For the context, some say this is the coherence between the
former matter and the present verse. Men in affliction are usually impatient,
and impatience bewrayeth itself by oaths and curses - a conceit very
injudicious, and no way complying with the intent of the apostle. We need not
stick at method and connection; it is usual with James and the other apostles
to divert from one matter to another, according as the necessity of the times
did require, without any curiosity or observation of the laws of method. In
this verse there is an admonition or dissuasive from swearing, in which you may
note: -
1. The vehemency of proposal - but above all things.
2. A
direction proposed: -
[1.] Negatively, swear not; wherein some forms of
oaths are specified, neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other oath.
[2.] Positively, let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay.
[3.] Here is a
commmatory reason and enforcement, lest ye fall into condemnation.
But
above all things, pro pantoon, adelfoi. - The phrase hath undergone several
constructions, it properly signifieth before all things; therefore Lyra
interpreted the apostle thus, Do not swear before all things; before every word
and promise. The exposition were plausible, if the posture of the words were,
mè omnuete, adelfoi, pro pantoon, 'My brethren, swear not before all
things;' but it is, 'Before all things, my brethren.' &c. Therefore I
rather take it for a form of vehemency and earnestness, frequent in the
apostolical epistles: 'Above all things take the shield of faith,' Eph. vi. 16.
So 1 Peter iv. 8, 'Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves.' But
you will say, Why doth he press this above all things? The question is grave
and weighty. I shall give some reasons, which will occasion so many notes.
Obs. 1. Because it is a great sin to swear lightly and inconsiderately;
it is specially forbidden in the Decalogue: 'I will not hold him guiltless,'
Exod. xx. 7. Of all things God is tender of his own name; it is a great sin in
regard of the object about which it is conversant, God's name, which ought to
be sacred; every thought and mention should be accompanied with reverence. All
sin is against God, but this is formally and directly against God. Men are most
tender of their credit. It is a great sin in regard of the occasion; it is
without a temptation, unless it be such as argueth height of wickedness, either
a wantonness in sin, because it is a sport to do evil. Other sins have an
external bait; here is nothing but a glorying in our own shame, Phil, iii. 19.
Or an obstinate pride. It is a daring of God; they will sin, because they will
sin. It is usually found in ruffians that have lost all awe. Oh! let us beware
of this sin of rash swearing, of every tendency that way, any irreverent use of
the name of God in sudden outcries, O God,? Lord, &c., or any vain jesting
with oaths. Those that swear in jest shall go to hell in earnest. The Jews were
so tender of the name of God, that they would not pronounce Jehovah in the law,
but read Adonai, unless by the high priest once every year. And being given to
swearing, they were loath to use their greater oath, Chi Eloah, but swore by
the creatures. The heathens would name those but seldom whom they reverenced.
Augustus, as Suetonius reporteth, would not have his name obsolefieri, to be
worn threadbare. The name of Mercurius Trismegistus was not commonly
pronounced, because of great reverence to him.
Another reason why the
apostle saith 'above all things,' is, because it was a sin familiar with the
Hebrews, as appeareth by sundry passages in scripture: see those dissuasives,
Mat. v. 33, 34, &c.; Mat. xxiii 16,17. It was a sin very common amongst
them, as among some nations to this day - as the Dutch, French, Scottish,
though the English have too much written after their copy. The note is: -
Obs. 2. That common and known sins must be opposed with all
earnestness. The apostle saith, 'Above all things, swear not,' such points are
to be pressed above all other. Usually such truths as concern the present age
are disliked, when we reflect upon the guilt of the times. Men would have us
preach Christ, and the general doctrines of faith and repentance; which is
nothing but a vain cavil, masked with the specious pretence of religion; for
you shall see when the preaching of Christ was the main truth in controversy,
and the apostles bended their strength that way, the Corinthians cried for
wisdom, meaning doctrines of civil prudence, and the softer strains of
morality; and that is the reason why Paul said, 1 Cor. ii. 3, 'I have
determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ, nai kai touton estauroomenon, yea,
and him crucified;' which was the doctrine at which they were most scandalised,
and therefore he resolved to take notice of no argument so much as that in his
ministry. The work of the ministry is not to contend with ghosts and opinions
antiquated, but the errors and sins of the present time. Look, as it is the
duty of Christians to spend the heat of their indignation on the main sin with
which they are surprised: Ps. xviii. 23, 'I kept myself from mine iniquity;' so
must ministers chiefly bend their zeal and strength against the present guilt.
Were we only to provide for ourselves, we might read to you fair lectures of
contemplative divinity, and with words as soft as oil entice you into a fool's
paradise, never searching your wounds and sores. But our commission is to 'cry
aloud, and spare not,' &c., Isa. lviii. 1.
Obs. 3. It is a custom
that can hardly be left or forsaken; therefore above all things take heed of
swearing. Austin urgeth this argument, 'Why doth the apostle say, Above all
things? is it worse to swear than to steal? worse to swear than to commit
adultery? worse to swear than to kill a man? no, but the apostle would fortify
as much as he could against a pestilent custom,' &c. Certainly, when we
have once got it, it is hardly left; every corporal thing being often moved in
one and the same manner, receiveth a greater easiness and aptitude to the same
motions. So doth the tongue when it is used to the voicing of oaths. Custom
hath so great a power upon us, that the word is uttered before the mind can
check it. The executions of other sins are slower, as murder, lust, theft,
because other members are not so ready as the tongue. A man may sooner command
his hand than his tongue. Well, then, let those that, by company or education,
have learned to swear, or to use vain, idle expressions, watch with the more
care; a custom is soon got, either by our own use, or constant conversation
with them that use it. Good Joseph learned to swear in the house of Pharaoh.
Watch diligently: thy custom will not excuse thee; if it be thy custom to sin,
it is God's custom to destroy sinners.
Swear not, neither by heaven,
nor by earth, nor by any other oath. - For the opening of this passage, it may
be inquired: -
1. Whether all oaths be forbidden? Divers have been of
this judgment. The Essenes thought all oaths as bad as perjury, as Josephus
witnesseth, 'De Bello Judaico,' lib. ii. cap. 7. Jerome chargeth the Pelagians
with the same opinion; it hath been also objected against the Waldenses, how
truly I know not. The Anabaptists have been uncertain in this point; sometimes
they have professed against all oaths, at other times expressed themselves as
denying only rash oaths, as in the conference at Franckendale; and those of
that sect amongst us seem to have recanted the ancient rigour herein. Many
modern writers of great note seem to incline to the absolute prohibition of
oaths, as unbeseeming that faith and simplicity which should be among
Christians. Certainly there hath been a great abuse of them in our civil
courts, even to the disgrace of our holy profession, as being administered upon
every trifling occasion, for a shilling matter, and in businesses of a low
concernment. But, however, oaths in themselves are lawful, if taken 'in truth,
righteousness, and judgment,' Jer. iv. 2 - that is, without fraud, in a lawful
matter, and upon a weighty occasion - the apostle saith, an oath is peras
antilogias, ', an end of strife.' Heb. vi. 17. In the Old Testament, in any
doubtful case which could not be otherwise determined, they were 'to accept the
oath of the Lord,' Exod. xxii. 11,12. The commandment itself alloweth a
liberty: 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,' which
implieth a lawful use of God's name. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul in
weighty matters often sweareth and calleth God to witness, see Rom. i. 9, and
ix. 1; 2 Cor. i. 23; 'God is my record.' Phil. i. 8.
2. What oaths are
condemned? Answer - Our Saviour and the apostle James do only meet with that
wicked custom introduced by the Pharisees, that a man might swear by the
creatures, if there were no mention of the name of God, or things offered to
God; as appeareth by considering Mat v. and Mat. xxiii. The nation of the Jews
were guilty of three things - (1.) Frequent swearing; (2.) Swearing by the
creatures; (3.) Breaking these oaths as not binding and valid; and these sins
being rife in the apostle's days, the prohibition of the text must be chiefly
applied to them; so that 'swear not, neither by heaven nor earth.' must be
meant of their usual and accustomed forms, which they had invented to evade the
law; for the Jews, so they did omit the great oath of Chi Eloah, thought they
were safe. So Philo saith, that it 'was a sin and a vanity, epi ton patera kai
poiètèn holoon anatrechein, presently to run to God, or the maker
of all things, and to swear by him; but that it was lawful to swear by our
parents, by heaven and the stars.' So it is observed of some of the ancient
Greeks, that they did not propetoos omnuein peri toon theoon, alla kata toon
epitugchanontoon, that they did not easily swear by the gods, but by the
creatures and things before their eyes, and then that there was no harm, and no
solemn obligation in these oaths; vain pretences, and excuses; for though the
name of God was not interposed, yet it is implied, Mat. xxiii. 20-22; Mat. v.
34, 35, the creature being God's creature, and in an oath made by them
implicitly called upon to be God's instrument of vengeance in case of perjury.
That other clause, nor by any other oath, is meant of other oaths of that kind,
so that the note out of the whole is: -
Obs. That swearing by the
creatures is unlawful; swearing is an act of worship, and therefore it must be
only done in weighty cases, by the name of God: Deut. vi. 13, 'Thou shalt fear
the Lord thy God, and swear by his name.' So the prophet reproveth those that
'swear by the sin of Samaria,' meaning the idol, Amos viii. 14. In such oaths
the creature is made use of instead of God, whether it be by way of assertion,
as when we say, as sure as there is heaven, or there is light in heaven; or by
way of execration, as let heaven blast me, earth swallow me, or devil take me,
&c. In all these rude speeches there is a double evil - a rash oath, and an
oath made by the creature instead of God; and yet what more common than such
forms amongst us? I might instance in many: the Popish oath by the Virgin Mary,
and our common word, Yes, marry; so also those sottish vulgar forms, by my
head, by this light, by this candle, this bread, by my faith,
&c.;
Reader, thou art entreated to take notice, that the author
being sensible that this book grew somewhat bulkish, purposely omitted those
larger discourses which he conceived upon this verse concerning the lawfulness
of oaths, the abuse of them in ordinary commerce and courts of civil
judicature, as also the discussion of those questions whether the Old Testament
did only forbid perjury, and the New added to the law the prohibition of rash
and unnecessary oaths, as Papists, Socinians, and some of late think; as also
whether it is in any case lawful to swear by the creatures, and whether oaths
so made be valid and obligatory. All these inquiries he purposely omitted, and
would rather appear in this curt and contracted form than be burdensome;
especially there being large discourses extant on all these matters. See the
writers on the commandments, Grotius on Mat v. 34, &c., and Mat. xxiii.
20-22; Perkins on Mat v.; Hammond's Pract Cat, and Spanheim Dub. Evang., part
3, Dub. 124, et sequentibus; Brochman, Hist Theol. Act. de Lege Dei, cap. 8,
quaest 1-3; Jacobus ad Portum in Refut. Institut. Ostorodii, ad cap. 25,
&c.;
But let your yea be yea, and, your nay, nay. - Some suppose
that this is the same with what our Saviour speaketh, Mat v. 37, which implieth
that a Christian in his ordinary speech should content himself with simple
affirmations or negations, that he may abstain from all appearance of an oath;
but mark, our apostle doth not say, 'Let your speech be yea, yea, nay, nay,'
but 'Let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay.' Yea and nay were the usual
forms and words used in stipulations. Now, saith the apostle, let your yea be
always yea, and your nay always nay; that is, let your affirmations and
negations be plain and sure-grounded on a mere truth; as Paul saith his
preaching of the gospel was not yea and nay, but yea and yea, 2 Cor. i. 18; so
here, let your yea be yea. The first yea referreth to the promise, the second
to the performance; let there be yea in the promise, and yea in the
performance; and herein the apostle seemeth to strike at the root, falsehood
being the cause of oaths: and we may observe: -
Obs. That an excellent
way to prevent swearing is to use a constant truth in our speeches, then we
need not interpose an oath; the credit of our communication will be enough.
Oaths give suspicion of men's falseness and lightness. If men were serious and
sincere in their discourses, their word would be equivalent to an oath, and
their very affirming would be swearing; whereas others in a doubtful case are
hardly credited, though they swear never so deeply, because they swear so
commonly; for having prostituted the highest and most solemn way of assurance
to every trifle, they have nothing left wherewith to establish a controverted
truth.
Lest ye fall into condemnation. - Many read hina mè eis
hupokrisin pesète, least ye fall into hypocrisy, that is, be found
liars; but it seemeth by most translations, the Syriac, the Arabic, the Latin,
that the original was read as we read it, hupo krisin pesète, fall into
judgment. It is an allusion to that commination which is in the law that
forbiddeth swearing: 'The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name
in vain;' where not only perjury, but rash oaths are forbidden; for that word
which we translate 'in vain,' is properly so rendered, according to the use of
it in scripture, as the learned prove against the Socinians; so the Septuagint
render it; and so Aquila. Note hence.
Obs. That rash and false swearing
will bring a sure judgment; for oaths, persons and lands mourn, Hosea iv. If
duty doth not move, methinks thou shouldst startle at the danger and
punishment. If thou beest not afraid to sin, yet it is strange thou art not
afraid to burn. All sins are threatened with death, but this more expressly.
God hath engaged himself that he 'will not hold him guiltless;' usually they
are brought to a speedy trial: Mal. iii. 5, 'I will be a swift witness,'
&c.; and judgment marcheth against them with a swift pace, 'the flying
roll,' &c.; Zech. v. 4. Certainly there is no sin that doth more weary the
patience of God, because there is no sin that doth more banish the fear of God
out of our hearts.
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