Commentary upon the Prophecy of Isaiah

IT was needful to add an oath for the more full confirmation of the threatening.¹ For nothing is more hardly beaten into our heads then to hear tell of a present destruction of the wicked, because we see them flourishing, furnished with all kind of helps, seeming to be out of all dangers, & utterly secure. Therefore we are at our wits end in beholding them, being so dazzled with their glory, that we can scarcely believe God when he threatens their ruin and perdition; and therefore he adds an oath, that they might have no occasion to hang in any suspense.² Whence we may see how gracious & loving he is towards us in succouring our weakness by applying this remedy unto it, for otherwise his bare word ought to suffice. This serves then for the great consolation of the faithful, as we shall see hereafter. But this short form of an oath which he useth ought to be well known unto us, because we meet often with it in the scriptures:³ and thereby the Lord bridles us lest we should take too great liberty in oaths which slip out of our mouths at random with too much boldness: for he suppresseth the greater part of the oath, If I perform not this which I have decreed, let men take me for a liar, and hold me no more for God: this I say, or some thing else like unto it (fearful to utter) should be here supplied. Men ought then to refrain their tongues, lest they overflow too lightly in execrations, making horrible