of us at this hour fruitlefly labour; That being fenfible of our calamity, you may please to endeavour, as for others, fo for this grievance, both a fpeedy and effectual redrefs; otherwife, befides ordinary cafes, wherein many of us extraordinarily fuffer, we may perhaps prove, in this of Oaths, the greateft, if not the only fufferers of the kingdom; a cruelty, we hope, you do not defign against us.

God Almighty, we befeech him with all fincerity of heart, incline you to juftice, mercy, and truth, Amen.

London, the 25th of the
Third Month, 1675.

Subscribed on the behalf of the rest of our Friends, by

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Some Inducements offered to answer this Requeft, from a Confideration of the Cause and End of an Oath, and thofe Reasons and Teftimonies given by us against the Ufe and Imposition of it.

The Ground or Reafon of Swearing.

HIS, we think, all will agree to have been the

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degeneration of man from Primitive Integrity, at what time Yea and Nay were enough; for when men grew corrupt, they diftrufted each other, and had recourse to extraordinary ways to awe one another into truth-speaking, as a remedy against falfhood; else, what need had there been of an Oath, or any extraordinary way of evidence, when every fyllable was freighted with truth and integrity? It had been a mere taking of God's holy name in vain truth then flowed naturally, and wanted no fuch expedient to extort its evidence.

Thus Polybius, though an Heathen, in his ftory of the Romans, faith, Among the ancients, Oaths were feldom used in judicatures themselves; but when Perfidiousness increased, Oaths increased,' or then the use of them first came in *.

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Bafilius Magnus faith, Oaths are an effect of Sin't.' Gregorius Nazianzenus, in his Dialogue against Swearing, faith, An oath is nothing else but a certain con⚫ fummation of mifchiefs .'

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Ambrofius faith, Swearing is only in condefcenfion to a.defect.'

Chryfoftom faith, An oath came in when evils increased, when men appeared unfaithful, when all things became topfy-turvy.' Again,

To fwear is of the devil; feeing Christ faith, "What " is more (than yea, &c.) is of evil." Again,

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Swearing took its beginning for want of truth or punctuality.'

He lived before Chrift two hundred years. H. Grotius on Mat. v. Bishop Gauden of Oaths, p. 36. † In Pfalm xiv. Jamb. 20.

Auguftin

Auguftin faith, An oath is not among good but evil things, and ufed for the infirmity of others, which is evil, from which we pray that we may be daily • delivered *.

Chromatius faith, What need we fwear, feeing it is unlawful to lye.' Which fhews that lying was the occafion of oaths, and by leaving off lying, oaths vanish as unprofitable.

Titelmannus faith, that An oath belongs not to • virtue.'

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Albertus Magnus faith, Swearing is by indulgence." Ludulphus faith, An oath was permitted of infir<mity.'

Burgenfis cites Jerom, faying, 'Our Saviour teacheth, that an oath sprung from the vices of ment.'

Bishop Gauden alfo tells us, That the evils of mens • hearts and manners, the jealoufies and distrusts, the ⚫ diffimulations and frauds of many Chriftians, their

uncharitableness and infecurities are fuch, as by their ⚫ diseases do make folemn oaths and judicial fwearing ⚫ neceffary; not abfolutely, morally, or preceptively, < but as a remedy or expedient .'

Jerom, with many of the fathers, Chryfoftom, Theodoret, and others here omitted, becaufe largely cited hereafter, make this the reason why God indulged the Jews in the ufe of fwearing, That they were but in the ftate of infancy, and that they might be kept from fwearing by falfe gods,' which the fcripture is plain in: "For thou fhalt fear the Lord thy God, and "fwear by his name: Ye fhall not go after other gods, "for God is a jealous God, &c." Which fhews, that he dispensed with fwearing by his name, that he might take them off from fwearing by falfe gods, because they would thereby acknowledge them, and not the true God; fo that fwearing is only better than idolatry.

Comment. on Hebr. c. 6. Hom. 9. on Acts iii. Hom. Pfal. v. Ad Pop. Antioc. On Mat. v. ibid. + On Pfal. xiv. On Mat. v. Vit. Chr. p. 2. c. 12. On Mat. v. t Of Oaths, p. 17, 23On Mat. v. 36, 37.

a Deut. vi. 13, 14, 15.

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